TRB - VibeWire Magazine

Design and Construction of Temporary Facilities in Streams and Rivers: Hydraulic and Hydrologic Engineering Considerations and Practices

Guest authors
March 9, 2024
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State departments of transportation undertake hundreds of construction projects each year that affect, and are affected by, streams and rivers. These projects include replacement and rehabilitation of bridges and culverts, as well as new construction a…

Advancing Gender Equity in the DOT Workforce

Guest authors
March 9, 2024
0

Women comprise only 15 percent of the transportation workforce, and this statistic declines in executive and leadership positions and does not reflect those who may not identify as men or women. For women of color, the numbers are even more disparate. …

Prevention and Mitigation of Surficial Slope Failures on Fill Highway Embankment Slopes

Guest authors
March 8, 2024
0

Surficial slope failures in highway fill embankments are shallow landslides that occur within the embankment fill, usually affecting only a portion of the slope’s height. These failures tend to occur after a vulnerable embankment slope is subjected to …

Advanced Air Mobility and Community Outreach: A Primer for Successful Stakeholder Engagement

Guest authors
March 7, 2024
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Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) includes the use of new aircraft technologies to transport passengers and cargo, typically on demand. The AAM ecosystem will initially rely on existing airports, heliports, and routes, but in the future, new dedicated facili…

Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Technology: Determining the Impact on State DOT Maintenance Programs

Guest authors
March 7, 2024
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Traffic control devices, markings, signals, guardrail, computing systems, communications infrastructure, and other permanent and temporary devices will likely each be affected by the operation of connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology. State…

Paratransit Fleet Configurations

Guest authors
March 2, 2024
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The increase in the population of older adults who are ambulatory but are eligible to use paratransit has increased the demand for paratransit service delivery. This growth has, in turn, led some transit agencies to move away from standard one-vehicle …

TR News 348: Fresh Perspectives: Artificial Intelligence Frontiers in Transportation

Guest authors
March 1, 2024
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AI technologies have fueled advances in autonomous driving and intelligent transportation systems, for example, enabling the public in Phoenix, San Francisco, and other cities to hail a self-driving taxi from their smartphone apps. Transportation profe…

Mental Health, Wellness, and Resilience for Transit System Workers

Guest authors
February 24, 2024
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Transit agency leadership must make a real and concerted effort to take the mental health and overall wellness of frontline workers more seriously. Leadership can play an important role by making a clear commitment and dedicating resources to address m…

Development of Clear Recover Area Guidelines

Guest authors
February 24, 2024
0

The clear zone concept for roadside design emerged in the mid-1960s as a single distance for lateral clearance that reduced the likelihood of an errant vehicle striking a roadside obstacle. Subsequent recovery area guidance that evolved over the next t…

Using Performance Engineered Mixtures to Improve Pavement Performance and Sustainability: State Experiences

Guest authors
February 24, 2024
0

To encourage adoption of performance engineered mixtures (PEM) concepts, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration offered various levels of incentive funding to state agencies to help offset the costs of additional shadow testing, data collection, and r…