OTWG August Meeting Wrap-Up

August 17^th, 2007 OTWG Meeting Wrap-Up

Attendants: Jim Coleman, Neil Drobny, Steve Stolte, & Scott Miller

New Member: Introduction of Steve Stolte, Union County Engineer. Steve will provide the group with a presentation about the funding structure of ODOT at the next OTWG meeting.

Defining the Scope: We are still using the year 2030, but we are also going to look longer term to the year 2050 to encompass even more changes in infrastructure and technology.

Futuring Exercise: Started by brainstorming important and uncertain aspects of transportation in the year 2030 and beyond:

• Carbon Regime

- possible effects of global warming on transportation

• Resource Supply/Availability (geoeconomic factors)

- cost, peak oil (and other non-renewable resources)

• Cost and practicality of developing new technology

• Population demographics

- attitudes, also geographic distribution

• Transportation on the state level

- tax structure

• Infrastructure capacity maintenance/improvements

- changes in financial markets

• Technological Advancements

- vehicle designs, etc.

Next, we chose the main points from the brainstorm and ranked them on their levels of importance and uncertainty across an X & Y axis. The 4 factors we chose as most important/uncertain were:

• Carbon Regime

• Resource Availabilty

• Population Demographics (attitudes, acceptance of change)

• Technological Advancements

The next meeting will be held on Friday September 28th at 11:00 am at the Center for Automotive Research. Looking forward to seeing you all there!