Panama Canal Expansion

Officials are positioning Texas to capitalize on the Panama Canal expansion.

The expansion of the Panama Canal promises implications for global shipping patterns, including those influencing Texas ports. By any measure, those ports are critically important to the Texas economy, accounting for nearly 1.4 million jobs and more than $82 billion in personal income each year. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) formed the Panama Canal Working Group in 2012 and sponsored a research study conducted by TTI to assess opportunities associated with the canal expansion, particularly the potential impacts on ports and landside infrastructure, including roadways, railroads and intermodal facilities. TTI examined previous studies on the canal expansion and heard from shippers, ports, carriers, industry groups and other stakeholders at a series of meetings. The overarching finding from the study is that the Panama Canal expansion — coupled with continued population grown in Texas, energy-sector developments and the emergence of new trading partners throughout the world — represents opportunities to expand Texas’ position as a global gateway for the nation. By providing a low-cost, reliable, safe, secure, multimodal and environmentally sustainable supply chain, the state can increase its global trade, create new jobs, and expand the state and national economies.

Impact of the Energy Sector on Roadways

Rapid growth in the energy industry creates both pros and cons for the state.

It’s hard to overstate the energy sector’s impact in Texas. The industry directly employs nearly 225,000 Texans in oil and gas exploration and production, accounting for almost 13 percent of all new jobs added in the state over the past year. The rapid growth of wind-power generation has further bolstered the energy sector’s contributions. But impacts can also be negative. Countless trucks carrying construction materials, heavy equipment, fracking water, petroleum products and other supplies strain roadways literally to the breaking point, necessitating extensive and expensive pavement repairs. Many truckloads are overweight, further exacerbating the problem. TTI researchers have worked with TxDOT to measure and project the impact of this wear and tear, which TxDOT estimates at roughly $2 billion per year for state and county road systems. TTI recommendations included donation agreements with energy companies, procedural changes related to early notification of development activity, and better coordination of road maintenance and repair.

Mobility Investment Priorities

Traffic congestion in Texas is choking our highways and economy. In our most congested cities, lost time and wasted fuel now cost us nearly $10 billion a year. However, this is not just a big-city issue. Stop-and-go traffic that slows down freight in our major cities will make small-town Texans pay more for groceries, clothes and countless other goods. Recognizing the growing urgency of this problem, the Texas Legislature set aside $300 million to get the state’s highest-priority roadway projects moving. TTI was assigned to help TxDOT and local agencies advance those projects with the most potential to improve mobility and strengthen local economies in the most congested regions of the state, as well as to help identify the most publicly acceptable options to pay for those projects. The Lone Star State’s population is growing, while transportation revenues are shrinking. TTI’s Mobility Investment Priorities project is assisting state leaders in closing that gap.

My 35 Expansion Project

Travelers, shippers and businesses are the focus of My 35 communication efforts.

In one of the most ambitious roadway improvement projects in the state’s history, TxDOT is expanding a 96-mile section of I-35 in Central Texas from four to six lanes. The effort is designed to alleviate traffic congestion that wastes both fuel and time for motorists, businesses and shippers. In addition, the expansion will help accommodate future increases in population, traffic volume and commercial activity as Texas continues to grow at a rapid pace. The collection of 17 separate but integrated construction projects will require $2.5 billion and five more years to complete. The massive effort also requires getting information — lots of information — to drivers and shippers planning trips and navigating lane closures and work zones characteristic of roadway expansions. To that end, TTI is providing TxDOT with a first-of-its-kind traveler information system that integrates three methods for capturing traffic data and forecasts congestion to provide that information to anyone who needs it.

Border Security and Mobility

Efficient border crossings are essential to the El Paso region’s economic prosperity.

For border-crossing users, time delays are inconvenient and costly. More accurate border wait times can help users plan additional travel times or adopt alternatives to reduce delays. Using radio frequency identification tags, researchers at TTI’s Center for International Intelligent Transportation Research in El Paso developed a website that combines delay performance measures with economic factors. Combining this information allows users to determine departure time and port-of-entry selection to help reduce delay costs. The website’s information also benefits policy makers by providing a way to track and analyze trends associated with delay costs at ports of entry.

Measuring the “Cost of Doing Nothing”

As Texas grows, demand for roadway space grows with it — even as available revenue and funding options become more limited. The cost of meeting future mobility needs is substantial, but the consequences of doing nothing to meet them are even greater. TTI calculated that expense in a number of ways, illustrating what life would be like in a state without transportation investment:

• Over the next 15 years, congestion would cost the state an average of $20 billion each year.
• Over the same time period, the delays experienced by commuters would double from 37 hours to 74 hours each year.
• The additional 37 hours of delay would cost each household another $800 annually, increasing with each passing year.

Conversely, for every dollar spent on transportation, the state realizes at least $6 in economic benefits.

This Issue

From Texas to the Nation

Volume 48, Number 4
December 2012
Issue Overview

On this page:

• Panama Canal Expansion
• Impact of the Energy Sector on Roadways
• Mobility Investment Priorities
• My 35 Expansion Project
• Border Security and Mobility
• Measuring the “Cost of Doing Nothing”
• For More Information

For every dollar spent on transportation, the state realizes at least $6 in economic benefits.

For more information:

Cathy Reiley
(512) 560-9336
c-reiley@tti.tamu.edu

]]> http://tti.tamu.edu/2012/12/01/tti-supports-texas-policy-makers/feed/ 0 http://tti.tamu.edu/2012/09/28/tti-designed-information-system-helps-keep-i-35-travelers-informed/ http://tti.tamu.edu/2012/09/28/tti-designed-information-system-helps-keep-i-35-travelers-informed/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:53:28 +0000 Chris Sasser http://tti.tamu.edu/?p=9745

Looks simple, doesn’t it? In reality, presenting and forecasting accurate traffic data to I-35 commuters requires complex algorithms that integrate different data sources and constantly monitor the forecasted conditions for accuracy.

Traffic congestion is as familiar as bluebonnets on the roadside for anyone who’s traveled I-35 in the last twenty years. To meet capacity demands, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is expanding I-35 in its Waco District (a 96-mile stretch from Hillsboro to Salado). At an estimated cost of $2.5 billion, the overall effort is made up of 17 smaller construction projects and targeted for completion in 2017.

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is providing TxDOT technical support on the project, namely in the form of a first-of-its-kind traveler-information system. The system integrates several methods for capturing data, forecasts congestion along the construction route, and provides that information to anyone who wants it.

The concept for the system is similar to modern traffic management systems used in urban areas. Put simply, it marries together three data-gathering methods to create reliable forecasts for travelers:

1. Bluetooth® technology — travelers’ devices (e.g., cell phones, laptops, and the GPS systems in newer cars) are anonymously pinged at point A and point B, giving a reliable estimate of travel time between the points.
2. Wavetronix sensors — placed strategically along the corridor at 17 points of high traffic interaction (e.g., where a state highway crosses I-35), the sensors capture traffic volume.
3. End-of-queue warning systems — relying on radar detectors mounted in orange barrels around work zones, speeds of approaching vehicles are measured as they near the work zone, and patterns of slowing traffic (indicating a backup in traffic flow) are noted.

Travelers will soon be able to access reliable forecasts via My35.org for what traffic on I-35 in Waco will be in an hour, before they ever leave Hillsboro, some 40 miles away.

“From our perspective, a real success story of this project is how we’ve interfaced with TxDOT’s LoneStar traffic management system,” says TTI Research Scientist Bob Brydia, principal investigator on the project. “Using their data protocols, we feed our information to them, and that helps drive the messages you see on the PCMSs.” PCMSs, or portable changeable message signs, display traffic forecasts along the roadway.

New portable changeable message signs like this one will soon keep I-35 travelers informed about forecasted construction delays along the corridor.

While congestion can be inconvenient for travelers, it can also be costly — in very real terms — for big business. Knowing where work zones are, what lanes will be closed, and when to expect slower travel is vital for companies like Wal-Mart and H-E-B. They rely on I-35 to get their goods via truck from major distribution hubs to their brick-and-mortar stores. When you’re talking perishables, traffic backups can mean the difference between fresh and spoiled milk — and that can translate into lost revenue for the company and higher prices for consumers.

Similarly, with better information on hand, EMS personnel can get to the scene of an accident sooner. The life-saving potential there really needs no further explanation.

Jodi Wheatley, Waco District’s information specialist for the project, acknowledges that without TTI’s help, the I-35 expansion effort would have been much tougher.

“Reconstructing almost 100 miles of interstate is a massive job for the department, and at the end of the day we at TxDOT want to be as responsive and helpful as we can to our fellow Texans,” Wheatley says. “Because of the scope of the project, that would be much more difficult without TTI’s logistical support and technical know-how. Maybe even impossible.”

A screen shot of the Houston TranStar website.

You might be familiar with the name Bluetooth® as a way of wirelessly talking on your cell phone. More generally, it’s a personal area network that connects devices wirelessly over short distances.

Researchers at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) are using Bluetooth technology for a host of applications involving traveler information, traffic management and planning systems. Currently these data are collected using toll tags, GPS, license plate recognition and cellular phone networks, which can be expensive and inefficient. Data collection by Bluetooth presents a viable alternative.

How the Technology Works

Each Bluetooth device has a unique identifier called a Media Access Control (MAC) address, which the device transmits within a short range.

“A motorist with a Bluetooth-enabled device drives by a road sensor, and the sensor reads the MAC address,” says Darryl Puckett, a TTI research scientist investigating uses of Bluetooth technology. “Further down the road, another sensor reads the MAC address again, and the system matches it to the first reading.” Software then determines how long it took to travel from one reader to the other and calculates the average speed.

Privacy is an important concern. MAC addresses are not directly associated with a specific user and do not contain any personal information. Users can also disable the Bluetooth function of their device to prevent it from being read.

The benefits of this anonymous wireless address matching (AWAM) system are many. A large percentage of the population has Bluetooth devices, so the technology is easy and nonintrusive for motorists. The roadside readers are low cost and low maintenance, using standards-based, non-proprietary equipment and protocols.

Applying the Technology

Funding from the University Transportation Center for Mobility (UTCM) assisted TTI researchers in developing a full, end-to-end solution for AWAM, with the following features:

• roadside hardware and software for reading and forwarding MAC addresses,
• host software for calculating real-time and historical travel time and speed data, and
• analysis and graphics capability to view current and historical data graphically.

Border Crossings

The ability to accurately estimate wait times at international border crossings is one of the goals of Bluetooth technology applications.

Millions of motorists cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day, often with long delays. Current methods of determining delay — usually by visual estimates or motorist survey — are unreliable.

“Deployment of Bluetooth technology at the border is geared toward obtaining crossing times of passenger vehicles, which can then be used to accurately estimate wait times,” says Rajat Rajbhandari, TTI associate research engineer. “This project was the first of its kind to use Bluetooth technology to gather traffic information in Texas.”

Researchers collected data at three ports of entry in the El Paso, Texas, region: the Bridge of the Americas, Ysleta and Paso Del Norte. The study confirmed that Bluetooth technology could be used to measure U.S.-Mexico border crossing times. A follow-up project will deploy Bluetooth sensors at the Ysleta port of entry in El Paso and compute the crossing time in near real time.

“We’re also working on deployment of RFID [radio frequency identification] technology at border crossings in El Paso, Laredo, Pharr and Arizona to get crossing times of commercial vehicles,” says Rajbhandari. “Crossing time information for both passenger and commercial vehicles is crucial to understand the operational and planning aspects of international border crossings.”

Urban Areas

Travel time data can help commuters choose when and what route to travel and help planners identify congested segments for operational or infrastructure improvements. TTI has worked on several projects in Texas:

• Houston commuters can check the TransStar website to see how long it will take to get to work. The partnership between Houston TranStar and TTI is investigating whether AWAM can expand this coverage to arterials.
• AWAM proof-of-concept demonstrations with the City of Houston, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and Harris County on urban arterials showed that Bluetooth device penetration is sufficient to collect high-quality travel time data.
• In a project for TxDOT, TTI collected travel times and speeds on identical roadway segments using a toll tag reader system and the AWAM system, with comparable results.
• TTI has deployed the AWAM system at several west Houston intersections to monitor travel time for a network of urban arterials.
• TTI demonstrated the AWAM system on parallel routes to U.S. 75 North Central Expressway between Dallas and Richardson.

“I see this technology as an exciting, innovative way to obtain traffic information in places where we would not otherwise be able to gather data because of the cost,” says David Fink, a TxDOT transportation operations engineer with Houston TranStar. “Other technologies can be up to eight times more expensive than using Bluetooth technology. In some cases this is just cost-prohibitive.”

The anonymous wireless address matching (AWAM) concept for travel time data collection.

This Issue

Improving Our Transportation Operations

Volume 46, Number 1
March 2010
Issue Overview