On January 8 – 10, 2020, Rich Deal attended the annual National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control devices of the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, DC. Rich serves on the General Council as an Associate member of the Committee, sponsored by American Public Works Association, and is also a member of the Markings Technical Committee with other state and local transportation agencies. The technical committees and council sessions focused on proposed changes to standards in each chapter of the Manual, which is anticipated to be updated in 2020. One particular highlight was an interaction between the Markings committee and Toyota and Honda automakers, who discussed the importance of machine vision in executing crash avoidance tasks. The committee discovered that agencies should be installing traffic control devices that benefit the acuity of normal drivers because the effectiveness of machine vision matches a typical driver. The committee recommended 6” wide edge lines on high speed facilities to enhance both driver and machine vision / autonomous vehicles.
On January 13 – 16, 2020, Rich Deal attended the annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference in Washington, DC. The conference had over 900 sessions and meetings, along with vendor exhibits showcasing advances in transportation. This year, many of the research sessions and exhibits centered around emerging autonomous and connected vehicle technologies Rich focused on sessions about research and application of innovative roundabout designs to reduce crashes and move traffic in highly constrained settings. One application of roundabouts that will be a focus over the next year involves railroad pre-emption at a roundabout in close proximity to railroad tracks. The Roundabout Video Theater also had some exceptional presentations of unusual roundabout treatments and multiple-roundabout corridors. Rich also serves on the Transportation Research Board Roundabout Committee, which met January 16. The 2020 International Roundabout conference will be held in Monterey, CA, on May 18 – 22, 2020, which will showcase some of the roundabout solutions on the Central Coast.
The benefits of attending the conference were concentrated on new and emerging designs of roundabouts, alternative intersections, and bus rapid transit solutions that enable safer, more creative solutions that will benefit Measure X project designs and support traffic solutions for member agencies.