Insights
Technical notes for practitioners
Methods, evidence and checklists from traffic, rail and transit practice
Short, citable notes on the methods behind transportation studies: how micro-simulation models are calibrated and reviewed, how rail capacity is measured, how demand responds to new capacity, and what New Mobility and connected and automated vehicles change in practice. Each note states its sources, shows a worked example and links to the services and projects where the method was applied. New notes are published in English and Italian.
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9 articles
Cycle length and split optimisation: Webster vs HCM practice
Webster gives a delay-minimising cycle; the critical v/c relationship gives the shortest cycle that meets a target saturation; pedestrian intervals often decide between them. A worked 4-phase example shows where each one governs.
- Signal timing
- Signalized intersections
- Highway Capacity Manual
- MUTCD
- Signal Timing Manual (NCHRP 812)
- #WORLD
Traffic impact studies in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: trip thresholds, local rates and ITE practice
In Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the peak-hour trip count does more than size the mitigation: it sets the study type, the review level and, in Dubai, the cost-sharing route. A worked example tests one mixed-use programme against both emirates' thresholds.
- Traffic impact studies
- Trip generation
- ITE Trip Generation
- Dubai AR 603/2021
- Abu Dhabi ITC TIS
- #ME
- #UAE
- #Dubai
- #AbuDhabi
Pedestrian and cyclist safety in Italy: numbers, rules and a comparison with the EU, the US, Latin America and Asia
In 2025, 419 pedestrians and 228 cyclists, e-bike riders included, were killed in Italy. Pedestrian deaths are falling; cyclist deaths are not. Italy's rate is above the EU average but less than half that of the United States. The data, the recent rules, and what engineering knows about speed and crossings.
- Road safety
- Vulnerable road users
- Speed management
- Codice della Strada
- PNSS 2030
- #EU
- #IT
Calibrating and validating a traffic microsimulation model
GEH < 5 is a habit, not a standard. This article sets out what FHWA's 2019 Toolbox Volume III actually asks for, where GEH targets come from, and how to size the number of runs, with a fully worked numeric example.
- Micro-simulation
- Capacity & level of service
- FHWA Traffic Analysis Toolbox Vol. III
- FDOT Traffic Analysis Handbook
- #USA
- #Florida
NEOM's The Line: an engineering look at its transport claims
The Line was announced as a 170 km car-free city for 9 million people, crossed end to end in 20 minutes. Since 2024 it has been scaled back, reviewed and, in May 2026, reportedly paused until after 2030. Whatever is built next, the original transport claims are a useful test case: what do kinematics, geometry and line capacity say about a linear city?
- Transit capacity
- Urban form
- Megaprojects
- TCQSM
- #ME
- #SaudiArabia
Automated and connected vehicle regulation by continent (October 2026): who is most advanced, and a roadmap to 2030
Every jurisdiction that lets a driverless vehicle carry the public has to answer the same seven questions, from who approves the vehicle to who gets the ticket. This atlas compares the answers continent by continent as of October 2026, scores a leader for each on a transparent rubric, and sets out the dated milestones to 2030 that road agencies should plan around.
- Automated vehicles
- Connected vehicles
- Regulation
- UN R185 (ADS)
- UN R157 (ALKS)
- SAE J3016
- Vienna Convention
- #WORLD
- #China
- #Germany
- #UAE
- #Dubai
Rail line capacity per UIC Code 406: compression, occupancy and the cost of mixed traffic
UIC Code 406 does not give a line a fixed capacity in trains per hour. It compresses a real timetable and measures how much of the period the trains use. A worked example shows why the same ten trains can use 50% or 75% of an hour, depending only on their order.
- Rail capacity
- Timetabling
- UIC Code 406
- TCQSM
- #EU
Signalized intersection capacity per the HCM: from saturation flow to control delay
How the Highway Capacity Manual turns a base saturation flow into capacity, v/c, control delay and level of service at a signalized intersection, worked end to end on one hypothetical lane group with the HCM 2000 closed-form equations, with notes on where the closed-form textbook method stops being enough.
- Capacity & level of service
- Signalized intersections
- Highway Capacity Manual
- #USA
Induced demand: elasticity estimates and how to account for them in a traffic impact study
What the empirical literature says about induced travel, how to express it as an elasticity, and a transparent five-step method to carry it into a TIS — with a worked example and its limits.
- Induced demand
- Travel demand
- Traffic impact studies
- VMT
- CEQA / SB 743
- #USA
- #California
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