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Austin-Area Initiatives

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With growing populations and limited resources, our state's urban areas face unprecedented transportation challenges. In the Austin region, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) is helping meet those challenges by developing research-based solutions to help relieve urban traffic congestion, with special emphasis on managed and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, congestion pricing, and travel forecasting. TTI's 15 Austin Office employees include undergraduate students from area universities.

Managed Lanes and Congestion Pricing

aerial view of highway traffic

TTI's Austin Office researchers are considered national experts in the areas of managed lanes, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes and congestion pricing, performing research for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on these emerging initiatives. Researchers have provided technical expertise for projects in eight states for a variety of sponsors.

Areas of specialty include public education and communication strategies, facility design and operations, and support to aid transportation policy makers. TTI researchers are assisting local agencies with projects in the region and facilitate the Managed Lanes Working Group, which enhances agency coordination during the development of managed lane policies and projects.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Congestion Monitoring

TTI supports TxDOT in the analysis of archived freeway data collected through electronic ITS monitoring technology. These data are being used in performance measures to develop a resource for assessing freeway performance and congestion changes in the region. TTI researchers also support planning efforts that identify effective implementation of ITS infrastructure to improve transportation system monitoring and operation.

Austin Transportation Databook

TTI prepared a comprehensive, user-friendly transportation databook for the Central Texas region (www.transportationdatabook.org). This databook provides information for transportation leaders and policy makers to assist in the development and assessment of transportation infrastructure and services within the Central Texas area. The book contains a variety of maps, graphs and data on transportation, population and growth metrics in the region since 1982 and compares Austin to its peer cities in the United States.

Incident Management

TTI is facilitating a multi-agency coalition that includes transportation agencies, law enforcement and emergency responders to develop an enhanced freeway incident management program for Austin. Incident management strategies are being coordinated with ITS applications to enable local agencies to operate the transportation network at its highest possible levels of efficiency during emergency situations. In other communities, these strategies have offered a benefit-to-cost ratio of 36 to 1 and have reduced average incident clearance time to less than 20 minutes.

Transportation Demand Management (TDM)

TTI researchers have provided expertise to various sponsors in the United States in the analysis, evaluation and development of leadingedge TDM programs designed to reduce commutes and encourage alternative modes of travel. TTI has developed model scenarios for the implementation of various strategies and conducted a National TDM Program Census to benchmark regional activities and the effectiveness of TDM initiatives.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Access

bicyclist riding along river path

TTI provides expertise to TxDOT in bicycle safety and access issues in the Austin region. For example, TTI performed an evaluation of safety concerns associated with bicycle accidents at ramp locations on Loop 360. The TTI Austin Office staff also has performed work for the City of Austin that examined how other communities use alternative traffic control, pedestrian and bicycle transportation solutions on streets similar to Shoal Creek Boulevard.

Public Transportation

public transit bus on city street

Working with the TxDOT Austin District, TTI is helping identify approaches to improve coordination and links between rural and urban transit services. TTI is also providing assistance in regional planning and coordination of public transportation, as well as paratransit services in the capital area.

Environmental Justice

TTI provides technical expertise to local area agencies in addressing the needs of environmental justice (EJ) populations affected by transportation projects. EJ communities are defined as areas where a majority of the population is low income and/or ethnic minorities. TTI researchers provide innovative techniques for outreach, new methodologies that identify and quantify EJ areas, and unique opportunities for mitigation.

Travel Forecasting Program

TTI's Travel Forecasting Program, with headquarters at TTI's Austin Office, supports and assists public agencies in the implementation and application of current and emerging technologies in travel forecasting. TTI collects and analyzes travel data and provides advice on the use and interpretation of travel model results. Additional services provided by the program include technical training seminars and one-on-one assistance to support the development of TxDOT's transportation modeling capabilities, assistance in maintaining the statewide travel demand model, and staffing of a travel modeling help desk. The program also provides software and travel demand model application support for the Texas Mobility Plan, a product of TxDOT and the 25 statewide metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), to estimate capacity needs and costs for addressing severe congestion in Texas urban areas.

Travel Model Improvement Program Training and Technical Assistance Center

TTI operates the Training and Technical Assistance Center for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Travel Model Improvement Program. The center, with headquarters at TTI's Austin Office, provides technical support and training courses to help transportation planning agencies improve the techniques they use to determine how population growth, area employment, land use and transportation infrastructure investments affect traffic mobility, congestion, safety and the environment.

Improving Safety for Teen Drivers

TDS members during a press conference

Motor vehicle crashes account for 44 percent of the teen deaths that occur each year. TTI's innovative Teens in the Driver Seat® peer-to-peer driver safety outreach program has been launched at a number of high schools in the Austin region. TTI is conducting research on teen driver risk awareness and behavior, and is assisting students and faculty sponsors in implementing the program. Early TDS program evaluations indicate that teen cell phone use and text-messaging while driving are down 30 percent and seat belt usage is up 11 percent at participating schools. The program is reaching more than 147,000 teens statewide.

TTI's Mission

To solve transportation problems through research, to transfer technology and to develop diverse human resources to meet the transportation challenges of tomorrow.

Contact

Ginger Goodin, P.E.
Research Engineer
Texas Transportation Institute
The Texas A&M University System
1106 Clayton Lane, Suite 300E
Austin, TX 78723
ph. (512) 467-0946
g-goodin@tamu.edu

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