2012 TRICS® Conference - Save The Date!

We are pleased to announce the date and venue of the 2012 TRICS® Conference. This year's event will be taking place on Tuesday 13th November, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in The Mall, London, so please put this in your calendar, and further information on the content of the 24th TRICS® Transport & Development Conference will soon be forwarded to you.

The annual TRICS® Conference is a key date in the Transport Planning and Development Control calendar, and is attended by a good mix of delegates from both the private and public sectors. The event consists of a variety of contemporary papers covering a good range of issues relating to transport and development, and is also a great opportunity for members of the TRICS® Community to network and discuss the issues of the day. Our interactive approach to this event means that everyone has a good opportunity to share opinions and ideas, and to attend an event of good quality presentations at an affordable price.

The TRICS® Consortium visited a number of potential venues for this year's event, with the Institute of Contemporary Arts topping the list. We shall be hiring the ICA's comfortable and fully integrated cinema for the presentations, with tea/coffee breaks and lunch being held upstairs with an impressive view over some of the top landmarks of London. The venue is also conveniently located next to Trafalgar Square and the London Underground network.

Further details are to follow...

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TRICS® 2012(b)v6.10.1 to be Released in July

The latest update of TRICS® goes live on Friday 6th July 2012, and will once again include a number of system enhancements and improvements. Thanks to the much-valued feedback that we receive from our users, through our annual TRICS® User Survey and other ad-hoc correspondence, we are pleased to announce that the July update will contain the following changes:

• A new option to display a modal split pie chart for the peak hour period when viewing an individual multi-modal survey will be made available (at the moment you can only display the chart for the whole survey duration).
• A new "Number of Survey Days" column in a selected set will be displayed in trip rate graph outputs, enhancing this particular feature.
• For new food superstore sites entering the database, there will be a new data field which indicates whether or not a site has a home delivery service available.
• When exporting trip rate calculation results to Excel (CSV) files, users will now have the option to include the export of selections made during the trip rate calculation process (so that the exported file is similar to the PDF outputs that TRICS® creates).
• In all exported files, the TRICS® version number and selected trip rate calculation parameter will now be displayed.
• To save time, users will be given the option to export trip rate results by selected modes as a single Excel (CSV) file. Users will be given a list of mode options and will be able to include any number of these in their outputs, rather than having to run separate exports for each mode as is the case at the moment.
• The identification of a petrol filling station at food superstore sites is to be made clearer, with there to be three options as opposed to the current two. In the new version users will be able to identify sites that have no PFS, sites that have a PFS that wasn't included in the survey, and sites with a PFS that was included in the survey.
• Where there are instances of original and re-survey sites being included in a selected set, the system will automatically exclude the earlier of the sites as a default to avoid developments being included more than once in a calculation.
• For Single User licence holders, the identification of the current TRICS® user will be made available when another user attempts to log in.

TRICS® continues to be committed to system development, and at the moment all users are being consulted via our 2012 TRICS® User Survey. It is the feedback we receive from this consultation that allows us to put together our annual programmes of system development, with the 2012/13 programme to be finalised later this year, and further system enhancements added to our subsequent quarterly system updates. Of course, we shall keep you informed of all new developments via this newsletter.

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The TRICS® Consortium were pleased to recently receive clarification on the Greater London Authority's view on the use of TRICS® in London. In a letter dated 9th February 2012 from the GLA's Executive Director of Development and Environment, it was made clear that the GLA consider TRICS® to be applicable for developments in the capital.

Reference was given to Chapter 8 of Transport for London's document entitled Transport Assessment Best Practice Guidance (2010). This chapter states that multi-modal TRICS® surveys can be used when undertaking London-based Transport Assessments, using both TRICS® data from within Greater London and other metropolitan areas (for example Manchester and Birmingham). The TfL guidance states the importance of using appropriate sites for calculation, as this is critical to effective trip generation exercises, a view that TRICS® certainly shares within its comprehensive Good Practice guidance.

We are also pleased to underline our continued commitment to the capital with two programmes of surveys taking place this year (a total of 40 London surveys in all in 2012). The first wave of these surveys was undertaken at a variety of sites across London in May, with a second round of surveys taking place this autumn. We recognise the importance of supplying our users with a significant database of transport surveys in London, so we can assure you all that this commitment to undertaking a significant number of annual surveys in the capital is ongoing.

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TRICS® member organisations should note that the deadline for making sure login passwords are set to our new format is 1st July 2012. After this date, passwords in the "old" format will no longer be useable. A letter would have been sent to all member organisations prior to 1st April 2012, along with an easy to follow guide on the new login system, and copies of this can be obtained from the TRICS® team by email upon request. Note that this change was a requirement of the new TRICS® Management Services contract, following a consultation with IT security specialists.

One of our obligations is to ensure that the login process for our users is both secure and flexible, and this new process covers both of these requirements. From 1st April 2012, a new set of password protocols was introduced, designed to make access to TRICS® more secure. Any "old" format passwords will remain valid until 1st July 2012, when all users will be required to hold passwords in the new format. There is also a new requirement for users to change their passwords every three months, and when doing so they will need to use a combination of letters, numbers, and "special" characters. The guidance document provides all the information you will need to understand this changeover.

A benefit to users of the new system is that they are now able to change usernames and passwords whenever required, through the existing login portal (the "Members Area" at www.trics.org). If a password is lost, it can also be retrieved by email, using the email address that is registered with our administration system. The new system is quite straightforward and is an improvement on the previous system, and the TRICS® team will be on hand to assist with any queries that you may have. Please do not hesitate to contact us for further information.

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We are pleased to announce the publication of the 2012 TRICS® Good Practice Guide, which will be available within the Library module of TRICS® 2012(b)v6.10.1 when it goes live on 6th July. The Good Practice Guide is essential reading for all TRICS® users, and is freely available right now upon request by email. Just contact Ian Coles at ian.coles@jmp.co.uk and you can obtain your copy today.

This guidance is used and quoted up to Public Inquiry level, and is widely used within the TRICS® Community. It contains valuable information about the correct use of TRICS®, and is an ideal reference for both those supplying TRICS® outputs and those auditing such data.

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A SMS text updates 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 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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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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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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