Category Archives: transportation safety

Business Trend. Company Sponsors State Department of Transportation Road Side Assistance Program

State: Connecticut

Company: State Farm

What does the partnership entail?

  • Renaming the agency’s Connecticut Highway Assistance Motorist Patrol (CHAMP) to the CTDOT State Farm Safety Patrol

Is this new for State Farm?  No, it has Partnerships in 15 other states, including:Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania

Benefit to the state: State can continue providing the same…

Local Trend. Traffic Safety and Mobility Ordinances for Ride Share.

City: San Francisco

The municipal ordinance’s purpose: traffic safety & congestion

The traffic woes the ordinance wants to cure:

  • double parked ride share cars
  • swarms of ride share cars tackling urban streets to the detriment of other drivers

The muncipal ordinance proposal to begin as a pilot program icnluding:

  • data sharing by ride share
  • agreements on pick up and drop off procedures
  • possible curb designations for ride share stops

San Francisco Examiner | Mayor Lee to tackle Uber, Lyft…

Lege Trend: The Idaho Stop for Bicycles Heads toward codification

State: California

What’s an Idaho stop for a bicycle? Its what the rest of the world calls a California stop. A bicylce can roll through a red light, treating the stop or red light as a yield.

Have other states allowed for an Idaho stop? yes, Idaho

What support is there for allowing the roll through stop for bicycles?

  • bicycle injuries in Idaho declined by 14.5% the year after the law took effect
  • no evidence of an increase over time
  • increases bicycle traffic efficiency

California’s Assembly…

Lege Trend. Heavier Loads on Trucks. 5 Reasons Industry Supports it.

SB 1524 allows for heavier loads on big trucks when:

  • $5000 annual permit is purchased
  • traveling on a dwsignated corridor
  • within 30 miles of a port of entry/border

Supporters say:

  • anticipated 500,000 TEU increase in annual containerized exports of plastic resin
  • $100 Billion in new or expanded plant capacity along Texas coast
  • the rise in plastic resin is due to cheap natural gas feedstock
  • American Chemistry COuncil warned that without allowing for larger loads would harm the economic…

Business Trend. Self Driving Big Trucks with Zero Emissions.

Company: Einride, a Swedish start up

The product:  ‘T-Pod’ , an electric vehicle with self-driving capabilities that can carry 15 pallets of goods 124 miles while producing zero emissions.

What would be th eimpact to roads?  T Pod total weight of 20 tons when loaded down fully with cargo, which is smaller than most transport trucks

Tech Crunch | Einride’s electric self-driving T-pod is a new kind of freight transport vehicle

Local TREND. Solve Transportation via Tech.

Examples of cities solving transportation woes with tech:

  • France’s cities are using smart trains
  • Los Angeles is using smart meters
  • Toronto is also turning to Internet of Things (IoT) technology to ease its traffic congestion 
  • New Delhi is  partnering with Google India’s transit unit to “provide free train schedule and route information to commuters through mobile devices with Google Maps
 
 

TAMU TTI rethinking intersections. 3 key pieces of info to be informed:

Where do you need to go to study the best intersections for bikes and pedestrians? The Netherlands

What’s different about these intersections?

  • Cars top further back
  • Pedestrians and bikes are more in view for drivers
  • Bicyclists make left turns after fully crossing the intersection

Will this encrouage bicyclists in Texas to follow the rules of the road? ….

KUT | Texas A&M Showcases Dutch Bike Safety Lanes

TAMU TTI | Senate Committee Focuses on Right-Angle Intersection Crashes, TTI…

Local Trend. Alcohol Related Accidents Decline from Ride Share. + Read the related Bill

City: Jacksonville, FL

The decline in crash and arrest statistics noticeable decrease in alcohol crimes:

  • DWI arrests decined by 25%
  • Alcohol related crashes declined by 14%

Are there other reasons for the decline? Maybe. There’s no way to determine what is the cause of the decline nor is there a way to determine that ride share didn’t cause the decline.

Touted in the Jacksonville, FL article: Florida’s SB 340 establishing a statewide regulatory structure for ride share

First Coast News ABC…

FASTR. New Kid on the Block. Connected Car Data Security.

What is FASTR? The Future of Automotive Security Technology Research

What are FASTR’s goals? 

  • deliver precompetitive technological building blocks
  • to assist automotive manufactures across their supply chains
  • to offer multilayered security throughout vehicles to preserve data confidentiality, system integrity and system availability

What companies are members of FASTR?

  • Uber
  • Intel
  •  internet of things (IoT) provider Aeris
  • Rambus
  • Karamba Security

FASTR.org

SC Media | Uber, Intel and IoT…

Procurement Trend. 3 Benefits of Drone Inspections of Bridges via Land of 10,000 Lakes DOT

The State: Michigan

The contract concerning drone inspections of bridges: Beginning with a study to support the goals of saving state funds and getting more through safety inspections.

The benefits of using drones to inspect bridges:

  • see the bridge in real time
  • detect temperature changes in the concrete
  • the ability to inspect portions of bridges that are difficult to access

The cost of traditional machinery bridge inspections: $675,000 + traffic problems

The cost of a drone bridge…