Transportation Intelligence

Volume 4 Number 4

August 2006

Technology Transfer

Maintenance and Construction

Planning

Safety

Urban

Environment

Feedback

Traffic Operations
Strategies for Implementing Transit Priority
Providing public transit with a strategic advantage on our transportation network is imperative to meet the growing need for mobility, the need to be cost-competitive and the need to offset the growing congestion in our urban areas. The objective of this Best Practice is to gather together the best examples of how to implement transit priority on our urban roads. (National Guide to Sustainable Municipal Infrastructure, November 2005, 64 p.)

Coordinated Freeway and Arterial Operations
Managing and operating freeways and adjacent arterials in a proactive and comprehensive manner, from a system user's perspective, is a major step toward operating all modes of the transportation system at maximum efficiency. The focus of this guide is on operating freeways and adjacent arterials together in a coordinated manner that treats these roadways not as separate entities, but as an interconnected traffic operations corridor.
(US Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-HRT-06-095, May 2006, 154 p.)

Technology Transfer
Fast Lanes on the Transportation Information Superhighway
The internet can function like a well-paved superhighway with excellent signage, or it can be a potholed detour with no roadside assistance and an undesirable destination. An engineering librarian offers a primer for savvy usage of the web for transportation research, covering search engines and search tips, the invisible web, web portals, indexes and abstracts, library resources, monitoring misinformation, keeping up, and more. (TR News, March-April 2006, pp. 3-9.)

Technology Transfer

Portland State University Center for Transportation Studies Seminar Series
The Center for Transportation Studies (CTS) offers a web-based Transportation Seminar Series. Seminars are free and open to the public and are available live in streaming video from anywhere in the world each Friday at noon (Pacific Time) during the academic year. All seminars are also available as archives in streaming video (a total of 108 seminars since 2002) and many are available for free download (a total of 50 seminars since 2004). (Portland State University Center for Transportation Studies, Oregon)

Transportation Technology Transfer: Successes, Challenges, and Needs
This synthesis presents information on the use of technology transfer practices in the highway transportation community. It is intended to assist transportation agencies and other transportation research organizations in expediting innovation to practice, thereby increasing safety, enhancing performance, and reducing costs. The report documents successful practices, discusses challenges encountered, and identifies the needs of those responsible for sponsoring, facilitating, and conducting technology transfer activities and processes. (TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 355, 2006, 94 p.)

Transportation Knowledge Networks: A Management Strategy for the 21st Century
This report examines how transportation information should be managed and provided. The report provides strategic advice to the federal government and the states regarding a sustainable administrative structure and funding mechanism for meeting the information service needs of the transportation sector. It identifies the core services that need to be provided, how those services should be provided, and funding options to support those services. A summary is available at http://trb.org/publications/sr/sr284ReportSummary.pdf (Transportation Research Board Special Report 284, 2006, 97 p.)

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Maintenance and Construction

Low-Volume Roads Engineering Best Management Practices Field Guide
This Low-Volume Roads Engineering Best Management Practices Field Guide is intended to provide an overview of the key planning, location, design, construction, and maintenance aspects of roads that can cause adverse environmental impacts and to list key ways to prevent those impacts. Most of these “Best Management Practices” are also sound engineering practices and ones that are cost-effective by preventing failures and reducing maintenance needs and repair costs. Also keep in mind that “best” is relative and so appropriate practices depend to some degree upon the location or country, degree of need for improvements, and upon local laws and regulations. (U. S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and U. S. Agency for International Development, July 2003.)

Longitudinal Joint Treatment : Final Report
This experimental project evaluated the application of a joint sealer and joint adhesive in an effort to reduce the amount of longitudinal joint separation. (Maine Department of Transportation Transportation Research Division Federal Experimental Construction Project 00-18,March 2006, 10 p.)

Duration of Spring-Thaw Recovery for Aggregate-Surfaced Roads
Low-volume roads constructed in regions susceptible to freezing and thawing periods are often at risk of load-related damage during the spring-thaw period. The reduced support capacity during the thawing period is a result of excess melt water that becomes trapped above the underlying frozen layers. Many agencies place spring load restrictions (SLR) during the thaw period to reduce unnecessary damage to the roadways. The period of SLR set forth by the Minnesota Department of Transportation is effective for all flexible pavements; however, experience suggests that many aggregate-surfaced roads require additional time relative to flexible pavements to recover strength sufficient to carry unrestricted loads. An investigation was performed to improve local agencies’ ability to evaluate the duration of SLR on aggregate-surfaced roadways. (Minnesota Department of Transportation Report MN/RC-2006-12, April 2006, 289 p.)

Dynamic Bridge Substructure Evaluation and Monitoring
The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a report that examines the dynamic response characteristics of a bridge substructure as a means to determine the condition and safety of the substructure and identify its foundation as shallow or deep.
(Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-RD-03-089, September 2005, 219 p.)

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Planning

Statewide Multimodal Transportation Planning Proceedings: 2004 Peer Exchange
This circular focuses on cost estimating for transportation planning and incorporating safety into the transportation planning process. The report provides an overview of the presentation and roundtable discussions that took place during the peer exchange on July 27-28, 2004, in Park City, Utah. The report also includes responses to questions on statewide mutimodal transportation planning from state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations. (Transportation Research Board Transportation Research Circular E-C082, December 2005, 85p.)

Bicycle and Pedestrian Toolbox
This Bicycle and Pedestrian Toolbox is a synthesis of current research on bicycle and pedestrian planning and facilities providing transportation planners and engineers with information on how to plan and design a bicycle and pedestrian network for a community. (Minnesota Department of Transportation Report MN/RC-2006-02, January 2006, 38 p.)

Development of Guidelines for Driveway Location and Median Configuration in the Vicinity of Interchanges
Access connections and signalized intersections in the vicinity of an interchange can greatly affect the operations of the arterial and the freeway mainline. Previous studies on this topic have been focused on operations (e.g. arterial delays) and policy issues (e.g. right-of-way acquisition). The focus of this study was primarily on operations issues, but the intent was to take a more comprehensive approach, simultaneously considering several factors that influence arterial operations near an interchange. The main objective was to develop some quantitative tools and guidance for the location of signalized intersections in the vicinity of interchanges. (Florida Department of Transportation Report, March 2006, 117 p.)

Disruption Impact Estimating Tool—Transportation (DIETT): A Tool for Prioritizing High-Value Transportation Choke Points
This eleventh volume of NCHRP Report 525: "Surface Transportation Security" will assist transportation, security, and emergency-preparedness planners as they identify and prioritize potential high-value transportation choke points (TCPs) such as bridges, tunnels, and passes. These high-value TCPs are located predominantly along major transportation routes. A key area of concern is how disruptive events will affect the flow of commercial traffic through TCPs. The Disruption Impact Estimating Tool—Transportation (DIETT) is an electronic analytical tool that calculates direct transportation and economic impacts (costs) of an event that precludes the use of a TCP, and it prioritizes TCPs on the basis of these criteria. DIETT does not calculate replacement costs. Using DIETT's prioritized sets of outputs, along with other risk information, decision makers will be able to better focus their capital resource, security, and emergency-preparedness planning. Transportation Research Board National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 525 volume 11, 2006, 33 p.)

Crash Data Collection and Analysis System
The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) engaged ARCADIS to perform a Crash Data Collection and Analysis study and examine the possibilities offered by technological innovations such as Electronic Data Entry (EDE), Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The study resulted in a comprehensive report with three components: an examination of best practices in use in the United States today, a use case and gap analysis examining ADOT’s current data work, and a technical memorandum outlining how changes could be implemented. Together, the three parts point to a path to introduce best practices in ADOT’s crash-analysis systems. (Arizona Department of Transportation Report FHWA-AZ-06-537, February 2006, 91 p.)

Communicating Changes in Horizontal Alignment
This report presents the findings of a research project to develop guidelines for the use of traffic control devices for communicating changes in horizontal alignment for two-lane, two-way rural roads. The report will be of particular interest to traffic engineering personnel with responsibility for roadway signing. Several modest proposals for changes to the "Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices" are included. (Transportation Research Board National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 559, 2006, 47 p.)

Optimization of Traffic Data Collection for Specific Pavement Design Applications
The objective of this study is to establish the minimum traffic data collection effort required for pavement design applications satisfying a maximum acceptable error under a prescribed confidence level. The approach consists of simulating the traffic data input to the 2002 National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) 1-37A design guide for 17 distinct traffic data collection scenarios using extended-coverage, weigh-in-motion (WIM) data from the Long-Term Pavement Performance database. Pavement life was estimated using mean traffic input and low-percentile input to the NCHRP 1-37A design guide for three levels of confidence: 75 percent, 85 percent, and 95 percent. For each confidence level, ranges in pavement life prediction errors were estimated. (Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-HRT-05-079, May 2006, 126 p.)(This item can be requested from the TIS.)

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Safety

Core Competencies for Highway Safety Professionals
Based on a scan of U.S. universities, the study reveals to what extent core competencies for highway safety professionals are incorporated into existing safety curricula and suggests strategies to expand their application to a broader audience. (TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 302, May 2006, 22 p.)

BIKESAFE Bicycle Countermeasure Selection System
BIKESAFE is an expert system that allows the user to select appropriate countermeasures or treatments to address specific problems. BIKESAFE also includes a large number of case studies to illustrate treatments implemented in communities throughout the United States. BIKESAFE was designed to enable practitioners to select engineering, education, or enforcement treatments to help mitigate a known crash problem and/or to help achieve a specific performance objective. While the majority of the specific treatments are engineering countermeasures, many of the case studies include supplemental enforcement activities and/or educational approaches. (Federal Highway Administration web site)

Survey of Driver Perceptions of Railroad and Light Rail Warning Devices/Grade Crossings
The objective of this study is to conduct a human factors survey to understand drivers’ behavior and perceptions at various types of railroad and light rail crossings, and determine their understanding of different types of traffic control devices. This understanding would help to take necessary steps to improve the safety of railroad and light rail crossings, and also determine the appropriate information that should be included in the driver manuals. (New Jersey Department of Transportation Report FHWA-NJ-2004-025, December 2005, 74 p.)

Safety Effects of Differential Speed Limits on Rural Interstate Highways
To compare the safety effects of a uniform speed limit (USL) for all vehicles as opposed to a differential speed limit (DSL) for cars and heavy trucks, detailed crash data, speed monitoring data, and traffic volumes were sought for rural interstate highways in 17 States for the period 1991 to 2000. Conventional statistical tests (analysis of variance, Tukey's test, and Dunnett's test) were used to study speed and crash rate changes in the four policy groups. A modified empirical Bayes formation was used to evaluate crash frequency changes without presuming a constant relationship between crashes and traffic volume. (Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-HRT-05-042, October 2005, 101 p.)

Traffic Incident Response Practices in Europe
Effective response to traffic incidents can enhance safety and mobility for both road users and responders. The Federal Highway Administration, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and National Cooperative Highway Research Program sponsored a scanning study of traffic incident response practices, procedures, and technologies in England, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. The team developed 25 recommendations for potential implementation in the United States. (Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-PL-06-002, February 2006, 56 p.)

Pavement Marking Materials and Markers: Real-World Relationship Between Retroreflectivity and Safety Over Time
Longitudinal pavement markings are found on nearly all freeways and highways in the United States, and previous research has emphasized the importance of quantifying the impact of different pavement marking material types on safety. While important, quantifying safety of pavement marking and marker of material types has remained elusive. This study takes a unique approach compared to previous research, and instead focuses upon quantifying the relationship between retroreflectivity and safety over time, independent of marking or marker material type. (TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 92, April 2006, 206 p.)

Pedestrian Access to Roundabouts: Assessment of Motorists' Yielding to Visually Impaired Pedestrians and Potential Treatments to Improve Access
This report describes two related studies intended to address double-lane roundabout accessibility issues for visually impaired pedestrians. The first study was conducted on a closed course to evaluate the feasibility of a pavement treatment to alert blind pedestrians when vehicles have yielded to them. The second study examined drivers' yielding behavior at a two-lane roundabout and the effectiveness of the same roadway treatment in an operational environment. (Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-HRT-05-080, May 2006, 42 p.)

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Urban

Bus Use of Shoulders
This synthesis explores transit agencies’ experiences with policies and regulations that permit buses to use shoulders on arterial roads or freeways to bypass congestion either as interim or long-term treatments. The report examines the issue from the transit and highway perspectives. (Transportation Research Board Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Synthesis 64, 2006, 100 p.)

Public Transportation Security, Volume 10 -- Hazard and Security Plan Workshop: Instructor Guide
This report is designed to assist rural, small urban, and community-based passenger transportation agencies in creating hazard and security plans or in evaluating and modifying existing plans, policies, and procedures consistent with the U. S. National Incident Management System. (TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 86, 2006, 205 p.)

Estimating the Impacts of the Aging Population on Transit Ridership
TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 86: Estimating the Impacts of the Aging Population on Transit Ridership outlines the key demographic factors that affect public transportation use, with a particular focus on how the aging demographics of the country will impact future transit ridership. In addition, the report describes a spreadsheet tool (see http://www.trb.org/publications/nchrp/nchrp_w86_spreadsheet_tool.xls) that can be used to estimate the future effects of the aging population on public transportation use. (TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 86, January 2006, 53 p.)

Advanced Public Transportation Systems: State of the Art Update 2006
The objective of this effort was to provide a useful and timely reference on the subject of emerging Transit ITS technological advances and trends, and make the information available to public transportation professionals. The report is intended to provide up to date information on the current deployment status of transit ITS technologies, provide lessons learned based on deployment experiences, and promote understanding of future trends in Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS). (US Federal Transit Administration Report FTA-NJ-26-7062-06.1, March 30, 2006, 264 p.)

Managing Travel Demand: Applying European Perspectives to U.S. Practice
This report summarizes the findings of an International Technology Scanning Program scan on managing travel demand. The purpose of the scanning study was to assess European experience in managing the demand for automobile and truck travel through a variety of means, including traveler information, technology, improved modal options, pricing, and new institutional arrangements. (Federal Highway Administration Report, May 2006)

Ramp Management and Control Handbook
This handbook provides guidance and recommended practices on managing and controlling traffic on ramps with freeway facilities. The use or application of the guidance and recommendations provided will in time serve to enhance the use and effectiveness of the ramp management and control strategies. (Federal Highway Administration Report FHWA-HOP-06-001, January 2006, 342 p.)

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Environment

Downstream Effects of Culvert and Bridge Replacement
The replacement of a culvert or bridge with a larger structure yields two benefits in all cases. The first benefit is less frequent flooding of the roadway and/or upstream structures due to lower headwater levels. The second benefit is a lesser potential for scour through the bridge opening or at the culvert outlet due to lower velocities through the larger opening. Downstream impacts, if any, are project-specific. This report presents a framework for evaluation of likely impacts on downstream flooding and channel erosion. Two methods for predicting changes in flood peaks are presented and demonstrated in examples. (Kansas Department of Transportation Report KTRAN-KU-04-9, May 2006, 60 p.)

Technologies to Improve Consideration of Environmental Concerns in Transportation Decisions
This digest describes eight technologies that may be used by transportation agencies to help during consideration of environmental concerns in transportation decisions. (TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Results Digest 304, June 2006, 37 p.)

Test Methods for Evaluating Field Performance of Road Weather Information System (RWIS) Sensors
This report explores field testing of environmental sensor stations (ESS) sensors in order to evaluate if a sensor is providing an accurate representation of actual conditions at the installed site. The procedures contained in this document define the equipment and describe the procedures that state, county, and city personnel can use to measure sensor parameters and evaluate sensors. Part I, the final report for this project, will be added to Web-Only Document 87 once it is available. (TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Web-Only Document 87, 2006, 51 p.)

Collection and discharge of stormwater from the road infrastructure
This document addresses management of stormwater runoff from roads including water quality issues. An overall view of stormwater management, including the concept of major and minor drainage systems is first presented. The development of runoff estimates, developing a major drainage system, developing a minor drainage system is discussed and concludes with some information on treatment of road runoff before entering receiving waters. (Australian Road Research Board Transport Research Report 368, January 2006, 70 p.)(This item can be requested from the TIS.)

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