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Gear Up for the National Rural Transportation Peer Learning Conference
The National Rural Transportation Peer Learning Conference will take place September 26 – 28 at the Chattanoogan Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The conference program is now available online, at www.RuralTransportation.org/files/2007nrtplc.pdf.
The conference will include two special mobile workshops. The Advanced Transportation Technology Institute’s Electric Vehicle Test Track tour will take place on Wednesday, September 26. There is no extra fee for this tour, but pre-registration is required. A limited number of bicycles are available to bike about 7 miles from the hotel to the test track, and the remainder of the attendees will travel by bus to the site. Bikers must come to Conference Registration in the Ballroom Foyer South at 11:30 a.m. to be fitted for bikes and helmets. All other tour registrants need to come to Conference Registration by 12:30 p.m. to check-in for the tour. This tour is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Advanced Transportation Technology Institute, with the bikes provided by Outdoor Chattanooga.
In addition, a Walking Tour will feature the relationship of transportation enhancements to the economic revitalization of downtown Chattanooga on Friday, September 28. The $20 tour fee includes lunch. Walkers should meet at Conference Registration in the South Ballroom Foyer at 12 p.m. to begin the tour.
Be sure to stop by the continental breakfast served at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday morning as you head into the opening welcome and plenary session. Breakfast will also be served at the Interactive Peer Roundtable Discussion on Friday, 8:00 - 9:30 a.m.
A special luncheon presentation will be made by National Association of Counties Senior Legislative Director Robert Fogel, on the directions of discussions surrounding the future of national transportation policy. Attendees will also have numerous other educational sessions to choose from, including How to Formalize the RPO Process, Building Relationships with State Departments of Transportation, Linking Transportation and Economic Development, as well as sessions on the topics of finance, transit, technology, safety and more.
Learn about the projects that earned a 2007 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award during the reception on Wednesday, September 26. The receptions, breakfasts and networking breaks will provide ample time for networking with peers to gather new ideas to implement in your home regions.
RPO America and the National RPO Council of Peers will also meet during the conference.
This year’s conference is sponsored by: the Development District
Association of Appalachia, Appalachian Regional Commission, Association
of Metropolitan Planning Associations, Federal Highway Administration,
NADO and the NADO Research Foundation and RPO America, Tennessee
Department of Transportation and Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional
Commission.
To learn more about what the City of Chattanooga has to offer, read a recent US Airways profile on the city at www.chattanoogachamber.com/PDF_Files/USAirwaysProfileChattanooga.pdf.
For more information on the conference, see www.nado.org/conferences/trans.php?con_id=62&content=con_overview or contact Carrie Kissel at 202.624.8829 or ckissel@nado.org.
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