Category: Traffic Engineering

One-Way or the Other? Two-Way Traffic Conversion Requires Study

By Alexander Cowan, PE, PTOE A drive through the downtown area of many American cities includes time spent on one-way streets. Cities have used short segments of one-way traffic for hundreds of years to try to improve traffic flow and move higher volumes of traffic along downtown arterials. However, in recent years many communities have… Read More »

How to Design a Better Parking Lot

By Scott Maier, PE Parking lots are not generally known as the most orderly environment in modern society. A poorly designed parking lot could easily be compared to the bumper cars at the county fair. But a well-designed, well-maintained parking lot helps people get in efficiently, find their way to a stall, walk safely to… Read More »

Highways Designed with Snow and Cold in Mind

By Eric Sorensen, PE From temperature extremes to drainage, roadway designers factor in the snow and cold when designing for our northern and mountain states. Let’s look at the properties of various pavement types and the basics of how that pavement is placed and treated for optimal performance in climates plagued by cold and snow.… Read More »