Virginia Beach Transportation Engineers Conference

Engineers Candice Gibson, Sunil Taori, Usman Ali, Lisa Schaefer, and Randy Dittberner show off their legs on the beach (photo courtesy of Candice Gibson)

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.
The Virginia section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (VASITE) met on June 28-June 30. The annual VASITE meeting was an opportunity for traffic engineers and other transportation professionals to discuss current topics in traffic engineering and to meet other professionals in the field. The conference kicked off with a catered reception at the conference hotel, the Sheraton Ocean Front. In full view of the beach, conference participants were provided the opportunity to mingle with potential government clients while snacking on spring rolls and fresh berries.

The professional networking reception quickly gave way to a beer ticket bartering contest where VDOT engineer Nhan Vu scooped up the most beer tickets by convincing his coworkers that the interns had already given their beer tickets to other VDOT colleagues. Vu impressed his colleagues with his ability to carry up to six beers at a time across the room without spilling.

Several technical presentations were delivered throughout the day sessions of the VASITE conference. Topics ranged from traffic simulation methodologies to traffic signing materials. The main focus of these talks was for the various speakers to either advertise their pet projects or to point out the deficiencies in competitors’ products.

On the second evening of the conference, participants were provided a lovely dinner of salmon, shrimp, clams, mussels, and crab cakes with a selection of chocolate cake, carrot cake, or a variety of cheesecakes for dessert. Phil Caruso, assistant director of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), gave a talk about the services ITE provides its members. In other words, Caruso delivered an infomercial to motivate participants to shell out more money to his employer.

During the dinner, participants discussed the debauchery that occurs at the Virginia Association of Surveyor’s conferences. Of course, none of the engineers had attended a surveyor’s conference, thus the information was second-hand.

The most popular topic of discussion was which VASITE conference participants had been to jail and for what reasons. One of these participants was my former boss, whom I hadn’t seen since his pre-jail days almost ten years ago. He still had a penchant for avoiding me, as he did during my appointment as his graduate research fellow. Several colleagues speculated that he may believe I was a plant, sent to gather evidence for a case against him, and that I have returned to investigate someone else. I neither confirmed nor denied this allegation.

After the conference, participants were free to walk along the beach. This proved to be difficult for the summer interns, who were so intent on convincing their boss they came to Virginia Beach strictly to engage in the conference, that they did not bring beachworthy clothing. In engineer fashion, VDOT intern Usman Ali strolled the beach with dress pants rolled up to the knee.

In case you were concerned that you weren’t getting your taxpayer-dollar’s worth, not a moment of the trip was wasted. Even in the carpool back to Northern Virginia, VDOT engineers Randy Dittberner and Sunil Taori continued discussing traffic topics. No sign, stripe, signal, nor interchange along the route went unscrutinized.

Besides the beer ticket contests and rumor proliferation, conference participants got what they wanted out of the conference. According to Taori, “It was an opportunity to meet everybody in the profession, catch up with what everybody is doing. It’s an information exchange – you get to learn about other projects you don’t typically hear about.”

Regarding the veiled advertisements Dittberner says, “The issues are good to discuss, even if you disagree with the speaker.” Taori added, “The speakers sometimes sound like preachers, but other professionals’ ideas make you think about topics sometimes taken for granted.”