Transportation Commons^™

Freight Distribution Problems In Congested Urban Areas: Fast And Effective Solution Procedures To Time-Dependent Vehicle Routing Problems, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Congestion is a common phenomenon in all medium to large cities of the world. Reliability of freight movement in urban areas is an important issue to manufacturing or service companies whose operation is based in just-in-time approaches. These companies tend to provide high value or time sensitive products/services. As congestion increases, carriers face increasing challenges to satisfy their time sensitive customers in an economical way. Route designs or schedules which require long computation times or ignore travel time variations will result in inefficient and suboptimal solutions. Poorly designed routes that lead freight vehicles into congested arteries and streets not only …

Travel Behavior, Residential Preference, And Urban Design: A Multi-Disciplinary National Analysis, Jessica Greene, Nico Larco, Yizhao Yang, Marc Schlossberg, Daniel Rodriguez, Noreen Mcdonald, Tabitha Combs

TREC Final Reports

This report summarizes the findings of a national project to examine the travel behavior, social capital, health, and lifestyle preferences of residents of neotraditional developments (NTD) compared to more standard suburban developments. We compare survey results from residents of matched pairs of neighborhoods in seventeen U.S. cities and towns, with each pair comprised of one NTD and one typical suburban neighborhood of similar size, age, and socio-demographic composition. The study addresses salient themes in the transportation, planning and health literatures: a national study, surveying populations of diverse incomes, collecting resident information on preferences for and attitudes towards neighborhood qualities, and …

No More Freeways: Urban Land Use-Transportation Dynamics Without Freeway Capacity Expansion, Lei Zhang, We Xu

TREC Final Reports

Observations of the various limitations of freeway capacity expansion have led to a provocative planning and policy question – What if we completely stop building additional freeway capacity. From a theoretical perspective, as a freeway transportation network matures, there exists a saturation point beyond which any additional freeway capacity would only be counterproductive from a welfare point of view, and worsen the existing urban transportation problems. Traditional benefit/cost analysis of individual freeway capacity expansion projects often ignores long-term induced demand and land use changes and does not represent a systems approach to this important theoretical issue. From a practical perspective, …

Clinton Street Max Urban Vision, Darryl Abe, Allison Duncan, Sheri Fisher, Jay Higgins, Shawn Petch, Susan Rosenthal, Joel Stein, Huifu Xu

Urban Design Workshop

This document is the product of the 2011 Urban Design Workshop at Portland State University which worked to develop an urban design vision for the future Clinton Street MAX Station, part of the Portland- Milwaukie Light Rail line. This project follows two previous years of PSU workshops that investigated the urban design potential of Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail stations within the Hosford-Abernethy and Brooklyn neighborhoods in southeast Portland.

While previous efforts were broad in scope, our project specifically addresses two oversized blocks immediately adjacent to the Clinton Street Station, refered to as the Powell Triangle. The blocks are bordered by 12th …

Getting Around When You’Re Just Getting By: The Travel Behavior And Transportation Expenditures Of Low-Income Adults, Mti Report 10-02, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Evelyn A. Blumenberg, Sarah Abel, Gregory Pierce, Charles N. Darrah

Mineta Transportation Institute

How much do people with limited resources pay for cars, public transit, and other means of travel? How does their transportation behavior change during periods of falling employment and rising fuel prices? This research uses in-depth interviews with 73 adults to examine how rising transportation costs impact low-income families. The interviews examine four general areas of interest: travel behavior and transportation spending patterns; the costs and benefits of alternative modes of travel; cost management strategies; and opinions about the effect of changing transportation prices on travel behavior. Key findings include: Most low-income household are concerned about their transportation costs. Low-income …

Spatial Analysis Of Motor Vehicle Accidents In Johnson City, Tennessee, As Reported To Washington County Emergency Communications District (911)., Katharine D. Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study spatially analyzes emergency 911 call-for-service records from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2009 for motor vehicle accidents inside the corporate limits of Johnson City, Tennessee. Records were compared according to the land use classification for adjacent properties, roadway type, and traffic signal proximity. Data were evaluated through ArcGIS software using proximity analysis, point pattern analysis, and hotspot analysis.

Motor vehicle accidents evaluated during this study consist of accident locations reported to the Washington County Emergency Communications District concerning property damage, personal injury, and fatalities. Results indicate localized areas with the highest number of traffic accidents contain the …

Interview With Dan Mcfarling, Aorta, 2010 (Audio), Dan Mcfarling

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Dan McFarling by Andrew Scanlan at Union Station, Portland, Oregon on December 1st, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

2012 Census Of California Water Transit Services ,Mti Report 12-02, Richard M. Kos, Maria Louise Javier, Brent Carvalho, Asha W. Agrawal

Mineta Transportation Institute

The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics conducts a nationwide census of ferry boat operators for the U.S. Department of Transportation and the collected information is used for statistical purposes. The Caltrans Division of Local Assistance has been asked by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to gather data regarding ferry operations under MAP-21, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act. MAP-21 includes a new formula program for ferry boats and ferry terminal facilities eligible under 23 USC 129(c) which authorizes federal participation in toll roads, bridges, tunnels, and ferries. FHWA has asked that Caltrans assure the ferry boat …

Measuring Walking And Cycling Using The Pabs (Pedestrian And Bicycling Survey) Approach: A Low-Cost Survey Method For Local Communities, Ann Forsyth

Mineta Transportation Institute

To tackle the problems of greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, resident quality of life, and public health concerns, communities are using initiatives to spur more walking and cycling. As local governments face hard choices about which programs to fund, decision makers, planners, and residents seek to understand if proposed policies to increase bicycling and walking—modes referred to as “active travel”— actually work. However, most communities have unreliable means to know how many active travel trips occur in their jurisdictions, let alone how the numbers may change over time. This project developed a low-budget survey method and related sampling strategy for …

Model-Based Analysis Of Electric Drive Options For Medium-Duty Parcel Delivery Vehicles, Robb A. Barnitt, Aaron D. Brooker, Laurie Ramroth

Publications (T)

Medium-duty vehicles are used in a broad array of fleet applications, including parcel delivery. These vehicles are excellent candidates for electric drive applications due to their transient-intensive duty cycles, operation in densely populated areas, and relatively high fuel consumption and emissions. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a robust assessment of parcel delivery routes and completed a model-based techno-economic analysis of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) configurations. First, NREL characterized parcel delivery vehicle usage patterns, most notably daily distance driven and drive-cycle intensity. Second, drive-cycle analysis results framed the selection of drive cycles used …

Ensemble-Based Method For Task 2: Predicting Traffic Jam, Jingrui He, Qing He, Grzegorz Swirszcz, Yiannis Kamarianakis, Rick Lawrence, Wei Shen, Laura Wynter

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, we describe our solution for ICDM 2010 Contest Task 2 (Jams), where the task is to predict future where the next traffic jams will occur in morning rush hour, given data gathered during the initial phase of this peak period. Our solution, which is based on an ensemble approach, finished Second in the final evaluation.

Analysis And Evaluation Of Safety Impacts Of Median Types And Midblock Left Turn Treatments For Urban Arterials, Timur Mauga

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Urban growth leads to new land-uses abutting arterials requiring driveways for their accessibility. Uncontrolled number and locations of such access points causes safety, mobility and accessibility problems. The solution to these problems is access management (AM) which controls the number and location of the access points. AM techniques are normally documented in the form of guidelines for engineers and planners to follow when implementing the techniques. However, AM guidelines may not cover every technique due to the fact that AM is still growing. For example, the current AM guideline prepared by The Nevada Department of Transportation addresses many AM techniques. …

Evaluation Of Video Based Pedestrian And Vehicle Detection Algorithms, Varun Bandarupalli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Video based detection systems rely on the ability to detect moving objects in video streams. Video based detection systems have applications in many fields like, intelligent transportation, automated surveillance etc. There are many approaches adopted for video based detection. Evaluation and selecting a suitable approach for pedestrian and vehicle detection is a challenging task. While evaluating the object detection algorithms, many factors should be considered in order to cope with unconstrained environments, non stationary background, different object motion patterns and the variation in types of object being detected.

In this thesis, we implement and evaluate different video based detection algorithms …

Automobile Exhaust Gas Detection Based On Fuzzy Temperature Compensation System, Zhiyong Wang, Hao Ding, Fufei Hao, Zhaoxia Wang, Zhen Sun, Shujin Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A temperature compensation scheme of detecting automobile exhaust gas based on fuzzy logic inference is presented in this paper. The principles of the infrared automobile exhaust gas analyzer and the influence of the environmental temperature on analyzer are discussed. A fuzzy inference system is designed to improve the measurement accuracy of the measurement equipment by reducing the measurement errors caused by environmental temperature. The case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The fuzzy compensation scheme is promising as demonstrated by the simulation results in this paper.

Development Of Guidance For States Transitioning To New Safety Analysis Tools, Priyanka Alluri

All Dissertations

With about 125 people dying on US roads each day, the US Department of Transportation heightened the awareness of critical safety issues with the passage of SAFETEA - LU (Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act - a Legacy for Users) legislation in 2005. The legislation required each of the states to develop a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and incorporate data-driven approaches to prioritize and evaluate program outcomes: Failure to do so resulted in funding sanctioning. In conjunction with the legislation, research efforts have also been progressing toward the development of new safety analysis tools such as IHSDM (Interactive …

Trail Planning & Community Service Curriculum, Lynn Weigand

TREC Final Reports

The objective of this project was to develop a new trail planning curriculum and conduct a regional trail research project in the Portland metropolitan area. The curriculum was created for a community service-based, University Capstone course at Portland State University (PSU), with Metro (regional government) as the community course partner. Project goals included: Expanding opportunities for undergraduate students to study trail design and planning for transportation and recreational walking and bicycling; Providing practical application of knowledge to a trail planning project through research and data collection on trail use; Raising awareness of bicycle and pedestrian travel among students in disciplines …

Impacts Of Low-Speed Vehicles On Transportation Infrastructure And Safety, Katharine M. Hunter-Zaworski, Linda Cornell

TREC Final Reports

There are increasing numbers of low-speed electric vehicles (LSVs) on public roadways. These vehicles are designed to be used within protected environments and on roadways with a maximum posted speed of 25 mph. Currently these vehicles are not subject to the same federal requirements for occupant protection as passenger cars. This research project investigated safety standards, operating regulations, and LSV manufacturer materials from sources around the world. The purpose of the research was to determine positive and negative impacts that LSVs, including Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) and Medium Speed Electric Vehicles (MSEVs), are likely to have for the Oregon Department …

Performance Enhancement Of Bridge Bracing Under Service And Extreme Loads, Peter Dusicka, Max Taylor Stephens, Kate Fox-Lent

TREC Final Reports

As truck loads continue to get bigger, the demand on many aging bridges increases. Slender steel structural elements widely used in bridge superstructures and braced substructures to resist these loads are built primarily for tension, however, and can buckle under compressive loads. Portland State University associate professor Peter Dusicka set out to develop and demonstrate the concept of retrofitting bridge brace elements with fiber reinforced composites in order to provide restraint against buckling. The advanced materials consisted of a combination of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite pultruded sections and wet lay-up wraps intended to be applied in the field. This …

Tls Newsletter Volume 4, Edition 3. November, 2010, Unf Transportation And Logistics Society

Transportation & Logistics Society Newsletter

Inside the Newsletter: In the Know--A Look Inside Jaxport. General Meeting and Professionals In Logistics Panel 11/3/2010. Life after Graduation with Rachel Cecil. Important Upcoming Dates. Get to Know TLS Secretary & Newsletter Editor Matthew Bullard.

International Business Travel In The Global Economy, J.V. Beaverstock, B. Derudder, J. Faulconbridge, F. Witlox (Eds.), Terence Ping Ching Fan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Business travel accounts for a disproportionately large share of revenue and profit to transport service providers, and is therefore an important topic. However, few studies on international travels focus squarely on business travellers because these individuals are inherently difficult to identify: they do not always travel in business cabins (p. 79) and it is increasingly difficult to quantify the duration and function of business trips as travellers build in extra time to allow for flight delays or for other leisure activities (p. 69). Scholars of transport studies, especially air transport specialists, geographers, sociologists, and to a lesser extent, marketers of …