Transportation Commons^™

Transportation-Enabled Urban Services: A Brief Discussion, Hai Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Nearly 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas or cities, and is expected to rise above 70% over the coming decades. Rapid urbanization brings steadily more residents and a growing freelancing workforce into cities. The developments of city infrastructure and technologies—for instance, mobile location tracking and computing, autonomous and connected vehicles, wearable devices, robotics and robots, smart appliances, biometric authentication, various internet-of-things devices, and smart monitoring systems—are creating numerous opportunities and inspiring innovative and emerging urban services. Among these innovations, complex systems of urban transportation and logistics have embraced advances in technologies and, consequently, been significantly reshaped (Agatz …

Data-Driven Optimization For E-Scooter System Design, Abolhassan Mohammadi Fathabad, Xiaofeng Li, Jianqiang Cheng, Yao-Jan Wu

TREC Final Reports

The objective of this project is to develop data-driven, decision-making models for shared-mobility system design and operation. Specifically, we will use shared e-scooters as a representative system, with the ultimate goal of facilitating an electric shared-mobility revolution that promises a more sustainable future. In the past few years, shared e-scooter systems have gained increased popularity around the world because of their benefits to health, traffic congestion, the environment, and accessibility. As of 2018, approximately 100 U.S. cities have launched shared e-scooter programs, accounting for 38.5 million trips. However, the business model to manage e-scooter sharing remains nascent, with many challenges …

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

Mineta Transportation Institute

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 …

Transportation Utility Fee To Fund Transit In California, Shishir Mathur, Ralph Robinson

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public transit is a key tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change; improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers; and expand accessibility and mobility for all. However, we can only realize this potential by making sufficient investments to provide transit service levels that attract and retain greater ridership. To help with this needed investment, a handful of local governments have turned to transportation utility fees (TUFs), primarily collected as a monthly charge on customers' utility bills or property tax bills. While more widely used to support street maintenance, this study identifies six case studies where TUF …

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

Mineta Transportation Institute

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 trucks. …

Modeling And Predicting Geospatial Teen Crash Frequency, Sonu Mathew, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sarvani Duvvuri

Mineta Transportation Institute

This research project 1) evaluates the effect of road network, demographic, and land use characteristics on road crashes involving teen drivers, and, 2) develops and compares the predictability of local and global regression models in estimating teen crash frequency. The team considered data for 201 spatially distributed road segments in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA for the evaluation and obtained data related to teen crashes from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) database. The team extracted demographic and land use characteristics using two different buffer widths (0.25 miles and 0.5 miles) at each selected road segment, with the number of …

Influence Of Level 1 And Level 2 Automated Vehicles On Fatal Crashes And Fatal Crash Occurrence, Hardik Gajera, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sonu Mathew

Mineta Transportation Institute

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to improve safety by gradually reducing human decisions while driving. However, there are still questions on their effectiveness as we transition from almost 0% CAVs to 100% CAVs with different levels of vehicle autonomy. This research focuses on synthesizing literature and identifying risk factors influencing fatal crashes involving level 1 and level 2 CAVs in the United States. Fatal crashes involving level 0 vehicles—ones that are not connected and automated—were compared to minimize unobserved heterogeneity and randomness associated with the influencing risk factors. The research team used the fatal crash data for the …

Impact Of Dedicated Bus Lanes On Intersection Operations And Travel Time Model Development, Stephen Arhin, Babin Manandhar, Kevin Obike, Melissa Anderson

Mineta Transportation Institute

Over the years, public transit agencies have been trying to improve their operations by continuously evaluating best practices to better serve patrons. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) oversees the transit bus operations in the Washington Metropolitan Area (District of Columbia, some parts of Maryland and Virginia). One practice attempted by WMATA to improve bus travel time and transit reliability has been the implementation of designated bus lanes (DBLs). The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) implemented a bus priority program on selected corridors in the District of Columbia leading to the installation of red-painted DBLs on corridors of H Street, …

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 …

Prioritizing Transit In Portland: Checking In On The Rose Lanes Project, Nathan Mcneil, April Bertelsen, Jaime Jeffrey, Jaime Snook

PSU Transportation Seminars

Transit priority lanes restrict access to certain lanes, prioritizing transit movement, while sometimes allowing for other users or specific actions - for example shared bus and bike lanes, or shared bus and right-turn lanes. Red coloring is sometimes used to reinforce the transit priority with the goal of improving the reliability, safety and compliance with the lane restrictions. The City of Portland and TriMet have been working with partners to use these tools to improve mobility and transit access under the Enhanced Transit Corridors Plan and Rose Lanes Project. This presentation will report back on early lessons learned as …

Transit Equity In Southeast Brooklyn, Noam J. Gal

Student Theses and Dissertations

Over the years, planners have considered numerous proposals to expand the subway system further into Southeast Brooklyn including the Utica Avenue Line and the Interborough Express. It remains to be seen whether any of these megaprojects will come to fruition. This honors thesis analyzes the equity impact that Brooklyn’s largest transit desert has had upon its inhabitants. I use an interdisciplinary approach to analyze both qualitative and quantitative data to explain why the subway does not extend into the focus area, how residents have adapted to the status quo, and what policymakers can do to improve transit equity in Southeast …

Why Your City Needs A Car Master Plan, Cathy Tuttle

PSU Transportation Seminars

In 2022, cars are ubiquitous and completely embedded into America’s economy and social fabric. American cities don’t make car plans, but all transportation plans – whether they are for people who walk, bike, take transit, run freight or delivery businesses – are all written in response to cars. Transportation planning is all about cars; supporting cars or constraining cars. How did our cities evolve into places where cars dominate, and where can we go from here? To move to a new paradigm, cities need to acknowledge car dominance and focus on cars with the same rigor they do other modal …

The Influence Of Civil Rights And Anti-Discrimination Laws On Shaping Our Transportation System, Marc Brenman, Thomas W. Sanchez

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

Regarding the title of this paper, “The Influence of Civil Rights and Anti-Discrimination Laws on Shaping Our Transportation System”, the reverse is also true—the transportation system has helped shape the civil rights laws in the U.S. The way bus lines in the South used to be segregated is one example, and fighting this helped shape the modern Civil Rights Movement. This influence goes back to include famous cases involving segregated train cars in the 1880s. In this article, we address the numerous ways in which civil rights and anti-discrimination laws shape our transportation system. We offer a suite of approaches …

Using E-Bike Incentive Programs To Expand The Market – Trends And Best Practices, John Macarthur, Cameron Bennett

PSU Transportation Seminars

John MacArthur and Cameron Bennett of Portland State University will be presenting the findings and recommendations from their recent white paper "Using E-Bike Incentive Programs to Expand the Market – Trends and Best Practices." This will include a review of the 50+ current, past, and proposed e-bike purchase incentive programs in North America, including summary statistics and details from exemplary programs. Best practice gained from review of the programs and discussion with program managers, industry professionals, and other stakeholders will be shared. A discussion of the benefits of promoting e-bike uptake in regard to mode shift, VMT, emissions, and human …

The Impact Of First-Person Perspective Text And Images On Drivers’ Comprehension, Learning Judgments, Attitudes, And Intentions Related To Safe Road-Sharing Behaviors, Alexandra Bryson Proaps

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Drivers and cyclists lack an alignment of road sharing knowledge, attitudes, and expectations, resulting in unnecessary fatalities. Educational countermeasures need to present information that captures drivers’ interest by being personally relevant, facilitate elaboration and synthesis of new information with existing knowledge, and change attitudes, intentions, and behavior. Well-documented health-related communication methods were employed to determine their effectiveness in a transportation domain. Health countermeasure designers use first-person perspective to improve narrative instruction outcomes, based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Exploring narrative perspective-taking as a design tool requires the integration of multiple disciplines.

Our design case stems …

Data-Driven Framework For Understanding & Modeling Ride-Sourcing Transportation Systems, Bishoy Kelleny

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ride-sourcing transportation services offered by transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft are disrupting the transportation landscape. The growing demand on these services, along with their potential short and long-term impacts on the environment, society, and infrastructure emphasize the need to further understand the ride-sourcing system. There were no sufficient data to fully understand the system and integrate it within regional multimodal transportation frameworks. This can be attributed to commercial and competition reasons, given the technology-enabled and innovative nature of the system. Recently, in 2019, the City of Chicago the released an extensive and complete ride-sourcing trip-level data for …

Competition And Third-Party Platform-Integration In Ride-Sourcing Markets, Yaqian Zhou, Hai Yang, Jintao Ke, Hai Wang, Xinwei Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recently, some third-party integrators attempt to integrate the ride services offered by multiple independent ride-sourcing platforms. Accordingly, passengers can request ride through the integrators and receive ride service from any one of the ride-sourcing platforms. This novel business model, termed as third-party platform-integration in this work, has potentials to alleviate market fragmentation cost resulting from demand splitting among multiple platforms. Although most existing studies focus on operation strategies for one single monopolist platform, much less is known about the competition and platform-integration and their implications on operation strategy and system efficiency. In this work, we propose mathematical models to describe …

Feasibility Study Of Regional Air Mobility Services For High Priority Transportation In The San Joaquin Valley, Julia Roa, Joseph Oldham

Mineta Transportation Institute

Regional Air Mobility (RAM) focuses on building upon existing airport infrastructure to transport people and goods using innovative aircraft that offer a huge improvement in efficiency, affordability, and community-friendly integration over existing regional transportation options. These aircraft, which typically carry less than 20 passengers or an equivalent weight in cargo, are flexible in terms of where they can take off and land, even using existing runways and infrastructure to maximize compatibility with today’s airports. This project examines the feasibility of RAM supporting high-speed transportation for high-priority passenger and cargo movement within Fresno County and connection to coastal urban centers. Some …

Protecting Our Community From The Hidden Vulnerabilities Of Today’S Intelligent Transportation Systems, Shahab Tayeb

Mineta Transportation Institute

The ever-evolving technology interwoven into the transportation industry leaves it frequently at risk for cyber-attacks. This study analyzes the security of a common in-vehicle network, the Controller Area Network (CAN), standard in most vehicles being manufactured today. Like many other networks, CAN comes with inherent vulnerabilities that leave CAN implementations at risk of being targeted by cybercriminals. Such vulnerabilities range from eavesdropping, where the attacker can read the raw data traversing the vehicle, to spoofing, where the attacker can place fabricated traffic on the network. The research team initially performed a simulation of CAN traffic generation followed by hardware implementation …

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

Mineta Transportation Institute

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 …