Monthly Archives: March 2010
I was browsing TED earlier today (Technology, Engineering, Design), and found a few things I wanted to share. The first being a completely new road sign concept and I find it fascinating! It’s called the “Take Turns” sign, and unfortunately, due to the semantics of the English language, it may confuse you at first.
It doesn’t want you to “turn”, but to alternate vehicles when needed. Envisioned by venture capitalist Gary Lauder, the concept is half stop sign, half yield sign. When there are no cars on an adjacent side street you can drive freely, but if there are vehicles on the side street, all vehicles must stop and alternate, a la four way stop.
Perfect for scenarios where roundabouts would work but don’t fit! Continue reading
This morning I attended a virtual workshop seminar hosted by the ITE entitled “Traffic Demand Forecasting”. Focused on local modeling and surveys taken by transportation engineers, the workshop was very informative on what models and tools are currently being used and their effectiveness.
One piece of information that I thought was especially useful was the detailed focus of the “4-Step Method”. We all learned it in school: Generation, Distribution, Mode Choice (split), and Assignment. But it never occurred to me that one can obtain a pretty good (and quick) estimate by eliminating Mode Choice completely in an area with little public transportation. Ehem, paging North Carolina.
Another thing that didn’t occur to me was the concept of “blind spots” in traffic analysis. Sure it may seem easy to assign average annual daily traffic to a specific route, but route directness never seems to come up (how direct a route really is). Or how about sidewalk completeness. These are things that are hard to factor and difficult to anticipate.
Very informative seminar overall. Thanks ITE!
If you’re a member of the ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers), you should be pretty hyped about the upcoming Technical Conference and Exhibit in Savannah, GA that starts on March 14th. Because I can’t make it, I was very excited to find out that two of the seminars will be broadcast live over the web.
One seminar focuses on labor laws impacting consultants and the other explores local travel demand modeling and sustainability. If you’re a member, click here to register for one or both of the seminars.