Engineering Commons^™

Seismic Performance Design Criteria Of Existing Bridge Bent Plastic Hinge Region And Rapid Repair Measures Of Earthquake Damaged Bridges Considering Future Resilience, A K M Golam Murtuz

Dissertations and Theses

The main objective of this research was to evaluate the seismic performance of existing sub-standard reinforced concrete (RC) bridge column-spread footing subassemblies and to quantify the material strain limits through a full-scale experimental program. A total of six column-footing test specimens with pre-1990 construction details were subjected to reverse cyclic lateral loading, utilizing a conventional three-cycle symmetric loading protocol and a protocol representing the demands expected from a CSZ earthquake. Additionally, the tests were designed so that variable axial loading could be applied to simulate the secondary load effects experienced during an earthquake in a column that is part of …

The Impact Of New Light Rail Service On Employment Growth In Portland, Oregon, Lahar Santra

Dissertations and Theses

This study quantitatively examines the impact of the new Light Rail Transit (LRT) service on employment growth in retail, knowledge, and service sectors before and after opening the LRT. At the corridor level, this study conducts a case study of Greenline in Southeast Portland, Oregon. The results of the corridor level study suggest that the new LRT service increased employment along the Greenline corridor among all the three sectors of interest- retail, knowledge, service in the long-term (ten years) while having slightly different results for the short-term (five years), likely due to the slow growth of LRT benefits. This study …

Determinant Factors Of Bicyclist Injury Severity At Signalized And Unsignalized Intersections, Apy Das

Dissertations and Theses

Bicycling is becoming increasingly popular in Oregon and the US in general due to its environment friendliness as well as health benefits. With Oregon's population projected to increase by more than 30% over the next 30 years, improving the safety of the transportation network for persons on bicycles is important. In Oregon, majority of the bicyclist crashes occur at intersections. This thesis seeks to identify the determinant factors that significantly impact bicyclist crash injury severity at intersections. A mixed logit framework that accounts for any unobserved heterogeneity in the data and allows the estimated parameters to randomly vary across observations …

Improving Bicycle Crossings At Unsignalized Intersections Through Pavement Markings: Analysis Of The City Of Portland Innovative Strategy, Frank Boateng Appiah

Dissertations and Theses

The increasing trend in the number of bicycle crashes in the U.S since 2009 has been a major challenge to safety. In 2019, a total of 36,096 people were killed on U.S roadways. A total of 846 (2.3%) of these fatalities were bicyclists and around 75% of the bicycle fatalities occur in urban areas and intersections are common locations of crashes. Many bicycle enhancements such as bike boxes, bicycle signals, curb extensions have been installed to improve safety at signalized intersections. The City of Portland OR experimented with an innovative treatment to improve bicycle crossings at unsignalized crossings. This treatment, …

Incorporating Conditional Ss-Mean Based Equity Metric In Coverage Based Facility Location Problems, Rohan Sirupa

Dissertations and Theses

A classical maximum coverage facility location problem (MCLP) tries to maximize the coverage by serving all possible demands within the specified coverage radius. Depending on the applications, several families of MCLP variants have been developed - each with its unique set of additional constraints. One specific application is locating Emergency medical service (EMS) units. EMS units such as ambulances or drones with emergency supplies are located using models such as the maximum expected survival location problem (MEXSLP). However, a classical MEXSLP model tends to locate EMS units near densely populated regions, resulting in increased response times for lowly populated regions. …

Distributionally Robust Optimization Utilizing Facility Location Problems, Elijah Kling

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Facility location problems are used in widespread application in transportation, freight, supply chain, and logistics problems. Models can be developed as deterministic, where all parameters are known, or robust, where a parameter has uncertainty. This thesis explores a new method for developing robust formulation and compares the implications of assuming values for this uncertain parameter. Two models are solved, and both are compared against their deterministic counterparts using numerical analysis. By manipulating the input parameters and considering real world implications of the solutions, either the robust or deterministic can show better performance.

Maximum Coverage Facility Location Drone Routing Problem With Multiple Trip Stops, Marie Roza

Civil and Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Integer linear optimization can be used to formulate routing problems as models to find optimal solutions given a set of inputs and constraints. In this research, Chauhan et al.'s publication, "Maximum coverage capacitated facility location problem with range constrained drones," is expanded upon by modeling a facility location problem with two-to-one drone deliveries. The model analyzes a set of potential facilities that are available to meet the demands of a set of demand points. The drone delivery routes are modeled with the assumption that each opened facility is assigned one drone that can fulfill up to two demand points’ demands …

Optimizing On-Street Parking Supply With Analytical Models, Chawalit Tipagornwong

Dissertations and Theses

Commercial vehicles are crucial for the urban economy, but they generate negative impacts as well. This leads to restrictions such as a reduction in the number of loading zones. The result is that commercial drivers spend a significant amount of time searching for available loading zones. To avoid searching for parking, some commercial drivers double park, which causes traffic congestion. Therefore, the number of loading zones should be set properly. Since a curb is allocated between both loading zones and parking spaces, both parking types have to be considered. Many on-street parking management strategies have been implemented, including pricing meter …

The Gouda, The Bad, And The Ugly: Prioritizing Intersections For Pedestrian Safety In Tillamook, Or With Different Risk Estimation Methods, Kelly M. White

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The following report explores five different pedestrian risk estimation methods at urban intersections. Six study intersections in Tillamook, Oregon were chosen as a case study to analyze each risk estimation method and apply the values to a project prioritization process. Ultimately, risk factors of both exposure and infrastructure contribute to the highest amount of risk for pedestrians. The Oregon Department of Transportation's State Planning and Research Report 779 was identified as the most comprehensive risk estimation method.

Driver Distraction In Microsimulation Of A Mid-Block Pedestrian Crossing, Darryl Joseph Michaud

Dissertations and Theses

Traffic simulation has become an invaluable part of the traffic engineering toolbox. However, the majority of driver models are designed to recreate traffic performance based on interactions among vehicles. In keeping with this pursuit, most are fundamentally built to avoid collisions. This limits the applicability of using these models for addressing safety concerns, especially those regarding pedestrian safety performance. However, by explicitly including some of the sources of human error, these limitations can, in theory, be overcome. While much work has been done toward including these human factors in simulation platforms, one key aspect of human behavior has been largely …

Cyclists' Queue Discharge Characteristics At Signalized Intersections, Kirk Thomas Paulsen

Dissertations and Theses

Wider bike facilities intuitively accommodate a greater number of cyclists in the same amount of time, but specific queue discharge characteristics associated with varying widths and/or types of bike facilities have not been thoroughly documented.

The focus of this research analyzed queues of cyclists at four signalized intersections in Portland, OR with varying widths on the approach and downstream intersection legs. A total of 2,820 cyclists within 630 groups of queued cyclists were observed at five different intersection layouts in Portland, Oregon. The layouts consisted of: a standard bike lane six feet wide connecting bicyclists to a standard bike lane …

Methods For Estimating Vehicle Fuel Consumption In Urban Road Networks Using Geographical Attributes, Ryan G. Conrad

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

This paper presents statistical techniques for estimating vehicle fuel consumption in urban road networks based on vehicle and geographical factors. A routing algorithm utilizing mapping data from OpenStreetMap and elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission is presented and used to generate paths that minimize vehicle fuel consumption. The concept of a fuel consumption estimating function is proposed as an extension of the well-known distance-estimating functions that are widely used in logistics planning and research.

Statistical models are developed that estimate fuel consumption in three tested urban areas with vehicle weight, elevation and regional travel speed characteristics being the …

Exploring The Relationship Of Bikeshare And Transit In The United States Of America, David Rafael Soto Padín

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Bicycling and bike-share have been growing in US cities as transportation alternatives. Despite impressions that bikeshare systems exist solely for tourism, recreation or privileged users, research has shown that bike-share is becoming a transportation mode used by a diverse set of users for various transportation needs. Additionally, a positive relationship has been established between bike-share and transit although most studies on this matter have focused on systems outside the United States. Bike share and transit benefit each other by: (1) contributing to sustainable transportation goals by improving mobility and greenhouse gas reductions, (2) solving the "last mile" problem, (3) reduce …

Exploring High-Resolution Data Obtained From Asc/3 Controller Of Intersection Se Division St & Se 122nd Ave, Portland, Oregon, Naowar Al-Abbas

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

High-resolution data obtained from ASC/3 controllers can be used to create a variety of performance measures, helping engineers and professionals in monitoring intersection performance, identifying issues, and making proper improvements. These measures concern the intersection quality of the progression, capacity, and non-vehicular operations (e.g. pedestrian crossings). In this report, we explored high-resolution data obtained from the intersection of SE Division Street and 122nd Avenue. This intersection had some safety concerns as it is considered one of most dangerous intersections in Portland, Oregon. Thus, the first variable we examined from the data was pedestrian wait time when a cross request is …

Issues In Urban Trip Generation, Kristina Marie Currans

Dissertations and Theses

In the 1976, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) compiled their first Handbook of guidelines and methods for evaluating development-level transportation impacts, specifically vehicular impacts (Institute of Transportation Engineers 1976). Decades later, these methods--essentially the same as when they were originally conceived--are used ubiquitously across the US and Canada. Only recently, with the guidelines in its third edition of the ITE's Trip Generation Handbook (Institute of Transportation Engineers 2014) new data and approaches have been adopted--despite substantial evidence that questions the accuracy of older data, automobile bias, and lack of sensitivity to urban contexts.

This dissertation contributes to this literature …

Impact Of Speed On Vehicle Safety On Urban Arterial Roadways, Andrew C. Vosper

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Vehicle speed has long been one, if not the primary contributing factor to crashes, influencing both the probability and severity. Within the Portland metro area arterials have the highest serious crash rate per road mile and vehicle miles travelled. (Metro, 2012) The purpose of this research is to compile vehicle speeds along select arterial roadways within the Portland metro area and comparing it to applicable crash data. The roadway segment of SE Foster Road between SE 52^nd avenues and SE 82^nd avenues was selected, due to the simplicity of the physical as-built roadway properties along with available Bluetooth …

Feasibility Determination Guide For The Road Diet Plus: A Five/Four-Lane To Two-Lane Road Diet, Michael Williams

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Road diets are a popular tool for corridor improvement. Road diets are normally defined as the conversion of a four-lane undivided road to a three-lane undivided road made up of two through lanes separated by a center two-way-left-turn-lane (known as a TWLTL). This new configuration has similar vehicular capacity, greater safety and frees up right-of-way for other uses.

This work examines the possibility of going one step, or one lane, further. What is the possibility of reducing five- or four-lane roads to two-lanes? If this is possible, what are the corridor characteristics within which this process would be feasible?

The …

An Assessment Of Post-Encroachment Times For Bicycle-Vehicle Interactions Observed In The Field, A Driving Simulator, And In Traffic Simulation Models, Ali Razmpa

Dissertations and Theses

Most safety analysis is conducted using crash data. Surrogate safety measures, such as various time-based measures of time-to-collision can be related to crash potential and used to gain insight into the frequency and severity of crashes at a specific location. One of the most common and acknowledged measures is post-encroachment time (PET) which defines the time between vehicles occupying a conflicting space. While commonly used in studies of motor vehicle interactions, studies of PET for bicycle-vehicle interactions are few. In this research, the PET of bicycle-vehicle interactions measured in the field, a driving simulator, and in a micro-simulation are compared. …

An Exploration Of Bicyclist Comfort Levels Utilizing Crowdsourced Data, Bryan Philip Blanc

Dissertations and Theses

Bicycle transportation has become a central priority of urban areas invested in improving sustainability, livability, and public health outcomes. Transportation agencies are striving to increase the comfort of their bicycle networks to improve the experience of existing cyclists and to attract new cyclists. The Oregon Department of Transportation sponsored the development of ORcycle, a smartphone application designed to collect cyclist travel, comfort, and safety information throughout Oregon. The sample resulting from the initial deployment of the application between November 2014 and March 2015 is described and analyzed within this thesis. 616 bicycle trips from 148 unique users were geo-matched to …

An Evaluation Of The Neighborhood Traffic Management Program Of Centennial, Colorado, Rolando Gabriel Melgoza

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Residential neighborhoods throughout the United States seek to maintain a quality of life where residents can live free of traffic factors adversely affecting their safety. Many communities have adopted a Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP) to address concerns over cut-through traffic, speeding, and safety. The City of Centennial, Colorado, incorporated in 2001, is a young city and has its own NTMP. Four traffic mitigation projects have been implemented. The objective of this research is to conduct a before and after comparison study of each Centennial NTMP project, to review the NTMP policies of American cities with similar suburban characteristics to …

Evaluating The Effects Of A Congestion And Weather Responsive Advisory Variable Speed Limit System In Portland, Oregon, Matthew Blake Downey

Dissertations and Theses

Safety and congestion are ever present and increasingly severe transportation problems in urban areas throughout the nation and world. These phenomena can have wide-ranging consequences relating to safety, the economy, and the environment. Adverse weather conditions represent another significant challenge to safety and mobility on highways. Oregon is not immune from either of these global issues. Oregon Route (OR) 217, to the southwest of the downtown Portland, is one of the worst freeways for congestion in the state and is also subject to the Pacific Northwest's frequently inclement and unpredictable climate. High crash rates, severe recurrent bottlenecks and highly unreliable …

Bicyclist Compliance At Signalized Intersections, Samson Ray Riley Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

This project examined cyclist red light running behavior using two data sets. Previous studies of cyclist compliance have investigated the tendencies of cyclists to run red lights on the whole by generalizing different maneuvers to their end outcome, running a red light. This project differentiates between the different types of red light running and focuses on the most egregious case, gap acceptance, which is when a cyclist runs a red light by accepting a gap in opposing traffic.

Using video data, a mathematical model of cyclist red light running was developed for gap acceptance. Similar to other studies, this analysis …

Impacts Of Replacing A Tight Diamond Interchange With A Spui – A Wilsonville Interchange Study, Sina Vadaei

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Tight diamond interchanges (TDI) and single point urban interchanges (SPUIs) are generally types of interchanges that can be used interchangeably in areas where right-of-way is constrained. There are limited amount of research conducted regarding the operational analysis and comparison of these two interchanges. The research that has been done regarding this topic are outdated and generally conclude that SPUIs perform better or about the same. Without knowing the true performances of the two interchange designs, it would make it difficult for engineers and planners to choose between the two interchanges.

This research study will use the current updated version of …

Safety At Half-Signal Intersections In Portland, Oregon, Todd Robert Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

The safety at half-signalized intersections in Portland, Oregon is analyzed in this thesis using 10 years of crash history and analysis of video that was collected at a subset of intersections. A half-signalized intersection has a standard red-yellow-green traffic signal for automobiles on the major road, a stop sign for motorists on the minor road, and a pedestrian signal with actuation for pedestrians and/or bicyclists on the minor road. Although prevalent in Canada, this type of intersection control is not typically found in the United States because the MUTCD explicitly prohibits its use. Half-signal use is limited mostly to two …

A Microsimulation Of Novel Intersection Designs, Aman Kinfemichael Woldetinsae

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

The focus of this project is to see how a turbo roundabout and a protected intersection designs behave when they are applied on two study sites in Portland, OR. PTV VISSM is used to model, analyze and compare the performances of these designs with the existing intersection. In addition, the best features of the protected intersection and the turbo roundabout were combined to create a new intersection design that is safer for the bicyclists and also performs better than the existing intersection.

The analysis is conducted for five different volume scenarios for both the study sites. The results of the …

Comparing Mode Shares For Non-Residential Destinations In Urban And Suburban Environments, Tasnia Subrin

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

To ensure facility for multimodal transportation is one of the most important concerns in today's transportation sector, with initiatives being taken to make multimodal transportation popular. The built environment variables have a strong relationship with transportation mode choice, but whether that relationship holds true in urban and suburban neighborhoods in the same manner has not been considered. Using data for three non-residential land uses, this research explores whether the built environment variables in suburban areas influences mode share like it does in urban areas. We used survey data conducted at the establishments regarding respondents' travel characteristics from a previous study, …

Predicting Bicyclist Comfort In Protected Bike Lanes, Nicholas Mark-Andrew Foster

Dissertations and Theses

Long popular in northern Europe, protected bike lanes, also known as "cycle tracks" or "separated bike lanes," are seeing increased interest in the United States. One of the primary benefits of protected bike lanes is that they may provide a higher level of comfort than a standard bike lane that is only delineated by an inches-wide painted stripe. Several methods exist for quantifying the quality of service provided by a roadway for a bicyclist; however, many of these models do not consider protected bike lanes and of those that do, none are based on empirical data from the US. This …

Exploring Pedestrian Responsive Traffic Signal Timing Strategies In Urban Areas, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri

Dissertations and Theses

The role of walking in the development of healthy, livable communities is being increasingly recognized. In urban areas, intersections represent locations where different modes converge, and are often viewed as deterrents to walking. This is due to the unwarranted and often unnecessary delays imposed by signal timing policies for pedestrians and increased potential for conflicts. Traditional signal timing design prioritizes vehicles over pedestrians leading to undesirable consequences such as large delays and risky pedestrian behaviors. Pedestrians are accommodated in a manner that is designed to cause least interruption to the flow of motor vehicles. This lack of pedestrian accommodation at …

An Analysis Of Bicycle-Vehicle Interactions At Signalized Intersections With Bicycle Boxes, William Robert Farley

Dissertations and Theses

A before-and-after analysis was performed at eleven intersections where a bike box was installed in Portland, Oregon to explore the safety effects of the treatment. Video data were gathered prior to installation at 14 intersections where a bike box installation was planned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Cameras were set up to capture three full twenty-four hour days (72 hours) of data for each intersection from Tuesday through Thursday. Of the 14 original selected intersections, 11 intersections actually received the bike box treatment. Video data were again gathered for these intersections after the installation of the bike box for …

Evaluation Of Truck Signal Priority At N Columbia Blvd And Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd Intersection: Vissim Micro Simulation Analysis Of Truck Signal Priority, Maisha Mahmud

Civil and Environmental Engineering Master's Project Reports

Given the importance of over growing freight transportation system worldwide, engineers and planners are faced with the challenge of improving freight service in urban area using low cost measure. Truck Signal Priority is one of the strategy that can be used to improve operational efficiency with enhance safety benefits (red light running) of freight service, without major capital investment. In light to this interest this study focus on evaluating the impacts of freight signal priority on a high truck density intersection like N Columbia Blvd and NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Using a simulation tool, VISSIM, these impacts were …