Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Quantifying The Impact Of Truck Only Lanes On Vehicular Emissions On A Limited-Access Highway, Edward Chee Tang

Master's Theses

This thesis seeks to estimate CO₂ emissions on a portion of the U.S. 101 highway in San Luis Obispo County before and after construction of a truck only lane on the Cuesta Grade. Towards that aim, the microsimulation software, VISSIM, was used in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions model, MOVES. The microsimulation model was calibrated and validated against historical and present traffic volumes obtained from Caltrans with good results using several validation measures. It was found that CO₂ emissions did decrease between 1998 and 2012 (pre and post lane addition), but this effect was shown to …

Estimating Transit Ridership Patterns Through Automated Data Collection Technology: A Case Study In San Luis Obispo, California, Ashley Kim

Master's Theses

Public transportation offers a crucial solution to the travel demand in light of national and global economic, energy, and environmental challenges. If implemented effectively, public transit offers an affordable, convenient, and sustainable transportation mode. Implementation of new technologies for information-harvesting may lead to more effective transit operations. This study examines the potential of automated data collection technologies to analyzing and understand the origin-destination flow patterns, which is essential for transit route planning and stop location placement.

This thesis investigates the collection and analysis of data of passengers onboard San Luis Obispo Transit buses in February and March 2017 using Bluetooth …

Injury Severity Of Truck Drivers In Crashes At Highway–Rail Grade Crossings, Waleed Ali Khan

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is a noticeable difference between different road users, specifically between passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles such as its length and weight. The majority of previous research were focused on general highway traffic that included passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc. Moreover, HRGC safety studies of specific types of vehicles are relatively few and heavy vehicle safety at grade crossing is even more under-explored.

This research thus focuses on the following objectives: Identify factors related to different injury severity levels of heavy-vehicle drivers (truck/truck-trailer) drivers in crashes reported at HRGCs; to identify a more suitable statistical model for injury severity …

Land Use And Active Travel: A Complex Relationship, Steven R. Gehrke

TREC Project Briefs

While it’s accepted that mixed-use development promotes active travel, researchers don’t have a consensus on exactly how land use determines people’s travel patterns.

Schedule And Cost Performance Analysis And Prediction In Louisiana Dotd, Mahmoud Hamide

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Many construction projects in the United States are facing the risk of cost overrun and schedule delays. This is also happening here in the State of Louisiana. When these things happen, it causes cost overrun which can then be passed on to the tax payers and may also cause the state to take on less projects than they normal. Many researchers have studied the reasons behind both the cost overrun and the delays resulting in private firms, developing project management tools and best practices to prevent this risk. In this research, I aim to study the historical trend in 2912 …

Evaluation Of Floorpan Tearing And Cable Splices For Cable Barrier Systems, Scott K. Rosenbaugh, Jason A. Hartwell, Robert W. Bielenberg, Ronald K. Faller, James C. Holloway, Karla A. Lechtenberg

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This research effort consisted of two objectives related to components of a prototype cable barrier system. The first objective was to mitigate the potential for vehicle floorpan tearing by modifying the cable guardrail posts. A bogie vehicle was equipped with a simulated floorpan designed to replicate the height, thickness, and strength of the floorpan of a Kia Rio vehicle. Baseline testing demonstrated that the top of the Midwest Weak Post (MWP) would contact, and crease the simulated floorpan, which matched the damage observed in actual full-scale vehicle crash tests. Once the test setup provided the desired results, various post configurations …

Network Congestion Effect Of E-Hailing Transportation Services, Xuegang Ban

PSU Transportation Seminars

E-hailing plays a key role in emerging transportation services such as ridesourcing, ridesharing and taxis, among others. This seminar will present a general economic model to analyze the congestion effect of e-hailing services in a transportation network.

The model can help analyze customers’ choices of different modes, based on their value of time and the charging schemes of different services, as well as the overall impact of the services to network level congestion.

Mash Test No. 3-10 Of A Non-Proprietary, High-Tension Cable Median Barrier For Use In 6h:1v V-Ditch (Test No. Mwp-8), Dylan T. Meyer, Karla A. Lechtenberg, Ronald K. Faller, Robert W. Bielenberg, Scott K. Rosenbaugh, John D. Reid

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The Midwest States Pooled Fund Program has been developing a prototype design for a non-proprietary, high-tension cable median barrier for use in a 6H:1V V-ditch. This system incorporates four evenly spaced cables, Midwest Weak Posts (MWP) spaced at 8 to 16 ft (2.4-4.9 m) intervals, and a bolted, tabbed bracket to attach three or four cables to the sides of each post. According to the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) testing matrix for cable barriers installed within a 6H:1V median V-ditch, a series of eight full-scale tests are required to evaluate the safety performance of a system. A ninth …

Behavior-Based Freight Modeling At Metro, Chris Johnson, Bud Reiff

PSU Transportation Seminars

Chris Johnson and Bud Reiff will present on a behavior-based freight model being used at Oregon Metro. This model will replace Metro’s current truck model with a hybrid freight model that both represents multi-modal freight flows through elements of national and regional supply chains and simulates the movement of individual trucks and shipments on local networks. Model estimation and calibration will also require collection of behavioral data from shippers and receivers representing a wide range of industries, common and contract freight carriers, business that operate non-freight commercial vehicles, warehouse managers, and logistics agents.

Key project objectives:

• Develop tools to enable …

Fluid Isolator, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

The reliability of concrete infrastructure is vital to ensuring daily life, as well as commerce, can progress without interruption. From the pavement of interstate highways to the driveways and sidewalks in a local neighborhood, concrete is expensive to install and often even more expensive, and intrusive, when it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, to maintain functionality in winter climates concrete is heavily exposed to deicing salts. This not only affects the roads, driveways, and sidewalks where salt is applied directly, but many other areas such as parking and residential garages where vehicles (and people) will track salt along with water …

Netpoint®, Purdue Ect Team

ECT Fact Sheets Archive

The vast majority of construction scheduling software uses a combination of spreadsheets and Gantt charts for developing and depicting Critical Path Method (CPM) schedules. While this paradigm works for the expert scheduler, it is not conducive to collaboration, and it is prohibitively difficult for non-scheduling experts to understand.

NetPoint® provides a dynamic, visual interface conducive to touch and gestural input. Activities are drawn directly on a time-scale and may be placed on the same row or arranged automatically using codes or the WBS. Such control of the presentation makes it easier to communicate the plan to any type of audience. …

Length Of Need And Minimum System Length For F-Shape Portable Concrete Barrier, Robert W. Bielenberg, Dylan T. Meyer, Ronald K. Faller, John D. Reid

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Portable concrete barrier (PCB) systems are often used to redirect errant vehicles through a combination of inertial resistance, lateral friction loads, and tensile loads developed from the mass and friction of the barrier segments. State departments of transportation (DOTs) and other end users may wish to utilize minimal length PCB installations to shield a hazard or work zone or limit the number of barriers required on the upstream and downstream ends to reduce overall system length. However, concerns with the performance of shorter PCB installations include increased lateral deflections and working widths and barrier pocketing. Additionally, no impact testing has …

Testing And Evaluation Of Mash Tl-3 Transition Between Guardrail And Portable Concrete Barriers, Robert W. Bielenberg, Jessica L. Lingenfelter, Justine E. Kohtz, Ronald K. Faller, John D. Reid

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Three full-scale vehicle crash tests were conducted according to the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) Test Level 3 (TL-3) safety performance criteria on a transition between the Midwest Guardrail System (MGS) and a portable concrete barrier (PCB) system. The transition system utilized for test nos. MGSPCB-1 through MGSPCB-3 consisted of a standard MGS that overlapped a series of F- shape PCB segments that approached the MGS at a 15H:1V flare. In the overlapped portion of the barrier systems, uniquely-designed blockout holders and a specialized W-beam end shoe mounting bracket were used to connect the systems.

In test no. MGSPCB-1, …

Peer-To-Peer Carsharing: Short-Term Effects On Travel Behavior In Portland, Or, Jennifer Dill, Nathan Mcneil, Steven Howland

TREC Final Reports

Peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing is a relatively new concept in the U.S. Enabled by recent internet and mobile technology development, P2P carsharing generally involves a facilitating company connecting private vehicle owners to people who are interested in renting a vehicle. P2P carsharing has many things in common with business-to-consumer (B2C) carsharing services. Consumers join the service to rent vehicles on a short-term basis from locations dispersed throughout a certain area. Both services may allow households to reduce their private car ownership. However, P2P carsharing differs substantially from other models in that there are two distinct sets of consumers: those who rent …

Narratives Of Marginalized Cyclists: Understanding Obstacles To Utilitarian Cycling Among Women And Minorities In Portland, Or, Amy Lubitow

TREC Final Reports

Research has demonstrated that everyday or utilitarian forms of cycling are most likely to generate positive population-level health impacts (Garrard et al., 2012), yet significant deterrents to routine cycling remain, particularly for women and minorities. The primary aim of this project was to conduct a qualitative interview study that generated rich, narrative data regarding obstacles to routine or utilitarian cycling for women and minorities who already see biking as a viable form of transit, but who make relatively few bike trips. A secondary aim of the project was to develop a set of specific interventions that have the potential to …

Exploring Compaction Effects On Cold In-Place Recycling Mixtures Using Emulsified Asphalt, Erica Ann Yeung

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cold in-place recycling (CIR) is a process that takes three to four inches of existing pavement surface and reuses 100% of it by milling and crushing it, adding asphalt emulsions and/or additives to it, before placing and re-compacting it. There is currently very little research regarding the interaction between the crushed aggregate and asphalt emulsion during the CIR process. In this study, the interactions between the combinations of crushed aggregates and asphalt emulsions were investigated along with select compaction metrics and a raveling performance test. The three types of aggregates included coated limestone, recycled asphalt pavement (RAP), and coated syenite. …

Design And Evaluation Of Modified Centerline Rumble Strips, Yong-Rak Kim, Tae Sun You, Laurence Rilett

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

A centerline rumble strip (CLRS) is primarily installed on the centerline of undivided two-lane and two-way roadways to alert drivers that they are moving out of their intended travel lane. The main purpose of CLRSs is to reduce crossover collisions typically caused by inattentive, distracted, drowsy, or fatigued drivers. Despite the safety benefits, CLRSs that were milled over or adjacent to the centerline joint may increase or accelerate the deterioration and degradation of the pavement structure, which has been observed in Nebraska pavements. In this research project, new (or modified) CLRS designs were sought to reduce pavement damage, while satisfying …

A Quantitative Model For Truck Parking Utilization With Hours Of Service Regulations, Alexis Christine Gaddy

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Continual growth in traffic volume on U.S. Highways and insufficient parking for commercial trucking vehicles has led to significant safety concerns for truck drivers. Hours of Service (HOS) regulations dictate driving and rest periods of truck drivers. When a truck driver must stop as designated by the HOS regulations and the nearest parking location is at capacity, the trucker must either continue driving past the HOS limit or park in an undesignated and possibly illegal or unsafe spot such as an off-ramp. The combination of these two variables play an important role in the safety of truck drivers on a …

A Tool To Evaluate Sustainability Of Pavement Maintenance Projects., Yibo Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pavement maintenance activities are widely regarded to be critical elements during pavement life cycle, different maintenance techniques have been used to restore or extend the service lives of pavements. However, the existing maintenance practices on pavement system have problems that impair the economic benefits, disturb the natural environment, and somewhat ignore the needs from stakeholders. To minimize these negative impacts, sustainability is an ideal way because it addresses the problems under Triple Bottom Line (TBL, refers to economy, environment, and society). Sustainability analysis within transportation or pavement industry has been studied in different countries, but the concept of sustainable pavement …

The Effects Of Aggregate Size On Shear Dynamic Modulus From Torsion Bar, Farida Mahmud

Civil Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

PavementME Design is based on mechanistic-empirical principles, which take the properties of layer materials into account in predicting pavement responses and performance. Of these principles, dynamic modulus is one of the most important. Dynamic modulus measures strain in response to the applied stress, which mimics loads from traffic and the corresponding deformation of the asphalt pavement. The traditional test for dynamic modulus in the uniaxial configuration cannot be performed on field cores due to lift thickness. Owing to that, the Indirect Tension and torsion bar configuration were developed. This research will focus on the torsion bar, which requires specimens that …