Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations

Obvious pressures when we’re driving on the roadways—like aggressive drivers, stormy weather, and unruly passengers—are widely recognized. But less conspicuous triggers can compromise safety, too. 

Decarbonizing the transportation sector—the single-biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions—won’t happen overnight. But the U.S. Department of Energy has a plan.

The dangers for those who travel on foot have constituted a public health challenge for as long as we’ve had motor vehicles. Why are pedestrian deaths increasing so fast? And what can be done to stem the tide?

Disasters – whether natural or man-made – can cripple transportation systems. Sophisticated modeling can go a long way in minimizing disruptions and restoring routine conditions. 

Two years have passed since America’s last road and bridge report card, and we’ll wait another two years for the next one. An unofficial mid-term grade suggests that conditions are improving.

Texas owes its transportation primacy in large part to an elite group of visionary leaders whose contributions merit permanent and meaningful places in the Lone Star State’s history.

In recent years, roughly half of the motorcyclists involved in fatal crashes in Texas were unlicensed. Safety advocates are working to enlist more instructors who can help riders develop the safety skills they need.

Nearly 300 million vehicles are on American roads today. Nearly all of them run on gasoline or diesel, so a large-scale shift to electric power would be transformative. A new Texas A&M University System venture is working to figure out how that might work. 

As a transportation journalist, Bernie Wagenblast has been weaving narratives of a professional sort for more than 40 years. As it turns out, one of her most recent stories is more personal.

The value that small general aviation airports deliver far exceeds what their modest size might suggest. To many local government officials, those facilities represent “the most valuable mile of pavement in the county.”

As we’re about to observe National Work Zone Awareness Week and in light of a work zone crash last month in Maryland, in which 6 workers were killed, we're revisiting a discussion with TTI's Jerry Ullman, research engineer and highway work zone safety expert. The number of fatal crashes in America is up by about 7 percent over the past decade. But in roadway work zones, it’s up by more t...

Major railroad disasters tend to produce major news headlines, but there are hundreds of derailments each year in America that we never hear about. Why is that?

It’s been said that journalists are responsible for writing the first draft of history. As the transportation writer for the Houston Chronicle, Dug Begley has been crafting that city’s mobility story for more than a decade. 

Even after wrapping up a 46-year stretch at TTI, Tim Lomax still enjoys the adrenaline rush that comes from finding new traffic challenges, and fixing them. 

America’s roads were built to last, but they weren’t built to last forever. New research is taking a forensic approach to maintaining and repairing our surface transportation infrastructure.

Most of what we buy and use every day comes to us on cargo ships, which represent essential links in worldwide distribution systems. A global public health crisis reminded us of how important they really are.

Big-time athletic events can create big-time roadway gridlock. Experts game out the possibilities to navigate chaos – from the first car in, to the last one out. 

Wrong-way crashes on high-speed roadways are uncommon, but they’re almost always fatal. Ongoing research is supporting countermeasures to help drivers avoid – or escape -- a rare but perilous roadway hazard.

Rail industry employees and management were at odds for months and on the verge of a nationwide shutdown, until Congress and the White House invoked an arcane 1926 law to settle the dispute in only a few days. 

The Institute of Transportation Engineers is wrapping up a pivotal year in its history. Jeff Paniati, the organization’s CEO, and TTI's Beverly Kuhn, its outgoing president, talk about lessons learned from the past 12 months and how the transportation profession is evolving -- along with society. 

Along America’s 2,000-mile border with Mexico, there’s plenty of room for things to go awry when it comes to the secure, efficient movement of people and goods. Myriad public and private partnerships and the latest research are helping ensure that they don’t.

Big trucks cause more damage to transportation infrastructure, but they pay less to use roads and bridges than passenger vehicles do. New research findings – with input from the freight industry – can inform how policy makers might change that. 

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 transportation future.

Large vehicle collisions in and around the giant West Texas oil patch in recent years have been alarmingly frequent and serious. Through a partnership approach, local transportation agencies and industry leaders are turning the tide. 

Young drivers face greater risks on the road than any other group. Some of the reasons for that are unlikely to change, but one thing that’s clearly open to revision is the manner in which we approach the problem.