Transportation Issues News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Warehousing Industry Increases Health-Harming Pollutants, Research Shows

July 24, 2024 — A new study shows an average 20-percent spike of nitrogen dioxide polluting the air for communities located near huge warehouses. And people of color are harder ...

Study Shows New Efficiency Standards for Heavy Trucks Could Boost Energy Use

July 18, 2024 — A new study suggests that the U.S. government's push to increase heavy-duty trucks' energy efficiency could encourage more shipping by truck instead of rail, reducing the policies' anticipated ...

Trust, More Than Knowledge, Critical for Acceptance of Fully Autonomous Vehicles

July 9, 2024 — While not yet on the market, fully autonomous vehicles are promoted as a way to make road travel dramatically safer, but a recent study found that knowing more about them did not improve people's ...

Study Reveals High Rate of Drowsy Driving by Teens

June 4, 2024 — A new study found that drowsy driving by teenagers is a common threat to public safety on U.S. ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:20pm EDT

Subtle Cognitive Decline Precedes End to Driving for Older Adults

May 22, 2024 — Even slight cognitive changes can affect an older person's decision to stop driving, according to a new study. The findings suggest that routine cognitive testing -- in particular, the kind of ...

New Transit Station in Japan Significantly Reduced Cumulative Health Expenditures

May 14, 2024 — A research team assessed the impact of a train station's opening on health expenditures. The natural experiment study revealed that a new mass ...

Child Pedestrians, Self-Driving Vehicles: What's the Safest Scenario for Crossing the Road?

Apr. 24, 2024 — Crossing roads for children can be a risky calculation, especially when the vehicles are self-driven. In a new study, researchers determined ...

GeoAI Technologies for Sustainable Urban Development

Apr. 15, 2024 — From heatwaves to pandemic diseases, the urban environments of the world face numerous challenges. Researchers are harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) and informatics to address emerging concerns ...

One-Third of Ride-Share Drivers Have Had a Crash on the Job, Survey Finds

Apr. 4, 2024 — Using a cell phone, driving while tired and driving on unfamiliar roads increased the likelihood of a ...

New Traffic Signal Would Improve Travel Time for Both Pedestrians and Vehicles

Mar. 12, 2024 — Adding a fourth light to traffic signals -- in addition to red, green and yellow -- would shorten wait times at street corners for pedestrians, as ...

Scientists Revolutionize Wireless Communication With Three-Dimensional Processors

Mar. 4, 2024 — Scientists have pioneered a method for using semiconductor technology to manufacture processors that significantly enhance the efficiency of ...

Improving Traffic Signal Timing With a Handful of Connected Vehicles

Feb. 20, 2024 — With GPS data from as little as 6% of vehicles on the road, researchers can recalibrate traffic signals to significantly reduce congestion and delays at ...

Determining Who Gets Blamed When Cars Hit Pedestrians

Feb. 13, 2024 — A new study examines the circumstances behind who is found at fault when cars hit pedestrians in an urban area. Results showed that the environment where the crash took place -- especially the types ...

Road Features That Predict Crash Sites Identified in New Machine-Learning Model

Feb. 13, 2024 — Issues such as abrupt changes in speed limits and incomplete lane markings are among the most influential factors that can predict road crashes, ...

Electric Scooter and Bike Accidents Are Soaring Across the United States

July 23, 2024 — In the crowded urban landscape, where small electric vehicles -- primarily scooters and bicycles -- have transformed short distance travel, researchers are reporting a major national surge in ...

Traffic Speeds Decrease When Bike Lane Is Present

June 3, 2024 — Researchers conducting a study at a high-traffic intersection in a Jersey Shore town have found that the installation of a bike lane along the road approaching the convergence reduced driving ...

Using Idle Trucks to Power the Grid With Clean Energy

Jan. 15, 2024 — Researchers are tapping into idled electric vehicles to act as mobile generators and help power overworked and aging electricity grids. After analyzing energy demand on Alberta's power grid ...

In the Driver's Seat: Study Explores How We Interact With Remote Drivers

Jan. 13, 2024 — Research is helping shed light on the important interaction between users and remote drivers that oversee the operation of automated ...

How Big Events Can Disrupt Public Transit Over an Entire City

Dec. 19, 2023 — New technology has allowed scientists to see how a major sporting event can disrupt public transportation in an entire city for hours before and after the ...

Using Machine Learning to Monitor Driver 'Workload' Could Help Improve Road Safety

Dec. 7, 2023 — Researchers have developed an adaptable algorithm that could improve road safety by predicting when drivers are able to safely interact with in-vehicle systems or receive messages, such as traffic ...

To Help Autonomous Vehicles Make Moral Decisions, Researchers Ditch the 'Trolley Problem'

Dec. 1, 2023 — Researchers have developed a new experiment to better understand what people view as moral and immoral decisions related to driving vehicles, with the goal of collecting data to train autonomous ...

Decarbonizing Light-Duty Transportation in the United States: Study Reveals Strategies to Achieve Goal

Nov. 6, 2023 — Researchers found that meeting greenhouse gas emissions goals for light-duty vehicles, which are passenger vehicles such as cars and trucks, is possible, but not just by increasing electric vehicle ...

Gaming Strategy Helps Plan for and Prevent Attacks on Infrastructure

Oct. 30, 2023 — As technology continues to advance, the likelihood of malevolent attacks and subsequent failures on society's critical infrastructures increases. Blackouts, water shortages, transport collapses ...

Strong Link Between ADHD and Car Crashes in Older Adult Drivers

Oct. 4, 2023 — In a study on the prevalence of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its association with crash risk among older adult drivers, researchers found that older adult drivers with ADHD are ...

New Study Reveals the Power of Railroads to Buffer Coal Plants from a Carbon Emissions Tax

Sep. 7, 2023 — A new study suggests that railroads are likely to cut transportation prices to prop up coal-fired plants if U.S. climate policies further disadvantage coal in favor of less carbon-intensive energy ...

Electrifying Heavy-Duty Vehicles Could Reduce Environmental Inequalities

Sep. 5, 2023 — If the region surrounding Chicago -- North America's largest freight hub -- shifted just 30% of its current on-road heavy-duty vehicles to electric versions, it would substantially reduce ...

Tracking Drivers' Eyes Can Determine Ability to Take Back Control from 'Auto-Pilot' Mode

Aug. 31, 2023 — A team of researchers has developed a new method to determine the attention levels of drivers and their readiness to respond to warning signals when using auto-pilot ...

Do Driverless Cars Feel Safe? New Study Shows Gradual Introduction Needed to Build Comfort Among All Road Users

Aug. 30, 2023 — While self-driving vehicles (SDVs) are being hailed as a solution for safer, more efficient roads, new research suggests some are not quite ready to embrace self-driving cars wholeheartedly -- and ...

Using Cameras on Transit Buses to Monitor Traffic Conditions

July 26, 2023 — Researchers have proposed a novel method for counting and tracking vehicles on public roads, a development that could enhance current traffic systems and help travelers get to their destinations ...

All-Electric Rideshare Fleet Could Reduce Carbon Emissions, Increase Traffic Issues

June 12, 2023 — Two major ridesharing companies have promised all-electric fleets by 2030 in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint. To understand additional impacts of this transition, researchers conducted ...

How Road Rage Really Affects Your Driving -- And the Self-Driving Cars of the Future

Apr. 11, 2023 — New research has identified characteristics of aggressive driving -- which impact both road users and the transition to self-driving cars of the ...

Prepare for Landing: Making Airports More Efficient

Mar. 28, 2023 — A team of scientists presents an original oscillating short-term memory model to study the dynamics of landing events at 10 major European airports. The model can estimate how landing volumes will ...

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Mar. 16, 2023 — Most cities don't map their own pedestrian networks. Now, researchers have built the first open-source tool to let planners do just that. Researchers have built TILE2NET, an open-source tool ...

America on the Move: How Urban Travel Has Changed Over a Decade

Mar. 1, 2023 — The most notable trend of new study on urban travel behaviors reveals that although private automobiles continue to be the dominant travel mode in American cities, the share of car trips has slightly ...