MPC
MPC Student Wins ITE Paper Contest

Posted: Jun 29, 2016

Utah State University student Holly Lloyd recently won first place in the Institute of Transportation Engineers Intermountain Section Student Paper Competition. The competition was part of the annual section conference in Jackson Hole, WY, in May.

The paper featured her master's project focusing on the safety effectiveness of diverging diamond interchanges in Utah. Her advisor is MPC researcher Dr. Ziqi Song and the work was part of MPC project 480 (PDF, 153K). The diverging diamond interchange is a possible solution to problematic interchange locations because it can accommodate higher and unbalanced traffic flows. The analysis results demonstrated statistically significant decreases in crashes at most of the locations studied. This analysis can be used by government agencies and other transportation engineering professionals considering the implementation of diverging diamond interchanges.

Lloyd is a native of Roy, UT, and earned a bachelor's in business administration at Weber State University. After working in the private sector, she decided to pursue an M.S. in civil engineering emphasizing in transportation at Utah State University.