TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University Transportation Center for Alabama is one of 10 centers nationwide recently chosen by the U. S. Department of Transportation to receive additional funding under a program to promote transportation education and research. The center will receive $1 million a year for two years.

Headquartered at The University of Alabama, the UTCA was chosen for the funding from among previously existing university-based transportation centers on the basis of six criteria -- strategic planning and performance, leadership capabilities, available resources, dissemination of results, multi-modality, and university financial commitment to transportation.

The UTCA is a joint effort of the three campuses of The University of Alabama System, including UA, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Interdisciplinary faculty members and students from each campus perform research, education and technology transfer projects using funds provided by UTCA and external sponsors.

Since its conception in 1999, the UTCA has initiated over 100 projects, of which more than half have already been completed and successfully implemented. The center’s theme is “management and safety of transportation systems,” illustrated by a recent seatbelt promotion project which saturated the media with safety messages encouraging seatbelt use, such as “Every time. Every trip. Every day. Buckle Up.” The campaign helped increase seatbelt use to 71 percent in Alabama, the most dramatic increase and highest level ever, according to Dr. Daniel Turner, director of the UTCA and professor of civil and environmental engineering at UA.

“The early activities of UTCA have been at a frenzied pace, but highly successful,” said Turner. “Based upon our initial plans, we are on an optimum path of development, and I am delighted that the U. S. DOT has recognized the strong success of the center with additional funding.”

“I believe that a primary reason for our success is that we are truly a multi-campus and multi-disciplinary center,” Turner explained. “With faculty members from 40 different academic units, and over 30 faculty members who have directed projects, we have been very fruitful in identifying and solving the transportation needs of Alabama.”
While civil engineers conduct most projects, there are also professors specializing in several other fields involved, including marketing, management, finance, statistics and psychology.

Turner said the UTCA will use the funding to continue concentrating on transportation management and safety. “We will rely on our transportation leaders in Alabama to identify the most pressing transportation challenges, and we will continue to ask the UA System faculty members and students to help find solutions to those challenges.”

More about the UTCA, its mission and its projects, can be found at utca.eng.ua.edu/.