AASHTO Urges Timely Passage of 2019 Transportation Funding
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSThe American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials sent a letter to Senate and House of Representative leaders on Aug. 21 to support the passage of the fiscal year 2019 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development or THUD appropriations bill – emphasizing highway formula funding provided in the House’s version of the THUD bill should […]
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NSC Data Indicates Traffic Fatalities are ‘Leveling Off’
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSPhoto: NTSB. Preliminary estimates from the National Safety Council indicate the recent upward trend in motor vehicle deaths is leveling off, with the number of fatalities in the first six months of 2018 dipping slightly – less than 0.5 percent – compared to the first six months of 2017 even as vehicle miles traveled continues to increase. The […]
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Caption: Satellite picture of Hurricane Lane. Photo: U.S. Navy. The Hawaii Department of Transportation engaged in a series of preparatory activities to pre-position personnel and equipment for storm-recovery work this week as the Trump administration issued a disaster declaration for the Hawaiian Islands on Aug. 22 ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Lane. Parts of […]
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AASHTO Announces ‘Faces of Transportation’ Contest Winners
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSPhoto: Caltrans. Two photographs and three videos won the top prizes in the 13th annual Faces of Transportation competition, sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Sixteen transportation department employees from 24 states and five private citizens submitted 88 photographs and 16 videos for judging in this competition. An AASHTO team […]
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FMCSA Proposes to Change Hours of Service Rules Governing Trucking
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSPhoto: Arizona DOT. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to revise four specific areas of current hours-of-service or HOS rules governing commercial trucking operations in the United States – change that could impact state department of transportation fleets, especially if those fleets use the 100 air-mile short-haul exemption clause within those regulations. The agency […]
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Study Validates Crash-Reduction Benefit of Wildlife Highway Crossing Structures
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSPhoto: Wildlife Highway Crossing Structure/Jeff Burrell A study conducted by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Oregon State University using Wyoming Department of Transportation crash data confirmed that efforts to protect migrating pronghorn deer by installing eight “crossing structures” in combination with 8-foot-high roadway fencing along a nearly 12.5-mile long stretch of U.S. Highway […]
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Winners Announced in First-Ever Transportation Technology Tournament
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSThe winning team, left to right: Mehdi Zamanipour, National Research Council; Joseph Vincent, University of Kansas; Britton Hammit, University of Wyoming; Rachel James, University of Texas. The National Operations Center of Excellence and the USDOT Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office co-sponsored a first-ever “transportation technology tournament” at the Institute of Transportation Engineers 2018 annual […]
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Survey Finds Consumer Reluctance Increasing Regarding Autonomous Vehicles
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSPhoto: Uber. A poll of 1,250 U.S. consumers conducted by research firm Vital Findings on behalf of Cox Automotive found that self-driving vehicles are now viewed as “less safe” compared to a similar survey conducted two years ago, with 49 percent of those polled saying they would “never buy” a fully-autonomous Level 5 vehicle, up […]
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New Study Says Taxi Drivers, Not Truckers, Will be Displaced by Autonomous Vehicles
editor@aashto.org August 24, 2018 0 COMMENTSPhoto: Embark. According to a new report commissioned by the American Center for Mobility and conducted by Michigan State University with support by Texas A&M Transportation Institute, “significant numbers” of fully-autonomous vehicles are not projected to be deployed until the latter half of the 2020s. At that point, “some displacement” of passenger car-based driving jobs […]
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The USDOT’s Office of the Inspector General announced on Aug. 20 that it would audit the Federal Aviation Administration in terms of its compliance with the Buy American Act and FAA-specific “Buy American” provisions when purchasing manufactured goods and equipment, steel, and other construction supplies in the United States. The OIG said this audit comes […]
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