Helping El Paso Manage Growing Pains The Office of the State Demographer projects Texas’ population will rise from 25.2 million in 2010 to 33.9 million in 2030. That’s a 35 percent increase in the state’s population, and the growth isn’t just happening in cities like Austin, Dallas or Houston — it’s happening statewide. In El […]
mobility
Interagency Cooperation: Working Together for Texans
Relieving Traffic Congestion, Facilitating Evacuations for Houston Thanks in part to a decades-long relationship developed and strengthened through an interagency agreement (IAC) between the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT’s) Houston District and Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers, 1,000 miles of Houston roadways are monitored by a low-cost traffic data collection system. The system collects […]
Traffic Gridlock Sets New Records for Traveler Misery
Action Needed to Reduce Traffic Congestion’s Impact on Drivers, Businesses and Local Economies America’s traffic congestion recession is over. Just as the U.S. economy has regained nearly all of the 9 million jobs lost during the downturn, a new report produced by INRIX and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) shows that traffic congestion has […]
TTI, TxDOT Team Up to Test Connected-Vehicle Technology
Connected vehicles are coming. The transportation industry is already working on standards and prototypes. And part of developing them is testing to ensure the future of transportation is as safe, efficient and reliable as possible. A portion of I-35 could soon become a national test bed for connected-vehicle research, thanks in part to a four-year […]
Most Texans Support More Funding for Transportation, New Poll Shows
Traffic congestion in Texas continues to worsen each year, but that’s not changing how the vast majority of Texans feel about their cars and trucks. This and a variety of other insights come from the first Texas Transportation Poll conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Transportation Policy Research Center (PRC). The survey examines the […]
One Is the Costliest Number — Managing Travel Demand to Reduce Congestion, Increase Mobility
When looking to buy a home, you’re more likely to get the most bang for your buck when a lot of houses are on the market. The bigger the market, the more likely a seller is to accommodate how much you want to spend, right? It’s simple supply and demand. Similarly, when travel demand exceeds […]
Keeping Texans Informed During Construction Projects
The I-35 Expansion Project in Central Texas For travelers and business owners, construction projects — whatever their long-term benefits — can be an annoying, frustrating experience. Exits closed, access limited, traffic slowed down in work zones — mitigating the effects of those necessary evils is what a mobility coordinator does on behalf of the Texas […]
TTI-Developed Sugar Land Rail-Monitoring System Reestablished
The Sugar Land rail-monitoring system is back in operation, alerting emergency personnel of approaching trains along a 6-mile section of US 90-A. This is the same system that is credited with averting a disaster in 2003 when police dispatchers were able to notify rail officials that a truck containing sodium hydroxide was stalled on a […]
Modeling the Effects of Austin Chamber’s “All of the Above” Approach to Traffic Challenges
In its 2013 Mobility Report, the Austin Chamber of Commerce makes extensive use of a study by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) that models a strategy scenario designed to address the region’s mobility challenges. TTI Research Scientist Tom Williams, Senior Research Engineer Ginger Goodin and Research Specialist Byron Chigoy were responsible for the study, […]
Annual Study Ranks Traffic on Nearly 1,800 Road Segments
Traffic congestion is relative. What constitutes “bad” depends on where you live. And for the first time, the state’s annual ranking of its most gridlocked roadways will give Texans in smaller cities a look at problem roadways in their own areas, regardless of how they compare to big-city bottlenecks. What originally began as the list […]
TTI Successfully Tests Algorithm as Part of USDOT Prototype Development Project
Thanks to a successful prototype demonstration, researchers with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) contributed to the growing evidence that a roadway can indeed become one big communications system. Vehicles, the roadside and traffic management centers (TMCs) can communicate with one another, seamlessly and nearly instantaneously. The demonstration was conducted May 6–7 in Columbus, Ohio, […]
TTI’s Advanced Traffic Forecasting Helps Austin Prepare for 2035
ACCORDING to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), 180,000 vehicles per day drive I-35 between US 183 and SH 71, the 10-mile central artery for travel and commerce in Austin. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) estimates the city’s population will almost double over the next 20 years. Considering that 85 percent of current […]
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 […]
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 […]
Rider 42: “Bang for the Buck” and “Fast Planning”
Lawmakers set aside money to get the state’s highest-priority roadway projects moving…They turned to TTI to help partner agencies prioritize projects to achieve the biggest bang for the buck.
Old Modes, New Data: TTI’s Work in Bike and Pedestrian Research
Researchers have been perfecting methods for counting cars and trucks for the last half century. Comparatively speaking, there are very little biking and walking data.
TTI Investigates Intercity Passenger Rail
It’s a scene that plays out every day on America’s highways: vehicles stuck in traffic. Has the cost of congestion simply been accepted, or are there other efficient means, such as passenger rail, of getting from Point A to B?
As Traffic Jams Worsen, Commuters Allowing Extra Time for Urgent Trips
As traffic congestion continues to worsen, the time required for a given trip becomes more unpredictable, and researchers now have a way to measure that degree of unreliability, introduced for the first time as part of the annual Urban Mobility Report (UMR), published by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). The Planning Time Index (PTI), […]
TTI’s AWAM Getting Deployed Worldwide
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) invention known as AWAM — which stands for Anonymous Wireless Address Matching— is a perfect example of the old saying “success is the intersection of hard work and luck.” Though AWAM might never become a household word, for those in the transportation business, it’s quickly becoming the next breakthrough […]