If you think about it, our transportation system is a lot like a computer system. Both connect users to things they need: goods, services, education, leisure activities, even employment. Both depend on robust technology to facilitate user access. And both are eventually limited by what, at one time, seemed like the most advanced performance possible. […]
Volume 49, Number 4
TTI and TRB: Across the Years
The 2014 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting will be the last gathering at the Connecticut Avenue hotels in Washington, D.C., where the meeting has been held for nearly 60 years. In 2015, the annual meeting moves to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to bring sessions, committee meetings and displays under one roof. The […]
Improved Data Collection for Improved Mobility
Planning Transportation planners have long been surveying motorists about where they were going and why — information vital in determining where the next road should be built or how to improve mobility. Travel-demand models based on that feedback have been used for planning the best locations for new facilities and for prioritizing roadway improvements. However, […]
Estimating Economic Impacts for Policymakers
Finance When it comes to selecting and funding transportation improvements in Texas, communities have a wide array of alternatives, with each having its own advantages and disadvantages. Frequently, vigorous debate occurs about how best to solve traffic problems. The key question is often how best to increase mobility in the most cost-effective way possible. Should […]
Meeting Future Texas Bridge-Building Requirements
Bridges The over 50,000 bridges in Texas — more than in any other state in the nation — come in all shapes and sizes. The need to make sure that our longer-span bridges remain structurally sound and safe is a key reason that Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) research in the area of bridge design, […]
Transportation Research Challenges
Transportation research is a multi-disciplinary, national effort to identify and solve the challenges we face in planning, building and maintaining the thousands of miles of roadway in this country. Traffic Safety Fatal rear-end collisions nationally in 2012 — 1,933 with 120 of those occurring in highway work zones. Trade In 2012, a record 5.1 million […]
Using New Technologies to Solve Old Problems
Pavements With close to 80,000 miles of roadways in Texas, maintaining the pavements, whether asphalt or concrete, is a demanding and costly part of city, county and state responsibilities to keep our transportation system among the best in the country. When potholes, cracks and ruts appear and begin to degrade the pavement, it’s often too […]
Getting Information to Drivers to Improve Awareness, Safety
Traffic Safety It’s the 21st century. Every day seems to bring a new advance in technology — the latest smartphone, the fastest tablet, the sharpest HDTV. Advances like these are happening in transportation too, and they’re being applied to traffic safety for highway work zones. One day, cars that drive themselves and communicate with the […]
Improving Border-Crossing Wait Times
Trade Annually, $54 billion worth of goods moves across the U.S.-Mexico border, and wait times at each crossing regularly exceed two hours. The issues that result are being played out at all the region’s crossings — how to efficiently keep the goods flowing without compromising security, while also improving air quality. Reducing crossing and wait […]
TTI’s New Policy Research Center to Facilitate Innovation
“Everything about the Texas transportation system is changing,” says Ginger Goodin, director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) new Policy Research Center (PRC). “The old way of doing things just isn’t feasible anymore.” Goodin is essentially referring to the old solution of simply building more roads to meet our state’s mobility needs. While adding […]
Advisory Council Meeting Focuses on New Center
The discussion at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Advisory Council meeting held at Circle T Ranch in AllianceTexas (near Fort Worth) in September focused on the work of TTI‘s new Policy Research Center (PRC), recently funded by the Texas Legislature. TTI Agency Director Dennis Christiansen credited the council with the initial formative ideas for […]
Railroad Pioneer Inducted into Hall of Honor
TTI Agency Director Dennis Christiansen traveled to Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMU-C) in October to induct Harold J. McKenzie into the Texas Transportation Hall of Honor. The induction ceremony, hosted by BNSF Railway, was held at the annual Cotton Belt Railroad Symposium. McKenzie’s career in the railroad industry spanned from 1926 to 1969. He served as […]
TTI News
SWUTC Director Dock Burke Retires After a 45-year career with TTI, Senior Research Scientist Dock Burke retired Aug. 31, 2013. Since 1988, Burke has served as director of a consortium of universities known as the Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC). During his career, Burke served as principal or co-principal investigator on 55 individual research […]
TTI Publications
Research Videos Access the research topics listed below via the URLs shown. TTI Research on the U.S.-Mexico Border: https://vimeo.com/66665274 TTI and the Mobility Investment Priorities Project: https://vimeo.com/75786359 Women Leaders at TTI: https://vimeo.com/77974866 Voice-to-Text Study: https://vimeo.com/64641918 Mileage-Based User Fees: https://vimeo.com/71848261 TTI’s Sediment and Erosion Control Laboratory: https://vimeo.com/74722165 Technical Reports Application of a Performance Management Framework for […]