Digital Commons Network^™

Solar-Powered Automated Transportation: Feasibility And Visualization, Burford J. Furman, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Shannon Mcdonald, Ron Swenson, Jack Fogelquist, Yu Chiao, Alex Pape, Mario Cruz

Mineta Transportation Institute

A solar-powered automated transportation network (ATN) connecting the North and South campuses of San José State University with three passenger stations was designed, visualized, and analyzed in terms of its energy usage, carbon offset, and cost. The study’s methodology included the use of tools and software such as ArcGIS, SketchUp, Infraworks, Sketchup, Rhinoceros, and Autodesk 3DS Max. ATN vehicle energy usage was estimated using data from the university’s Park & Ride shuttle bus operation and by modeling with SUMOPy, the advanced simulation suite for the micro-traffic simulator SUMO. The energy study showed that an extensive solar photovoltaic (PV) canopy over …

Achieving Excellence For California’S Freight System: Developing Competitiveness And Performance Metrics; Incorporating Sustainability, Resilience, And Workforce Development, Jian-Yu Ke, Fynnwin Prager, Jose Martinez, Chris Cagle

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study explores the question of whether California's freight system is staying competitive with other US regions. A novel analytical framework compares supply chain performance metrics across multiple US states and regions for seaports, airports, highways, freight rail service, and distribution centers by combining the Performance Evaluation Matrix (PEM), Competitive Position Matrix (CPM), and Business Process Management (BPM) approaches. Analysis of industry data and responses from structured interviews with 30 freight industry experts across 5 transportation sectors suggests that California's freight system is competitive for seaports, airports, and freight rail; however, highways and distribution centers have room for improvement with …

How Do California’S Local Governments Fund Surface Transportation? A Guide To Revenue Sources, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Kevin Yong Lee, Serena Alexander

Mineta Transportation Institute

California local agencies raise the revenue to support high-quality transportation services and infrastructure from a patchwork of federal, state, and local sources. To assist policymakers and transportation experts as they explore options for creating a more sustainable funding system, this report presents an overview of the taxes and fees that currently generate revenue ultimately dedicated to paying for transportation at the sub-state—or “local”—level. The discussion covers federal and state as well as local sources. The report also traces the evolving contribution from each level of government for expenditures on California’s local streets and roads and public transit, looking back two …

Analytical Models For Traffic Congestion And Accident Analysis, Hongrui Liu, Rahul Ramachandra Shetty

Mineta Transportation Institute

In the US, over 38,000 people die in road crashes each year, and 2.35 million are injured or disabled, according to the statistics report from the Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT) in 2020. In addition, traffic congestion keeping Americans stuck on the road wastes millions of hours and billions of dollars each year. Using statistical techniques and machine learning algorithms, this research developed accurate predictive models for traffic congestion and road accidents to increase understanding of the complex causes of these challenging issues. The research used US Accidents data consisting of 49 variables describing 4.2 million accident records …

Promoting Interest In Transportation Careers Among Young Women, Eugene Cordero, Kiana Luong

Mineta Transportation Institute

Transportation remains the largest source of U.S.-based carbon emissions, and reducing emissions from this source continues to challenge experts. Addressing challenging problems requires diverse modes of thinking—and at present the transportation workforce is not diverse in terms of gender, with women occupying only about 14% of the transportation workforce. This research developed and tested a school-based intervention that uses pro-environmental framing and exposure to women transportation role models to help attract more women to transportation careers. To investigate the efficacy of the intervention, the research team studied control and treatment groups of university students using pre- and post-surveys to measure …

Safeguarding Equity In Off-Site Vehicle Miles Traveled (Vmt) Mitigation In California, Serena E. Alexander, Mariela Alfonzo, Kevin Lee

Mineta Transportation Institute

Historically, the State of California assessed the environmental impacts of proposed developments based on how it was projected to affect an area’s level of service (LOS). However, as LOS focused on traffic delays, many agencies simply widened roads, which was an ineffective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). With the passage of Senate Bill (SB)743 in 2013, LOS was replaced by Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) as a more appropriate metric by which to gauge the environmental impacts of proposed development. Additionally, SB 743 presented an opportunity for off-site VMT mitigation strategies through banking and exchanges– allowing multiple development projects …

Exploring The Relationship Between Mandatory Helmet Use Regulations And Adult Cyclists’ Behavior In California Using Hybrid Machine Learning Models, Fatemeh Davoudi Kakhki, Maria Chierichetti

Mineta Transportation Institute

In California, bike fatalities increased by 8.1% from 2015 to 2016. Even though the benefits of wearing helmets in protecting cyclists against trauma in cycling crash has been determined, the use of helmets is still limited, and there is opposition against mandatory helmet use, particularly for adults. Therefore, exploring perceptions of adult cyclists regarding mandatory helmet use is a key element in understanding cyclists’ behavior, and determining the impact of mandatory helmet use on their cycling rate. The goal of this research is to identify sociodemographic characteristics and cycling behaviors that are associated with the use and non-use of bicycle …

Detecting Driver Drowsiness With Multi-Sensor Data Fusion Combined With Machine Learning, Hovannes Kulhandjian

Mineta Transportation Institute

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2017 drowsy driving resulted in 50,000 injuries across 91,000 police-reported accidents, as well as almost 800 deaths. Through the application of visual and radar sensors combined with machine learning, this research developed a drowsy driver detection system aimed to prevent potentially fatal accidents. The working prototype of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems can be installed in present-day vehicles to detect drowsy drivers with over 95% accuracy. It integrates two types of visual surveillance to examine the driver for signs of drowsiness. A camera is used to monitor the driver’s eyes, mouth and …

Gaps And Opportunities In Accessibility Policy For Autonomous Vehicles, William Riggs, Anurag Pande

Mineta Transportation Institute

Nearly 1 in 5 people in the US have a disability (more than 57 million) (U.S. Census Bureau), and people with disabilities use the automobile as a travel mode at significantly lower rates than people without disabilities (Bureau of Transportation Statistics). For example, people aged 18 to 64 with disabilities make 28% fewer trips per day (2.6 v. 3.6 trips) on average than people without disabilities. The disparity is even more significant for non-workers. These statistics highlight the notable technological, design, and policy failings in today’s transportation system - that disabled individuals have considerable suppressed demand for travel that is …

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The Roadside Transportation Related Air Quality (Startraq) And Neighborhood Characterization, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn, Steve Chung

Mineta Transportation Institute

To promote active transportation modes (such as bike ride and walking), and to create safer communities for easier access to transit, it is essential to provide consolidated data-driven transportation information to the public. The relevant and timely information from data facilitates the improvement of decision-making processes for the establishment of public policy and urban planning for sustainable growth, and for promoting public health in the region. For the characterization of the spatial variation of transportation-emitted air pollution in the Fresno/Clovis neighborhood in California, various species of particulate matters emitted from traffic sources were measured using real-time monitors and GPS loggers …

How Do Environmental Factors Affect Drivers’ Gaze And Head Movements?, Arash Tavakoli, Vahid Balali, Arsalan Heydarian

Mineta Transportation Institute

Studies have shown that environmental factors affect driving behaviors. For instance, weather conditions and the presence of a passenger have been shown to significantly affect the speed of the driver. As one of the important measures of driving behavior is the gaze and head movements of the driver, such metrics can be potentially used towards understanding the effects of environmental factors on the driver’s behavior in real-time. In this study, using a naturalistic study platform, videos have been collected from six participants for more than four weeks of a fully naturalistic driving scenario. The videos of both the participants’ faces …

Steps To Supplement Park-And-Ride Public Transit Access With Ride-And-Ride Shuttles, John S. Niles, J. M. Pogodzinski

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public transit ridership in California declined in the five years before the pandemic of 2020–21 and dropped significantly further after the pandemic began. A sharp downward step in the level of transit boarding occurred after February 2020, and continues to the date of this report as a result of the public-health guidance on social distancing, expanded work-at-home, and a travel mode shift from public transit to private cars. A critical issue has come to the foreground of public transportation policy, namely, how to increase the quality and geographic reach of transit service to better serve the essential trips of mobility …

Researching Relationships Between Truck Travel Time Performance Measures And On-Network And Off-Network Characteristics, Sarvani Duvvuri, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha

Mineta Transportation Institute

Trucks serve significant amount of freight tonnage and are more susceptible to complex interactions with other vehicles in a traffic stream. While traffic congestion continues to be a significant ‘highway’ problem, delays in truck travel result in loss of revenue to the trucking companies. There is a significant research on the traffic congestion mitigation, but a very few studies focused on data exclusive to trucks. This research is aimed at a regional-level analysis of truck travel time data to identify roads for improving mobility and reducing congestion for truck traffic. The objectives of the research are to compute and evaluate …

Developing An Effective Targeted Mobile Application To Enhance Transportation Safety And Use Of Active Transportation Modes In Fresno County: The Role Of Application Design & Content, Samer Sarofim

Mineta Transportation Institute

Do pedestrians and cyclists need their own app? Pedestrians and cyclists in Fresno county think so, and this research examined this need and how it relates to the importance of app design. Survey participants (all who regularly use active transportation modes) along with a variety of transportation stakeholders, including the Fresno Council of Government, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 6, and the City of Fresno — Public Works Department, indicated the importance of designing effective communication tools to enhance the utilization of active transportation modes and to ensure the safety of vulnerable road users. In this study, over …

A Model For Integrating Rail Services With Other Transportation Modalities: Identifying The Best Practices And The Gaps For California’S Next State Rail Plan, Eric Peterson, Wenbin Wei, Lydon George

Mineta Transportation Institute

The California State Rail Plan (CSRP) is among the best rail plan documents published by any jurisdiction in the United States to date. As such, the CSRP is used in this paper as the basis of comparison to other state rail service plans. These plans will have been submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on record as of June 2020—as required under Section 303 of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act (PRIIA) of 2008. The purpose of this paper is to identify the best practices and gaps that may inform California and other states in their future rail …

Robotic Parking Technology For Congestion Mitigation And Air Quality Control Around Park & Rides, Mahdi Yoozbashizadeh, Forouzan Golshani

Mineta Transportation Institute

A lack or limited availability for parking may have multiple consequences, not the least of which is driver frustration, congestion, and air pollution. However, there is a greater problem that is not widely recognized by the public, namely the negative effect on the use of transit systems due to insufficient parking spaces close to key transit stations. Automated parking management systems, which have been successfully deployed in several European and Japanese cities, can manage parking needs at transit stations more effectively than other alternatives. Numerous studies have confirmed that quick and convenient automobile access to park-and-ride lots can be essential …

What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options To Support Transportation? Results From Year Twelve Of A National Survey, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Hilary Nixon

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report summarizes the results from the twelfth year of a national public opinion survey asking U.S. adults questions related to their views on federal transportation taxes. A nationally-representative sample of 2,516 respondents completed the online survey from February 5 to 23, 2021.

The questions test public opinions about raising the federal gas tax rate, replacing the federal gas tax with a new mileage fee, and imposing a mileage fee just on commercial travel. In addition to asking directly about support for these tax options, the survey collected data on respondents’ views on the quality of their local transportation system, …

Do Multi-Use-Path Accessibility And The Clustering Effect Play A Role In Residents' Choice Of Walking And Cycling?, Chih-Hao Wang, Na Chen

Mineta Transportation Institute

The transportation studies literature recognizes the relationship between accessibility and active travel. However, there is limited research on the specific impact of walking and cycling accessibility to multi-use paths on active travel behavior. Combined with the culture of automobile dependency in the US, this knowledge gap has been making it difficult for policy-makers to encourage walking and cycling mode choices, highlighting the need to promote a walking and cycling culture in cities. In this case, a clustering effect (“you bike, I bike”) can be used as leverage to initiate such a trend. This project contributes to the literature as one …

Via2g Microtransit Pilot Evaluation, Anne Brown, Alice Grossman, Lucy Noble

Mineta Transportation Institute

Google partnered with Via to launch an on-demand microtransit called Via2G between January and March 2020. The pilot provided employees with free travel to/from two of its offices in suburban, congested Silicon Valley. While the pilot was cut short due to COVID-19, rider participation grew steadily during operation. Of trip requests, 8,636 (87.8%) resulted in a ride offer. Unfulfilled requests were primarily outside of pilot operating times or when rider demand exceeded driver supply. Most users (72%) completed at least two trips, although recurring users were less likely to complete errands on the commute and fewer had a car available …

Comparing Twitter And Lodes Data For Detecting Commuter Mobility Patterns, Jochen Albrecht, Andreas Petutschnig, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Bernd Resch, Aleisha Wright

Mineta Transportation Institute

Local and regional planners struggle to keep up with rapid changes in mobility patterns. This exploratory research is framed with the overarching goal of asking if and how geo-social network data (GSND), in this case, Twitter data, can be used to understand and explain commuting and non-commuting travel patterns. The research project set out to determine whether GSND may be used to augment US Census LODES data beyond commuting trips and whether it may serve as a short-term substitute for commuting trips. It turns out that the reverse is true and the common practice of employing LODES data to extrapolate …

Numerical Investigations Of Virus Transport Aboard A Commuter Bus, Hamid Rahai, Jeremy Bonifacio

Mineta Transportation Institute

The authors performed unsteady numerical simulations of virus/particle transport released from a hypothetical passenger aboard a commuter bus. The bus model was sized according to a typical city bus used to transport passengers within the city of Long Beach in California. The simulations were performed for the bus in transit and when the bus was at a bus stop opening the middle doors for 30 seconds for passenger boarding and drop off. The infected passenger was sitting in an aisle seat in the middle of the bus, releasing 1267 particles (viruses)/min. The bus ventilation system released air from two linear …

City Best Practices To Improve Transit Operations And Safety, Michelle Derobertis, Christopher E. Ferrell, Richard W. Lee, David Moore

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public, fixed-route transit services most commonly operate on public streets. In addition, transit passengers must use sidewalks to access transit stops and stations. However, streets and sidewalks are under the jurisdiction of municipalities, not transit agencies. Various municipal policies, practices, and decisions affect transit operations, rider convenience, and passenger safety. Thus, these government entities have an important influence over the quality, safety, and convenience of transit services in their jurisdictions. This research identified municipal policies and practices that affect public transport providers’ ability to deliver transit services. They were found from a comprehensive literature review, interviews and discussions with five …

Predicting Bus Travel Times In Washington, Dc Using Artificial Neural Networks (Anns), Stephen Arhin, Babin Manandhar, Hamdiat Baba Adam, Adam Gatiba

Mineta Transportation Institute

Washington, DC is ranked second among cities in terms of highest public transit commuters in the United States, with approximately 9% of the working population using the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrobuses to commute. Deducing accurate travel times of these metrobuses is an important task for transit authorities to provide reliable service to its patrons. This study, using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), developed prediction models for transit buses to assist decision-makers to improve service quality and patronage. For this study, we used six months of Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) data for six Washington …

Surface Transportation Supply Chain Security: Creating A Blueprint For Future Research, Frances Edwards, Joseph Szyliowicz, Dan Goodrich, William Medigovich, Liz Lange, Autumn Anderton

Mineta Transportation Institute

Ninety percent of the world’s trade goods travel by surface transportation, using maritime, road and rail assets. The security of the goods in transit, the infrastructure supporting the movement, and the vehicles, are required to ensure that international commerce proceeds successfully. Much has been written about the surface supply chain itself, but little has focused on the security of these components. This report provides a guide for those wanting an increased understanding of the security issues that supply chain surface transportation systems confront and a blueprint to guide their future research.

Novel Method For Probabilistic Evaluation Of The Post-Earthquake Functionality Of A Bridge, Vesna Terzic, William Pasco

Mineta Transportation Institute

While modern overpass bridges are safe against collapse, their functionality will likely be compromised in case of design-level or beyond design-level earthquake, which may generate excessive residual displacements of the bridge deck. Presently, there is no validated, quantitative approach for estimating the operational level of the bridge after an earthquake due to the difficulty of accurately simulating residual displacements. This research develops a novel method for probabilistic evaluation of the post-earthquake functionality state of the bridge; the approach is founded on an explicit evaluation of bridge residual displacements and associated traffic capacity by considering realistic traffic load scenarios.

This research …

Cycling Past 50: A Closer Look Into The World Of Older Cyclists, Carol Kachadoorian

Mineta Transportation Institute

This document reports on 2,300 responses to a nationwide survey of older adults who cycle. The survey, open from February through September 2020, includes questions about a rider’s cycling history, current cycling habits, and falls. It includes a visual preference survey of various cycling facilities and an online journaling option for two rides subsequent to completing the survey (results of the online journals will be available in the summer 2021). Responses reflect the impact of COVID-19 on older adults’ cycling habits, the impact of aging on ability and agility, the impact of the built environment, types of bicycles, and opportunities …

Evaluating Innovative Financing Mechanisms For The California High-Speed Rail Project, Shailesh Chandra, Timothy Thai, Vivek Mishra, Princeton Wong

Mineta Transportation Institute

Millions of dollars are involved in high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure construction and maintenance. Large-scale projects like HSR require funding from a variety of avenues beyond those available through public monies. Although HSR serves the general public’s mobility needs, any funds (whether State or Federal) flowing from the public exchequer usually undergo strict review and scrutiny. Funds from public agencies are always limited, making such traditional financing mechanisms unsustainable for fulfilling HSR’s long-term operational and maintenance cost needs—on top of initial costs involved in construction. Therefore, any sustainable means of financing HSR projects would always be welcome. This research presents an …

Safety Considerations For All Road Users On Edge Lane Roads, Michael Williams, Marcial Lamera, Aleksander Bauranov, Carole Voulgaris, Anurag Pande

Mineta Transportation Institute

Edge lane roads (ELRs), also known as advisory bike lanes or advisory shoulders, are a type of shared street where two-way motor vehicle (MV) traffic shares a single center lane, and edge lanes on either side are preferentially reserved for vulnerable road users (VRUs). This work comprises a literature review, an investigation of ELRs’ operational characteristics and potential road user interactions via simulation, and a study of crash data from existing American and Australian ELRs.

The simulation evaluated the impact of various factors (e.g., speed, volume, directional split, etc.) on ELR operation. Results lay the foundation for a siting criterion. …

Do Equity And Accountability Get Lost In Losts? An Analysis Of Local Return Funding Provisions In California’S Local Option Sales Tax Measures For Transportation, Jaimee Lederman, Peter Haas, Stephanie Kellogg, Martin Wachs, Asha Weinstein Agrawal

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study explores how local return provisions of local option sales taxes (LOSTs) for transportation are allocated and spent to meet local and regional transportation needs. Local return refers to the component of county LOST measures that provides funding directly to municipalities in the county to be used to meet local needs. Local return has become a fixture in LOSTs; 58 LOST measures placed on the ballot in California (as of 2019) that have included local return in their expenditure plan have an average of 35% of revenues dedicated to local return. Local return provisions in the ballot measures often …

Enhancement Of Multimodal Traffic Safety In High-Quality Transit Areas, Yongping Zhang, Wen Cheng, Xudong Jia

Mineta Transportation Institute

Numerous extant studies are dedicated to enhancing the safety of active transportation modes, but very few studies are devoted to safety analysis surrounding transit stations, which serve as an important modal interface for pedestrians and bicyclists. This study bridges the gap by developing joint models based on the multivariate conditionally autoregressive (MCAR) priors with a distance-oriented neighboring weight matrix. For this purpose, transit-station-centered data in Los Angeles County were used for model development. Feature selection relying on both random forest and correlation analyses was employed, which leads to different covariate inputs to each of the two jointed models, resulting in …