TTI is kicking off a bike-sharing program on the Texas A&M University campus. The effort is designed to demonstrate and promote the benefits of alternative transportation modes — and hopefully inspire others to get on board. Participants in the program are required to complete a bicycle safety training course, wear helmets and obey all traffic […]
MyTTI News
Making the Most of a Fixer-Upper
Transportation and Sustainability in the 21st Century Nothing lasts forever. For researchers in transportation, that particular cliché presents a challenge. If nothing lasts forever, how can we build a better, more efficient, longer-lasting network? Bang for the buck. More from less. As stakeholders in transportation, you no doubt know these phrases by heart. The key […]
Capitol Staff Members Briefed on High-Priority Research Initiatives
More than a dozen staff members representing various state legislators and committees visited TTI on February 21 to hear updates on some of the Institute’s high-priority efforts. The program lineup began with an overview of TTI by Agency Director Dennis Christiansen. Other key research area presentations by TTI personnel included: Steve Roop provided a status […]
Video Summary Reports Catch On
You might not expect to find many folks on YouTube interested in “automated flagger assistance devices” or “development of very thin overlay systems.” But that’s not the case.
Progress Isn’t Always Pretty
On the cover of this issue of the Texas Transportation Researcher, you see two very different photographs of the same stretch of road. Taken in 1957, the first shows U.S. Highway 81 as it was known then, leading north into Austin. The cars, what few of them are on the road, are made of steel […]
Bringing Balance to Transportation Finance
What It Takes Is Dollars and Sense Getting where you’re going costs money. Whether that’s bus fare, filling up your gas tank or keeping our transportation system operational, it all costs money. And it’s getting more expensive. How much we pay at the pump might be the most visible reminder that transportation isn’t free, but […]
TTI Research: Making Things Better
Or, Why Transportation Research Is More Important Than Ever It’s hard to tighten your belt when you run out of holes in the leather. But when you can’t afford a new belt, you just have to work with what you’ve got. In a nutshell, that’s what the Texas Legislature is facing in the current budget […]
Making Goode Sense: The Way Ahead with TTI
Last year the David R. Goode National Transportation Policy Conference published Well Within Reach: American’s New Transportation Agenda. The bipartisan conference, cochaired by former Secretaries of Transportation Norman Mineta and Samuel Skinner, suggested that without a fundamental change in direction, our nation’s transportation system simply will not meet our future needs. The Goode report recommends […]
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 […]
TTI Has You Covered — Weather You’re Coming or Going
There’s an old joke in Texas: if you don’t like the weather here, wait five minutes. Texas weather varies greatly across the 268,820 square miles of the state. We have five distinct regions, conveniently named North, South, East, West and Central Texas, and each one is known for a unique weather aspect — frozen roads […]