CTE Study Guide 2026

Congestion pricing involves charging drivers a fee for using certain roads or areas during peak hours. Its primary purpose is to discourage driving in congested areas, thereby reducing traffic jams and improving travel times for essential services and public transport. The revenue generated from these fees is often reinvested into public transportation and infrastructure improvements, further enhancing urban mobility and sustainability.

Park-and-ride facilities intercept auto trips at the urban fringe and transfer riders to transit, reducing vehicle volumes in congested urban corridors and serving commuters who cannot access transit from home.

BRT combines the flexibility of buses with rail-like features — dedicated bus lanes, station platforms with off-board fare payment, level boarding, frequent service, and transit signal priority — to provide faster, more reliable service.

Travel time reliability measures day-to-day variability in travel times; a reliable facility has consistent travel times that travelers can plan around, which FHWA measures using the Planning Time Index (PTI) and Buffer Index (BI).

Carbon dioxide (CO2) from combustion of gasoline and diesel fuels is the dominant greenhouse gas from the transportation sector, accounting for the largest share of US transport GHG emissions.

DSRC uses the 5.9 GHz band for low-latency, short-range (up to ~1,000m) vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication to support safety applications like intersection collision warning.