On April 7, 2016, several MetroFreight team members from New York participated in a conference on Transportation Transformed: Advancing Eco-Friendly Mobility, which was sponsored by the University Transportation Research Center and co-sponsored by the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Speakers that day reflected on the challenges and potential for encouraging preferred driving behaviors in New York State and several topics were covered, including the use of commercial freight applications that support and encourage eco-driving behavior in freight transport.
The conference attendees had the honor of hearing keynote talks from Mr. Jamil Ahmad, Deputy Director of the United Nations Environment Programmme, who spoke on Global Warming, Climate Change and COP21 and Mr. Gabriel Pacyniak, Adjunct Professor and Mitigation Program Manager at Georgetown Climate Center, who discussed his work with the Transportation and Climate Initiative, a regional collaboration of 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia that seeks to develop the clean energy economy and reduce oil dependence and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. The Honorable Raymond P. Martinez, Chairman and Chief Administrator, New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, also addressed the audience.
The panel on Goods Movement and Eco-Driving was moderated by MetroFreight member Alison Conway, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at The City College of New York. The discussion included both academic research and commercial operations perspectives. Kanok Borboonsomsin, Ph.D., College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research and Technology, UC Riverside, presented on Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Goods Movement through Eco-Driving. Edward McCarthy, Vice President of Operations and Customer Success at Vnomics Corporation, spoke about his companys Driver coaching and Fuel Optimization Solution that they offer to trucking customers. A real world example was provided by a Vnomics customer, Brian Brundige, Operations/Safety Manager at Terpening Trucking Company.
Other topics included presentations on government programs underway to encourage eco-driving behavior and eco-mobility, necessary policies, technology applications, and use of shared autonomous taxis for eco-mobility.
Other MetroFreight participants included Camille Kamga, Ph.D., Director of UTRC and Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York and Penny Eickemeyer, Associate Director of Research at UTRC.