By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE I attended a North Central Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers section meeting in 2009. It was a panel discussion on “Complete Streets.” The general idea is to balance service to private vehicles, transit users, bicycles, and pedestrians through the design of our transportation systems. Traditionally, vehicles have been […]
By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE Starting MikeOnTraffic in 2007 seemed very cutting edge at the time, but blogs became commonplace, and there have been several online innovations since then. Our mission at Spack Enterprises is to “Improve Transportation Globally”, so we routinely think about how we can reach more people or share our knowledge more […]
By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been blogging for ten years. More than 8,000 people worldwide visit Mike On Traffic each month, and I’ve posted more than 760 articles. The Institute of Transportation Engineers’ monthly magazine typically has four articles, delivered to about 15,000 members. With two articles posted […]
By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE Stop signs are the cheapest traffic control devices for controlling traffic at an intersection. This post provides background, benefits, limitations, design guidelines, and further resources for designing stop sign installations. Background The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (jargon: MUTCD) governs the use of all traffic control devices in the […]
By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE About a decade ago I helped my kids’ parochial grade school develop a pick-up/drop-off procedure. The principal has moved on and sent me the following email on August 24th: “we are in need of some help with our traffic flow at both the beginning and the end of the school […]
By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE Access management is the practice of limiting driveway or street intersections to reduce crash rates and congestion. This post provides background, benefits, limitations, guidelines, and further resources for using access management. Background of Access Management Access management began in the United States in 1906 when the Supreme Court ruled in […]
By Mike Spack, PE, PTOE A unique aspect of CountingCars.com compared to our competitors is that we are traffic engineers and data collectors. Not only do we listen to our customers as any good company should, but we are our best customer preparing hundreds of engineering studies and collecting tens of thousands of hours of […]
By Bryant Ficek, PE, PTOE The 10th edition of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual is expected to be released in September. Based on information from the ITE Annual Meeting we attended in Toronto along with our separate discussions with ITE, here the top seven highlights of the new manual: Now Electronic. […]
By Jonah Finkelstein, EIT According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ (aka AASHTO) A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (aka the Green Book), “The designer (of a roadway) should provide sight distance of sufficient length that drivers can control the operation of their vehicles to avoid striking an unexpected object […]
By Jacob Rojer, EIT AutoTURN 10 by Transoft Solutions is a software program used to simulate vehicle drive paths on roadways, parking lots, etc. It is a quick and easy way to determine a vehicle sweep path and can help aid in the overall site design as well as catch potential site circulation issues early […]
