Volume 58, Number 3 (2022) Adobe PDF version Inside This Issue: Expanding TTI’s Research Reach Clear the Way! Emergency Vehicles En Route Just How Effective Are Peak-Hour Lanes? TTI Provides Technical Assistance Study on Railway Grade Crossings in Mexico Do Not Enter! You’re Driving the Wrong Way AI in the Sky: Satellites, Imaging, New Technology […]
Texas Transportation Researcher
Expanding TTI’s Research Reach
Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) urban research and implementation offices foster local agency cooperation and help assure implementable research results. Beyond its headquarters in Bryan/College Station, TTI supports eight urban offices across Texas; one urban office in Washington, D.C.; and two international offices in Doha, Qatar, and Mexico City, Mexico. Headquarters Bryan/College Station Urban Offices […]
Clear the Way! Emergency Vehicles En Route
During an emergency, seconds matter. However, navigating through busy urban arterials may sometimes be a tricky task for emergency response vehicles, particularly through busy intersections. In 2021, of the 633,499 roadway crashes in Texas, nearly 37 percent occurred at intersections, emphasizing the importance of improving safety in these scenarios. An ongoing research project conducted by […]
Just How Effective Are Peak-Hour Lanes?
The Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the United States. With a population of over 7.5 million people — and growing — the area has rapidly become a desirable place for families and businesses to locate to over the last decade. Alongside the population and economic growth, traffic […]
TTI Provides Technical Assistance Study on Railway Grade Crossings in Mexico
Mexico’s national railway network consists of 16,700 miles of railway lines. Following a restructuring and privatization completed in 1998, the system is operated under long-term concessions to the federal government. The restructuring has resulted in the steady growth of freight rail traffic and increased efficiency. The road and rail systems intersect at more than 7,000 […]
Do Not Enter! You’re Driving the Wrong Way
Few scenarios are more terrifying for a motorist than encountering someone driving the wrong way on a freeway. When a crash occurs because of wrong-way driving (WWD), the results are often catastrophic. Such was the case on March 15, 2011, when San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) Officer Stephanie Brown was killed by an intoxicated WWD […]
AI in the Sky: Satellites, Imaging, New Technology Applications in Transportation
If you watch police procedurals on television, you’ve probably seen an episode where traffic cameras play a pivotal role in solving the crime. Usually, an analyst zooms in to identify the perpetrator’s license plate, providing the clue needed to close the case. Using the big-picture power of video imaging can be just as helpful in […]
Visualizing (and Simplifying) the Future of Transportation Planning
For many years, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) has provided travel demand model (TDM) technique support for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) as the base of the urban transportation planning process. The TDM is critical to the transportation planning process since it is used to predict future demand for transportation facilities and services. […]
Communication Is Key — TTI Mobility Coordinator Eases the Burden of Construction in Waco
Since 2012, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has conducted the My35 Construction Project along I-35 in Central Texas. Called “Main Street Texas” for the vital role the corridor plays in international commerce, I-35 is host to hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks each day. Comprising 17 separate construction projects, the 96-mile stretch between […]
Visualizing Disruptions on Our Roadways
Roadway congestion continues to be a frustration for drivers across the nation. Delays and slowdowns caused by crashes, extreme weather or even road debris dramatically affect the reliability of the transportation system and can add grueling hours to commuter drive times. While congestion may seem unavoidable at times, the ability to track roadway incidents and […]
TTI News
TTI Researchers Participate in TRB SETT Conference Several TTI researchers participated in the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) Sustainability and Emerging Transportation Technology (SETT) Conference. TRB hosted the conference May 31–June 2 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, Calif. “TTI was well represented at the TRB SETT Conference,” notes TTI Executive Associate Director […]
Thinking Transportation Podcast
Download, listen, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Every other week, we interview a TTI expert or special guest on a wide range of transportation topics and discuss how those topics impact the average person. On the Ascent General aviation in Texas is more indispensable than ever. Episode 37 Texas has more community airports […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Mobility, Up Close and Personal
It was Tip O’Neill, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, who was famously known to say in the 1980s, “All politics is local.” Countless candidates for office decades later routinely rely upon door knocking and town hall gatherings, attesting to both the durability and relevance of O’Neill’s philosophy. His words concisely captured […]
Bridging Technology and Roadway Safety
Volume 58, Number 2 (2022) Adobe PDF version Inside This Issue: Seeing the Road Seeing the Road in Low-Visibility Conditions Traffic Signal Technologies Improve Pedestrian, Bicyclist Safety in Texas Evaluating Road Types Improves Safety, Mobility in Rural Areas Car Makers Join Researchers to Aid Flow through Traffic Signals TTI Facilities Research Road Safety Devices, Technologies […]
Seeing the Road
Though highway striping technologies have evolved in the past 80 years, one constant has remained the same: Clear and highly visible highway markings ensure safety for drivers. Driving is a visual activity, and as we make our way down a road, we all look at a wide range of visual inputs — the roadway, the […]
Seeing the Road in Low-Visibility Conditions
Seeing the road is an essential component of safe driving. Drivers depend on a continuous flow of information as they move along the roadway to properly position their vehicle. Centerline and edge-line markings delineate the vehicle lane for drivers, while other markings such as stop bars and railway crossings provide key safety information and alert […]
Traffic Signal Technologies Improve Pedestrian, Bicyclist Safety in Texas
The Lone Star State has experienced an increase in the number of pedestrians and bicyclists who have lost their lives in roadway crashes. Within the last decade, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities rose by 69 percent in Texas. These statistics — but, even more so, the real people behind the numbers — present a safety concern […]
Evaluating Road Types Improves Safety, Mobility in Rural Areas
Rural roadways often have a high number of crashes, especially severe crashes. To help decrease that number, researchers have focused safety and mobility studies on rural areas that experience increased truck traffic and road usage during certain economic booms — like oil booms. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Odessa District experienced an oil boom […]
Car Makers Join Researchers to Aid Flow through Traffic Signals
In theory, the best way to maximize traffic flow along busy urban streets is to coordinate the series of traffic signals that drivers encounter. In practice, that’s far easier said than done. But with the completion of recent research supported by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), traffic engineers are a big step closer to […]
TTI Facilities Research Road Safety Devices, Technologies
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Visibility Research Laboratory and smart intersection explore how improvements in road markings, signals and equipment can keep road users safe. Through the Eyes of the Visibility Research Laboratory Researchers in TTI’s Visibility Research Laboratory evaluate retroreflective materials, lights, coatings and other technologies designed to provide nighttime visibility. The lab […]
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