The Global Level Crossing and Trespass Symposium is a biennial event that brings together engineering, safety and security professionals from highway, rail, law enforcement and regulatory authorities around the world. The symposium provides an opportunity to exchange information and share best practices to improve the safety of the at‐grade interface between highway and rail systems. […]
Archives for June 2014
Villa Appointed to Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Program Manager Juan Villa was recently appointed to the International Trade Administration’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness. The committee was established in 2011 to provide the Secretary of Commerce with detailed advice on the elements of a comprehensive national freight infrastructure and freight policy to support U.S. supply chain […]
New Rapid-Flash Beacon Shows Great Promise in Improving Driver Yielding to Pedestrians
For many pedestrians, crossing a multilane busy roadway without the protection of a traffic signal is a nerve-wracking proposition, even when using a crosswalk. Help is coming, though, as research into a recently-developed rapid-flash beacon has shown significantly positive results—an increase in the number of drivers yielding to pedestrians. One of those projects is a […]
TTI’s Safety Center Expands Research Opportunities Through New ATLAS Center
The nation’s two largest university-based transportation research institutes have joined forces to form a unique University Transportation Center (UTC) designed to improve safety through a multidisciplinary, systems approach. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) — which will lead the efforts — and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) will form the UTC, called […]
Briaud Receives Distinguished Member Status at ASCE
Research Engineer Jean-Louis Briaud has been selected as a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Society’s highest honor. ASCE, representing 145,000 members worldwide, selected 11 members for its 2014 Distinguished Member class. The new members will be formally inducted at the Global Engineering Conference in Panama City, Panama this fall. […]
Christiansen Editorial in the Texas Lyceum Journal Focuses on Transportation Infrastructure
Dennis Christiansen, agency director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), recently wrote an editorial for the 2012-2013 Texas Lyceum journal. The editorial examines the state of transportation in Texas, where rapid growth and shrinking resources have stretched the transportation infrastructure to its limits, threatening the state’s economy and quality of life. The full text […]
Transportation Infrastructure in Texas: The Needs and the Numbers
By Dennis L. Christiansen, P.E. Agency Director, Texas A&M Transportation Institute Had the Texas Lyceum met at a conference to discuss Texas infrastructure a little over 100 years ago, say in 1911, the need for roads and “getting the farmer out of the mud” was a major agenda item. Had the conference met about 70 […]
Traffic Safety Conference Breaks Attendance Record
A record number of people attended this year’s Traffic Safety Conference, organized by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Center for Transportation Safety (CTS). More than 300 people attended the statewide event in San Antonio, Texas, May 12–14. The event, now in its sixth year, usually attracts about 200 people. “We tried to expand and diversify […]
Connected Cars, Smarter Roads, Safer Texas
Volume 50, Number 2 (2014) Adobe PDF version Inside This Issue: An Old Notion, A New Future: We’ve Been Automating Vehicles Right from the Start TTI Study Examines Policy Implications of Automated Vehicles TTI Successfully Tests Algorithm as Part of USDOT Prototype Development Project Testing Connected Transportation Innovations Starts with First Creating the Test Itself […]
An Old Notion, A New Future: We’ve Been Automating Vehicles Right from the Start
When we talk about automating vehicles today, it sometimes sounds very futuristic. Relinquishing driving duties to a computer is a scary thought for some. But one thing to remember is that automating vehicles isn’t a new idea. It began over a hundred years ago with the notion of tying automation to safety. You probably know […]
TTI Study Examines Policy Implications of Automated Vehicles
The widespread presence of self-driving vehicles is still many years away. To manufacturers, those years represent a long and anxious wait to get their products to market. Government decision-makers, on the other hand, might view the wait as a good thing, since they will need all the time they can get to work through the […]
TTI Successfully Tests Algorithm as Part of USDOT Prototype Development Project
Thanks to a successful prototype demonstration, researchers with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) contributed to the growing evidence that a roadway can indeed become one big communications system. Vehicles, the roadside and traffic management centers (TMCs) can communicate with one another, seamlessly and nearly instantaneously. The demonstration was conducted May 6–7 in Columbus, Ohio, […]
Testing Connected Transportation Innovations Starts with First Creating the Test Itself
Before the new era of connected vehicles can become a reality, researchers must first find a way to test each proposed component and application under a variety of conditions that mimic real-world scenarios. For example, can the hardware inside a connected vehicle successfully receive and correctly interpret a queue warning, even with driving environments that […]
Accelerating Texas into the Future
Development of Smarter Transportation is a Critical Component of the 21st Century System The ever-changing landscape of transportation needs and new technologies — as well as funding issues and a rapidly growing population — have created a complex set of transportation issues for the state of Texas. The future of the transportation system is rooted […]
TTI Developing New Automated and Connected Transportation Test Bed
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) shares an industry vision where vehicle collisions are eliminated. Vehicles will interact — through technology — with other vehicles, drivers, the infrastructure, pedestrians and bicyclists to prevent crashes. The entire transportation system will be connected in a way that transforms how people live, work and interact. Achieving this vision […]
TTI Develops Advanced Traveler-Information Map for I-35 Expansion Project
It’s being called the most advanced traveler-information map in the nation. And it was made possible thanks to feedback from motorists who travel Interstate 35 (I-35) in the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT’s) Waco District. The new map went live Feb. 17, 2014, and vastly improves the information drivers can access before traveling the corridor. […]
ATLAS Center Created with $1.4 Million Grant from USDOT
The nation’s two largest university-based transportation research institutes have joined forces to form a unique university transportation center (UTC) designed to improve safety through a multidisciplinary system approach to research. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) — which leads the effort — form the UTC, called […]
TTI Advisory Council
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Advisory Council is comprised of a small group of high-level transportation professionals from across Texas and every sector of the transportation world. The council, which meets annually, offers a tremendous service to the Institute by advising on transportation issues and trends and supporting TTI‘s research programs and initiatives. TTI […]
TTI News
Briaud Elected President of FedIGS Jean-Louis Briaud, the Buchanan Chair of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University and manager of TTI’s Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Program, has been elected president of the Federation of International Geo-engineering Societies (FedIGS). The four-year term lasts through 2018. FedIGS was formed 10 years ago in an […]
TTI Publications
Research Videos Access the research topics listed below via the URLs shown. Connected Cars, Smarter Roads, Safer Texas: https://vimeo.com/97270483 Research Into New Rapid-Flash Beacon Shows Positive Results: http://vimeo.com/98577802 TTI’s Center for Railway Research Studies Our Country’s Aging Railway System: http://vimeo.com/96822544 TTI’s Sediment and Erosion Control Laboratory: https://vimeo.com/74722165 TTI Research on the U.S.-Mexico Border: https://vimeo.com/66665274 TTI […]