Bookings now coming in for 2010 TRICS® Conference We are pleased to announce that bookings for delegate places at this year's 22nd TRICS® Transport & Development Conference are now coming in, with a quite promising level of early interest in the event. This year, the conference, which is being held in association with the Chartered Institute of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), takes place on Wednesday 17th November, at a unique venue in London, The Magic Circle Headquarters, which boasts an impressive theatre and excellent facilities for breakouts and catering. As usual, we are expecting a significant number of both local authority and private sector attendees from across the UK and Ireland, so in addition to the conference programme this would be an ideal networking opportunity for all types of organisation within the TRICS® Community. We are also pleased to announce that delegate fees have been significantly reduced for 2010, with the conference maintaining its high quality of papers and speakers. The theme of this year's conference is "Managing Movement", with the event consisting of a number of sub-themed sessions. The much-anticipated Manual for Streets 2 document will be discussed, with the manual introduced by the CIHT and then considered from both developer and legal perspectives. This will be followed by a session on major regeneration projects in various parts of the UK (considering their transport planning implications). Session Three looks at "Managing People", and considers how travel behaviour influences transport choice and development management. This is followed by what promises to be a lively debate between representatives of the Green Party and the RAC Foundation, entitled "Parking: More or Less". There will also be the opportunity to attend breakout sessions on current transport and development issues and a demonstration of the TRICS® system. To book your place at the conference you can visit www.trics.org and submit an on-line form, or you can contact any of the TRICS® team for a booking form and further details. top

The Magic Circle Headquarters, London 22nd Annual TRICS® Transport & Development Conference Wednesday 17th November click here for details In association with Sponsored by:

Record attendance at the 2010 TRICS® User Meeting We are very pleased to report that the recent 2010 TRICS® User Meeting in Birmingham took place with a record attendance, with over 120 attendees taking part in this annual gathering of the TRICS® Community. The event, which was held at an innovative and contemporary venue in the heart of the city, consisted of a number of presentations on TRICS®-related issues, including good practice, system development, a case-study of a multi-modal TRICS® survey, the growing importance of modal split, and the TRICS® data validation process. As always, attendees took the opportunity to network with other members of the TRICS® Community during a buffet lunch, and in the afternoon attended breakout sessions consisting of an interactive TRICS® development forum and a system demonstration session including tips on good practice. Plans are already underway to source a location for the 2011 User Meeting, which should again be held in June, and we shall make sure everyone is informed well in advance via this newsletter so that you can put your dates in your diaries. In the meantime, all of the Powerpoint presentations of the 2010 meeting, which include slide-by-slide annotation, can be found at the TRICS® website by visiting the link http://www.trics.org/ugm_presentations_10.htm. The presentations are free to download. top

New data being added for forthcoming database updates

The TRICS® Development Team are currently busy adding new data to the system for forthcoming database updates, from a variety of regional locations.

Upon the release of the current version of TRICS®, version 2010(b)v6.6.1, the database contained 5,973 transport surveys across all regions of the UK and Ireland. The new version also included recently input data from the North of England, Northern Ireland, the South East of England, and the Republic of Ireland.

Our quarterly updates of the database mean that new survey data is added and made available to users on a frequent basis. With this year's data collection programme consisting of well over 200 surveys, this means that each quarterly update will contain significant amounts of new data covering a good variety of regions and development types. Data is currently been added and validated for the Greater London, South West of England, Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire, Greater Dublin, and Ulster (Republic of Ireland) regions, with more to follow.

TRICS® remains committed to undertaking substantial annual data collection programmes, ensuring that TRICS® remains the industry standard system of trip generation analysis for organisations across the UK and Ireland.

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New TRICS® system features being developed

Following analysis of feedback received from members of the TRICS® Community via our annual User Survey and the 2010 TRICS® User Meeting, we can reveal that a number of new system enhancements are being programmed for future releases of the system.

This programme of development is being undertaken in two stages, for the main system updates planned for December 2010 and June 2011. Here is a summary of the enhancements being made.

December 2010

• Site Area (hectares) to be introduced as a trip rate calculation parameter for industrial estates.
• Older TRICS® research reports to be added to the system's Library module.
• Modal split pie charts to be enhanced to show single vehicle occupants and car-sharers.
• Google Maps pop-up warning to be reduced in frequency.
• Wales and Ireland use class documents to be added to the system Library.
• Explanatory note on multi-modal surveys at schools to be added.

June 2011

• New data field identifying Sixth Form centres at secondary school sites.
• New document explaining the basics of TRICS® for recipients of data.
• Trip rates within the Employment category to be made available in both hourly and half-hourly formats.
• Introduction of a user comments field for PDF data outputs.
• Gross Floor Area of garden centres to be split between internal GFA and external GFA.
• Introduction of a guidance note on use of the Cross-Test facility.

As always, we would like to thank all members of the TRICS® Community who regularly offer their feedback on the future development of the system.

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Get your FREE TRICS® SMS text updates

A new service is now available free of charge to all members of the TRICS® Community. The latest news and alerts can now be sent via SMS text message to your mobile phone, and recipients of messages do not pay a penny!

Whether it's an update on the TRICS® Conference, User Meetings, system updates or the data collection programme, sign up to our new service and we will keep you up-to-date on developments as and when they happen. All you need to do is contact any member of the TRICS® Development Team with your name and mobile phone number, and we'll set up your free alerts account. It's quick and easy, and you don't need to fill out any forms or complete a registration process – just give us your number. Of course, TRICS® will not give your number out to any third party under any circumstances, and you can cancel your free subscription at any time.

The TRICS® Consortium is keen to provide the latest news and updates in a quick and easy manner, and the TRICS® SMS service is the latest method of keeping in touch with the TRICS® Community – so why not get in touch and give it a go?

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TRICS® Training Sessions available

TRICS® training sessions are available to all users. These sessions consist of a full system demonstration plus an interactive workshop session, which allows attendees to fully test the system. These sessions continue to receive good feedback and have been popular with our members at universities, councils and consultancies.

For information on training sessions, please contact Ian Coles.

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Quarterly payment option available

We are pleased to confirm the continued availability of a quarterly payment option for all of our members. We understand that cash-flow can be an issue in the current economic conditions, and this option allows user organisations to spread the cost of their annual licences across four quarterly payments, rather than having to pay for their licence in one go. For those wishing to take up this offer, four invoices will be forwarded instead of one, at three-monthly intervals. This does not affect user expiry dates in any way, and all you need to do to set up this option is contact a member of the TRICS® team when your licence is due for renewal.

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Free 1 month trial of TRICS® available

A free 1-month trial of the latest full version of TRICS® is available to all organisations upon request. Throughout the free trial period full technical support is available at no cost, and there is no obligation once the period has expired.

Many organisations have already found this trial useful. Anyone interested in the free trial should contact the TRICS® team.

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