Transportation Commons^™

When The Bridge Is Not At Sea: Investigating Transfer Of Learning From Full Mission Bridge Simulator To Navigation Training Onboard, Thammawan Phanphichit

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

This dissertation explores, through a mixed-methods approach, how fullmission bridge simulators support transfer of learning to navigation training onboard, and under what conditions transfer can be trusted. Qualitative and quantitative components were integrated across the four articles. The first study explores how key onboard training stakeholders perceive its challenges, limitations, and the possibility of reducing required sea-time. Findings show broad agreement that OBT remains important, though openness to simulator use was conditional on credible evidence that simulator-developed competence can transfer onboard. The second and third studies examine this through transfer of learning theory. A systematic review identifies elements influencing transfer …

Assessing The Co-Benefits Of Housing And Transportation Investments In Prohousing Designated Jurisdictions, Hongwei Dong

Mineta Transportation Institute

In response to California's ongoing housing affordability crisis, state and local governments have adopted a range of prohousing policies aimed at reducing barriers to housing production and promoting the integration of housing with transportation. This study examines two distinct but related dimensions of prohousing policies in California. One concerns the Prohousing Designation Program (PDP) (established by the 2019–2020 Budget Act), analyzing the adoption and implementation of prohousing policies in 56 California cities that received Prohousing Designation. The other examines recent state and local policy shifts aimed at promoting affordable housing in transit-rich areas. The study uses a mixed-methods research design, …

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The Roadside Transportation-Related Air Quality (Startraq 2024): Time-Series Analysis, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn, Steve Chung

Mineta Transportation Institute

Transportation-related air pollution remains a significant environmental and public health challenge in California’s San Joaquin Valley. This report presents a spatio-temporal analysis of roadside transportation-related air quality in Fresno County, California, from 1985 to 2023 with projections from 2024 through 2032. Using historical emissions inventories, projected vehicle miles traveled (VMT), infrastructure data, and land cover analysis, the study examines how transportation activity and urban expansion have influenced air quality across the region over time. Findings reveal that while PM10, PM2.5, NOx, SOₓ, CO, and CO₂ emissions from on-road mobile sources have declined significantly due to regulatory programs and cleaner technologies, …

Reducing Drag Of Vehicles With Half-Stepped Cylinder Surfaces Part I: Numerical Optimization, Ryan Moffit, Hamid Rahai, Komal Gada

Mineta Transportation Institute

Aerodynamic drag is a major source of energy loss for vehicles, increasing fuel consumption, reducing the driving range of electric vehicles, and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. For a vehicle, the major components of its drag are pressure and viscous drag. Engineers have developed a variety of strategies to reduce drag, including streamlined vehicle designs, surface modifications, and devices that alter airflow around the vehicle. This research focuses on reducing the viscous drag. Specifically, this study investigates whether microscopic surface features called half-stepped cylinder arrays can reduce skin friction by altering the turbulent boundary layer and promoting smoother airflow near …

Performance Evaluation Of Fiber Reinforced Hot Mix Asphalt Containing Reclaimed Asphalt Shingles, Hani Alzraiee, Ashraf Rahim, Shadi M. Saadeh, Aaditya Ojha, Adam Mansara

Mineta Transportation Institute

Reclaimed asphalt shingles (RAS) offer a promising avenue for increasing recycled content in hot mix asphalt, but the aged, stiff binder they contribute tends to reduce cracking resistance, particularly at intermediate temperatures. This study investigated whether polymer fiber reinforcement can offset that brittleness while preserving rutting and moisture performance in mixtures containing both reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and RAS. Fourteen asphalt mixtures were designed using a base blend of 25% RAP combined with RAS at either 3% or 5% by total mix weight. Two commercially available polymer fiber types, designated Fiber A and Fiber B, were added at dosages of …

Ai-Based Environmental Code Checking Tool For Sustainability Best Management Practices Of Infrastructure Construction Projects, Joseph J. Kim, Pooja D. Chavan

Mineta Transportation Institute

Infrastructure construction and operation are major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions, which account for approximately one-third of global CO₂ emissions and add to long-term environmental and air quality challenges. Sustainability rating systems such as Envision for infrastructure construction projects provide structured guidance to help teams reduce these impacts, but verifying compliance requires reviewing large volumes of project documents by hand, making the process time consuming and difficult to scale. Therefore, this research develops an AI-based environmental code checking tool that automates the interpretation of project documents and evaluates compliance on lifecycle GHG assessment under Credit CR1.2 of Envision—in other …

Sensing Safety: Developing A Flexible, Portable Alcohol Detection Patch For Community Wellness, Ava Hedayatipour, Ryan Huynh, Wahaab Ademola

Mineta Transportation Institute

Alcohol-impaired driving remains one of the leading causes of traffic fatalities and serious injuries in the United States, posing significant challenges to transportation safety and imposing substantial social and economic costs. Although breathalyzers and wearable alcohol monitoring devices can help detect alcohol consumption, many existing technologies are expensive, bulky, or impractical for continuous, long-term monitoring. This study investigates a lowcost electrochemical sensing platform that could support future wearable alcohol monitoring systems for transportation safety applications. Specifically, the report presents the design, fabrication, and experimental evaluation of a custom screen-printed electrode (SPE) integrated with the Texas Instruments LMP91000 potentiostat. Each disposable …

The Future Of Transit, Adam Cohen

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public transit agencies are adapting to a post-pandemic operating environment characterized by hybrid work, more dispersed travel demand, workforce constraints, and persistent fiscal pressures. This perspective paper examines how transit agencies, such as the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), can strengthen ridership while improving the financial sustainability and long-term resilience of its transit system. The analysis synthesizes peer-reviewed research, government and industry reports, publicly available data, transit agency case studies, and expert interviews with thought leaders. The findings indicate that reliability, travel time, frequency, and customer experience remain fundamental drivers of transit use, but that traditional peak-oriented service planning …

Identification Of At-Risk Rail Network Segments And Development Of Fragility-Based Resilience Metrics, Haizhong Wang, Brian M. Staes, Benyamin Ghoreishi

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report presents a multi-hazard risk and resilience assessment of the U.S. rail network. The research identifies at-risk rail segments exposed to flash flooding, riverine flooding, extreme heat, and landslides using historical hazard records, federal accident and incident data, and meteorological datasets spanning 2000–2024. Flood exposure is mapped nationally by linking storm records to rail alignments and estimating the frequency and intensity of events at the segment level. For extreme heat, a fragility analysis of 153 documented thermal buckling derailments reveals that a significant share of failures occurred under relatively mild environmental conditions, pointing to infrastructure and maintenance factors rather …

Multimodal Solutions For The Detection Of Safety-Related Railroad Objects Under Adverse Weather: Architectures, Proof-Of-Concepts, And Performance Results, Hayder Radha

Mineta Transportation Institute

The emergence of high-resolution automotive grade lidar sensor technologies and the development of advanced deep- learning frameworks open the door for accurate and real-time perception of the surroundings of mobile trains for improved safety and operational efficiency. Under this project, we developed key components and proof-of-concepts of lidar-based multimodal solutions that rely on advanced deep- learning methods and utilize object detection approaches to demonstrate the feasibility of real-time detection of objects and events that could represent major safety issues for moving trains. The detected objects could be vehicles or people trespassing a railroad track, or they could be hazardous objects …

From Disaster To Resilience: Developing Smart Settlements In The Himalayas, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s catastrophic 26 August 2026 Bhote Koshi–Trishuli flood should be understood not only as a humanitarian tragedy but also as a potentially major turning point in updating national settlement and reconstruction policy. Engineers and scientists have described the floods as a glacier–bedrock collapse that triggered an ice-rock avalanche and debris flow. As per the live updates on September 7, 2026, the total death toll was 1,355, and 4,996 people were missing (The Hindu, 2026). Indian and Nepali rescuers worked urgently to locate and rescue people buried under hydropower tunnels, buildings, mud, and landslide debris.

UN News reported on September 3, …

Studying Extreme Weather Event Impacts For Transit-Reliant Unhoused Populations, Costanza Rampini, Serena Alexander, Jeff Wootton, Amruta Ashish Gandhi

Mineta Transportation Institute

No abstract provided.

Dynamic Flood Risk Assessment For Transportation Infrastructure In Fresno, Ca, Yushin Ahn, Fayzul Pasha

Mineta Transportation Institute

Urban roadway flooding in flat metropolitan environments often shows up as small areas of standing water rather than large, flowing floods. In low-gradient urban environments, subtle micro-topographic features—such as pavement crowns, curbs, and localized depressions—often control where surface water accumulates following rainfall. Accurately identifying these localized ponding areas is important for roadway flood screening and infrastructure management. This study develops a LiDAR-based depression mapping framework to identify roadway segments susceptible to surface ponding in flat urban environments. High-resolution airborne LiDAR datasets were used to generate detailed elevation maps (down to less than a foot in resolution) from ground-classified point clouds …

Advancing Clean Mobility: Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus Workforce Development For Transit Agencies, Manideep Tummalapudi, Shantanu Kumar, Jaskaran Singh

Mineta Transportation Institute

Hydrogen fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) are rapidly transforming public transportation in the United States. However, while transit agencies are investing heavily in new zero-emission vehicles and fueling infrastructure, far less attention has been paid to the workforce needed to operate and maintain them. As agencies accelerate toward ambitious climate and fleet transition goals, they are also confronting a critical challenge: preparing workers for an entirely new set of technologies, safety requirements, and operational demands. This study addresses that gap by systematically identifying the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required for FCEB vehicle operators and maintenance technicians, assessing current training …

Why Are Motorcyclist Fatalities Increasing?, Caroline Deck, Ana Cruz Beltrami, Riley Curran, Crystal Cutler

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, from 2019 to 2023 there was a 26% increase of motorcycle crash deaths. In 2023, motorcycle crashes accounted for 15.5% of all crash fatalities in the United States, despite accounting for 3% of registered vehicles. This literature review investigates the contributing factors to the increasing motorcycle fatality rates. In this review, rider characteristics, vehicle factors, roadway environments, and policy are examined for contributions to increased risk. Previous literature has primarily focused on behavioral and demographic factors when investigating this problem. However, evidence suggests that the conditions affecting crash severity and survivability have …

Functionality Risk Assessment And Risk-Based Management For Critical Infrastructure Systems, Anteneh Zewdu Deriba

Dissertations and Theses

Critical infrastructure systems such as transportation networks serve as the lifelines of modern society, supporting economic activity and ensuring access to critical services. Their disruption under extreme events can produce consequences extending far beyond physical damage to individual assets. In transportation networks for instance, failures of critical assets such as bridges and tunnels can reduce accessibility of communities, limit freight capabilities for commerce, and increase travel distance and travel time of road users. These consequences associated with the system functionality loss are tied not only to the physical vulnerability and failure of individual assets, but also to the system configuration …

Mountain Development In Nepal: Settlements, Infrastructure, And Economic Transformation, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

As Nepal urbanizes, expands infrastructure, strengthens local governments, and explores deeper connectivity with India and China, climate change is increasing floods, landslides, heat, and water insecurity. Rapid internal migration, rising disaster risks, youth outmigration, and dependence on remittances are also revealing the limits of conventional urban development, especially in the mountainous region. The central challenge for Nepal is no longer just to accommodate growing towns and cities, but to build settlements that are safe, productive, environmentally resilient, and capable of sustaining long-term prosperity.

This paper argues that Nepal's urban future must be guided by a new development paradigm centered on …

Wildfire Risk & Preparedness For Urban Rail Operators Supporting Large Stadium Events, Karl Kim, Eric Yamashita, Daniele Spirandeli, David Rother

Mineta Transportation Institute

The project team, in collaboration with partners and stakeholders, developed a four-hour training course designed to build a foundational understanding of how wildfire hazards affect rail systems infrastructure operations and how this knowledge can help equip urban rail operators with tools and best practices for proactive risk management. Led by the University of Hawaiʻi and the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center, in partnership with Haley & Aldrich, Inc., this technical report presents an overview of the four modules and scenario planning exercise that together make up the four-hour Wildfire Risk & Preparedness for Urban Rail Operators Supporting Large Stadium Events …

Enhancing Wildfire Resilience In The Rail Industry: Developing A Community Resilience Extreme Events Portal (Creep), Karl Kim, Eric Yamashita, Daniele Spirandeli, David Rother, Chris Chiesa, Greg Hampe, Michele Toner

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Community Resilience Extreme Events Portal (CREEP) provides a centralized platform for accessing wildfire danger indices, critical asset locations, and vulnerability scores for rail segments. The project team developed a data-driven, indicator-based vulnerability assessment framework that defines vulnerability as a function of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. To build this framework, the team selected publicly available datasets, prioritizing national datasets whenever possible to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and scalability. The portal allows users to analyze and visualize vulnerability across 1-kilometer segments of Class I freight and passenger rail lines in California, supporting planning and mitigation prioritization to help reduce rail-related fatalities, …

Extreme Heat And Its Impact On Public Transit Ridership In Nyc, Craig Denton

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the connection between extreme heat events and public transit ridership patterns in New York City, with a particular emphasis on low-income communities. It investigates the intersection of socioeconomic factors and heat-related challenges, analyzing how extreme temperature periods influence overall transit use and why certain routes or neighborhoods experience greater declines in ridership during these events.

Utilizing existing literature, NYC-specific transit and climate datasets, and the broader context of transit equity, this research aims to inform strategies that strengthen climate resilience within urban transportation systems. The study’s findings are intended to support policy development and planning initiatives that …