Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Assistant Research Scientist Bahar Dadashova is the team lead on a recently contracted project evaluating the safety of on-street bicycle facility design features. Funded primarily by the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, the effort also includes support from Portland State University, Toole Design Group and Safe Streets Research and Consulting. […]
safety
TTI’s Xiaoqiang “Jack” Kong Published Research Paper on Phone Usage and Distracted Driving
Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Graduate Research Assistant Xiaoqiang “Jack” Kong recently published the research paper “Characterizing phone usage while driving: Safety impact from road and operational perspectives using factor analysis” in Accident Analysis & Prevention. The paper’s authors also include Subasish Das, assistant research scientist in TTI’s Roadway Safety Division; Hongmin “Tracy” Zhou, associate […]
TTI Crash Analytics Experts Publish Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling
Two crash analytics and modeling group members in the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Center for Transportation Safety published the 1st edition of Highway Safety Analytics and Modeling Feb. 25, 2021, on Elsevier’s publisher platform. Texas A&M University Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor and TTI-affiliated Dominique Lord and TTI Research Engineer Srinivas […]
TTI Researchers Publish Paper on Speed-Crash Relationship for City Streets
Estimating the speed-crash relationship has long been a focus area of interest in roadway safety analysis. Because of many confounding factors that may influence both speeds and crashes, the relationship cannot be appropriately established without considering the corresponding roadway characteristics and accounting for their effects on speeds and crashes. Texas A&M Transportation Institute researchers Eun […]
Implementation of Bicycle and Pedestrian Monitoring Equipment
As the number of bicyclists on our roadways grows, so does the desire to accurately count how many there are and where they are traveling. TxDOT teamed up with Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers to evaluate the best bicycle monitoring equipment and to produce a user-friendly database for public use. The TTI video production […]
TTI’s Teens in the Driver Seat® Launches New App to Encourage Safety in Young Drivers
Car crashes account for nearly one-third of all teen deaths in America each year. As a part of National Teen Driver Safety Week Oct. 18–24, teen advocates of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) program launched its You in the Driver Seat (YDS) smartphone app, aimed at encouraging safer […]
FCC Radio Spectrum Reallocation Could Impair Vehicle Safety
By Gretchen Stoeltje and Greg Winfree If you’ve been designing or building roads in recent years, you are probably familiar with the anticipated safety benefits of connected vehicles and the technology that will be required to make them work. You probably know that in order for connected vehicles to communicate with one another and with […]
Data From High-Tech Cars Can Help Pinpoint Road Safety Improvements and Prevent Crashes
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 […]
TTI Proving Grounds Crew Nearly Beats Crash Test Record, Despite COVID-19
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 […]
National School Bus Safety Week Recognizes Challenges, Best Practices in Difficult Times
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. […]
College Students, Traffic Safety Professionals Attend Virtual 2020 U in the Driver Seat Symposium
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 […]
Bringing the Passion at the Virtual 2020 Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference
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 […]
Winfree Featured in Bloomberg CityLab Article
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
Texas Roads Less Crowded, but No Less Dangerous
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
A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Safety Innovation at the 2020 Virtual Traffic Safety Conference
The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the first ever virtual Traffic Safety Conference June 10–12, 2020. The conference, supported by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), focused on traffic safety issues and forward-looking research aligned with TxDOT’s goal to end all traffic fatalities on Texas roadways by 2050. For more information on the zero […]
The Safe System Approach with Robert Wunderlich, P.E.
Robert Wunderlich, P.E., ITE Fellow and Director of the Center for Transportation Safety at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, discusses the Safe System approach to reducing serious injuries and fatalities on roadways. He highlights the various aspects of the Safe System, including roadway design that reduces user error and lowers impact forces, and explains what […]
The Last Stop with Greg Winfree: More than Meets the Eye — Expanding How We See Transportation Safety in a World with Pandemics
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 […]
TTI, Texas A&M Partner on Senior Driver Assistance Technologies Study
TTI Human Factors Program Manager and Senior Research Scientist Michael Manser recently concluded a study in which he partnered with Ranjana Mehta, associate professor in Texas A&M University’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and director of Texas A&M’s NeuroErgonomics Laboratory. The study examined how senior drivers prefer to learn about assistance technologies. Researchers discovered […]
Are You Currently “Home” Schooling? Add Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety to Your Child’s Schoolwork
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has closed schools statewide and left a lot of parents “home schooling” their children. If you have an elementary-age child, this is a great time to incorporate pedestrian and bicycle safety into their schoolwork. Teaching your children pedestrian and bicycle safety will help them be safer as they explore your neighborhood. […]
2020 National Work Zone Awareness Week
Safe Work Zones for All: Protect workers This week, April 20-24, is National Work Zone Awareness Week. This year’s theme is “Safe Work Zones for All: Protect workers. Protect road users.” Across the country, various agencies will work together to promote safe driving habits in work zones with an emphasis on reminding drivers that work […]