Archive

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the Ninety Fourth Annual Transportation Short Course Oct. 12–14, 2020. Traditionally held in person at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, travel restrictions and concerns for personal health in the era of COVID-19 forced planners to hold the event online for the first time in its near-century […]

Using the data produced by connected cars can improve safety for all of us. By Eva Shipp and Shawn Turner A growing number of higher-tech cars and trucks on the road are talking to us. And if we pay attention to what they’re saying, we could prevent a lot of crashes and save a lot […]

Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Graduate Research Assistant Soheil Sohrabi recently published the research paper “Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Public Health: A Conceptual Model and Policy Recommendations” in Sustainable Cites and Society. The paper’s authors also include Haneen Khreis, associate research scientist in TTI’s Center for Advancing Research in Transportation Emissions, Energy, and Health […]

Despite a worldwide pandemic that shut down businesses and kept most workers at home through the spring and much of the summer, 37 Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers, technicians and support staff in the Roadside Safety and Physical Security Division have been working nonstop conducting a near-record number of crash tests for clients across […]

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 […]