Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons^™

The Economic Implications Of Evolving Aviation Funding Policy In Tennessee, Hunter Pressley Mccracken

Masters Theses

The majority of state funding for capital improvements at Tennessee’s general aviation and commercial airports comes through grants awarded from the Tennessee Transportation Equity Trust Fund (TETF). Through a 4.5 percent sales and use tax on the consumption of aviation fuel, users help to fund the continued improvement and maintenance of aviation facilities around the state. Aircraft refueling operations associated with the FedEx “SuperHub” in Memphis were responsible for two-thirds of the TETF’s revenue for Fiscal Year 2014. In response to speculation that FedEx would relocate its refueling operations to reduce its fuel tax liability, the Tennessee General Assembly passed …

Safety Analysis Of Freeway Segments With Unobserved Heterogeneity And Second Order Spatial Effects, Eneliko Mujuni Mulokozi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Safety analysis of freeway networks entails the quantification of crash frequency influencing factors which include roadway and traffic characteristics, environmental factors as well as human factors. This quantification can be used to detect locations with large impacts on the occurrence of crashes which in turn assist engineers and planners to improve safety levels of the network. Roadway characteristics are comprised of the physical elements of the road geometry such as section length, median and right shoulders, speed-exchange lanes, the number of main facility as well as geometry of the entrance from and exit to the main freeway facility. Traffic characteristics …

Towards Effective Design Treatment For Right Turns At Intersections With Bicycle Traffic, David Hurwitz, Mafruhatul Jannat, Jennifer Warner, Christopher M. Monsere, Ali Razmpa

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The overall goal of this research was to quantify the safety performance of alternative traffic control strategies to mitigate right-turning vehicle-bicycle crashes at signalized intersections in Oregon. The ultimate aim was to provide useful design guidance to potentially mitigate these collision types at the critical intersection configurations. This report includes a comprehensive review of more than 150 scientific and technical articles that relate to bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. A total of 504 right-hook crashes were identified from vehicle path information in the Oregon crash data from 2007-2011, mapped and reviewed in detail to identify the frequency and severity of crashes by …

Understanding Interactions Between Drivers And Pedestrian Features At Signalized Intersections, Pei-Sung Lin, Achilleas Kourtellis, Zhenyu Wang, Rui Guo

CUTR Faculty Journal Publications

Florida experienced serious pedestrian safety problems and had the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the U.S. from 2008–2011. Pedestrian safety at signalized intersections is the most serious concern due to frequent and severe conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians. Pedestrian features directly related to pedestrian safety are used to increase driver compliance behaviors and reduce vehicle-pedestrian conflicts. This project aimed to explore driver behaviors at signalized intersections with four identified pedestrian features—“STOP HERE ON RED,” “NO TURN ON RED,” “TURNING VEHICLES YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS,” and “RIGHT ON RED ARROW AFTER STOP” signs—by using an innovative safety data source, the Strategic Highway …

Investigating The Correlation Between Freeway Service Levels And Freeway Service Patrol Assists, Nora Chin

Master's Theses

The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Freeway Service Patrol’s highway motorist response service is reporting a reduction in their service levels. We analyze the relationship between the reduction in the Bay Area Freeway Service Patrol’s (FSP) motorist assists and changes in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), California Highway Patrol (CHP) reported incidents, and cover research on the impact of new and old vehicle fleet turnover. VMT and CHP incidents have differential effects on FSP assists. Although incidents occurring on freeways with high traffic flows tend to cause more congestion, the trend in local VMT along Bay Area freeway corridors does …

Work Zone Illumination Design: Guidance Stratgies To Specify Appropriatework Zone Lighting Plan, Sherine Anani

Theses and Dissertations

Night construction is frequently used because it can better satisfy the primary traffic control objectives than daytime work. If night construction is used, the design of illumination plans should be analyzed and developed as part of the project development process.

There are fewer crews out working on the road in the winter, partly because of the conditions but also because the days are shorter and there’s not a lot of light by which to work.

In fact, the days can get short enough, especially as you go farther north, that even a normal day involves some “night work.” Construction work …

Improved Safety Performance Functions For Signalized Intersections, Karen Dixon, Christopher Monsere, Raul Avelar, Joel Stephen Barnett, Paty Escobar, Sirisha Murthy Kothuri

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

For this effort, the research team developed new safety performance functions (SPFs) for signalized intersections in Oregon. The modeling dataset consisted of 964 crashes from a total of 73 intersections that were randomly selected based on the presence of a traffic signal (identified through the crash data records). The SPFs were developed using a Poissonlognormal Generalized Linear Mixed model framework for total crashes and severe injury crashes (coded as KAB). Three SPFs were developed: 1) an SPF for total crashes, which relies on both major and minor AADTs to predict the expected number of crashes; 2) an SPF for KAB …

Toward A Spatial-Temporal Measure Of Land-Use Mix, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban planning and public-health research has long been interested in the connection between land-use mix and travel. Interest from urban planners stems from the potential of transportation efficiency gains achieved by an increased land-use mix and subsequent shortening of trip lengths; whereas, public-health research advocates an increased land-use mix as an effective policy for facilitating greater physical activity. Yet, despite the transportation, land-use, and health benefits related to improving land-use mix and the extent of topical attention given by researchers, no consensus has been reached regarding the magnitude of its effect on travel. This absence of agreement may largely be …

A Simplified Method For Analyzing Factors Contributing To Motorcyclists’ Fatal Injuries In Ohio, Deogratias Eustace, Vamsi Krishna Indupuru

Deogratias Eustace

The aim of this paper was to analyze traffic crash data by using a simplified method in determining significant factors that increase the risk of a motorcyclist being fatally injured once involved in a motorcycle crash in Ohio. The concept of overrepresentation, which is similar to relative risk, was used in identifying significant variables associated with the elevated risk of a motorcycle crash resulting into a fatality. The overrepresentation factor (ORF) was calculated for each variable of interest. The ORF offers a simple but powerful procedure of determining whether a certain factor significantly occurs more or less frequently in one …

Development Of A Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool: A Destination Choice Model, Christopher D. Muhs, Kelly Clifton, Patrick Allen Singleton, Robert J. Schneider

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Planners, engineers, and others seek improved tools to estimate pedestrian demand that are sensitive to environmental and demographic factors at the appropriate scale in order to aid policy-relevant issues like air quality, public health, and smart allocation of infrastructure and other resources. Further, in the travel demand forecasting realm, tools of this kind are difficult to implement due to the use of spatial scales of analysis that are oriented towards motorized modes, vast data requirements, and computer processing limitations.

To …

Hiding Private Locations By Anonymizing Data, Kelly J. Clifton, Steven R. Gehrke

TREC Project Briefs

Researchers explore ways of masking private locations in the interest of making useful data publicly available.

Economic Observations Using Origin And Destination Estimation Through Observed Traffic Counts, Joshua William Depies

Theses and Dissertations

A relationship exists between the economy and the amount of traffic that is observed on

the nation’s roadways. Traffic patterns generally peak during times of economic

prosperity when people are spending more money and new homes and businesses are

being built. On the other hand, as the economy starts becoming more stagnant, people

travel less while home sales decrease and businesses close as fewer patrons shop.

What this thesis attempts to accomplish is to see if an Origin and Destination Estimation

technique is sensitive enough to pick up these economic trends of a region by using

traffic counts.

Two sets …

Webinar: Impacts Of Roadway And Traffic Characteristics On Air Pollution Risks For Bicyclists, Alexander Y. Bigazzi

TREC Webinar Series

Active travel such as walking and bicycling can lead to health benefits through an increase in physical activity. At the same time, more active travelers breath more and so can experience high pollution inhalation rates during travel. This webinar will review the state of knowledge about how roadway and traffic characteristics impact air pollution risks for bicyclists, including the latest PSU research quantifying bicyclists' uptake of traffic-related air pollution using on-road measurements in Portland. The PSU research team including Alex Bigazzi, Jim Pankow, and Miguel Figliozzi quantified bicyclist exposure concentrations on different types of roadways, respiration responses to exertion level, …

Smarter Cycling, Cory Koehler, Richard Smith, Sarah St. Clair, Alex Taylor, Aubrey Masten, Konon Phillips

PSU High School Innovation Challenge

With the current trend of urbanization, the populations of major cities such as Portland are steadily increasing. This is causing a variety of problems, both within the city and in rural areas. In regards to the city, the major challenges facing city planners are the need for the expansion of residential neighborhoods and a rise in traffic throughout the city. One way to tackle the issue of an abundance of traffic, is to make alternate means of transportation more appealing to residents. We chose to focus on bicycling because of the bike‐friendly culture already in place in Portland. An increase …

Analyzing Driver Behavior And Traffic Flow Breakdowns At The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Michelle L. Allen

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel (HRBT) is a major link for activity in Hampton Roads. The eastbound direction also suffers from congestion during both morning and peak hours. During these periods of congestion, the flow rate varies in regards to the location of the congestion. This study focuses on investigating driver behavior during these different conditions and briefly investigates the cost of delay due to the different capacities. To accomplish this, per vehicle record data (PVR) is used. This data, collected at the exit of the tunnel, provides information on arrival time, speed, lane location, vehicle class, and time headway. …

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

TREC Webinar Series

The role of walking in the development of healthy, livable communities is being increasingly recognized. In urban areas, intersections are often viewed as a deterrent to walking, as their operation primarily favors automobiles, leading to large and unnecessary delays for pedestrians. There is currently very limited research on accommodating and/or prioritizing pedestrians at signalized intersections in the North American context. Pedestrians are often considered as a deterrent to efficient vehicular traffic flow and therefore active efforts to include them in operational decisions at intersections have been lagging. This research aims to fill that gap by understanding factors that influence pedestrian …

Teenagers' Mode Choice To And From School And Technology Use For Transportation: Analysis Of Students From Five High Schools In Vermont And California, Paola Rekalde Aizpuru

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The carhops and drive-ins of the 1950s are symbolic of the freedom that the automobile has granted Americans. What the general public has gained from the automobile, however, may come at the expense of independent mobility and choices for today's adolescents, particularly those not yet old enough to drive or those from lower income families. Sprawl land use development patterns and limited transportation choices in most American cities often hold teenagers and their chauffeuring parents captive to the automobile. At the same time, information and communication technology is fast evolving and changing the ways in which teenagers live, interact, and …

Characterization Of Real-World Particle Number Emissions During Re-Ignition Events From A 2010 Light-Duty Hybrid-Electric Vehicle, Matthew Beach Conger

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Despite the increasing popularity of hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs), few studies have quantified their real-world particle emissions from internal combustion engine (ICE) re-ignition events (RIEVs). RIEVs have been known to occur under unstable combustion conditions which frequently result in particle number emission rates (PNERs) that exceed stabilized engine operation. Tailpipe total PN (5 to 560 nm diameter) emission rates (#/s) from a conventional vehicle (CV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) 2010 Toyota Camry were quantified on a 50 km (32 mi) route over a variety of roadways in Chittenden County, Vermont using the Total On-board Tailpipe Emissions Measurement System (TOTEMS). While …

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, …

Road Management System And Road Safety In Uganda, Paul Gudoi Zanule

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Traffic collisions cost Uganda millions of dollars each year. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to describe the strategies and processes needed to implement a road management system. Such a system would significantly reduce the fatalities and accidents in Uganda, improve the transportation within Kampala's business district, and increase business profitability. Three conceptual theories framed the research study: management theory, strategic management theory, and criminology theory. Using a snowball sampling strategy, data were collected from open-ended interviews, questionnaires, observations, and archived documents from 20 administrative participants in the government and organizational leaders involved in the transport operations and …

Exploring A Toll Auction Mechanism Enabled By Vehicle-To-Infrastructure Technology, Andrew J. Collins, Erika Frydenlund, R. Michael Robinson, Mecit Cetin

VMASC Publications

High-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes—an increasingly popular solution for congested roadway networks—give drivers the option to access express lanes. The cost of entry often varies with demand, although no standard method of optimizing these price points exists. Using the principles of a Vickrey auction that incentivizes true-value bids, this paper proposes a tolling system that uses vehicle-to-infrastructure technology to optimize toll operator revenue with HOT lane usage. In the scenario, a roadway network consists of a HOT lane and a general-purpose lane, each with identical physical properties. Drivers can access the HOT lane at the start of the facility or at …

Crash Frequency Analysis Of Left-Side Merging And Diverging Areas On Urban Freeway Segments: A Case Study Of I-75 Through Downtown Dayton, Ohio, Deogratias Eustace, Aline Aylo, Worku Y. Mergia

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes the effect of left- and right-side merging and diverging areas and other variables such as light condition, roadway pavement condition, drivers’ age and presence of construction work zones on the occurrence frequency of crashes. A 6.5-mile (10.5-km) section of I-75 that passes through downtown Dayton, Ohio was considered. The area of interest has a high traffic volume and consists of different geometric design challenges including closely spaced merging and diverging ramps. A four-year record of crash data (2005–2008) and a statistical modeling technique that assumes a negative binomial distribution on generalized linear models (GLMs) were used to …

Adjusting Ite’S Trip Generation Handbook For Urban Context, Kelly J. Clifton, Kristina Marie Currans, Christopher D. Muhs

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines the ways in which urban context affects vehicle trip generation rates across three land uses. An intercept travel survey was administered at 78 establishments (high-turnover restaurants, convenience markets, and drinking places) in the Portland, Oregon, region during 2011. This approach was developed to adjust the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Handbook vehicle trip rates based on built environment characteristics where the establishments were located. A number of policy-relevant built environment measures were used to estimate a set of nine models predicting an adjustment to ITE trip rates. Each model was estimated as a single measure: …

A Level-Of-Service Model For Protected Bike Lanes, Nick Foster, Christopher Monsere, Jennifer Dill, Kelly Clifton

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several methods exist for quantifying the quality of service provided by a roadway from a bicyclist’s perspective; however, many of these models do not consider physically protected bike lanes and, of those that do, none is based on empirical data from the US. This is problematic as engineers, planners, and elected officials are increasingly looking to objective performance measures to help guide transportation project design and funding prioritization decisions. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a cumulative logistic model to predict user comfort on protected bike lanes developed from data collected during in-person video surveys. The surveys were conducted …

A Rapid Approach For Considering Nonlinear Response Of Flexible Pavements Under Fwd And Estimation Of Remaining Lives Of Pavements, Shahabaldin Shirazi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most mechanistic empirical pavement analyses are based on the layered elastic models where the stress sensitivity of geomaterials and their nonlinearity are either ignored or accounted for indirectly. Advanced numerical models, such as finite element models, are required to consider the nonlinear nature of the geomaterials. Existing pavements are often tested with the Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) to estimate the input moduli to the layered elastic models in order to estimate remaining life and structural capacity of pavements. It has been more than 30 years that FWD tests are being performed to measure structural adequacy of pavements. Backcalculation is the …