Skip to main content

US joint university team wins ITE’s transportation challenge

A joint team from the Universities of Texas, Wyoming and Kansas has won the first Transportation Technology Tournament organised by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The winning project set out to address what it called “non-recurrent congestion challenges” in Washington, DC, such as increased traffic on days when the Washington Nationals baseball team played at home. The team worked with the District Department of Transportation (DoT) to develop real-time traveller information systems to
August 28, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
A joint team from the Universities of Texas, Wyoming and Kansas has won the first Transportation Technology Tournament. The event was hosted at the 5667 Institute of Transportation Engineers’ (ITE) annual meeting and exhibit in downtown Minneapolis.

The winning project set out to address what it called “non-recurrent congestion challenges” in Washington, DC, such as increased traffic on days when the Washington Nationals baseball team played at home. The team worked with the 2134 District Department of Transportation (DoT) to develop real-time traveller information systems to give drivers more accurate travel times and alternative routes.

In second place, the judges chose Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo, California Polytechnic State University, for its work on pedestrian safety with the City of Detroit and the 1687 Michigan DoT.

North Dakota State University was also a finalist for working with the City of Moorhead, Minnesota, in providing train information near highway rail grade crossings.

Florida International University was also shortlisted for working on pedestrian safety in collaboration with the City of Gainesville, Florida.

The winner was announced at ITE’s Annual Meeting and Exhibit in Minneapolis. The tournament was organised by the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) and the US DoT. The four finalists were chosen from nine participating teams working with a local or state DoT to implement ITS technologies and transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) strategies.

The teams pitched their solutions to five judges which included Egan Smith, managing director, ITS joint program officer, US DoT and Arlene Kocher, division administrator, 831 Federal Highway Administration, US DoT.

After the presentations, the judges put forward questions to each team, which prompted them to elaborate on their innovations, consider alternative strategies and provide answers around procurement and the cost of their products.

All participants will now take part in local and regional meetings and discuss their proposals. In addition, the NOCoE intends to facilitate an additional discussion around the solutions with state and local agencies, industry leaders and potential deployers of ITS and TSMO solutions.

Related Content

  • Outsourcing security weakness for Sweden’s driver and vehicle data
    October 24, 2017
    The security of driver and vehicle data hit the headlines this summer in Sweden and its authorities are still dealing with the fallout. David Crawford reports. epercussions from Sweden’s vehicle data outsourcing scandal continue to reverberate. Transportstyrelsen, the government’s transport agency, came under fire this summer for risking the personal security of over five million motorists by failing to implement full security checks on personnel in other countries to whom individual work packages could
  • Project for protected bikeways launched in the US
    June 4, 2012
    Top transportation officials from across the US, including Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez, have headlined the launch of a new initiative to bring protected bikeways to six US cities at a national kickoff event in Chicago. The Green Lane Project (www.greenlaneproject.org), created by the national bicycling non-profit organisation Bikes Belong Foundation (www.bikesbelong.org), is working with Austin, Chicago, Memphis, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and Washington, DC, to support each city's deve
  • Arkansas opts for ClearPath winter weather forecasting
    November 11, 2014
    The Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has selected Iteris’ cloud-based maintenance decision support system (MDSS), ClearPath Weather, to provide state-wide weather forecasting services for improved winter road maintenance response. ClearPath Weather will provide AHTD with web-based access to high-resolution pavement weather forecasting and treatment alternatives at designated locations around the state during winter weather events. Additionally, AHTD will have available use of I
  • US congresswoman: ‘We must re-envision transportation’
    June 7, 2019
    Arousing call from Capitol Hill to the ITS industry was among the highlights of Day 2 at the ITS America Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. In a keynote speech, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said: “So, my friends, your sector has come to the forefront of what we need to be doing in transport and infrastructure today.” She urged delegates to visit members of the House of Representatives to talk about new mobility solutions. “When it comes to transport, Congress could use some intelligence!” sh