What's New in Operations and Traffic Management

TRB will conduct a webinar on June 19, 2012, from 1:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m. ET that will explore the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 432: Recent Roadway Geometric Design Research for Improved Safety and Operations . Participants must register in advance of the webinar, and there is a fee for non-TRB Sponsor employees. A certificate for 1.5 Professional Development Hour...

The Mineta Transportation Institute has released a report that describes the modeling, calibration, and validation of a traffic-flow simulation of the San Jose, California downtown network to help assess strategies that could be used in various evacuation scenarios and first responder routings during a no-notice disaster.

The Florida Department of Transportation has released a report that explores the impact of shared lane markings on bicycle traffic before and after application of the marking to the street. 

The National Transportation Operations Coalition has released a report that highlights the importance of investment in traffic signal management and operations.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released a facts sheet that explores data that provide estimates of alcohol involvement in fatal crashes for the United States and individually for the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in 2010.

The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has released a report that explores the visibility of pedestrians by drivers at roundabouts under different vehicle and roadway lighting conditions.

TRB standing committees have issued  calls for papers for the TRB 92nd Annual Meeting, January 13-17, 2013, in Washington, D.C, and the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board (TRR). While papers addressing any relevant aspect of transportation research will be considered, some committees are soliciting papers in specific subject areas to help potential...

TRB is sponsoring the Workshop on the Future of Road Vehicle Automation on July 25-27, 2012, in Irvine, California. The workshop will focus on the current state of the art in the area of road vehicle automation. The workshop is designed to provide an opportunity for attendees to explore the roles that might be played by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the state departments of transpor...

The New Zealand Transport Agency has released a report that explores the safety of multi-lane roundabouts versus signalized intersections, pedestrian facilities, and vertical deflection devices.

The New Zealand Transport Agency has released a report that highlights the development of safety models designed to help enable practitioners to better understand crash risk at urban intersections.

TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Report 62: Airport Apron Management and Control Programs explores the effectiveness of apron management programs around the world. The report compares and contrasts apron management programs around the world to U.S. airports, while considering the common operational and ownership differences between U.S. and non-U.S. airports.

The Transportation Lighting Alliance has released a report that discusses the influence of vehicle headlamps and roadway lighting on the ability of drivers to see pedestrians along crosswalks in roundabout intersections.

TRB is sponsoring the Innovations in Traffic Flow Theory, Highway Capacity, and Quality of Service Symposium on June 19-22, 2012, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Topics expected to be explored during the symposium include methodological advancements in traffic flow fundamentals that relate to Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) models, the calibration and validation of HCM methods, methods for measuring or es...

The Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota has released a report that examines the transition from an infrastructure based to an in vehicle based crossing assist system that is designed to help drivers on a minor road select the appropriate gap when crossing a rural highway.

The Mineta Transportation Institute has released a report that explores the development and evaluation of real-time crash risk-assessment models for four freeway corridors.

TRB’s Transportation Research Circular E-C162: Winter Maintenance and Surface Transportation Weather includes papers that were presented at the April 30-May 3, 2012, conference in Coralville, Iowa. Issues addressed by the papers include environmental stewardship and sustainability, road safety under winter conditions, decision support systems, winter surface friction, blowing and drifting snow,...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 716: Travel Demand Forecasting: Parameters and Techniques provides guidelines on travel demand forecasting procedures and their application for helping to solve common transportation problems. The report presents a range of approaches that are designed to allow users to determine the level of detail and sophistication in selecti...

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released a report that offers transportation planners and operations managers various options for applying the regional ITS architecture to enhance planning for operations.

The Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research, a partnership of the Virginia Department of Transportation and the University of Virginia, has released a report that develops a model for forecasting peak spreading.  Peak spreading is a behavioral response by some motorists to shift their travel departure times to slightly before or after the peak period in response to incre...

The U.S. Federal Highway Administration has released its quarterly report that is designed to characterize emerging traffic congestion and reliability trends at the national and city levels. The UCR utilizes archived traffic operations data gathered from state departments of transportation and a private traffic information company. The UCR is currently using data from 23 urban areas in the Unit...

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University, College Station, has released the latest version of its periodic magazine that highlights TTI's research, professional, and service activities.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 431: Practices to Manage Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity includes examples of practices that illustrate how different types of transportation agencies might meet federal retroreflectivity requirements for traffic signs.

TRB is sponsoring the NATMEC: Improving Traffic Data Collection, Analysis, and Use on June 4-7, 2012, in Dallas, Texas. The conference is designed to advance the state of the practice of travel monitoring by providing a mechanism for improving the interaction between system operators, data collection program managers, and the various staff that collect, process, and utilize that data. The ...

The Center for Transportation Research and Education at Iowa State University has released a report that describes a toolbox created to help practitioners potentially address the problem of red light running crashes.  The toolbox focuses on engineering, enforcement, and education solutions.

TRB will conduct a webinar on July 11, 2012, from 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. ET that will explore National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 707: Guidelines on the Use of Auxiliary Through Lanes at Signalized Intersections . Participants must register in advance of the webinar, and there is a fee for non-TRB Sponsor employees. A certificate for 1.5 Professional Development Hours (PDH...

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 432: Recent Roadway Geometric Design Research for Improved Safety and Operations reviews and summarizes roadway geometric design literature completed and published from 2001 through early 2011, particularly research that identified impacts on safety and operations. The report is structured to correspond to chapters in th...

TRB conducted a webinar on May 2, 2012 that explored the results of TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis Report 431: Practices to Manage Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity . The report illustrates efforts that agencies are taking to meet the requirements of the revised Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), which establishes maintenance criteria for...

Roundabouts have seen unprecedented growth across the United States, from just a handful a decade ago to more than 2,000 and counting. National guidance had to keep pace with the needs of states and communities planning and implementing roundabouts, and NCHRP took a lead role.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has released a report that examines supplemental transportation performance metrics beyond the volume-to-capacity metric that currently supports the Oregon Highway Plan’s mobility policies.

The Netherlands’ Institute for Road Safety Research has released a report that investigates the effects of a robust roads network on bicycle traffic. According to the report, the robust roads network is a Dutch effort that addresses issues related to traffic flow on the main road network due to intensive use and near stagnant capacity.  The report is written in Dutch with an English summary.