Technical Reports “Analysis and Recommendations on Protecting Waterways from Encroachment,” by Joan Mileski, 0-6225-1, July 30, 2010. “Bioretention for Stormwater Quality Improvement in Texas: Pilot Experiments,” by Ming-Han Li, 0-5949-2, July 28, 2010. “Development, Calibration, and Validation of Performance Prediction Models for the Texas M-E Flexible Pavement Design System,” by Fujie Zhou, 0-5798-2, August 13, [...]
Awards and more
U.S. State Department Signs Major Contract with TTI In one of the largest contracts ever awarded to Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), the Crashworthy Structures Program has received a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security pact that will provide up to $7 million in work over a five-year period. The contract calls for TTI [...]
Planning for the Future: TTI’s Center for Strategic Transportation Solutions
Where are we going? How will we get there? These questions aren’t just philosophical…they’re strategic. In February 2009, the Texas Transportation Commission adopted the 2030 Committee Texas Transportation Needs Report, which was developed by the Texas Transportation Institute and the Center for Transportation Research. The report identifies that Texas will need some $315 billion to [...]
Virtual survey crew ahead: Radiusmeter takes guesswork out of signs, markings for horizontal curves
Consistency is an important principle in roadway safety. It ensures that roadways conform to recommended guidelines and promote safety to drivers. The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has developed the Radiusmeter to help improve consistency on horizontal curves. “A large percentage of crashes occur on horizontal curves on two-lane highways,” says Paul Carlson, head of TTI‘s [...]
The Forgiving Roadside: TTI research, facilities are vital to protecting your loved ones
It’s five times safer to travel on our nation’s roadways today than it was five decades ago. For every 100 million miles Americans traveled in 1960, five people died. Today, the rate has dropped to just over one death per 100 million miles. “As a nation 50 years ago, we decided that killing tens of [...]
Factoring in the Human Equation
During the 1930s, several states proposed laws to prohibit the use of radios while driving. According to automobile historian Michael Lam, “Opponents of car radios argued that they distracted drivers and caused accidents, that tuning them took a driver’s attention away from the road, and that music could lull a driver to sleep.” While technologies [...]
Celebrating 60 Years of Innovation: A history of saving lives, time and resources
Celebrating 60 Years of Innovation: A history of saving lives, time and resources The original 1950 charter of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI), given by the Texas A&M Board of Directors, charged the Institute with enlisting the broad resources of the college in all forms of transportation research, while giving students the opportunity to study [...]
Shipping to the Future
Business and individual needs for product delivery continue to evolve due to technological advancements, economic globalization, increasing competitiveness and changing market demand. The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) is investigating innovative solutions that support the use of multiple modes of transportation, facilitate freight transfer, reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, and provide alternative fuel and funding [...]
What Goes Around Comes Around: Transportation drives economic prosperity
Money makes the world go ’round. In the classic 1873 Jules Verne novel, Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg races the clock, traveling by boat, rail, hot-air balloon, stage coach and elephant in hopes of winning £20,000. Today’s rapidly changing technology is making virtual world travel an everyday occurrence. But as long as [...]
The Big Squeeze: The future of congestion management
Gone are the days when we simply build new roads or more lanes to ease traffic congestion. Funding is limited, and — in many areas — the space is no longer available. As a result, there’s been a shift from building new highways to managing the roads we have. Mobility analysts examine problems associated with [...]
A Horse of a Similar Color
Things change. Technologies, economies, living conditions — thanks to human ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit, they change over time. And yet there’s also truth in the axiom that the more things change, the more they stay the same. So what makes both of these seemingly contrasting ideas true? In his well-known article in The Freeman in [...]
