Highway Program Research Articles

Short-Term Spatial Memory Deficits in Men Arrested for Driving While Intoxicated

In the light of the fact that ethyl alcohol can cause damage to the brain, especially in the area of motor control, a study of the incidence of alcohol-related neuropsychological impairment in individuals arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI) would be of great value. The authors report on 100 DWI offenders given a Memory-for Designs Test: 33% of the offenders were in the borderline range for organicity and a further 24% were in the critical range. Although they advise caution in interpreting these data, the authors point out a number of implications their analyses have for those interested in alcohol-related highway safety programs.

Computerized Inventory of Traffic Signs

Photo-logging to collect data for a computerized sign inventory system is inexpensive and minimizes error. Such a system provides for instantaneous data retrieval, the establishment of long-range planning programs for sign installation and replacement, improved traffic signing, and identification of signs not conforming to national standards. These sign inventory projects are eligible for federal funding under the highway safety programs. Language: en

Development of the AASHTO fracture-toughness requirements for bridge steels

This paper describes the effects of temperature and strain rate on the fracture-toughness behavior of bridge steels. The test results showed the existence of a fracture-toughness transition that is an inherent material property rather than a behavior caused only by a change in the stress state. The effect of a slow loading rate, compared with impact loading rates, is to shift the fracture-toughness transition to lower temperatures. The magnitude of the temperature shift between stow loading ( ϵ≈ 10 −5sec −1 )and impact loading ( /.ϵ ≈ 10 sec −1 ) decreased with increased yield strength of the steel. The fracture-toughness behavior of bridge steels under strain rates that are encountered in actual bridge ( /.ϵ t~ 10 −3 sec −1 ) is closer to slow loading than to impact loading. Relationships are presented among fracture-toughness values determined by testing fracture-mechanics-type specimens, Charpy V- notch (CVN) specimens, and nil-ductility-transition (NDT) specimens. Moreover, procedures are presented for using CVN impact-test results to predict K IC values at slow or at moderate loading rates such as occur in actual bridges. The predicted K IC values are shown to be close to those experimentally determined by testing K IC specimens at various strain rates. The test results were used to develop fracture-toughness requirements for bridge steels. These toughness requirements have been approved by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and are mandatory requirements on all Federal-aid highway programs in the United States.

Social, economic, and institutional constraints affecting production and the reservation of agricultural land in the U.S.A.

Despite reoccurring statements of world-wide agricultural shortages, prime agricultural land in the United States continues to be converted to non-agricultural uses. Numerous social, political and economic factors contribute to this phenomenon. One of the most important factors is the desire to have a single family, detached dwelling in the suburbs. When this factor is coupled with explicit Federal policies FHA loans and the Interstate Highway Program), the result is a dramatic increase in the value of agricultural land for non-agricultural uses. Property taxes have been pointed to as a major problem facing farmers wishing to remain in agriculture. Therefore, many states have enacted legislation to allow producing land to be taxed at its agricultural value. In general these attempts have been unsuccessful in steaming the rate of conversion. Other aspects of taxation which require attention are income taxes and inheritance taxes. Because of the highly progressive nature of these taxes, they may have an even greater impact on the organization and structure of American agriculture than do property taxes. These taxes affect whether and how inter-generational transfers of land take place. Not all forces affecting agriculture are external. Other forces having a strong influence are the move toward larger scale farming, historical low returns to resources in agriculture and rapid increase in the value of farm assets. All of these factors are inextricably linked. During most of the recent past, returns in agriculture have been low, which meant very little income could be set aside for retirement. Any income available beyond living expenses was reinvested. Therefore, many farmer's retirement is in their farm assets and the only way to collect it is to sell their property to the highest bidder. The conclusion reached is that the forces encouraging the conversion of land will remain and become stronger. This suggests to many the need for concerted public action to determine whether such conversion is in the public interest.

THE ECONOMICS OF MATCHING GRANTS: THE ABC HIGHWAY PROGRAM

A comparison is made of the amounts states spend on primary and secondary highway construction with the minimum amounts they would have had to spend to fully utilize their Federal grant money. Most states spend more than the necessary minimum, suggesting that the ABC highway program had not served to increase total highway spending. Apparently irrational rules for allocating Federal funds may be necessary if the expenditure promotinging goals of a grant-in-aid program are to be achieved.

An ecological discussion of the environmental impact of the highway construction program in the Amazon basin

Goodland, R.J.A. and Irwin, H.S., 1974. An ecological discussion of the environmental impact of the highway construction program in the Amazon Basin. Landscape Plann., 1: 123–254. Started in 1970, the 6 368 km Transamazônica, the 2 465 km Perimetral Norte and the 1 747 km Cuiabá—Santarém highways lacerating the Amazon jungle are now nearing completion. Large-scale cattle ranching and peasant agriculture by thousands of government-assisted settlers are being officially hastened along these highways. The likely environmental consequences of these activities is discussed. Human ecology and nosogeography. Diseases likely to increase due to increase in vectors; vectors encouraged by construction methods; route planning and known disease foci; effect of settlements, deforestation and agriculture on disease. Malaria, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis and verminoses: relation between indigenous and alloch-thonous human populations; remediation. Amerindians. Lack of information on location and numbers even of already contacted tribes. Tribes to be disturbed by highways; governmental policy and the constitution. Effect of relocation on survival, national parks, disease, sedentary vs nomadic habits, money economy and education. Ecological perceptions and abilities of the Amerindian; their potential role in Amazonia. Deforestation and agriculture. Direct and closed nutrient cycles in tropical wet forest, implications for vegetational management. Methods and degree of extirpation: erosion, laterization, decreased fertility. Pests and weeds competing with crops; adverse effects of fertilizer; lack of dry season or winter. Climatic change. Sustainable agroecosystems; fish, riparian communities, mixed tree plantations and refining methods. Ecological considerations of cattle raising. Fauna and faunation. Unknown, rare and endangered taxa; occurrence, value and preservation, state of knowledge, population equilibria of pests, disease vectors, rodents. Role of faunation in nutrient dynamics. Use of faunation in forest ecosystem harvest and raising of indigenous fauna. Flora and vegetation. Physiognomic types of vegetation; undiscovered species and their characteristics; species extinction by exploitation, regeneration of forest, conservation areas.

Problems of the carless in the United Kingdom and the United States

An examination of current population statistics shows that in the U.S. more than half of the population is without immediate access to a car, and in the U.K. more than three-fifths of the population is without access to a car. This phenomenon has been accentuated by national investment in both countries in major highway programs. The term carless refers to more than just households that own no cars. It extends, in households with cars to those without licenses (old and young), the handicapped, and even the licensed drivers who have no access to the family car when it is in use elsewhere (e.g. at work). The most severely effected are those in urban areas and especially the urban poor. Transportation expenses are limited for the poor when other family expenditures (food, shelter) take a high priority. Once the work trip has been satisfied, money for other trips, for the poor, is not always available. One solution to cost-free travel is pedestrianism (walking), but this too is difficult in urban areas where the pedestrian has been overlooked in favor of the car. Solutions to problems of the carless include dial-a-ride, better public transit, and better design of urban form.

Erratum for “Photogrammetric Surveying in Highway Program”

Erratum for “Photogrammetric Surveying in Highway Program”

Highways as a Barrier to Equal Access

There is a widening gap between growing concentrations of blacks and other minorities in the central cities, and whites and the expanding supply of employment opportunities in the suburbs. While exclusionary zoning controls have been seen by many as the most immediate barrier to suburban opportunities, transportation facilities and the lack of them play an important role. The federal highway program in particular, while a powerful stimulus to dispersed development, has, in its implementation, failed to protect equal access to the benefits of development such as housing and employment—benefits often made possible entirely by the provision of highway access where none existed before. As a result the comprehensive planning of metropolitan areas is seriously undermined, and new barriers are erected which threaten to perpetuate the burdens and disadvantages which a long history of racial discrimination has produced. Regional planning agencies are needed with adequate authority to make and implement integrated land-use and transportation decisions based on a clearly expressed metropolitan development policy that includes the goal of eliminating all barriers to equal access. In the interim the discriminatory aspects of current transportation policies and projects should be challenged.

Michigan Transportation in the Seventies

The State of Michigan and the U.S. Department of Transportation have both introduced programs that alter transportation policy. In Michigan, the Governor has proposed a program to divert a portion of the motor fuel tax to a discretionary account. These funds would then be used to meet urban transportation problems without restriction to modes. His proposal also includes a $1.7 billion highway program, and a move toward a system of regional airports. President Nixon's transportation revenue sharing proposal is analyzed as it might affect these Michigan programs. Multimodal state planning efforts are questioned, based on the measurable impacts found in Michigan. The ability of the civil engineer to maintain a prominent role in establishing transportation policy is questioned. Revised thinking and training are recommended to prepare the profession for the new challenges.

Photogrammetric Surveying in Highway Program

Solutions to certain complex problems involved in the location and design of modern freeways in urban and rural areas, by use of aerial surveys and photogrammetry are considered. Procedures used to obtain data for the solution to these problems are given. A comparison of ground control positions determined by analytic aerial triangulation and by second-order field survey procedure relating to existing error tolerance criteria is illustrated and analyzed.

Aged Blacks: A Potpourri in the Direction of the Reduction of Inequities

AMONG THE EARLIEST GERONTOLOGICAL PAPERS on black aged were probably three first appearing in Phylon.l Since then such papers have multiplied, but this proliferation has failed to produce sufficient interest in improving the objective social conditions (e.g., income, housing, and transportation) of black aged, nor has it aided those experiencing involuntary relocation in the onslaught of urban renewal and highway programs. These are serious problems. This paper focuses specifically upon (a) grandparental roles in a contemporary urban Southern setting and certain implications of those roles relative to sociocultural conditions of aged blacks; (b) the National Caucus on the Black Aged, a group recently developed to focus attention and action upon significant service, training, and research gaps relative to black aged; and (c) a specific proposal to reduce the minimum age-eligibility requirements for Old-Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance (OASDHI) for blacks, so as to reflect the racial disparities in life-expectancy rates. These three facts, interfaced in highlighting racial inequities, are set forth below.

Application of Computers to Airport Planning and Design

The digital computer can facilitate examination of airport design alternatives. In the airport planning process, many procedures lend themselves to the use of computers, which include determinations of airspace capacities; analyses of alternative sites; determination of optimum airfield layouts based on digitized terrain models; derivations of space requirements for different terminal systems, and passenger and baggage flows for air terminals. Stress programs, for example, are particularly useful in the design of complex hangar structures. Similar to highway design programs, the computation of earthwork quantities in airfield design by the use of the computer, and the plotting of the cross sections, virtually eliminates the arithmetical errors which plague these calculations when done by hand. Other uses of the computer in airport design are in computing flows in water, sewage, air conditioning and electrical systems.

Closure to “PPB System Implications on Future Highway Program”

Closure to “PPB System Implications on Future Highway Program”

Pine Mortality Along Michigan Highways1

Abstract During the spring and fall of 1966, three thousand one hundred and forty-nine pine trees were planted along the Interstate Highway System in Michigan as part of the highway beautification program. The species included: Pinus nigra (Arnold) Austrian pine; P. resinosa (Aiton) red pine; P. strobus (1.) white pine; and P. sylvestris (L.) Scots pine. Plants ranged in size from two feet for some of the red pine, up to six feet for some of the white pine, but most plants averaged four to five feet in height. Specifications required: “that all plants be nursery grown and shall qualify under the AAN Horticultural Standards for the current American Standards for Nursery Stock, ASA Specification Z 60.1.” All of the plantings were made by landscape contractors, who were the successful bidders for each project.

Pine Mortality Along Michigan Highways1

Abstract During the spring and fall of 1966, three thousand one hundred and forty-nine pine trees were planted along the Interstate Highway System in Michigan as part of the highway beautification program. The species included: Pinus nigra (Arnold) Austrian pine; P. resinosa (Aiton) red pine; P. strobus (1.) white pine; and P. sylvestris (L.) Scots pine. Plants ranged in size from two feet for some of the red pine, up to six feet for some of the white pine, but most plants averaged four to five feet in height. Specifications required: “that all plants be nursery grown and shall qualify under the AAN Horticultural Standards for the current American Standards for Nursery Stock, ASA Specification Z 60.1.” All of the plantings were made by landscape contractors, who were the successful bidders for each project.

Discussion of “PPB System Implications on Future Highway Program”

Discussion of “PPB System Implications on Future Highway Program”

PPB System Implications on Future Highway Program

The popular PPB (planning, programming, budgeting) System, still principally a concept and admittedly imperfect, will guide executive and legislative representatives in the future in evaluating alternative programs and making decisions for long-term commitment of government resources. Funds are allocated to programs in relation to effectiveness of a program over alternative programs in attainment of the objective. Simple in concept, complex in application, the System requires detailed evaluation of individual projects or increments making up alternative programs, plus recognition that all program benefits cannot be quantified in dollars. Some applications of the System to highway programs are illustrated, showing advantages and disadvantages. Highway engineers can contribute from their experience and established techniques of cost-effectiveness evaluations for highway program elements. Despite competitive aspects of the System, support for highway programs and acceptance of decisions of highway administrators can be encouraged through use of the PPB System.

The 1962 Highway Act: A Study in Artful Interpretation

Abstract The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 required that after July 1, 1965, all federally aided highway projects in metropolitan areas must be based on a “cooperative, comprehensive, and continuing planning process.” This article examines how the federal Bureau of Public Roads interpreted the planning requirement during the three years following its enactment and immediately after the July 1, 1965 deadline. Instead of urban planning interests and needs, Bureau interpretations of the law were responsive to the concerns of state highway departments which sought (1) to maintain their control of highway planning and decision-making in the states and (2) to avoid additional delays in interstate highway construction schedules. However, enactment of the planning requirement, along with events before and since its passage, indicate that certain innovative forces which are now at work may contribute to more basic reforms in future highway planning programs.

Liaison-Key to Highway and Agricultural Drainage Programs

The solution of highway and agricultural drainage problems require knowledge of engineering practices and laws enacted by a particular jurisdiction. However, many of the problems that exist today have been the result of a lack of understanding or willingness of the various interests to accept their legal responsibilities rather than a lack of technical knowledge. Communication or the exchange of ideas and information is essential so that the highway authority can acquaint the landowners with proposed highway improvements at an early stage of planning and also learn their plans for conservation and drainage improvements. The development of a memorandum of understanding between the various agencies, organizations and landowners involved is the first step in solving mutual problems. Then the outlining of specific lines of communication is necessary if each agency is to fulfill its responsibilities. This paper presents some experience and suggests some procedures to follow to meet the challenge for better solutions to highway and agricultural drainage problems.