WZDWG Meeting Notes, 2019 07 25

In-person Attendees

• USDOT ITS JPO - Ariel Gold
• USDOT BTS - Derald Dudley
• Volpe - Nate Deshmukh Towery
• AASHTO - Venkat Nallamothu
• ICF - Rachel Ostroff
• Booz Allen Hamilton - Ashley Spurlock
• Booz Allen Hamilton - Mahsa Ettefagh
• Booz Allen Hamilton - Eric Ricciardi

Virtual Attendees

• AASHTO - Patrick Zelinski
• City of Austin - Tracy Linder
• City of Austin - Jason JonMichael
• City of Boston - Paul Taylor
• City of Pittsburgh - Tosh Chambers
• City of Pittsburgh - James Otoole
• DeepMap - Chris Stapleton
• FAST at Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada - Brian Hoeft
• FAST at Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada - Theresa Gaisser
• Gannett Fleming - Mike Davidson
• General Motors - David Craig
• Google Cloud - Sandra Cheng
• ICF - Polly Okunieff
• ICF - Shweta Satyan
• INRIX - Amy Lopez
• Iowa DOT - Sinclair Stolle
• ITE - Siva Narla
• Kentucky DOT - Chris Lambert 
• Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority - Kali Fogle
• Louisville Metro Government - Michael Schnuerle
• Lyft - John Maddox
• Lyft - Charlotte Tao
• Mapbox - Thomas Lee
• Mapbox - Mikel Maron
• Maricopa County DOT - Faisal Saleem
• Massachusetts DOT - James Danila
• Michigan DOT - Chris Brookes
• Michigan DOT - Elise Feldpausch
• Nissan North America, Inc. - Alex Cardinali
• Noblis - Kellen Shain
• Oregon DOT - Joseph Kuenzi 
• Panasonic - Lauren Cordova
• Pennsylvania DOT - Daniel Farley
• Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority - John Parker
• Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority - Michael Pack
• Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority - Tim Scanlon
• Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority - Thomas Macchione
• Seattle DOT - Craig Moore
• SharedStreets - Kevin Webb
• SharedStreets - Indraneel Purohit
• Trillium Transit - Aaron Atrim
• Uber - Miriam Chaum
• Uber ATG - Sammy Ghorbanian
• USDOT FHWA - Deborah Curtis
• USDOT FHWA - John Corbin
• USDOT FHWA - John Harding
• USDOT FHWA Safety - Abdul Zineddin
• USDOT FTA - David Schneider
• Ver-mac - Serge Beaudry
• Ver-mac - Todd Foster
• Virginia DOT - Rush David
• Volpe - Leah Pickett
• Washington State DOT - Daniela Bremmer
• Waze - Dani Simons
• Woolpert - Daniel Michalec
• Woolpert - Michael Hanowsky

Presentation slides can be accesses here

Purpose:

• Formalize and launch the Work Zone Data Working Group (WZDWG).
• Clarify roles and responsibilities, milestones, and governance.

Intended Outcomes:

• Momentum and excitement for expanding specification development and adoption.
• Elect chair (and co-chair).
• Agreed-to voting process for changes to the WZDx specification and WG charter.
• Establish subgroup to begin development of Version 2 of the WZDx specification.
• Agreement on meeting cadence and milestones for the next year.

Agenda

• 2:00 - 2:05 - Sign in and Welcome
• 2:05 - 2:20 - Introduction to the Work Zone Data Exchange – (Ariel Gold)
• 2:20 - 2:30 - Introduction to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) and the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) – (Derald Dudley)
• 2:30 - 2:40 - Working Group Governance and Norms via WZDWG Charter – (Ariel Gold)
• 2:40 - 3:00 - Open Discussion
• 3:00 - 3:05 - Action Items and Next Steps

Discussion Summary WZDWG Charter was reviewed and following points were highlighted:

• Yearly Charter Review - flexible document that will be reviewed and updated if necessary on annual basis. Comments to Charter are welcomed.

• Voting Options - voting members will need to be publishing/consuming work zone data

• Establishing Subgroups - every subgroup under this working group must develop a charter with objectives, activities, milestones, and schedule. Work Zone Data Exchange Specifications Update Subgroup is the first to be establish and they will be meeting frequently, working on specific tasks. They will focus on proposing updates and changes for the second version of the WZDx specifications to be released by end of 2019.

• Operations and Collaboration - documents and meeting notes should be shared via GitHub Wiki page. Proposed updates should be submitted via pull request, questions via issues.

• Meeting cadence - WZDWG will hold biannual meetings with the next one tentatively scheduled for OCtober 31, 2019. Specifications Subgroup will meet more frequently. Next meeting to be scheduled early August 2019.

• Chair and Co-Chair - yearly elections for the Chair and Co-Chair of this working group will be held. U.S. DOT has nominated Ariel Gold, Data Program Manager at U.S. DOT, as the Chair and Federal representative, along with Derald Dudley serving as the active FGDC sponsor for this working group.

Open Discussion

• Nomination of co-chair – via email

U.S. DOT has nominated Ariel Gold, Data Program Manager at U.S. DOT, as the Chair and Federal representative, along with Derald Dudley serving as the active FGDC sponsor for this working group. Please send your nomination for the co-chair position to Derald

• Working Group Federal Chair nominations will be voted on

Ballot will be send out to all members of this working group via email. Members were asked to submit their vote on Ariel Gold serving as the Chair or nominating a new Chair. The ballot also includes a vote on adoption of the Charter which members are asked to vote on. Final voting results will be shared with the team.

• Review initial subgroup suggestions

WZDx Specifications Subgroup to be formalized as the first subgroup under WZDWG. The members of this subgroup will meet frequently and are expected to follow milestones and propose updates to the current version of the specification. The tentative activities and schedule as well as the major milestones were discussed during the meeting. Interested members can nominate themselves to be part of this subgroup by responding to follow up email.

• GitHub orientation needs

Currently using WZDx GitHub as the main collaboration environment. Demo and other support was offered to all members. Watching Github tutorials was also encouraged.

• Key technical references

Work Zone Data Initiative provides the baseline and reference for framework and data dictionary. Members are encouraged to share additional technical resources with the team.

Polly Okunieff - ICF: the WZDD includes several types of geographic features including lane curvature, tapering start/end locations, geofencing WZ area, etc.

Sandra Tseng - Google: as a consumer of the data, we need more than just start and end locations

Michael Schnuerle - Louisville offered a an introduction to the Open Mobility Foundation. A non profit currently run by 15 cities, but it has a tech committee that is made of cities and private companies in the transportation space to work on data standards and open source tools. In the coming weeks/months it should be more organized and formed to talk about possibly helping out with the WZDx effort.

Sammy Ghorbanian - Uber asked the question of who were the consumers of the Maricopa feed? Response: The demonstration was with Swift Trucking and Drivewyze.

Iowa DOT offered to share the links of agencies with live feed.

City of Austin - Tracy Linder: how will voting members request approval to be members, and how will they be vetted/approved? Response: voting members will have to be active/hypothetical data producers/users. A follow up email will be sent to those that fit this criteria. If you do not receive an email and think that you should be a voting member, please email us.

Q: Would data produced matching the WZ spec be made available through the ITS Data Hub? Response: Maricopa DOT and Iowa DOT have URLs for live feeds publicly available. As of now, we are not aggregating the live feeds but this will be an option in the future.

Action Items and Next Steps

• Derald Dudley - send out follow up email to all members with meeting minutes and action items on Friday 07/26/2019.
• If interested in particpating in the WZDx v2 Specification Subgroup, which requires more active engagement, email ettefagh_mahsa@bah.com. Additionally, have your Subgroup member(s) fill out this Doodle Poll to identify the time of that subgroup’s first technical meeting
• If interested in learning more about the FGDC’s broader US Road Specification Working Group, please contact Derald.Dudley@dot.gov
• All- review WZDWG Charter and provide any final feedback/comments through the ballot email by Monday 07/29/2019.