News

On Aug. 24, 2023, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the fifth annual Texas Pedestrian Safety Forum at the Norris Center in San Antonio, Texas. Supported by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety (CTS), this in-person forum helped more than 200 people learn about how to make roadways safer for pedestrians in Texas.

Every year, 2,100 North Americans are killed or seriously injured when they engage in unsafe behavior around tracks and trains. Operation Lifesaver Inc., Union Pacific Railroad and Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) program joined together Sept. 19–25 to observe Rail Safety Week (RSW) and urged the public to help […]

Side roads, main roads, and highways have seemingly transformed into race tracks or obstacle courses during the last couple of years. Drivers slowing down, wearing seatbelts and not being under the influence can help reduce the number of deaths on roads; however, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers are also working on other ways to […]

By Brianne Glover Relying on gas tax is outdated as travel, vehicles become more diversified. Amid all the news of record-breaking inflation, it’s hard to think of anything that doesn’t cost more than it did a year ago — much less 30 years ago. To find one example, though, just think of your vehicle’s fuel. […]

After 35 years of service with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) — nearly 30 of that in a management position — Russell Henk resigned as program manager of the Youth Transportation Safety (YTS) Program effective June 30. “Creating the Teens in the Driver Seat® Program and leading the YTS team for the past 20 […]

Recognizing the importance of increasing awareness of the safety dangers at highway–rail grade crossings (also known as level crossings), the International Union of Railways (UIC) began the International Level Crossing Awareness Day (ILCAD) in 2009. Level crossing safety remains a major safety concern — especially regarding the dangers of trespassing on rail rights-of-way. In the […]

Approximately two pedestrians and/or bicyclists are killed every day in crashes involving a large truck or bus. In these crashes, failure to yield right-of-way is a leading contributing factor at intersections and mid-blocks. Simply put, pedestrians and bicyclists may not be aware that large trucks and buses have larger blind spots, wider turning radii and […]

Union Pacific Railroad has awarded the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Youth Transportation Safety (YTS) Program a two-year grant to continue funding transportation safety initiatives tailored to educating young people. The grant serves as an extension of a three-year partnership between YTS and Union Pacific and will contribute tremendously to the expansion of programs and […]

For the second year in a row, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the virtual Texas Pedestrian Safety Forum Aug. 12, 2021. Supported by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and TTI’s Center for Transportation Safety (CTS), the forum helped more than 430 people learn more about how we can make roadways safer for […]

For the second year in a row, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) hosted the virtual Traffic Safety Conference, held July 14–16, 2021. Supported by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the event focused on high-priority safety issues and innovative solutions to end the streak of daily fatal crashes in Texas. This year’s conference also […]

With 384 attendees this year, the fifth annual 2021 Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference helped child passenger safety technicians (CPSTs) stay informed on the latest research and best practices aimed at keeping our most precious cargo safe when traveling. The conference also provided participants with continuing education credits for CPST recertification. Sponsored by the Texas […]

Endless waves. Cloud-dotted skies. Foaming wakes left by ships. Along the shore, ports bustle with activity, their efficiency in transporting international trade a key part of the U.S. economy. Intermodal carriers move freight inland from those ports, ultimately to stock store shelves and land on consumer doorsteps. The Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center (MarTREC) […]

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) award-winning Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) program recognized teen advocates as champions of young driver safety at the 2021 TDS Safe Driving Summit held in May. Second only to teen suicide, car crashes kill more teens in the United States aged 15 to 18 than any other cause. […]

Finding safe parking is a constant concern for the nation’s hundreds of thousands of truck drivers. There are typically not enough parking spaces along their routes, and there is no real way for truckers to know in advance about parking availability. How big is the issue in Texas? According to the Texas Department of Transportation’s […]

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Youth Transportation Safety (YTS) program — part of the Institute’s Center for Transportation Safety — is active in schools and communities across the country. The program supports peer-led road safety education and outreach to encourage young drivers to practice safe driving behaviors. When schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, […]

When Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Scientist Michael Manser sought a redesign of LookLearnLive.org, his number-one priority was to improve its usability as a resource for stakeholders in motorcycle safety. The site supports the safety and awareness campaign developed by TTI, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Public Safety […]

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 deaths […]

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. […]

The Silver Lining in the COVID-19 Cloud The entire world is practicing social distancing, and some of us are under shelter-in-place orders. You might find you have some extra time on your hands. If you’re a parent with a teen at home, you might find yourself even growing a bit antsy for something to do […]

As the lifeblood of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), the almost 220 standing committees cover all areas of transportation, with a variety of volunteer members from the public and private sectors. Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers currently serve TRB in various capacities, from committee chairs to technical paper peer reviewers to session planners, and […]

Visibility Research Laboratory TTI’s Visibility Research Laboratory supports research evaluating transportation-related visibility products. The lab is equipped with photometric equipment to evaluate the products while traveling at night or in inclement weather. Contact: Adam Pike, [email protected] Smart Intersection TTI’s Smart Intersection tests connected vehicle applications, traffic signal control and connected infrastructure interoperability. For one research […]

AV-CV Strategy Guide Designed for Public Decision Makers The required public transportation project delivery process can be slow, methodical and risk averse. The technology industry, by contrast, moves quickly, often takes risks, and may treat failures as learning moments. It’s hard to imagine a greater potential for culture clash, but those are the players in […]

General Motors (GM) has awarded a generous grant to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) Program. These funds will support ongoing outreach efforts in Texas, where TDS was born, as well as Georgia, reaching some 230 high schools and 200,000 students. TDS will also be able to expand its […]

A small army of advocates was recognized for its work at the third annual Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference, held in Austin July 29–31. Most of the 270 attendees were child passenger safety seat technicians (CPSTs) from across Texas. Conference participants learned how tragedies can sometimes make people inspirational activists for change. Conducted by the […]

Walking is the oldest form of transportation on the planet, but it’s ever in need of new ideas to make it safer. That urgency was recently on display at the annual Texas Statewide Pedestrian Safety Forum, hosted Aug. 22 by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Center for Transportation Safety (CTS) and sponsored by the […]

A small army of advocates was celebrated for the work they do in child passenger safety at the 3rd annual Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference, held in Austin July 29–31. Most of the 270 attendees were child passenger safety seat technicians (CPSTs) from across Texas. As part of the conference, they learned how tragedies can […]

Photo (bottom, right) credit: Amani A/Shutterstock.com

By Russell Henk This article was originally published in Dallas News, April 11, 2019. Our cars keep getting better, but our driving seems to be getting worse. Auto design has evolved from safety belts and airbags that help us survive crashes to features like lane-departure warnings and automatic emergency braking that help us avoid them. […]

On May 30, in a bold move to end traffic deaths, the Texas Transportation Commission directed the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to cut traffic fatalities in half by 2035 and end them entirely by 2050. These goals are a natural outcome of the current TxDOT #EndtheStreak campaign, which “encourages Texans to drive safely to […]

Driving for work can be deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of work-related deaths in the United States. Beyond the tragic loss of life or permanent injury resulting from such incidents, societal costs are mounting via rising health care costs and increasing business […]

Local government officials often refer to their general aviation airport as “the most valuable mile of pavement in the county.” The Texas Aviation Economic Impact Study, released in 2018, proved just how true that perception is. The study was prepared for the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT’s) Aviation Division by CDM Smith, with assistance from […]

Car crashes remain the No. 1 cause of death and injury for young people. For most of the past decade, teen crash deaths in the United States were on the decline before the trend reversed in 2013. Over those 10 years, researchers in the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) […]

By Bill Stockton This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune, November 14, 2018. Your car’s next tank of gas is on its way to you. You can be assured of that, even though the journey it takes to get there is a sometimes arduous one. That journey could begin at one of hundreds […]

“This is Texas together on the road to zero,” said Robert Wunderlich, director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Center for Transportation Safety as he opened the 2018 Traffic Safety Conference in Sugar Land, Texas. The conference, supported by the Texas Department of Transportation, was held August 8–10. TTI hosts the Traffic Safety Conference […]

The 2018 Texas Child Passenger Safety Conference was held June 24–26 in San Marcos, Texas. About 300 child passenger safety seat technicians (CPSTs) and safety advocates heard firsthand from Michele and Brooke Ice, mother-daughter keynote luncheon speakers, who spoke on the importance of the work they do. Michele credits CPSTs with saving her daughter’s life […]

With fatal and serious-injury crashes on the rise, the work of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Center for Transportation Safety (CTS) is more critical than ever. “We’ve seen a steady increase in crashes over the last five years in Texas. A large part of this is due to the economy being better: we’re driving […]

When traffic safety experts think about the problem of impaired driving in Texas, words like troublesome and frustrating come to mind. Despite dedicated efforts to make Texas roadways safer, the Lone Star State typically leads the country in the number of alcohol-related deaths, and always ranks in the top 10 states for the highest rate […]

The Texas Marine Transportation System includes 1,000 harbor channels; 25,000 miles of inland, intracoastal and coastal waterways; and 3,700 terminals handling passenger and cargo movements. And it connects with 152,000 miles of rail, 460,000 miles of pipelines, and 45,000 miles of interstate highways. With 11 deepwater seaports as international gateways and more than 1,000 miles […]

For the past 50 years, the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) has provided assistance to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to make the nation’s transportation system safer, more efficient and more resilient. Across the DOT’s spectrum of modal agencies—air, highways, motor carriers, rail, transit, maritime, traffic safety, and pipeline and hazardous materials—TTI expertise has […]

Half of all fatal crashes in Texas occur on rural roadways. Researchers with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) have identified those areas of the state with the highest crash rates and devised a plan that focuses on solving their specific issues, despite limited resources. “This is a targeted, evidence-based, systematic approach that not only […]

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) 10th Traffic Safety Conference was historic in that it was the first time attendees helped shape the state’s latest Strategic Highway Safety Plan. It’s a federal requirement that all the nation’s state departments of transportation renew their plans every five years. Texas must submit its newest version of the […]

In 2013, Robert Wunderlich, director of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Center for Transportation Safety gathered a team of researchers to work on a project funded by the Toyota Economic Loss Settlement — money set aside for transportation safety research. The project’s goal was to find methods to reduce crashes caused by vehicle- and/or […]

For decades, traffic laws have sought to regulate the actions and qualifications of drivers. But what if the driver isn’t a human being? If the car drives itself, what does that mean for driver-education courses? If the self-driving car is involved in a crash, who’s at fault? And if the operator of the self-driving car […]

As part of a new Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) project, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers are looking into Texans’ attitudes on marijuana use and analyzing the traffic safety impacts in states that have legalized, decriminalized or made marijuana available for medical purposes. Several U.S. states have relaxed their marijuana laws, and during the […]

A sharp increase in the number of pedestrian fatalities in Texas has prompted researchers with the Center for Transportation Safety at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) to examine what factors contributed to the 550 deaths in 2015 — nearly a 13 percent increase from the year before. In fact, since 2010, pedestrian fatalities have […]

All airports have one thing in common: pavement, and a lot of it. In fact, in many cases, maintaining runways represents the largest expenditure at an airport. It’s critical that airport management inspect and maintain its pavements in a timely fashion for safety reasons and to avoid costly, full-pavement rehabilitation projects. Researchers at the Texas […]

The world seems to be moving faster. Our transportation system, however, seems to be slowing down. Expanding economies place increasing demands on our current transportation system. While economic growth is good, increased freight and commuter traffic is filling roadways that, when built 50 years ago, seemed luxurious in their emptiness. Given this reality, how can […]

As part of National Teen Driver Safety Week in October, teen advocates of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) program launched Teen Driver, a new smartphone app created by MobiSoft Infotech, LLC. The launch was held at Creekview High School in Carrollton, Texas, and highlighted the app’s functionality, as […]

As legend has it, Southwest Airlines started with an idea sketched on the back of a napkin. And from that humble drawing grew an idea that redefined air travel. About 30 years later, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Senior Research Scientist Steve Roop started with his own blank sheet of paper, in search of a […]

“Can we deploy an automated, commercial two-truck platoon on specific corridors in Texas in the next 5 to 10 years?” Thanks to a successful test by TTI, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the agencies are a big step closer to answering that question. TTI hosted a first of […]

Can driver stress levels and abnormal vehicle operations be detected and measured to help prevent crashes? Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers and members of its multidisciplinary, multi-institution team have completed the second year of a three-year project looking at that question. So far, the answer seems to be a resounding “yes.” The TTI project […]

Growth is a good thing. In economic terms, it can mean increased opportunity for businesses and more choices for consumers. But economic growth also means more demands on — and often more congestion for — our transportation system. Sometimes, the rate of economic expansion can outpace the capacity of our transportation infrastructure. In its 2013 […]

Building and maintaining Texas’ transportation infrastructure are costly endeavors. Research conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Infrastructure Investment Analysis Program (IIAP) helps inform policy makers how best to mitigate those costs and provide the greatest return to Texas taxpayers. “The importance of transportation to the economy is obviously significant,” says IIAP Manager David […]

Nearly 200 student leaders from Texas and around the nation attended the annual Teens in the Driver Seat (TDS) Summit held May 15–17 at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas. TDS, a peer-to-peer teen driver safety program, brought together teen traffic safety experts and interactive safety exhibits, as well as recognized students and other […]

For years transportation safety officials have encouraged impaired drivers to find a sober ride home — be it designating a driver, catching a cab or riding the bus. Another option became available in 2009, when transportation network companies (TNCs) first appeared. TNCs provide on-demand taxi-like transportation via self-dispatched independent drivers. Riders summon drivers through a […]

Doing more with less: that’s the mantra of transportation agencies everywhere these days. We need to achieve greater mobility on our roadways, but we can’t afford to build our way out of congestion. We need to clean the air around urban areas to improve public health, but policies enforcing clean air are difficult to pass […]

In the past three years, commercial motor vehicle crashes have increased 29 percent in the Permian Basin and 55 percent in the Eagle Ford Shale regions of Texas. Between 2011 and 2012, such crashes involved an estimated 2,006 drivers under the age of 26. In response to the increase in crashes concurrent with the oil […]