Smart Transportation Tip of the Week
Smart Transportation Makes Sense
The following excerpt is taken from an article, "Advancing Smart Transportation" by District Executive Dan Cessna, P.E. that recently appeared in Pittsburgh Engineer magazine.
Smart Transportation in Pennsylvania emphasizes addressing transportation problems with practical improvements scaled to address the problem, considering multi-modal solutions and with an intense examination of land use.
When we truly understand what the problem is and address only that, we can advance many more cost effective projects resulting in additional safety and mobility improvements to our transportation system. These transportation improvements, supporting good land use planning, can also leverage other investments in communities, further enhancing livability. PennDOT’s Smart Transportation themes have evolved over the past several years and now set the framework for how we think about projects. Implementing these themes and changing the culture of the industry -- how we think about transportation problems and solutions -- requires the willingness to change, hard work, ingenuity, and a focused approach.
Smart Transportation isn’t just intended for small problems in small communities. It readily applies to some of our busiest highways. In Pittsburgh, daily commuters endure long delays on our 50-year-old Parkway system. While improving safety and mobility on our region’s Parkways is a goal, the option of a mega project to completely reconfigure the roads, add capacity, provide wider travel ways, medians, shoulders, and eliminate bottlenecks isn't practical because of the lack of funds and the adverse community and environmental impacts that such a project, with a larger footprint, would require. The lack of a mega project doesn’t mean that improvements cannot be made. To this end, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), we plan to evaluate the Parkway West (I-376) between I-79 and the Ft. Pitt Tunnels, approaching downtown, to develop a range of improvements that can improve safety and mobility. Through the Smart Transportation lens, we will examine specific problems and create a menu of options to implement over time as resources allow and when improvements can logically be incorporated into other asset management focused bridge and pavement projects. Evaluating the corridor from this perspective affords a wise investment approach.
Go to http://www.smart-transportation.com/assets/download/Advancing_Smart_Transportation.pdf to read the entire article.
Smart Transportation Tips are updated every Wednesday. Have an issue you would like addressed? Please email us at smarttransportation@state.pa.us.