TZD Traffic Safety Hotdish: A Roadmap for Traffic Safety Culture Research and the Road Ahead

July 11, 2024 Lea Burdette 2 Comments

Wednesday, July 17, 2024
10:00 – 11:15 a.m. CDT

As states and localities adopt a vision of zero traffic fatalities, greater attention must be given to communication, collaboration, leveraging resources, and applying a systemic approach to traffic safety which requires a change in culture among road users and traffic safety agencies. This change in culture is tied to education, engineering, enforcement, and emergency services.

This free virtual event will highlight the Traffic Safety Culture Research Roadmap, recently released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The roadmap (Research Report 1091) presents a path forward to promote traffic safety culture among state departments of transportation and other transportation safety agencies.

Dr. Wes Kumfer, who led the creation of the roadmap, will review its development and contents. Jay Otto will share example projects and show how they fit into research on traffic safety culture. Join us to learn how you can identify traffic safety culture research needs and get insights to take back to your own organizational cultures!

The webinar is free to attend, but registration is required. Once you have registered, you will receive an email confirmation with a Zoom link. The link should not be shared with others; it is unique to you.

Policy and Planning, Research

Rural Needs, Statewide Answers Webinar: Living in the Middle of Everywhere

July 11, 2024 Lea Burdette Leave a comment

Wednesday, August 28, 2024
noon–1:00 p.m. CDT

About the Event

The notion that rural residents live “in the middle of nowhere” perpetuates a negative narrative that is not based on the reality of community life. Modern life is complex, as we live, work, shop, and play in a wide region. At the same time, most of our planning is done at a city or county level.

In this webinar, rural sociologist Ben Winchester will discuss this dynamic and its implications for tourism, marketing, transportation planning, resident recruitment, and housing. He will also review an asset-based community development exercise that can help us better understand this web of regional activity as it varies by age and interest.

The webinar is being held as part of CTS’s Rural Needs, Statewide Answers: Improving Transportation for All Communities thematic focus in 2024.

Speaker

Benjamin Winchester is a rural sociologist with the Department of Community Development at University of Minnesota Extension. Ben has been working both in and for small towns across the Midwest for over 25 years. He conducts applied research on economic, social, and demographic topics surrounding the theme of “rewriting the rural narrative.” He recently received the international Rural Renewal Research Prize in 2021 for this work. Ben lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota, with his wife and two children.

Registration

This webinar is free to attend, but registration is required. Once you have registered, you will receive an email confirmation with a Zoom link. The link should not be shared with others; it is unique to you.

Please let us know how we can ensure that this webinar is inclusive to you. What accommodations or access needs can we help facilitate? Contact Samantha Hahn-Douville at snhahn@umn.edu when you register to help us provide you with the best access.

If you’re unable to join us for the live broadcast, a recording will be available on the CTS website after the event.

Questions?

Please contact Samantha Hahn-Douville at snhahn@umn.edu.

Materials and Construction, Research

New Project: Long-Term Field Performance Evaluation of Chip Seals

July 10, 2024 Malee Yang Leave a comment

Chip seals are an economical road surface treatment that MnDOT and counties use to enhance existing pavement performance and service life. A thin layer of asphalt emulsion sprayed on the pavement surface and mixed with aggregate chips can address minor pavement distresses and seal the pavement surface to reduce the impacts of further wear.

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Maintenance Operations, Research

New Clear Roads Research: Tools to Maximize Snowplowing Efforts

July 9, 2024 Lea Burdette Leave a comment

Reprinted from Clear Roads News, July 3, 2024.

By better understanding the time it takes a snowplow to complete one round of snow clearing and treatment of its assigned route, agencies can better adjust routes and cost-effectively allocate resources for the specific needs of a given service area.

This Clear Roads project developed a methodology for calculating plow cycle times considering road type, road width, weather conditions, traffic volume, and other factors. By using the framework for a map-based visualization tool developed as part of this project, agencies can use their own data to make real-time operational decisions.

Download the final report and two-page brief: Calculating Plow Cycle Times from AVL Data, June 2024.

Research, Traffic and Safety

Augmented reality could make work zones safer—if the tech works for the workers

July 8, 2024 Lea Burdette Leave a comment

From catching Pokémon in the park to viewing a new IKEA chair in your living room, augmented reality (AR) often seems fun and low stakes. But what if wearable AR technology—such as safety glasses—could deliver warnings to roadway workers when they’re in danger? It’s an exciting possibility that hinges on one key question: Would this type of system meet the needs of workers?

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Policy and Planning, Public Transit, Research

Dedicated transit lanes help attract riders, reduce carbon emissions

July 1, 2024 Christine Anderson Leave a comment

Public transit systems are instrumental for reducing auto travel and related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. But how much of a reduction depends in part on how transit lines operate—on dedicated right-of-way (ROW), in mixed traffic, or some variation.

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Bridges and Structures, Environment, Research

New Project: Species from Feces: A New Tool to Identify Bats in Culverts and on Bridges

June 27, 2024 Malee Yang Leave a comment

Three bat species in Minnesota have been decimated due to white-nose syndrome. The northern long-eared bat is listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the tricolored bat listing is imminent, and the little brown bat listing is under consideration.

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Maintenance Operations, Research

New Clear Roads Research: Identifying Environmentally Sensitive Roadways

June 27, 2024 Lea Burdette Leave a comment

Chlorides are effective deicers but using them can have environmental consequences.

A variety of factors, such as soil type, drainage, nearby waterways, and land use, can influence a roadside’s sensitivity to chlorides. By adjusting application rates or employing other strategies, agencies can lessen the harmful effects in locations where it’s needed most.

To help agencies identify which highway segments are most sensitive, this Clear Roads project developed a geospatial tool that offers an analysis of environmental impacts that can be balanced against other safety and performance objectives.

Download the GIS tool, final report and two-page brief: Using GIS to Highlight Highway Segments Sensitive to Deicing Materials, June 2024.

Reprinted from Clear Roads Latest News, June 26, 2024

Materials and Construction, Research

PFAS “Forever Chemicals” Can be Reduced in Highway Construction and Maintenance Projects

June 26, 2024 Lea Burdette Leave a comment

Taken from TRB Weekly – June 25, 2024

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of more than 6,000 contaminants of emerging concern that can harm both ecosystems and human health. These anthropogenic compounds contain carbon–fluorine bonds that make them stable and persistent in the environment, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”

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Environment

Ensuring Resilient Pavements in the Face of Increasing Heavy Rains

June 24, 2024 mndotresearch Leave a comment

Warmer winters and more frequent severe rainfall events in Minnesota threaten the integrity and longevity of pavement foundations. Understanding the impacts of saturated pavement layers can help MnDOT design resilient roads. An exploration into the relationship between climate conditions over time and pavement foundation stiffness on test road sections led to the development of a pavement foundation saturation prediction model. The model supports the production of a preliminary geographic information systems (GIS) based pavement vulnerability framework that can guide road engineers in prioritizing maintenance in at-risk areas to ensure strong, durable pavements.

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