Center for Transportation Research News

President Obama banned federal employees from text-messaging while on government business, driving government vehicles or using government equipment. The executive order also directs executive departments and agencies to encourage contractors and contractor employees to adopt and enforce policies to ban texting while driving on official government business.
At the opening of the summit on transportation in [...]

[Read more]

A new research study conducted at Queensland University of Technology’s International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health found that ultrafine particles can become concentrated inside of roadway tunnels at levels sufficiently high enough to potentially to drivers and passengers.
Study co-author and director of Queensland University of Technology’s International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Professor [...]

[Read more]

In an interview with Dr. Joseph Coughlin and Dr. Bryan Reimer, the Wall Street Journal examines a trend of transportation research that focuses on safety in part because drivers are aging.

The duo is currently analyzing data collected by the Transportation Center’s newest innovation—a Volvo XC90 that cruises around Cambridge, Mass., with $1.5 million of [...]

[Read more]

Researchers from University of Castilla-La Mancha have developed an artificial intelligence software that could detect aberrant pedestrian and automotive behavior at crosswalks.
“We have developed an intelligence surveillance software and related theoretical model in order to define ‘normality’ in any setting one wishes to monitor, such as a traffic scenario”, David Vallejo, from the ORETO Applied [...]

[Read more]

In Houston, Texas, a city-commissioned study examined the effect of the Safe Clear program from 2005 through 2008 and found there were 120 fewer accidents per month, on average, compared to the baseline year of 2004. Safe Clear gives one towing company the exclusive right to clear disabled vehicles from designated highway segments, eliminating competition [...]

[Read more]

South Carolina Department of Transportation wants to reduce the number of accidents caused by vehicles that run off the road.
According to Bob Thomas, assistant division administrator of the S.C. Division Office of the Federal Highway Administration, during the last five years, (2004-08), 54 percent of all the fatalities reported in South Carolina involved [...]

[Read more]

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the federal safety agency that investigates transportation accidents is banning texting and talking on cell phones by its employees while driving on government business.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman said Tuesday she’s adopting the policy because she wants her agency to follow the same safety practices it recommends for others…..The NTSB’s 400 [...]

[Read more]

According to Nationwide research, surveys indicate that many drivers are in denial about their cell phone and texting habits when behind the wheel.

Nationwide Insurance noted that in its most recent On Your Side survey – conducted by Harris Interactive via its National Quorum telephone polling service – that 80% of Americans favor a ban on [...]

[Read more]

FHWA selected South Carolina to be an ‘opportunity’ state or focus state to reduce roadway departure crashes though the funding of a public information and education campaign to raise awareness of the safety benefits and the need for rumble strips and paved shoulders to reduce run-off-road crashes.
SCDOT’s research has found that one of the most [...]

[Read more]

Information results from the 2009 Used Car Safety Ratings released by the Monash University Accident Research Centre indicate that drivers have many options in the mid-size car range when looking for a car with good safety features.
“People often only consider vehicle safety from the perspective of how the vehicle will protect them as an [...]

[Read more]