Transportation in 2010
Fast Forward
•TxDOT is primarily a transportation system manager rather than being an engineering or construction operation.
•More engineering and maintenance work is done by the private sector faster and cheaper.
•Intelligent transportation systems make the most efficient use of physical infrastructure and make driving safer.
•Web-based systems allow citizens to do all transactions with TxDOT, the same way they get vehicles registered on line with counties.
•More new toll roads built faster than roads built using traditional methods provide relief from congestion in urban areas.
•Alternative financing techniques mean that there are more resources to put into infrastructure to keep pace with the dynamic economy.
•New construction techniques allow TxDOT to deliver projects faster so that the transportation system can keep pace with population and economic growth.
•Private sector business practices transform TxDOT’s approach to include web-based business and zero inventory.
Rebecca rises early on a frosty February morning in Amarillo, even though it’s a telecommuting day. She has to drive her two daughters to school by 7:45. She activates the Web interface on the living room TV to check local road conditions. In winter, it’s as much a part of her morning ritual as making coffee. According to TxDOT, there’s ice on local overpasses. A frigid-looking shot of a local intersection delivered via live Webcam convinces her to take a different route. A notice on Rebecca’s personalized TxDOT web page—“My Car”—alerts her that her auto registration is due to expire. A few clicks take her to the county assessor-collector’s office, and a few more renews the registration and debits her credit card accordingly.
David is back in Houston for the first time since college. As he continues to drive aimlessly, his wife’s temper grows visibly shorter, and he begins to admit even to himself that he is, well, lost. After all, a town can change quite a bit in a decade. Although he really, really hates to ask for directions, he punches up a voice link with AAA and explains his situation. In a few seconds, the auto club has pinpointed his car with global positioning technology and gives him the directions he needs. At his wife’s insistence, he also obtains a map explaining the route over the car’s onboard PC (standard equipment since 2008). This ruins his whole day for at least fifteen minutes.
Gina is checking e-mail while driving on a high-speed toll road connecting San Antonio and Laredo. Onboard position-control technology constantly checks and corrects her car’s distance from the vehicles around her. A transponder on the dashboard automatically logs her toll-road use. She toggles a switch on the steering wheel that activates the car’s PC, and begins reviewing messages with verbal commands—“read,” “skip,” “delete.” The pleasant e-mail voice notifies her that her car insurance company plans to raise its rates. Irritated, she checks with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to review her own driving record, then spends the rest of the drive perusing a comparative database of car insurance information. When she pulls into Laredo, an e-mail traffic advisory warns her of road construction and delays along her route, and suggests an alternative.
As he sips a cup of coffee, Ray scans a Dallas Morning News headline with satisfaction: “Work Begins on Nation’s First “Automatic Highway.” The news marks the beginning of the biggest construction project in his company’s history. At 9:30 a.m., he pours a second cup and turns to his PC screen, ready to join in a daily project videoconference with a TxDOT planner, Bill, and the telematics subcontractor. Despite a lifetime spent in the road business, Ray still can’t quite get over the changes the last decade has brought. TxDOT has changed beyond recognition. Ray’s firm has a clear and detailed set of goals to meet, but TxDOT is letting the company make all the major decisions in how to reach those goals. Bill keeps a sharp eye on costs and timelines, but all in all he seems more like a partner than a client. The financing for the project isn’t much like the old days, either. The company and its subcontractor will be expected to build and maintain the highway over a 25-year period in exchange for a percentage of the toll fees it generates.
Bill is a long-term TxDOT veteran, one of those who helped transform the agency. It was a huge project, but one that Bill found deeply satisfying. The agency has evolved into a lean transportation management firm. Today, TxDOT is geared to ensuring that its contractors meet rigid performance measures and to conducting careful cost-benefit analyses for all proposed projects. TxDOT’s thousands of unit-price contracts have been replaced by a much smaller number of partnership arrangements with competent contractors. Bill found he had a natural knack for contract management and project oversight, and his talents have been put to good use.
The meeting begins, and Bill and Ray listen as the telematics people discuss their progress. The automated toll collection system presents no problems. That’s old technology by now. The solar collectors embedded in the road surface have exceeded project specifications on the test roadway surface, and seem more than capable of powering the road’s electronic systems. The TxDOT-contractor consortium expects to sell excess power to local utilities. Bill and Ray are more interested in hearing about the highway’s breakthrough “Wireless Drive” system; this is the exciting stuff. Because the days of driving for any purpose other than pleasure may, at last, be coming to an end. This highway will drive the cars.
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