SENIOR DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER
Biography
Dr. Francois Dion is a Senior Development Engineer with over 23 years of professional experience in transportation and traffic engineering, with a focus on Intelligent Transportation Systems. Throughout his career, Dr. Dion has successfully conducted practice-oriented research for Caltrans, the Michigan DOT, the Virginia DOT, the San Diego Association of Governments, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, and other public transportation agencies, in addition to conducting fundamental research in university settings.
Recently, Dr. Dion worked on the development of an Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) system for the I-210 corridor in Pasadena, most notably on the development of a large-scale microsimulation model of the corridor aiming to replicate how motorists react to unexpected congestion, using simulation to evaluate the proposed construction staging plans. He has also helped Caltrans evaluate the operational impacts of implementing a bicycle/pedestrian path on the shoulder of the I-580 Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, as well as helped the agency assess how emerging third-party data sources could be used to improve the monitoring of regional truck movements. Other notable work conducted at PATH includes evaluating how traffic simulation has been used to support the development of Corridor System Management Plans in California, developing a concept of operations for a smart parking application in San Diego, and helping small transit agencies implementing their schedule in Google Transit. Prior to joining PATH in 2010, Dr. Dion supported the development of communication protocols for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-infrastructure (V2I) applications, the development of advanced traffic signal control and signal priority algorithms, and research on traveler information systems.
To this date, Dr. Dion has published 24 journal and 33 conference papers, in addition to having authored over 25 project reports. Dr. Dion is also an expert in simulation modeling, having worked over 20 years with Aimsun, Vissim, Paramics, and Integration, in addition to being an expert Synchro user. He has significant expertise analyzing transportation data, particularly with respect to data quality and reliability, and applying systems engineering principles for the development of user needs, concepts of operations, system requirements, project management plans, and other project-related management documents.
Previously Dr. Dion worked as an Assistant Research Scientist for the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), an Assistant Professor of Transportation Engineering for Michigan State University, and as a Research Scientist for the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). He holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada, and both a M.A.Sc. and a B.Eng. in Civil Engineering (Transportation) from the École Polytechnique in Montréal, Canada. Dr. Dion has also held Professional Engineering license from Michigan since 2007.
Areas of Expertise
- Traffic Engineering
- Traffic simulation modeling
- Driver Behavior modeling
- Connected vehicle applications
- Application of system engineering to transportation projects
- Traffic data collection and analysis
- Traffic signal control systems
- Transit signal priority
- Traveler information systems
- Parking management systems