California High School Students Join Teens in the Driver Seat

This is a photo of a high school student speaking from a podium.

In the first public event announcing the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI)-developed Teens in the Driver Seat (TDS) program in California, Franklin High School students in Elk Grove conducted a news conference for Sacramento-area media Sept. 19. The students outlined their efforts in combating teen car crashes, which is the number one killer of teens [...]

Driving: Once a Dream, Now a Reality for Franklin McMurrian

This is a photo of people in front of a truck.

In 1995, 16-year-old Franklin McMurrian had dreams of becoming a sports star — the NBA or NFL, it really didn’t matter. Achievable, perhaps, but for Franklin it suddenly became impossible. “A friend and me were horsing around with a gun,” McMurrian recalls of the incident that changed his life. It turned out the gun was [...]

TTI Study Estimates Roadway Damage of the Texas Energy Boom

pavement failure

Nearly all regions of the state have benefited economically from unprecedented energy production over the last 10 years. However, significant road repair needs resulting from the energy boom are estimated to be $2 billion each year for the next 20 years, based on the findings of a Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) study performed for the [...]

2013 Nominations Underway for Texas Transportation Hall of Honor

Hall of Honor Logo

The Texas Transportation Hall of Honor board is accepting nominations for 2013 inductees until October 1, 2012. Each individual selected for the Hall of Honor is recognized at an induction ceremony and with a plaque on permanent display in the Hall of Honor located at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute in the Texas A&M University [...]

National Seat Check Saturday

This is a photo of a TTI employee fitting a child into a safety seat

Bev Kellner has a daunting task: teaching parents how to properly buckle up their children in a child safety seat. Sounds easy enough, but considering that most of the more than 19,000 kids in car seats she’s checked over the last 14 years have been buckled improperly or not at all, she won’t be out [...]

New Name, Same TTI

TTI_Color_RS

In August The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents approved changing the names of all seven A&M System agencies to include “A&M” in the agency names effective September 1.  As a result, the Texas Transportation Institute was renamed the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, but retains its acronym, TTI.  “A&M” has been added to TTI’s [...]

Hawkins Honored with Educator Award

Gene Hawkins ITE award

Dr. Gene Hawkins, associate professor in the Texas A&M Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, is the recipient of a prestigious educator award from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Hawkins, who is also a research engineer with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), received the 2012 Wilbur S. Smith Distinguished Transportation Educator Award at the [...]

Motorcycle Fatalities Focus of Safety Experts

This is a picture of a motorcycle in traffic.

Sixteen percent of all vehicle fatalities in Texas involve motorcyclists, according to David Strickland, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A recently licensed motorcyclist himself, Strickland was a speaker during the opening session of the 4th annual Traffic Safety Conference in San Antonio this summer. “I love motorcyclists and I love motorcycling, [...]

TTI Researchers Attend Workshop on Future of Road Vehicle Automation

This is a picture of I-25 Express Lanes in Denver, Colorado

Within the last year there has been an upsurge of activity related to road vehicle automation, notably vehicular development activities from automobile manufacturers, Google, and research underway throughout the world. Recently, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers Ginger Goodin and Ed Seymour attended a three-day workshop to share the state of the practice and participate [...]

Adding Highway Shoulders, Width, Reduce Crash Numbers and Save Lives

this is a picture of a roadway shoulder

AUSTIN — Texas highways are safer now thanks to hundreds of projects completed in the last few years to add shoulders, width on more than 1,000 miles of rural, two-lane highways. An analysis of 189 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) road projects around the state shows that wider pavements make highways safer and result in [...]