Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Energy Conservation Day: Symbolism Doesn’T Pay, Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

The much publicised panting competition at school level on the occasion of Energy Conservation Day was a good effort to send message to consumers to influence their energy consumption behaviour. But the effect is minuscule.

As a child one might have walked or cycled to school. But as a breadwinner, once energy related decisions largely get influenced by one's income level and opportunities and restrictions.

Navy, Russian (1991-), Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview and analysis of events affecting the Russian Navy from 1991-present. Emphasizes how this force still has mammoth strategic ambitions despite limited resources and an obsolete infrastructure. Stresses the ongoing presence of nuclear weapons, the increasing importance of the Northern Sea Route in Russian and international trade and strategy, and how U.S. and NATO countries budget constraints may make it hard for them to resist Russian assertiveness in areas such as Ukraine.

The Objective Vs. The Perceived Environment: What Matters For Active Travel, Liang Ma

Dissertations and Theses

This study aims to explore the relationship between the objective (actual) environment and people's perceptions of the environment, and their relative effects on active travel behavior, particularly bicycling behavior. This is an important research gap in the current literature linking the built environment and active travel. Better understanding this relationship will help to explore the mechanism underlying the built environment- behavior relationship and identify potential interventions to promote active travel.

Relying on the data from Portland, OR, this study investigated the following four research questions: (1) How does the objectively measured environment correspond to the perceived environment? And what factors …

Toll-Free Highways, Vijaya Krushna Varma Mr

VIJAYA KRUSHNA VARMA Mr

The government should build toll-free highways to save the common man from being fleeced at toll plazas on highways

Evaluating The Planning And Implementation Of Major Transit Capital Projects In The Portland Region, Joseph Recker

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) discretionary New Starts program is the federal government's largest discretionary funding program. From heavy to light rail, from commuter rail to bus rapid transit systems, the FTA's New Starts program has helped to make possible hundreds of new or extended transit fixed guideway systems across the country, including most of TriMet’s light rail extensions and WES commuter rail. Beginning in 2001, FTA has required project sponsors to prepare a Before and After Study report on the effectiveness of planning and implementation of New Starts and Small Starts projects. The studies focus on five transit characteristics …

Inclusive Planning To Evaluate Improved Non-Emergency Medical Transportation Services For Patients With End Stage Renal Disease, Jenny Liu, August Benzow

TREC Final Reports

The objective of this project is to design a framework that could be used to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of non-emergency transportation services (NEMT) for better livability. In addition to the development of the framework, this project aimed to establish connections between Portland State University (PSU) researchers with regional connections involved in public health research, non-emergency medical transportation, medical services, and medical insurance provision. With the rising costs of transportation and medical costs generally in the United States, it is increasingly important to develop new tools and strategies to reduce these costs while maintaining and improving upon the level …

Evaluation Of Bicyclists Exposure To Traffic-Related Air Pollution Along Distinct Facility Types, James F. Pankow, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Alexander Y. Bigazzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

While bicyclists and other active travelers obtain health benefits from increased physical activity, they also risk an uptake of traffic-related air pollution. But pollution exposure for urban bicyclists is not well understood due to a lack of direct measurements and insufficient analysis of the determinants of exposure. This knowledge gap impedes pollution-conscious transportation planning, design, and health impact assessment. The research presented in this report generates new connections between transportation system characteristics and pollution exposure for bicyclists. The primary research questions are: 1) How does urban bicyclists’ exposure to air pollution vary with roadway and travel characteristics? and 2) To …

Associations Between Travel Behavior And The Academic Performance Of University Students, Qianying Wu

All Theses

Purpose: Different travel behavior, particularly the choice of commuting modes, will have different impacts on students. On one hand, it has been suggested that active commuting (walking, cycling, and taking transit) will add routine daily exercise. Moreover, health benefits (improved cognitive function and reduced anxiety) from physical activity might increase students' academic performance. Nevertheless, too much physical activity may reduce the time for students to study. Travel time may shorten study time, and study time has been identified as positively contributing to academic performance. Considering that there is limited research examining travel behavior and academic achievement of university students, this …

Drivers' Perception Of Saher Traffic Monitoring System In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Yaseen Jan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined the drivers' perception of the SAHER (means "watchful" in Arabic) system in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The purpose of this study was to analyze the perception of the SAHER system on impacting the overall traffic conditions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia including its effectiveness and flaws. A survey was conducted and distributed to 70 drivers and residents of Jeddah. Drivers were divided into two groups based on their age. Five hypotheses were tested in this study. Hypotheses one through four were tested using the averages of related questions. Hypothesis five was tested statistically using a z-test for differences between …

Developing Seamless Connections In The Urban Transit Network: A Look Toward High-Speed Rail Interconnectivity, Tingting Yu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the past, the studies in the U.S. on high speed rail have been on economic impact. Recently, there are a few studies on the multimodal connectivity at high speed rail stations. High speed rail stations are viewed as hubs that are connected by different modes of public transportation by which passengers are transported to their destinations. How and in which way these different modes are connected to high speed rail stations influence the ridership of high speed rail stations. As the development of high speed rail system in the U.S. has come to the stage for actual design and …

Modeling And Analysis Of Pedestrian Flows, Romesh Khaddar

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

According to the Traveler Opinion and Perception Survey of 2005, about 107.4 million Americans regularly use walking as a mode of transport during their commute, which amounts for 51% of the total American population. In 2009, 4092 pedestrian fatalities were reported nationwide, out of 59,000 pedestrian crashes. This amounts for 12% of the fatalities in the total traffic accidents recorded, and shows an over-representation of pedestrians incidents. Thus, it is imperative to understand the causes behind such statistics, and conduct a comprehensive research on pedestrian walking behavior and their interaction with surroundings.

A lot of researches on pedestrian flows have …

A Case Study Of Pedestrian Environments Around Tamien Station In San Jose, California: An Analysis Of Existing Conditions And Recommendations To Improve Pedestrian Access And Promote Walking Around Tamien Station, Priya Gopalkrishnan

Master's Projects

The objective of this research is to understand how the analysis of design elements can foster design recommendations for the transformation of the pedestrian environment around the Tamien Station area. This was done by conducting a street segment audit for twenty-five selected streets around the one-half mile walking distance of Tamien Station providing recommendations based on audit findings and urban design analysis.

Walking And Cycling In San Francisco: Identifying Underserved Locations That Are Particularly Receptive To Non-Motorized Transport Via The Pedestrian And Bicycling Survey, Rebecca Walters

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

Control And Resilience Within The Maritime Traffic Management Domain, Gesa Praetorius

Gesa Praetorius

This article presents research conducted within the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) domain. VTS is a service that is provided close to ports and geographically challenging areas to support merchant vessels in their navigation. Although VTS is legally an advice and assistance service, applying concepts from Cognitive Systems Engineering and Resilience Engineering can highlight how the joint human-machine system works to promote safe and efficient traffic movements. The VTS is a Joint Cognitive System that maintains control through a mixture of opportunistic and tactical control. Strategic control is only partially supported by the higher levels of system aggregation that provide the …

Evaluating The Level-Of-Service Of Protected Bike Lanes, Nick Foster

PSU Transportation Seminars

Summary: The most recent edition of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) contains analysis procedures for measuring the level-of-service (LOS), also referred to as quality of service, provided by an urban roadway to bicyclists. The method uses different design and operating features of the roadway segment (e.g. width, motor vehicle volumes and speeds) to assess an LOS grade of A (best) to F (worst). These procedures are used by planners and engineers to recommend how existing streets could be retrofitted or new streets designed to better serve people on bicycles (and other modes). However, the current HCM does not include methods …

Analysis Of The Frequency And Severity Of Rear-End Crashes In Work Zones, Yi Qi, Raghavan Srinivasan, Hualiang Teng, Robert Baker

Yi Qi

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify the factors that influence the frequency and severity of rear-end crashes in work zones because rear-end crashes represent a significant proportion of crashes that occur in work zones. METHODS: Truncated count data models were developed to identify influencing factors on the frequency of rear-end crashes in work zones and ordered probit models were developed to evaluate influencing factors on the severity of rear-end crashes in work zones. RESULTS: Most of the variables identified in this study for these 2 models were significant at the 95 percent level. The statistics for models …

Links Between Public Transportation And Physical Activity, Brian Saelens

PSU Transportation Seminars

This seminar will explore the empirical evidence regarding the links between the use of public transportation and physical activity, with a specific focus on using integrated device and self-report methods to identify travel modes and physical activity.

Tls Newsletter Volume 9, Edition 3. November, 2014, Unf Transportation And Logistics Society

Transportation & Logistics Society Newsletter

Inside the Newsletter: TLS Meeting on Wednesday November 19. Upcoming Events. TLS President's Corner. Get to know Thomas Phengchanh. TLS on Tour--Volkswagen Parts Distribution Center. TLS Philanthropy: 14th Annual Hubbard House Holiday Drive. In the Know: AST & L Certification in Transportation and Logistics. Life after Graduation with Brandon Little

Historical Traffic-Tolerant Paths In Road Networks, Pui Hang Li, Man Lung Yiu, Kyriakos Mouratidis

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Historical traffic information is valuable for transportation analysis and planning, as well as for route search services. In view of these applications, we propose the k traffic-tolerant paths problem (TTP) on road networks, which takes a source-destination pair and historical traffic information as input, and returns k paths that minimize the aggregate (historical) travel time. Unlike the shortest path problem, the TTP problem has a combinatorial search space that renders the optimal solution expensive to compute. We propose an exact algorithm and a heuristic algorithm for this problem. Experiments on real traffic data demonstrate the effectiveness of TTP paths and …

The Evolution Of Research On Multimedia Travel Guide Search And Recommender Systems, Junge Shen, Zhiyong Cheng, Jialie Shen, Tao Mei, Xinbo Gao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The importance of multimedia travel guide search and recommender systems has led to a substantial amount of research spanning different computer science and information system disciplines in recent years. The five core research streams we identify here incorporate a few multimedia computing and information retrieval problems that relate to the alternative perspectives of algorithm design for optimizing search/recommendation quality and different methodological paradigms to assess system performance at large scale. They include (1) query analysis, (2) diversification based on different criteria, (3) ranking and reranking, (4) personalization and (5) evaluation. Based on a comprehensive discussion and analysis of these streams, …

Fourteenth Annual Garrett Morgan Sustainable Transportation Symposium, Mti Report S-14-01, Mineta Transportation Institute

Mineta Transportation Institute

On March 27, 2014, the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) continued its support of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program by conducting the Fourteenth Annual National Garrett Morgan Symposium and Videoconference on Sustainable Transportation. The ongoing mission of this national videoconference is to stimulate the minds of young people and to encourage them to pursue challenging academic programs including mathematics and science – an education course that will prepare students for tomorrow’s challenging transportation careers. Participating schools were: Cardozo Middle School, Washington DC; Findlay Middle School, North Las Vegas NV; Juan Crespi Middle School, …

An Approach For Actions To Prevent Suicides On Commuter And Metro Rail Systems In The United States, Mti Report 12-33, Jan L. Botha, Marissa K. Neighbour, Satnam Kaur

Mineta Transportation Institute

The primary goals of this report are to discuss measures to prevent suicides on commuter and metro rail systems, and to outline an approach for suicide prevention on rail systems. Based on existing literature and analysis of data obtained from the Metrolink system in Southern California, it was found that most suicides occur near station platforms and near access points to the track. Suicides occurred most frequently when relatively more trains were in operation and in areas of high population density. There do not appear to be suicide “hot spots” (e.g., linked to mental hospitals in the proximity, etc.), based …

Can Protected Bike Lanes Help Close The Gender Gap In Cycling? Lessons From Five Cities, Jennifer Dill, Tara Goddard, Christopher Monsere, Nathan Mcneil

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Even in areas with increased levels of bicycling, there remains a significant “gender gap” in bicycling in the United States, in contrast to many other countries with high rates of bicycling. The primary objective of this paper was to explore whether protected bike lanes could help reduce the gender gap. To do so, the authors used survey data from a comprehensive evaluation of protected bike lanes in five large U.S. cities (Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, and Washington, DC) that included survey responses of 1,111 intercepted bicyclists and 2,283 residents. Both men and women overwhelmingly felt …

Trick Or Treat(Ment)? : Impact Of Route-Level Features On Walk And Bike Decisions, Joseph Broach

PSU Transportation Seminars

Trick or Treatment? Impact of Route-Level Features on Decisions to Walk or Bike Summary: Some travel routes attract people walking and cycling, while others may scare them away. What features of street environments are most important, and how do available routes affect decisions to bike or walk on a specific trip?

Research to date has focused on either large-scale areal measures like "miles of bike lane nearby" or else has considered only shortest path routes. Neither method is suited to capturing the impact of targeted route-level policies like neighborhood greenways. This session will present a new technique for measuring bike …

Accessibility's Influence On Population Location Near Light Rail In The Denver Region, Christophe Michael Zuppa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accessibility is the most important concept in transportation planning because it describes the ease of travel to opportunities vital for everyday needs. Theoretically, people locate closer to transit corridors if accessibility improves. One desired benefit from light rail is denser land use patterns in the form of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) that captures population growth. In October 1994, the City of Denver, CO, joined the list of American cities that have implemented light rail within the last 33 years. Since then, five corridors have opened there, and planners are retooling their zoning codes to allow TOD near light rail. The …

Development Of The Idaho Statewide Travel Demand Model Trip Matrices Using Cell Phone Od Data And Origin Destination Matrix Estimation, Ben Stabler

PSU Transportation Seminars

As part of the initial phase of development for the Idaho Statewide Travel Demand Model, Parsons Brinckerhoff developed a base year auto and truck trip matrix using AirSage cell phone OD data, a statewide network in Cube, traffic counts, and origin-destination matrix estimation (ODME) procedures. To begin, the 4000+ statewide zone system was aggregated into a 700 super zone system for collecting the cell phone OD data. Next, the cell phone data was collected for the month of September 2013 for the following market segments: Average weekday resident HBW, HBO, NHB, and visitor NHB trips. The cell phone trips were …

Alter Rules Of Liability, Yaniv Heled

Yaniv Heled

No abstract provided.

Examining The Role Of Internal Planning Decisions In Improving Transit Performance And Economic Outcomes, Michal Jaroszynski

PSU Transportation Seminars

Scholars and practitioners continuously seek best practices to increase transit ridership, efficiency, and modal share. The ongoing suburbanization and decentralization of U.S. metropolitan regions brings new challenges for accomplishing these goals. Investigating possible strategies for improving transit outcomes in the existing socioeconomic setting, scholars from the Florida State University have pointed to the role of internal performance factors. In a series of research studies, they have found that improving transit service characteristics, such as frequency, connectivity, regional coverage, intermodal integration, as well as decentralization of network structures, could result in increased transit ridership and productivity. These positive effects could be …

On Foot And By Bike: Who Uses The Greenbelt?, Jaap Vos

Jacobus J. "Jaap" Vos

This presentation provides a quick preview of the initial results of the City of Boise's 2014 annual Greenbelt user survey. In addition is provides insight in the logistics that are involved in pulling of the survey without glitches.

Using "Big Data" For Transportation Analysis: A Case Study Of The La Metro Expo Line, Mohja L. Rhoads

PSU Transportation Seminars

Access to a comprehensive historical archive of real-time, multi-modal multi-agency transportation system data has provided a unique opportunity to demonstrate how “big data” can be used for policy analysis, and to offer new insights for planning scholarship and practice. We illustrate with a case study of a new rail transit line. We use transit, freeway, and arterial data of high spatial and temporal resolution to examine transportation system performance impacts of the Exposition (Expo) light rail line (Phase 1) in Los Angeles. Using a quasi-experimental research design, we explore whether the Expo Line has had a significant impact on transit …