Thinking Transportation: Engaging Conversations about Transportation Innovations
Our ability to get from Point A to Point B is something lots of us take for granted. But transporting people and products across town or across the country every day is neither simple nor easy. Join us as we explore the challenges on Thinking Transportation, a podcast about how we get ourselves — and the things we need — from one place to another. Every other week, an expert from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute or other special guest will help us dig deep on a wide range of topics. Find out more: https://tti.tamu.edu/thinking-transportation/
Episodes
98 episodes
The Math Doesn't Lie: Roundabouts Make Driving Safer, More Reliable, and Less Technology Dependent
Roundabouts and other innovative intersections offer a number of advantages over more traditional designs, including improved sustainability, reliability, and resilience--and astonishing benefits to traffic safety for drivers. Amanda Austin, th...
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Season 3
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Episode 26
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40:29
Revolution Requires Evolution: We Need New Roadside Safety Standards for Electric Vehicles
In June 2024, TTI's Roadside Safety and Physical Security Team crashed a Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle (EV) into a heavy-duty guardrail at 62 miles per hour. When the EV blew right through the barrier, researchers were stunned. TTI Senior Rese...
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Season 3
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Episode 25
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23:50
Innovation, Education, Communication: TTI's University Transportation Centers
Administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the University Transportation Centers Program provides grants to college and university consortia across America. With an emphasis on innovating transportation technologies, educating the n...
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Season 3
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Episode 24
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41:14
Trending Teens: What TTI's Latest Research Says about Young Driver Attitudes and Behaviors
For more than two decades, TTI has championed young driver safety, preventing injury and saving lives through education, empowerment, and peer-led outreach. Supported by public- and private-sector sponsors, the Institute's Youth Transportation ...
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Season 3
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Episode 23
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22:53
Bridge to Everywhere: How to Keep International Trucks Moving While Expanding The Bridge of the Americas.
International commerce depends on trucks crossing national borders regularly, reliably, and securely. Ports of entry like the bridges connecting the United States and Mexico in El Paso, Texas, are vital to both nations' economic vitality. But w...
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Season 3
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Episode 22
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30:52
Virtual Degree, Real-World Opportunity: Texas A&M Online Master's of Engineering Offers Recipients New Career Options
Texas A&M University's Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering offers an online master of engineering in engineering degree design...
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Season 3
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Episode 21
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25:29
Long Trains Runnin': How Freight Trains Impact U.S. Communities According to a Recently Released Study Requested by Congress
On September 17, 2024, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a report following a study of freight trains longer than 7,500 feet and their impacts on local communities. Requested by the U.S. Congress, the report ...
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Season 3
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Episode 20
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36:29
EVolving Attitudes, Expanding Infrastructure: Electric Vehicles Are Charging Ahead Thanks to Public Sector Incentives.
The Washington Post recently reported that electric vehicles (EVs) now outnumber gas-powered cars in Norway, the first country to claim that distinction. The U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transpor...
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Season 3
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Episode 19
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50:21
Revisited: Alone in the Crowd: Long-haul truckers fight isolation through satellite connections.
With National Truck Driver Appreciation Week (Sept. 15-21) just around the corner, it seemed a good time to revisit our interview with Mark Willis from almost exactly one year ago. This is the week in which the trucking industry celebrates the ...
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Season 3
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Episode 18
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25:27
Celebrating a Lifetime Storyteller: Bernie Fette passes the baton to our podcast's new host, Allan Rutter.
This 89th episode of Thinking Transportation is a landmark event. Host Bernie Fette, who is retiring from service to the state of Texas after more than 30 years, is passing the podcast hosting baton to Allan Rutter, TTI's Freight Pract...
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Season 3
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Episode 17
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35:21
Not So Fast! Can driver behavior influence how speed limits are set?
Factors that determine speed limits on a given roadway have a lot to do with physical conditions along the route, but how fast drivers want to go figures into the equation, too.
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Season 3
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Episode 16
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29:44
Revisited: At the Intersection of Engineering and Psychology -- How a diverse team manages special event traffic.
When special events set new records for attendance, they tend to do the same for roadway gridlock. To ensure success, experts rely on the right mix of traffic planning and outreach.
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Season 3
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Episode 15
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24:51
The Never Ending Story? Why road projects take so long to complete.
Building a new highway involves a complex and painstaking process, one that begins years before the folks in hard hats and orange vests arrive on the scene.
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Season 3
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Episode 14
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29:12
Anchors Aweigh: How maritime interests occupy a vital link in the freight industry.
We rely upon waterborne shipping for most of the products we buy and use every day. We hardly give that reliance any thought at all – until something goes wrong.
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Season 3
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Episode 13
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26:17
Is Traffic Back to Pre-COVID Levels? That depends on where you live.
It’s not enough to know that traffic is bad and getting worse. We also need to know where, when, and why. TTI Senior Research Scientist and urban mobility expert David Schrank joins us to discuss the "how" of answering those questions.
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Season 3
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Episode 12
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33:04
Revisited--Exit This Way: Research informing upgrades in hurricane evacuation planning.
As the 2024 hurricane season approaches again, climate experts across the United States are predicting an especially active season, driven largely by higher-than-average sea surface temperatures. This makes ever more important the research and ...
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Season 3
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Episode 11
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20:05
A Two-Edged Sword: In-vehicle technologies can either help us or hurt us.
As car makers focus on protecting drivers and passengers, do their computer-based innovations really make us safer, or might they in some cases compromise our safety?
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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37:01
Bhatt and Winfree: Two industry leaders and their shared optimism for the future.
FHWA Administrator Shailen Bhatt and TTI Agency Director Greg Winfree reflect upon a wide range of mobility challenges and opportunities, with references to Star Wars, Dick Tracy and hair styles.
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Season 3
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Episode 9
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45:54
Will AI Help Us Realize Our Highest Hopes or Our Deepest Fears?
Artificial intelligence seeks to replicate the analytical and creative capabilities of the human brain. Perhaps that lofty ambition helps to explain why so many humans are leery of the idea.
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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32:10
More Transit Agencies Are Jumping on the Battery-Powered Bandwagon.
Cities working to become leaders in clean transportation are electrifying their bus fleets, and learning that the road to success can be a bumpy one.
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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28:47
Neil Pedersen Has a Question: Are we willing to stick our necks out?
The former leader of TRB may have stepped away from full-time employment, but he hasn’t stepped away entirely from the industry he has helped to guide for half a century.
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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46:23
Roadside Mysteries: When utilities pose unique challenges for roadway construction.
Every road construction project involves the hidden element of utilities in the right of way. That work isn’t necessarily as visible, but it’s every bit as consequential.
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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27:20
Is Public Transit Back to Pre-pandemic Normal? That depends on where you look.
The transit industry is better equipped to work through a public health crisis than it was before COVID-19. And even as it faces persistent challenges, public transportation continues to play a central role in everyday mobility.
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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32:22