Hegland Joins New SURTC Program

Gary Hegland has a personal history with the state's roads and moving goods to market. That's part of what drew him to the new Small Urban & Rural Transit Center at the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.

He earned both his bachelor and master of science degrees at NDSU in economics. After serving as a B-52 pilot in the Air Force he farmed and supplemented that with agricultural product sales. In 1998 he joined Job Service North Dakota and in June 2002 came to SURTC as an associate research fellow and assistant to Jill Hough, SURTC director.

Hegland served on the Devils Lakes, N.D., Chamber of Commerce and the Central Dakota Cattle Association. Roads, travel, vehicles or transportation were always a part of issues with his work in tourism, cattle shipment and people moving throughout the state. Roads are a big issue for farmers trying to move goods to market in the fall and spring, and, in turn, moving products to the farm for operations.

When he joined Job Service North Dakota, travel was an issue helping clients get to work and other destinations. All of these issues drew the New Rockford, N.D., native to the mission of SURTC.

Hegland focuses on rural transit systems. His background gives him insight into many transportation issues facing small urban and rural communities. He looks at the current and future impact of transit systems in North Dakota and the potential impact of transit systems for elderly, low income and handicapped residents.

ATAC Occupies New Space

The UGPTI's Advanced Traffic Analysis Center (ATAC) has occupied it's new space at Hastings Hall. ATAC shares the lower level of Hastings Hall with the UGPTI's DOT Support Center. The move into the new space allows for about four times more square footage than was previously available. ATAC's Traffic Laboratory now has ample room for eight workstations and provides a central work area that facilitates group interaction.

The area also allows for a large training room with a capacity for up to 20 people which is connected to the equipment room containing the traffic signal controller hardware and data collection systems.

This new set up offers ATAC staff the opportunity to provide hands-on training right on site. Further, the new space provides three private offices for ATAC's full-time research staff as well as a common office which houses four graduate student research assistants.

The ATAC was established in 1998 as a technology support center to address mobility and safety problems in small to medium size communities through effective use of advanced analysis tools and advanced technology applications. The ATAC program areas include traffic operations, Intelligent Transportation Systems, travel demand modeling and transportation planning and training.

ATAC works with various national, regional and state transportation agencies, including the North Dakota and Minnesota transportation departments and the cities of Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks and Moorhead. For more information, visit ATAC's website at www.atacenter.org.