Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Our Streets: Increasing Equity In Active Transportation Planning Through Community Outreach, Jordan Hoy

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT Significant research has demonstrated that active transportation infrastructure is essential for the growth and livability of San Francisco: it increases access to economic opportunities, promotes overall improved public health, encourages mobility without contributing to roadway congestion, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities, and supports the sustainability goals of the city. Despite the fact that communities of color will benefit the most from active transportation infrastructure development, historical disenfranchisement in tandem with a lack of diverse representation within public participation contributes to an inequitable distribution of walking and biking investments throughout the city of San Francisco. While research shows that Black …

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 …

Cruser Place Green Streets Plan, Neal Friedman

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Combining green and complete street design techniques leads to multiple environmental, social and economic benefits that often enhance each other's effectiveness. In urban areas confronting increased pressures of sea level rise, green streets, which incorporate landscaped features or vegetative areas to manage stormwater within the right of way, can be crucial pieces of pedestrian oriented urban design and multimodal planning frameworks that consider and plan for diverse, complementary transportation options. This plan works with the Colonial Place and Riverview Civic League as well as the Norfolk Preservation Collective to come up with green street design recommendations in order to strengthen …

Retrospective Analysis Of Impacts Of Highway Bypass And Widening Projects, Sanjeev Bhurtyal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community members often worry that highway projects may have negative impacts on their local economies. This is typical for highway bypass and widening projects in small cities (population less than 50,000). It is a challenge for planners to balance public concerns of economic decline with desired project outcomes of mobility and safety. Much of this challenge stems from a lack of information on post-project outcomes related to economic and safety impacts of new construction projects. Thus, there is a need for an evidence-based framework to help planners with the decision-making process and better inform the community on potential outcomes. This …

Dlr Covid-19 Mobility Review: Evaluation And Review Of The Phase 1 Covid-19 Mobility And Public Realm Works Undertaken By Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Sarah Rock Dr., Dave O'Connor, Lorraine D'Arcy Dr., Odran Reid

Reports

Evaluation and Review of the Phase 1 Covid-19 Mobility and Public Realm Works undertaken by Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council.

Interim findings, June 2021.

Using Fuzzy Clustering Of User Perception To Determine The Number Of Level-Of-Service Categories For Bus Rapid Transit, Yueying Huo, Jinhua Zhao, Xiaojuan Li, Chen Guo

Journal of Public Transportation

The concept of level of service (LOS) is meant to reflect user perception of the quality of service provided by a transportation facility or service. Although the LOS of bus rapid transit (BRT) has received considerable attention, the number of levels of service of BRT that a user can perceive still remains unclear. Therefore, in this paper, we address this issue using fuzzy clustering of user perception. User perception is defined as a six-dimension vector of the perceived arrival time, perceived waiting time, bus speed perception, passenger load perception, perceived departure time, and overall perception. A smartphone-based transit travel survey …

Understanding Transantiago Users’ Motivations For Paying Or Evading Payment Of Bus Fares, Carolina Busco, Felipe González, Yamil Jaqueih, Felipe Jiménez, Borja Alonso

Journal of Public Transportation

Transantiago, the public transport system implemented in Santiago, Chile, remains a controversial subject of public debate due to constantly increasing fare evasion rates throughout its decade-long existence. The

Transantiago, the public transport system implemented in Santiago, Chile, remains a controversial subject of public debate due to constantly increasing fare evasion rates throughout its decade-long existence. The research question under consideration in this paper is as follows: What motivates individuals to evade or pay bus fares? To answer this question, we developed a multidisciplinary study that combined relevant engineering expertise with a sociological perspective and combined quantitative analyses with qualitative methodologies …

People-Focused And Near-Term Public Transit Performance Analysis, Alex Karner

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transit ridership forecasts have long played a role in understanding the potential success of a policy or investment, but their limitations have led researchers and practitioners to identify other performance analysis approaches. Accessibility, or the ease of reaching opportunities, has become very popular and widely used for this purpose. But commonly used accessibility measures also embody weaknesses that are seldom acknowledged; these limit their utility for truly understanding the benefits of transit investments. In this paper, we identify the pros and cons of these competing approaches and offer a third strategy. Specifically, we describe how revealed travel behavior data, …

Increasing Boarding Lost Time At Regular Bus Stops During Rainy Conditions: A Case Study, Margarita Novales, Alfonso Orro, José-Benito Pérez-López, Jorge Feal, Miguel R. Bugarín

Journal of Public Transportation

Inclement weather conditions affect the behavior of travelers and transportation system operations. Understanding this influence can help improve operational planning schemes for any mode of transport, especially for buses. One of the factors that can be affected by rainfall is the time expended by a passenger from the moment a bus opens its doors until he/she boards the bus. This time is known as the boarding lost time (BLT); it was first introduced in the last edition of the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM). TCQSM only considers the BLT for bus rapid transit (BRT) stations with more …

Unveiling Women’S Needs And Expectations As Users Of Bike Sharing Services: The H2020 Diamond Project, Andrea Gorrini, Rawad Choubassi, Federico Messa, Wafaa Saleh, Augustus Ababio-Donkor, Maria Chiara Leva, Lorraine D'Arcy, Francesco Fabbri, David Laniado, Pablo Aragon

Articles

Within the objectives of the H2020 DIAMOND project, the paper investigates women’s needs and expectations as users of the bike-sharing service managed by Syndicat Mixte Autolib et Velib Métropole in the territory of Paris Region-Petite Couronne (France). The paper presents a thematic literature review focused on gender inclusion in bike-sharing schemes. The proposed methodological approach is based on (i) Geographic Information Systems for the analysis of geolocated open datasets related to land, sociodemographic and mobility characteristics of the areas surrounding each docking stations. This was aimed at identifying a short list of suitable bike-sharing docking stations, which were further characterized …

Going Green: A Comparative Analysis Of Green Urbanism In Paris And Shanghai, Jeanne Torp

Honors Theses

As climate change becomes more pressing with each day and as we scramble to slow down the challenges it poses, adapting the means of operation within our cities will become an invaluable tool for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. This paper seeks to study the ways in which green infrastructure in global cities can be used to do just that—adapting to and mitigating the effects of challenges resulting from climate change. In order to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of such green infrastructure systems across the globe, this research will focus on two cities that vary greatly in their …

The Legacy Of Car-Share And Light-Rail Transit For Mobility And Accessibility Improvements In Economically Marginalized Neighborhoods In The New York Metro Area, Kyeongsu Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the value of the car-share program and a new light rail system with respect to their impact on mobility and accessibility improvements in economically and transportation access-wise marginalized neighborhoods in NYC and its adjacent communities. It consists of three main essays that took deep dives into how each new service or system altered mobility or accessibility for those in need. The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates car-share vehicle utilization rates of the Zipcar across NYC. It assesses the utilization rates by vehicle type, service location, time period, and weekday usage compared to weekend activity. With a multivariate …

A Methodological Framework To Evaluate Community Perceptions Of Economic And Safety Impacts Attributed To Highway Bypass And Widening Projects, Karla Diaz-Corro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Transportation practitioners have proposed the construction of highway bypass and widening projects in rural communities to address traffic-related problems that include noise pollution and congestion, among others. In the past, the construction of bypass projects has led community residents to raise concerns about potential decreases in business activity for businesses located along the bypassed road. For transportation organizations, it is essential to understand the economic, social, and safety impacts of transportation projects in terms of public perceptions as public input is a required part of the project planning phase. Moreover, it is recommended that agencies perform retrospective analyses of project …

Investing In Bicycle Infrastructure To Spur Statewide Economic Growth Through Bicycle Tourism, Pedro Aguero Arroyo, Daniel P. Piatkowski, F. Alsaleem

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Bicycle tourism is a growing industry that has been shown by prior studies to contribute significantly to the economy of numerous states. The economic benefits of recreational bicycling are not limited to the direct effects of the transactions of bicyclists in related industries, but also spillover effects such as the reduction of automobile activity and its associated costs to society, or the decrease of the costs of obesity and inactivity to the healthcare system. This study focuses on the former and provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the economic impacts derived from recreational bicycling expenditure, as well as an …

A Big Data Approach For Improving Nebraska Cycling Routes, Fadi Alsaleem, Ali Al-Ramini, Mohammad Ali Takallou, Daniel P. Piatkowski

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

More people are becoming interested in creating healthy lifestyle habits for themselves. It has been proved that cycling has several health benefits. Therefore, governments are planning towards more cycling-friendly infrastructures and environments. To understand the cycling activities in Nebraska, we analyze Strava data for the last three years, providing valuable insight into cycling activities for urban planning purposes.

We analyze commute and recreational cycling patterns varying between weekdays and weekends to identify peak hours. Moreover, we study the effect of weather on cycling activity patterns for the last three years. Also, we use the impact of the outside temperature as …

Interdisciplinary Education Outreach With Traffic Sensor Build Kits, Sarah V. Hernandez, Mariah B. Crews

Civil Engineering Teaching and Learning

The goal of this project was to attract K-12 students to transportation engineering careers through STEM outreach programs. To accomplish this goal, the object of the project was to design and implement maritime freight oriented educational outreach activities centered on traffic sensing technologies for middle, high school, and first-year college students. In MarTREC Project 5011 (Evaluating the Performance of Intermodal Connectors), the research team designed a low-cost, easily implementable LiDAR and Bluetooth sensor bundle that was capable of detecting, characterizing, and tracking freight trucks as they traveled to and from inland waterway port areas. The sensor provided data necessary to …

Suitability Of Fusing Vehicle Probe Data And Vessel Data To Contextualize The Multimodal Interaction Impacts On Corridor Mobility – A New Orleans Case Study, Kirk Zeringue

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Using New Orleans as a case study, this thesis explores the conflation of vehicle probe data with various vessel datasets to characterize the interactions between container vessels and motor vehicles as it relates to interstate congestion in a port city. The case study investigates the impact of container vessel presence/size, fluctuations in container volumes, and container on barge services on roadway congestion. The exploration relies on comparing different conditions using cumulative distribution functions and the Innovative Trend Analysis. The results showed that fusing vehicle and vessel data is achievable and appropriate, but temporal and data completeness issues can effect results. …

Potential Of Existing And Proposed Bicycle Facilities To Link Multiple Origin And Destination Needs For Non-Motorized Travel In San Luis Obispo, Sheridan Nansen

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of linking multiple origins and destinations for efficient non-motorized travel in San Luis Obispo, California. The city currently has seventy-five miles of bicycle infrastructure with the intention to add thirty-five more miles to create a more functional bicycle network and foster an increase in bicycle trips taken.

Many cities in the United States are following their European counterparts in the push towards more sustainable forms of transportation by promoting bicycling, walking, and the use of public transit. Recently, we have seen an increase in both local and national legislative efforts …

Bike And Pedestrian Safety Planning: Excelsior/Outer Mission District, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

City and Regional Planning

San Francisco’s Outer Mission and Excelsior districts host a vibrant community of small business owners and residents from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The neighborhood is known for its diversity and sense of community. However, lack of adequate infrastructure and high-speed roadways has created great safety concerns within the community. In the last five years, the Excelsior/Outer Mission area had 828 collisions, nine of which were fatal (Transbase, n.d.). San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has identified nearly 14 miles of streets in the project area that are on the City’s high injury network, meaning collisions there are highly …

The Future State Of Mobility, Jerome Quandt

Purdue Road School

Formed in 2018, the Illinois Autonomous Vehicles Association (ILAVA) is a privately funded non-for-profit organization focused on establishing thought leadership in the state of Illinois, by identifying and addressing the current and emerging opportunities related to the inevitable growth of CAV technologies throughout the transportation network. Through the deployment of scalable and sustainable business solutions, facilitating industry education and establishing thought leadership, ILAVA is creating an ecosystem that defines Illinois as #TheFutureStateofMobility.

Valuing Public Transport Customer Amenities: International Transit Agency Practice, Chris De Gruyter, Graham Currie

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transport customer amenities cover a range of measures that can enhance the quality of the passenger experience, such as information provision and station quality. While much research has determined the value that users place on amenities, there is little understanding of current practice in the use of customer amenity valuations in project appraisal. A survey of transit agencies in 11 cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Auckland, London, Paris, Toronto, Vienna, Oslo and Singapore) was undertaken showing that Australasian cities, albeit Melbourne, generally have widespread inclusion of customer amenities as part of advanced appraisals for all relevant types of public …

Exploring Low-Carbon Bus Options For Urban Brt Systems: The Case Of Amman, Rana Imam, Seong-Cheol Kang, Diana Quezada

Journal of Public Transportation

Being able to provide high-quality, metro-like transit service at a fraction of the cost of other options, bus rapid transit (BRT) has been viewed as one of the most cost-effective public mass transport systems suitable for urban areas. Considering significant amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions are attributed to the transport sector, deploying low carbon buses for BRT systems should be of high priority. With a view to promoting low carbon buses instead of diesel buses for a BRT system currently being planned in Amman, Jordan, this paper evaluates several low carbon bus options – hybrid, plug-in …

Public Perception Of Different Planting Techniques Using Augmented Reality, Sultana Quader Tania

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to measure public perception of the different planting techniques (block and matrix), which are used at visitor information centers (VICs) and other rights of way (ROW) areas. The main factors that affect public perception of planting techniques were identified through an extensive literature review and qualitative survey from four welcome centers in the state of Georgia. The ranking of those indicators, based on public preferences, was discovered through a quantitative survey. During the first phase of the quantitative survey, images of block and matrix were used. An iOS-based user-friendly and cost-effective augmented reality (AR) …

Toward Car Free Key West, Mary Bishop

Journal of Transportation Demand Management Research

This paper explores the transportation problems created by the large volume of tourist arrivals to the island of Key West, Florida. A survey of visitors to the island was conducted to uncover their perspectives related to the barriers and benefits of various transportation modes in hopes to inform City staff on the development of transportation options that will meet the needs and desires of tourists. The results from 398 respondents revealed a variety of trends, including varying travel choices depending on the number of visits, where visitors were from, and arrival types. From these trends, priority groups for behavior change …

Minimodal: Dimensional Domain Of Miniature Shipping Containers For Intermodal Freight Transportation, Lee Stapley

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

This study explores the feasibility of miniature shipping container usage within existing intermodal transportation (IT) supply chains. Smaller intermodal container shipments may help realign freight shipments with the most efficient transportation mode, rail. These containers embolden the dimensional domain (DD) of shipping. The shipping container dimensional domain (container size variation and modal fluidity) is widespread and results in shipments that are often larger or more infrequent than needed. The DD impacts transport mode, shipping frequency, shipment velocity, intermodal supply chain accessibility, and regional shipping networks. This study suggests that container size impacts the DD and, therefore, mode choice. As miniature …

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 …

That Bike Is Too Heavy: Merging Bicycling Physics, Human Physiology And Travel Behavior, Alexander Y. Bigazzi

PSU Transportation Seminars

Are the Biketown bikes too heavy? Does better gear motivate people to cycle more? How much faster will someone go on an e-bike?

Although urban cycling is widely known as physically active transportation, the actual physics of cycling have been given little attention in transportation engineering and planning. In contrast, the field of sports science has developed detailed data and models of road bicycle performance, but only for sport and racing cyclists.

What can we learn about utilitarian cycling by integrating knowledge of the physical attributes of bicycles and cyclists?

This seminar examines the ways in which bicycle physics, and …

An Agent-Based Evacuation Model To Improve Safety In The Cascadia Subduction Zone, Haizhong Wang

PSU Transportation Seminars

This seminar will present ongoing research into how integrated social, natural, and engineered systems can improve life safety under threat of multi-hazards. The targeted scenario is a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, threatening communities along 1,000 miles of the US Pacific Northwest coastline.

Since the mid-1980’s scientific evidence has underscored the possibility of such an extreme event, and it has taken at least another decade or more before public attitudes and policy have begun to adapt to this new hazard. Life safety is a pressing issue for the near-field CSZ tsunami hazard for several reasons. …

Empleo Regional Y Transporte Público: Un Estudio De Caso Comparado De Accesibilidad Al Transporte De Parques Industriales En El Gran Buenos Aires Basado En La Medida De Sistema De Información Geográfica, Clara Wang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La accesibilidad al transporte es considerada como un elemento crítico del desarrollo urbano y además la clave del empleo. Este informe intenta analizar el problema de la baja tasa del empleo local enfrente de Malvinas Argentinas (MA)en relación con el bajo nivel de conectividad entre la zona industrial y residencial del municipio. Para contextualizar el problema de este desequilibrio en la región metropolitana de Buenos Aires, La Matanza (LM) será el caso de estudio por tratarse de un municipio similar en localización y estructura industrial. El Sistema de Información Geográfica (SIG) se utiliza para análisis de espacio y visualización de …

Webinar: Rethinking Streets For Bikes: An Evidence Based Guide Of Bike-Friendly Street Retrofits, Marc Schlossberg, Roger Lindgren

TREC Webinar Series

There is a growing demand for better infrastructure and fewer barriers to biking and other forms of space-efficient micromobility. Tackling daily trips by bike is easier on the environment, healthier for users and non-users alike, uses precious urbanized public and private land more efficiently, costs taxpayers less to build and maintain infrastructure, and when routes are safe and comfortable, moving by bike is also fun! Complete Streets policies are being adopted across the country, and there is an active conversation around the safety imperative of a Complete Streets approach. Yet, local officials often need both design guidance and the …