I arrived yesterday, here for four days to present some transportation research at the "Innovations in Travel Modeling" conference. My first experience was in the cab ride to the conference hotel, and the cabbie said he hates it here and is moving to Chicago next week. According to him, more than 40 conferences have cancelled due to the draconian anti-immigrant law that was passed last week, and he can't get any business. I was his third fare in 14 hours. He may have been exaggerating about the fare, but he was definitely leaving town.
Yesterday afternoon was the only free time I had here before the conference got underway, so I decided to sample the local flora and fauna by walking to the one gay bar close the hotel... well, "close" is relative because it was about a two-mile walk. But still, there are indeed sidewalks in Phoenix, a big step up from Houston. The place was nice enough; a bit like the Lone Star in SF with very friendly attitude-free guys. That's always a plus. In fact, I have to say I'm a bit surprised that the bar was actually fun.
Today's presentation on our bike route-choice model went fantastic, and we got lots of comments and positive reaction. I hope some other cities pick up on the research we did and take it further. Tomorrow is our downtown parking price research, and then Wednesday one last preso on advanced traffic analysis methods ("DTA") -- after which I can finally come home.
So far, so good! More to report soon.
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