U of M hosts USDOT town hall discussion on U.S. transportation policy

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs on January 25 for the second stop of a nationwide listening tour on transportation policy. Secretary LaHood and Congressman Oberstar, along with USDOT administrators, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, and several local transportation leaders, led a town hall-style meeting to solicit views on ways to improve transportation programs as federal lawmakers craft the next big surface transportation bill. The event was hosted by the Humphrey Institute and CTS in cooperation with the USDOT.

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State's roads aim for low-salt diet

Star Tribune, January 2, 2010

Amid rising concern over the effects that road salt has on Minnesota's lakes, streams and groundwater, public works officials around the state are whipping up new brews to spread on pavement. University of Minnesota researchers have estimated that 350,000 tons of salt are used in the metro area each year.

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Smarter snowplows

UMNews, December 2009

U researchers are developing technology that may make life easier for snowplow drivers. An enhanced friction-measurement system helps to determine exactly where slippery patches are on roads so that salt and sand can be targeted to those areas. U researchers Rajesh Rajamani, Lee Alexander, and Gurkan Erdogan are developing the system for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

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Webinar: Transitways and Regional Labor Market Accessibility

CTS Research Seminar, February 4, 2010, 8:45 a.m.–9:45 a.m., 1130 Mechanical Engineering

Yingling Fan, Assistant Professor, Regional Planning and Policy, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota

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CTS Winter Luncheon: Human factors and the design of safer roads

Human factors expert Alison Smiley, the keynote speaker at the CTS Winter Luncheon on February 9, will explore the connection between human factors and road safety using examples of human limitations, how these contribute to crashes, and how they can be considered explicitly in road design policy and countermeasures, such as protected left turns. The Winter Luncheon is sponsored by the ITS Institute.

More about the CTS Winter Luncheon

Webinar: Crack and Concrete Deck Sealant Performance

CTS Research Seminar, February 17, 2010, 2:45 p.m.–3:45 p.m ., Room 101 Walter Library

Arturo Schultz, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota

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Annual Freight and Logistics Symposium offers view of challenges in post-recovery economy

Jim Butts

Representatives from the business community, academia, and the public sector gathered December 4 for the 13th Annual Freight and Logistics Symposium. Panel presentations focused on a big-picture perspective of the system after recovery as well as implications for Minnesota. In addition, presenters discussed how federal policy and funding could affect the freight system once the economy begins to recover.

View symposium program and presentations
About the Freight and Logistics Symposium

Second-generation geospatial database to enable ITS applications

The University of Minnesota’s Intelligent Vehicles (IV) Laboratory, part of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, has developed a newversion of its geospatial database software. The newly optimized database brings the benefits of real-time access to extremely accurate and dense geospatial data to a wider variety of ITS applications. The new system was developed by IV Lab researchers Bryan Newstrom and Curtis Olson, who documented the process in a recently published report; lab director Craig Shankwitz served as principal investigator on the project.

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Recycled materials: How do they measure up?

University of Minnesota researchers have completed a pair of studies examining the economic and behavioral impacts of the Hiawatha light-rail transitway in Minneapolis. Research briefs highlighting findings from the study are now available, and will soon be followed by full research reports. The research, part of the CTS Transitway Impacts Research Program (TIRP), was conducted by Edward Goetz and Jeff Mattson of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and by Jason Cao of the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

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