Professor Randy Machemehl’s civil engineering students are testing how the transportation theory they’ve learned in the classroom holds up on the road this semester. And, along the way, they could help impact the City of Austin’s transportation plans.
The students were featured on KXAN Sept. 21 completing field work along three intersections, MLK at Brazos Street, Congress Avenue and San Jacinto Street, during the peak traffic hours of 8-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.
The students are doing traffic counts and studying traffic flow through the busy intersections, something Machemehl says will give them a real-life taste of what it is to be a civil engineer and to study one of the most elusive pieces of the traffic gridlock puzzle: human behavior.
As part of the class, students have worked closely with City of Austin engineers on traffic issues and some of their ideas have even been implemented in past semesters. Machemehl’s students will present findings from this semester to classmates and city engineers at the end of the class.
