It’s always nice when simple solutions are found to very big problems. According to an article from the Seattle Times rumble strips on state highways has cut the accident rate by nearly 60%.

This is one example why we should all be looking for simple solutions for our clients’ and the public’s problems when we’re working on projects.

Here’s the link to the article State report: “Rumble strips” on state highways cut accidents by nearly 60 percent

INRIX, a company that provides real time traffic information to mobile phones, gps, maping services etc…, has released a report of the worst traffic in the US. Los Angeles, New York and Chicago are the top three most congested metro areas. They also make up 23 of the top 25 worst bottlenecks.

Not surprisingly for the most part the larger the metro area the worse the traffic. My own metro area, San Antonio, is 28th in size and 26th in worst traffic. Though, there are a few that don’t. Austin is 37th in population but is listed as 21st on the worst traffic list. Looks like opportunities for traffic engineers.

Check out the list and other reports at http://scorecard.inrix.com/scorecard/

It’s always important to tryout new technology. But keep in mind the benefits of old technology. And never underestimate the ability of someone to not do the right thing. Here’s an article about how LED signals at a signalized intersection may have been a contributing factor in a collision.

Did Oswego driver die due to LED signals?

What happened is that the city replaced the old style bulbs in the traffic signals with LEDs. On a snowy day in April the signal was completely covered in snow. Traffic on the main street continued to go because they couldn’t see that the light turned red. Traffic on the side road went when their light turned green. They were hit by the main street traffic.

According to the article, since regular bulbs get hot they melt the snow. LEDs don’t get very warm so the snow didn’t melt. Because of situations like this, us engineers will be asked to develop solutions so that it doesn’t happen again.

I, like most of you probably did, learned that if a traffic signal is out, then you should treat it like a four way stop. Whether you believe the accident is the fault of the city for not making the signal clear or the fault of the driver for driving through without being able to see a green light, this is one example of why we design the way we do.

What do you think? Whose fault is it? What could we, as engineers, do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

The 81^st Texas legislature ended its session at the end of May.  The legislature here in Texas runs from January through May.  It only meets once every two years.  Though there are typically special sessions called after it ends in May to finish voting on issues that it didn’t finish with during the regular session.

Several of the bills may affect us civil engineers.  Here’s a list of some of the bills, what they are about and why they might be important to civil engineers.

HB 55 – Cell phones prohibited in school zones
This is probably a good rule.  What we will see is the part that requires cities to post signs if they want to enforce the new rule.  Something we will have to keep in mind when working on plans involving school roads.

HB 300 – Sunset Commission Review
Texas Department of Transportation was up for review this session.  There were a lot of issues that could not be agreed upon.  They did decide to let TxDOT continue and finish the review in 2011.  In the mean time TxDOT will be preparing reports on personnel and business practices.

The Sunset Review is a review of a government agency to ensure that it is working responsibly and efficiently.  It is an opportunity to improve an agency by giving it an outside perspective.

This wont effect civil engineers right now but it could in 2011 when the legislature has reviewed all of the findings.  It could lead to a change in structure, funding, and focus as the agency realigns itself.

HB 2682 – Speed Limits
Cities can now lower speed limits to 25 MPH without an engineering study.

SB 229 – Design-Build
This bill corrects an error in HB 1886 from the 80^th session.  It allows for cities with a population over 100,000 to use design build for certain civil works projects.

SB 576 – Tax Increment Finance Zone Funds
This bill allows the use of TIF funds for more infrastructure projects.  This could add funding options for projects in a TIF zone.

SB 883 – TxDOT and Toll Projects
TxDOT is no longer allowed to use money from the Highway fund to back loans for toll projects.

Special Session
TxDOT was authorized to issue $2 billion in bonds.  However, their funding was reduced by $2 billion.

And one of the more interesting bills that were passed

HB 2553 – Off-Highway Vehicles
Golf carts, Power Wheels, etc cannot be authorized by TxDOT to be used on highways “with or without design alterations.”  However, it specifically mentions that farm and lawn care equipment are not included, so I can only assume that that means that riding lawn mowers can still be registered by TxDOT and allowed on the highway.  Though, I wouldn’t recommend it.

You can find out more at the following sites

http://www.legis.state.tx.us/
http://www.texite.org

Traffic jams are certainly not limited to Big City, USA.  Traffic problems are pretty much a given anywhere that lots of people live.  No matter where you live traffic engineers are constantly looking for ways to solve the problems.  Private companies are looking for ways profit by helping people through the traffic.  When you combine those efforts some interesting solutions emerge.

For example, South Africa has gridlock that can rival any American city.  To give you an idea; Johannesburg, a major city in South Africa has a population of nearly 4,000,000 people, the metro area is 10,000,000.  Pretoria, the country’s capitol, is only forty miles away and has a population of almost 2,500,000 people.

Recently engineers and private corporations have come together to develop a work around for those willing to pay a little bit.  Three companies: Cellfind, a cell phone locating company; Trafficnet, an online traffic update service; and Tracker, a vehicle locating service similar to LoJack here in the States, have developed miTraffic.  For 12 South African Rand per week, about $1.50, you can get live traffic updates.

Basically, they use the locating technology that Tracker already has in about 100,000 vehicles to determine the road they are on and the speed they are going.  Then send your cell phone the average speed on each road.  You can read an article on it called Say Goodbye to Gridlock.  Here are the links to the companies involved to read more. miTraffic Cellfind Trafficnet Tracker

Now for my two cents.

The Cons
This is certainly a bandage not a solution.
There will need to be at least one vehicle on the road that you’re interested in to get any data.
Could you save $6.00 a month by driving around traffic?
How fast exactly is it updated?

The Pros
This is a cheap possibly effective response to the problem.
The number of vehicles with tracking devices will probably consistently increase.
$6.00 a month is pretty cheap compared to the time you could save sitting in traffic.

I think the idea is a good one.  It’s a very inexpensive possible solution to the problem.  As engineers we not only need to find the best solution to a problem, we need to find a solution that is practical and cost effective.  Tearing up all of the streets and replacing them with the perfect design may be a great idea, but nobody is going to be willing to pay for that.  And nobody will want to put up with that much road construction.

We have similar technology here in the states.  However, it’s been my experience that it takes so long to update that it has never actually helped me at all.

Anybody here ever tested this system?  Know of any other systems that work well?  What about theories on things that might solve theses kinds of problems?