A new study by civil engineers at MIT shows that using stiffer pavements on America’s roads could reduce vehicle fuel consumption by as much as three per cent, that could add up to 273 million barrels of crude oil per year, or US$15.6 billion at today’s oil prices. This would result in an accompanying annual decrease in CO2 emissions of 46.5 million metric tons.
Road markings are among the most cost-effective solutions to make roads safer. A recent study carried out for the American Glass Bead Manufacturer’s Association quantifies by just how much Despite only making up 23% of the US mileage, fatalities on America’s rural two-lane highways made up 57% of all traffic fatalities in 2009 — resulting in more than $77Bn in losses for that year alone. Moreover, a rural motorist is 2.7 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash per mile travelled than their urban
Overlaying a geographic information system with data from a new surveying system is paying dividends for Utah DOT. While building new roads tramways, metros and bicycle paths or installing smart systems to control traffic is the high-profile end of transportation planning and management, ensuring existing infrastructure and systems are serviceable and working is arguably more important. After all, at any given point the existing infrastructure will always carry more vehicles than new.
Sheldon Drobot, Michael Chapman and Amanda Anderson, NCAR, and Paul Pisano, FHWA, detail latest results of testing of a vehicle data translator for road weather monitoring and information applications. The use of vehicle sensor data to improve weather and road condition products, envisioned as part of the US Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration's (RITA's) IntelliDriveSM initiative, could revolutionise the provision of road weather information to transportation syste
