News Archives

TTI Senior Research Engineer and Materials & Pavements Division Head David Newcomb delivered a presentation at Texas Representative Terry Wilson’s Virtual Town Hall on September 30, 2020. The discussion centered on the impact of increased truck traffic due to the Aggregate Production Operations Industry in surrounding communities. “Representative Wilson’s office reached out to TTI prior […]

Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers Johanna Zmud, Gretchen Stoeltje, Todd Hansen, Tina Geiselbrecht, Chris Simek, and Ben Ettelman, were recently published on AARP Public Policy Institute’s (AARP) website. The paper, Volunteer Driver Insurance in the Age of Ridehailing, explored how volunteer drivers face insurance difficulties in the age of ridehailing. As the popularity of […]

National School Bus Safety Week (Oct. 19–23, 2020) recognizes the importance of school bus safety with various activities aimed at teaching students how to be safer in and around school buses. The week also highlights ways roadway users can practice safer behaviors whenever they encounter buses on the roadway, helping to keep our children safer. […]

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) U in the Driver Seat (UDS) education and outreach program held its virtual 2020 UDS Symposium Oct. 7–9. Now in its eighth year, the symposium raises awareness about the leading cause of death for young adults ages 18–25 — traffic crashes. This year’s theme was “recharge to save lives […]

By Greg Winfree Congress really has its hands full these days, with urgent priorities summoning attention from all directions. Pandemic relief. The census on a tighter schedule. Widespread social unrest. Election season. As if that wasn’t enough, with seemingly no room left on their full plate, national leaders were coming up on a dead end […]

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Advisory Council held its first ever virtual annual meeting Sept. 22. The meeting is normally a two-day, in-person affair and was originally scheduled for the spring timeframe, but due to continued COVID-related restrictions, TTI leadership decided to host the meeting virtually. The meeting commenced with a welcome and introductions […]

By David Salgado and Rafael Aldrete There aren’t many worse places to be than in the back of an ambulance. But being in the back of an ambulance in critical condition at a congested U.S.-Mexico border crossing is surely one of those places. Worse yet, being in a car instead of an ambulance – by […]

People in the child passenger safety field are some of the most passionate advocates you’ll ever meet. And they infused passion into the virtual 2020 Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference Sept. 9–11, 2020. The fourth annual event had more than 400 attendees, most of whom are child passenger safety technicians (CPSTs). Organized by the Texas […]

The September 2020 issue of Traffic Technology International features Texas A&M Transportation Institute Agency Director Greg Winfree and Assistant Research Scientist Subasish Das. Das was interviewed for a story on using artificial intelligence to predict exactly where and when crashes will occur so that road authorities can prioritize funding for safety improvements in a targeted […]

TTI researchers Tony Voigt, Mike Vickich and Micah Montoya received U.S. patent no. 10,535,262 on Jan. 14, 2020, for an active pedestrian warning system for rail and bus transit routes. Pedestrians distracted near vehicles on the road are at risk for injuries and fatalities in the event of a collision. Both drivers and pedestrians are responsible […]

The German Aerospace Center — Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) — recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to encourage international collaboration on transportation research, technology transfer and education. With locations across Germany, DLR is one of the largest aeronautics and space research centers in […]

Mass Transit recently named Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Graduate Research Assistant Ahmadreza Mahmoudzadeh to the 40 Under 40 list for 2020. Mahmoudzadeh began working in TTI’s Transit Mobility Program in fall 2018 and is a Ph.D. candidate in Texas A&M University’s Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He recently graduated with an M.S. […]

Dr. Vergil Stover, former TTI researcher in the Roadway Safety Program and professor emeritus in Texas A&M’s Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, passed away on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, at age 87. This article recounts Dr. Stover’s extensive career, highlighting his thought leadership in transportation research, particularly in the area of roadway safety […]

Texas A&M Transportation Institute Agency Director Greg Winfree was featured as a contributor in a recently-published story on Bloomberg CityLab. “The Life-Saving Car Technology No One Wants” explores why safety features that would make vehicles far less lethal to pedestrians exist right now, but are not required. Read the full article on Bloomberg CityLab

By Joan Hudson and Ipek Sener Not long after the coronavirus pandemic compelled widespread stay-at-home directives, many cities from coast to coast took steps to restrict motor vehicle traffic on selected streets. With sidewalks too narrow to allow for six-foot personal buffer zones, those moves opened thoroughfares for walking and biking, and aimed to give […]

An Arizona Department of Transportation research study, conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, about pedestrian hybrid beacons received a national award from the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO). The study (external link) evaluated the pedestrian hybrid beacon (external link), which is a traffic control device that increases drivers’ awareness of pedestrians […]

By Bob Brydia Self-driving cars. We’ve been promised for years they were “coming soon.” Most estimates a decade ago thought self-driving cars would be commonplace by now. Yet, here we are in 2020, and self-driving cars — what the industry calls autonomous vehicles (AVs) — still largely exist only in science fiction. So much for […]

The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), together with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted a webinar on Thursday, July 9, highlighting an in-depth look at the research and outcome of a study done by TTI on how congestion and wait times during the transportation of U.S. agriculture […]

Reformation Austin News highlights the COVID-19 traffic trend of fewer vehicles on Texas roadways but the lack of a commensurate reduction in fatal crashes. TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety Director Robert Wunderlich discusses his analysis of the data behind those findings. Read the Reformation Austin News story

Newest Planning Software Receives Enthusiastic Applause A little known but decades-long relationship between the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is suddenly and steadily emerging thanks to the development of a travel demand-model application tool. The tool is the Texas Package Suite of Programs (simply known as TexPACK), and […]