Daily News Briefs, September 12, 2024

Entrepreneur Floats Nashville Congestion Relief Ideas (One Includes Tolling)

An op-ed column in The Tennessean maintains the Nashville metro area can achieve “equitable, sustainable congestion relief within five years” without the state building more and wider highways. The author, Mark Cleveland, pitches alternative solutions that he regards as practical, economical, and more likely to be effective than Tennessee DOT’s Choice Lanes program of P3-funded expansion. He cites three examples:

• Designate existing HOV or general purpose lanes as peak-period-only “Flexi-Choice lanes” reserved for non-tolled transit vehicles and carpools, and for solo drivers willing to pay a toll. The lanes would revert to non-tolled, general purpose status outside peak travel periods.
• Use some of the toll revenue to pay cash rewards to commuters who change their travel patterns, choose transit or join a carpool. (It should be noted that one of Cleveland’s several entrepreneurial ventures is Hytch Rewards, which, among other things, helps employers incentivize workers to adopt “greener” commuting methods.)
• Create peak-period shoulder lanes within existing highway corridors to support smart, active transportation management. He notes that general-purpose access wouldn’t be reduced if a shoulder lane were combined with a Flexi-Choice lane.

Cleveland recommends steps for implementing a congestion relief  scheme, noting that his plan coincides neatly with a November city referendum on transit improvement.

Cleveland is interviewed in a Tennessean video program embedded with his op-ed piece.

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TRB Webinar Will Explore Wrong-Way Driving And Its Prevention

The Transportation Research Board (TRB) will host TRB will host a 90-minute webinar next Tuesday afternoon, September 17, to “share practitioners’ experiences with wrong-way driving and solutions including the deployment of effective countermeasures. Presenters will discuss changes to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).” TRB notes that “wrong-way driving crashes still cause hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries every year.”

The webinar is based on National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 881, “Traffic Control Devices and Measures for Deterring Wrong-Way Movements.” Registration is offered online. Scheduled presenters include staff of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX), and the University of Central Florida.

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TxDOT Alerts Public To Upsurge In TxTag Smishing Attempts

KVUE reports, TxDOT is warning Texas residents that the toll smishing scam has lately gotten worse. The department is again warning drivers to be cautious and avoid clicking links in messages from unfamiliar telephone numbers. Fraudsters impersonating the TxTag operator are sending payment requests, something TxDOT never does using SMS messaging. The department does use texting, as well as email and telephone, to connect with customers for other purposes. “Customers can ensure they are receiving legitimate texts if the 22498 number is used. Users can also visit their personal TxTag account to confirm their email and-or phone number in the company’s system. Otherwise, messages from other contacts claiming to be TxTag are illegitimate.”

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These are just some of the toll industry developments TRN is following.

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