Have you ever seen the YouTube videos of traffic in China? Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike approach intersections willy-nilly, with no traffic signals regulating them. Sometimes, only human reflexes and constantly honking horns keep crashes from happening. And even with traffic signals and conscientious attention by drivers, crashes still occur. In American cities, local traffic […]
safety
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 […]
An Old Notion, A New Future: We’ve Been Automating Vehicles Right from the Start
When we talk about automating vehicles today, it sometimes sounds very futuristic. Relinquishing driving duties to a computer is a scary thought for some. But one thing to remember is that automating vehicles isn’t a new idea. It began over a hundred years ago with the notion of tying automation to safety. You probably know […]
ATLAS Center Created with $1.4 Million Grant from USDOT
The nation’s two largest university-based transportation research institutes have joined forces to form a unique university transportation center (UTC) designed to improve safety through a multidisciplinary system approach to research. The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) and The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) — which leads the effort — form the UTC, called […]
Texas Drivers Report Improvements in Some Safety Behaviors
Survey also tracks awareness of safety programs, campaigns TEXAS DRIVERS in 2013 were slightly less inclined to report they exceeded speed limits or talked on a cell phone while driving than they were the previous year, according to recent research. In the study, funded annually by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) since 2010, the […]
Getting Information to Drivers to Improve Awareness, Safety
Traffic Safety It’s the 21st century. Every day seems to bring a new advance in technology — the latest smartphone, the fastest tablet, the sharpest HDTV. Advances like these are happening in transportation too, and they’re being applied to traffic safety for highway work zones. One day, cars that drive themselves and communicate with the […]
87th Annual Transportation Short Course Highlights TTI-TxDOT Partnership
Every element of Texas transportation will be discussed during the 87th Annual Short Course as nearly 2,000 transportation professionals gather on the Texas A&M University campus Oct. 15-16. Breakout sessions will examine the latest research on topics like roadway design, maintenance and pavement management, rail, work zone safety and speed limits, just to name a […]
Voice-to-Text Apps: Study Finds No Safety Benefits
New research findings suggest that voice-to-text applications offer no real safety advantage over manual texting.
Safety-Belt Use at All-Time High in Texas
Ninety-four percent of Texas drivers and their front-seat passengers are buckled up. It’s the largest compliance percentage since researchers with TTI began tracking compliance in 1992.
National Crash-Testing Standards: TTI Makes a Big Impact with 18-Wheelers
At TTI’s crash facility, a fully loaded 18-wheeler traveling at 50 mph slammed into a concrete barrier placed on top of a retaining wall. The data from the unique crash test will prove vital.
Demanding a Recount on Motorcycle Crashes
NCHRP Project 08-81, Improving the Quality of Motorcycle Travel Data Collection, tasked TTI with reviewing current traffic detection methods, investigating new technologies and reporting on which count motorcycles the best.
Another TTI First: Broadcasting Crash Tests
On Sept. 26, for the first time in Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) history, a crash test at TTI’s Proving Grounds was broadcast live via the Internet to clients and stakeholders across the country. Providing live streaming crash tests was the brainchild of Dean Alberson, assistant agency director and manager of the TTI Crashworthy Structures […]
National Seat Check Saturday
Bev Kellner has a daunting task: teaching parents how to properly buckle up their children in a child safety seat. Sounds easy enough, but considering that most of the more than 19,000 kids in car seats she’s checked over the last 14 years have been buckled improperly or not at all, she won’t be out […]
Providing Positive Protection for Work Zones
TTI conducted a project to develop more comprehensive guidelines for the Texas Department of Transportation’s use in assessing the need for positive protection in work zones.
Broader Shoulders Support Safer Roadways
Texas highways are safer now thanks to scores of projects completed in the last few years to add shoulders and width on more than 1,000 miles of rural, two-lane highways, according to an analysis by TTI.
Safety Experts Focus on Motorcycle Fatalities
An entire session of the annual Traffic Safety Conference was dedicated to motorcycle safety this year in addition to related remarks made during the conference’s opening session.
The I-35 Expansion Project
The Texas Department of Transportation created MY 35, a citizen-driven effort to expand a 96-mile stretch from Hillsboro to Salado of I-35, and engaged TTI to provide independent technical support for the effort.
Testing Is Key to Roadside Safety
For the last four decades, TTI and TxDOT have ensured that wet-weather travel on the state’s 80,000 miles of roadways is safe — thanks to evaluating highly sophisticated and seldom-seen pieces of machinery.
Adding Highway Shoulders, Width, Reduce Crash Numbers and Save Lives
AUSTIN — Texas highways are safer now thanks to hundreds of projects completed in the last few years to add shoulders, width on more than 1,000 miles of rural, two-lane highways. An analysis of 189 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) road projects around the state shows that wider pavements make highways safer and result in […]
Looking into the Retroreflective Glass
As the paint–glass bead mixture used in roadway markings for light retroreflection is applied to the road, degrades over time, and is reapplied, what effect does it have on the people handling it and on our environment?