Engineering Commons^™

Modeling Air Traffic Situation Complexity With A Dynamic Weighted Network Approach, Hongyong Wang, Ziqi Song, Ruiying Wen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

In order to address the flight delays and risks associated with the forecasted increase in air traffic, there is a need to increase the capacity of air traffic management systems. This should be based on objective measurements of traffic situation complexity. In current air traffic complexity research, no simple means is available to integrate airspace and traffic flow characteristics. In this paper, we propose a new approach for the measurement of air traffic situation complexity. This approach considers the effects of both airspace and traffic flow and objectively quantifies air traffic situation complexity. Considering the aircraft, waypoints, and airways as …

Time-Dependent Transportation Network Design Considering Construction Impact, Yi He, Ziqi Song, Lihui Zhang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

A traditional discrete network design problem (DNDP) always assumes transportation infrastructure projects to be one-time events and ignores travelers’ delays caused by construction work. In fact, infrastructure construction usually lasts for a long time, and the impact on traffic can be substantial. In this paper, we introduce time dimension into the traditional DNDP to explicitly consider the impact of road construction and adopt an overtime policy to add flexibility to construction duration. We address the problem of selecting road-widening projects in an urban network, determining the optimal link capacity, and designing the schedule of the selected projects simultaneously. A time-dependent …

Dr. Regan Zane Presenting At 2016 Ite Annual Conference | Utah State University Power Electronics Lab, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Dr. Regan Zane will be presenting at the 2016 ITE Annual Conference. The ITE conference this year will focus on issues with transportation by studying and understanding future trends. Dr. Zane will be presenting with Zach Kahn and Blake Thomas on Vehicle Electrification & Energy.

Modeling Transportation Planning Applications Via Path Flow Estimator, Seungkyu Ryu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The current practice for modeling in the field of transportation planning is through a four-step travel demand forecasting procedure (i.e., trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice, and traffic assignment); the practice is commonly referred to as the four-step model. Although such a modeling approach has become standard practice, it is deficient in several areas. Specifically, (1) it lacks capability for modeling non-motorized modes such as bicycles, (2) it is inadequate for modeling multiple vehicle types sharing the same roadway space, and (3) it is difficult to apply to small communities with limited resources. This dissertation recognizes these deficiencies and responds …

Transportation Economics And Energy, Ali Soltani Sobh

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Transportation is one of the major energy consuming sectors in the United States. The continued growth in fuel consumption not only increases dependency on foreign oil but also causes environmental issues due to the emissions of greenhouse gas (GHG). High gasoline consumption in the US transportation sector not only raises concerns regarding national energy security, but also poses many questions regarding the resulting environmental impacts of greenhouse gases emissions. Improvement in automobile fuel economy, increase the use of natural gas vehicles and electric vehicles have been proven to be as the policies in controlling oil demand and GHG emissions in …

Models And Solution Algorithms For Asymmetric Traffic And Transit Assignment Problems, Donghyung Yook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Generally, modeling is a simplified representation of the real world; however, this research adds value to the modeling practice by investigating the asymmetric interactions observed in the real world in order to explore potential improvements of the transportation modeling. The enhanced representation of the transportation system by the asymmetric transportation equilibrium problem is promising because there are various asymmetric interactions in real transportation such as intersections, highway ramps, toll roads and in the structure of the transit fares.

The dissertation considers the asymmetric interactions of flows in the traffic and transit assignment problems with an efficient solution algorithm. The study …

Transportation Network Resiliency: A Study Of Self-Annealing, Sunil Babu Pant

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Disasters have the potential to hit any geographical location with or without warning. As such, it is desirable that transportation networks are able to withstand the adverse effect of disasters and maintain the normal functioning of all sectors of society. Resilient transportation networks are least affected by disruptions created by natural and manmade disasters and are still able function with an acceptable level of service. Such networks also have ability to return earlier from disrupted state to the normal functioning state. Resilience possessed by a transportation network measures the ability of networks to maintain functionality despite adverse conditions posed by …

People Matching For Transportation Planning Using Texel Camera Data For Sequential Estimation, Scott E. Budge, J.A. Sallay, Z. Wang, J.H. Gunther

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper addresses automatic people matching in the dynamic setting of public transportation, such as a bus, as people enter and then at some later time exit from a doorway. Matching a person entering to the same person exiting at a later time provides accurate information about individual riders, such as how long a person is on a bus and the associated stops the person uses. At a higher level, matching exits to previous entry events provides information about the distribution of traffic flow across the whole transportation system. The proposed techniques may be applied at any gateway where the …

Transportation Network Resiliency: A Fuzzy Systems Approach, Nayel Urena Serulle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Every day the dependence on transportation grows as local, regional, national, and international independence increases. Resilient transportation systems are needed to secure the highest possible level of service during disruptive events, including natural and man-made disasters. Because of limited resources, decision makers need guidance on how, when, and where to invest to improve resiliency of their networks. The research objective is to develop a method to assess and quantify resiliency, at pre-event conditions, using a fuzzy inference approach. This research expands previous work, refining key variable definitions, adjusting model interactions, and increasing transparency between metrics. This thesis presents the method …

Safety Evaluation Of Work Zone Practices In Utah, Tomás Ernesto Lindheimer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Work zones present a risk to drivers and to personnel constructing the roadway. In 2005 work zones accounted for 2.5% of fatalities nationwide, 3.5% for the state of Utah. The goal of this research is to make work zones safer by quantifying the risk that they present to drivers. The approach of this research has been to review part 6 of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and compare the differences from the 2003 and 2009 editions, conduct field studies of Utah work zones, and develop a tool for measuring risk in work zones. In the 2009 MUTCD …

Urban Infrastructure: Transportation, Public Utilities, Waste Management And Pollution Control, A. Bruce Bishop

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Paris, tube under the channel -- London, satellite spinning above cables on the ocean floor -- New York, concrete ribbons across undulating land -- San Francisco, silver wings soaring across the Pacific -- Tokyo and Seoul. Etched against the sky are the graceful towers of mighty bridges, the broad glass and steel fronts to massive buildings, the tall slender stacks of industries exhaling; and traced on the surface are the intricate patterns of people and their machines; and buried below are the tubes and tunnels, water pipes and power conduits and communication networks along with concrete caissons and piles that …