FHWA Focus Magazine - November 2012 (8 page PDF)

The magazine highlights efforts designed to accelerate infrastructure innovations in order to build better, safer roads. 

Best Practices for Emergency Rerouting (website)

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) identified a desire to research different practices other states are using for emergency reroute planning to identify strong examples for reference. The research effort was intended to combine feedback from Michigan stakeholders with the key findings, lessons learned, and experiences from other states to create a standard, statewide practice for developing emergency reroutes. 

The manual is a tool summarizing recommendations that stakeholders can take forward during the development and implementation of emergency reroutes on a regional level. With the diversity of Michigan's regions, it was recognized that a "one size fits all" approach would not be feasible; rather, regions would need to adapt emergency rerouting plans to the specific agencies, partnerships, and roadway networks within their respective regions.

University of Minnesota's Center for Transportation Studies (CTS) 

Catalyst Newsletter (website)

Catalyst provides current information on the latest in transportation-related research and activities from the CTS.  The current edition includes:

• Automated speed enforcement study finds public support in Minnesota
• New treatment practice removes dissolved phosphate from stormwater
• New specifications help reduce low-temperature cracking
• Improving culvert design and service life in Minnesota 
• Automated enforcement: highlights from Illinois and Iowa
• Toward Zero Deaths program: saving lives through collaboration
•  Urban competitiveness and transportation in the Twin Cities
•  Pavement conference to share lessons from Duluth-area flooding
•  Exhibitors sought for career expo
•  University of Minnesota reception at TRB
•  Recently published research reports

Integrated Risk Management for Improving Internal Traffic Control, Work-Zone Safety, and Mobility during Major Construction (80 page PDF)

Crash Data Analyses for Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications for Safety Applications (88 page PDF)

This report presents the potential safety benefits of wireless communication between the roadway infrastructure and vehicles, (i.e., vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety). 

Specifically, the report identifies the magnitude, characteristics, and cost of crashes that would be targeted with currently proposed V2I for safety application areas including intersections, speed management, vulnerable road users, and other safety applications areas. 

It also identifies the magnitude, characteristics, and cost of the remaining crashes that are not targeted by currently proposed V2I safety applications. The results of this study indicate that the applications are well conceived and can potentially treat large portions of U.S. crashes and crash costs. The characteristics of unaddressed crashes provide a starting point for identifying either new applications or modifications to current applications.

Current Hazardous Materials Transportation Research and Future Needs (126 page PDF)

The Final Report documents a project to identify current hazardous materials transportation research and future needs. The first phase of the project involved developing the framework for capturing existing research, planned research, and research gaps. It also sets the stage for prioritizing future research needs. The second phase of the project focused on developing a prioritized list of research projects for the TRB Hazardous Materials Cooperative Research Program.

Improving Roadway Safety Programs Through University-Agency Partnerships Summary of a Conference (116 page PDF) 

The statement of task for this research conference project was to "organize a conference to review new safety tools and concepts, highlight current successful university-transportation agency safety partnerships, identify current and potential capabilities to fully utilize these new tools and concepts, and explore collaborative approaches by transportation agencies and universities to improve highway safety. 

The conference would serve as a forum for practitioners and researchers

in highway safety, including state DOT safety engineers and planners, governors' representatives for highway safety, safety specialists in public health and local government, safety data experts, and academics involved in transportation safety research." 

TRB planning committee members provided expertise in roadway safety, traffic engineering, public policy, advanced technologies, and safety education and training.

Intercity Rail Passenger Systems Update: Winter 2012 (14 page PDF)

The TRB Standing Committee on Intercity Passenger Rail produced the document. The online newsletter is published intermittently and is designed to disseminate information about current research and developments in intercity rail passenger systems. 

Articles in this issue review the current state of federal funding and the treatment of passenger rail in MAP-21, new research on the mobility impacts of intercity passenger rail, the European approach to the improvement of energy efficiency in railways, high-speed rail in the Southeast Corridor, and more.   

New IDEAs for Highway Systems: Annual Progress Report - January 2013 (241 page PDF)

TRB's Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) program has released the 2013 issue of its New IDEAs for Highway Systems: Annual Progress Report, which summarizes projects active or completed during the 2012 program year. The report also includes descriptions of projects completed before the 2012 program year. 

Site-Based Video System Design and Development (96 page PDF) 

TRB's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Report S2-S09-RW-1: Site-Based Video System Design and Development documents the development of a Site Observer, a prototype system capable of capturing vehicle movements through intersections by using a site-based video imaging system. 

The Site Observer system allows for viewing crashes and near crashes as well as a basis for developing objective measures of intersection conflicts. In addition, the system can be used to collect before-and-after data when design or operational changes are made at intersections. Furthermore, it yields detailed and searchable data that can help determine exposure measures.

Transit Agency Intergovernmental Agreements: Common Issues and Solutions (56 page PDF)

This report will demonstrate why planning efforts need to focus on transit corridors -- not Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) -- to promote long-term development of livable communities that integrate residential, commercial, and everyday amenities through an integrated transit network.

By optimizing land use planning, creating incentives for private development, and investing in first and last mile transit solutions, Los Angeles County can begin to close the gap that has formed between it and some of the nation's other top metropolitan areas.

Victoria Transport Policy Institute, British Columbia

For many decades, transport planning assumed that transportationprimarily means driving, so the most important goal is to increase automobile traffic speeds, often to the detriment of other modes, activities and objectives. Many people now realize that this type of planning can have undesirable, unintended consequences; it degrades walking and cycling conditions, creates automobile dependent transport system and sprawled development patterns, increases total transportation costs, and creates unattractive roadways.

In response, communities increasingly apply a new transport planning paradigm which considers a wider range of objectives, impacts and options. This approach recognizes the need for more comprehensive and multi-modal analysis. This report applies this new paradigm to evaluating complete streets, a policy which commits communities to roadway designs that accommodate diverse modes, users and activities.

World Road Association Mondiale De La Route

Reports are accessible at no charge but online registration is required. Latest technical reports related to Road Safety: 

• Comparison of national road safety policies and plans (webpage)
• This Report examines the road safety performance of several nations, reviews reported policies and strategies in jurisdictions and attempts to establish linkages between adopted and implemented road safety policies, overarching multi - year strategies and performance outcomes.
• Best practices for road safety campaigns (webpage)
• The report presents key findings of a literature review of best practices for road safety campaigns, and relate these to actual road safety campaign practices by road administrations and authorities of fourteen countries who responded to a survey questionnaire.  
• Improvements in safe working on roads (webpage)
• The focus of this guide is on safety of both workers and road users in construction zones. For the safe, efficient and effective management of work zones, it is proposed that a 4 C's principle be adopted. Work zones should be designed, operated and maintained such that the works are conspicuous, clear, consistent and credible
• State of the practice for cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-benefit analysis and resource allocation (webpage)
• The purpose of this report is to provide a state-of-the-practice review of economic appraisal techniques. It provides an overview of existing sources of information. However, the report is limited by the fact that very few recommendations are provided since no new original work was conducted. The following topics are addressed:

• the basis for valuation of safety benefits; 
• a brief review of the main methodologies currently in use; 
• recommendations for values to be used in economic appraisal, such as the valuation of the prevention of a fatality, and of a serious injury; 
• different measures of project performance (Net Present Value, Benefit Cost Ratio, Internal Rate of Return, Modified Internal Rate of Return) that can be used to determine the economic effectiveness and feasibility of road projects; 
• the data required to perform an efficiency assessment of road safety measures; 
• previous assessments of road measures; 
• primary barriers to the use of these efficiency assessment tools and also the ways to overcome them; 
• ideas on the best practices for resource allocation.