Transportation Engineering Commons^™

Assessing Public Health Benefits Of Replacing Freight Trucks With Cargo Cycles In Last Leg Delivery Trips In Urban Centers, Jennifer C. Hartle, Ossama (Sam) A. Elrahman, Cara Wang, Daniel A. Rodriguez, Yue Ding, Matt Mcgahan

Mineta Transportation Institute

Increased urbanization, population growth, and demand for time-sensitive deliveries means increased freight movement in cities, which contributes to emissions, noise, and safety concerns. One innovative mode gaining widespread attention for urban deliveries is cargo cycles—bicycles adapted for freight delivery. Despite the recognized potential and possible success of transporting at least 25% of freight via cycle, research remains limited. This research investigates the potential of cargo cycle delivery for last mile freight in Oakland, California, with a focus on the West Oakland neighborhood. The data collection included interviews, focus groups, vehicle field observation and counts, and traffic simulation modeling. The traffic …

Influence Of Level 1 And Level 2 Automated Vehicles On Fatal Crashes And Fatal Crash Occurrence, Hardik Gajera, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sonu Mathew

Mineta Transportation Institute

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to improve safety by gradually reducing human decisions while driving. However, there are still questions on their effectiveness as we transition from almost 0% CAVs to 100% CAVs with different levels of vehicle autonomy. This research focuses on synthesizing literature and identifying risk factors influencing fatal crashes involving level 1 and level 2 CAVs in the United States. Fatal crashes involving level 0 vehicles—ones that are not connected and automated—were compared to minimize unobserved heterogeneity and randomness associated with the influencing risk factors. The research team used the fatal crash data for the …

Bridge Project Prioritization, Bryan Gibson, Christopher Van Dyke, Sudhir Palle, Ryan Griffith, Doug Kreis

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky’s 14,000+ bridges are key nodes within the state’s surface transportation network. They facilitate the movement of freight, commercial vehicles, and personal vehicles alike. Historically, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has prioritized bridge maintenance projects using sufficiency ratings. These ratings are based on three factors — structural adequacy and safety, design obsolescence, and an asset’s importance within the roadway network. Although useful, sufficiency ratings do not account for factors that should be considered during the prioritization process (e.g., condition factors, risk). To address the shortcomings associated with using sufficiency ratings, KYTC — with the assistance of the Kentucky Transportation Center …

Risk-Based Project Development, Steve Waddle, Ying Li, Christopher Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Risk management is integral to highway project development. Managing risk entails identifying uncertainties which could influence project activities, understanding how they can be mitigated or eliminated, and monitoring risk during project development. Many state transportation agencies have introduced methods for identifying risks, determining whether risks are high impact or low impact, and generating response strategies. These methods are often qualitative or semi-quantitative in nature due to the challenge of quantifying the likelihood of a risk and its effects. These approaches are nonetheless valuable for helping designers and project development teams remain mindful of negative risks which could pose significant hurdles. …

Measuring Accessibility For Pedestrians, Bicyclists, And Transit Riders To Grocery Stores In The Excelsior/Outer Mission Neighborhoods Of San Francisco, Alexandra Lee-Gardner

Master's Theses

Grocery stores are an important amenity in neighborhoods and access to grocery stores is important for health and well-being. While grocery store accessibility is a popular topic of research, studies measuring access for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders are extremely rare. When a new store opened in the Excelsior/Outer Mission districts of San Francisco on a street lacking basic infrastructure for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders, the importance of this study became apparent. The Excelsior/Outer Mission neighborhood has a shocking number of collisions (over 1,100 between 2015 and 2019), elevated levels of walking, biking, and transit ridership, and minimal safe …

Steel Bridge Coating Inventory For 2022, Christopher Goff, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) has replaced the lead-based coatings on many of its steel bridges over the past 30 years. In the 1980s and 1990s, inorganic zinc primers with vinyl topcoats were the go-to option for coating replacement projects. Since 2000, the typical choice for these projects has been organic zinc primers that are part of a two- or three-coat system. Some of these coatings have localized failures in high-stress areas. KYTC’s current inventory of steel bridges numbers over 1,100 structures. Accounting for expected service lives, to properly maintain protective coatings on these bridges will require the Cabinet to …

Updating The Bridge Construction Cost Database, Rachel Catchings, Ying Li, Ryan Griffith, Sudhir Palle

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Adopting a comprehensive suite of methods to track, analyze, and maintain data on bridge construction costs can help state transportation agencies identify and implement strategies to mitigate the influence of factors which escalate project costs. This report discusses how the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) should approach updating, maintaining, and analyzing its bridge construction cost data. Based on a review of practices introduced at other agencies and interviews with public and private industry stakeholders, the report catalogues practical strategies for improving estimating procedures and tracking cost data as well as the most important cost drivers of bridge construction. Analysis of KYTC …

Utilization Of Lidar Technology — When To Use It And Why, Levy Mcintosh, Brad Rister

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Lidar technologies can assist transportation agencies during the design, construction, and maintenance phases of transportation projects. While Lidar has numerous applications, successfully deploying Lidar technologies is only possible if agencies have a solid understanding of their use cases and potential limitations. This report offers guidance the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) can use when making decisions on how to employ Lidar technologies in highway contexts. In addition to reviewing Lidar platforms and comparing Lidar-driven surveying to traditional surveying methods, the report examines challenges related to processing and storing Lidar data and the safety benefits Lidar technologies confer in the field. Brief …

Outdoor Laboratory And Testbed For Bridge Health, Richard L. Wood, Mitra Nasimi, Bowen Yang, Christine E. Wittich, Joshua Steelman, Jay Puckett, Daniel Linzell, Jinying Zhu, Mohammad Ebrahim Mohammadi

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Due to the aging problem of bridges and the limited financial resources in the United States, it is necessary to form a deeper understanding of existing, aging bridges in an effort to extend their in-service life. To address this problem, researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and engineers from the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) identified three, out-of-service bridges (two steel and one concrete) to establish the Nebraska Outdoor Bridge Lab (NOBL). As the first step in NOBL’s development, geometric surveys of the current condition of each bridge were produced using lidar and Structure-from-Motion (SfM). This data contributed to …

Data-Driven Prioritization And Empirical Predictions For Bridge Scour In Nebraska, Richard L. Wood, Awgku Ahmad Hashim B. Awg Bolhasan, Basil Abualshar, Christine E. Wittich, Chung R. Song, Junke Guo, Mohammad Ebrahim Mohammadi, Mitra Nasimi, Yijun Liao

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The effect of scour at the bridge substructure results in an increase in the vulnerability of the overall bridge stability. Previous studies have found that current guidelines are often overly-conservative with respect to scour. This project aims to provide guidance on hydraulic modeling parameters and reasonable scour estimates specific to Nebraska conditions. This will enable engineers to assess bridge sites for scour more precisely for efficient and effective design and countermeasures. Four sites were surveyed for scour changes between the period of December 9, 2020, to April 20, 2021. At these four sites, overland and bathymetry survey data were collected. …

Extended Weight Systems Pavement Analysis, Gayle Marks, Jon Wilcoxson, Bryan Gibson

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

Kentucky established its Extended Weight Coal or Coal By-products Haul Road System (EWCHRS) in 1986. This road network includes segments of the Coal Haul Highway System on which more than 50,000 tons coal or coal byproducts were transported by motor vehicles during the previous calendar year. In the past few years, the state has introduced extended weight (EW) systems focused on petroleum products and metal commodities. Trucks can operate above posted weight limits on these networks by paying annual fees that range from $160 to $2,000. While EW networks benefit motor carriers by improving efficiency, vehicles that exceed weight limits …

Evaluation Of Polymer Binder Technisoil G5® In Concrete Mixture, Shadi Saadeh, Pritam Katawal

Mineta Transportation Institute

Plastic is everywhere, and with its increasing use in so many everyday materials, the production and demand of plastic has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the accumulation of a mammoth amount of plastic waste and adverse effects on the environment. To optimize the huge amount of materials required by the pavement industry each year and reuse recycled plastics, the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has been common practice. This research studied the use of a binder completely made from recycled waste plastic named Technisoil G5® and compared it with performance grade PG 70-22 mix containing virgin aggregates and …

Covid-19 Public Transportation Air Circulation And Virus Mitigation Study, Aly Tawfik, Deify Law, Juris Grasis, Joseph Oldham, Moe Salem

Mineta Transportation Institute

COVID-19 may have forever changed our world. Given the limited space and air circulation, potential infections on public transportation could be concerningly high. Accordingly, this study has two objectives: (1) to understand air circulation patterns inside the cabins of buses; and (2) to test the impact of different technologies in mitigating viruses from the air and on surfaces inside bus cabins. For the first objective, different devices, metrics and experiments (including colored smoke; videotaping; anemometers; pressure differentials; particle counts; and 3D numerical simulation models) were utilized and implemented to understand and quantify air circulation inside different buses, with different characteristics, …

Impact Of Dedicated Bus Lanes On Intersection Operations And Travel Time Model Development, Stephen Arhin, Babin Manandhar, Kevin Obike, Melissa Anderson

Mineta Transportation Institute

Over the years, public transit agencies have been trying to improve their operations by continuously evaluating best practices to better serve patrons. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) oversees the transit bus operations in the Washington Metropolitan Area (District of Columbia, some parts of Maryland and Virginia). One practice attempted by WMATA to improve bus travel time and transit reliability has been the implementation of designated bus lanes (DBLs). The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) implemented a bus priority program on selected corridors in the District of Columbia leading to the installation of red-painted DBLs on corridors of H Street, …

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 …

Northern Sea Route As An Emerging Option For Global Transport Networks: A Policy Perspective, Stavros Karamperidis, Nikolaos Valantasis Kanellos

Articles

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is an emerging alternative route to the Suez Canal; however, inconclusive research exists on its benefits and viability. This paper uses a two-stage Delphi approach to collect qualitative data from experts, on what actions Nordic countries[1] can undertake to prepare themselves to enter NSR and capture potential benefits deriving from trading in global transport networks. By conceptually developing a framework based on First Movers Advantage (FMA) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT), this paper empirically identifies a path to develop capabilities that could allow stakeholders to reduce logistics costs through collaborations in NSR. Our paper …

An Injury Severity Prediction-Driven Accident Prevention System, Gulsum Alicioglu, Bo Sun, Shen-Shyang Ho

College of Science & Mathematics Departmental Research

Traffic accidents are inevitable events that occur unexpectedly and unintentionally. Therefore, analyzing traffic data is essential to prevent fatal accidents. Traffic data analysis provided insights into significant factors and driver behavioral patterns causing accidents. Combining these patterns and the prediction model into an accident prevention system can assist in reducing and preventing traffic accidents. This study applied various machine learning models, including neural network, ordinal regression, decision tree, support vector machines, and logistic regression to have a robust prediction model in injury severity. The trained model provides timely and accurate predictions on accident occurrence and injury severity using real-world traffic …

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 …

Intelligent Work Zone Using Automatic Queue Detection Systems, Li Zhao, Laurence Rilett, Ernest Tufuor

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report documents the the evaluation of the effectiveness of the Advanced Queue Detection (AQD) systems installed on Interstate work zones in Nebraska. Specifically, (1) the system performance was verified by examining whether the messages displayed on the portable dynamic message signs (PDMS) were consistent with the underlying AQD logic; (2) the system efficacy was measured by determining whether driver speeds were reduced when warning messages were provided on the PDMS; and (3) the system safety impact was modeled using statistical models. It was found that overall, the AQD systems had an error rate of 0.7% – 2.3%. Drivers reduced …

Urban Air Mobility: Envisioning Uam As An Integrated Form Of Future Transport - A Las Vegas Case Study, Osarodion Victory Igbinobaro

Hospitality Design Graduate Student Capstones

Rapid urbanization has resulted in more people moving to cities to live and work. By 2030, an estimated 5 billion people will live in urban areas representing about 60% of the world's population. This increase in population growth brings forth new mobility challenges and opportunities for city planners, importantly, the challenge of transporting people and goods to their destinations in the most efficient, safe, quick and sustainable manner.

Traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, the cost of maintaining existing and building new transportation infrastructure are among several reasons why many cities seek sustainable alternatives to compliment their existing transport …

Modeling Framework And Solution Methodologies For On-Demand Mobility Services With Ridesharing And Transfer Options, Sepide Lotfi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

The growing complexity of the urban travel pattern and its related traffic congestion, along with the extensive usage of mobile phones, invigorated On-Demand Mobility Services (ODMS) and opened the door to the emergence of Transportation Network Companies (TNC). By adopting the shared economy paradigm, TNCs enable private car owners to provide transportation services to passengers by providing user-friendly mobile phone applications that efficiently match passengers to service providers. Considering the high level of flexibility, convenience, and reliability of ODMS, compared to those offered by traditional public transportation systems, many metropolitan areas in the United States and abroad have reported rapid …

Refining Particle Size Specification For Asphalt Emulsion, Pedro Luis Diaz Romero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pavements begin to deteriorate as soon as they are constructed, and traffic is released. The rate at which a pavement deteriorates depends on the material quality, the environment, and the loads carried. To properly preserve pavements and extend their life, various pavement preservation treatments are used. For flexible pavements, a considerable number of these treatments use asphalt emulsion (which are refer to simply emulsions from here on). Emulsions are classified based on their particle charge and reactivity. Emulsions used in chip seals are usually of rapid set reactivity and are classified based on tests over fifty years old.

It has …

Protecting Our Community From The Hidden Vulnerabilities Of Today’S Intelligent Transportation Systems, Shahab Tayeb

Mineta Transportation Institute

The ever-evolving technology interwoven into the transportation industry leaves it frequently at risk for cyber-attacks. This study analyzes the security of a common in-vehicle network, the Controller Area Network (CAN), standard in most vehicles being manufactured today. Like many other networks, CAN comes with inherent vulnerabilities that leave CAN implementations at risk of being targeted by cybercriminals. Such vulnerabilities range from eavesdropping, where the attacker can read the raw data traversing the vehicle, to spoofing, where the attacker can place fabricated traffic on the network. The research team initially performed a simulation of CAN traffic generation followed by hardware implementation …

Analyzing Vulnerabilities In The Northwest Arkansas Highway Network Using Mathematical Optimization, Brandon Jerome

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The highway and bridge network is a critical infrastructure that allows for the free transportation of citizens and enables truck-borne freight transportation. Disruption of this system could be caused by a terrorist attack, natural disaster, growth of population, required repairs and upgrades, or collapse caused by old age or malfunction. In the event of a disruption cities and regions can experience increased traffic and supply chain shortages, thus causing cascading effects throughout surrounding areas. With this motivation, we develop a network interdiction optimization model to identify a limited subset of roads that, if disrupted, causes the greatest increase in the …

Utilizing Shockwave Theory And Deep Learning To Estimate Intersection Traffic Flow And Queue Length Based On Connected Vehicle Data., Abdulmaged Algomaiah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of Connected Vehicles (CV) facilitates the use of trajectory data to estimate queue length and traffic volume at signalized intersections. The previously proposed models involved additional information that may require conducting different types of data collection. Also, most models need higher market penetration rate or more than a vehicle per cycle to provide adequate estimation. This is mainly because a significant number of the estimation models utilized only queued vehicles. However, the state of motion in non-queued vehicles, particularly slowed-down vehicles, provides much information about the traffic characteristics. There is a lack of exploiting the information from slowed-down …

Design And Analysis Of Efficient Freight Transportation Networks In A Collaborative Logistics Environment, Vishal Badyal

All Dissertations

The increase in total freight volumes, reducing volume per freight unit, and delivery deadlines have increased the burden on freight transportation systems of today. With the evolution of freight demand trends, there also needs to be an evolution in the freight distribution processes. Today's freight transportation processes have a lot of inefficiencies that could be streamlined, thus preventing concerns like increased operational costs, road congestion, and environmental degradation. Collaborative logistics is one of the approaches where supply chain partners collaborate horizontally or/and vertically to create a centralized network that is more efficient and serves towards a common goal or objective. …

Linking Bad Credentials To Safety Issues, Andrew Martin, Jeeyen Koo, Valerie Keathley-Helil, Mallory Brown, Jennifer Walton

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

This study assesses (1) the effectiveness of the Kentucky Automated Truck Screening (KATS) system, (2) the relationship between credential and vehicle safety violations, (3) the relationship between credential and driver safety violations, and (4) the relationship between credential violations and crashes. The KATS system, which is installed at weigh stations throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is highly effective at detecting KYU, IFTA, and UCR violations with sensitivities of 80.54, 87.56, and 88.28 percent, respectively. However, the system is less effective at detecting IRP violations (sensitivity = 20.83 percent). There is a statistically significant relationship between credentialing and vehicle safety violations, …

An Investigation Of Water Obstructions And Related Weather Conditions For Nebraska Roadways, Mark R. Anderson, Logan R. Bundy

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Roadway resilience across the 10,000 miles of road and 3,500 bridges in Nebraska is critical to the economic success of productionand logistics. In a state where historical flooding scenarios, such as the one in March 2019 that caused $150 million in damage,could potentially be increasing, it has become essential to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of high-frequency waterobstruction areas on roadways. Therefore, in order to further investigate these areas, the main objectives of this research were toperform statistical and spatial analyses to quantify the relationship between water obstructions and their associated meteorologicalconditions, and identify the potential linkages between water …