FEDERAL REPORTS
Flexible Funding Continues To Play A Role In Supporting State And Local Transportation Priorities (25 page PDF)
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report
From 2007 to 2011, FHWA apportioned about $53 billion in flexible funding to states, which is about 29% of total federal-aid highway funding apportioned to the states during that time. States transferred about $5 billion, or 10% of their apportioned flexible funding, to FTA for transit projects.
Four states - California, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia- accounted for the majority of flexible funding transferred to FTA for transit projects. The portion of flexible funding transferred and the impact of the transferred funding on the total transit funding available in the states varied considerably.
For example, while four states transferred more than 25% of their apportioned flexible funding to FTA for transit projects from 2007 to 2011, 16 states transferred less than 2% of their apportioned flexible funding over this period. In addition, transferred flexible funding accounted for over 50% of the available federal transit funding in Vermont compared to New York, where flexible funding accounted for about 5% of the total federal transit funding available to the state. Urbanized areas over 1 million in population received most (more than 75%) of the transferred flexible funding.
Helping Communities Realize a More Prosperous Future (44 page PDF)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC) released its 2012 Accomplishments Report, which highlights how grantees of the 2010 and 2011 HUD Sustainability Grants are working to support locally led collaborative efforts that are building stronger regional economies.
Layered Object Recognition System for Pedestrian Sensing (116 page PDF)
There is a significant need to develop innovative technologies to detect pedestrians or other vulnerable road users at designated crossing locations and midblock/unexpected areas and to determine potential collisions with pedestrians. An in-vehicle pedestrian sensing system was developed to address this specific problem.
The research team used stereo vision cameras and developed three key innovations, namely, the detection and recognition of multiple roadway objects; the use of multiple cues (depth, motion, shape, and appearance) to detect, track, and classify pedestrians; and the use of contextual information to reject a majority of the typical false positives that plague vision-based pedestrian detection systems.
This report describes the approach and tabulates representative results of experiments conducted on multiple video sequences captured over the course of the project. The conclusion derived from these results is that the developed system is state of the art when compared to the best approaches published in literature. The false positive rates are still higher than desired for the system to be ready for commercialization.
This report also provides steps that can be taken to improve the performance in this regard. A real-time system was developed and demonstrated in a test vehicle.
Leaner And Greener: Sustainability At Work In Transportation (56 page PDF)
This report is the 3rd in a series that have highlighted State DOT environmental best practices, (Taking the High Road 2003) and (Above and Beyond 2009).
The report focuses on program-wide commitments to sustainable outcomes and documents cost and time savings. Examples are given to cover all functions of a DOT: planning, project development, construction, operation/maintenance and leadership.
FHWA Headquarters, Resource Center, and Divisions have partnered with States to support these examples through various program, research, and initiative efforts. This report complements the agency's recent release of INVEST - FHWA's sustainability evaluation tool.
FHWA/FTA Transportation Planning Update Winter 2012 Edition (15 page PDF).
This newsletter includes the latest news of transportation planning activities from both agencies.
Pedestrian Forum - Fall 2012 (5 page PDF)
The latest edition of the FHWA's Pedestrian Forum Newsletter is now available. The newsletter highlights recent pedestrian safety activities related to engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency services that will help save lives.
Public Roads: November/December 2012
The latest issue of the FHWA's Public Roads magazine has been released. The magazine highlights developments in federal highway policies, programs, and research and technology.
Role of Transportation Management Centers in Emergency Operations: A Guidebook (95 page PDF)
FHWA released a guidebook that explains ways to increase communication, collaboration, and cooperation between transportation management centers and emergency response agencies.
The purpose of this guidebook is to increase communication, collaboration, and cooperation among Transportation Management Centers (TMC) and emergency response agencies so they can effectively respond to a variety of situations ranging from a localized traffic incident to major regional events such as hurricane evacuations. The key is to remove the technical and institutional barriers that prevent TMCs from fully supporting emergency operations.
The guidebook addresses those barriers and provides noteworthy practices on how TMCs can effectively implement emergency operations through a mutual understanding with emergency response agencies on the responsibilities, resources, and operational procedures that result in a beneficial relationship for all parties. Throughout the publication are photos showing actual emergency events and the role played by the TMC. The guidebook will increase a TMC's understanding of emergency operations and identify specific activities to enhance coordination and cooperation with emergency response agencies. The guidebook will also allow emergency response agencies to understand the mission, resources, and operational procedures of TMCs. As demonstrated through the guidebook best practices, it is the trust and relationships built up through joint planning and training activities that result in better cooperation. Improved cooperation in turn leads to success in achieving the ultimate goal, which is more rapid and effective response in times of emergency with reduced loss of life and property. Sustainable Transportation (5 page PDF) The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has released a brief that explains its efforts in pursuing cost-effective opportunities that reduce the U.S.'s oil dependence, decrease pollution, and create jobs.
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CLIMATE CHANGE REPORTS
Flooded Bus Barns And Buckled Rails: Public Transportation And Climate Change Adaptation (128 page PDF)
The objective of this project is to provide transit professionals with information and analysis relevant to adapting U.S. public transportation assets and services to climate change impacts. The report examines anticipated climate impacts on U.S. transit and current climate change adaptation efforts by domestic and foreign transit agencies.
It further examines the availability of vulnerability assessment, risk management, and adaptation planning tools as well as their applicability to public transportation agencies. By focusing specifically on public transportation, and the unique assets, circumstances, and operations of that mode, the report supplements transportation sector wide studies whose scopes did not allow for more in-depth treatment of transit.
A Survey of Regional Planning for Climate Adaption (20 page PDF)
This National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) report details how regional planning organizations are responding to climate change. Over the past year, NARC and the University of Colorado at Denver surveyed regional planning organizations about climate change planning and sought to determine the extent to which regional planning organizations are planning for and working to adapt to climate change. This report analyzes those results and provides recommendations derived from the survey findings.
Climate change planning consists of two distinct but interrelated activities: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation planning focuses on limiting global climate change by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gasses, for instance increasing forested areas that absorb greenhouse gases.
Mitigation has a long-term focus; local actions do not have immediate or visible local effects because the impacts of greenhouse gases are global. Interest in engaging in mitigation planning is most effective when there is strong civic capacity to organize public interest in global warming.
In contrast, adaptation planning focuses on reducing the vulnerability of natural and man-made systems in response to actual or expected climate change - a hazards versus a vulnerability approach. Interest in adaptation planning often arises from the occurrence of extreme weather events rather than gradual changes in average climate conditions. Extreme events are those where a region exceeds its "coping range;" for example, a region experiencing severe floods more frequently than in the past 20 to 50 years.
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STATE REPORTS
Expanded Transportation Performance Measures to Supplement Level of Service (LOS) for Growth Management and Transportation Impact Analysis (203 page PDF)
Many jursidictions in Florida are moving toward multimodal transportation systems that provide users with viable travel options in an effort to minimize the economic, social, and enviornmental costs that have been associated with a purely vehicular system. To support this transition, a set of performance measures is needed that will supplement the vehicle-based Level of Service (LOS) that has been the primary tool within project impact analysis.
This project developed a framework for assisting agencies in selecting a set of performance measures that are consistent with their overall goals and the quality of life that the community desires. An extensive list of performance measures was synthesized from the literature and categorized into groups according to several typical community and agency goals that they may support.
Since there are numerous performance measures that can support each goal, several evaluation criteria were listed that can be used by a local agency to assess each measure in light of the agency's goals, policies, and resources. These criteria consider the type and quality of data available to the agency, the compatibility of the measures with other agency processes, as well as the degree to which a measure encourages multimodal transportation.
The report provides an example of how an agency could apply these criteria in order to select performance measures consistent with its goals and capabilities. The review systems for four Florida communities that have implemented successful multimodal areas are described in terms of their comprehensive plan, land development code, and project impact review.
Land use mix and pedestrian environment measures were strongly favored by the communities documented in these system-level case studies, with multimodal choice strongly prioritized over congestion management. Finally, two development scenarios are created and studied using several performance measures to compare how different land use form affects the calculation of performance measures.
A comparison of the impact is made based on whether measures support congestion management or mobility choice. The two development scenarios yield similar results when using congestion management as the primary agency objective, but show significant differences in their ability to support multimodal systems.
Illinois Center for Transportation Newsletter:
November 2012
The Illinois Center for Transportation (ICT), a partnership between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and IDOT, has released the latest issue of its quarterly newsletter designed to keep interested parties informed of current research and news at the ICT.
Investigation Of Contributing Factors Regarding Wrong-Way Driving On Freeways (224 page PDF)
In Illinois, there were 217 wrong-way crashes on freeways from 2004 to 2009, resulting in 44 killed and 248 injured. This research project sought to determine the contributing factors to wrong-way crashes on freeways and to develop promising, cost-conscious countermeasures to reduce these driving errors and their related crashes.
A thorough literature review was conducted to summarize the best practices on design, safety, and operational issues related to wrong-way driving on freeways by different states in the United States and abroad.
A new method was developed to rank the high-frequency crash locations based on the number of recorded or estimated wrong-way freeway entries. Twelve interchanges were identified for field reviews. Site-specific and general countermeasures were identified for future implementation.
A Web-Based Pavement Performance And Maintenance Management And GIS Mapping System For Easy Access To Pavement Condition Information (22 page PDF)
The unique characteristics of the state of Texas, the most predominant of which is the vast size of the managed pavement network have made some of the decision support models and/or algorithms a challenge to implement. This report presents a new approach to the development of such a decision-support system with its focus on maintenance management for TxDOT.
The new system is web-based and provides functional capabilities that allow transportation officials and engineers to make informed decisions regarding their budget planning and budget allocation for pavement maintenance management, fully utilizing available historical data.
2010 Highway Safety Manual: Lead State Peer-to-Peer Workshop (135 page PDF)
IDOT and the Illinois Center for Transportation sponsored and hosted the 2010 Highway Safety Manual (HSM) Lead State Peer-to-Peer Workshop November 17-18, 2010, at the IDOT District 1 Office in Schaumburg, Illinois.
The peer-exchange workshop involved representatives from 13 selected states and experts familiar with HSM development and implementation in order to facilitate the exchange of experiences and examples related to HSM implementation among the lead states.
The workshop covered a wide range of topics regarding the institutionalization of new quantitative safety methods (policies, design, planning, leadership, etc.), challenges and barriers (data collection and integration, statistical methods, analysis tools, training needs), case studies, and successful applications of the HSM. This report summarizes attendee statistics, the conference program, main activities (including 24 presentation and discussion sessions), and attendee feedback. Prospects for future workshops and training opportunities are also discussed.
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TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD
Developing Regional Mobility Management Centers
( 67 page PDF) The purpose of this Transit IDEA project was to carry out the initial phase of what the authors propose to be a multi-phase program to develop innovative low-cost management protocols and software that mobility management call centers can use to better organize, coordinate, schedule, dispatch, and monitor service programs which use transportation as one component of their service delivery strategy. These functions can be integrated with an array of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies to significantly reduce trip costs. This "strategic mix" of transportation solutions has the potential to increase transit and ridership and generate new revenue streams for the transit and paratransit industry, particularly from payers of health and human services. The innovation that is the focus of this project is the development of management protocols and software packages that make transit and paratransit services more attractive to other partners, including health care providers, in coordinated community transportation operations. This project examined the potential of the organization and coordination of these activities to be accomplished through a unified regional mobility management call center that accepts customer service requests and efficiently assigns transportation or other resources to meet those requests. Beneficiaries of these management protocols and software packages could include: The coordination of these activities could also be accomplished through a unified regional mobility management call center that accepts customer service requests and assigns transportation or other resources to meet those requests over a wide geographic area. Guidelines for Evaluating and Selecting Modifications to Existing Roadway Drainage Infrastructure to Improve Water Quality in Ultra-Urban Areas (178 page PDF) This report provides guidelines to evaluate and select hydraulic modifications to existing drainage infrastructure that will help mitigate potential impacts of highway runoff on receiving waters. The guidelines are directed specifically at roadway facilities in dense urban areas that can be particularly difficult and costly to retrofit because of space limitations, high pollutant loadings, hydrologic flashiness, hydraulic constraints, legacy contamination, utility conflicts, and other issues. They will assist transportation agencies in meeting regulatory requirements under the Clean Water Act, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) allocations, endangered species protection, and watershed protection initiatives. The tool generates best management practice (BMP) performance curves that relate the performance and design criteria for selected BMP controls described in the guidelines for each of the 15 U.S. rain zones. One of the significant features of the tool is that it allows users to explore BMP performance and retrofit sizing and design options based on user-selected design criteria and inputs. The guidelines will be of particular interest to planners, designers, and engineers with a basic understanding of the technical issues of BMP selection and design as applied to ultra-urban retrofit settings. Rural Public Transportation Strategies for Responding to the Livable and Sustainable Communities Initiative (24 page PDF) This report advises rural public transportation agencies on how they can contribute to and lead livability initiatives and addresses common concerns of rural public transportation efforts, including local match and coordination, while acknowledging small staff sizes and the importance of partnerships.
The intent of the survey was to better understand the rural livability-related initiatives in place at state DOTs across the country and identify needs, challenges, and successes with regard to rural livability. The survey was distributed to members of AASHTO Standing Committee on Public Transportation at all 50 state DOTs and the District of Columbia. These individuals either responded to the survey or designated others within their agencies as the appropriate respondents. The majority of respondents (59%) indicated that they were only somewhat familiar with PSC and its livability-related funding programs, and 28% indicated that they were not very familiar. Based on the results of the survey and the peer panel teleconferences, the research team identified four strategies that DOTs can use to support public transportation in rural communities and help them to compete for federal livability funding programs. Drawing on these strategies, the team developed a primer as a resource for state DOTs and transit operators as they work to support innovation in rural areas. The strategies discussed in the primer are: - Building awareness of PSC resources and livability in rural communities.
- Providing programmatic and financial support.
- Creating statewide or regional partnerships.
- Encouraging transit coordination at the regional level.
Traffic Control Devices, Visibility, and Highway-Rail Grade Crossings ( 62 page PDF) TRB's Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2298 consists of 11 papers that explore the timing of yellow and red intervals, stop paddles with embedded lights, the dilemma zone, international and domestic nonstandard symbol signs, train arrival time on crash frequency at highway-railroad grade crossings, safety at railway level crossings, environmental lighting conditions, high-beam usage on low-volume rural roads, and relationships between nighttime driving behavior and roadway visibility features. Travel Survey Methods, Freight Data Systems, and Asset Management 2012 ( 172 page PDF) The Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2285 consists of 19 papers that explore culvert asset management practices and deterioration, project-based roadway sustainability rating systems, asset deterioration and life expectancy, steel bridge weld fatigue retrofitting by peening, investment decisions, the effect of pavement roughness on user costs, cell phone samples in studies of walking activity, internet mobility survey sampling biases, the extent to which multimodal trips can be captured and represented in travel surveys, and design and implementation of an internet-based traveler intercept survey.
TR News September-October 2012: Blueprints to Improve Highway Safety ( 52 page PDF ) The September-October 2012 TR News features articles that address highway safety tools and procedures, including an overview of the Highway Safety Manual and its applications; a national strategy to prevent highway fatalities, Toward Zero Deaths; the expected safety benefits from TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) naturalistic driving study; and an opinion piece on building and training the safety workforce. Additional articles cover strategic highway safety plans, research on fatigue and safety, building a safety culture, the Interactive Highway Design Model, safety analysis and assessment, safety data needs, and more.
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VARIOUS REPORTS
Aligning Strategies to Maximize Impact: Case Studies on Transportation and Economic Development (36 page PDF)
The National Association of Development Organizations released a report that features case studies on implementation of diverse transportation and economic development initiatives, including freight movement, cluster development, and ride-sharing.
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning Peer Exchange on Performance-Based Planning (28 page PDF)
This report highlights key recommendations and best practices identified at the peer exchange on performance-based evaluation criteria and transportation funding, held July 10-11, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois.
This event was sponsored by the Transportation Planning Capacity Building (TPCB) Peer Program, which is jointly funded by FHWA) and FTA.
The Volpe Center worked with CMAP, the FHWA Office of Planning, FHWA Illinois Division Office and FTA Office of Planning to identify peer MPOs, speakers, and participants with knowledge and interest in performance based funding programs.
The goals of the peer exchange were to:
- To identify project prioritization methods used by other states that could be appropriate in Illinois, including the use of both quantitative and qualitative metrics and the consideration of mode-specific funding and flexible funds
- To identify the need for and methods of data sharing between IDOT and Illinois MPOs
- To identify the next steps in developing a transparent, performance-based funding system in collaboration with IDOT and the other Illinois MPOs.
Communicating Transportation Funding Issues (117 page PDF)
AASHTO released this peer exchange report that offers transportation agencies practical approaches to more effectively make the case for transportation investments to the general public and key decision makers.
The goals of the peer exchange were to:
- Share emerging and best practices that state DOTs are using to better communicate the complex issues surrounding finance, funding, planning, and project selection with the general public and the users of the transportation system;
- Identify successful case studies of communication techniques that improved the public's understanding of transportation investment needs, funding options, and program management and
implementation by state DOTs;
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Begin to develop a best practice resource explaining practical techniques and related tools to the target audience.
Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States' Gasoline Price Vulnerability And Solutions For Change (29 page PDF)
This report again ranks U.S. states in two critical areas related to our nation's continuing addiction to oil. First, it calculates gasoline price vulnerability-the percentage of personal income spent on gasoline by the average driver in each state. Second, it ranks states based on their adoption of smart solutions to reduce their oil dependence-measures they are taking to strategically lessen their vulnerability and to bolster America's security.
Interactive Map Shows the Cost of River Lock Failures
A new interactive map shows the importance of key locks on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Illinois Rivers and outlines possible economic shocks all across the country should one or more of them fail. Failures in this system affect not just the states that border these rivers, but many areas that receive goods - in particular corn, soybeans, coal, and petroleum products - from those states.
One can also download the full report, America's Locks and Dams: A Ticking Bomb For Agriculture on the map link above.
Livability Literature Review: A Synthesis of Current Practice (28 page PDF)
The National Association of Regional Councils has released a literature review on livability for practioners and policy makers. This literature review first examined the difficulty in creating livability consensus concepts, decoupled livability from sustainability and expanded on reoccurring themes. The review will also assist practitioners and policymakers understand how states and localities define, plan and implement livability.
Neighborhood Wayfinding Assessment: A Pocket Guide
Easter Seals Project ACTION announces the availability of a new resource. Developed in partnership with the CDC Healthy Aging Research Network based at the University of Washington, the guide supports citizen involvement in assessing the availability and accessibility of wayfinding, pedestrian and transit features in neighborhoods or at a greater community level. The print version is on sturdy, weather-resistant paper that can be taken into the field and includes a checklist that individuals and groups can use to record signage and walkway conditions.
The Struggle of Moderate-Income Households to Afford the Rising Costs of Housing and Transportation (36 page PDF)
The Center for Housing Policy has released a report that assesses the impact of combined costs from the rapid rise and fall of home prices during the 2000s, the recent rebound in the rents, and increased suburbanization over the past decade.
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