Wayne State University has all of the equipment and facilities necessary to carry out cutting-edge transportation engineering research. During 2009, the WSU Transportation Research Group moved into the Urban Infrastructure Laboratory, a state-of-the-art facility in the Wayne State University College of Engineering’s Marvin I. Danto Engineering Development Center (EDC). Equipment and resources available to faculty and students in the laboratory and at the university include library, computer, and data collection assets.

Library services

Wayne State is one of the nation's leading urban research universities with a demonstrated commitment to teaching and learning excellence. Wayne State libraries rank among the top 60 libraries by the Association for Research Libraries. The library system consists of five major libraries and an ALA-accredited School of Library and Information Science.

The university libraries offer varied space for study and learning suitable for both individual and group use. These spaces include more than 4,200 seats and 49 group study rooms. Wireless network access and some 550 computer workstations are available to WSU students and faculty in these areas. Other statistics demonstrating the tremendous strength of the WSU library system are:

• More than 250 staff
• More than 2 million patrons served each year
• The collection now has more 4 million volumes, including more than 700,000 electronic books
• More than 66,000 journal titles
• 56,000 maps
• $9 million per year on new library materials

In addition, the WSU Transportation Research Group has an extensive in-house library of transportation research journals and published reports, with complete access to Transportation Research Board publications dating back to the 1960s.

Computing environment

The WSU Transportation Research Group maintains a network computer facility that includes more than 20 workstations. The group maintains site licenses for a variety of powerful statistical analysis software packages, including LIMDEP, SAS, and SPSS. The group also maintains site licenses for all the standard professional transportation software packages, including HCS, Synchro, and VISSIM. There are also several large-scale network-based servers that house an extensive database collection, which includes copies of the Michigan State Police Crash Database dating back to 1994 as well as the Michigan Department of Transportation’s sufficiency files and video logs.

Data collection assets

The Urban Infrastructure Lab includes a variety of traffic data collection equipment allowing for teaching and research related to transportation engineering. This equipment includes the full range of counters, cameras, safety gear, and measuring tools necessary for field data collection.