Citation

Lemer A, Reichmuth W. APWA Reporter 2008; 75(7): 50-53.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, American Public Works Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article discusses the benefits of transportation public works research and the importance of sharing new developments. Currently public and private highway agencies spend lest than 0.7 percent of their annual budgets on research, which is extremely low compared to other industries. The author describes the positive results of transportation related research with the examples of Adaptive Control Software Lite (ACS-Lite) and Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR). Ground-based LIDAR allows operators to survey pavement and right of way conditions quickly and accurately. There are, however, problems such as the need for editing out certain objects and large data file size that may make LIDAR infeasible for some projects. The other new technology, ACS-Lite, adapts traffic light timing to fit the conditions of traffic demand thereby reducing traffic delays due to poor traffic signal timing.