Engineering Commons^™

Optimizing Speed Profiles For Sustainable Train Operation With Wayside Energy Storage Systems, Leon A. Allen

Dissertations

Large hauling capability and low rolling resistance has put rail transit at the forefront of mass transportation mode sustainability in terms of congestion mitigation and energy conservation. As such, rail vehicles are one of the least energy-intensive modes of transportation and least environmentally polluting. Despite, these positives, improper driving habits and wastage of the braking energy through dissipation in braking resistors result in unnecessary consumption, extra costs to the operator and increased atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions.

This study presents an intelligent method for the optimization of the number and locations of wayside energy storage system (WESS) units that maximize the …

Planning Methodology For Alternative Intersection Design And Selection, Liran Chen

Dissertations

The recent publication of the 6th Edition of the Highway Capacity Manual included a chapter on Ramp Terminals and Alternative Intersections that introduces various alternative intersection designs and assesses the performance of Median U-turn, Restricted crossing U-turn and Displaced left-turn intersections. Missing from the literature is an alternative intersection selection tool for identifying whether an alternative intersection would be successful under local conditions. With limited information of organized alternative intersection research, most planners must rely heavily on their personal judgement while selecting the most suitable intersection designs. As appealing as alternative intersections are, there is no comprehensive methodology for planners …

A Self-Learning Intersection Control System For Connected And Automated Vehicles, Ardeshir Mirbakhsh

Dissertations

This study proposes a Decentralized Sparse Coordination Learning System (DSCLS) based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to control intersections under the Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) environment. In this approach, roadway sections are divided into small areas; vehicles try to reserve their desired area ahead of time, based on having a common desired area with other CAVs; the vehicles would be in an independent or coordinated state. Individual CAVs are set accountable for decision-making at each step in both coordinated and independent states. In the training process, CAVs learn to minimize the overall delay at the intersection. Due to the …

Crash Injury Severity Prediction With Artificial Neural Networks, Rima Abisaad

Dissertations

Motor vehicle crashes are one of our nation's most serious social, economic and health issues. They are the leading cause of death among children and young adults, killing approximately 1.35 million people each year. Providing a safe and efficient transportation system is the primary goal of transportation engineering and planning. To help reduce traffic fatalities and injuries on roadways, crash prediction models are used to forecast the injury severity of potential crashes and apply precautionary countermeasures accordingly. Most of these models are reactive as they use historical crash data to categorize crash-related factors. Recently, advancements have been made in developing …

Short-Term Crash Risk Prediction Considering Proactive, Reactive, And Driver Behavior Factors, Sina Darban Khales

Dissertations

Providing a safe and efficient transportation system is the primary goal of transportation engineering and planning. Highway crashes are among the most significant challenges to achieving this goal. They result in significant societal toll reflected in numerous fatalities, personal injuries, property damage, and traffic congestion. To that end, much attention has been given to predictive models of crash occurrence and severity. Most of these models are reactive: they use the data about crashes that have occurred in the past to identify the significant crash factors, crash hot-spots and crash-prone roadway locations, analyze and select the most effective countermeasures for reducing …

Analysis Of Container Throughput: Demand Forecast And Seaport Competitiveness Assessment, Hussain Talat Sulaimani

Dissertations

Seaports play a crucial role in the container industry, where they act as important nodes in the transport chain to facilitate international trade. In a competitive market, port capacity plays a significant role in defining its competitive position to attract demand and avoid congestion. Failing to provide suitable capacity results in the loss of market share. Therefore, port decision-makers face the challenge of maintaining and developing suitable port facilities to provide efficient services to port users. One of the aspects that decision-makers consider in the planning and development process is analyzing container demand. The analysis of container demand can be …

Optimizing Work Zone Schedules Considering Traffic Diversion With Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, Celina Semaan

Dissertations

Highway maintenance activities often decrease roadway capacity and intrude traffic movements. The need to finish the project on time and under a specific budget while minimizing the traffic congestion and complying with the emission standards requires an appropriate work zone schedule optimization. The objective of this research is to improve the efficiency of work zone activities and minimize the total project cost including maintenance, user, and emission cost.

While previous studies investigated the work zone optimization problem, they did not consider the implementation of emission standards nor applied a green diversion strategy. This dissertation analyzes the optimization of work zone …

A Deep Machine Learning Approach For Predicting Freeway Work Zone Delay Using Big Data, Abdullah Shabarek

Dissertations

The introduction of deep learning and big data analytics may significantly elevate the performance of traffic speed prediction. Work zones become one of the most critical factors causing congestion impact, which reduces the mobility as well as traffic safety. A comprehensive literature review on existing work zone delay prediction models (i.e., parametric, simulation and non-parametric models) is conducted in this research. The research shows the limitations of each model. Moreover, most previous modeling approaches did not consider user delay for connected freeways when predicting traffic speed under work zone conditions. This research proposes Deep Artificial Neural Network (Deep ANN) and …

High-Speed Rail Safety Analysis Based On Dual-Weighted Complex Network, Liu Lv

Dissertations

This study uses a complex network model to analyze the causes of accidents in high-speed railway operations. By identifying the key factors that led to high-speed railway accidents, hidden safety hazards were discovered. This will help improve the operational safety of the U.S. high-speed rail line under construction.

The analysis uses the regional high-speed railway network in Guangzhou, China as a case study, including the railway (including high-speed railway) accidents that occurred in the company's jurisdiction from 2013 to 2017. With comparative analysis between general railways and high-speed railways, the changes of high-speed railway safety factors are explored. Data analysis …

Incident Duration Time Prediction Using A Supervised Topic Modeling Method, Jihyun Park

Theses

Precisely predicting the duration time of an incident is one of the most prominent components to implement proactive management strategies for traffic congestions caused by an incident. This thesis presents a novel method to predict incident duration time in a timely manner by using an emerging supervised topic modeling method. Based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, this thesis performs semantic text analyses with text-based incident dataset to train the model. The model is trained with actual 1,466 incident records collected by Korea Expressway Corporation from 2016-2019 by applying a Labeled Latent Dirichlet Allocation(L-LDA) approach. For the training, this thesis …

Development And Evaluation Of Low Cost 2-D Lidar Based Traffic Data Collection Methods, Ravi Jagirdar

Dissertations

Traffic data collection is one of the essential components of a transportation planning exercise. Granular traffic data such as volume count, vehicle classification, speed measurement, and occupancy, allows managing transportation systems more effectively. For effective traffic operation and management, authorities require deploying many sensors across the network. Moreover, the ascending efforts to achieve smart transportation aspects put immense pressure on planning authorities to deploy more sensors to cover an extensive network. This research focuses on the development and evaluation of inexpensive data collection methodology by using two-dimensional (2-D) Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology. LiDAR is adopted since it is …

Minimizing Vehicular Traffic Via Optimized Land Use Development For A Sustainable And Equitable Future, Babu Veeregowda

Dissertations

Mixed-use developments and transit-oriented developments are becoming very common in urban areas in an effort to reduce sprawl. Numerous studies have shown that such programs would not be successful unless the mix of land uses and sizes is well-balanced and integrated with the surrounding neighborhood. Developers often ignore this aspect in favor of immediate financial gain and do not realize that there are sustainable financial benefits in land use optimization. In addition, professionals often work with limited logistics, resources, and technical knowledge and therefore struggle in setting goals and suggesting land uses that have less auto dependency based on travel …

Sustaining Dockless Bike-Sharing Based On Business Principles, Neil Horowitz

Theses

Currently in urban areas, the value of money and fuel is increasing because of urban traffic congestion. As an environmentally sustainable and short-distance travel mode, dockless bike-sharing not only assists in resolving the issue of urban traffic congestion, but additionally assists in minimizing pollution, satisfying the demand of the last mile problem, and improving societal health. Despite the positives that this new transportation mode provides, currently there are few effective measures in place to make the development of dockless bike-sharing providers more sustainable.

This study endeavors in establishing a foundation for resolving this problem through developing business models of dockless …

Development And Evaluation Of Cooperative Intersection Management Algorithm Under Connected Vehicles Environment, Slobodan Gutesa

Dissertations

Recent technological advancements in the automotive and transportation industry established a firm foundation for development and implementation of various automated and connected vehicle (C/AV) solutions around the globe. Wireless communication technologies such as the dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) protocol are enabling instantaneous information exchange between vehicles and infrastructure. Such information exchange produces tremendous benefits with the possibility to automate conventional traffic streams and enhance existing signal control strategies. While many promising studies in the area of signal control under connected vehicle (CV) environment have been introduced, they mainly offer solutions designed to operate a single isolated intersection or they require …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Managed Lane Strategies For The Rapid Deployment Of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control Technology, Zijia Zhong

Dissertations

Connected and Automated Vehicle (C/AV) technologies are fast expanding in the transportation and automotive markets. One of the highly researched examples of C/AV technologies is the Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) system, which exploits various vehicular sensors and vehicle-to-vehicle communication to automate vehicular longitudinal control. The operational strategies and network-level impacts of CACC have not been thoroughly discussed, especially in near-term deployment scenarios where Market Penetration Rate (MPR) is relatively low. Therefore, this study aims to assess CACC's impacts with a combination of managed lane strategies to provide insights for CACC deployment. The proposed simulation framework incorporates 1) the Enhanced …

A Methodological Framework For Quantifying Impacts Of Truck Traffic On Regional Network With Implications To Transport Policy, Chaitanya Narendra Pathak

Dissertations

Increased global trade has promoted the importance of shipping industry and the introduction of mega-ships has created an opportunity to be more cost-effective. Because of this, the expected change in freight transportation influences the operating regimes and schedules at the port terminals. Trucks being the predominant mode of transportation used to carry the freight transport, there is a growing concern about the impact of trucks in the region. The problems are further expected to grow as the improvements to resolve them are hindered by funding shortfalls. Public agencies are therefore involved in developing comprehensive state freight plans that outline immediate …

An Artificial Neural Network Model For Predicting Freeway Work Zone Delays With Big Data, Bo Du

Dissertations

Lane closures due to road reconstruction and maintenance have resulted in a major source of non-recurring congestion on freeways. It is extremely important to accurately quantify the associated mobility impact so that a cost-effective work zone schedule and an efficient traffic management plan can be developed. Therefore, the development of a sound model for predicting delays or road users is desirable.

A comprehensive literature review on existing work zone delay prediction models (i.e., deterministic queuing model and shock wave model) is conducted in this study, which explores the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations of different modeling approaches. The performance of those …

Optimization Of Headway, Stops, And Time Points Considering Stochastic Bus Arrivals, Liuhui Zhao

Dissertations

With the capability to transport a large number of passengers, public transit acts as an important role in congestion reduction and energy conservation. However, the quality of transit service, in terms of accessibility and reliability, significantly affects model choices of transit users. Unreliable service will cause extra wait time to passengers because of headway irregularity at stops, as well as extra recovery time built into schedule and additional cost to operators because of ineffective utilization of allocated resources.

This study aims to optimize service planning and improve reliability for a fixed bus route, yielding maximum operator’s profit. Three models are …

Accounting For Midblock Pedestrian Activity In The Hcm 2010 Urban Street Segment Analysis, Albert Forde

Dissertations

The Urban Street segment analysis Chapter of the 2010 Highway Capacity Manual (HCM 2010) provides a methodology for analyzing automobile performance on signalized roadway segments within an urban roadway network. The methodology involves applying a platoon dispersion model to: a) predict the vehicle arrival flow profiles at a downstream signalized intersection; b) use the predicted arrivals to compute the proportion of vehicle arrivals on green; and c) subsequently estimate the delay, travel speed and Level of Service (LOS) under which the segment operates. Vehicles arriving during the red interval at a signalized intersection generally accumulate and form a platoon. When …

Assessment Of Flood Protection Strategies For Combined Critical Infrastructure Failure And Hurricane/Storm Surge Events In The Meadowlands Area, Nisharg Dipakkumar Dalwadi

Theses

As a result of a wide-reaching comprehensive post-Sandy NJIT project entitled "Flood Mitigation Engineering Resource Center (FMERC)", a detailed investigation of alternative measures for flood mitigation in the Meadowlands area was completed in June 2014. The project involved the assessment of flood impacts, and the evaluation of a range of structural and non-structural capital improvement measures, maintenance, operations and regulatory measures, and broad system design and redundancy measures.

The basic objective of this thesis is to develop an innovative procedure for the enumeration and simulation of probability-weighted combined events, e.g., Oradell dam failure under various scenarios (sunny day, water level, …

Optimization Of Vehicle Routing And Scheduling With Travel Time Variability - Application In Winter Road Maintenance, Haifeng Yu

Dissertations

This study developed a mathematical model for optimizing vehicle routing and scheduling, which can be used to collect travel time information, and also to perform winter road maintenance operations (e.g., salting, plowing). The objective of this research was to minimize the total vehicle travel time to complete a given set of service tasks, subject to resource constraints (e.g., truck capacity, fleet size) and operational constraints (e.g., service time windows, service time limit).

The nature of the problem is to design vehicle routes and schedules to perform the required service on predetermined road segments, which can be interpreted as an arc …

Public Private Partnership In Transit Projects, Rashmita Daschaudhuri

Theses

The government is cutting down government impediments and entering into the market. One of the outcomes has been the rise of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). There have been a lot of information and transaction cost problems in government institutions. These issues can be sorted and mitigated if the risk is shared with the private sector.

Until 1990, there had been a monopoly of the public sector developing transit projects. Now with the PPP concept, the transit projects are slowly moving into public private partnership agreements. This study tries to identify the various approaches of public private partnership delivery system. A few …

Optimization Of Path Based Sensor Spacing On A Freeway Segment For Travel Time Prediction During Incidents, Patricia Kathleen Dijoseph

Dissertations

Congestion on freeways is increasing and a key source of it is non-recurring incidents. Accurate vehicle travel time predictions are needed during these incidents in order for roadway users to make informed trip decisions. Path based sensors are becoming a leading technology in gathering real-time travel time data. The data is used to make travel time predictions that are then provided through various means, such as dynamic message signs, to roadway users. These types of sensor are located at stationary points along a roadway and collect individual vehicle travel time data from vehicles as they drive pass the sensors.

The …

A Framework For Guiding Transportation Improvements To Support Desired Land Use, Jiruttichut Leoviriyakit

Dissertations

There is a growing recognition that transportation and land use policies cannot succeed independently of one another. The interactions between them must be understood, analyzed, and accounted for in order for land use and transportation plans and policies to be effective and successful. A methodological framework is presented that can help urban planners determine what outcomes can be expected in terms of change in land use patterns within the targeted communities and within the county should a transportation project be undertaken.

The framework is based on an interaction between travel demand model TRANSIMS and land use model TELUM that enables …

Developing Crash Modification Factors For Operational Parameters On Urban Freeways, Eugene Vida Maina

Dissertations

Studies have shown that, roadway safety has become an intensively investigated topic with the objective of improved understanding of the factors that cause crashes to occur. However, it has been shown that as traffic volumes continue to increase across the United States, 52% of drivers feel less safe on the roads today more than they did five years ago and that the American public feels that traffic safety is a serious problem that needs both the government and media to pay more attention to this issue.

In response to these public and driver grievances, State and National transportation agencies have …

Optimizing Feeder Bus Network Based On Access Mode Shifts, Zhaodong Huang

Dissertations

The methodology introduced in this dissertation is to optimally find a feeder bus network in a suburban area for an existing rail system that connects the suburban area with the Central Business District (CBD). The objective is to minimize the total cost, including user and supplier costs. Three major access modes (walk, feeder bus, and auto) for the rail station are considered and the cost for all modes makes up the user cost. The supplier cost comes from the operating cost of the feeder bus network. The decision variables include the structure of the feeder bus network, service frequencies, and …

Factors That Impact Seat Belt Usage And Injury Severity Of Belted Front Seat Occupants, Siri Konje Lawrencia Nukenine

Dissertations

Factors influencing seat belt usage have been extensively researched in the safety analysis literature. Most of this research has focused on factors that influence seat belt usage for a driver and front seat passenger in a vehicle. Few research studies have investigated factors that impact seat belt usage for back seat occupants. This research investigates the factors associated with seat belt usage for front-seat as well as backseat occupants of vehicles in the state of New Jersey. Using logistic regression, seat belt usage models were developed to examine the contribution of several variables on seat belt usage for five vehicle …

Operating Characteristics Of Passenger Screening Processes And The Development Of A Paced Inspection System, Geraldine Kelly Leone

Dissertations

The airport checkpoint security screening (ACSS) system is an important line of defense against the introduction of dangerous objects into the U.S. aviation system. Recently, there has been much interest in modeling these systems and to derive operating parameters which optimize performance. In general there are two performance measures of interest (i) the waiting time of the arriving entities, and (ii) the allocated screening resources and its utilization. Clearly, the traveling public would like a zero waiting time, while airports are limited both in terms of space and resource capital. The arrival and exit entity in the ACSS system are …

Freeway Speed-Flow Relationships Under Rain And Congested Conditions, Jongho Byun

Dissertations

A procedure to account for the impact of rain and congested conditions on the average speed estimates is provided in this study. Although the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) provides some discussion on the impact of adverse weather on speed-flow relationships, these impacts are not quantified. Using data collected under rain and congested conditions, a procedure for estimating the average speed under these conditions is provided, which is an improvement over the existing HCM (2000) procedures. Using the speed-flow relationships provided in the HCM (2000) for basic freeway segments as a starting point, new numerical relationships suitable for New Jersey roadways …

Analysis Of Marine Container Terminal Gate Congestion, Truck Waiting Cost, And System Optimization, Chang Qian Guan

Dissertations

As world container volume continues to grow and the introduction of 12,000 TEUs plus containerships into major trade routes, the port industry is under pressure to deal with the ever increasing freight volume. Gate congestion at marine container terminal is considered a major issue facing truckers who come to the terminal for container pickup and delivery. Harbor truckers operate in a very competitive environment; they are paid by trip, not by the hours they drive. Gate congestion is not only detrimental to their economic well-being, but also causes environmental pollution.

This thesis applies a multi-server queuing model to analyze marine …