The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is an agency of the State of Texas and member of the Texas A&M University System. TTI addresses complex transportation challenges and opportunities and ensures the organizations they serve have the research-based results they need to make informed decisions. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is one of the organizations it serves. TxDOT tasked TTI with taking a research-based, data-driven approach to examine trends regarding how the region’s roads and the numerous driveways located near oil/gas leases were being used and recommend accessibility and safety improvements.

As the TTI team began the project, it became clear the Permian Basin area was a data-poor environment. Traditional methods to collect data on traffic trends were not going to be fast or accurate enough.

The TTI team was able to use connected vehicle data alongside other traditional and telematic data sources to put together ESRI story maps that illustrated vehicle operating characteristics in a clear and succinct way across the region. With connected vehicle data, the team could better understand the human behavior element in their road activity analysis – a critical piece of the puzzle when analyzing how to improve safety. The data was also helpful in providing snapshots into the impacts of traffic queueing at busy road construction sites in the Permian Basin.

“If you think of a painting analogy, connected vehicle data is the fine detail. Traditional data sets are the broad-brush strokes – the shapefile, roadway design, traffic volume and crash reports – connected vehicle data is unmatched in its ability to add color to things like speed, hard-braking and turning movements that we otherwise would not have.”

- Michael Martin, TTI