Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations

With National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (Sept. 15-21) just around the corner, it seemed a good time to revisit our interview with Mark Willis from almost exactly one year ago. This is the week in which the trucking industry celebrates the contributions of roughly 3.5 million professional truck drivers nationwide, who deliver the essential goods our families rely on, from food to fuel to medic...

This 89th episode of Thinking Transportation is a landmark event. Host Bernie Fette, who is retiring from service to the state of Texas after more than 30 years, is passing the podcast hosting baton to Allan Rutter, TTI's Freight Practice Leader. Included in his decades of transportation-related employment, Allan served as Federal Railroad Administrator under President George W. Bush from 200...

Factors that determine speed limits on a given roadway have a lot to do with physical conditions along the route, but how fast drivers want to go figures into the equation, too.

When special events set new records for attendance, they tend to do the same for roadway gridlock. To ensure success, experts rely on the right mix of traffic planning and outreach.

Building a new highway involves a complex and painstaking process, one that begins years before the folks in hard hats and orange vests arrive on the scene.

We rely upon waterborne shipping for most of the products we buy and use every day. We hardly give that reliance any thought at all – until something goes wrong.

It’s not enough to know that traffic is bad and getting worse. We also need to know where, when, and why. TTI Senior Research Scientist and urban mobility expert David Schrank joins us to discuss the "how" of answering those questions.

As the 2024 hurricane season approaches again, climate experts across the United States are predicting an especially active season, driven largely by higher-than-average sea surface temperatures. This makes ever more important the research and planning that begins long before extreme weather strikes, and continues long after the storm has passed.

As car makers focus on protecting drivers and passengers, do their computer-based innovations really make us safer, or might they in some cases compromise our safety?

FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt and TTI Agency Director Greg Winfree reflect upon a wide range of mobility challenges and opportunities, with references to Star Wars, Dick Tracy and hair styles.

 Artificial intelligence seeks to replicate the analytical and creative capabilities of the human brain. Perhaps that lofty ambition helps to explain why so many humans are leery of the idea. 

Cities working to become leaders in clean transportation are electrifying their bus fleets, and learning that the road to success can be a bumpy one.

The former leader of TRB may have stepped away from full-time employment, but he hasn’t stepped away entirely from the industry he has helped to guide for half a century.

Every road construction project involves the hidden element of utilities in the right of way. That work isn’t necessarily as visible, but it’s every bit as consequential. 

The transit industry is better equipped to work through a public health crisis than it was before COVID-19. And even as it faces persistent challenges, public transportation continues to play a central role in everyday mobility.

Drivers over age 80 are more prone to serious and deadly crashes. As this population segment grows, researchers are working toward fresh countermeasures.

Attitudes and behaviors related to driving reveal our traffic safety culture. Like other forms of culture, it has a way of changing over time— and not always for the better.

With near-magical precision, GPS applications reliably guide multiple functions for us every moment of every day. But as they hold great promise, those applications also face vulnerabilities.

America’s infrastructure was built to last, but it wasn’t built to last forever. The Center for Infrastructure Renewal is focusing on how to ensure the resilience of the collective physical systems that America runs upon. 

The well-being of creatures protected under the Endangered Species Act is a high priority for transportation agencies. That’s good for the critters, and for agency operations as well. 

In using roadsides for the collection of solar power, can we succeed in achieving both environmental and economic goals? It all depends on how you define “success.”

Traffic congestion is relative, because what constitutes gridlock depends a lot on where you live. Clearly, though, it’s no longer just a big city problem. 

As we gather for the 97th Annual Transportation Short Course, we're revisiting our interview with Texas Department of Transportation CEO Marc Williams from approximately one year ago. Despite some Texas-sized mobility challenges and worldwide supply-chain obstacles, the guy in charge of the Texas Department of Transportation wants you to know he’s never been more optimistic about our transpor...

Thousands of long-haul truck drivers in America share a common and constant challenge of remoteness. They find insight and community through the vast reach of satellite radio. 

 It’s been said that all politics is local. Given the unique nature of major population centers everywhere, the same could be said for transportation.