MTC News: 2000

Building a Transportation Community of Interest: University of Northern Iowa

Until the MTC was initiated, the University of Northern Iowa had very little activity in terms of involvement of its faculty and students in the field of transportation. This has changed significantly in the course of the first year of the MTC. University of Northern Iowa faculty and students are interacting with the Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments (INRCOG) on issues related to transportation, discussing issues such as internships, data sharing, and other forms of collaboration. INRCOG representatives gave a presentation in the Geography Department's Wednesday transportation seminar. UNI is obtaining Tranplan and QRS II urban transportation modeling software for a new course in transportation geography and may use INRCOG data to develop some exercises that can also help to resolve local issues such as the impacts of building new freeway interchanges. This sort of interaction is beneficial in terms of the employability of students and in that INRCOG can economically acquire analytical expertise.

Contact: Tim Strauss, University of Northern Iowa
Phone: 319-273-7467; email: tim.strauss@uni.edu