CAITR

CAITR provides a forum for transport researchers and practitioners to discuss their work with peers and colleagues in a supportive, informal environment and to be part of a network of expertise.  CAITR is particularly valuable to recently qualified researchers (PhDs, Masters and Undergraduates by Research), giving them the chance to present work in progress and receive constructive feedback.  CAITR also provides opportunity for research organisations to present a summary of their research activities. 

CAITR Website (Monash University) includes papers presented at past conferences.

CAITR History

The following student prizes are awarded each year at CAITR:

The ROBERT L. PRETTY Memorial Prize is sponsored by Akcelik and Associates Pty Ltd.

The RODNEY VAUGHAN Memorial Prize is sponsored by The Urban Transport Institute.

Undergraduate, Master and Ph.D students are eligible for these prizes. 

The 30th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2008) was hosted by the University of Western Australia, UWA Business School, Perth during 10-12 December 2008.

Prizes

• CAITR-2008 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize was awarded to Wenqi Hu, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Melbourne for his paper titled Active Transport Journey Planner Methodology.
• CAITR-2008 Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for was awarded to Matthew Beck, ITLS, University of Sydney , for his paper titled Variable User Charging: Experiences and Extensions in a World of Carbon Emissions.

The 29th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2007) was hosted by the the Transport Systems Centre, University of South Australia, Adelaide during 5-7 December 2007.

28th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2006) was hosted by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney during 6-8 Dec 2006.

CAITR-2006 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper (sponsored by Akcelik & Associates) was awarded to Yannick Michel, University of Monash, for his paper titled The Freight Capacity Model.

The 27th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2005) was hosted by the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland, Brisbane during 7-9 Dec 2005.

Prizes

• CAITR-2005 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper was awarded to Nick Poon, University of Queensland, for his paper titled Evaluation of Toll Collection Performance using Traffic Simulation.
• CAITR-2005 Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for Best Postgraduate Research
  Student Paper was awarded to Euan Ramsay, Queensland University of Technology, for his paper titled Management of Competing Demands on Urban Freight Corridors.

The 26th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2004) was hosted by the CSIRO Transport Futures Team, Clayton, Melbourne during 8-10 December 2004.

Prizes

• Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper was not awarded at CAITR-2004.  
• CAITR-2004 Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for Best Postgraduate Research Student Paper was awarded to jointly to: Rita Seethaler, Monash University, for her paper titled Using the six principles of persuasion to promote travel behaviour change,  and Ruimin Li, Monash University, for her paper titled Examining travel time variability using AVI data.

The 25th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2003) was hosted by the Transport Systems Centre, University of South Australia, Adelaide held during 3-5 December 2003. 

Prizes

• CAITR-2003 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper was awarded to Andrew Somers, Monash University, for his paper titled Improving utilisation of existing public transport infrastructure by allowing bus access to tram rights-of-way.  
• CAITR-2003 Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for Best Postgraduate Research
  Student Paper was awarded to Frank Primerano, University of South Australia, for his paper titled Mobility considerations in restricting choice sets in modal choice models. 

The 24th Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2002) was hosted by the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney during 4-6 December 2002. 

Prizes

• CAITR-2002 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper was awarded to Simon Shekleton, University of New South Wales, for his paper titled A study of car following behaviour by differential GPS.
• CAITR-2002 Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for Best Postgraduate Research Student Paper was awarded to Hoe C. Lee, Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, for his paper titled The validity of driving simulator to measure on-road driving performance of older drivers.

The 23rd Conference of the Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2001) was hosted by the Institute of Transport Studies at Monash University, Melbourne during 10-12 December 2001.

Prizes

• CAITR-2001 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper (sponsored by Akcelik & Associates Pty Ltd)  was awarded to Christopher Coath, Monash University, for his paper titled Special Events Planning.
   
• The Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for Best Postgraduate Research Student Paper (sponsored by The Urban Transport Institute) was awarded to Jim Youngman, Monash University, for his paper titled Field Service Territories.

22nd Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR-2000) was hosted by CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences, and held at Ursula College on the Campus of the Australian National University in Canberra, during 6-8 December 2000. 

Prizes

• CAITR-2000 Robert L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper was awarded to Neil Hutchinson, University of Queensland, for his paper titled "Development of a Cyclist Route Choice Model".
   
• CAITR-2000 Rodney Vaughan Memorial Prize for Best Postgraduate Research Student Paper was awarded to Kim Thomas, University of Queensland, for her paper titled Incident Detection by Fractal Dimension Analysis of Loop Detector Data. 

Akcelik and Associates presented the following papers at the CAITR conferences.  These papers are available in the Downloads page.  

AKÇELIK, R. (2007).  A Review of Gap-Acceptance Capacity Models. Paper presented at the 29th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2007), Adelaide, December 2007.

AKÇELIK, R. (2007).  Akcelik and Associates Review of Activities During 2007.
Paper presented at the 29th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2007), Adelaide, December 2007.

AKÇELIK, R. (2006).  Akcelik and Associates Review of Activities During 2006.
Paper presented at the 28th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2006), Sydney, 6-8 December 2006. 

AKÇELIK, R. (2005).  Akcelik and Associates Review of Activities During 2005.
Paper presented at the 27th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2005), Brisbane, December 2005. 

AKÇELIK, R. (2004).  Akcelik and Associates Review of Activities during 2004.  Paper presented at the 26th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2004), Clayton, Melbourne, 8-10 December 2004.

AKÇELIK, R. and BESLEY, M. (2004).  Differences between the AUSTROADS Roundabout Guide and aaSIDRA roundabout analysis methods.  Paper presented at the 26th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2004), Clayton, Melbourne, 8-10 December 2004.

AKÇELIK, R. (2003).  Speed-Flow and Bunching Relationships for Uninterrupted Flows.  Paper presented> at the 25th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2003), University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 3-5 December 2003.

AKÇELIK, R. and BESLEY, M. (2003).  Operating cost, fuel consumption, and emission models in aaSIDRA and aaMotion.  Paper presented at the 25th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2003), University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 3-5 December 2003.

AKÇELIK, R. (2003).  Akcelik and Associates Review of Activities during 2003.  Paper presented at the 25th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2003), University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia, 3-5 December 2003.

AKÇELIK, R. (2002).  Estimating negotiation radius, distance and speed for vehicles using roundabouts.   Paper presented at the 24th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2002), University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, December 2002. 

AKÇELIK, R. (2002).  Akcelik and Associates review of activities during 2002. Paper presented at the 24th Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2002), University of New South Wales, Sydney, December 2002. 

Akçelik, R. and Besley M. (2001).  Acceleration and deceleration models.  23rd Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2001), Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.  

Bennett, S., Felton, A. and Akçelik, R. (2001).  Pedestrian Movement Characteristics at Signalised Intersections.  23rd Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2001), Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Akçelik, R. (2001).  Akcelik and Associates Review of Activities during 2001.  23rd Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2001), Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Akçelik, R. (2000).  On the Validity of Some Traffic Engineering Folklore.  Paper presented at the 22nd Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 2000), Ursula College, ANU Campus, Canberra, Australia, 6-8 December 2000.  

Akçelik, R., Besley M. and Thompson, D. (1999). Microsimulation and Analytical Methods for Modelling Urban Traffic.  Paper presented at the 21st Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR 99).The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 8-10 December 1999.  [A new expanded version of this article was presented at the Conference on Advance Modeling Techniques and Quality of Service in Highway Capacity Analysis, Truckee, California, USA, July 2001.]

The CAITR-2000 meeting decided unanimously to name the undergraduate student award as the R. L. Pretty Memorial Prize for Best Undergraduate Student Paper.  This award is sponsored by Akcelik and Associates Pty Ltd.

Dr R. L. (Bob) Pretty - A Personal Recollection and Tribute
by Ray Brindle
Reprinted from: Road and Transport Research 3(4), p. 60, June 1994

When I am in congested flow on a freeway, marvelling at interruptions which have no apparent cause, I often think of Bob Pretty. Bob tried to teach me car-following theory (the key to it all) back in 1968 when he was associated with the Transport Section at Melbourne University under Nick Clark. Like most aspects of traffic theory, this had to be one of the topics about which I acknowledged Bob's superior knowledge and understanding.

Bob Pretty graduated with First Class Honours in Civil Engineering from Melbourne University in 1960, the year before I started the same course. He went on to complete a Master of Engineering Science degree with honours in 1962, before moving to Sydney to study at the School of Traffic Engineering at the University of New South Wales for his PhD, which was awarded in 1968. By that time he was a Research Officer with ARRB and in that role was involved again with Melbourne University.

After gaining his PhD, Bob spent three years as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Michigan, followed by a period in the Department of Planning and Transportation of the Greater London Council. He then accepted a position in the Civil Engineering department at the University of Queensland, and led the transport program at that University from 1972 to 1994.

Over that period, Bob maintained a high level of national and international professional leadership in traffic and transport engineering, and served both the Institution of Engineers, Australia, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers. His academic experience was complemented by periods of practical secondments with the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Brisbane, the Australian Railway Research and Development Organisation, and the Main Roads Department, Queensland. He spent sabbatical periods at University College, London, the University of Hong Kong, The Aristotelean University in Thessaloniki, Greece, and most recently at the Institute for Transport Studies at Leeds University.

Through his career he was a productive author. The 65 entries in INROADS bearing his name date from 1964, and include the pioneering "Traffic Engineering Practice" of 1967 and 1969 which he co-edited with Nick Clark. Many of his publications appeared in ARRB Conference Proceedings or in the ARRB journal; he presented at least one paper to all but four of the ARRB Conferences since 1964, the breaks coinciding with his periods overseas. Bob remained a good friend of ARRB over the years, serving on the former Road Users Committee of ARRB and as one of the four external members of the Bulletin 4 Revision Sub-Committee which was given the task of updating the Australian signalised intersection capacity guidelines. His diligent and long-serving role in the development of the current intersection capacity guidelines is specifically recognised in ARR123.

Bob never paraded his great knowledge and intellectual abilities, and was not known for pushing his personal opinions at the expense of truth and understanding. I had personal experience of this in his grateful response to my critical comments on some notes he had prepared on traffic calming while at ITS, Leeds. While humility and gentleness may not be the keys to success in today's cut-throat world, they are characteristics which encourage students and colleagues alike, and Bob had them in abundance. I loved his boyish enthusiasm and somewhat hesitant manner, which belied his depth of knowledge but which helped to demystify the complex topics at which he was expert.

We last saw Bob in Melbourne during the Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research at the end of 1993. Within weeks we heard of his brief terminal illness. With his passing, ARRB loses a loyal friend and supporter, and the transport profession is the poorer. His friends and colleagues around the world will miss him, but through his work he has left his memorial in many ways. I am grateful to have known him.