Infrastructure Commons^™

Why We Should Reuse Wastewater, Bridget Sarver

Certified Public Manager® Applied Research

As population and industry grow, the need to reuse wastewater is growing. Aquifers are often the dominant water supplies to surrounding areas. The levels of those aquifers are declining each year. Water loss affects many things like water wells, lakes, and rivers. Lakes and rivers that are used as water sources are seeing a decline in levels. Low water levels and drought occur because of the changing water cycle. Heavy rain and runoff can help refill lakes and rivers; however precipitation does not always fall back on the area that it evaporated from. By reusing wastewater, we will be saving ...

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

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

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 ...

Risk Factors Associated With Crash Injury Severity Involving Trucks, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sarvani Duvvuri, Sonu Mathew

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Nearly 499,000 motor vehicle crashes involving trucks were reported across the United States in 2018, out of which 22% resulted in fatalities and injuries. Given the growing economy and demand for trucking in the future, it is crucial to identify the risk factors to understand where, when, and why the likelihood of getting involved in a severe or moderate injury crash with a truck is higher. This research, therefore, focuses on capturing and exploring risk factors associated with surrounding land use and demographic characteristics in addition to crash, driver, and on-network characteristics by modeling injury severity of crashes involving ...

Evaluation Of Sustainability Determinants To Develop A Sustainability Rating System For California Infrastructure Construction Projects, Joseph Kim, Patricia Mccarthy

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

This study evaluates the important sustainability determinants that affect factors’ success in meeting their sustainability goals when conducting infrastructure construction projects in California. The study implemented the online survey method to evaluate the sustainability characteristics that infrastructure industry professionals currently are aware of under the current situation in California. A data set of 25 validated survey responses is used for statistical data analysis using analysis of variables, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and two sample t-tests. The analysis results showed that the median response values for the six major sustainability categories do not show any significant difference. The results also showed that no ...

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 ...

Because Potato, Candice Evers

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This thesis project explores the phenomenological qualities of the internet; asking, since the internet is difficult to grasp, what other modes of investigation might we have available? Using an investigative framework set forth by Jack Halberstam, this thesis declines to come to knowledge solely through understanding the formal, the structural, the highly visible and mainstream. The literature that I have gathered provides a range of modes for interrogating the simultaneously central and inconsequential subject of my thesis itself: the potato. Juxtaposing the physical, political and material conditions of the potato the internet’s least academic mode of knowing: the meme ...

"The Pontotoc Dream:" A Case Study Analysis Of Rural Homeownership In Mississippi, Ian Pigg

Honors Theses

Rural communities face issues with affordable housing just like urban communities, but these problems are not often associated with rurality. Using Pontotoc County, Mississippi, as a case study, this thesis seeks to understand the extent of the affordable homeownership issue in rural communities and identify possible policy solutions. This thesis used a qualitative research approach by conducting semi-structured interviews with a diverse group of stakeholders in the communities of interest within and surrounding Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Using the data collected from these interviews, units of meaning were grouped into categories, which were then grouped into themes. The findings of this ...

Investigating The Resilience Of Accessibility To Emergency And Lifesaving Facilities Under Natural Hazards, Chih-Hao Wang, Na Chen

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Studying accessibility, including the resilience of city transportation networks, is critical to understand how these networks influence individuals’ mobility and lives. This study developed an analytical research framework to examine the resilience of accessibility to emergency and lifesaving facilities under the threats of natural hazards such as earthquakes and wildfires. With a cumulative-opportunity approach, the authors measured accessibility by counting emergency and lifesaving facilities (including parks, schools, hospitals, roads, and fire stations) that can be reached by driving at the census tract level in San Fernando Valley, CA. With the calculated accessibility, the authors run simulations to collect data showing ...

Electric Vehicle (Ev) Infrastructure In The Mountain West, 2020-2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Transportation & Infrastructure

This fact sheet highlights data on electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging stations, as originally reported by Zutobi in The 2022 EV Charging Station Report. This report examines the presence of EV infrastructure across the United States. The Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are considered here.

The Rise Of Southern Nevada As A Cluster For Metropolitan Transit Technology Innovations, Arthur C. Nelson

Policy Briefs and Reports

Southern Nevada is emerging as the nation’s leader in private sector-driven innovations in transportation technologies. From the humble beginnings of a monorail system serving a portion of major hotel and gaming venues along the Las Vegas Strip, now supplemented by an array of people movers, Southern Nevada continues to attract transit innovations in tunneling, Hyperloop, and driverless vehicle delivery technologies. The region may soon anchor a high-speed rail system connecting Southern Nevada to Los Angeles. The purpose of this briefing paper is to frame the nature of this emerging transportation cluster and the opportunities this creates for Southern Nevada ...

Examining The Effects Of A Bike And E-Bike Lending Program On Commuting Behavior, Dillon T. Fitch, Zeyu Gao, Lucy Noble, Terry Mac

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

In 2015, Google added a new transportation demand management (TDM) program to increase bike commuting to their two main campuses in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, California. An initial survey of employees indicated that bike ownership and worry about maintenance were primary bicycling barriers. With this information, Google began a program that loaned high-quality electric-assisted and conventional bicycles for a period of six months at no cost to interested employees. This research evaluates the effectiveness of the program at changing travel behavior to the corporate campuses by using self-reported and smartphone-integrated travel data. The lending program at Google represents one of ...

Examining The Effects Of Precision Scheduled Railroading On Intercity Passenger And High-Speed Rail Service, John G. Green, Francis J. Miller

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

More than just scheduling terminal-to-terminal trips for trains, “Precision Scheduled Railroading” (PSR) creates entire point-to-point trip plans for individual railroad shipments. Since precision execution was first put into practice, the benefits to shipment arrival reliability and to freight railroads’ profitability have been demonstrated by its use in several Class One freight railroads. However, the effects of the PSR operating strategy on passenger railway operations in shared freight/passenger corridors has not been studied in detail. This research examines the effects of PSR railroad operations on passenger railways, including measuring “Host Railroad Minutes of Delay per 10,000 Train-Miles” and “On-Time ...

Optimizing Multimodal Transportation Access To Support Commuting Among Low-Income Transit Riders With Social Distancing, Shailesh Chandra, Vivek Mishra

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

During the COVID-19 pandemic, LA Metro has encouraged social distancing among passengers—especially at stations of high-demand routes—and has increased fixed-route transit (FRT) services. However, potential impacts of social distancing on the performance of FRT services remain mostly unknown. This research evaluates the accessibility of FRT buses with social distancing using the ridership data collected on four FRT routes: 105, 108, 111, and 115 of the LA Metro's A Line stations located in low-income neighborhoods. This research shows that social distancing of six feet can impact FRT's accessibility to destination stations, and maximum accessibility is achieved only ...

Congestion Costs And Scheduling Preferences Of Car Commuters In California: Estimates Using Big Data, Jinwon Kim, Jucheol Moon

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

On average, California car commuters waste 4–5 minutes per morning commute due to congestion. Multiplied across all California car commuters, those few minutes entail a yearly total of approximately 2.3 billion hours of time wasted, costing 6 billion dollars. The objective of this study is to quantify congestion costs and determine how commuters adapt to the level of congestion they face (i.e., commuters’ scheduling utility functions). To that end, this research developed a model of trip scheduling under congestion to construct California commuters’ travel-time profiles, i.e., the menu of travel times that each individual would likely ...

Oral Presentations: Social Sciences I, Olivia Maurer, Kaden Grace, Ryan Wallace

Mississippi Undergraduate Honors Conference

Video provided above is of Olivia Maurer's presentation.

Video of Kaden Grace's presentation is available here.

Video of Ryan Wallace's presentation is available here.

Dirtiest Cities In The Mountain West, 2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, William E. Brown Jr., Caitlin J. Saladino

Environment

This fact sheet presents rankings of the dirtiest cities in the Mountain West, as originally reported by LawnStarter in “2021’s Dirtiest Cities in the U.S.” The original report examines various measures for 200 major U.S. cities. Twenty-five Mountain West cities are included in the original report and are showcased here.

Comprehensive Performance Assessment Of Passive Crowdsourcing For Counting Pedestrians And Bikes, Wen Cheng, Yongping Zhang, Edward Clay

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Individuals who walk and cycle experience a variety of health and economic benefits while simultaneously benefiting their local environments and communities. It is essential to correctly obtain pedestrian and bicyclist counts for better design and planning of active transportation-related facilities. In recent years, crowdsourcing has seen a rise in popularity due to the multiple advantages relative to traditional methods. Nevertheless, crowdsourced data have been applied in fewer studies, and their reliability and performance relative to other conventional methods are rarely documented. To this end, this research examines the consistency between crowdsourced and traditionally collected count data. Additionally, the research aims ...

Inventorying San Francisco Bay Area Parking Spaces: Technical Report Describing Objectives, Methods, And Results, Mikhail Chester, Alysha Helmrich, Rui Li

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most progressive transportation regions in the deployment of high-capacity transit and use of policies to encourage active transportation. Yet like many other metro regions, there remains a dearth of knowledge on the abundance and location of parking infrastructure supply. Parking infrastructure remains one of the least catalogued infrastructure but is perhaps the most spatially dominating set of assets. This research estimates the extent and location of parking supply, including on-street and off-street spaces for the nine-county Bay Area. This parking space inventory is the most detailed assessment of parking infrastructure produced ...

A Geographical Contribution On Interurban Passenger Rail Transportation In The United States, Matthieu Schorung

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

Why does the rail infrastructure of the United States lag behind those of many other developed countries? Where is U.S. high-speed rail? This research approaches this in a dilemma by exploring Amtrak’s traditional rail services and high-speed rail projects in the nation to understand the workings of public rail transportation policies, what they contain, and how they are developed and pursued by the different stakeholders. This research utilizes case studies and a multiscale approach to analyze the territorialization of intercity rail transportation policies. The analysis demonstrates the emergence of a bottom-up approach to projects, notably apparent in the ...

Municipal Fiber In The United States: A Financial Assessment, Christopher S. Yoo, Jesse Lambert, Timothy P. Pfenninger

Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law

Despite growing interest in broadband provided by municipally owned and operated fiber-to-the-home networks, the academic literature has yet to undertake a systematic assessment of these projects’ financial performance. To fill this gap, we utilize municipalities’ official reports to offer an empirical evaluation of the financial performance of every municipal fiber project in the U.S. operating in 2010 through 2019. An analysis of the actual performance of the resulting fifteen-project panel dataset reveals that none of the projects generated sufficient nominal cash flow in the short run to maintain solvency without infusions of additional cash from outside sources or debt ...