How a Few Simple Measurements Can Identify Trucks With Superior Cab Visibility
During summer 2018, U.S. DOT Volpe Center engineer Alex Epstein, PhD, led a public demonstration of how to measure blind spots off of a large truck.
Roadways and Bridges
Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in a Federal Framework That Encourages Transportation Innovation
A “growing torrent” of technology advances are poised to fundamentally change transportation, according to U.S. DOT Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy Derek Kan, who kicked off the Volpe Center’s 2018 speaker series, Transportation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Predictive...
FHWA Workshop at Volpe Advances Knowledge on Performance Measures
Data-driven decisions can improve performance. The U.S. DOT Volpe Center supports the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Transportation Performance Management (TPM) office in moving FHWA and its partners toward a more performance-based assessment of the nation’s roadways.
How Much Time Do Americans Spend Behind the Wheel?
U.S. DOT Volpe Center Chief Economist Don Pickrell and a team of Volpe Center data experts recently completed an in-depth study for the Federal Highway Administration to produce detailed statistics on travel speeds and vehicle hours traveled that can provide new levels of insight into how...
This Long-Range Transportation Plan is a First for the National Park Service
To provide service-wide guidance on maintaining and improving various transportation assets, the National Park Service recently released its first National Long-Range Transportation Plan, a 20-year vision plan that a team of Volpe planners helped develop.
Exploring Future Energy Scenarios with the Freight/Fuel Transportation Optimization Tool
What’s the best way for raw fuel material to get to a refinery? Road, rail, water, pipeline? What emissions are associated with moving raw material and fuel? Environmental biologist Kristin Lewis recently talked about how a Volpe-developed tool can help optimize fuel logistics strategies.
Quieter Pavements
The National Park Service has 5,500 miles of publicly accessible paved roads in the national parks, and noise due to vehicles traveling on these roads is a significant contributor to anthropogenic noise in the parks. In many cases, emissions can be reduced by utilizing pavement wearing courses...
Measuring Traffic Performance through Innovative Low-Cost Solutions
Capturing travel data on commercial motor vehicles (CMV) is an essential component of improving and maintaining roadway safety. Through U.S. DOT’s Small Business Innovation Research program, one small business is addressing the limitations of current CMV data collection technologies with a new...
Awardees Announced for U.S. DOT’s SBIR FY17.1 Solicitation
On March 21, the U.S. DOT SBIR program announced 15 recommendations for awards for SBIR’s fiscal year 17.1 solicitation. The awarded small businesses competed in a field that included 106 proposals for 9 research topics. The selected small businesses are conducting important research, leading to...
Coordinating Emergency Transportation Response to Hurricane Matthew
When disasters hit, U.S.DOT deploys a team of emergency representatives to coordinate large-scale transportation responsibilities that come with massive emergency response efforts. One of these reps is Volpe’s Terry Sheehan.