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Alex Hainen

Associate Professor
Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering
The University of Alabama

CE451 Roadway and Intersection Design Class at ATC Cabinet at Hackberry Lane and Peter Bryce Boulevard (Fall 2024)

CE451 Roadway and Intersection Design Class (Fall 2024)

Welcome

Hi there, and welcome to my website! I'm an associate professor at UA in civil engineering. My research focuses on traffic engineering. I love what I do, and I love being at UA! Please check out my bio and other items below. Thanks, and I hope you have a blessed day!

Biography

Dr. Alex Hainen is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering (CCEE) in the College of Engineering (CoE) at The University of Alabama (UA) and serves as the director of the Center for Transportation Operations, Planning, and Safety (CTOPS). He received his BSCE from Michigan Technological University and his MSCE and PhD from Purdue University. At UA, Dr. Hainen is affiliated with the Alabama Transportation Institute (ATI), the Center for Advanced Vehicle Technology (CAVT), and the Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS). As an academic, Dr. Hainen has been heavily involved with planning, designing, deploying, and publishing in the areas of traffic engineering, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), transportation systems management and operation (TSMO), and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). He has been involved with 56 transportation research and deployment projects representing more than $50 million of funded research efforts. While at The University of Alabama, Dr. Hainen has been the principal investigator on more than $24 million of these projects and deployments (including two Federal Highway Administration Advanced Traffic Congestion Management Technology Deployment efforts in partnership with the Alabama Department of Transportation). All of this work has been funded by a variety of agencies including state departments of transportation, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Department of Energy (USDOE), the Federal Transit Agency (FTA), the United States Department of War (DOW) (formerly the Department of Defense) through the United States Army’s Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) and Construction Engineering Research Lab (CERL), and the American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety. Dr. Hainen has worked all the way from raw sensors (cameras, radars, magnetometers, LiDARs, etc.), through raw data (high-resolution data, point could data, sensor feed data), into processed data (discrete records, operations data, safety and crash data), and ultimately into the interface or dashboard presentation to transportation engineers. He has seen the full life of ITS products and been involved from the very conception through the full and successful nationwide implementations.

Dr. Hainen’s experience continues into a strong academic background of working with colleagues, researchers, and partners around the nation and world. He has had international ITS collaborations in Europe and Asia, and has an extensive network of colleagues across the US. He has been involved with Pooled Fund Studies, National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) projects and panels, the National Academies of Transportation Research Board (TRB) committees and subcommittees, and has worked with standards development in the traffic signal and ITS area. Dr. Hainen has worked with many states, cities, manufacturers, vendors, universities, and colleagues with his projects. Through two Transportation Pooled Fund Projects, TPF-5(258) “Traffic Signal Systems Operations and Management” and TPF-5(377) “Enhanced Traffic Signal Performance Measures,” he has worked with state DOTs from Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin. He has been invited to talk to the 50 state traffic engineers at the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Committee on Traffic Engineering (COTE) and Committee on Transportation System Operations (CTSO). He works closely with nearly all traffic signal ITS manufacturers and has many deployments of the latest and most advanced traffic systems. Currently, Dr. Hainen is actively working with the Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to collect data and manage operations at 490 signalized intersections across the state of Alabama and 100 signalized intersections for the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT).

Dr. Hainen’s work has led to more than 50 peer reviewed journal articles published in the Transportation Research Record, Institute of Transportation Engineers Learned Journal of Transportation, ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, Journal of Transportation Research Forum, Advances in Transportation Studies, Accident Analysis and Prevention, Advances in Civil Engineering, Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, Journal of Transport Geography, Journal of Advanced Transportation, Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems: Technology, Planning, and Operations, and other journals. He also has more than 50 conference articles and 40 invited talks. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Modern Mobility Systems, and has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Transportation Engineering, Transportation Research Board, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems, and Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice. He has advised six PhD students, ten MSCE/MSME students, and served on 18 other PhD student dissertation committees. He also serves as vice chair on the West Alabama Regional Commission’s (WARC) Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC), appointed by Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge Robertson in 2021.

Publications

Hainen, A.M., J.S. Wasson, S.M.L. Hubbard, S.M. Remias, G.D. Farnsworth, and D.M. Bullock, “Estimating Route Choice and Travel Time Reliability with Field Observations of Bluetooth Probe Vehicles,” Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2256, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., pp. 43–50, 2011. DOI: 10.3141/2256-06.
Remias, S. S.M.L. Hubbard, E. Hulme, A. Hainen, G. Farnsworth, and D.M. Bullock, “Bias, Repeatability, and Variability of 1 Traffic Sign Retroreflectivity,” ITE Learned Journal of Transportation, Vol. 1, Issue 1, March 2011.
Wasson, J.S., G.W. Boruff, A.M. Hainen, S.M. Remias, E.A. Hulme, G. Farnsworth, and D.M. Bullock, “Evaluation of Spatial and Temporal Speed Limit Compliance in Highway Workzones,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2258, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., pp. 1–15, 2011. DOI: 10.3141/2258-01.
Day, C.M., T.M. Brennan, A.M. Hainen, S.M. Remias, H. Premachandra, J.R. Sturdevant, G. Richards, J.S. Wasson, and D.M. Bullock, “Reliability, Flexibility, and Environmental Impact of Alternative Objective Functions for Arterial Offset Optimization,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2259, pp. 8–22, 2011. DOI: 10.3141/2259-02.
Grossman, J.A., A.M. Hainen, S.M. Remias, and D.M. Bullock, “Evaluation of Thermal Image Video Sensors for Stop Bar Detection at Signalized Intersections,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2308, pp. 184–198, 2012. DOI: 10.3141/2308-20.
Day, C.M., J.M. Ernst, T.M. Brennan, C. Chou, A.M. Hainen, S.M. Remias, A. Nichols, B.D. Griggs, and D.M. Bullock, “Performance Measures for Adaptive Signal Control: Case Study of Central System-in-the-Loop Simulation,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2311, pp. 1–15, 2012. DOI: 10.3141/2311-01.
Brennan, T.M., B.D. Griggs, G. Grimmer, A.M. Hainen, C.M. Day, J.R. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “Defining Design Space for Parameters of Traffic Signal Timing,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2311, pp. 85–98, 2012. DOI: 10.3141/2311-08.
Mitkey, S.R., T.M. Brennan, S.M. Remias, A.D. Davis, G.M. Grimmer, A.M. Hainen, R. Morris, P. Michael, and D.M. Bullock, “Comparison of the Retroreflective Durability Between Rumble Stripes and Painted Lines,” ITE Learned Journal of Transportation, Vol. 3, Issue 1, July 2012.
Hainen, A.M., E.M. Rivera-Hernandez, C.M. Day, M. McBride, G.M. Grimmer, A.J. Loehr, and D.M. Bullock, “Roundabout Critical Headway Measurement based on Hi-Resolution Event-Based Data from Wireless Magnetometers,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2389, pp. 51–64, 2013. DOI: 10.3141/2389-06.
Remias, S.M., A.M. Hainen, C.M. Day, T.M. Brennan, H. Li, E. Rivera-Hernandez, J. Sturdevant, S.E. Young, and D.M. Bullock, “Performance Characterization of Arterial Traffic Flow with Probe Vehicle Data,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2380, pp. 10–21, 2013. DOI: 10.3141/2380-02.
Li, H., A.M. Hainen, C.M. Day, G. Grimmer, J. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “Longitudinal Performance Measures for Assessing Agency-Wide Signal Management Objectives,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2355, pp. 20–30, 2013. DOI: 10.3141/2355-03.
Day, C.M., J. Sturdevant, H. Li, A. Stevens, A.M. Hainen, S.M. Remias, and D.M. Bullock, “Revisiting the Cycle Length–Lost Time Question With Critical Lane Analysis,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2355, pp. 1–9, 2013. DOI: 10.3141/2355-01. (TRB AHB25 Committee 2013 Best Paper Award)
Remias, S.M., A.M. Hainen, and D.M. Bullock, “Leveraging Probe Data to Assess Security Checkpoint Wait Times,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2325, pp. 63–75, 2013. DOI: 10.3141/2325-07.
Hainen, A.M., S.M. Remias, D.M. Bullock, and F.L. Mannering, “A hazard-based analysis of airport security transit times,” Journal of Air Transport Management, 32, 32–38, September 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2013.06.002.
Hainen, A.M., A.L. Stevens, R.S. Freije, C.M. Day, J.R. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “High-Resolution Event-Based Data at Diamond Interchanges: Performance Measures and Optimization of Ring Displacement,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2439, pp. 12–26, Oct. 2014. DOI: 10.3141/2439-02.
Freije, R.S., A.M. Hainen, A.L. Stevens, H. Li, W.B. Smith, H.T. Summers, C.M. Day, J.R. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “Graphical Performance Measures for Practitioners to Triage Split Failure Trouble Calls,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2439, pp. 27–40, Oct. 2014. DOI: 10.3141/2439-03.
Lavrenz, S.M., A.M. Hainen, A.L. Stevens, C.M. Day, H. Li, R.S. Freije, W.B. Smith, H.T. Summers, J.R. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “Improving Intersection Behavior through Delay-Based Left Turn Phase Initiation,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2439, pp. 41–52, Oct. 2014. DOI: 10.3141/2439-04.
Hainen, A.M., H. Li, A.L. Stevens, C.M. Day, J.R. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “Sequence Optimization at Signalized Diamond Interchanges Using High-Resolution Event-Based Data,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2487, pp. 15–30, Oct. 2015. DOI: 10.3141/2487-02.
Hainen, A.M., A.L. Stevens, C.M. Day, H. Li, J. Mackey, M. Luker, M. Taylor, J.R. Sturdevant, and D.M. Bullock, “Performance Measures for Optimizing Diverging Interchanges and Outcome Assessment with Drone Video,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2487, pp. 31–43, Oct. 2015. DOI: 10.3141/2487-03.
Lavrenz, S.M., C.M. Day, A.M. Hainen, W.B. Smith, A.L. Stevens, H. Li, and D.M. Bullock, “Use of Maximum Vehicle Delay to Characterize Signalized Intersection Performance,” Transportation Research Record, No. 2488, pp. 41–52, 2015. DOI: 10.3141/2488-05.
Hainen, A.M., “Investigating mixed logit analysis of critical headways at a single lane instrumented roundabout,” Journal of Transportation Research Forum, 55(3), Fall 2016. DOI: 10.5399/osu/jtrf.55.3.4391.
Lidbe, A.D., A.M. Hainen, S.L. Jones, “Analytical Techniques for Evaluating the Implementation of Adaptive Traffic Signal Control Systems,” Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 143(5), 2017. DOI: 10.1061/JTEPBS.0000034.
Lidbe, A.D., A.M. Hainen, S.L. Jones, “Comparative study of simulated annealing, tabu search, and the genetic algorithm for calibration of the microsimulation model,” SIMULATION, 93(50): 21–33, 2017. DOI: 10.1177/0037549716683028.
Lidbe, A.D., E.G. Tedla, A.M. Hainen, A. Sullivan, S.L. Jones, “Comparative assessment of arterial operations under conventional time-of-day and adaptive traffic signal control,” Advances in Transportation Studies, Vol. 42, pp. 5–22, July 2017. Link.
Song, S., Q. Lyu, E. Marks, and A. Hainen, “Steel Manufacturing Incident Analysis and Prediction,” Journal of Safety, Health and Environmental Research, 14(1), 2018. Link.
Adanu, E.K., A.M. Hainen, and S.L. Jones, Jr., “Latent class analysis of factors that influence weekday and weekend single-vehicle crash severities,” Accident Analysis and Prevention, 113:187–192, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.01.035.
Lidbe, A.D., E.G. Tedla, A.M. Hainen, S.L. Jones, “Feasibility Assessment for Implementing Adaptive Traffic Signal Control: A Case Study,” Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, accepted July 2018. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000208.
Talukder, M.A.S., A.M. Hainen, S.M. Remias, and D.M. Bullock, “Route-based mobility performance metrics using probe vehicle travel times,” Advances in Transportation Studies, 46:135–152, Nov. 2018. Link.
Crawford, P.S., M.A. Al-Zarrad, A.J. Graettinger, A.M. Hainen, W.E. Back, and L. Powell, “Rapid Disaster Data Dissemination and Vulnerability Assessment through Synthesis of a Web-Based Extreme Event Viewer and Deep Learning,” Advances in Civil Engineering, 2018, Article ID 7258156. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7258156.
Hainen, A.M., J.K. Lindly, K.B. Harbin, D.C. Dye, “Duration Analysis of Emergency Shutdown Incidents Regarding Hazardous Liquid Pipelines,” Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 34(3), 2019. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0001364.
Liu, J., A. Hainen, X. Li, Q. Nie, S. Nambisan, “Pedestrian injury severity in motor vehicle crashes: An integrated spatiotemporal modeling approach,” Accident Analysis and Prevention, 132:105272, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105272.
Jones, S.L., A.D. Lidbe, A.M. Hainen, “What can open access data from India tell us about road safety and sustainable development?” Journal of Transport Geography, 80:102503, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102503.
Islam, N., M.A.S. Talukder, A.M. Hainen, et al., “Characterizing co-modality in urban transit systems from a passengers’ perspective,” Public Transport, 12, 405–430, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12469-020-00228-y.
Talukder, S., A.D. Lidbe, E.G. Tedla, A.M. Hainen, and T.L. Atkison, “Trajectory-Based Signal Control in Mixed Connected Vehicle Environments,” Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 147(5), 2021. Link.
Islam, N., A.M. Hainen, S. Burdette, R.K. Smith, “An analytical assessment of freeway service patrol on incident clearance times,” Advances in Transportation Studies, 54:75–88, 2021. Link.
Li, X., P. Penmetsa, J. Liu, A.M. Hainen, S. Nambisan, “Severity of emergency natural gas distribution pipeline incidents: Application of an integrated spatio-temporal approach fused with text mining,” Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 69:104383, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2020.104383.
Islam, N., E.K. Adanu, A.M. Hainen, S. Burdette, R. Smith, S.L. Jones, Jr., “A comparative analysis of freeway crash incident clearance time using random parameter and latent class hazard-based duration model,” Accident Analysis & Prevention, 160:106303, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2021.106303.
Xing, F., Q. Nie, J. Liu, A. Khattak, A. Hainen, S. Nambisan, “Constructing spatiotemporal driving volatility profiles for connected and automated vehicles in existing highway networks,” Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 26(5), 572–585, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1080/15472450.2021.1944133.
Talukder, M., E. Tedla, A. Hainen, and T. Atkison, “Analytical and Empirical Evaluation of Freight Priority System in Connected Vehicle Environment,” Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 148(6), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000673.
Islam, N., E.K. Adanu, A. Hainen, S. Burdette, R. Smith, S. Jones, “Evaluating the Impact of Freeway Service Patrol on Incident Clearance Times: A Spatial Transferability Test,” Journal of Advanced Transportation, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/5272747.
Awolusi, I., E. Marks, A. Hainen, A. Alzarrad, “Incident Analysis and Prediction of Safety Performance on Construction Sites,” CivilEng, 3, 669–686, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng3030039.
Zhang, Z., Q. Nie, J. Liu, A. Hainen, N. Islam, C. Yang, “Machine learning based real-time prediction of freeway crash risk using crowdsourced probe vehicle data,” Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 28(1), 84–102, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/15472450.2022.2106564.
Salvi, K.A., M. Kumar, and A.M. Hainen, “Sensitivity of Traffic Speed to Rainfall,” Weather, Climate, and Society, 14, 1165–1175, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-22-0024.1.
Poptic, S.M., P. Penmetsa, J. Liu, E. Tedla, A. Hainen, S. Nambisan, “Dedicated lanes for connected and automated vehicles on freeways: a simulation study,” Advances in Transportation Studies, 59:233–246, April 2023. Link.
Liu, J., X. Fu, A. Hainen, C. Yang, L. Villavicencio, W.J. Horrey, “Evaluating the impacts of vehicle-mounted Variable Message Signs on passing vehicles: implications for protecting roadside incident and service personnel,” Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, July 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/15472450.2023.2227968.
Fu, X., J. Liu, Z. Huang, A. Hainen, A.J. Khattak, “LSTM-based lane change prediction using Waymo open motion dataset: The role of vehicle operating space,” Digital Transportation and Safety, 2(2):112–123, 2023. https://doi.org/10.48130/DTS-2023-0009.
Schrader, M., A. Hainen, J. Bittle, “Extracting Vehicle Trajectories from Partially Overlapping Roadside Radar,” Sensors, 24, 4640, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24144640. (Voted best presentation #MaxSchrader by the conference attendees at the 2024 SUMO User Conference)
Annimalla, V., A. Hainen, E. Tedla, “Analyzing Manual Traffic Control During Special Events using Signal Performance Measures Data,” Advances in Transportation Studies, 64:251–264, Nov. 2024. Link.
Cho, N., A. Hainen, E. Tedla, S. Burdette, “A comparison of machine learning-based method vs. the Highway Capacity Manual method of intersection delay,” Advances in Transportation Studies, 65:203–220, 2025. Link.
Okafor, S., P. Penmetsa, V. Annimalla, E. Tedla, A. Hainen, S. Jones, “A Statewide Correlation Analysis of Connected Vehicles Hard Braking Event Data and Road Traffic Crashes,” Advances in Transportation Studies, 65:239–252, 2025. Link.
Cho, N., A. Hainen, E. Tedla, S. Burdette, “Integrating Signal Performance Data for Turning Movement Counts Estimation at Intersections Using Machine Learning,” ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 151(10), 2025. https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-858.
Lu, W., X. Fu, J. Liu, A. Hainen, F. Xia, and O. Chen, “A ‘digital twin’ traffic simulation tool for network-wide real-time traffic monitoring and management,” Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1080/15472450.2025.2553287.
Cho, N., A. Hainen, “Reducing Time of Day Traffic Signal Controller Transitions Through Collective Offset Adjustments,” ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, under final editorial review, 2025.

Teaching

I have taught the following classes at UA:

CE350 Introduction to Transportation Engineering – This is a fun intro course for juniors. I haven’t taught the class since 2017 since I get to focus on the senior transportation electives.
CE451/551 Roadway and Intersection Design – This is a classic transportation design course where we learn about AASHTO’s A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets. I developed a six-part lab on AutoCAD Civil 3D that has been fantastic for students. You can check out an old video of the lab here.
CE458/558 Traffic Engineering – This is my favorite class! We go through some of the Highway Capacity Manual, but the class has a major emphasis on technology and tools. We touch on microsimulation, machine learning for cameras and LiDAR, and work on SQL big data labs. There is also a huge focus on hardware for traffic signal control. Students visit an actual traffic signal controller cabinet in the field and learn about every part. We also work on a four-part PTV Vistro lab for a signal timing design.
CE573 Statistical Applications – This is the first of a two-part course I teach on statistics. We work through hypothesis testing and regression in chapters 8-16 of Jay Devore’s book, Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences. In a world where AI/ML is rapidly expanding, my predecessor for this course said it well: “The fundamentals never change.” In the modern era of AI/ML, there are important concepts that students need to understand.
CE673 Statistics & Econometrics – This is another favorite course of mine, but I don’t get to teach it that often. In grad school, I was very blessed to take Prof. Fred Mannering’s CE614 and CE615 classes. I adapted the class material and the classic Statistical and Econometric Methods for Transportation Data Analysis for this grad-level engineering course. I have had many students write peer-reviewed journal articles with the skills they’ve gained from this course.
CE401 Capstone Design (Horizontal) – This is our senior design course. I helped to team-teach the course in Fall 2021. I really adopted the group and wanted to hold a very high standard for the course. We treated the time every Tuesday and Thursday from 1400-1650 as though we were working in an engineering design firm. Students were responsible not just for finishing their assigned work, but for thinking about what tasks were next or how they could take the project above and beyond what was required. I was strict on the requirements to use time only for class work, but it was a phenomenal outcome! This was a class where every student came up to me on the last day and shook my hand. Again, it was holding students to a high standard, but they met it and we were all proud of our work.

Resources

Personal

There are some bonus sections on my personal website. Please check them out at https://www.alexhainen.com.