October 2017
- Performance Dashboards
- Safety and Mobility
- Planning
- Research
- Innovation
- Preservation and Maintenance
- Rulemaking
Performance Dashboards
- MTA Subway Performance Metrics Dashboard
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority interactive dashboard was updated in September 2017 to share new monthly metrics on wait and travel times and major incidents. - Austin, Texas, Transportation Department's Data and Performance Hub
The city's open data hub includes a transportation section featuring information on signal operations and maps and resources. - San Francisco Bay Area's Vital Signs: Transportation and Environment Updates
A September 2017 dasbhoard update included new data on 17 transportation and environmental indicators ranging from commute times and bridge conditions to air pollutant concentrations and greenhouse gas emissions.
Safety and Mobility
- Government Technology article: Georgia and Alabama Cities Become Test Beds for Early Warning Traffic Safety App
The cities of Atlanta and Marietta, GA,a and Tuscaloosa, AL, are testing a smart phone app the connects traffic signals, school beacon signage and objects to each other and communicates the data to improve safety and mobility. - TRB Straight to Recording for All: Transportation Worker Safety Program Resources and Practices
TRB recorded a series of videos in September 2017 that features research from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 509: Highway Worker Safety, that documents current safety practices, processes, and data sources utilized by state departments of transportation (DOTs). - MobilityScore Measures Transportation Access
The site includes data for the top 30 U.S. and five Canadian metropolitan areas, taking options from public transit to car sharing, bike sharing, and ride sharing into account. - Updated FHWA Guide to Developing Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Action Plans
The guide, updated in August 2017, aims to assist agencies in developing and implementing a safety action plan to improve conditions for bicycling and walking. The plan lays out a vision for improving safety, examining existing conditions, and using a data-driven approach to match safety programs and improvements with demonstrated safety concerns. The document will also serve as a reference for improving pedestrian and bicycle safety through a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach to safety, including street designs and countermeasures, policies, and behavioral programs. - Virginia Transportation Research Council Report on Nighttime Work Zone Lighting
This project evaluated current nighttime work zone lighting practices for limited-access highways and primary routes in Virginia. The report includes a draft specification outline to evaluate on-sight lighting.
Planning
- Washington State DOT MAP-21 & Planning Folio
In September 2017, WSDOT published a folio describing new or revised Federal requirements governing the State DOT, metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and regional transportation planning orgranization (RTPO) planning processes. - Federal Transit Administration: Performance-Based Planning and Programming Roundtable Series Summary
This document, published earlier this year, summarizes the ideas raised at seven peer-exchange roundtables on performance-based planning and programming held during fiscal year 2016 by FTA in partnership with the American Public Transportation Association (APTA).
Research
- Lessons Learned from San Jose, CA's Lincoln Avenue Road Diet
The Mineta Transportation Institute's report analyzes traffic volume and speed impacts from the 2015 implementation of a pilot "road diet" on a San Jose street. The analysis looks at impacts on both the road diet location itself and on surrounding streets likely to have been impacted by traffic diverted off the road diet segment, and includes recommendations for best practices for designing and conducting such evaluation studies. - National Center for Sustainable Transportation: Survey of Literature on Connected and Automated Vehicles Applications
The report proposes a broad classification of connected and automated Vehicles applications, identifies influential factors on system performance, and suggests approaches for obtaining co-benefits across different measures of effectiveness.
Innovation
- Fast Company Co.Design article: The Quest to Design a Smarter Road
A look at 3M's efforts to design new types of road markings, signs, and other connected infrastructure to make driving in autonomous vehicles safer. - FHWA Center for Acclerating Innovation's State Innovation Accomplishments Map
A new map helps visitors explore how States are using proven innovations to enhance projects and processes and improve the management of their transportation programs.
Preservation and Maintenance
- Government Technology article: Township Leans on Tech for Paving Plan
Officials in North Huntingdon, PA are using technology that will allow them to more accurately identify roadways in need of repair. - Alaska Business article: Project Has Become a Model for Permafrost Construction
An experiment undertaken by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Alaska DOT to avoid road buckling common in permafrost-laden areas has become a model for others.
Rulemaking
- Notice of Greenhouse Gas Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)
On October 5, 2017, FHWA published an NPRM in the Federal Register proposing the repeal of the GHG measure (which is the percent change in tailpipe CO2 emissions on the National Highway System compared with the calendar year 2017 level). Please submit comments by November 6, 2017.