Western Transportation Institute

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/35

The Western Transportation Institute is the country's largest National University Transportation Center focused on rural transportation issues. Because we live and work in rural communities, we understand the critical roles rural transportation plays in the lives of people, in the environment and in the economy. We draw from our eight integrated research groups to create solutions that work for our clients, sponsors and rural transportation research partners. WTI focuses on rural issues, but some of our program areas also address the concerns of the urban environment. Whatever the objective, we bring innovation and expertise to each WTI transportation research project. WTI's main facility with its state-of-the-art labs is adjacent to the Montana State University campus in Bozeman, Montana. We have additional offices in Alberta, Canada, and central Washington, and a large testing facility in rural Montana near Lewistown. Contact us to find out how to address your rural transportation research needs.

Browse

Filters

2017 - 201912020 - 20221

Settings

Start date: 2012search.filters.applied.f.department: search.filters.department.Civil Engineering.

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Analyze Business Models for Implementation and Operation of a Statewide GNSSRTN
    (Montana Department of Transportation (SPR), 2022-10) Al-Kaisy, Ahmed; Teixeira, Rafael; Raza, Sajid; Meyer, Benjamin
    The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), commonly known as the global positioning system, has become one of the fastest growing emerging technologies delivering location services to various sectors. The applications of geospatial data span every sphere of modern-day science and industry where geographical positioning matters. The list includes navigation, agriculture, surveying, construction, transportation, forestry, mining, and many others. The accuracy and precision of geospatial data using the GNSS Real-Time Network (RTN) technology enable advanced applications in many fields where geospatial data is used; and open the doors for new applications such as the emerging autonomous systems in transportation, mining, and agriculture. This research project is intended to provide information that would help the state’s efforts in the planning and implementation of the Montana GNSS-RTN system. Four major tasks were completed for this project, namely; state-of-the-art review, state-of-the-practice assessment, characterizing Montana existing GNSS-RTN infrastructure, and identifying and cataloging viable business models for statewide GNSS-RTN systems.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Economic feasibility of safety improvements on low-volume roads
    (2017-09) Al-Kaisy, Ahmed; Ewan, Levi A.; Hossain, Fahmid
    This article presents an investigation into the economic feasibility of safety countermeasures along rural low-volume roads. Although these roads may be associated with higher crash risks as they\'re built to meet lower standards, crash frequencies are notably lower than those on other roadways with higher traffic exposure. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some conventional safety countermeasures that are proven to be cost effective on well-travelled roads may turn out to be infeasible on low-volume roads. Twenty-seven safety improvements were examined in this investigation for their economic feasibility along low-volume roads. A roadway sample of 681 miles of Oregon was used in this study. Detailed benefit-cost analyses were performed using countermeasure costs, 10-year crash data, and expected crash reductions using Highway Safety Manual methods. Around half of the countermeasures investigated were found cost-effective for implementation along low-volume roads. Further, most of the countermeasures that were found to have very high benefit-cost ratio are associated with low initial cost and many of them do not require much maintenance cost. At the other end of the spectrum, almost all roadway cross-section safety improvements were found economically infeasible due to higher associated costs relative to the expected crash reduction benefits on low volume roads.
Copyright (c) 2002-2022, LYRASIS. All rights reserved.