"Rural and small urban transit systems in Texas will become even more important with predicted changes in population trends. Rural demographic trends indicate growth in the number of persons age 65 and over coupled with a decrease in population density. Small urban area trends indicate substantial population growth and broadened geographic boundaries, yet resources to provide rural and small urban transit are limited. Therefore, transit managers find it is increasingly important to maximize service efficiency and effectiveness. The purpose of this research was to identify peer groups, performance benchmarks, and strategies used by successful transit providers to achieve high performance. The research project identifies peer groups based on the transit environment within which each agency operates, so that agencies can be compared to other operators who face similar environments. Peer group effectiveness and efficiency performance are examined within and between rural and urban peer groups, and high performers are identified for case studies. Through the case studies, key attributes are identified for achieving high operating efficiency and/or effectiveness. Performance strategies are categorized to provide transit providers with transferrable information to improve performance and increase the return on transit investment."

"This report summarizes the delivery and outcome of a series of workshops conducted at 23 Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) districts across the state on corridor management and preservation in Texas. The workshops served as follow-up implementation work for research project 0-5606, "Creating Partnerships with Local Communities to Manage and Preserve Corridors." The report provides an overview of the project and documents the dates, locations, and attendance of workshops implemented during the three-year project period."

"This report focused on the evaluation of traffic sign sheeting performance in terms of meeting the nighttime driver needs. Using the luminance requirements derived from the study and market-weighted headlamp flux matrices, the researchers developed an approach to sigh sheeting specification that is based on nighttime driver needs."

Changes in the population and land area of urbanized areas in Texas will play a significant role in determining the allocation of public transportation funds to service providers in Texas after Census 2010. The purpose of this research report is to review the impacts of the changes in urbanized area population and non-urbanized (rural) population and land area for 2010 on the current Texas Transit Funding Formula for allocation of Federal Section 5311 and state rural and urban funds. This collaborative effort between the Texas Transportation Institute and the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio draws upon the complementary expertise of public Transportation planners, demographers, and geographic information systems professionals of the two research organizations. The research project identifies areas with the potential to exceed 200,000 in population and those non-urbanized areas that have potential to become urbanized (over 50,000 people) in 2010. The implications of these changes will be examined relative to the current public transportation funding allocations. The research staff provides a comprehensive assessment of these changes for the state as a whole and for individual transit service providers.