Transportation

The Ins and Outs of Traffic Calming

Cut-through traffic and speeding issues on local roadways are two of the more common complaints that city engineers and public works employees receive from concerned citizens. Traffic engineers have developed a variety of strategies to help mitigate these issues. These strategies are known as traffic calming. Per the Federal Highway Administration and Institute of Transportation Engineers: “traffic calming…
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Evolution of Civil and Traffic Engineering

When Sain Associates opened its doors in 1972, the business consisted of consulting engineering services and land surveying. Many projects included site engineering for enclosed shopping malls across the southeast. Believe it or not, some of the mall projects from the 1970s are still in operation today, including the Santa Rosa Mall in Mary Esther,…
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Dothan Long Range Transportation Plan

Long Range Transportation Plans (LRTP) are an essential element of an agency’s transportation planning process. A traditional LRTP is a 20-year planning horizon vision document that reflects the application of programmatic transportation goals to project prioritization. Transportation plans are conducted at the National, Regional, and unit level for Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMAs). LRTPs include financial components…
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Did You Know? ALDOT On-Call Contracts

Did you know Sain Associates has many on-call contracts with ALDOT? There are many benefits of on-call contracts. First, they allow Sain Associates to work with ALDOT on a range of projects. Over the years, the projects have ranged from surveying to corridor and traffic studies to a broad array of design projects. Since a…
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5 Components of Transportation Planning

With the recent trend of increased integration between transportation planning and traffic operations, it is important for new traffic analysts and engineers to understand the different levels of planning along with the most appropriate tools and methods of analysis. As planning encompasses areas ranging in size from a few intersections to entire sub regions of…
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Roundabouts in Engineering

In honor of National Roundabout Week, we’re sharing a throwback blog from 2016! A few years have passed since it was last published, but one thing remains the same – roundabouts are a proven safety countermeasure because they can substantially reduce crashes that result in serious injury or death. Roundabouts can improve safety, promote lower…
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Push for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

There are over 1.8 million registered electric vehicles in the United States, a threefold increase from 2016. As electric vehicle (EV) batteries become lighter and the travel range increases, electric vehicles will become increasingly prevalent across the country. The rise in electric vehicles on our roadways has led to an increased demand for EV charging…
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Bicycle and Pedestrian Friendly Community

Bicycling is more than a practical, cost-effective solution to many municipal challenges. It’s an opportunity to make a community a vibrant destination for residents and visitors – a place where people don’t just live and work but an environment where everyone can appreciate the outdoors. Understanding bicycling and walking activity, preferences, and trends is critical…
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Big Data: Future of Transportation Studies

About a year ago, Sain published a blog discussing the use of big data as an alternative for traffic data collection during COVID-19. At that time, travel behavior changed, the number of vehicles on the roads had decreased, and peak hours were not the same when compared to pre-pandemic times. Since manually collecting reliable traffic…
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Superelevation – Know Your Transitions

Have you ever wondered what keeps a car from sliding off the road when you go around a curve? Or, have you ever noticed that it’s unnecessary to reduce speed for safety or comfort purposes when driving through a curve, even at high speed? The reason is superelevation.  Superelevation is the banking of the roadway…
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