Center for Transportation Research News

The January Research Digest highlights recent State DOT reports. The issue is available online as a PDF. Links to full-text PDFs for each report are provided in the digest.

The Research Digest is a monthly newsletter targeted towards TxDOT staff and researchers. The goal of the Digest is to showcase new publications the library has received.

An archive of past issues is available on the CTR Library website.

According to a study released today by the Highway Loss Data Institute, hands-free devices are proving to be just as distracting as hand-held ones.

The study focused on insurance claim rates in New York, Connecticut, California and Washington, D.C. to see if accident frequency was reduced after implementation of hand-held phone bans. The study, the first conducted since laws were enacted in those states and the nation’s capitol, took into account accident claims before and after the bans — as well as discrepancies such as fewer miles driven during the recession — and compared them to accidents rates in nearby areas without hand-free laws.

And according to the study, the results were nearly identical between states with and without the ban.

And it doesn’t jibe with the argument that driving while talking on a phone hands-free is safer than driving with a hand-held phone, while it also puts the effectiveness of mandatory hands-free laws into question. As previous studies have pointed out, the problem doesn’t seem to be that drivers’ hands are occupied, but that their minds are.

Read the article on Edmunds.com
To read about the study, click here.

Bike Texas and the Texas Trails Network have announced their 16th annual trails conference, which this year will address bike/ped advocacy and safe routes to school. The Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference takes place February 3 – 6, 2010 at the AT&T Conference Center in Austin. Over 50 topic and 70 speakers will be presented.

Nationally known and respected experts on trailbuilding, Safe Routes to School, bike advocacy and active living will share their wisdom and experience. It will be a wonderful opportunity for networking, whether cycling, walking and trails are your occupation or just your passion. And to cap it all off, the venue is the new, state-of-the-art AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, at the heart of Austin on the UT campus. The conference will offer classroom sessions as well as hands-on workshops out in the field.

Go to conference site for details and to register.

Chandra Bhat received the S.S. Steinberg Award from the Research and Education Division of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association. Chandra accepted the award at the January Transportation Research Board (TRB) in January 2010.

Kara Kockelman and Cara Wang received the 2009 Young Researcher Award this year from the Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Statistical Methods (ABJ80) for paper titled “Application of the Dynamic Spatial Ordered Probit Model: Patterns of Ozone Concentration in Austin, Texas,” January 2010.

In related TRB news, Dr. Kockelmen will step down from her position as Chair of ABJ40 (Travel Survey Methods) in 2010. For three years, Kockelman headed this “32-member, 230-friends committee” and spent eight additional years as a member of ABJ40. She remains a member of this and two other TRB committees (ABJ80 & ADD30), also acting as chair of the North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International in November, 2009.

During Kockleman’s tenure, the Travel Survey Methods committee developed twenty Research Needs Statements and a wiki editible Travel Survey Manual.

The manual can be found at: http://www.travelsurveymethods.org

photo from http://www.utexas.edu/features/archive/2…

According to a recent study by The Daily Beast and traffic services company INRIX, Austin has the fourth worst commute in the nation. They discovered that commuters experience most of this frustration on I-35 with the worst bottleneck being Northbound around Riverside Drive.

Kara Kockelman, professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering and UT traffic expert, attributes heavy traffic on the downtown portion of I-35 to a combination of geography and design.
“It’s very unusual to have a major travel corridor interstate that close to the heart of a significant metro region,” Kockelman said.
The Texas Triangle, encompassing Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, is a heavily traveled region. When combined with downtown rush-hour traffic, conditions throughout the five metro areas can be disastrous, she said.

The double-deck solution to the I-35 traffic problem makes the highway even more accident prone, Kockelman added. With fewer lane choices, drivers find difficulty maneuvering around accidents — and avoiding them. The interstate’s short, “slip” ramps terminate in deadly concrete pillars and leave drivers little merge and weave space.

Read The Daily Texan article here.
The complete study is available here.

The Transportation Research Board Joint Subcommittee on Traffic Simulation “Traffic Simulation Pioneer Award” was presented Tuesday, January 19, 2010, by committee chair Dr. Tom Rioux to Dr. Clyde Lee, Professor Emeritus of The University of Texas at Austin, for his pioneering efforts in traffic simulation starting with the TEXAS Model for Intersection Traffic in 1968. The award was presented at the Center for Transportation Research in Austin, Texas.

Dr. Clyde E. Lee began his faculty career at The University of Texas at Austin on February 9, 1959, as an Assistant Professor. He advanced to Associate Professor in August, 1963, was appointed Professor in September, 1967, and retired February 15, 1999.

Dr. Lee was the founder of the Center for Highway Research (CHR) in 1963 and served as the center’s Director until 1980, when it became the Center for Transportation Research (CTR).

Dr. Lee’s research activities include pioneering work in the development and application of highway Weigh-in-Motion systems (he was awarded United States Patent No. 32665584 on August 16, 1966, entitled “Vehicle Weighing Scale with Overlapped Load Bearing Plates”), simulation of traffic control and vehicular flow at intersections, automated traffic data collection and analysis, and traffic monitoring for pavement and bridge research.

Dr. Clyde E. Lee was the faculty member who, in the late 1960s, conceived the idea of applying The University of Texas at Austin’s new Control Data Corporation 1604 mainframe digital computer for simulating traffic flow through an intersection. He initiated the first development efforts and supervised several ensuing research projects that culminated in the Traffic Experimental Analytical Simulation (TEXAS) Model for Intersection Traffic during the next couple of decades (initial development started in 1968 and the original release was in 1977).

He wanted accurate geometry including paths through the intersection; every driver-vehicle unit to be separately modeled in as much detail as possible; every form of traffic control including no control, sign control, and signal control; realistic lane changing; and a multitude of statistics that were appropriate for a traffic engineer to make informed decisions.

In 1965, Dr. Lee was the principal investigator for CHR Research Project 3-18-64-78 “Evaluation of Traffic Control at Highway Intersections” which developed special digital traffic delay recording equipment. The study was completed in March, 1970.

Dr. Clyde Lee’s e-mail is  cel at mail.utexas.edu

The following is a list of TEXAS Model related reports and publications written by Dr. Lee and others:

1. (with Vodrazka, W.C.), “Evaluation of Traffic Control at Highway Intersections,” Report No. 78-1F, Center for Highway Research, The University of Texas at Austin, March 1970, 290 pp.

2. (with Walker, R.S. and Womack, B.F.), “A Model for Traffic Simulation and a Simulation Language for the General Transportation Problem,” Proceedings, Fall Joint Computer Conference, American Federation of Information Processing, 1970.

3. (with Vodrazka, W.C. and Haenel, H.E.), “Traffic Delay and Warrants for Control Devices,” National Academy of Sciences, Highway Research Record No. 366, Highway Research Board, 1971, pp. 79-91.

4. (with Rioux, T.W.), “TEXAS – A Microscopic Traffic Simulation Package for Isolated Intersections,” Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., Transportation Research Record No. 644, Washington, D.C., 1977, pp. 45-51.

5. (with Grayson, G.E., Copeland, C.R., Miller, J.W., Rioux, T.W. and Savur, V.S.), “The Texas Model for Intersection Traffic – User’s Guide,” Center for Highway Research, Research Report No. 184-3, The University of Texas at Austin, July 1977, 82 pp.

6. (with Rioux, T.W. and Copeland, C.R.), “The Texas Model for Intersection Traffic-Development,” Center for Highway Research, Report No. 184-1, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, December 1977.

7. (with Rioux, T.W., Savur, V.S., and Copeland, C.R.), “The Texas Model for Intersection Traffic – Programmer’s Guide,” Center for Highway Research, Report No. 184-2, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas December 1977.

8. (with Savur, V.S. and Grayson, G.E.), “Application of the Texas Model for Analysis of Intersection Capacity and Evaluation of Traffic Control Warrants,” Center for Highway Research, Report No. 184-4F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, July 1978.

9. (with Savur, V.S.), “Analysis of Intersection Capacity and Level of Service by Simulation,” Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Record No. 699, Washington, D.C., January 1979, pp. 34-41.

10. (with Lee, F.P., Machemehl, R.B., and Copeland, C.R.), “Simulation of Vehicle Emissions at Intersections,” Center for Transportation Research, Report 250-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, August 1983.

11. (with Lee, F.P.), “Simulation of Traffic Performance, Vehicle Emissions, and Fuel Consumption at Intersections: The TEXAS-II Model,” Transportation Research Board, National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Record No. 971, Washington, D.C., 1984, pp. 133-140.

12. (with Machemehl, R.B. and Lee, F.P.), “Prediction of Vehicular Emissions at Intersections,” Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 250-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, January 1984.

13. (with Lin, H.J., Machemehl, R.B. and Herman, R.), “Guidelines for Use of Left-Turn Lanes and Signal Phases,” Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 258-1, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, January 1984.

14. (with Machemehl, R.B., Inman, R.F., Copeland, C.R., and Sanders, W.M.), “User-Friendly TEXAS Model – Guide to Data Entry,” Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 361-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, November 1985, 210 pp.

15. (with Machemehl, R.B.), “Traffic Simulation on a Microcomputer,” American Society of Civil Engineers, Journal of Transportation Engineering, 1986.

16. (with Machemehl, R.B.), “Animated Screen Graphics of Intersection Traffic Simulation,” Proceedings, 69th Annual Kansas Transportation Engineering Conference, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, March 25-26, 1987.

17. (with Machemehl, R.B.), “TEXAS Model for Intersection Traffic: A User-Friendly Microcomputer Version with Animated Graphics Screen Display,” Proceedings, 69th Annual Kansas Transportation Engineering Conference, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, March 25-26, 1987.

18. (with Machemehl, R.B.), “The TEXAS Model for Intersection Traffic – A User-Friendly Microcomputer Version With Animated Graphics Screen Display,” Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Record No. 1142, Washington, D.C., August 1987, pp- 1-5.

19. (with Machemehl, R.B.), “Animated Screen Graphics of Intersection Traffic Simulation,” Proceedings, The IBM ACIS University Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, pp. 452-462, June 27 – July 1, 1987.

20. (with Machemehl, R.B. and Sanders, W.M.), “TEXAS Model Version 3.0 (Diamond Interchanges)”, Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 443-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, January 1989.

21. (with Machemehl, R.B. and Marcus, C.), “Criteria for the Selection of a Left-Turn Median Design,” Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 1138-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, January 1991.

22. (with Machemehl, R.B. and Modur, S.), “Auxiliary Turning Lanes at Urban Intersections,” Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 1111-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, January 1991.

23. (with Lum, K.M.), “Actuated Traffic Signal Control at a Diamond Interchange,” Journal of Transportation Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. 118 No. 3, pp. 410-429, May/June 1992.

24. (with Machemehl, R.B., Rioux, T.W., and Inman, R.F.), “TEXAS Model for Intersection Traffic: Additional Features,” Center for Transportation Research, Report No. 1258-1F, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, January 1993.

25. (with LaBoy-Rodriguez, Lideana and Machemehl, R.B.), “Fuel Savings from Free U-turn Lanes at Diamond Interchanges,” Center for Transportation Research, Report SWUTC/96/467301-1, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, March 1997.

The National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board named a paper submitted by three University of Texas at Austin engineers and one University of Texas at San Antonio engineer, as the winner of the D. Grant Mickle Award.

The award is given annually for the best paper in the area of operation, safety and maintenance. The title of the paper is “A Life Cycle Cost-Benefit Model for Road Weather Information Systems”. The paper’s objective is to provide a systematic methodology for highway agencies to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with implementing Road Weather Information Systems. In order to ensure safer driving conditions on highways, state highway agencies are exploring new technologies that will improve the flow of information about hazardous road conditions. These technologies are called Road Weather Information Systems.

Dr. Carl Haas, professor of civil engineering at UT Austin, graduate student Benjamin McKeever, and researcher Rich Greer collaborated on the paper and case study with Dr. Jose Weissman of UT San Antonio.

The report included a case study that evaluated the cost benefit implementing Road Weather Information Systems on Interstate 20 near Abilene, Texas. The model determined that it was cost beneficial to implement this system. The Texas Department of Transportation sponsored the project.

The Certificate of Award will be presented at the Transportation Research Board’s Annual Meeting on Jan. 13, 1999 in Washington, D.C. The mission of the Transportation Research Board is to promote innovation and progress in transportation by stimulating and conducting research, facilitating the dissemination of information, and encouraging the implementation of research results. The board was organized in 1920 and is a unit of the National Research Council, which is the principal working arm of the corporate institution that includes the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.

http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/releases/4566

The Las Vegas monorail system has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but will continue service as usual for its passengers. Running 4.4 miles between the Las Vegas Convention Center and hotels on the Strip since 2004, the service was hit hard by the economy’s deleterious effects on Las Vegas tourism and convention business. The Las Vegas Monorail Company set up operations banking on 20 million passengers per year, paying $2.50 each, but has seen only 27 million over 5 years. The company chose to file bankruptcy in order to lower payments to bondholders and free up capital for an expansion to McCarran International Airport, which will cost an estimated $500 million.  Read full story.

Las Vegas monorail at work

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood today called on Congress to pass what he called a “comprehensive, forward-looking reauthorization program.”

Addressing the annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, LaHood said he recognized that there is a lot of capacity and demand for additional transportation investments across the country that neither stimulus packages nor a newer jobs bill can provide.

http://www.thetrucker.com/News/Stories/2010/1/13/NewhighwayprogramneedstobecomprehensiveforwardthinkingLaHoodsays.aspx