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
For Bernie Wagenblast, both career and life have been all about transition.
As a transportation journalist, Bernie Wagenblast has been weaving narratives of a professional sort for more than 40 years. As it turns out, one of her most…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Hidden Treasures: Remote community airports play an essential role in Texas life.
The value that small general aviation airports deliver far exceeds what their modest size might suggest. To many local government officials, those facilities…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Revisited--Highway to the Danger Zone: Hazards abound where road work advances.
As we’re about to observe National Work Zone Awareness Week and in light of a work zone crash last month in Maryland, in which 6 workers were killed, we're…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Off the Rails, On the QT: Train derailments happen daily, though few grab our attention.
Major railroad disasters tend to produce major news headlines, but there are hundreds of derailments each year in America that we never hear about. Why is that?
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Turning the Tables: When a transportation journalist is the one answering, not asking, the questions.
It’s been said that journalists are responsible for writing the first draft of history. As the transportation writer for the Houston Chronicle, Dug Begley has…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Engineering a Career Path: Sometimes, a 7th grade dream can actually come true.
Even after wrapping up a 46-year stretch at TTI, Tim Lomax still enjoys the adrenaline rush that comes from finding new traffic challenges, and fixing them.
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Maintaining our roadway infrastructure demands a varied scientific approach.
America’s roads were built to last, but they weren’t built to last forever. New research is taking a forensic approach to maintaining and repairing our surface…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Bent, But Not Broken: How global supply chains demonstrate post-pandemic resilience.
Most of what we buy and use every day comes to us on cargo ships, which represent essential links in worldwide distribution systems. A global public health…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
At the Intersection of Engineering and Psychology: How a diverse team manages special event traffic.
Big-time athletic events can create big-time roadway gridlock. Experts game out the possibilities to navigate chaos – from the first car in, to the last one…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Uncommonly Deadly: Wrong-way crashes are small in number, immense in devastation.
Wrong-way crashes on high-speed roadways are uncommon, but they’re almost always fatal. Ongoing research is supporting countermeasures to help drivers avoid –…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
All Aboard? When unions, management, and Congress dodged a nationwide rail strike.
Rail industry employees and management were at odds for months and on the verge of a nationwide shutdown, until Congress and the White House invoked an arcane…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
It Takes a (Big) Village: How a community of transportation pros is making mobility better.
The Institute of Transportation Engineers is wrapping up a pivotal year in its history. Jeff Paniati, the organization’s CEO, and TTI's Beverly Kuhn, its…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Border Balancing Act: Finding harmony between commercial efficiency and security demands.
Along America’s 2,000-mile border with Mexico, there’s plenty of room for things to go awry when it comes to the secure, efficient movement of people and…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Sharing the Load on Texas Roads: Are overweight trucks paying their fair share?
Big trucks cause more damage to transportation infrastructure, but they pay less to use roads and bridges than passenger vehicles do. New research findings –…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Big and Bright: The view from TxDOT CEO Marc Williams’ chair.
Despite some Texas-sized mobility challenges and worldwide supply-chain obstacles, the guy in charge of the Texas Department of Transportation wants you to…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Drilling for Solutions: A gusher of new data is helping cut crash numbers in Texas’ Permian Basin.
Large vehicle collisions in and around the giant West Texas oil patch in recent years have been alarmingly frequent and serious. Through a partnership…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Under the Influence of Youth: Most teens are eligible to drive at age 16, but are they ready?
Young drivers face greater risks on the road than any other group. Some of the reasons for that are unlikely to change, but one thing that’s clearly open to…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Of Needles and Haystacks: For truck drivers, finding a parking space is tougher than ever.
The COVID-19 pandemic helped to expose a chronic shortage of truck drivers in America – and a scarcity of places for those truckers to park, too. That has big…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
All over the Map: Just two car guys talking about transportation.
From self-driving tech to safety culture and power grids. When a transportation research leader and an auto industry journalist cross paths, the conversation…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Safety in Numbers? As bicycle use grows more popular, crash numbers carry mixed messages.
Along with the growing popularity of bicycling comes an increased need for safety. But while the number of bicycle crash injuries dropped during 2020, that was…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
On the Ascent: General aviation in Texas is more indispensable than ever.
Numbering nearly 300, Texas has more community airports than counties. Largely out of view and out of mind for most of us, they are nonetheless central to the…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Exit This Way: Research informing upgrades in hurricane evacuation planning.
Predictions for an especially active hurricane season place added importance on the research and planning that begins long before extreme weather strikes, and…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Building by the Numbers: How economic indicators guide road construction.
Some statistics like population growth and the price of crude oil are directly linked to transportation planning in Texas. But others—like commercial airline…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
When the Workplace Is Behind the Wheel: Improving occupational safety for truckers (and the rest of us).
Close to half of all workplace deaths result from transportation incidents, including crashes that involve large trucks. Drivers of those trucks are at higher…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Cars Can Track Our Driving Habits: Who owns that data, and what's being done with it?
The newest cars on the road today generate huge amounts of data, telling us much about our driving habits and helping us build and operate our roadways. How…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Beyond Skin Deep: The humble roadway is about more than asphalt and concrete.
Today’s pavements bear little resemblance to the driving surfaces of the early 1900s. Research Engineer Darlene Goehl explains how decades of experimentation…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
When a Crash Is No Accident: Staging roadside collisions to make them more survivable.
Sometimes vehicle crashes can’t be avoided, but it is possible to make them less life threatening. Senior Research Engineer Lance Bullard joins us to discuss…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back? Keeping tabs on self-driving tech.
One of the first lessons we learned about autonomous travel remains true today: Building a self-driving car is a lot more difficult than many people expected…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Multiple Stakeholders, One Purpose: The vision of “clean transportation” involves much more than electric cars.
Government agencies, utilities, vehicle manufacturers, and related industries all have a stake in a clean transportation future. Though they share a common…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
First, Do No Harm: When endangered species habitats lie in a roadway’s path.
Unintended encounters with cars and trucks are bad news for animals. Not only do creatures face dangers on existing roads, they’re often imperiled from the…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Upsides and Downsides: Transportation and public health share a complicated union.
How we develop our transportation systems has direct and lasting impacts on personal well-being. Associate Research Scientist Ben Ettelman explains how newly…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Channeling George Jetson: We could have flying cars sooner than we think.
The concept of urban air mobility (UAM) envisions the safe and efficient movement of people and cargo at low altitudes within populated areas. Many complex…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
When Traffic Takes Sick Leave: COVID’s effect on Texas roadways.
TTI researchers have measured traffic gridlock through an urban area lens for decades. Senior Research Scientist David Schrank explains why they’ve also been…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Partners in Purpose: How universities and the Transportation Research Board find solutions together through science and innovation.
Transportation improvements require tireless effort and inspired innovation. TTI Executive Associate Director Katie Turnbull and Neil Pedersen, executive…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Highway to the Danger Zone: Hazards abound where road work advances.
The number of fatal crashes in America is up by about 7 percent over the past decade. But in roadway work zones, it’s up by more than 40 percent. Senior…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Strong as Their Weakest Link: What the pandemic taught us about supply chains.
Supply chains everywhere were strained to their limits long before the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic simply exposed weaknesses that were already there. TTI’s…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Innovation U: In a transportation research rivalry, everyone is a winner.
Greg Winfree and Zac Doerzaph, leaders of America’s two most prominent transportation research agencies, share their insights on the nation’s mobility…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
From BAC to THC: How the impaired driving danger is evolving.
The latest statistics tell us that while driving drunk has become a bit less common, driving high is more prevalent than ever. As Senior Research Scientist…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Can We Talk? How meaningful engagement can create public support for transportation projects.
The idea of engaging the public on decisions about how to spend public transportation dollars seems perfectly reasonable, but it’s not how things were always…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Charging Ahead: How electric trucks can re-shape the freight and delivery industry.
The electrification of the medium- and large-truck fleet is driven by both business interests and climate concerns, and it’s boosted by leaps in battery and…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Ready or Not, Here They Come: Preparing for the electric vehicle transformation.
The number of electric cars and trucks on our roadways is growing, and the pace of that growth is accelerating. Are we ready for that? TTI Assistant Director…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
To Have or Have Not: When transformative mobility options are beyond the reach of underserved populations.
Travel for many of us has become more convenient, affordable, productive and, in some cases, more enjoyable than ever. But not everyone enjoys the benefits of…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Raising Them Right: Cultivating the next generation of transportation professionals.
Just as roads and bridges need regular reinforcement, so too do the professionals who help us travel safely and smoothly on our transportation network. Senior…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
What We Think, We Become: How traffic safety knowledge influences driver behavior.
Whatever occupies our thoughts can influence our performance on the road. In this episode, Senior Research Scientist Katie Womack takes a close look at our…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
When Captives Become Cargo: How transportation professionals can disrupt human trafficking.
An efficient transportation network is central to the success of any commercial enterprise, including those that aren’t legal. Our roads and bridges enable the…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
There’s Danger Afoot: Death by walking remains a chronic roadway safety issue.
Cars and pedestrians have been sharing space on city streets for more than a century, and traveling on foot remains as dangerous as it’s ever been. Associate…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: COVID-19 made traffic congestion disappear, but not for long.
America’s worst public health crisis in a century gave us a short-lived gridlock hiatus, as TTI Research Fellow Tim Lomax explains. The pandemic also amplified…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Shaking Up the System: Using disruptive technologies to create safer roads.
Roadway safety today is about much more than traffic laws, warning signs, and guardrails. TTI Senior Research Scientist Sue Chrysler illustrates how…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Half the Wheels and Eight Times the Danger: Roadways are safer these days, unless you ride a motorcycle.
Passenger vehicle fatalities in the United States have declined recently, but not motorcyclist deaths, which total about 5,000 each year. Some reasons for that…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Hey, Where’s My Amazon Order? Promises of super-fast delivery are straining our transportation system.
The pandemic and a record-setting holiday shopping season made 2020 a year like no other for the freight and delivery industry. TTI Senior Research Engineer…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Ante Up. Are all road users paying their fair share?
Not all classes of vehicles are created equal, because they aren’t charged uniformly for how they use our transportation network. Associate Research Scientist…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor. Celebrating 20 years of improved young driver safety.
Car crashes have long been the leading cause of serious injury for people under age 25 in America, and in most years the top cause of death for teenagers…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Good News, Bad News. A better grade for America’s infrastructure, but still no bragging rights.
American roads and bridges get us to where we live, learn, work, shop, and play. And that network has needed repair for a while, now. TTI experts Edith…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Policy, Priorities, and Possibilities. What might we see from new leadership at USDOT?
Presidential administrations and their appointees come and go, but USDOT’s mobility mission remains constant. Challenges span a wide spectrum from yesterday’s…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Promises, Promises. Turns out, building a self-driving car is a lot harder than we thought.
Autonomous vehicles were supposed to be more widely available by now, but they’re not. So, what happened? Those cars have to learn how to do more than just…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Does the Road Go On Forever? We can’t just pave our way out of traffic congestion.
Our 2020 experience taught us we can reduce roadway gridlock drastically in the face of a public health crisis, by reducing the demand for road space…
- Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Whoa, That Was Close! Can we prevent crashes from happening by studying the ones that almost happened?
Nearly all new vehicles have some degree of self-driving capability and internet connectivity. Every time one of those cars corrects a lane-departing drift…