September 12, 2023 • 32 mins
It’s been said that all politics is local. Given the unique nature of major population centers everywhere, the same could be said for transportation.
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Bernie Fette (00:16):
Hello and welcome to Thinking Transportation --
Conversations about how we getourselves and the things we
need from one place to another.
I'm Bernie Fette with the TexasA&M Transportation Institute.
Major population centersthroughout Texas share certain
things in common. For one, theyall have a requirement for
(00:38):
efficient mobility, a networkthat allows for the smooth
movement of people and productsfrom point A to point B. But
it's in the details of thatneed where we find
distinctions. Each city'stransportation problems are
unique. What makes for a goodfix in one place won't
(00:59):
necessarily work as well in adifferent place. And that's why
TTI has an active presence inall of the major population
centers in Texas. JasonCrawford is a research engineer
at TTI and the head of theresearch and implementation
division at the agency. Jason ,thank you for doing this.
Jason Crawford (01:19):
Thank you, Bernie.
Bernie Fette (01:21):
So TTI has been doing transportation research
-- problem solving for some 70years, and from the very first
days, our headquarters hasalways been at Texas A&M
University. But at some pointsomebody said, you know, we
really need to put some peopleon the ground in some of these
other places, these growingcities, apart from our
(01:44):
headquarters location. Can youtell us a little about how that
branching out started and maybewhy it was started?
Jason Crawford (01:51):
Yeah, I sure can. Actually, our first office
outside of the Texas A&MUniversity campus was in
Houston in 1963. Dr. DickMcCasland set that up for TTI
and we went down there to studyhighway operations,
specifically on the GulfFreeway. And then we used
(02:13):
moving picture technology tocapture what was going on with
traffic so we could observe itactually moving. And Bernie ,
our Houston office inparticular, that office has
played a pivotal role insupporting the development of
the regional traffic managementcenter called Houston TranStar.
(02:35):
That's a very unique trafficmanagement center in that it is
a cooperative trafficmanagement center between the
Houston district of the TexasDepartment of Transportation,
Harris County, the City ofHouston, and then Houston
Metro. And the work that we'vedone there is helping with a
(02:57):
wide array of softwareapplications to monitor traffic
and then to display to thepublic what those traffic
conditions are. A recentdevelopment that we have added
to Houston TransStar is ourroadway flood warning system
where we use information onrainfall from the Harris County
(03:19):
Flood District and informationfrom TxDOT Houston with sensors
located all over the region towarn motorists where roadways
are starting to flood. In fact,that work has been so
successful that the TexasDepartment of Transportation is
looking to expand thatstatewide to different areas,
(03:42):
obviously along the coast whereflooding can be more
predominant, especially withhurricanes, but also in Austin,
San Antonio or Dallas with ourrivers, and that we have
flooding there. When I talkabout hurricane evacuation,
that's actually something thatthe Houston office has also
been involved with, not only inHouston but along the Gulf
(04:04):
Coast. And with that , uh, theyevaluate hurricane evacuation
routes. They work with ArmyCorps of Engineers, the Texas
Department of Public Safety,Texas Department of Emergency
Management on what theresponses are and how to
effectively get people out ofthe Gulf Coast area when a
(04:25):
hurricane is bearing down. Oursecond office that we opened
was in Dallas in 1968, and thatwas at that time to help with
some new technologies on US 75or North Central Expressway
with one of the first evertraffic control systems for
highways. Recently, a fewthings that our Dallas office
(04:48):
is involved with has been anevaluation of integrating the
traffic app Waze into theTraffic Management Center. If
people have used the Waze appon their phone, they know that
they are using crowdsourcedinformation. That being, when I
go down the road and I see ahazard, I can use my phone or
(05:11):
my Android CarPlay or some typeof device in the car to issue a
notice that there's a hazard,could be debris, could be an
animal, maybe a crash. Thatinformation goes to Waze. And
in our evaluation, we broughtthat Waze information into the
Traffic Management Center,DalTrans, and there we found
(05:36):
that Waze for detecting crashesand for detecting road hazards,
the majority of the time it wasabout 10 to 15 minutes faster
than our traditional methods inthe traffic management centers
for detecting both crashes androad hazards. And that has huge
(05:57):
implications in terms oftraffic management center
operators using this additionaldata source to better monitor
our roadways, not only inDallas, but in every major city
where we have a trafficmanagement center. Another
project to show kind of somediversity in what we do -- We
have been working on somethingto extract information from
(06:21):
crash reports, official recordsthat are submitted to the Texas
Department of Transportationwhenever there's a crash. And
immediately you think a vehiclecrash, but also it's vehicles
versus pedestrians orbicyclists in that form, most
of the information can easilybe put into a database. But the
most important part of the datais a written narrative from the
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officer recording what actuallyhappened leading up to the
event of the crash. And whatwe're doing there is we're
using natural languageprocessing, computer vision and
machine learning to extractfrom this narrative based
description of the event tokind of rebuild and put some
context behind what the crashwas as opposed to how many
(07:08):
lanes were on the roadway, wasit lit, was it dark? Those are
important pieces, but they'renot all of the story for
understanding how a specificcrash occurred.
Bernie Fette (07:19):
Okay. You and your colleagues have a presence
in all of the major cities inTexas. How much of the work
that you are doing or have donein each place you might say is
common to all or most of theother big cities? And how much
of that work is distinct to aparticular region?
Jason Crawford (07:39):
I would say for most of the work that we're
doing in our urban officelocations around the state of
Texas, there's morecommonalities to it than
distinctness. There isdistinctness in the way that a
region or a metropolitan areahas certain issues, problems
with the transportation systemthat may require very unique
(08:03):
solutions. But one of thethings that we deal with in all
of the areas is congestion andhow we are able to monitor that
congestion and then bringsolutions to try to relieve
that congestion.
Bernie Fette (08:20):
I suppose that's just one of the common things
that we could expect. We've gotgrowing cities all over Texas.
And so those challenges for youand your staff are gonna be
growing in terms of how to helpmanage that growth on the
roadways?
Jason Crawford (08:32):
Yes , and we do that with our sponsors in the
regions. Mm-hmm.Typically in our urban offices,
we have a very strongrelationship with the local
Texas Department ofTransportation District office,
as well as sometimes withcities and regional transit
agencies, and then alsosometimes with metropolitan
(08:54):
planning organizations that arein the region.
Bernie Fette (08:57):
Let's, if we could, look at a little bit
closer at each of those areaswhere you and your staffs work,
starting with the one whereyou're based -- in Arlington.
What are you and yourcolleagues up to there?
Jason Crawford (09:08):
In Arlington, we've done a lot of work
historically with the freewaysystem, the highway system. The
office was established in 1986and is there to support both
the Fort Worth and the DallasTexas Department of
Transportation districts. Mostrecently in the Arlington
office, we've been focused onevaluating wrong-way, driving
(09:33):
with the Fort Worth districtand trying to evaluate
countermeasures for wrong-waydriving, which is a problem in
Fort Worth, but in every othermajor city in Texas. And also,
one of the things that we'vebeen doing since the mid 2000s
is helping the Fort Worthdistrict on large complex
(09:58):
construction projects where weserve as mobility coordinators.
And a mobility coordinator on alarge construction project is
really an ombudsman. So weinterface with the district
staff, with the contractor,with the project construction
engineering inspection office,and the adjacent property
(10:18):
owners and the general public.
We try to identify problemsthat are coming up, work
solutions with the contractorand with TxDOT before the
problems become too big.
Bernie Fette (10:31):
What is it that makes TTI well-suited to that
role? Because it sounds likeyou're playing a bit of a
liaison or fulfilling the needsof a liaison between the
operating agency and the manystakeholder groups in the area
that represent the users of thetransportation system. I'm ,
I'm wondering what positionsour agency so appropriately to
(10:56):
be in that role.
Jason Crawford (10:57):
Really, it's an impartial third party with
technical knowledge. So asproblems come up, we really
don't have an interest ineither way things go besides
trying to solve a problem.
We're not biased, say with achange order and making more
(11:21):
money on the constructionproject. We're not biased in a
way where we're designinganything. That's not what we
do. We're talking aboutsolutions and trying to bring
people together and work outwhat the best solution is for
the project. That's really ourgoal is always to put the
project first and the solutionsthat would help both the
(11:44):
traveling motorists and the uh, property owners and residents
near those projects.
Bernie Fette (11:51):
And ultimately the people who are going to be
using those new roadways.
Jason Crawford (11:56):
Correct. Yeah.
The daily users, every day,they are our repeat customers
in work zones, and so we aretrying to affect solutions that
will improve their drivethrough the work zone so that
they get through safely everyday . Sometimes issues can be
(12:16):
off the side when a propertyowner has a need not to impact
access, and you're trying towork the best way out to
reconstruct something near thatproperty or that business and
really not try to impact themgreatly. One of the phrases I
use when I talk with businessesabout upcoming impacts and the
(12:39):
pain of work zones, becausepeople do avoid work zones, but
they are necessary to provideadditional capacity or
reconstruct failinginfrastructure, is that TxDOT
really wants the businesses tosurvive the construction so
that they may thrive when theproject is over. And then
(13:02):
there's public benefit.
Bernie Fette (13:04):
You shared a really interesting example
there. Is there another examplethat could give listeners a
sense of the variance or justhow different a day in the life
of a mobility coordinator wouldbe?
Jason Crawford (13:19):
Well, a day in the life in the mobility
coordinator is one, you cannever really count on that.
It's the same. You could thinktoday is gonna be real quiet
and you could be out talking toproperty owners or working
through an issue with thecontractor that has cropped up
because again, a business orother property owner near a
(13:42):
construction project oradjacent to it, when something
goes wrong, the solution andthe problem needs to get worked
on immediately. It's notsomething that you can say, let
me get to you tomorrow. And interms of a variance of things
that we do, one of the projectsthat I do assist with is the
(14:04):
interchange reconstruction forI-30 and State Highway 360 in
Arlington. And that project isvery unique because it is right
in the heart of Arlington'sentertainment district. The
entertainment district is thehome of Six Flags over Texas,
the home of AT&T Stadium, theDallas Cowboys, concerts,
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monster jam, rodeos. Um, it'salso the home of the Texas
Rangers and what was Globe LifePark. Now it's Globe Life
Field. And Globe Life Park isnow rebranded as Choctaw
Stadium and is hosting severalother sporting events. So all
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of these entertainment districtvenues are having events and
schedules, and we try tominimize the construction
impact around those.
Bernie Fette (15:00):
Because all of those operations, all of those
venues continue to operate andpeople continue to travel to
and from those locations, evenwhile you and your partners in
the operating agencies in the ,in the area are trying to
rebuild something thatfacilitates people's movement
(15:22):
to and from those places. Itsounds a little like you're
trying to repair an airplanewhile it's in flight.
Jason Crawford (15:31):
A little bit.
My analogy is actually one I ,I think people can really
relate to. Most people have along hallway in their house,
maybe separates living areafrom bedrooms. Mm-hmm .
. And what I talkabout is if they hired a
contractor to replace thecarpet in that long hallway.
Well , most of the time when wedo it, we don't require access
(15:51):
between our bedrooms and theliving area because if we did,
the job would take longer.
Right? There'd be moreinterference because we're
having to use that hallway. Inthe best world, that's what you
do is you just say, you havethe whole hallway, replace the
carpet. But with roadwayinfrastructure, we can't do
that. It is the hallway. Peoplehave to use it every day . And
(16:14):
so it's incumbent on us to doas much of what we can to
notify people of the impacts sothat it's not a surprise , but
for things that make it uniquewith the entertainment venues
kind of working around thoseschedules.
Bernie Fette (16:31):
And those are some of the circumstances that
in some cases are unique to aregion, but might be shared in
similar form with a lot ofother big cities across the
state. And that's a role thatTTI has been playing for some
time now. That goes back, asyou said, I think, to some of
the earliest freeways inDallas, right?
Jason Crawford (16:52):
Most recently we've started that work in the
mid 2000s, but it did originatewith work in our Dallas office
on the reconstruction of US 75North Central Expressway.
Mm-hmm . fromPlano in segments all the way
down to basically downtownDallas. Mm-hmm .
(17:13):
. And then the last projectthere was what's called the
High Five interchange at I-635and US 75. And that work that
we did really brought togetherkey stakeholders, brought
together project champions,brought together the
contractor, the TxDOT offices,and really worked towards,
(17:34):
again, solutions that came upas a part of construction.
Bernie Fette (17:40):
Let's talk a little bit about some of those
other areas and some of thework that you know of that's
going on there. For instance,there's Austin one considerable
distinction there being thatit's the state capitol and that
it's home to one of the mostgridlocked stretches of roadway
in Texas.
Jason Crawford (17:59):
We're talking I-35.
Bernie Fette (18:01):
That's what we're talking,
Jason Crawford (18:02):
Right? Yeah .
Our Austin office is involvedwith the Texas Department of
Transportation, both at theheadquarters level there in
Austin with several technicaldivisions, but also the local
Austin district. We've beeninvolved in some of the
reconstruction efforts andguiding those efforts for
(18:24):
mobility coordination andproviding, providing some
training and some third-partyreview of that work. And also,
we've been involved recently inthe past few years, looking at
different alternatives for thatsection of I-35 using some
teams both in Austin, but fromheadquarters and from El Paso
(18:47):
to evaluate some of thealternatives so that decision
makers have more or betterpresented information to them
from which to make an informeddecision.
Bernie Fette (18:58):
And it's those informed decisions that you
help them arrive at that canhelp save money in the long run
on these projects and help themget completed within their
envisioned timeframe.
Jason Crawford (19:10):
Yeah. A lot of that work right, is done on the
front end, evaluating thosealternatives. But then when you
get into construction, you hopethat it's a perfect world in
construction, but there'salways gonna be surprises. And
the surprises typically are thethings that are underground and
you can't see, and you'rerelying on old plans or some
(19:32):
current investigation aboutthose utilities that you don't
see that are underground.
Bernie Fette (19:38):
You mentioned that some of the work that is
intended to benefit thedecision making process in
Austin for road construction,that some of that work is
happening actually in El Paso.
Mm-hmm . ,because we've got staff with
wide range of skills and areasof expertise. But since you
mentioned El Paso, let's talk alittle about what's happening
there.
Jason Crawford (19:59):
Yeah. In El Paso, that office, I believe
was set up in response toincreasing border traffic
demands and congestion. Mm-hmm.
, that's still afocus of the El Paso office
working directly there in ElPaso and other ports of entry
along Texas and Mexico inmonitoring what that congestion
(20:23):
is using technology, some ofthe things that that office has
researched, but also thatoffice has some folks that are
involved in what's called multiresolution modeling. So in our
technical world, we have veryhigh level modeling that's used
to understand overall travelpatterns. That's travel demand
(20:47):
modeling. Mm-hmm.. Then we have something
several layers deep calledmicro simulation modeling. That
would be where engineers arelooking at the operation of
lanes coming together,intersections, modeling
different alternatives at thatvery small level. So this multi
resolution modeling is kind ofin between large regional
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models and very small microsimulation models. And that
multi resolution modeling iswhat was applied in Austin to
evaluate some of thealternatives there to then give
information to the decisionmakers on what direction they
ultimately chose.
Bernie Fette (21:27):
For rebuilding or expanding Interstate 35.
Jason Crawford (21:30):
That's correct.
Bernie Fette (21:31):
And the work in El Paso with the border
crossing time monitoring, I'mguessing must have extra
relevance now in the wake ofall the challenges that the
United States has faced interms of its supply chain
issues.
Jason Crawford (21:45):
Trying to get the trucks across,
understanding what those waittimes are is very important to
the decisions that they make.
Bernie Fette (21:53):
And some of the other work that is happening
there in El Paso also is beingapplied I think in Laredo where
we also have a presence.
Jason Crawford (22:00):
Yeah. Again, the monitoring for border
crossings can also be appliedthere in Laredo. It's another
big hub with Nuevo Laredo rightacross the border, and those
areas, again, are experiencinglarge growth from all of the
cross -border trade traffic andthat trade traffic with the
(22:21):
large trucks. And you're havingto be processed again at a port
of entry going to or from theUnited States, Mexico. It takes
time to be inspected. And sothey're dealing with that
congestion. Those areas alsoare growing like other areas in
Texas as population is beingattracted to those cities.
Bernie Fette (22:41):
Right. And San Antonio, you have a lot going
on in San Antonio. What are youdoing there?
Jason Crawford (22:47):
In San Antonio?
We've got a few groups there.
One that focuses on helping thelocal agencies, the San
Antonio, Texas Department ofTransportation District, as
well as other districts inSouth Texas, Laredo, Pharr and
Corpus Christi. And then alsowe have a group in San Antonio
(23:10):
that is dedicated to utilityengineering research. So when I
talked about in Austin, kind ofthe problems that get found
underground and can causedelays, that group is
researching best practices andhow to minimize those
surprises, how to understandwhat it is we're gonna be
dealing with in the relocationof underground utilities. And
(23:33):
then a third area in SanAntonio is the Youth
Transportation Safety Group.
They work with school districtsand universities to promote
transportation safety.
Bernie Fette (23:48):
And in Waco, which I believe is our newest
location,
Jason Crawford (23:52):
Waco is one of the newest locations that we
have. And we established thatin the 2000s. As I-35, we keep
talking about I-35, but whenthat went under construction in
the Waco district, we alsoprovided some mobility
coordination assistance becausethere were several projects by
(24:14):
different contractors, but theywould abut or they would
influence each other. And so wewere providing a level of
coordination between all of theprojects with lane closures.
And that work is continueduntil recently when I-35, one
of the last segments, not thelast, but one of the last
(24:34):
segments was finishing up therein the heart of Waco, close to
Baylor University, and then thevery final segment of I-35
through Waco has been funded.
And so we would expect that wewould be assisting Waco on that
in the future, but our Wacooffice isn't just limited to
(24:57):
the mobility coordinationeffort on I-35, we've expanded
that to look at safety in thedistrict using connected
vehicle data to understandthings like hard braking events
or crashes, understanding whatwas going on with vehicles up
to that point, as well as we doother work such as work on
(25:23):
human trafficking. Mm-hmm .
or work on snowand ice guides. So again, we
might be supporting the localarea with work that we do
that's there, that really in ,in all of our offices around
the state, we do work alsobroadly for other topics.
Bernie Fette (25:42):
Right. You've got these pockets of distinct
expertise that in addition towhat we might think of or what
our listeners might think of astraditional transportation
topics, there are otherconsiderations, other things
that are outgrowths of thetransportation activity in
major cities. One of them beingefforts to curb the problem of
(26:04):
human trafficking that youmentioned. Not necessarily
something that people wouldthink of in terms of a
transportation problem, butit's very much so.
Jason Crawford (26:13):
Yeah, it is very much so and and really
that project that we're workingon is to develop a toolkit for
those in departments oftransportation and construction
for them to be able torecognize potential human
trafficking. Our workers areout, they're on the roadways,
(26:33):
they see a lot of things. Theymight be at adjacent
convenience stores orrestaurants or fast food, and
the human trafficking occursalong our roadways. So the more
that we can raise awareness ofwhat the signs are for risk for
someone that may be traffickedand understand how we can be
(26:56):
involved to bring theauthorities in and maybe save
someone, that is a very noblegoal for what we're doing out
there on the transportationsystem.
Bernie Fette (27:07):
I'm really curious about what you think
are some of the biggestchallenges facing major urban
areas. We've covered a lot ofexamples in the urban areas
where TTI has a presence. Whatare the biggest challenges
facing major cities, not onlyin Texas, but beyond our state
as well? I'll put it this way,if somebody gave you a blank
(27:28):
check tomorrow and the onlycatch was that you had to spend
it on research implementationthat would have a relatively
high return on the investment,what would you work on?
Jason Crawford (27:40):
Well, I'll answer the question two ways.
The challenge that's facing allof our cities is growing
congestion, and that growingcongestion is a consequence of
economic shifts and economicdevelopment because as Texas is
(28:01):
experiencing a flow in fromother states, California, New
York, and others. Seeking astate with no state income tax.
Corporations relocating toTexas, they're bringing jobs,
jobs bring people, those jobssupport other supporting
(28:21):
businesses. So we have a lot ofeconomic benefit from it. So
the congestion is one of thebiggest challenges, but if I
got the blank check and I couldreally affect the
transportation system handsdown, I would put it on safety.
I would put it on safety forpedestrians, for school kids,
(28:44):
both pedestrian and ridingbikes. You know, Texas just
restarted school up in thislast week or so, and it's
heartbreaking to see on thefirst day of school an article
in the news about a child washit and killed on their
bicycle, on their way to schoolthe first day. And I don't know
(29:08):
if congestion and hurried livesand fast pace of modern society
is what does that ordistractions that we have,
whether that's in-vehicledistractions or distractions
from stress in our own lives.
But safety hands down issomething that I would really
(29:31):
invest in, not only for thosepedestrians, but even
motorists. We want every personto be able to go home at night
because they're a mom or a dador a son or a daughter, and we
just want everyone to be homesafe every night.
Bernie Fette (29:48):
You may have already started to answer my
last question, which is, whatis it that motivates you to
show up to work every day?
Jason Crawford (29:58):
It's the safety aspect, thinking what we can do
to keep people safe. Also, Iget a great deal of
satisfaction out of workingdirectly with our local
partners on issues where theyare looking to implement
solutions, and then thosesolutions wind up being put out
(30:19):
in our transportation system.
But it's really about how I cancome and think about the safety
of other people and how we canaffect that.
Bernie Fette (30:30):
Jason Crawford -- Research engineer at TTI and
the head of the research andimplementation division at the
agency. Jason, thanks very muchfor sharing your time,
Jason Crawford (30:41):
Bernie, thank you very much. It was a
pleasure to visit with youtoday.
Bernie Fette (30:46):
It was Tip O'Neill, a former speaker of
the U. S. House ofRepresentatives, who was
famously known to say in the1980s: All politics is local.
We could make the same argumentabout transportation. Few
things tie communities togethermore practically or profoundly
than their mobility systems.
(31:06):
And no two of those systems areexactly alike. That reality
will always be at thefoundation of the work that's
done through TTIs regionalservice centers. Thanks for
listening. Please take just aminute to give us a review,
subscribe and share thisepisode, and please join us
(31:27):
again next time for aconversation with Mark Willis,
host of Road Dog Trucking Newson Sirius XM satellite radio.
Thinking Transportation is aproduction of the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute, amember of the Texas A&M
University System. The show isedited and produced by Chris
(31:48):
Pourteau. I'm your writer andhost, Bernie Fette. Thanks
again for listening. We'll seeyou next time.
Hello and welcome to Thinking Transportation --
Conversations about how we getourselves and the things we
need from one place to another.
I'm Bernie Fette with the TexasA&M Transportation Institute.
Major population centersthroughout Texas share certain
things in common. For one, theyall have a requirement for
(00:38):
efficient mobility, a networkthat allows for the smooth
movement of people and productsfrom point A to point B. But
it's in the details of thatneed where we find
distinctions. Each city'stransportation problems are
unique. What makes for a goodfix in one place won't
(00:59):
necessarily work as well in adifferent place. And that's why
TTI has an active presence inall of the major population
centers in Texas. JasonCrawford is a research engineer
at TTI and the head of theresearch and implementation
division at the agency. Jason ,thank you for doing this.
Jason Crawford (01:19):
Thank you, Bernie.
Bernie Fette (01:21):
So TTI has been doing transportation research
-- problem solving for some 70years, and from the very first
days, our headquarters hasalways been at Texas A&M
University. But at some pointsomebody said, you know, we
really need to put some peopleon the ground in some of these
other places, these growingcities, apart from our
(01:44):
headquarters location. Can youtell us a little about how that
branching out started and maybewhy it was started?
Jason Crawford (01:51):
Yeah, I sure can. Actually, our first office
outside of the Texas A&MUniversity campus was in
Houston in 1963. Dr. DickMcCasland set that up for TTI
and we went down there to studyhighway operations,
specifically on the GulfFreeway. And then we used
(02:13):
moving picture technology tocapture what was going on with
traffic so we could observe itactually moving. And Bernie ,
our Houston office inparticular, that office has
played a pivotal role insupporting the development of
the regional traffic managementcenter called Houston TranStar.
(02:35):
That's a very unique trafficmanagement center in that it is
a cooperative trafficmanagement center between the
Houston district of the TexasDepartment of Transportation,
Harris County, the City ofHouston, and then Houston
Metro. And the work that we'vedone there is helping with a
(02:57):
wide array of softwareapplications to monitor traffic
and then to display to thepublic what those traffic
conditions are. A recentdevelopment that we have added
to Houston TransStar is ourroadway flood warning system
where we use information onrainfall from the Harris County
(03:19):
Flood District and informationfrom TxDOT Houston with sensors
located all over the region towarn motorists where roadways
are starting to flood. In fact,that work has been so
successful that the TexasDepartment of Transportation is
looking to expand thatstatewide to different areas,
(03:42):
obviously along the coast whereflooding can be more
predominant, especially withhurricanes, but also in Austin,
San Antonio or Dallas with ourrivers, and that we have
flooding there. When I talkabout hurricane evacuation,
that's actually something thatthe Houston office has also
been involved with, not only inHouston but along the Gulf
(04:04):
Coast. And with that , uh, theyevaluate hurricane evacuation
routes. They work with ArmyCorps of Engineers, the Texas
Department of Public Safety,Texas Department of Emergency
Management on what theresponses are and how to
effectively get people out ofthe Gulf Coast area when a
(04:25):
hurricane is bearing down. Oursecond office that we opened
was in Dallas in 1968, and thatwas at that time to help with
some new technologies on US 75or North Central Expressway
with one of the first evertraffic control systems for
highways. Recently, a fewthings that our Dallas office
(04:48):
is involved with has been anevaluation of integrating the
traffic app Waze into theTraffic Management Center. If
people have used the Waze appon their phone, they know that
they are using crowdsourcedinformation. That being, when I
go down the road and I see ahazard, I can use my phone or
(05:11):
my Android CarPlay or some typeof device in the car to issue a
notice that there's a hazard,could be debris, could be an
animal, maybe a crash. Thatinformation goes to Waze. And
in our evaluation, we broughtthat Waze information into the
Traffic Management Center,DalTrans, and there we found
(05:36):
that Waze for detecting crashesand for detecting road hazards,
the majority of the time it wasabout 10 to 15 minutes faster
than our traditional methods inthe traffic management centers
for detecting both crashes androad hazards. And that has huge
(05:57):
implications in terms oftraffic management center
operators using this additionaldata source to better monitor
our roadways, not only inDallas, but in every major city
where we have a trafficmanagement center. Another
project to show kind of somediversity in what we do -- We
have been working on somethingto extract information from
(06:21):
crash reports, official recordsthat are submitted to the Texas
Department of Transportationwhenever there's a crash. And
immediately you think a vehiclecrash, but also it's vehicles
versus pedestrians orbicyclists in that form, most
of the information can easilybe put into a database. But the
most important part of the datais a written narrative from the
(06:44):
officer recording what actuallyhappened leading up to the
event of the crash. And whatwe're doing there is we're
using natural languageprocessing, computer vision and
machine learning to extractfrom this narrative based
description of the event tokind of rebuild and put some
context behind what the crashwas as opposed to how many
(07:08):
lanes were on the roadway, wasit lit, was it dark? Those are
important pieces, but they'renot all of the story for
understanding how a specificcrash occurred.
Bernie Fette (07:19):
Okay. You and your colleagues have a presence
in all of the major cities inTexas. How much of the work
that you are doing or have donein each place you might say is
common to all or most of theother big cities? And how much
of that work is distinct to aparticular region?
Jason Crawford (07:39):
I would say for most of the work that we're
doing in our urban officelocations around the state of
Texas, there's morecommonalities to it than
distinctness. There isdistinctness in the way that a
region or a metropolitan areahas certain issues, problems
with the transportation systemthat may require very unique
(08:03):
solutions. But one of thethings that we deal with in all
of the areas is congestion andhow we are able to monitor that
congestion and then bringsolutions to try to relieve
that congestion.
Bernie Fette (08:20):
I suppose that's just one of the common things
that we could expect. We've gotgrowing cities all over Texas.
And so those challenges for youand your staff are gonna be
growing in terms of how to helpmanage that growth on the
roadways?
Jason Crawford (08:32):
Yes , and we do that with our sponsors in the
regions. Mm-hmm.
we have a very strongrelationship with the local
Texas Department ofTransportation District office,
as well as sometimes withcities and regional transit
agencies, and then alsosometimes with metropolitan
(08:54):
planning organizations that arein the region.
Bernie Fette (08:57):
Let's, if we could, look at a little bit
closer at each of those areaswhere you and your staffs work,
starting with the one whereyou're based -- in Arlington.
What are you and yourcolleagues up to there?
Jason Crawford (09:08):
In Arlington, we've done a lot of work
historically with the freewaysystem, the highway system. The
office was established in 1986and is there to support both
the Fort Worth and the DallasTexas Department of
Transportation districts. Mostrecently in the Arlington
office, we've been focused onevaluating wrong-way, driving
(09:33):
with the Fort Worth districtand trying to evaluate
countermeasures for wrong-waydriving, which is a problem in
Fort Worth, but in every othermajor city in Texas. And also,
one of the things that we'vebeen doing since the mid 2000s
is helping the Fort Worthdistrict on large complex
(09:58):
construction projects where weserve as mobility coordinators.
And a mobility coordinator on alarge construction project is
really an ombudsman. So weinterface with the district
staff, with the contractor,with the project construction
engineering inspection office,and the adjacent property
(10:18):
owners and the general public.
We try to identify problemsthat are coming up, work
solutions with the contractorand with TxDOT before the
problems become too big.
Bernie Fette (10:31):
What is it that makes TTI well-suited to that
role? Because it sounds likeyou're playing a bit of a
liaison or fulfilling the needsof a liaison between the
operating agency and the manystakeholder groups in the area
that represent the users of thetransportation system. I'm ,
I'm wondering what positionsour agency so appropriately to
(10:56):
be in that role.
Jason Crawford (10:57):
Really, it's an impartial third party with
technical knowledge. So asproblems come up, we really
don't have an interest ineither way things go besides
trying to solve a problem.
We're not biased, say with achange order and making more
(11:21):
money on the constructionproject. We're not biased in a
way where we're designinganything. That's not what we
do. We're talking aboutsolutions and trying to bring
people together and work outwhat the best solution is for
the project. That's really ourgoal is always to put the
project first and the solutionsthat would help both the
(11:44):
traveling motorists and the uh, property owners and residents
near those projects.
Bernie Fette (11:51):
And ultimately the people who are going to be
using those new roadways.
Jason Crawford (11:56):
Correct. Yeah.
The daily users, every day,they are our repeat customers
in work zones, and so we aretrying to affect solutions that
will improve their drivethrough the work zone so that
they get through safely everyday . Sometimes issues can be
(12:16):
off the side when a propertyowner has a need not to impact
access, and you're trying towork the best way out to
reconstruct something near thatproperty or that business and
really not try to impact themgreatly. One of the phrases I
use when I talk with businessesabout upcoming impacts and the
(12:39):
pain of work zones, becausepeople do avoid work zones, but
they are necessary to provideadditional capacity or
reconstruct failinginfrastructure, is that TxDOT
really wants the businesses tosurvive the construction so
that they may thrive when theproject is over. And then
(13:02):
there's public benefit.
Bernie Fette (13:04):
You shared a really interesting example
there. Is there another examplethat could give listeners a
sense of the variance or justhow different a day in the life
of a mobility coordinator wouldbe?
Jason Crawford (13:19):
Well, a day in the life in the mobility
coordinator is one, you cannever really count on that.
It's the same. You could thinktoday is gonna be real quiet
and you could be out talking toproperty owners or working
through an issue with thecontractor that has cropped up
because again, a business orother property owner near a
(13:42):
construction project oradjacent to it, when something
goes wrong, the solution andthe problem needs to get worked
on immediately. It's notsomething that you can say, let
me get to you tomorrow. And interms of a variance of things
that we do, one of the projectsthat I do assist with is the
(14:04):
interchange reconstruction forI-30 and State Highway 360 in
Arlington. And that project isvery unique because it is right
in the heart of Arlington'sentertainment district. The
entertainment district is thehome of Six Flags over Texas,
the home of AT&T Stadium, theDallas Cowboys, concerts,
(14:26):
monster jam, rodeos. Um, it'salso the home of the Texas
Rangers and what was Globe LifePark. Now it's Globe Life
Field. And Globe Life Park isnow rebranded as Choctaw
Stadium and is hosting severalother sporting events. So all
(14:49):
of these entertainment districtvenues are having events and
schedules, and we try tominimize the construction
impact around those.
Bernie Fette (15:00):
Because all of those operations, all of those
venues continue to operate andpeople continue to travel to
and from those locations, evenwhile you and your partners in
the operating agencies in the ,in the area are trying to
rebuild something thatfacilitates people's movement
(15:22):
to and from those places. Itsounds a little like you're
trying to repair an airplanewhile it's in flight.
Jason Crawford (15:31):
A little bit.
My analogy is actually one I ,I think people can really
relate to. Most people have along hallway in their house,
maybe separates living areafrom bedrooms. Mm-hmm .
contractor to replace thecarpet in that long hallway.
Well , most of the time when wedo it, we don't require access
(15:51):
between our bedrooms and theliving area because if we did,
the job would take longer.
Right? There'd be moreinterference because we're
having to use that hallway. Inthe best world, that's what you
do is you just say, you havethe whole hallway, replace the
carpet. But with roadwayinfrastructure, we can't do
that. It is the hallway. Peoplehave to use it every day . And
(16:14):
so it's incumbent on us to doas much of what we can to
notify people of the impacts sothat it's not a surprise , but
for things that make it uniquewith the entertainment venues
kind of working around thoseschedules.
Bernie Fette (16:31):
And those are some of the circumstances that
in some cases are unique to aregion, but might be shared in
similar form with a lot ofother big cities across the
state. And that's a role thatTTI has been playing for some
time now. That goes back, asyou said, I think, to some of
the earliest freeways inDallas, right?
Jason Crawford (16:52):
Most recently we've started that work in the
mid 2000s, but it did originatewith work in our Dallas office
on the reconstruction of US 75North Central Expressway.
Mm-hmm .
down to basically downtownDallas. Mm-hmm .
(17:13):
. And then the last projectthere was what's called the
High Five interchange at I-635and US 75. And that work that
we did really brought togetherkey stakeholders, brought
together project champions,brought together the
contractor, the TxDOT offices,and really worked towards,
(17:34):
again, solutions that came upas a part of construction.
Bernie Fette (17:40):
Let's talk a little bit about some of those
other areas and some of thework that you know of that's
going on there. For instance,there's Austin one considerable
distinction there being thatit's the state capitol and that
it's home to one of the mostgridlocked stretches of roadway
in Texas.
Jason Crawford (17:59):
We're talking I-35.
Bernie Fette (18:01):
That's what we're talking
Jason Crawford (18:02):
Right? Yeah .
Our Austin office is involvedwith the Texas Department of
Transportation, both at theheadquarters level there in
Austin with several technicaldivisions, but also the local
Austin district. We've beeninvolved in some of the
reconstruction efforts andguiding those efforts for
(18:24):
mobility coordination andproviding, providing some
training and some third-partyreview of that work. And also,
we've been involved recently inthe past few years, looking at
different alternatives for thatsection of I-35 using some
teams both in Austin, but fromheadquarters and from El Paso
(18:47):
to evaluate some of thealternatives so that decision
makers have more or betterpresented information to them
from which to make an informeddecision.
Bernie Fette (18:58):
And it's those informed decisions that you
help them arrive at that canhelp save money in the long run
on these projects and help themget completed within their
envisioned timeframe.
Jason Crawford (19:10):
Yeah. A lot of that work right, is done on the
front end, evaluating thosealternatives. But then when you
get into construction, you hopethat it's a perfect world in
construction, but there'salways gonna be surprises. And
the surprises typically are thethings that are underground and
you can't see, and you'rerelying on old plans or some
(19:32):
current investigation aboutthose utilities that you don't
see that are underground.
Bernie Fette (19:38):
You mentioned that some of the work that is
intended to benefit thedecision making process in
Austin for road construction,that some of that work is
happening actually in El Paso.
Mm-hmm .
wide range of skills and areasof expertise. But since you
mentioned El Paso, let's talk alittle about what's happening
there.
Jason Crawford (19:59):
Yeah. In El Paso, that office, I believe
was set up in response toincreasing border traffic
demands and congestion. Mm-hmm.
working directly there in ElPaso and other ports of entry
along Texas and Mexico inmonitoring what that congestion
(20:23):
is using technology, some ofthe things that that office has
researched, but also thatoffice has some folks that are
involved in what's called multiresolution modeling. So in our
technical world, we have veryhigh level modeling that's used
to understand overall travelpatterns. That's travel demand
(20:47):
modeling. Mm-hmm.
several layers deep calledmicro simulation modeling. That
would be where engineers arelooking at the operation of
lanes coming together,intersections, modeling
different alternatives at thatvery small level. So this multi
resolution modeling is kind ofin between large regional
(21:10):
models and very small microsimulation models. And that
multi resolution modeling iswhat was applied in Austin to
evaluate some of thealternatives there to then give
information to the decisionmakers on what direction they
ultimately chose.
Bernie Fette (21:27):
For rebuilding or expanding Interstate 35.
Jason Crawford (21:30):
That's correct.
Bernie Fette (21:31):
And the work in El Paso with the border
crossing time monitoring, I'mguessing must have extra
relevance now in the wake ofall the challenges that the
United States has faced interms of its supply chain
issues.
Jason Crawford (21:45):
Trying to get the trucks across,
understanding what those waittimes are is very important to
the decisions that they make.
Bernie Fette (21:53):
And some of the other work that is happening
there in El Paso also is beingapplied I think in Laredo where
we also have a presence.
Jason Crawford (22:00):
Yeah. Again, the monitoring for border
crossings can also be appliedthere in Laredo. It's another
big hub with Nuevo Laredo rightacross the border, and those
areas, again, are experiencinglarge growth from all of the
cross -border trade traffic andthat trade traffic with the
(22:21):
large trucks. And you're havingto be processed again at a port
of entry going to or from theUnited States, Mexico. It takes
time to be inspected. And sothey're dealing with that
congestion. Those areas alsoare growing like other areas in
Texas as population is beingattracted to those cities.
Bernie Fette (22:41):
Right. And San Antonio, you have a lot going
on in San Antonio. What are youdoing there?
Jason Crawford (22:47):
In San Antonio?
We've got a few groups there.
One that focuses on helping thelocal agencies, the San
Antonio, Texas Department ofTransportation District, as
well as other districts inSouth Texas, Laredo, Pharr and
Corpus Christi. And then alsowe have a group in San Antonio
(23:10):
that is dedicated to utilityengineering research. So when I
talked about in Austin, kind ofthe problems that get found
underground and can causedelays, that group is
researching best practices andhow to minimize those
surprises, how to understandwhat it is we're gonna be
dealing with in the relocationof underground utilities. And
(23:33):
then a third area in SanAntonio is the Youth
Transportation Safety Group.
They work with school districtsand universities to promote
transportation safety.
Bernie Fette (23:48):
And in Waco, which I believe is our newest
location,
Jason Crawford (23:52):
Waco is one of the newest locations that we
have. And we established thatin the 2000s. As I-35, we keep
talking about I-35, but whenthat went under construction in
the Waco district, we alsoprovided some mobility
coordination assistance becausethere were several projects by
(24:14):
different contractors, but theywould abut or they would
influence each other. And so wewere providing a level of
coordination between all of theprojects with lane closures.
And that work is continueduntil recently when I-35, one
of the last segments, not thelast, but one of the last
(24:34):
segments was finishing up therein the heart of Waco, close to
Baylor University, and then thevery final segment of I-35
through Waco has been funded.
And so we would expect that wewould be assisting Waco on that
in the future, but our Wacooffice isn't just limited to
(24:57):
the mobility coordinationeffort on I-35, we've expanded
that to look at safety in thedistrict using connected
vehicle data to understandthings like hard braking events
or crashes, understanding whatwas going on with vehicles up
to that point, as well as we doother work such as work on
(25:23):
human trafficking. Mm-hmm .
might be supporting the localarea with work that we do
that's there, that really in ,in all of our offices around
the state, we do work alsobroadly for other topics.
Bernie Fette (25:42):
Right. You've got these pockets of distinct
expertise that in addition towhat we might think of or what
our listeners might think of astraditional transportation
topics, there are otherconsiderations, other things
that are outgrowths of thetransportation activity in
major cities. One of them beingefforts to curb the problem of
(26:04):
human trafficking that youmentioned. Not necessarily
something that people wouldthink of in terms of a
transportation problem, butit's very much so.
Jason Crawford (26:13):
Yeah, it is very much so and and really
that project that we're workingon is to develop a toolkit for
those in departments oftransportation and construction
for them to be able torecognize potential human
trafficking. Our workers areout, they're on the roadways,
(26:33):
they see a lot of things. Theymight be at adjacent
convenience stores orrestaurants or fast food, and
the human trafficking occursalong our roadways. So the more
that we can raise awareness ofwhat the signs are for risk for
someone that may be traffickedand understand how we can be
(26:56):
involved to bring theauthorities in and maybe save
someone, that is a very noblegoal for what we're doing out
there on the transportationsystem.
Bernie Fette (27:07):
I'm really curious about what you think
are some of the biggestchallenges facing major urban
areas. We've covered a lot ofexamples in the urban areas
where TTI has a presence. Whatare the biggest challenges
facing major cities, not onlyin Texas, but beyond our state
as well? I'll put it this way,if somebody gave you a blank
(27:28):
check tomorrow and the onlycatch was that you had to spend
it on research implementationthat would have a relatively
high return on the investment,what would you work on?
Jason Crawford (27:40):
Well, I'll answer the question two ways.
The challenge that's facing allof our cities is growing
congestion, and that growingcongestion is a consequence of
economic shifts and economicdevelopment because as Texas is
(28:01):
experiencing a flow in fromother states, California, New
York, and others. Seeking astate with no state income tax.
Corporations relocating toTexas, they're bringing jobs,
jobs bring people, those jobssupport other supporting
(28:21):
businesses. So we have a lot ofeconomic benefit from it. So
the congestion is one of thebiggest challenges, but if I
got the blank check and I couldreally affect the
transportation system handsdown, I would put it on safety.
I would put it on safety forpedestrians, for school kids,
(28:44):
both pedestrian and ridingbikes. You know, Texas just
restarted school up in thislast week or so, and it's
heartbreaking to see on thefirst day of school an article
in the news about a child washit and killed on their
bicycle, on their way to schoolthe first day. And I don't know
(29:08):
if congestion and hurried livesand fast pace of modern society
is what does that ordistractions that we have,
whether that's in-vehicledistractions or distractions
from stress in our own lives.
But safety hands down issomething that I would really
(29:31):
invest in, not only for thosepedestrians, but even
motorists. We want every personto be able to go home at night
because they're a mom or a dador a son or a daughter, and we
just want everyone to be homesafe every night.
Bernie Fette (29:48):
You may have already started to answer my
last question, which is, whatis it that motivates you to
show up to work every day?
Jason Crawford (29:58):
It's the safety aspect, thinking what we can do
to keep people safe. Also, Iget a great deal of
satisfaction out of workingdirectly with our local
partners on issues where theyare looking to implement
solutions, and then thosesolutions wind up being put out
(30:19):
in our transportation system.
But it's really about how I cancome and think about the safety
of other people and how we canaffect that.
Bernie Fette (30:30):
Jason Crawford -- Research engineer at TTI and
the head of the research andimplementation division at the
agency. Jason, thanks very muchfor sharing your time,
Jason Crawford (30:41):
Bernie, thank you very much. It was a
pleasure to visit with youtoday.
Bernie Fette (30:46):
It was Tip O'Neill, a former speaker of
the U. S. House ofRepresentatives, who was
famously known to say in the1980s: All politics is local.
We could make the same argumentabout transportation. Few
things tie communities togethermore practically or profoundly
than their mobility systems.
(31:06):
And no two of those systems areexactly alike. That reality
will always be at thefoundation of the work that's
done through TTIs regionalservice centers. Thanks for
listening. Please take just aminute to give us a review,
subscribe and share thisepisode, and please join us
(31:27):
again next time for aconversation with Mark Willis,
host of Road Dog Trucking Newson Sirius XM satellite radio.
Thinking Transportation is aproduction of the Texas A&M
Transportation Institute, amember of the Texas A&M
University System. The show isedited and produced by Chris
(31:48):
Pourteau. I'm your writer andhost, Bernie Fette. Thanks
again for listening. We'll seeyou next time.
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