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

  • US road safety continues to improve
    February 7, 2012
    Road safety continues to improve according to the latest figures from the US Department of Transportation. The recorded data shows that in 2009 the US had the lowest level of traffic fatalities since 1954.
  • Upgrade for Minnesota’s tolling system data integration
    May 31, 2016
    Following the US Department of Transportation’s Urban Partnership Agreement’s award to Minnesota DOT of the necessary funds to improve traffic flow on I-35W to and from downtown Minneapolis, Comtrol's DeviceMaster RTS 1-port was implemented to provide an Ethernet connection between all the toll tag readers along the I-35W corridor. The project consisted of retrofitting existing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes with technology that would enable single-occupant vehicles to use the HOV lanes. The toll lan
  • New York governor announces transportation enhancement funding
    January 17, 2014
    New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced funding of around US$67 million for 63cycle, pedestrian and multi-use path transportation enhancement projects that will encourage tourism and economic development opportunities across the state. The projects, selected via a competitive solicitation process, include the addition of accessible sidewalks, improved pedestrian access to public transportation services, construction of new bicycle and pedestrian facilities and the preservation and conversion of aban
  • 50 years of Cubic Transportation Systems
    August 25, 2022
    If you detect an air of celebration on the Cubic stand, there’s a good reason for it. June 2022 marked 50 years of Cubic Transportation Systems. While Cubic Corporation started 70 years ago, the transportation business began in 1972 and has since been nurtured and developed into a successful $1 billion enterprise and an established leader in the transportation industry.