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IMPROVING HIGHWAY SAFETY IN ALABAMA CONTINUES TO BE A PRESSING NEED ACROSS THE STATE. THERE WERE 967 LIVES LOST IN CRASHES ON ALABAMA ROADS IN 2024. MORE THAN 36,600 INJURIES, SOME LIFE-CHANGING, HAPPENED. Finding solutions to prevent these tragedies begins with using historical crash data to identify critical traffic safety issues and trends. The Alabama […]
The intermodal travel experience has changed significantly over the past two decades and continues to evolve. The broad adoption of digital technologies has altered how customers plan, book, and pay for travel and navigate spaces. Those that plan, build, and manage intermodal passenger facilities—such as airports, transit centers, rail and bus stations, and ferry and […]
The level of service (LOS) concept has been used for over 50 years by state departments of transportation (DOTs) in the U.S. for policy setting, planning, analysis, and communication efforts. Adoption of the LOS framework by individual state DOTs has generally been consistent with the Highway Capacity Manual, although usage and application may vary across […]
The Safe System approach is a holistic approach that provides a framework for making the U.S. national transportation system safer. It is based on building and reinforcing multiple layers of protection to prevent crashes from happening and minimize the harm caused when crashes occur. This safety approach differs from conventional ones because it focuses on […]
Transportation planning agencies and officials face a rapidly evolving technical, policy, legislative, and procedural environment. Agency professionals often seek the guidance of peers and experts to help them effectively address these challenges. Challenges include managing the demand for new transportation technologies and services within the confinements of existing streets, navigating the effects of growing e-commerce […]
On transit systems across the United States, rising rates of drug use along with deteriorating safety conditions for customers and staff have become increasingly pressing and complex issues for transit agencies to solve. Many challenges surround agencies’ responses to drug use on transit, such as inconsistent data collection and the low uptake of support services. […]
Enacted in 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) authorized and appropriated over $551 billion to the Department of Transportation (DOT) to provide grants to states, local governments, and other entities for transportation investments. As of April 2025, DOT has obligated 59 percent of its available IIJA funding and outlaid over half of that […]
A statistical projection of traffic fatalities for the first quarter of 2025 shows an estimated 8,055 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes, a decrease of about 6.3 percent compared to the 8,595 fatalities projected to have occurred in the first quarter of 2024, as shown in Table 1. The first quarter of 2025 represents […]
Culverts are buried drainage structures underneath roadways or embankments that are open at both ends and used to convey and transport water. They can often be vulnerable to accelerated deterioration when there is more frequent severe weather, which can lead to a suite of costly unplanned repairs, rehabilitation projects, or full replacements. NCHRP Synthesis 651: […]
Severe weather events can impact transit agency operations, equipment, and infrastructure. For example, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 destroyed the transit fleet of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, more than 300 buses. In another example, an EF-4 tornado in 2021 destroyed the fleet of the Fulton County Transit Authority in Kentucky. TCRP Synthesis 180: Transit […]