Transportation Management
Welcome to the Transportation Management Channel, a special section that provides the user an in-depth look at the multiple aspects of traffic management — straight from sources of Roads & Bridges magazine and our Transportation Management & Engineering supplement. Topics covered include intelligent transportation systems, traffic signals, traffic monitoring, intersection safety, traffic design software, electronic tolling and congestion pricing.
The Governors Highway Safety Association’s (GHSA) new report, Preparing for Automated Vehicles: Traffic Safety Issues for States, funded by State Farm, analyzes market trends and finds that most autonomous vehicles (AVs) for the foreseeable future will share driving responsibilities with humans,...
The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) this week will begin the state’s first unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) flights as part of its participation in a new federal program aimed at further incorporating drones into U.S. airspace.
KDOT says in a media advisory that it will conduct its...
The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is getting ready to roll out a new rapid transit system in Utah County, nine months ahead of schedule.
Twenty-five new UTA buses will be hitting the roads around the cities of Provo and Orem. The buses are 60 ft long, expanded from the usual 40-ft UTA buses, and...
Keolis Canada and the City of Candiac, with the manufacturer NAVYA, financial support from the Québec Government, the collaboration of Propulsion Québec, the Cluster for Electric and Smart Transportation and the Technopôle IVÉO, have announced the first long-term demonstration project of a 100%...
Self-driving cars have been found to not stop for certain obstacles or have presented other dangerous situations unless a driver took immediate manual control, according to a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
During a sequence of on-road and track tests for BMW,...
Despite concerns that a rise in automated vehicles (AVs) will displace significant numbers of truck drivers in the U.S., only a modest number of truck driver jobs, if any, will be affected, according to a new report commissioned by the American Center for Mobility (ACM), led by Michigan State...
I recently drove from my home in the western suburbs of Chicago up to northern Wisconsin on a family matter, and I pretty much had two options for getting there in a reasonable amount of time—both of them, if you took your information from Google maps alone, pretty bad.
One alternative had me...
As part of a commitment to be leaders in the future of transportation technology, five state agencies and seven academic institutions in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania formed a multi-state partnership more than a year ago to work together on self-driving and connected vehicle initiatives.
The...
The Washington State DOT operates six regional traffic management centers, which provide 24/7 real-time information
Technology is central to all we do in transportation and its importance is only growing in our changing transportation landscape.
From roadway sensors to entire traffic management systems, technology has been key to both our urban and rural transportation systems for quite some time. As...
Rail-highway crossings present a special set of safety challenges for transportation professionals.
Due to their vastly different mass and maneuverability, motor vehicles and trains have very different operational characteristics. Quite often, an inattentive driver who makes a mistake at an...
The Michigan Traffic Laboratory at the University of Michigan developed SAFEBAND, a program for nighttime traffic operation that attempts to accommodate both efficiency and safety for designing traffic signal timings along arterial roadways.
Intersections are focal points for both safety and efficiency.
On one hand, intersections are flashpoints for traffic accidents. On the other hand, they also are hot spots for traffic congestion, causing substantial delays and driving frustration.
For signalized intersections, it has been a...
All photos: David Murphy, courtesy of HNTB
Ten years after it was proposed, the 9.3-mile extension of Charlotte Area Transit Systems’ (CATS) LYNX Blue Line opened to riders this March, providing a direct light rail connection from Uptown Charlotte to the main campus of University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
The extension, built at a cost...
Naples' Downtown Mobility & Connectivity Study ultimately resulted in recommendations for development of complete streets such as this.
When the Florida Department of Transportation expanded S.R. 45 and S.R.90 to six-lane arterials in 1982, against the objections of the city of Naples, the effect created what locals referred to as “the Great Divide.” Increased traffic volumes resulted in a disconnect between neighborhoods and...
Countermeasures are used to help makes roads safer by reducing crashes. However, while we often know that they reduce crashes we usually do not know the exact effect they have on driver behavior and how this reduces crashes. However a new data set from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program...
The U.S. Senate yesterday approved a fiscal-year 2019 appropriations bill that provides $16.1 billion for public transit.
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD), and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2019 also dedicates $2.5 billion for intercity passenger-rail grants. The...
Since 1996, the city of Carmel has installed 115 roundabouts, more than any other city in the U.S.
Located just north of Indianapolis in Hamilton County, Ind., Carmel is a dynamic edge city with award-winning schools, thriving businesses and family-oriented neighborhoods.
Once thought of as a “bedroom community” to Indianapolis, today more people commute into Carmel to work during the day than...
The existing sidewalk from Piedmont Road to Tower Place will be expanded and a wider vegetative buffer will be added.
Across the U.S., and particularly in the South, major urban arterials have historically dissected communities, displaced pedestrians, and created real barriers to modern urbanism.
Increasingly, city leaders are rethinking public infrastructure and seeking ways to reclaim urban streets for all...
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Roads, as traditionally built, are incomplete.
They are typically designed and built with one mode in mind: the automobile. Elements of the street, such as the travelway, roadside and utilities, are designed individually without communication or coherence. Complete streets are the logical...
Phoenix-area drivers are used to seeing freeway entrance-ramp meters with alternating green and red traffic lights during weekday rush hours. But some of the red lights in I-17 ramp meters also play a role as part of the pilot wrong-way vehicle detection system being tested by the Arizona...
The U.S. Senate took action this week to send millions of dollars to Ohio for transportation and infrastructure projects.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced the bill's passage in a news release Wednesday afternoon.
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill...
