Shows / Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Our ability to get from Point A to Point B is something lots of us take for granted. But transporting people and products across town or across the country every day is neither simple nor easy. Join us as we explore the challenges on Thinking Transportation, a podcast about how we get ourselves — and the things we need — from one place to another. Every other week, an expert from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute or other special guest will help us dig deep on a wide range of topics. Find…
Episodes
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
The Growth of AI: Assessments, Promises and Concerns
A big topic of conversation in our larger culture across business and government is the growth and impact of artificial intelligence. And that, too, we are in…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
The Ocean as Proving Ground: Training the Next Generation of Mariners
The ships that bring the goods that you buy to store shelves don't sail themselves. Trained mariners man those vessels, and in times of war, mariners can also…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Houston, We Have an Opportunity: TTI, Texas A&M's Space Institute, and the Space Economy
The successful conclusion to the Artemis II mission on April 10, 2026, ushered in a new era of enthusiasm for manned space flight. For NASA, the next steps in…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Research Helps Keep Rail Crossing Safety on the Right Track
Research promoting safety at rail grade crossings has saved lives by reducing collisions, the second-leading cause of rail-related fatalities in the United…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Strait Talk: The Impact of Middle East Conflict on the World's Oil Pipeline
When international crises occur, significant disruptions in the global supply chain can impact our daily lives in very real ways. Lately, for example, the…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
When Peer Pressure Is a Good Thing: Messaging, Behavior Modification and Young Driver Safety
TTI is approaching 25 years in researching and championing young driver safety through initiatives like the groundbreaking Teens in the Driver Seat program…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Behind the Curve? The Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation Advocates for Hardening Security for the U.S.'s Global Position System
The Resilient Navigation and Timing (RNT) Foundation is a public benefit and scientific and educational charity, 501(c)3, organization. Its members advocate…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Staffing the USDOT: Turnover, Teambuilding and Transportation Policy
When a new U.S. presidential administration is inaugurated, federal agencies experience changes in leadership and staff. Nicole Nason served as administrator…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
A Lifetime on the Move: Tyler Duvall's Lessons Learned from a Career in Transportation
Tyler Duvall--currently CEO and co-founder of Cavnue, an infrastructure company dedicated to building safer, more efficient roadways while adapting today's…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
A New Captain Takes Command of TTI's Center for Ports and Waterways
Established in 1995 by the Texas Legislature, TTI's Center for Ports and Waterways (CPW) provides valuable applied research and expertise to the Texas Marine…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited: Our 100th Episode! Celebrating 75 Years of the TTI-TxDOT Partnership.
In 1950, the Texas A&M Board of Directors charged the Texas Transportation Institute (now the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, or TTI) to enlist the broad…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Beyond Flying Cars: The Latest on Transportation's Tech Evolution
As he prepares to head out to Atlanta, Georgia, to attend the ITS World Congress, we check in with TTI Senior Research Engineer Bob Brydia about the latest…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Ride Smart, Stay Alive: Motorcycle Helmets Reduce Risks for Injury or Death for Riders
Motorcyclists love the freedom of the open road. But freedom isn't free, and sometimes the price incautious riders pay after a crash is severe brain injury or…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Score! We look at Texas roads and bridges in light of ASCE's 2025 Infrastructure Report Card.
Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issues its Report Card for America's Infrastructure. Expressed in reader-friendly letter…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Eyes on the Road! Encouraging Behaviors to Reduce Distracted Driving
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that more than 40,000 Americans died on U.S…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
It Takes a Village: In the Air or on the Ground, Safety Takes Teamwork
Tracing its origins to the Air Commerce Act of 1926, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was established in 1967 as an independent agency inside…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Our 100th Episode! Celebrating 75 Years of the TTI-TxDOT Partnership
In 1950, the Texas A&M Board of Directors charged the Texas Transportation Institute (now the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, or TTI) to enlist the broad…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited: Crash Data and an Aging Population Raise an Issue: How old is too old to drive?
Folks are living longer thanks to medical breakthroughs and healthier lifestyles, and that means our overall U.S. population is skewing older. The Texas…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
The Math Doesn't Lie: Roundabouts Make Driving Safer, More Reliable, and Less Technology Dependent
Roundabouts and other innovative intersections offer a number of advantages over more traditional designs, including improved sustainability, reliability, and…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revolution Requires Evolution: We Need New Roadside Safety Standards for Electric Vehicles
In June 2024, TTI's Roadside Safety and Physical Security Team crashed a Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle (EV) into a heavy-duty guardrail at 62 miles per hour…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Innovation, Education, Communication: TTI's University Transportation Centers
Administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the University Transportation Centers Program provides grants to college and university consortia across…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Trending Teens: What TTI's Latest Research Says about Young Driver Attitudes and Behaviors
For more than two decades, TTI has championed young driver safety, preventing injury and saving lives through education, empowerment, and peer-led outreach…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Bridge to Everywhere: How to Keep International Trucks Moving While Expanding The Bridge of the Americas.
International commerce depends on trucks crossing national borders regularly, reliably, and securely. Ports of entry like the bridges connecting the United…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Virtual Degree, Real-World Opportunity: Texas A&M Online Master's of Engineering Offers Recipients New Career Options
Texas A&M University's Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering offers an online master of engineering in engineering degree designed for engineering…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Long Trains Runnin': How Freight Trains Impact U.S. Communities According to a Recently Released Study Requested by Congress
On September 17, 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a report following a study of freight trains longer than 7,500…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
EVolving Attitudes, Expanding Infrastructure: Electric Vehicles Are Charging Ahead Thanks to Public Sector Incentives.
The Washington Post recently reported that electric vehicles (EVs) now outnumber gas-powered cars in Norway, the first country to claim that distinction. The…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited: Alone in the Crowd: Long-haul truckers fight isolation through satellite connections.
With National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (Sept. 15-21) just around the corner, it seemed a good time to revisit our interview with Mark Willis from almost…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Celebrating a Lifetime Storyteller: Bernie Fette passes the baton to our podcast's new host, Allan Rutter.
This 89th episode of Thinking Transportation is a landmark event. Host Bernie Fette, who is retiring from service to the state of Texas after more than 30…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Not So Fast! Can driver behavior influence how speed limits are set?
Factors that determine speed limits on a given roadway have a lot to do with physical conditions along the route, but how fast drivers want to go figures into…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited: At the Intersection of Engineering and Psychology -- How a diverse team manages special event traffic.
When special events set new records for attendance, they tend to do the same for roadway gridlock. To ensure success, experts rely on the right mix of traffic…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
The Never Ending Story? Why road projects take so long to complete.
Building a new highway involves a complex and painstaking process, one that begins years before the folks in hard hats and orange vests arrive on the scene.
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Anchors Aweigh: How maritime interests occupy a vital link in the freight industry.
We rely upon waterborne shipping for most of the products we buy and use every day. We hardly give that reliance any thought at all – until something goes…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Is Traffic Back to Pre-COVID Levels? That depends on where you live.
It’s not enough to know that traffic is bad and getting worse. We also need to know where, when, and why. TTI Senior Research Scientist and urban mobility…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited--Exit This Way: Research informing upgrades in hurricane evacuation planning.
As the 2024 hurricane season approaches again, climate experts across the United States are predicting an especially active season, driven largely by…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
A Two-Edged Sword: In-vehicle technologies can either help us or hurt us.
As car makers focus on protecting drivers and passengers, do their computer-based innovations really make us safer, or might they in some cases compromise our…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Bhatt and Winfree: Two industry leaders and their shared optimism for the future.
FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt and TTI Agency Director Greg Winfree reflect upon a wide range of mobility challenges and opportunities, with references to…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Will AI Help Us Realize Our Highest Hopes or Our Deepest Fears?
Artificial intelligence seeks to replicate the analytical and creative capabilities of the human brain. Perhaps that lofty ambition helps to explain why so…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
More Transit Agencies Are Jumping on the Battery-Powered Bandwagon.
Cities working to become leaders in clean transportation are electrifying their bus fleets, and learning that the road to success can be a bumpy one.
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Neil Pedersen Has a Question: Are we willing to stick our necks out?
The former leader of TRB may have stepped away from full-time employment, but he hasn’t stepped away entirely from the industry he has helped to guide for half…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Roadside Mysteries: When utilities pose unique challenges for roadway construction.
Every road construction project involves the hidden element of utilities in the right of way. That work isn’t necessarily as visible, but it’s every bit as…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Is Public Transit Back to Pre-pandemic Normal? That depends on where you look.
The transit industry is better equipped to work through a public health crisis than it was before COVID-19. And even as it faces persistent challenges, public…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Crash Data and an Aging Population Raise an Issue: How old is too old to drive?
Drivers over age 80 are more prone to serious and deadly crashes. As this population segment grows, researchers are working toward fresh countermeasures.
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Behind the Wheel, What We Think and What We Do Can Define Who We Are.
Attitudes and behaviors related to driving reveal our traffic safety culture. Like other forms of culture, it has a way of changing over time— and not always…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: How it’s easy to overlook our reliance on GPS.
With near-magical precision, GPS applications reliably guide multiple functions for us every moment of every day. But as they hold great promise, those…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
How to Ensure That US Infrastructure Remains Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts.
America’s infrastructure was built to last, but it wasn’t built to last forever. The Center for Infrastructure Renewal is focusing on how to ensure the…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Can Imperiled Creatures Survive and Thrive amid Widespread Roadway Construction?
The well-being of creatures protected under the Endangered Species Act is a high priority for transportation agencies. That’s good for the critters, and for…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Can Solar Panels in Highway ROW Be the Next Big Step in Renewable Energy?
In using roadsides for the collection of solar power, can we succeed in achieving both environmental and economic goals? It all depends on how you define…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
We Rank the 2,138 Most Congested Roads in Texas. Is your daily drive on the list?
Traffic congestion is relative, because what constitutes gridlock depends a lot on where you live. Clearly, though, it’s no longer just a big city problem.
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited--Big and Bright: The view from TxDOT CEO Marc Williams’ Chair.
As we gather for the 97th Annual Transportation Short Course, we're revisiting our interview with Texas Department of Transportation CEO Marc Williams from…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Alone in the Crowd: Long-haul truckers fight isolation through satellite connections.
Thousands of long-haul truck drivers in America share a common and constant challenge of remoteness. They find insight and community through the vast reach of…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
When Mobility Needs Are Like Snowflakes: TTI’s outposts focus on singular urban challenges.
It’s been said that all politics is local. Given the unique nature of major population centers everywhere, the same could be said for transportation.
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Minor Stress Factors Can Cause Major Problems, Even in the Best Driving Conditions
Obvious pressures when we’re driving on the roadways—like aggressive drivers, stormy weather, and unruly passengers—are widely recognized. But less conspicuous…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Lofty Ambitions Are Fueling the Move Toward Sustainable Transportation
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…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Pedestrian deaths are at a 40-year high.
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…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
What If? ... How modelers envision the worst to enable the best response.
Disasters – whether natural or man-made – can cripple transportation systems. Sophisticated modeling can go a long way in minimizing disruptions and restoring…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Is America’s Infrastructure Turning a Corner?
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…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
The Texas Transportation Hall of Honor: Recognizing vision, passion, and purpose.
Texas owes its transportation primacy in large part to an elite group of visionary leaders whose contributions merit permanent and meaningful places in the…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Fewer Motorcycle Safety Coaches, More Unlicensed Riders, More Crashes: Is there a link?
In recent years, roughly half of the motorcyclists involved in fatal crashes in Texas were unlicensed. Safety advocates are working to enlist more instructors…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Charging Ahead: How the Electrified Mobility Collaborative envisions a radical shift.
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…