The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has renewed and expanded its longstanding data partnership with INRIX, the Bellevue, Washington-based mobility analytics firm. Announced in February 2026, the upgraded contract builds on a collaboration stretching back to 2010 and introduces connected vehicle data streams, advanced trip analytics, and broader performance monitoring tools across one of the largest state-managed road networks in the United States.
From Speed Profiles to Network-Wide Situational Awareness
The relationship between TxDOT and INRIX dates to 2010, when the company delivered Texas’ first speed profile, converting raw GPS and probe data into corridor-level performance metrics. The arrangement was formalized into a statewide data subscription in 2020, giving TxDOT access to real-time and historical speed and travel time information for use in safety analysis, congestion management, and long-term infrastructure planning.
The new agreement broadens the scope of that data exchange. Under the expanded contract, INRIX will supply TxDOT with aggregated digital roadway and connected vehicle datasets, monthly passenger and truck trip path information, and enhanced tools for real-time situational awareness and performance measurement. These capabilities are powered by the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory (CATT Lab), which operates what is widely regarded as the largest transportation big data and analytics center globally.
Why Trip Path Data Matters for Texas Infrastructure Planning
The addition of origin-destination trip path data represents a meaningful upgrade over the speed and travel time feeds that defined earlier phases of the partnership. Speed data can identify where congestion occurs, but trip path data reveals how traffic moves across the network from origin to destination, exposing bottleneck patterns, freight corridor dependencies, and diversionary route behavior that static speed measurements cannot capture.
For a state maintaining approximately 80,000 miles of roadway and over 200,000 lane miles, this granularity is operationally significant. TxDOT’s $104 billion Unified Transportation Program, the agency’s ten-year construction plan, relies on performance data to prioritize investments across metropolitan and rural corridors alike. Monthly trip path datasets covering both passenger and commercial truck traffic should allow planners to make more targeted allocation decisions, particularly in freight-heavy corridors such as the Permian Basin energy region and border districts that facilitate trade with Mexico.
The Texas Top 100 and the Role of Data in Congestion Spending
One of the most visible outcomes of the INRIX-TxDOT relationship has been the annual Texas Top 100 Congested Road Segments report, produced in collaboration with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI). The 2025 edition of that report, covering 2024 traffic conditions across more than 2,100 road segments and 10,000 miles, found that statewide vehicle delays dropped 12% compared to 2017 levels even as vehicle miles traveled rose by 12% over the same period. TTI estimated those improvements saved Texas commuters approximately $1.8 billion in delay and fuel costs during 2024.
The Top 100 report feeds directly into TxDOT’s Texas Clear Lanes initiative, which has directed over $80 billion in non-tolled construction projects across the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio metropolitan regions since 2015. The expanded data tools from INRIX are expected to sharpen the analytical foundation underpinning these investments, extending performance measurement beyond congestion hotspots to encompass broader network optimization.
CATT Lab’s Growing Influence in State DOT Analytics
The CATT Lab at the University of Maryland has become a central infrastructure partner for state transportation agencies seeking to operationalize big data. Established in 2002, the lab operates three independent data centers that collect and archive dozens of real-time transportation data feeds from agencies nationwide. Its Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) platform is used by planners, operations specialists, and homeland security officials across the country.
INRIX’s partnership with the CATT Lab is not exclusive to Texas. Multiple U.S. state DOTs, including Tennessee, Oregon, Louisiana, and Rhode Island, have adopted INRIX services powered by CATT Lab analytics since 2020. The Texas expansion reflects a broader pattern in which state agencies are moving beyond basic traffic monitoring toward integrated mobility intelligence platforms that combine probe data, connected vehicle signals, and trip analytics in a single operational environment.
Broader Implications for State-Level Transportation Data Procurement
The renewed INRIX-TxDOT contract arrives at a time when state transportation agencies across the U.S. are grappling with how to harness rapidly expanding volumes of connected vehicle and mobility data. The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 channeled significant funding toward data-driven safety and performance programs, increasing demand for the kinds of analytics platforms that companies like INRIX, Streetlight Data, and Replica provide.
Texas’ approach, consolidating multiple data streams through a single vendor partnership backed by a university research lab, offers one model for how large states can scale their analytics capabilities without building proprietary systems from scratch. Whether that model proves cost-effective and operationally durable over the long term will depend on how effectively TxDOT translates richer datasets into measurable safety and mobility outcomes across its vast and growing road network.
