Transportation Commons^™

Forecasting Commercial Vehicle Miles Traveled (Vmt) In Urban California Areas, Steve Chung, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study investigates commercial truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT) across six diverse California counties from 2000 to 2020. The counties—Imperial, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco—represent a broad spectrum of California’s demographics, economies, and landscapes. Using a rich dataset spanning demographics, economics, and pollution variables, we aim to understand the factors influencing commercial VMT. We first visually represent the geographic distribution of the counties, highlighting their unique characteristics. Linear regression models, particularly the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and elastic net regressions are employed to identify key predictors of total commercial VMT. LASSO regression …

Threat And Hazard Identification And Risk Assessment (Thira) Guidance For Railroads, Frances L. Edwards, Daniel C. Goodrich

Mineta Transportation Institute

Climate change creates new challenges for all critical transportation infrastructure, especially for railroads with an open system that is continuously exposed to the elements. A Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) is a necessary first step for an organization to understand the challenges and develop strategies for adaptation to them. In many cases, the railroad sector is uniquely positioned to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through mitigation steps. This guide will assist railroad risk managers and emergency managers to evaluate the risks and determine how best to respond to them through preparation, mitigation, or adaptation. The THIRA is the …

Optimization Of Customer Service And Driver Dispatch Areas For On-Demand Food Delivery, Jingfeng Yang, Hoong Chuin Lau, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the rapid development and popularization of mobile and wireless communication technologies, on-demand food delivery (OFD) platforms have been able to connect restaurants, customers, and drivers in real time, drastically changing dining and food delivery services. Motivated by the critical need for supply and demand management in the on-demand food delivery market, we focus on the optimization of customer service area and driver dispatch area for on-demand food delivery services. Specifically, for each restaurant, the platform needs to decide the (1) customer service area (CSA), i.e., the surrounding area within which customers can see the restaurant’s information and order food …

Path-Choice-Constrained Bus Bridging Design Under Urban Rail Transit Disruptions, Yiyang Zhu, Jian Gang Jin, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although urban rail transit systems play a crucial role in urban mobility, they frequently suffer from unexpected disruptions due to power loss, severe weather, equipment failure, and other factors that cause significant disruptions in passenger travel and, in turn, socioeconomic losses. To alleviate the inconvenience of affected passengers, bus bridging services are often provided when rail service has been suspended. Prior research has yielded various methodologies for effective bus bridging services; however, they are mainly based on the strong assumption that passengers must follow predetermined bus bridging routes. Less attention is paid to passengers’ path choice behaviors, which could affect …

Karnataka Government Must Revisit Gig Workers Bill, Make It More Inclusive, Babu Mathew, Saurabh Bhattacharjee, Madhulika T

Popular Media

The Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 has been favourably received by several commentators, but a closer inspection of the text of the Bill reveals glaring omissions, which if left unaddressed are likely to undermine the Bill’s objectives.

Mapping Of Pavement Conditions Using Smartphone/Tablet Lidar Case Study: Sensor Performance Comparison, Calvin Beavers, Chad Day, Austin Krietemeyer, Scott M. Peterson, Yushin Ahn, Xiaojun Li

Mineta Transportation Institute

Poor road conditions affect millions of drivers, and assessing the condition of paved surfaces is a critical step towards repairing them. This project explores the feasibility of using the Apple iPad Pro LiDAR sensor as a cost-effective tool for assessing the damage and condition of paved surfaces. Our research aims to provide accurate and precise measurements using readily available consumer devices and compare the results to state-of-the-art equipment. This investigation involved visual inspection, identification, and classification of pavement distresses, followed by a comparison of the iPad and iPhone LiDAR data with a survey-grade terrestrial laser scanner. The project revealed several …

Experimental Investigation Of The Self-Healing Potential Of Bacteria For Sustainable Concrete Structures Phase 2, Andrea Calabrese, Pitiporn Asvapathanagul, Nisarg N. Patel, Nanubala Dhruvan, Austin Adams, Michael Hernandez, Douglas S. Lopez-Cruz

Mineta Transportation Institute

Concrete is a critical component of so much of the modern construction industry. This material, well known for its versatility, robustness, longevity, and strength, is well-suited for a wide range of structural applications. Nonetheless, the widespread occurrence of cracks in concrete structures, primarily attributed to its limited tensile strength, shrinkage, and overstain, imposes a considerable economic and environmental challenge when it comes to retrofitting these fissures. This study tackles this problem by harnessing bacteria tolerant to high alkaline conditions to enable Microbially Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) for the self-repair of concrete. This is achieved through an external application method, …

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of The Roadside Transportation-Related Air Quality (Startraq 2022): Data-Driven Exposure Analysis By Transportation Modes, Jaymin Kwon, Yushin Ahn, Steve Chung

Mineta Transportation Institute

Particulate matter (PM) pollution poses significant health risks, influenced by various meteorological factors and seasonal variations. This study investigates the impact of temperature and other meteorological variables on PM10 and PM2.5 levels in Fresno County, known for high air pollution. Multiple linear regression (MLR) and generalized additive models (GAMs) assess the significance of these relationships. Analyzing data from Fresno County, we examine PM10 and PM2.5 levels across "hot" (June to August) and "cool" (September to May) seasons. Findings indicate PM10, both MLR and GAM models identify statistically significant variables, excluding temperature and wind direction in each season. However, during the …

Reinforcement Learning For Strategic Airport Slot Scheduling: Analysis Of State Observations And Reward Designs, Anh Nguyen-Duy, Duc-Thinh Pham, Jian-Yi Lye, Nguyen Binh Duong Ta

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to the NP-hard nature, the strategic airport slot scheduling problem is calling for exploring sub-optimal approaches, such as heuristics and learning-based approaches. Moreover, the continuous increase in air traffic demand requires approaches that can work well in new scenarios. While heuristics rely on a fixed set of rules, which limits the ability to explore new solutions, Reinforcement Learning offers a versatile framework to automate the search and generalize to unseen scenarios. Finding a suitable state observation and reward structure design is essential in using Reinforcement Learning. In this paper, we investigate the impact of providing the Reinforcement Learning agent …

Privacy-Preserving Arbitrary Geometric Range Query In Mobile Internet Of Vehicles, Yinbin Miao, Lin Song, Xinghua Li, Hongwei Li, Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo, Robert H. Deng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The mobile Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) has great potential for intelligent transportation, and creates spatial data query demands to realize the value of data. Outsourcing spatial data to a cloud server eliminates the need for local computation and storage, but it leads to data security and privacy threats caused by untrusted third-parties. Existing privacy-preserving spatial range query solutions based on Homomorphic Encryption (HE) have been developed to increase security. However, in the single server model, the private key is held by the query user, which incurs high computation and communication burdens on query users due to multiple rounds of interactions. …

Transportation, Healthcare Seeking, And Outcomes, Xiao Lin Ong

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Advancements in engineering and transportation technology have integrated commuting into modern living. Most studies on transportation infrastructure, such as roads and railways, focus on economic outcomes. This paper examines an overlooked outcome of transportation connectivity: access to medical care. We study the role transportation networks play in determining patients’ treatment location choices. Specifically, we aim to study 1) why patients travel to begin with, 2) how do patients choose where to go for treatment, and 3) how travel times can affect patients’ travel decisions. To do so, we develop a dynamic discrete choice, spatial model and provide empirical estimates. We …

Exploring Performance-Based Contracts: A Good Option To Address Long-Term Road Maintenance In California?, Maria Calahorra-Jimenez, Richard Poythress

Mineta Transportation Institute

Performance-based contracts (PBCs) used in road maintenance provide flexibility for considering new materials, design, and technology to achieve predetermined performance targets. Several states in the U.S. have already used these types of contracts in road maintenance, and their experience can inform the use of PBCs in California. The objectives of this research are twofold. First, identify the benefits and challenges of PBCs compared to traditional contracts. Second, explore the main aspects of PBCs implementation for road maintenance and relate them to California's context. To this end, deductive-inductive content analysis was conducted on 84 peer-reviewed articles published between 1998 and 2023. …

Battery Management System Development For Electric Vehicles And Fast Charging Infrastructure Improvement, Yu Yang, Hen-Geul Yeh, Cesar Ortiz

Mineta Transportation Institute

The electric vehicle (EV) has become increasingly popular due to its being zero-emission. However, a significant challenge faced by EV drivers is the range anxiety associated with battery usage. Addressing this concern, this project develops a more efficient battery management system (BMS) for electric vehicles based on a real-time, state-of-charge (SOC) estimation. The proposed study delivers three modules: (1) a new equivalent circuit model (ECM) for lithium-ion batteries, (2) a new SOC estimator based on the moving horizon method, and (3) an on-board FPGA implementation of the classical Coulomb counting method for SOC estimation. The research team extends the traditional …

Adopt: An Environmentally-Friendly System For Alerting Drivers To Occluded Pedestrians Traffic, Abrar Abdulrahman Alali

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The emergence of sensing technologies and vehicular communications has brought significant opportunities for enhancing pedestrian safety on city streets. However, existing solutions rely on costly technologies such as computer vision and trajectory prediction to detect crossing pedestrians, while they have limits in detecting pedestrians who are occluded by parked cars. Despite the presence of collaborative perception by surrounding vehicles and infrastructure, there is a notable absence of incorporating existing parked cars themselves due to their insufficiency in detecting pedestrians and communicating with other cars while they are turned off. Furthermore, accommodating pedestrians on streets has been linked to an additional …

Tracing The Development Of Trust In Automation/Autonomy In A Multitasking Environment, Tetsuya Sato

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Future Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations will likely involve autonomous systems that exceed the capabilities of a typical automation. However, human operators could use such systems counterproductively by either misusing unreliable systems or disusing reliable systems. One determinant for inappropriate use of autonomous systems is trust. Human factors theorists proposed numerous ways to characterize trust such as the tripartite model of trust that describes the bases of trust in automation (i.e., performance, process, and purpose; Lee & See, 2004). Previous works have indicated that participants rated lower performance- and process-based trust toward the automation when the tracking task required more …

Fine-Grained Passenger Load Prediction Inside Metro Network Via Smart Card Data, Xiancai Tian, Chen Zhang, Baihua Zheng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Metro system serves as the backbone for urban public transportation. Accurate passenger load prediction for the metro system plays a crucial role in metro service quality improvement, such as helping operators schedule train timetables and passengers plan their trips. However, existing works can only predict low-grained passenger flows of origin-destination (O-D) paths or inflows/outflows of each station but cannot predict passenger load distribution over the whole metro network. To this end, this paper proposes an end-to-end inference framework, PIPE, for passenger load prediction of every metro segment between two adjacent stations, by only utilizing smart card data. In particular, PIPE …

Young Driver Training And Socioeconomic Status: A Human-In-The-Loop Driving Simulator Evaluation, Jeffrey Edward Glassman

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Previous research consistently shows that young drivers are poor at anticipating latent hazards on the roadway compared to more experienced drivers. The Road Awareness and Perception Training (RAPT) program is a driver training program that aims to accelerate young drivers’ learning of hazard anticipation (HA) skills. More recent research has started showing evidence that RAPT may be even more effective at reducing accidents for young drivers with a lower socioeconomic status (SES), though the direct impact of RAPT on HA skills in the driver population is yet unclear. The current experiment thus directly evaluated the effectiveness of RAPT on the …

Webinar: Building Capacity In Gateway Communities Through The Gnar Academy, Jordan Katcher, Elizabeth Sodja

TREC Webinar Series

Small towns and cities near national parks, public lands, and other natural amenities across the West are experiencing rapid growth and increased tourism. As we have documented via our prior NITC-funded research, this has created a range of big city challenges for these “gateway communities,” particularly in the form of interconnected transportation, land use, and housing issues. Seeking to help gateway communities better prepare for and respond to their transportation and planning challenges, the Gateway and Natural Amenity Region (GNAR) Initiative team translated the findings from our research on planning and development challenges in gateway communities into an online learning …

Wasted Space: Using Parking Lots & Vacant Land To Improve Neighborhood Completeness, Ryan Martyn

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

This study conducts a spatial analysis of Portland, Oregon, focusing on leveraging underutilized areas like parking lots and vacant land—termed "wasted space"—to improve the city's completeness. Central to this investigation is the concept of a "complete neighborhood," characterized by access to daily necessities within convenient active transportation trip. This comprehensive idea encompasses walkability, equitable access to services, and sustainability.

This paper aims to redefine the concept of a complete neighborhood with precision and delve into its implications. The research looks at five regional, town, and neighborhood centers as defined by the city of Portland. These centers act as pivotal hubs …

Power To The Pedal: Assessing Barriers To Adoption Of Closed-Access Bike Share In Low-Income Communities, Jordan Del Valle Tonoian

University Honors Theses

Power to the Pedal is a fare-free, closed-access e-bike share program, operating more similarly to a lending library. The program aims to provide two low-income communities access to a reliable, low-emissions, electric assisted, active transportation option. The research conducted aimed to identify barriers faced by the community to adopting the bike sharing program. A survey and interviews conducted found that infrastructure, safety, cargo, financial ability, household structure, health, and culture all play a role when deciding when to use the program. Several recommendations are made to the program owner, operator, and other stakeholders both about improving the program directly, and …