CTE+Tour



The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE), located on North Carolina State University campus, allowed our group to take a tour of their facility, giving us a warm welcome. The CTE is a collection of various transportation organizations with goals for environmental sustainability. We got in contact with Ann Hartell, a research associate working at the CTE, who helped us coordinate the tour, as well as getting various groups to talk to us. The hour long tour consisted of three separate portions, each lasting about 20 minutes, we met three people with very different work fields.

The first was a man named Mickey, who managed the Transportation Information Management System (**TIMS**) for the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (**ITRE**.) Mickey explained that TIMS allowed for higher gas mileage of buses, as it computes shorter, yet more efficient routes. As North Carolina is the only state that requires the use of a computerized bus network, TIMS was developed from scratch, and when applied, it greatly improved the routes used by the current bus systems, which were inefficient and transported very few students. ITRE is looking to greatly increase efficiency for TIMS in years to come, a goal which will not only better the educational system, but also lower the amount of students being driven individually to school, decreasing greenhouse gas emmisions.

After that, we talked to Daniel, an employee of ITRE, who showed us the goals and projects that ITRE was currently focusing on. Giving us a general overview of the work they do, Daniel went on to show us some of ITRE's current developments. One of these was the simulation of roundabout implementation in various high-traffic streets. The simulation showed that the roundabout greatly reduced congestion on the road, while at the same time keeping traffic moving at a steady pace that left very few cars idling, since idling cars simply pollute the atmosphere and waste fuel without making any progress in travel distance,. ITRE is a group dedicated to the teaching of sustainable transportation, as well as the finding of new technologies to better the transportation system and the world.

Finally, we spoke to Darcy, also a member of ITRE, who explained to us the role of vans as a transportation method. Darcy showed us various charts and graphs that show the number of passengers on public transit vehicles, which showed that (fortunately) the number has been steadily increasing in more recent years. She then gave us a look at a document that records the activities of transit vans in areas all across NC, recording their travel times, passengers, and distances traveled, which allows ITRE to fine tune the routes of these vans for greater efficiency. Another interesting thing she told us was the vast amount of van transit businesses in North Carolina, ranging from large, such as Durham, to the smallest being a little community with 8 vehicles transporting 36 people. The vans give better access to those who are unable to take buses or trains, allowing an easy ride to many people in a wide variety of areas.

__Location:__909 Capability Drive, Suite 3600 __Phone:__ 919-515-8893