Historically, transportation research has focused on avoiding dangers we can see. The first traffic light troubleshot human errors in judgment by better regulating traffic flow. As the 20th century unfolded, our focus shifted to innovations like seat belts and air bags to help us survive crashes we couldn’t avoid. Nowadays, sensors and cameras — high-tech […]
editorial
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree — Transportation as a Disease Vector: Our Research Must Focus on Mitigating the Spread of Infectious Diseases
In engineering, the term vector generally identifies a quantity that has magnitude and direction commonly represented by a directed line segment (i.e., an element of a vector space). Traditionally in medicine, however, a vector is an organism that doesn’t cause disease itself but spreads infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another. Inanimate objects […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Learning Is Knowledge Reborn and Refined — TTI Celebrates the TRB Centennial
I’ve always thought of learning as an evolutionary process. It’s not about achieving a certain level of education, but about sharing knowledge with others to achieve something greater than what could be accomplished alone. Fostered by teamwork, it’s a cycle of professional development that’s constantly evolving, always rewarding and never completed. Learning, then, is about […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree — Choice, Convenience and Customer Service: What Mobility Means in a Data-Driven Marketplace
Our definition of mobility is changing. At its most practical in transportation, mobility describes the safe and efficient movement of people and goods. But today that’s only part of the story — an artifact of last-century thinking. Today, we’re linked through the Internet of Things, creating opportunities for efficiencies never dreamed of a mere generation […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: What Goes Around Comes Around
Convenience Culture? How About Compassion Culture? I’m a big fan of science fiction (SF) — old standards like The Twilight Zone and Star Wars, and newer classics-to-be like the Marvel movies. One reason I enjoy SF so much is that the genre often uses its fantastic landscapes and far-out circumstances to present, in stark relief, […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Convenience. Accessibility. Equity. Smart Dirt Roads Can Take Us to Texas’ Future
Ever looked at a NASA photo of Texas at night? The state is a starry spider’s web of lights, with the biggest clusters where you’d expect to find them — across the Texas Triangle of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Look at that same view across a few decades, and you’ll see those cities growing […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Research Team of Rivals
Competing Ideas Yield the Best Interdisciplinary Findings Following his first inauguration as president, Abraham Lincoln famously peopled his cabinet with what historian Doris Kearns Goodwin terms a “team of rivals” in her Pulitzer-Prize-winning book of the same name. Lincoln brought together opponents — some of whom had run against him for the presidency — for […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Accelerated Construction Is a Team Sport
In 2018, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) published Accelerated Construction: A Path Forward. The document lays out a vision for implementing the principles of accelerated construction statewide. TxDOT emphasizes the need to educate and train personnel, but also recognizes that accelerated construction is about a lot more than just working faster and cheaper — […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Getting Centered on the Big Picture
When I was assistant secretary for research and technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation, part of my job was to review proposals for the federal University Transportation Center grant program. What I learned in that process is that a university-based center brings a number of unique strengths to the table: fresh ideas from the […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Investing Intellectual Capital Today in Tomorrow’s Transportation System
One of the most important assets we have in transportation research is intellectual capital. In the last century, the power of pioneering minds overcame seemingly insurmountable challenges to improve mobility, safety and infrastructure longevity. Without that systematic application of innovative thinking, roads would have crumbled faster, more system users would have died or been injured, […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: At TTI, Research Excellence Is Personal
As I get older, I find myself celebrating milestones more often. Some of those, like my wedding anniversary, are certainly welcome, though at my age, I’d just as soon forget about birthdays. Other folks tend to remind me of those anyway, and that’s okay. Celebrating a birthday certainly beats the alternative, right? We close out […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Accessibility May Be the Future’s Most Precious Transportation Commodity
Hurricane Harvey’s impact on the Texas Gulf Coast was widespread and overwhelming. Thousands of survivors lost their homes and possessions. But everyone I saw interviewed was thankful for what they still had, especially their lives and loved ones. If extreme weather events can have a silver lining, perhaps it’s to help us realize what really […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: Digging on the New Digs
On June 15, I had the privilege of hosting my bosses from The Texas A&M University System, other dignitaries from around the state, and more than 200 TTI employees as we kicked off construction on the new TTI Headquarters Building. Located at The Texas A&M University System’s new RELLIS Campus, our headquarters and other facilities […]
Handing Over the Reins: A Final Word, A Fond Farewell
This is my final issue of the Texas Transportation Researcher as agency director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). I want to take the opportunity to thank all of you who have followed and supported the Institute over many years. The most enjoyable part of being TTI’s director has been having the opportunity to […]
Intellectual Curiosity and Innovation: Research Leads the Way to Implementation
Without curious minds, our transportation system would, quite literally, come to a standstill. In a very real way, the transportation research process keeps the system moving, and that process starts with a seemingly simple question: How can we do this better? Asking that question shines the light of innovation on the status quo to help […]
Transportation Research: An Economic Necessity in a Time of Change
TRANSPORTATION TODAY IS IN TRANSITION. Congestion is clogging our roadways, particularly in urban areas, wasting fuel, polluting air, and negatively impacting the quality of life for everyday commuters. Expanding economies are demanding more responsiveness from our transportation system to optimize shipping and squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of the bottom line. Yet many of […]
Everything Is Connected: Research to Bring Public Health and Transportation Together
Traditionally, transportation research has focused its agenda on building the system to improve access to markets and, more recently, meet the demands of a world economy. With the highway system mostly in place, transportation research is now focusing on enhancing system performance and minimizing detrimental side effects. Some of those side effects have reached the […]
Roping Revolution: CV/AV Deployment and Public Policy
Transportation research often focuses on the technological side of things: how a process is done, what materials are used, and what minimum standards should be applied to promote our transportation system’s safety and sustainability. That’s certainly the case when it comes to implementing connected and automated vehicle (CV/AV) technologies on our nation’s roadways. Although transportation […]
TTI and TxDOT: A Partnership of Vision, Expertise and Excellence for Texas
In 1948, the Texas Highway Department formed a unique relationship with the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Led by the department’s vision for improving the Texas transportation system, Texas A&M’s engineering faculty became the go-to problem solvers for Texans. Two years later, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) was born. The Texas Department of […]
TTI Facilities Provide Reliable, Real-World Results for Sponsors
A classroom, a roadside, even a cow pasture — you can call any space where a critical thinker tests a theory a laboratory. Any tool, handheld or electronic, can be considered technology when applied to a given task. But it takes a special kind of laboratory, with the right tools wielded by qualified experts, to […]