Transit systems play an important role in connecting individuals who lack access to personal vehicles or the ability to drive to employment, healthcare, and recreational opportunities. Access to reliable transit systems is deeply personal to me. One of my earliest memories was running with my mother (more like my mother dragging me) at a Milwaukee,…
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Vissim modeling allows individuals to map various intelligent traffic management systems to stabilize traffic flow and increase traffic safety. Vissim is a microsimulation tool that models individual vehicles in the traffic stream, considering the actions of virtual drivers in response to other vehicles, the road network, and various traffic controls. Sain Associates built a Vissim…
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Formula and grant funding play a crucial role in the civil engineering industry, allowing for the development of innovative projects that improve infrastructure and support sustainable growth. Without these public funding sources, many engineering projects would not be possible. While infrastructure funding has typically been legislated on a formula basis, in recent years, we have…
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What does a fruit have to do with engineering? Well, in this case, it’s one of the first steps in the preliminary engineering process. The Advanced Planning, Programming, and Logical Engineering (APPLE) program is administered by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB). The goal of the program is to assist local governments in…
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In 2022, the United States Department of Transportation adopted a Safe System Approach as the guiding paradigm to address roadway safety. It recognizes that people make mistakes, and the road system should be designed to forgive those mistakes. This is especially true for wrong-way driving prevention – we must do something before people drive the…
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A few weeks ago, I was traveling out of state to meet my newborn niece for the first time. My wife and I encountered many rural roadways that needed some TLC along the way. To my wife’s amusement, my engineer’s brain could not stop noticing all the deficiencies of the roadways. Abrupt curves with no…
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Microtransit is a flexible transit service that bridges the gap between individual private transportation and public mass transit. It is a demand-response service that uses existing buses, paratransit vehicles, passenger vans, and cutaways enabled by various mobile technologies. Rides are scheduled through a smartphone app, traditional phone, or website. The goal of microtransit is to…
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Who doesn’t love to ride a bike or walk around their city? Have you ever thought about the planning that goes into making a street bicycle- or pedestrian-friendly? Historically, roads have been designed to get vehicles from point A to point B as quickly as possible, without a lot of regard for other road users…
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As a Senior Project Manager at Sain, I lead our transportation and sustainability practices in the Traffic Department to help communities plan for future growth. Sain’s approach is to take a look at the community as a whole to map out a plan that will include transportation analysis to shape a community’s future growth and…
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If you’re like me, when you hear the word “diet,” your first reaction isn’t the thought…sign me up! However, in transportation, it may often be an easy solution that provides a favorable outcome for all involved. A “Road Diet” is essentially a reallocation of space on an existing roadway to better meet the needs of…
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