Author: Aviles-Spadoni, Ines

A University of Florida and FDOT study tested remote driving of a truck-mounted crash attenuator and found both promise and important limits. By Nithin Agarwal, Ph.D., Shraddha Agarwal, Ph.D., and Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A. A crash cushion mounted behind a work truck is meant to take the hit if a vehicle veers into a roadside […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research and Communications Coordinator, UFTI Traffic congestion was part of Farzana Chowdhury’s everyday life in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she grew up. “I often wondered why traffic problems were so difficult to solve and how they could be improved,” Chowdhury said. Years later, she went on to pursue her undergraduate studies […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research & Communications Coordinator A college course changed the way Sarah Dennis-Bauer views transportation. The class focused on the built environment. It led Dennis-Bauer to think beyond transportation’s job of moving people and goods from point A to point B and to consider how the transportation systems they use every […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research & Communications Coordinator During fieldwork at three locations across Florida, Abiral Aashish watched how drivers responded to a Florida Department of Transportation Road Ranger Service Patrol vehicle parked along a highway. He was collecting field data for an FDOT-sponsored project, “Study to Understand the Influence of Emergency Vehicle Color, […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research & Communications Coordinator For pedestrians, bicyclists, and e-scooter riders, crossing a busy street can be stressful. In just seconds, they must watch for turning vehicles, changing traffic signals, buses, and other road users. But what if the roadway could help watch out for them? A connected vehicle pilot in […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator Michael Zayas began thinking differently about his future when Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017. “Those events had a profound impact on my quality of life and made me reflect on what I wanted to do with my future,” he said. Having grown up on […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator When Deidra Jones learned that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the University of Florida were partnering to offer a master’s degree in Transportation Leadership, she didn’t hesitate to explore this opportunity further. She immediately knew this program aligned perfectly with her future career goals and her […]

by Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research/Communications Coordinator, UFTI There is something we often don’t think about when we drive over a Florida bridge: How can it hold up the weight of thousands of vehicles every day? Especially when the bridge is over a vast body of water such as the Banana River in Florida. The […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research & Communications, UFTI Four transportation professionals from across Florida working in the public and private sectors graduated this spring from the University of Florida’s Master of Science in Civil Engineering online program with a concentration in Transportation Leadership. Their career paths were different, and so were their reasons for […]

By Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S., M.A., Research & Communications, UFTI The connection between transportation and people’s lives is what sparked Shangkun Jiang’s interest in transportation engineering. “Transportation affects how people commute, access resources, and respond during emergencies,” Jiang said. “I became especially interested in this field when I started working with mobility data to study evacuation […]