Transportation Commons^™

Decision Support Tools For Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Planning, Luis David Galicia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Systems have been gained popularity in the United States and worldwide as a cost-effective solution of mass transit. There are certain elements and characteristics that such a system should accomplish to be considered a BRT. However, a uniform definition, defined phases to be deployed, and a reliable methodology to estimate ridership are not well structured and clear yet. The purpose of this research was to help BRT stakeholders with an effective method to plan and assess BRT projects. The first goal of this research was to provide a comprehensive description of the essential characteristics of BRT …

Modeling Geographic Awareness Of Road Networks For Consistency Verification, Ari Kassin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Problems related to transportation and inspection of valuable or sensitive assets such as commercial products and materials, cultural items and works of art, and hazardous materials share similarities and can be modeled by a core set of abstract entities including a payload, a vehicle, a driver, and an inspector. To make the load handling capabilities of security monitoring and inspection systems more scalable, security can be increased by reducing the variability of transportation routes to a finite set of authorized routes between trip origin and destination locations. Then trip anomalies, which are unexpected trip variations, can be used in inspection …

Double Crossover Diamond Interchange With Frontage Roads, Jorge Alberto Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The increase in population has generated an increase in traffic along most cities in the world. Engineers are being challenged to provide mobility to our transportation networks to ensure the delivery of our everyday goods. A new interchange design called the Double Crossover Diamond Interchange is beginning to become widely popular when considering freeway junctions. However, there has not been research about this type of design where frontage roads and through movements exist. The intent of this study is to compare the operational effects of the Conventional Diamond Interchange with a Modified Double Crossover Diamond Interchange that can accommodate through …

Effects Of Pedestrian Crossing On Roundabout Capacity, Carlos Duran

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Modern roundabout is a relatively new form of intersection that has gained popularity in the United States due to its significant reduction of traffic accidents, reduction of vehicular delay and improvement in safety for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. There has been significant research to determine the entry capacity of roundabouts in countries such as Germany, U.K., Australia and others. Although the number of pedestrians crossing a roundabouts approach has a clear effect on the approach entry capacity as with any other intersection, there has been no significant research in the U.S. on the effects of pedestrian crossing at roundabouts.

The …

Rural Transit In Oregon: Current And Future Needs, Jennifer Dill, Margaret B. Neal

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of the research reported was to identify the current status and needs for general public transportation in Oregon’s rural areas, as well as opportunities and barriers (e.g., funding, governance issues, and leadership) to expanding services over a 20 year period. Oregon is a largely rural state. This lack of density poses problems for the provision of public transit, whether through fixed route or demand response service. People living in the rural areas and who lack cars and access to public transportation are at a strong disadvantage. With no access to these transit resources, they may be limited to …

A Behavioral Observation Study Of Turkish Drivers’ And Children's Safety Belt Use, Bryan E. Porter, Timo Lajunen, Türker Özkan, Kelli England Will

Psychology Faculty Publications

Researchers focused on child restraint use in vehicles travelling along Turkish roadways. Field observations occurred at 1.5 - 2 hour intervals during daylight hours between 1130 and 1930 in January 2009. Overall, 1,423 vehicles with children 8 years old and younger were observed completely. Drivers’ belt use was 52.1%. Children's use rate (over all age categories and restraint systems) was even lower at 29.4%. Unfortunately, 29.4% of these vehicles also had a child riding on another occupant's lap. The findings supported researchers’ concerns that children are at risk for traffic crash injuries and fatalities in Turkey, and that occupant protection …

Understanding School Travel: How Residential Location Choice And The Built Environment Affect Trips To School, Yizhao Yang, Marc Schlossberg, Robert Parker, Bethany Johnson

TREC Final Reports

This project investigates issues related to parents’ decisions about children’s school transportation. This has become an important area of research due to the growing concerns that increased reliance on private automobile in school travel has led to adverse health impacts on children and negative impacts on environment. This study examines school transportation in the context of where families live and how families make decisions about school travel in the process of choosing their residence.

Using a middle-sized school district in Oregon State, we conducted a 5500-household survey and a number of interviews and focus groups. The study shows that parents …

Connecting Students And The Community, Lynn Weigand

TREC Project Briefs

Nationwide, few university courses focus specifically on planning and design for pedestrian and bicycle facilities. Before this project, Portland State University had only one three-credit course on the subject, which did not provide adequate time to cover all aspects of bicycle and pedestrian transportation planning, policy, design and practice. Although the course provided a useful introduction to the topic and received excellent student reviews, faculty members saw a need to expand the curriculum to provide an opportunity for practical application of the theory and practice and increase the course’s academic rigor.

This project broadened the course offerings on bicycle and …

Pushing Pedalers: What Drives Bicycling?, Jennifer Dill, John Gliebe

TREC Project Briefs

Using a bicycle instead of a motor vehicle for a portion of regular travel could increase people’s physical activity and help improve the nation’s health. Over 60% of personal trips are five miles or less – a reasonable distance to ride a bike – and nearly 40% are two miles or less. Yet current rates of bicycling for transportation are very low, despite the popularity of recreational cycling. Given the potential of bicycling as a means of everyday travel, why aren’t more people cycling? Very little information has been available on the relationship between different types of infrastructure, such as …

A Brief Portrait Of Multimodal Transportation Planning In Oregon And The Path To Achieving It, 1890-1974, Carl Abbott, Sam Lowry

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project was designed to outline transportation chapters of a planned written history of Oregon land use planning, written in ways that would make the transportation planning profession relevant to a popular audience. The writing would focus on stories from the profession, and on historical facts and events in Oregon transportation planning history that would surprise or enlighten popular reading audiences. Technology transfer would occur through publication of one or more written pieces of work.

The result is a topical and historical tale entitled "A Brief Portrait of Multimodal Transportation Planning in Oregon and the Path to Achieving It, 1890-1974." …

Bringing World-Class High-Speed Rail To America: Special General Session, 12th Annual Transportation And Infrastructure Summit, Mti S-09-04, Mti

Mineta Transportation Institute

The 12th Annual Transportation & Infrastructure Summit, held in Irving, Texas on August 11?14, 2009, provided more than 1,100 attendees from 30 states and 13 countries the opportunity to network and interact with elected representatives and influential transportation officials from the United States, and to learn about transportation systems on a global scale. The special session, "Bringing World-Class High-Speed Rail to America," featured representatives from three proposed regional high-speed rail projects currently planned for the United States. Majority Whip of the California State Assembly Fiona Ma shared information about California´s High-Speed Rail Initiative. Assemblywoman Ma talked about her experience on …

Supplement To Mti Study On Selective Passenger Screening In The Mass Transit Rail Environment, Mti Report 09-05, Brian M. Jenkins, Bruce Robert Butterworth, Larry N. Gertson

Mineta Transportation Institute

This supplement updates and adds to MTIs 2007 report on Selective Screening of Rail Passengers (Jenkins and Butterworth MTI 07-06: Selective Screening of Rail Passengers). The report reviews current screening programs implemented (or planned) by nine transit agencies, identifying best practices. The authors also discuss why three other transit agencies decided not to implement passenger screening at this time. The supplement reconfirms earlier conclusions that selective screening is a viable security option, but that effective screening must be based on clear policies and carefully managed to avoid perceptions of racial or ethnic profiling, and that screening must have public support. …

A Case Study Of Enterprise Historic Resources Information Management In Large Transportation Agencies, Mti Report 09-06, Eric E. Ingbar

Mineta Transportation Institute

Historic resources are in some way managed by every transportation agency in the nation. Transportation agencies manage historic and prehistoric archaeological sites, buildings, structures, objects, routes, landscapes, and districts to prevent damage to such resources and to mitigate damage when it is unavoidable. In order to track known resources, transportation agencies often keep local files in a variety of forms, rely upon external sources of information (e.g., historic preservation agencies at the state level), and depend upon staff expertise gained by years of local work. Starting in 1997, Caltrans started a series of surveys of rural rights of way in …

Implementation And Development Of Vehicle Tracking And Immobilization Technologies, Brian Michael Jenkins, Bruce Robert Butterworth, Frances Edwards

Mineta Transportation Institute

Since the mid-1980s, limited use has been made of vehicle tracking using satellite communications to mitigate the security and safety risks created by the highway transportation of certain types of hazardous materials. However, vehicle-tracking technology applied to safety and security is increasingly being researched and piloted, and it has been the subject of several government reports and legislative mandates.

At the same time, the motor carrier industry has been investing in and implementing vehicle tracking, for a number of reasons, particularly the increase in efficiency achieved through better management of both personnel (drivers) and assets (trucks or, as they are …