TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503180
TI  - Technology and Enhancements to Improve Pre-Crash Safety
AB  - This project focuses on technology improvements that can be implemented in intelligent and autonomous vehicles toward the goal of improving pre-crash safety. First, with autonomous vehicles being on the verge of deployment as part of city infrastructure, the need for autonomous vehicles to be capable of anticipating human driver intent is inescapable. Newer technologies and potentially controversial sensing options, such as gaze direction, driver body language/weight shifting, and even electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors, are available for exploration. Recent research has shown the crucial importance of gaze monitoring. For example, on the approach to curves, driver gaze direction can predict speed at the apex and crashes. Drivers' gaze duration on external signs can predict their ability to keep in their lane. The project proposes to explore technologies for sensing driver attention and their impact in pre-crash scenarios. In conjunction with Project 1, the project will design and test biomonitors and their value in improving crash safety. The project will also predict, using behavior models, the extent to which monitoring information can be effective in improving pre-crash safety. Second, the project will study the value of vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communications for improving pre-crash safety. Using simulator studies--and later, field tests for promising approaches--the project will study scenarios in which location and heading information for nearby vehicles is used, and will test its value in averting crashes or minimizing crash injury. An important element of this understanding is how the (in)accuracy of this information impacts safety performance. V2V hardware testing facilities in Ohio State University's (OSU's) Control and Intelligent Transportations Research (CITR) Laboratory will be used to quantify location accuracy in realistic scenarios. The project will also study information accuracy as it impacts information trust in the corresponding behavioral models being developed in Project 3. Third, the project will study the impact of both intra-vehicle and inter-vehicle communication cybersecurity on pre-crash scenarios. A number of issues are of concern: external "snooping"; injection of false information externally; and "hacking" the vehicular software. Several countermeasures are being developed, including key generation and filtering. The focus in the Crash Imminent Safety University Transportation Center (CrIS UTC) will be on the implications of cyber-threats on pre-crash safety. For example, cybersecurity countermeasures result in data latency; the project will investigate how this latency degrades safety margins. As a second example, inaccurate information, including false warning indicators that may result from either compromised security or communication noise reduce driver trust in the data, and result in a change of driver behavior in response to these indicators. The project will study these changes using the behavior models in Projects 2, 3, and 5, and assess the safety impact.
KW  - Autonomous land vehicles
KW  - Crash avoidance systems
KW  - Human factors in crashes
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Precrash phase
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://citr.osu.edu/CrIS/?page_id=123
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285230
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01506701
TI  - Florida Transit Safety Network
AB  - The State of Florida has a very comprehensive and nationally recognized transit system safety and security program codified in Rule Chapter 14-90, Florida Administrative Code.  The Florida Department of Transportation as the agency responsible for ensuring Florida transit agencies' compliance with the rule has consistently been proactive in providing training, technical assistance and opportunities for stakeholder input related to transit safety and security in the state. But, there is now a critical juncture for transit agencies across the country and Florida's systems.  In an effort to prepare Florida's transit agencies for the regulations and guidance that will be issued by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in response to the Moving Ahead for Progress for the 21st Century (MAP-21) Act , the anticipation of modifications that will need to be made to Florida's system safety and security programs due to the transition to FTA's Safety Management System approach to safety programs, and the increased statewide focus on ensuring the safe operation of Florida's public transportation industry, the establishment of a Florida Transit Safety Network (FTSN) is warranted.
KW  - Compliance
KW  - Florida
KW  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
KW  - Regulations
KW  - Technical assistance
KW  - Training
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - Transit safety
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/02/florida-transit-safety-network/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290918
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495413
AU  - Kim, Taehyoung
AU  - Hobeika, Antoine  G
AU  - Abbas, Montasir
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Genetic Algorithm-Based Stochastic Optimization for Preempted Signals at Highway Railroad Grade Crossing
PY  - 2013/09/19/Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - Decreasing the number of accidents at highway-railway grade crossings (HRGCs) is an important goal in the transportation field.  The preemption of traffic signal operations at HRGCs is widely used to prevent accidents by clearing vehicles off the tracks before a train arrives.  However, by interrupting normal traffic operations, preemption operations can contribute to congestion in highway traffic networks.  This report presents a genetic algorithm (GA)-based stochastic optimization approach for preempted signals that is designed to minimize highway delays while improving safety.  The first step of proposed method determines the preemption phase sequences that prevent the queue from backing on to the HRGC.  The second step is to implement a GA-based algorithm to find the optimized signal phase lengths for reducing highway traffic delay.  The GA-based Stochastic Optimization of Preempted Signals (GASOPS) model optimizes signal timing plans for both normal and preemption operations simultaneously, while current signal optimization models can optimize for only normal operations.  Results show that the proposed approach is more efficient in signal optimization than traditional methods.  This optimization approach reduces the delay by a maximum of 17% compared to optimal timing plans found using state-of-the-art methods.  This model also improves safety because all queue lengths in GASOPS scenarios are 0, even when demand is doubled.  This approach will be useful for designing and improving the preemption operations for signalized intersections near HRGCs.
KW  - Genetic algorithms
KW  - Grade crossing protection systems
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Stochastic processes
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic signal preemption
KW  - Traffic signal timing
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/VT-2012-08.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264712
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01547404
TI  - Freight Transportation Data Architecture: Data Element Dictionary
AB  - National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 9: Guidance for Developing a Freight Data Architecture articulates the value of establishing an architecture for linking data across modes, subjects, and levels of geography to obtain essential information for decision making. Central to the architecture is a catalog of data elements currently being collected and the definitions of those elements. Lack of a sound freight data dictionary can cause problems within and across organizations, with organizations calling the same freight data element by different names or different data elements by the same name. In a worse case, an organization may combine freight data elements it thinks are equivalent and make incorrect investment decisions from invalid data. What is needed is a data dictionary for organizing the myriad of freight data elements currently in use, a method for identifying differences in definitions and methods for bridging between definitions, and a method for assessing whether differences are appropriate or should be harmonized. The objective of the research is to produce a searchable and sustainable web-based freight data element dictionary for transportation analysis to be hosted at the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Data dictionaries
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Investments
KW  - Transportation modes
UR  - http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3537
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1334668
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01492708
TI  - SAFERBUS Android, Query Central Mobile v2 - iOS and Android Application Development
AB  - This project supports the development of a mobile safety application that provides safety rating information on passenger carrier/motorcoach companies.
KW  - Buses
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Ratings
KW  - Software
KW  - Vehicle safety
KW  - Web applications
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262000
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497954
TI  - Identifying and Analyzing the Relative Advantages and Disadvantages of Public-Private Partnerships and Traditional Delivery for Roadway Projects
AB  - With the recent adoption of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), the U.S. Congress sent out a clarion call to the transport community that all roads should lead to private sector financing of our infrastructure. Congress increased the key transport lending tool, the TIFIA program, almost ten-fold to $1 billion in the second year of the authorization bill to spur private participation. The Wall Street Journal further laid out to the financial sector and its readership, "Private investment in America's transportation systems through public private partnerships (PPPs) has the potential to expand, revitalize and rationalize our infrastructure. With the right policies, that can happen. Motorists, truckers, shippers and private investors all stand to benefit." This project aims to assess the advantages and disadvantages of Public-Private Partnerships (P3) in comparison to traditional forms of project delivery and financing (DBB). The project targets research to the State of California and the Pacific Northwest States of Region 10, including Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, making use of results from existing completed cases of side-by-side projects delivered traditionally and delivered through partnership agreements.
KW  - Financing
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
KW  - Pacific Northwest
KW  - Private enterprise
KW  - Public private partnerships
KW  - Road construction
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1276997
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01570363
AU  - Zhang, Lei
AU  - Vemulapati, Sapeksha
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Exploring the Linkages among Urban Form, Travel Behavior and Public Health with Person-Level Data from Smartphone Applications
PY  - 2013/09/15/Final Report
SP  - 51p
AB  - The interaction between the built environment, travel behavior and public health is now a major concern for both researchers and urban planners. Currently, there is little empirical research that explores and examines the relationship between each of them. This study explores the linkages between an individual’s health, the urban form and his/her everyday travel behavior. The objective of this study is two-fold: (1) to develop a Smartphone Application that would serve as a platform to automatically collect person-level travel behavior data, and (2) to analyze the influence of daily activity patterns of an individual, his/her healthy-living and the urban form of their neighborhood of residence, on each other. In the past, scholars have explored different variables and linked them with the individual’s travel behavior. This study explores the linkages between an individual’s health, urban form and his/her everyday travel behavior. In order to capture accurate and comprehensive travel behavior information, a smartphone application is developed that can track user location for long periods without the need of user intervention. Focus is placed on designing the application to have minimum respondent burden and long-standing battery life of the smart device. Subjects are recruited through a web survey designed to collect information about the individual’s healthy living habits. Data from the application is regressed against the health measure data acquired from the survey. Results show that active modes of travel are positively associated with the person’s general health measures. The feasibility of this platform as a data collection method is highlighted while explaining the limitations due to the sample distribution and size.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Health
KW  - Mobile applications
KW  - Regression analysis
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UMD%202012-02.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/55000/55200/55264/UMD_2012-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1360046
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01587751
AU  - Balke, Kevin
AU  - Gopalakrishna, Deepak
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Utah DOT Weather Responsive Traffic Signal Timing
PY  - 2013/09/13/Final Report
SP  - 109p
AB  - Over the past decade, Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) has championed the cause of improving traffic operations and safety during weather events. The program’s current emphasis is to encourage agencies to be more proactive in the way that they manage traffic operations during weather events. Weather Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM) is the central component of the program’s efforts. WRTM involves the implementation of traffic advisory, control, and treatment strategies in direct response to or in anticipation of developing roadway and visibility issues that result from deteriorating or forecasted weather conditions. WRTM also includes using weather forecasting to provide proactive advisories, control, and maintenance strategies In 2011, the RWMP initiated a project to document recent developments in WRTM, identify improvements to the strategies, and develop implementable Concepts of Operations. As a follow-on task, three concepts were selected for further implementation and real-world deployment. This report describes the implementation of one particular concept relating to weather responsive traffic signal management by Utah DOT. The report contains the system design, operation, evaluation approach, findings and lessons learned from the implementation.
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Road weather information systems
KW  - Road Weather Management Program
KW  - System design
KW  - Traffic signal control systems
KW  - Utah Department of Transportation
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51100/51165/C42F9252.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1386606
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01518766
AU  - Gopalakrishna, Deepak
AU  - Cluett, Chris
AU  - Kitchener, Fred
AU  - Sturges, Leigh
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Utah DOT Weather Responsive Traveler Information System
PY  - 2013/09/13/Final Report
SP  - 110p
AB  - Over the past decade, the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) has championed the cause of improving traffic operations and safety during weather events. The program’s current emphasis is to encourage agencies to be more proactive in the way that they manage traffic operations during bad weather. Weather Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM) is a component major element of the program. WRTM involves the implementation of traffic advisory, control, and treatment strategies in direct response to or in anticipation of developing roadway and atmospheric problems that result from deteriorating or forecasted weather conditions. WRTM also includes using weather forecasting to provide proactive advisory and control strategies based on forecasts of weather conditions, and not just traffic responses to those conditions. In 2011, the RWMP initiated a project to collate recent developments and best practices in WRTM, identify improvements to the strategies, and develop implementable Concepts of Operations. As a follow-on task, three concepts were selected for further implementation and real-world deployment. This report documents the implementation of one of those concepts relating to weather responsive traveler information. This concept focused on an initial implementation of a citizens reporting system and was conducted in partnership with Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). This report documents the system design, operation, evaluation, findings and lessons learned from the implementation. Considering this was the first opportunity to implement a limited citizen reporting program, the results are encouraging. Fifty-six UDOT employees were trained, 89 of 143 road segments were covered, and 607 reports were submitted during the 2012/2013 winter season. Report accuracy was very high (over 99%), and they provided increased situational awareness for Traffic Operations Center (TOC) meteorologists and operators. Public response to this program was quite positive. Lessons from this initial implementation will help UDOT further develop and move this program forward and serve as a valuable model for other state DOTs that seek to implement similar improvements.
KW  - Advanced traveler information systems
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Public participation
KW  - Road weather information systems
KW  - Road Weather Management Program
KW  - Utah
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51067/F9C62201.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302115
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503503
TI  - Crash Imminent Safety (CrIS) University Transportation Center (UTC)
AB  - Researchers hope to save lives and reduce the severity of human injuries in auto accidents by looking closely at what happens in the final seconds before vehicle collisions. The goal of the Ohio State University's new Crash Imminent Safety University Transportation Center (UTC) is to increase understanding of technology design and improve the ways humans interact with intelligent, autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles. The research will include developing advanced accident simulators, performing extensive modeling, analyzing past accidents and developing autonomous vehicles - all with the goal of making the U.S. transportation system the safest in the world.
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Intelligent agents
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://citr.osu.edu/CrIS
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285664
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01563590
TI  - Eco-Driving Modeling Environment
AB  - The U. S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has been working on several initiatives to reduce traffic-related vehicle emissions and fuel consumption to help the nation's transportation activities become more sustainable and cost-effective. In recent years, eco-driving has been identified as one promising solution to palliate environmental and fuel consumption issues. Eco-driving is a collection of driving techniques designed to reduce fuel consumption and emissions in existing vehicles. Drivers are slowly becoming educated on the techniques of eco-driving but currently few tools exist to educate and train drivers about eco-driving practices. This proposed research project aims to develop a driver-simulator-based tool to evaluate driver behavior and to reliably estimate or measure fuel consumption and emissions. The proposed tool consists of a driving simulator integrated with an advanced engine modeling software in a hardware-in-the-loop modeling environment. The high-fidelity driving simulator has the advantages of being able to accurately simulate multiple driving environments and provide real-time feedback to the driver. The engine modeling tool (GT-Suite) has the advantage of modeling vehicle performance and produce accurate vehicle emission and fuel consumption estimates
KW  - Driver training
KW  - Driving environments
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Environmental protection
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Real time information
UR  - http://tranliveutc.org/engr/niatt/tranlive/projects/2013/eco-driving-modeling-environment
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1354237
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01506699
TI  - Impacts of TDM on Managed Lane Toll Prices
AB  - The purpose of this research is to quantify the extent to which transit and ridesharing reduce traffic density and lower tolls on the l-95 Express Lanes. The tolls on the l-95 Express Lanes are variable and are based on traffic density. Therefore, transportation strategies that increase person throughput can contribute to lower tolls. improved traffic flow and lower tolls both benefit the traveling public. This research benefits the state because dynamically priced managed lanes feature prominently in the state's future transportation plans, particularly in South Florida. This research will add to the body of research done already on the l-95 Express Lanes. lt will help the Florida Department of Transportation have a better understanding of the positive role played by transit and ridesharing in relation to dynamically priced managed lanes.
KW  - Florida
KW  - Interstate 95
KW  - Managed lanes
KW  - Ridesharing
KW  - Tolls
KW  - Traffic density
KW  - Travel demand management
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/01/impact-of-transportation-demand-management-tdm-elements-on-managed-lanes-toll-prices/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290916
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553062
TI  - Signal Timing Optimization with Consideration of Environmental and Safety Impacts
AB  - Transportation agencies are increasingly realizing the importance of performance measurement and management. However, the main performance measures used in assessment and optimization of signal timing have been mobility measures (such as travel time and/or delays), with limited consideration of environmental and safety impacts. Consideration of these measures is important, particularly with the increased emphasis on performance measurement and management of transportation systems. Performance measurement requires the consideration of a wide array of measures; which should be mapped to agency goals and objectives, and to identified issues associated with the region or specific system under consideration. Some efforts have been conducted to incorporate fuel consumption and emissions, and to a much lesser degree safety, in signal timing optimization. Despite the availability of some studies on these subjects, no guidelines or tools are available to assist traffic engineers in their evaluation and optimization of signal control based on related measures. The goal of this research is to recommend methods and models for assessing and reduce environmental and/or safety impacts associated with signal timing, in combination with mobility measures.
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Traffic signal timing
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://www.stride.ce.ufl.edu/2013-projects
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343135
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553061
TI  - On-Board-Diagnostics (OBD) Data Integration into Traffic Microsimulation for Vehicle-Specific Fuel Use and Emissions Modeling and In-Vehicle App Testing
AB  - In current work, the team is developing a new methodological approach for incorporating models of vehicle fuel use and emission rates based on Vehicle Specific Power (VSP) into CORSIM. VSP is a function of vehicle speed, acceleration, and grade, each of which can be observed from outside of the vehicle. However, fuel use and emissions depend on what is happening inside the engine. Models of fuel use and emission rates based on engine data, such as engine revolutions per minute (RPM) and manifold absolute pressure (MAP), are more predictive than those based only on VSP. All 1996 and newer model-year vehicles have an On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) port that broadcasts real-time data for parameters including RPM, MAP, and many others. There is increasing interest in developing applications that use OBD data. The U.S. Department of Energy recently sponsored an "Apps for Vehicles" challenge to use OBD data for driver feedback on fuel economy. General Motors is allowing third party developers to develop "apps" that use OBD data that can run on in-dash information systems. NCSU is collaborating with an IT company in Portugal on "i2d" (intelligence to drive), a small device that connects to the OBD port in the vehicle and transmits data from the OBD and in-built sensors to a central server via cellular phone. Drivers who subscribe to this service obtain detailed evaluation of how their driving impacts fuel use, comfort, and safety. In vehicle data collection for proof-of-concept and feasibility assessment can be costly. There is growing demand for a simulation platform that enables developers to test and evaluate products and for an improved method for quantifying fuel use and emissions to support transportation planning. This research has three objectives: (1) develop and implement a method for predicting second-by second (1 Hz) values of selected OBD parameters to simulate the real-time OBD data that can be obtained from an actual vehicle; (2) develop predictive models for vehicle energy use and emissions based on use of OBD parameters as the explanatory variables; and (3) implement the new predictive models for OBD Parameter IDs (PIDs), and the new OBD parameter-based fuel use and emission models, into CORSIM NG for the purpose of simulating OBD parameter values, fuel use, and emission rates for individual vehicles as they operate on the road network. The outcome of this work will be a new capability to simulate OBD data for use in developing new in-vehicle software applications and to improve the accuracy of fuel use and emissions estimates needed for transportation planning.
KW  - CORSIM (Traffic simulation model)
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Driver information systems
KW  - Fuel conservation
KW  - In vehicle sensors
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Onboard diagnostics
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Vehicle specific power
UR  - http://www.stride.ce.ufl.edu/2013-projects
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343134
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553060
TI  - Using Crowdsourcing to Prioritize Bicycle Route Network Improvements
AB  - One of the main reasons citizens do not bicycle in communities is due to the lack of perceived sufficient and safe bicycle network infrastructure (e.g. bicycle lanes, sharrows, shared lanes, etc.). Therefore, defining where the bicycle route network should be located and what types of facilities should be developed in each location is of utmost importance. As such, this research seeks to develop performance measures for prioritizing bicycle route network link improvements. These performance measures can be used to characterize and rank every link within the bicycle network to determine the links that would benefit the most users should they be improved or built. An important aspect of this project will be to develop practical measures that engineers and planners at any level would be able to implement. To assist with this effort, city engineers from Auburn, AL and Atlanta, GA have agreed to review and provide feedback on the performance measures generated in this project. This work will consider both urban (Atlanta) and suburban (Auburn) areas to ensure that these performance measures are transferable between locations.
KW  - Atlanta (Georgia)
KW  - Auburn (Alabama)
KW  - Bicycle lanes
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Crowd sourcing
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Routes
UR  - http://www.stride.ce.ufl.edu/2013-projects
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343133
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553058
TI  - GIS-Based Instructional Tool for Crash Prediction Methods
AB  - The first version of the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) was released in 2010 and is currently being deployed by several states as the primary methodology for performing predictive analysis to identify critical segments of the network and to evaluate the benefits of countermeasures. In this context, it is critical to train the current and future professionals on the underlying theory behind these methods and the effective application of the same. Although the HSM methods rely on vast amounts of spatial data (roadway network and geometry, geo-coded crashes etc.) the training materials rely mostly on spreadsheet-based tools for application of the methods and the HSM software are also non-spatial and do not directly integrate with Geographic Information Systems (GIS).   The intent of this study is to develop a GIS-based instructional tool which can be used by both graduate students and current professionals to learn about the HSM-based predictive methods. The GIS platform of the tool will be immensely beneficial so that the students can appreciate (visually) the context in which these methods are being applied. As such, this study will contribute to both the educational and technology transfer goals of STRIDE. The overall project methodology comprises three steps. First, the HSM crash-prediction methods will be coded into the Signal Four Software for selected facility types. This will involve coding in the appropriate Safety Performance Functions and Crash Modification Factors. Next, Instructional Modules will be developed that will provide overviews of both the software and the analytical methods in addition to providing step-by-step guidance for segment- and intersection- level analyses.  Finally, the software and instructional modules will be tested using students from various transportation engineering and urban planning classes and be presented to practitioners via a webinar.  Anticipated Results: This project will result in the development of an interactive GIS web-based instructional tool for Crash Prediction Models. Several self-instructing tutorials will be developed which can be used by students either independently or in the context of a course. These tutorials will use real world data from Florida and the GIS-environment will facilitate the students appreciating the context in which the data are obtained and methods applied and thereby leading to improved understanding of the methods. A webinar will also be developed aimed at practitioners. This will cover data issues in greater detail in addition to instructing the audience on application of predictive methods. Since the software is web-based, these can be accessed and used easily by anyone within the region.   The project directly contributes to enhancing the goals of transportation safety within the region. The instructional module will facilitate improved understanding of the HSM-based predictive methods and the appropriate application of the same. In the longer term, we envision that the consistency checks and comparative analysis capabilities supported by the software will also lead to improvements in data and methods, which in turn, would translate into better predictive capabilities. The instructional module will be designed to allow future scalability into a full crash prediction feature of the Signal Four Analytical system in order to support the needs of researchers and practitioners in the traffic safety improvements efforts.
KW  - City planning
KW  - Florida
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Highway Safety Manual
KW  - Technology transfer
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Traffic safety education
KW  - Training
KW  - Transportation engineering
UR  - http://www.stride.ce.ufl.edu/2013-projects
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343131
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01548843
TI  - Designing Quieter Pavement Surfaces
AB  - This project outlines a work plan for the design and maintenance of quieter asphalt and concrete pavements. A literature review will determine the state of the art in designing quieter pavements and contributing factors. An extensive pavement-noise database will be compiled, comprising a variety of asphalt and concrete surfaces with corresponding noise measurements over time. The effect of different overlay asphalt mixtures will be evaluated for flexible pavements (both open and dense mixtures will be considered) and the effect of different surface treatments (such as diamond grinding) for rigid pavements. This database will be analyzed using statistical techniques and will focus on identifying all relevant design parameters influencing noise. Laboratory design procedures to evaluate noise will be developed and correlated against mixture design parameters for a range of different asphalt mixtures. Close proximity and far-field noise tests in the field on both asphalt and concrete pavements will be correlated against laboratory measures towards establishing laboratory test procedures. Following these tasks, a set of preliminary guidelines will be developed to provide the districts with recommendations on and assistance in selecting appropriate candidate projects for low-noise surfaces and for designing surfaces to provide long-term noise reductions. A case study will be completed to recommend strategies for addressing noise complaints in an urban setting. In addition, a number of new and existing pavements across Texas will be monitored. Results from the case study and field tests will be used to validate and refine the District guidelines.
KW  - Asphalt concrete pavements
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Overlays (Pavements)
KW  - Pavement design
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Quiet pavements
KW  - Texas
KW  - Texture
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
UR  - http://www.chpp.egr.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/UTC-Project-Information-Project-8.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1336315
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01546296
TI  - Exploration of Video-Based Structural Health Monitoring Techniques
AB  - Structural health monitoring techniques (SHM) have become a useful means to document in-service load tests or collect long-term data from ambient traffic on bridges or other civil structures. Most of the used SHM data acquisition systems consist of physical sensor networks that are attached to the structure's surface, and transmit collected data either wire or wirelessly to a hub. From there the data is downloaded to a laptop or transmitted via Internet connection to the bridge engineer. The sensors record data from external stimuli such as temperature, humidity, or load, or internal structural responses such as strain or displacement. In order to save deployment time and costs, remote sensing approaches have more recently been studied for SHM applications such as laser vibrometers, LIDAR, GPS, or image-based methods. These techniques are promising for global monitoring, i.e. modal analysis, but often lack the desired resolution for accurate dynamic response characterization or effective local damage detection. One reason is that typically only a small finite number of points can be monitored simultaneously which leads to sparse data. In addition, these techniques are still expensive and require specialized equipment that needs to be operated by trained technicians. Some researchers have used videos to detect vehicle location and correlate that with structural response measured by traditional sensor networks. This project, however, proposes a different approach. Motivated by the recent wide availability of inexpensive high-quality high-speed digital video cameras combined with innovative video signal processing algorithms, it is time to consider the next generation of monitoring techniques that uses the captured digital video to extract information of structural dynamic performance directly. This research project will address a need for a novel inexpensive, remote, and easy-to-deploy sensing technology for SHM applications.
KW  - Digital video
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/exploration-video-based-structural-health-monitoring-techniques
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1333178
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497796
TI  - Understanding the Relationships between Household Decisions and Infrastructure Investment in Disaster Recovery: Cases from Superstorm Sandy
AB  - Hurricanes, storms and floods damage roads, bridges, transit lines and other elements of our transportation infrastructure. Restoring the transportation infrastructure is widely recognized as an important element of short-term recovery as the reconstruction of the built environment and the other elements of the long term recovery are dependent on a functional transportation system (Smith and Wenger, 2006). However, in the long term, changes in development and settlement patterns occur and additional or different investments in transportation infrastructure are required to deliver safe and efficient transportation.  We know very little about how, where, when and why these changes occur. This exploratory research project aims to better understand the role transportation infrastructure plays in the disaster recovery process. By documenting transportation infrastructure damage and repair, conducting interviews to understand community and household attitudes, and researching incentives and resources related to household decisions regarding relocation and rebuilding in two communities impacted by Hurricane Sandy we will better understand how to provide transportation infrastructure recovery activity that meets the needs of communities impacted by disaster.  Recovery research is not new.  Community level studies of disaster recovery date back at a minimum to Eugene Haas' work in the late 1970s. Through the mid-1980s recovery research continued (Olshansky 2005; Quarantelli 1999). Even so, numerous researchers have noted that the recovery phase is the least-understood phase of the disaster cycle (Berke et al. 1993; Bevington et al. 2011; Mileti 1999; Olshansky 2005; Rubin 2009; Rubin et al. 1985). That problem is beginning to change as recent catastrophes and disasters, such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese Tsunami, and Hurricane Sandy, have inspired increased attention to recovery.  Policymakers, researchers, and the media are all devoting more attention to the recovery phase of disasters.  One dimension of that increased attention has included intensified discussion about whether resettling is a better option than rebuilding in some situations.  Another issue is whether to invest in mitigation and repair or just repair of transportation infrastructure (Croope and McNeil, 2011). While many have discussed these issues in passing, research devoted to recovery and research on resettlement is still relatively sparse, and research on the impact of transportation infrastructure on these decisions is even more sparse. From a transportation perspective, household relocation decisions are important. As significant disaster events reveal unrecognized vulnerabilities to the natural environment and/or the limits of mitigation, preparedness, and response capabilities, the number of households that choose to stay or go makes a difference for those charged with investing in repair and/or re-development in these communities. Those choices need to be calibrated to the demand shifts that areas might face in the aftermath of a major event. The outcomes of those household decisions are a critical input as communities make difficult repair and development decisions in a post disaster environment. Simply stated the number of households that remain should influence the demand for infrastructure and as a result the need for investment in different areas.  Similarly, it is important to know where people who leave are moving to. Depending on the distribution of these households very different infrastructure rebuilding and expansion projects could be warranted. Estimating that demand however is complicated by the prospect of significant resettlement, particularly in the case where governmental agencies are incentivizing such choices. It is further complicated by the fact that we know very little about what factors influence this kind of household decision-making.  Most of the resettlement studies either focus on forced resettlement outside the U.S. or more short-term sheltering issues (Oliver-Smith 1991; Sastry 2009). In response to this problem, the proposed exploratory study will focus attention on voluntary resettlement.  The purpose of this study is to 1) better understand how households decide to either resettle in a new location or rebuild in situ following a disaster including how that decision is influenced by the state of the infrastructure, and 2) determine what critical elements of those decisions could be used to inform planning models. Initial data will come from semi-structured interviews with households that have decided to stay as well as those planning to leave areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Households
KW  - Hurricane Sandy, 2012
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Reconstruction
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/understanding-relationships-between-household-decisions-and-infrastructure-investment-
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1268029
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497793
TI  - Defining and Quantifying State of Good Repair (SGR) for the Pedestrian Network
AB  - State of Good Repair (SGR) has been the subject of rigorous study for several years in the United States. Numerous studies have explored SGR in relation to highways, bridges, and public transportation.  The pedestrian network, based on a preliminary literature review, seems to have received decidedly less attention. Even in some modes that have been more fully addressed, there is not universal consensus as to what constitutes SGR within the U.S. (or Europe) for all asset classes.  Transit is a good example. The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies' (TRB) 2011 International Transit Studies Program: Report on the Spring 2010 Mission describes the state of the practice as such; "At present, there is no universally accepted definition for "state of good repair" for public transit assets; rather, individual transit agencies typically employ their own internal definitions (if they have even adopted a definition), and these definitions can vary appreciably"
KW  - Pedestrian areas
KW  - Pedestrian traffic
KW  - Repairing
KW  - State of good repair
KW  - State of the practice
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/defining-and-quantifying-state-good-repair-sgr-pedestrian-network
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1268026
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497389
AU  - Kang, Jee Eun
AU  - University of California, Irvine
AU  - University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integration of Locational Decisions with the Household Activity Pattern Problem and Its Applications in Transportation Sustainability
PY  - 2013/09/01
SP  - 242p
AB  - This dissertation focuses on the integration of the Household Activity Pattern Problem (HAPP) with various locational decisions considering both supply and demand sides. We present several methods to merge these two distinct areas—transportation infrastructure and travel demand procedures—into an integrated framework that has been previously exogenously linked by feedback or equilibrium processes. This work demonstrates the significance of the integration between travel demand model and infrastructure problems, but also draws insightful policy measurements regarding alternative fuel vehicle adoption. One of the early adoption communities targeted by auto manufacturers is chosen as the study area, and then three different values of accessibility are tested and measured in terms of tolerances to added travel time. Under optimal conditions, refueling trips are found to be toured with other activities. More importantly, there is evidence that excluding such vehicle-infrastructure interactions as well as routing and scheduling interactions can result in overestimation of minimum facility requirement.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Dynamic programming
KW  - Location
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/3sb124zz.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262770
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01497388
JO  - University of California Transportation Center Faculty Research
PB  - University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
AU  - Jariyasunant, Jerald
AU  - Abou-Zeid, Maya
AU  - Carrel, Andre
AU  - Ekambaram, Venkatesan
AU  - Gaker, David
AU  - Sengupta, Raja
AU  - Walker, Joan
AU  - University of California Transportation Center/Institute of Transportation Studies
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - American University of Beirut
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Quantified Traveler: Travel Feedback Meets the Cloud to Change Travel Behavior
PY  - 2013/09/01
SP  - 25p
AB  - The authors describe the design and evaluation of a system Computational Travel Feedback System named Quantified Traveler (QT). Travel Feedback is an established programmatic method whereby travelers record travel in diaries, and meet with a counselor who guides her to alternate mode or trip decisions that are more sustainable or otherwise beneficial to society, while still meeting the subject’s mobility needs. QT is a computation surrogate for the counselor. Since counselor costs can limit the size of travel feedback programs, a system such as QT at the low costs of cloud computing, could dramatically increase scale, and thereby sustainable travel. QT uses an app on the phone to collect travel data, a server in the cloud to process it into travel diaries and then a personalized carbon, exercise, time, and cost footprint. The subject is able to see all of this information on the web. The authors evaluate with 135 subjects to learn if subjects allow use of their personal phones and data-plans to build travel diaries, whether they actually use the website to look at their travel information, whether the design creates pro-environmental shifts in psychological variables measured by entry and exit surveys, and finally whether the revealed travel behavior records reduced driving. Before and after statistical analysis and the results from a structural equation model suggest that the results are a qualified success.
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Cloud computing
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Planning
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Structural equation modeling
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel diaries
KW  - Travel feedback programs
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2dh952gj.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262771
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495327
TI  - Use of Persistent Wide-Area Video for Transportation Planning and Operations
AB  - Persistent wide-area video, in combination with PVLabs' integrated Tactical Content Management System (TCMS) spatio-temporal capability, automatically identifies and captures every vehicle in the video view frame, storing each with a discrete ID and time-stamped location.  This unique data capture can provide not only comprehensive count information but also, more importantly, vehicle track information.  This research proposes to evaluate possible uses of an existing one square mile data capture in an urban area to establish its efficacy in supporting transportation planning and operation activities.  Proposed tasks will include developing a track data model, relating tracks to Origin-Destination matrices, relating tracks to traffic characteristics, and developing and evaluating one or more proof-of-concept models for traffic assignment and for quantifying traffic characteristics at a microscopic spatio-temporal level.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Detection and identification systems
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Time stamps
KW  - Traffic assignment
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Video cameras
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264878
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01541446
AU  - Szary, Patrick
AU  - Roda, Andrés M
AU  - Monopolis, Christopher
AU  - Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - New Jersey Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Supplement to the Bridge Resource Program: State-of-the-Art Practices of Mass Concrete: A Literature Review
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 19p
AB  - The mission of Rutgers University’s Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) Bridge Resource Program (BRP) is to provide bridge engineering support to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT)’s Bridge Engineering and Infrastructure Management Unit. The program is a partnership between federal and state transportation agencies and Rutgers University, which provides technical and educational services to address infrastructure needs in New  Jersey. CAIT supports the NJDOT by providing staff and resources to address the most pressing bridge engineering and training challenges in New Jersey (through advanced materials development, design enhancements, construction improvements, evaluation, monitoring, data mining, management enhancement and support, and bridge research). The purpose of this grant is to supplement the Bridge Resource Program through the on-call investigation of mass concrete construction practices, which resulted in a report to NJDOT on state-of-the-art practices in mass concrete construction. The  findings in the report were used to compare with the Thermal Control Plan for the Route 7 Wittpenn Bridge Pier 1W cap as well as the current mass concrete specifications included in the NJDOT 2007 Standard Specifications. The review focused on material composition, with description of each component’s contribution to heat of hydration. The team observed that the literature focused on two areas of concern, maximum temperature reached during curing and thermal differentials between the  core and surface of the mass concrete element. The literature has extensively documented the urgency of maintaining the maximum curing temperature below 160°F. The adverse effects associated with exceeding the maximum temperature threshold are severe, but not visible for months or years after construction. This threshold should never be exceeded. The literature also documents damages resulting from exceeding temperature differential thresholds, which are more immediate and can be identified during construction. The thermal-induced cracking that results may be repaired through industry accepted means, from seals, coatings for hairline cracking, to more comprehensive repairs. During early stages of curing, the concrete has not developed sufficient strength to resist excessive thermal gradients. Thus, form insulation and other methods to protect the concrete surface from dissipating heat greatly or reach excessively high peak temperatures reduces the likelihood of deleterious effects. The results of this literature review suggest that current research and industry agree that temperature thresholds are critical to mass concrete. Proper controls must be established in order to ensure well-performing  concrete elements to be constructed.
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Concrete curing
KW  - Heat of hydration
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Mass concrete
KW  - Mix design
KW  - New Jersey
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Temperature
KW  - Thermal degradation
UR  - https://cait.rutgers.edu/files/CAIT-UTC-006-final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1326370
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530136
AU  - Ge, Maochen
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Breaking Wire Detection and Strain Distribution of Seven-Wire Steel Cables with Acoustic Emission and Optical Fiber Sensors
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 7p
AB  - Cable-stayed bridges have been increasingly used as river-crossing links in highway and railway transportation networks. In the event of an abnormal situation, they can not only impact the local and national economy but also threaten the safety of passengers. To assess the structural condition of cables, the strain distribution among multiple wires must be effectively determined as one or more wires are broken due to overstress and/or corrosion. This proposal is focused on a preliminary study of wire breakage detection and associated strain redistribution. The specific objectives are to develop and validate a new algorithm for the localization of broken wires with acoustic emission technology and a new model for the determination of strain redistribution with distributed optical fiber sensor measurements. Both laboratory tests and numerical simulations will be conducted to understand the mechanism of strain redistribution as a result of wire breakage. In particular, a seven-wire steel cable will be tested and analyzed to take into account both the initial stress due to wire twisting and the friction effect between wires. For sensitivity study, various section losses in percentage of sectional area will be considered to understand the effective length of a cable over which the strain condition prior to the loss of wire sections can be recovered.
KW  - Acoustic emission
KW  - Bridge cables
KW  - Cable stayed bridges
KW  - Deformation curve
KW  - Fracture mechanics
KW  - Optical fibers
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Wire
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R305%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1315448
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01529294
AU  - Hall, Andrea
AU  - Walton, C Michael
AU  - Jin, Peter J
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Revenue Impacts from a Changing Light-Duty Vehicle Fleet
PY  - 2013/09//Research Report
SP  - 87p
AB  - Advanced fuel economies in both traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs) and electric vehicles (EVs) have a strong influence on transportation revenue by reducing fuel consumption per vehicle and ultimately drawing down the amount of fuel tax revenue received. It is expected that more ICE vehicles with advanced fuel economies and EVs, especially gasoline hybrid EVs, will enter the roadway in coming years, and fuel tax revenues and the Highway Trust Fund will increasingly become more affected. This study estimates the impact that increased sales of advanced ICEs and EVs will have on future fuel tax revenues by drawing on industry estimates of future EV and ICE market shares and anticipates future fleet mix and fuel economy for both vehicle technologies. An estimation process overview is provided and assumptions are described. Fuel tax revenue amounts that would be expected from future light vehicle fleets with  increased shares of EVs are compared to equivalently sized fleets composed of all ICEs, and future fleet mixes are estimated. Results show that as more EVs enter the light vehicle fleet, greater revenue losses are expected, and total losses from years 2011 through 2050 depend on fleet composition and fuel economy of both vehicle types. It is found that the amount of fuel taxes paid by ICE drivers each year remain greater than fuel taxes paid by EV drivers even with advances in the average ICE vehicle fuel economy. Finally, a review of alternative revenue generation methods that states are employing to cover fuel tax revenue gaps is given.
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Fuel taxes
KW  - Internal combustion engines
KW  - Light vehicles
KW  - Market share
KW  - Revenues
KW  - Vehicle fleets
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00073-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1312414
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01523314
AU  - Barr, Paul
AU  - Halling, Marv
AU  - Higgs, Arek
AU  - Utah State University, Logan
AU  - Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation
AU  - Utah Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Forensic Testing of Prestress Concrete Girders after Forty Years of Service
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 127p
AB  - This report describes an investigation to quantify the behavior of precast, prestressed concrete bridge girders made with high-strength concrete. As part of the investigation, four bridge girders that were made with 77.2 MPs (11.2 ksi) concrete were salvaged from a decommissioned bridge in Orem, Utah. Each girder was subjected to a cracking test to determine the residual prestress force after approximately seven years of service life. Once the prestress losses were quantified, a flexural capacity test was performed on one girder and shear capacity tests were performed at various distances from the support on the remaining three girders. The measured losses and capacities were compared to estimated values calculated  according to procedures in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Load and Resistance Factor Design (AASHTO LRFD) Specifications. It was concluded that, in general, the AASHTO LRFD procedures were accurate despite the current limitation of restricting the concrete compressive strength to 68.9 MPs (10.0 ksi). In addition to the physical tests, a nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted using ANSYS that was found to replicate the experimental behavior, failure and mechanism magnitude.
KW  - AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications
KW  - Bending stress
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Girders
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Service life
KW  - Shear tests
KW  - Utah
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/files/CAIT-UTC-004-final_2.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1307062
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01523311
AU  - Barr, Paul J
AU  - Halling, Marv W
AU  - Wells, Zane
AU  - Utah State University, Logan
AU  - Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation
AU  - Utah Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - ABC Deck Panel Testing
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 82p
AB  - Accelerated Bridge Construction techniques have resulted in innovative options that save time and money during the construction of bridges. One such group of techniques that has generated considerable interest is the usage of individual precast concrete decks in place of cast-in-place bridge decks. Utilizing precast concrete decks allow for offsite curing, thus eliminating long delays due to formwork and concrete curing time. These precast concrete decks have inherent joints between the individual panels. These joints are locations for potential leakage, which can lead to corrosion or inadequate long-term performance. Post-tensioning the precast deck panels helps to eliminate leakage; however, conventional longitudinal post-tensioning systems require complete deck replacement in the event of a single faulty deck panel. A proposed post-tensioned, curved strand connection that allows for a single panel replacement was studied for this research. The capacity of the proposed curved strand connection was investigated in order to compare its behavior to other systems that are currently in use.
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Bridge members
KW  - Joints (Engineering)
KW  - Posttensioning
KW  - Precast concrete
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/files/CAIT-UTC-003-final_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1307061
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522377
AU  - Rumsey, Alan
AU  - Colangelo, Lori
AU  - Astell, Nigel
AU  - Ghaly, Nabil
AU  - Delcan Corporation
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An Assessment of the Business Case for Communications-Based Train Control
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 195p
AB  - This study examines the retrofit of Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) on two North American transit properties, namely New York City Transit (NYCT) and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), with the objective of assessing the benefits realized and implementation challenges experienced. The study validates broader industry experience that CBTC offers benefits that cannot be achieved with prior generations of signaling technology. The study also highlights that the challenges in upgrading the signaling/train control systems on an existing high-capacity mass transit system should not be underestimated. To this end, the study recommends that an increased emphasis on a Systems Engineering process be adopted throughout the life-cycle of a CBTC upgrade project. This study provides transit agencies contemplating a CBTC upgrade program with a better understanding of CBTC technology,  as well as a tool to assist in the planning, business case development, and management of CBTC projects.
KW  - Automatic train control
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Communications Based Train Control
KW  - Implementation
KW  - New York City Transit Authority
KW  - Rail transit
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
KW  - Systems engineering
UR  - http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/FTA_REPORT_No._0045.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1303969
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01520710
AU  - Szary, Patrick
AU  - Roda, Andres M
AU  - Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation
AU  - New Jersey Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Bridge Resource Program
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 25p
AB  - The mission of Rutgers University’s Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) Bridge Resource Program (BRP) is to provide bridge engineering support to the New Jersey Department of Transportation's (NJDOT's) Bridge Engineering and Infrastructure Management Unit. The program is a partnership between federal and state transportation agencies and Rutgers University, which provides technical and educational services to address infrastructure needs in New Jersey. CAIT supports the  NJDOT by providing staff and resources to address the most pressing bridge engineering and training challenges in New Jersey (through advanced materials development, design enhancements, construction improvements, evaluation, monitoring, data mining, management enhancement and support, and bridge research). The overarching goal of the Bridge Resource Program is to achieve more effective asset management. This includes consideration and potential adoption of next generation assessment approaches to augment current reliance on qualitative condition metrics with more quantitative performance metrics. Although conventional engineering terms are used in this proposal to describe program services, the proposed tasks within each service will be focused on providing decision making assistance for  concept development. BRP has provided opportunities to bring technologies to NJDOT, review existing practices, and propose the use of new construction techniques to improve asset management, design and construction practices. In addition, it has created a new channel of communication between CAIT and NJDOT that allows for the rapid deployment of innovative technologies. In the future, the BRP is envisioned to continue to identify opportunities for innovation. It is anticipated that new research topics will be borne out of the program. As research is completed, it can return back to the BRP for pilot testing and recommendation for deployment. The cycle of innovation, testing, implementation and need for further innovation can be perpetuated through the creation of similar resource programs.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Bridge engineering
KW  - Bridge management systems
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - New Jersey Department of Transportation
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Technological innovations
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1303631
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516418
AU  - Ukkusuri, Satish V
AU  - Kamga, Camille
AU  - Zhan, Xianyuan
AU  - Qian, Xinwu
AU  - City College of New York of the City University of New York
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Use of Large Scale Datasets for Understanding Traffic Network State
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 66p
AB  - The goal of	 this proposal is to develop novel modeling techniques to infer individual activity patterns from	 the large scale cell phone datasets and taxi data from New York City (NYC). As such large scale,	 disaggregate data provides a unique perspective to understand the complex interactions among human behavior, urban environments and traffic patterns. Urban development shapes the transportation	systems, it determines what kind of transportation system a city has, and what does it look like. As	 an important dynamic	component in urban systems, activities of transportation systems in turn 	 capture the dynamics of the entire urban system and enhance knowledge about the complex urban system. This will ultimately contribute to the improvement of level of service and policy making	on transportation systems. Taxi as a transportation tool has its unique characteristics. It is capable of	capturing urban movement patterns both spatially	and temporally since they serve as real‐time	 probes in the network. Moreover, one may examine the pulse of the city, the gap between supply and demand, real time road congestion and even more. On the other hand, accurate estimation and prediction of urban link travel times are important for improving urban traffic operations and identifying key bottlenecks in the traffic network. They can also benefit users by providing accurate travel time information, thereby allowing better route choice in the network and minimizing overall trip travel time. However, to accurately assess link travel times, it is important to have good real-time information from either in-road sensors such as loop detectors, microwave sensors, or roadside cameras, or mobile sensors (e.g. floating cars) or Global Positioning System (GPS) devices (e.g. cell phones). In most of these cases, only limited information is available related to speed or location, hence, one has to develop appropriate methodologies to accurately estimate the performance metric of interest at the link, path or network level. Taxis equipped with GPS units provide a significant amount of data over days and months thereby providing a rich source of data for estimating network wide performance metrics. However, currently there are limited methodologies making use of this new source of data to estimate link or path travel times in the urban network. Within this context, this study proposes a new method for estimating hourly urban link travel times using large-scale taxicab data with partial information. The taxicab data used in this research provides limited trip information, which only contains the origin and destination location coordinates, travel time and distance of a trip. However, the extensive amount of data records compensates for the incompleteness of the data and makes the link travel time estimation possible. A novel algorithm for estimating the link travel times is also proposed and tested in this research.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - New York (New York)
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Taxicabs
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Trip length
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Final-Report-Traffic-Network-State_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1299690
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01506518
AU  - Silver, Steven
AU  - Mineta Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing Importance and Satisfaction Judgments of Intermodal Work Commuters with Electronic Survey Methodology
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - Recent advances in multivariate methodology provide an opportunity to further the assessment of service offerings in public transportation for work commuting. Methodologies are used that are alternative to direct rating scale and have advantages in the quality and precision of measurement. The alternative of methodology for adaptive conjoint analysis for the measurement of the importance of attributes in service offering is implemented. Rasch scaling methodology is used for the measurement of satisfaction with these attributes. Advantages that these methodologies introduce for assessment of the respective constructs and use of the assessment are discussed. In a first study, the conjoint derived weights were shown to have predictive capabilities in applications to respondent distributions of a fixed total budget to improve overall service offerings. Results with the Rasch model indicate that the attribute measures are reliable and can adequately constitute a composite measure of satisfaction. The Rasch items were also shown to provide a basis to discriminate between privately owned vehicles (POVs) and public transport commuters. Dissatisfaction with uncertainty in travel time and income level of respondents were the best predictors of POV commuting.
KW  - Assessments
KW  - Commuters
KW  - Consumer preferences
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Multivariate analysis
KW  - Santa Clara County (California)
KW  - Surveys
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1127-intermodal-work-commuter-satisfaction-assessment-electronic-methodology.pdf
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/project/1127.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290315
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01506251
AU  - Rakoczy, Anna M
AU  - Nowak, Andrzej S
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of a Guide for Prioritization of Railway Bridges for Repair and Replacement
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 169p
AB  - The objective of this study was to develop evaluation bases for the repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of existing railway bridges. Considering the importance of bridges to the railway network, the research involved the review and analysis of major factors that influence structural performance, e.g., degree of corrosion, loss of material (section loss, holes), fatigue problems, and loose connections. In particular, the research focused on connections, and their importance relative to the evaluation of bridge performance. The relationship between various conditions and the ability to perform the required function (i.e., carry a freight train) was established in the form of maximum capacity. Sensitivity analysis was performed to establish the relationship between load and resistance factors. Results were presented in the form of graphs and tables. The outcomes of this study served as a basis for the development of a decision-making spread sheet. This report provides research documentation and offers a tool for bridge owners for the prioritization of structures for repair/rehabilitation or replacement. The study involved the nonlinear finite element method (FEM) analysis of stringer-to-floorbeam connections, the development of the resistance capacity of typical bridge connections, and the calculation of reduced capacity based on deterioration and other conditions. The findings and final conclusions of this research could serve as a basis for the development of more accurate provisions for the evaluation of railway bridges.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Railroad bridges
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Structural connection
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/assets/documents/matcfinal/Rakoczy_DevelopmentofaGuideforPrioritizationofRailwayBridgesforRepairandReplacement.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290390
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01506236
AU  - Geyer, Michael
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Geometric Analysis of an Observer on a Spherical Earth and an Aircraft or Satellite
PY  - 2013/09//Project Memorandum
SP  - 82p
AB  - This memorandum contains a large amount of technical detail. However, in significant contrast, it addresses an easily-understood and fundamental need in surveillance and navigation systems analysis — quantifying the geometry of two locations relative to each other and to a spherical earth. Here, geometry simply means distances and angles. Sometimes, distances are the lengths of straight lines; in other cases they are the lengths of arcs on the earth’s surface. Similarly, angles may be measured between lines on a plane or between lines on a spherical surface. Because the earth has an established latitude/longitude coordinate system, the approach that first comes to mind is to address this situation as a three-dimensional problem and use vector analysis. However, the approach preferred here is that, to simplify and clarify the analysis process, the three-dimensional problem should be re-cast as two separate two-dimensional problems: vertical plane formulation and spherical surface formulation.
KW  - Aircraft
KW  - Artificial satellites
KW  - Earth
KW  - Formulas
KW  - Geometry
KW  - Navigation systems
KW  - Surveillance
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48500/48549/Project_Memo_DOT-VNTSC-FAA-13-08.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290304
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505750
AU  - Sobolev, Konstantin
AU  - Tabatabai, Habib
AU  - Zhao, Jian
AU  - Flores-Vivian, Ismael
AU  - Muzenski, Scott
AU  - Oliva, Michael G
AU  - Rose, Jeffryd
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Superhydrophobic Engineered Cementitious Composites for Highway Bridge Applications:
Technology Transfer and Implementation
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 74p
AB  - The strength and durability of highway bridges are two of the key components in maintaining a high level of freight transportation capacity on the nation's highways. Superhydrophobic engineered cementitious composite (SECC) is a new advanced concrete material with polyvinyl alcohol fibers and hydrophobic compounds. The improved mechanical performance and improved durability of the material was demonstrated in CFIRE projects 04-09 and 05-10. SECC is an effective substitute to conventional concrete than can improve the strength and durability demanded in key regions of highway bridges. This report discusses the technology transfer of the material through the use of technical publications, conference presentations, and the creation of a web-based platform dedicated to the material. The implementation of the material as a link slab on a ramp leading to a parking structure is also discussed.
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Engineered materials
KW  - Fiber composites
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Technology transfer
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0603.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1284802
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505736
AU  - Rinker, Dylan
AU  - Beyerlein, Steve
AU  - Odom, Edwin
AU  - Hess, Herb
AU  - National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Formula Hybrid SAE
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - User-friendly tools are needed for undergraduates to learn about component sizing, powertrain integration, and control strategies for student competitions involving hybrid vehicles. A TK Solver tool was developed at the University of Idaho for this purpose. The model simulates each of the dynamic events in the Formula Hybrid Society of Automotive Engineers (FHSAE) competition, predicting average speed, acceleration, and fuel consumption for different track segments. Model inputs included manufacturer's data along with bench tests of electrical and internal combustion (IC) engine components and roll-down data. This vehicle performance model was used to design the 2014 vehicle’s hybrid architecture, determine the energy allocation, and to select the batteries. Model predictions have been validated in full vehicle tests under simulated race conditions. The TK Solver tool has proven effective in making decisions about sizing gasoline and electric power components, establishing an optimal coupling connection between the electric motor and the gasoline engine, selecting and configuring the battery pack, tuning the gasoline engine, and making recommendations for energy management under different driving conditions. The resulting vehicle is being readied to compete in the 2014 FHSAE competition.
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Electric batteries
KW  - Hybrid vehicles
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Power train components
KW  - Power trains
KW  - Society of Automotive Engineers
KW  - University of Idaho
KW  - Vehicle components
KW  - Vehicle design
KW  - Vehicle tests
UR  - http://tranliveutc.org/~/media/Files/orgs/ENGR/Research/NIATT/TranLIVE/Final%20Reports/KLK908_FinalReport_v4
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285415
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505730
AU  - Sobolev, Konstantin
AU  - Nosonovsky, Michael
AU  - Krupenkin, Tom
AU  - Flores-Vivian, Ismael
AU  - Rao, Sunil
AU  - Kozhukhova, Marina
AU  - Hejazi, Vahid
AU  - Muzenski, Scott
AU  - Bosch, Brandon
AU  - Rivero, Rossana
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Anti-Icing and De-Icing Superhydrophobic Concrete to Improve the Safety on Critical Elements
on Roadway Pavements
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 54p
AB  - Icy roads lead to treacherous driving conditions in regions of the United States resulting in over 450 fatalities per year. De-icing chemicals, such as rock salt help to reduce ice formation on roadways to an extent, however also result in detrimental effects to concrete and especially reinforced concrete. The creation of an icephobic concrete can provide a much extended lifespan for critical elements of bridges and other transportation infrastructure. Moreover, the use of icephobic materials in highway infrastructure can significantly reduce the need for maintenance. With increasing costs for de-icing and anti-icing materials currently used on highways, and considering new environmental regulations, the need for new icephobic cementitious composites which can provide the required durability and mechanical response for critical elements of transportation infrastructure is evident. In this research, superhydrophobic siloxane admixtures were applied to concrete surfaces rendering them icephobic. These superhydrophobic admixtures were developed and investigated to reduce the ice adhesion to concrete surfaces. In addition, the proposed method involves the engineering of the hierarchical structure for concrete wearing surface by optimization of aggregates and the use of fibers. The research demonstrated that the best water repellent materials (measured by the contact angle) were obtained using polymethyl-hydrogen-siloxane. The addition of fibers and the dilution of the emulsion were found to be the parameters that greatly enhance the hydrophobicity. Diluted emulsions (5% active material) allow the fiber to produce a hierarchical surface of fibers and aggregates so the material has superhydrophobic properties.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Aggregates
KW  - Anti-icing
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Deicing
KW  - Fiber composites
KW  - Hydrophobic properties
KW  - Water repellents
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0703.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285413
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505666
AU  - Zhao, Jian
AU  - Tabatabai, Habib
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Water Absorption Tests for Measuring Permeability of Field Concrete
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 26p
AB  - The research results from the National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE) Project 04-06 were communicated to engineers and researchers in this project. Specifically, the water absorption of concrete samples (i.e., 2-in. thick, 4-in. diameter discs cut from concrete cylinders) was found to be strongly related to the chloride permeability of the samples. A test procedure was proposed based on the comments from the engineers and researchers in the related areas, and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. Tests are needed following this procedure to facilitate the acceptance of the generated data and the comparison with the related data in the literature.
KW  - Absorption
KW  - Chlorides
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Moisture content
KW  - Permeability
KW  - Test procedures
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0605.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1284803
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505591
AU  - Frost, Ethan
AU  - Meier, Paul
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - UW Inventory of Freight Emissions (WIFE3) Heavy Duty Diesel Vehicle Web Calculator Methodology
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 16p
AB  - This document serves as an overview and technical documentation for the University of Wisconsin Inventory of Freight Emissions (WIFE3) calculator. The WIFE3 web calculator rapidly estimates future heavy duty diesel vehicle (HDDV) roadway emissions for the lower 48 United States states. Truck emissions are estimated using two primary data sources: a set of regional speed-dependent emission factors and an inventory of road-way specific truck travel. Emission factors are from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES).
KW  - Calculation
KW  - Diesel engine exhaust gases
KW  - Diesel trucks
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Heavy duty trucks
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
KW  - United States
KW  - Websites (Information retrieval)
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0606.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285211
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502119
AU  - Farr, Victoria
AU  - Regan, Terry
AU  - Morse, Lindsey
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - City of Fresno Peer Exchange on Bus Rapid Transit: A TPCB Peer Exchange
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - This report highlights key recommendations and best practices identified at the peer exchange on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), held on May 21 and May 22, 2013, in Fresno, California. This event was sponsored by the Transportation Planning Capacity Building (TPCB) Peer Program, which is jointly funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and developed with assistance from the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute (NBRTI). Topics include: planning and implementation; planning and project delivery; integrating planning and operations; integrating land use; and financial planning.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Fresno (California)
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Land use
KW  - Peer exchange
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48300/48310/DOT-VNTSC-FTA-13-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1280321
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502087
AU  - Biton, Anna
AU  - Kay, Michael
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Denali National Park: Bus Shuttle System Analysis
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 24p
AB  - This is the first in a series of briefs exploring best practices in the various ways to provide transit service in national parks. While Denali operates in a unique environment, the Visitor Transportation Service experience offers many lessons related to managing natural resources, using performance measures, working effectively with concessioners, and operating shuttle systems. Lessons learned include: strong park leadership and visionary thinking is essential to the success of a shuttle system; flexibility to use franchise fees to fund comprehensive data gathering yields beneficial analysis; limited access for private vehicles to the majority of the park raises the profile of the shuttle system; flexibility of operating agreement leads to sustained improvement in service; and outcome-based approaches foster creativity in operational service planning.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Denali National Park and Preserve
KW  - National parks
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Shuttle buses
KW  - Shuttle service
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/50000/50700/50708/NPS_WASO_2013_DENA_Bus_Shuttle_Analysis.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1280320
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502020
AU  - Rambha, Tarun
AU  - Boyles, Stephen D
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Game Theory and Traffic Assignment
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - Traffic assignment is used to determine the number of users on roadway links in a network. While this problem has been widely studied in transportation literature, its use of the concept of equilibrium has attracted considerable interest in the field of game theory. The approaches used in both transportation and game theory disciplines are explored, and the similarities and dissimilarities between them are studied. In particular, treatment of multiple equilibrium solutions  using equilibrium refinements and learning algorithms which converge to equilibria under incomplete information and/or bounded rationality of players are discussed in detail.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Game theory
KW  - Learning
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Traffic assignment
KW  - Traffic equilibrium
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00065-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1280287
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01499938
AU  - Tisdale, Stacey M
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - U in the Driver Seat – A Peer-to-Peer Pilot Program for Decreasing Car Crashes by College Students
PY  - 2013/09//Summary Report, Final Report
SP  - 55p
AB  - The goal of this project was to build a peer-to-peer (P2P) model, U in the Driver Seat, targeted toward the college-aged audience at two college campuses. Researchers performed the following tasks: conducted pre- and post-assessments of driving risk awareness and self-reported driving behavior, performed field observations of seat belt use and driver’s use of electronic devices,  established a leadership team at each campus, provided safety messages and promotional items to the team, provided ideas for project/safety messaging activities to the team, and assisted the teams in establishing a student-run designated driver program. The objectives of the study included: gaining a better understanding of risk awareness and attitudes toward driving dangers,  measuring success of P2P messaging and activities for a college-aged audience, increasing understanding of safety messaging and design elements effective with this age group, and improving the program model. This summary report describes the established work plan, development, deployment, and findings from the pilot program.
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Behavior
KW  - College students
KW  - Designated drivers
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Messages (Communications)
KW  - Peer groups
KW  - Peer-to-peer communication
KW  - Safety programs
KW  - Seat belt use
KW  - Texas
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00015-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1278027
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01499600
AU  - Winters, Philip L
AU  - Hendricks, Sara J
AU  - Concas, Sisinnio
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Project UCARE: Uniform Commuter Assistance Reporting and Evaluation for Transportation Demand Management Programs
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 79p
AB  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) places emphasis upon results and better management of programs for effective and efficient service delivery. With an increased focus on measuring performance, the transportation demand management (TDM) industry lags other areas of transportation. Without consistent methods of evaluating performance and calculating those benefits, the TDM community is at a distinct disadvantage when transportation investments are being considered at the local, state, and federal levels. This project sought to develop an accurate and sustainable online system to record data and use a consistent and defensible method for calculating the impacts of TDM programs. A literature review and a survey of TDM professionals were used to identify the key outputs and outcomes used today by commuter assistance programs. The data collection tool was pilot tested. The data from the survey are inputs into the standardized societal benefit estimation procedures contained in Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT’s) Trip Reduction Impacts of Mobility Management Strategies (TRIMMS™) model. To facilitate participation and ease of use, the final product, UCARE.TRIMMS, was made an online application.
KW  - Commuter Assistance Programs
KW  - Commuters
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Florida
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Social benefits
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transportation management associations
KW  - Travel demand management
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/NCTR-BDK85-977-22-UCARE-Final-Report-Sept-2013-Commuter-Assistance.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1276844
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497432
AU  - TyreeHageman, Jennifer
AU  - Kurani, Kenneth S
AU  - Caperello, Nicolette
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - ECOtality North America
AU  - California Energy Commission
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - California Department of Transportation
TI  - Community and Social Media Use among Early PEV Drivers
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 21p
AB  - Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are now being offered for sale to consumers, many of whom use social media. This confluence may facilitate the formation of new interest-based communities among  PEV buyers and promote PEVs. This paper presents the results of 28 in-depth interviews with household PEV drivers in San Diego, California. These PEV drivers show wide variation in their descriptions of who they believe PEV drivers to be, conceptualizations of a PEV, uses of social media to engage other members of the community, and socially mediated and face-to-face interactions with other PEV drivers. Responses indicate that social media facilitate but are not sufficient for the development of PEV driver communities with high levels of shared interest.
KW  - Communities
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Plug-in hybrid vehicles
KW  - Social media
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1949
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262943
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497088
AU  - Atchley, Paul
AU  - Geana, Mugur
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Texting and Driving Epidemic: Changing Norms to Change Behavior
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 118p
AB  - This campaign was created to reduce texting and driving and to increase awareness of the serious risks involved with texting and driving. The target audience of the campaign is University of Kansas students. This plan proposes an “Anti-Texting and  Driving Week” that implements guerilla marketing strategies with support from traditional and social media outlets prior to, throughout and after the main event. The campaign is designed to be exportable to other campuses in Kansas and nationwide. The objective of the campaign is to: 1. Increase awareness about the dangers of texting and driving; 2. For those who are not driving, to speak up to the driver; and 3. Change the perception of the students to build a negative connotation of texting and driving. The campaign will utilize the captive audience of the campus environment to deliver messages to students in an unique way in order to create a stigma around texting and driving. The pervasiveness of cell phones and texting and driving provide a formidable challenge, as well as the opportunity to resonate with a larger audience. Strategies included in the campaign are: 1. Place advertisement with the University Daily Kansan focusing on the dangers of texting and driving; 2. Series of 2 advertisements in Jayplay (Campus Newspaper); 3. Create video PSAs and distribute them through social media; 4. Advertise on campus buses where students will frequently be exposed to it; 5. Run a public service announcement on the radio; 6. Create a “Txt L8r. Drive Safer.” Facebook Page; 7. Create a “Txt L8r. Drive Safer.” Twitter account to send campaign update tweets using the hashtag #thumbsonthewheel; 8. Use Facebook ads to direct student attention toward the campaign’s Facebook page; 9. Contact University of Kansas Athletic “celebrities” as well as local Lawrence businesses to promote the cause via Twitter and Facebook; 10. Create an Anti-Texting and Driving Week event on campus; 11. Create a scavenger hunt for students to participate in as part of the event week to raise awareness and increase interaction with the campaign, posting clues online and in the University Daily Kansan; and 12. Partner with Kansas University Student Union Activities (SUA) to put on a benefit concert at the end of the event  week.
KW  - Awareness
KW  - Campuses
KW  - College students
KW  - Driving
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Safety campaigns
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Text messaging
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003830364
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265232
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496778
AU  - Zhang, Ming
AU  - Zhang, Wenjia
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Future Mobility Demand in Megaregions: A National Study with a Focus on the Gulf Coast
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - About three fourth of national population and wealth are concentered in the 11 megaregional  areas that occupy one fourth of the land areas in the United States. The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) reveals that megaregions also concentrate current and future mobility demand. This report presents an approach that utilizes aggregate data for mobility study (for both passenger and freight) in a megaregional scale through a case study of the Gulf Coast megaregion (GCM). GCM exhibits unique travel characteristics relative to the national trend. A preliminary analysis on freight flow was also conducted for the GCM areas utilizing the 2002 and 2007 Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) data. The study shows that the GCM area would experience an enormous amount of mobility growth by year 2050. The per capita traffic volume generated by each traveler in 2050 would double the 2010 level. The total traffic volume in 2050 would grow much faster, four times higher than in 2010. Freight demand in the GCM area is also fast growing. The projected trends of future travel demand  indicate a growing pressure on the transportation infrastructure in GCM. It is unlikely that the demand for high-speed travel can all be met by air travel. Accordingly, planning for megaregional transportation should seriously consider high-speed travel in the form of High Speed Rail (HSR) to accommodate the future travel demand in the GCM area
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Commodity flow
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Gulf Coast (United States)
KW  - High speed ground transportation
KW  - High speed rail
KW  - Megaregions
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00074-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264805
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496744
AU  - Dubey, Subodh K
AU  - Bhat, Chandra R
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - New Spatial Multiple Discrete-Continuous Modeling Approach to Land Use Change Analysis
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 73p
AB  - This report formulates a multiple discrete-continuous probit (MDCP) land-use model within a spatially explicit economic structural framework for land-use change decisions. The spatial MDCP model is capable of predicting both the type and intensity of urban development patterns over large geographic areas, while also explicitly acknowledging geographic proximity-based spatial dependencies in these patterns. At a methodological level, the report focuses on specifying and estimating a spatial MDCP model that allows the dependent variable to exist in multiple discrete states with an intensity associated with each discrete state. The formulation also accommodates spatial dependencies, as well as spatial heterogeneity and heteroscedasticity, in the dependent variable, and should be applicable in a wide variety of fields where social and spatial dependencies between decision agents (or observation units) lead to spillover effects in multiple discrete-continuous choices (or states). A simulation exercise is undertaken to evaluate the ability of the proposed maximum approximate composite marginal likelihood (MACML) approach to recover parameters from a cross-sectional spatial MDCP model. The results show that the MACML approach does well in recovering parameters. An empirical demonstration of the approach is undertaken using the city of Austin parcel level land use data.
KW  - Austin (Texas)
KW  - Land use models
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - Maximum likelihood method
KW  - Probits
KW  - Spatial analysis
KW  - Urban development
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00063-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265106
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496699
AU  - Dubey, Subodh K
AU  - Bhat, Chandra R
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A New Spatial Multiple Discrete-Continuous Modeling Approach to Land Use Change Analysis
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 73p
AB  - This report formulates a multiple discrete-continuous probit (MDCP) land-use model within a spatially explicit economic structural framework for land-use change decisions. The spatial MDCP model is capable of predicting both the type and intensity of urban development patterns over large geographic areas, while also explicitly acknowledging geographic proximity-based spatial dependencies in these patterns. At a methodological level, the report focuses on specifying and estimating a spatial MDCP model that allows the dependent variable to exist in multiple discrete states with an intensity associated with each discrete state. The formulation also accommodates spatial dependencies, as well as spatial heterogeneity and heteroscedasticity, in the dependent variable, and should be applicable in a wide variety of fields where social and spatial dependencies between decision agents (or observation units) lead to spillover effects in multiple discrete-continuous choices (or states). A simulation exercise is undertaken to evaluate the ability of the proposed maximum approximate composite marginal likelihood (MACML) approach to recover parameters from a cross-sectional spatial MDCP model. The results show that the MACML approach does well in recovering parameters. An empirical demonstration of the approach is undertaken using the city of Austin parcel level land use data.
KW  - Austin (Texas)
KW  - Land use
KW  - Land use models
KW  - Maximum likelihood method
KW  - Probits
KW  - Spatial analysis
KW  - Urban development
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00063-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265881
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496686
AU  - Liu, Litao
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Methodology for Developing Performance-related Specifications for Pavement Preservation Treatments
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 189p
AB  - Current materials and construction specifications for pavement preservation treatments are predominantly prescriptive and they have little or no methodical linkage between initial treatment quality and future performance. There is an imperative need for performance-related specifications (PRS) that link the initial quality of pavement preservation treatments to their long-term performance and life-cycle costs so that rational pay adjustment and acceptance decisions can be made. However, the current literature lacks a methodology for developing PRS for pavement preservation treatments. The aim of this research is to fill this gap in the literature, with focus on thin hot mix asphalt (HMA) overlays. In this dissertation, a novel approach was devised for developing performance prediction models for pavements that received preservation treatments. In this approach, the model consists of two tightly-coupled components: the first component is responsible for predicting the performance (e.g., International Roughness Index (IRI)) of the existing pavement if no treatment was applied. The second component is responsible for predicting the reduction in pavement deterioration due to the application of the treatment. Inputs to the first component include material and construction properties of the existing pavement layers, climatic conditions, and traffic factors. Inputs to the second component include the treatment’s acceptance quality characteristics (AQCs), climatic conditions, and traffic factors. The artificial neural networks (ANNs) and the Bayesian regression methods were used for developing the two model components. Using this approach, a model was developed for predicting the IRI of flexible pavement treated with thin HMA overlay. The data used for developing and testing this model was obtained from the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) database. A PRS methodology was developed for quantifying the difference between the initial quality levels of as-constructed and as-designed treatments. This methodology consists of a novel approach for determining the probability distributions of service life and present-worth value (PWV). This approach allows for transforming the probabilistic distribution of future IRI (predicted by the Bayesian model) into probability distributions for service life and PWV. Pay factors are then estimated based on the difference between the as-constructed and target PWVs. Finally, this dissertation provides insights into the relationships between initial quality (measured in terms of both mean and standard deviation of key acceptance quality characteristics) and expected pay factors through analysis of real world case studies of asphalt pavements treated with thin HMA overlays.
KW  - Bayes' theorem
KW  - Bituminous overlays
KW  - Hot mix asphalt
KW  - International Roughness Index
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Long-Term Pavement Performance Program
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - Neural networks
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Performance based specifications
KW  - Preservation
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00022-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265104
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496625
AU  - Holloway, Bill
AU  - Spahr, Chris
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Madison
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Getting the Goods without the Bads: Freight Transportation Demand Management Strategies to
Reduce Urban Impacts
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 86p
AB  - This project identifies and evaluates strategies to reduce the social costs associated with goods movement in urban areas by managing transportation demand. Information about various freight transportation demand management (TDM) strategies was gathered through a review  of literature, an online survey, and interviews with implementers. Strategies are compared based on their costs, benefits, and implementation difficulty. Case studies of six cities in the United States using innovative freight TDM strategies are also provided.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Costs
KW  - Externalities
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Travel demand management
KW  - United States
KW  - Urban goods movement
UR  - http://www.ssti.us/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Final-FreightReport.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265886
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495385
AU  - D’Souza, Kelwyn A
AU  - Maheshwari, Sharad K
AU  - Eastern Seaboard Intermodal Transportation Applications Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Research Framework for Studying Transit Bus Driver Distraction
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 79p
AB  - The increase in transit bus ridership nationally during the past ten years, along with the proliferation of personal electronic control and communication gadgets is causing more distractions for the drivers. Earlier research studies have found driver distraction to be a significant cause of accidents on the highway. The transit bus driver distraction has received limited attention in the literature even though transit bus accidents may cause more injuries due to larger number of passengers. Unlike personal vehicles, where most of the distraction is within the control of the driver, for transit vehicles, some distractions are caused by factors beyond the driver’s control such as operating additional equipment, attending to passengers, and communicating with the operations center. Due to lack of reporting of distractions by transit drivers and very limited research studies, transit bus driver distraction is not clearly understood and no established research framework is available to conduct a detailed study of transit bus drivers’ distraction. Every study at a transit agency is conducted independently from start to finish at the cost of additional time and resources. The objective of this project was to develop a modular research framework for studying transit bus driver distractions. The framework would provide a transit agency with a set of standardized modular methodologies for studying distraction over a wide range of cost and time intervals. An agency could choose one or more modules to suit their study requirements. These modules for data collection, analysis, validation, and interpretation and usage of results are designed on the basis of in-depth studies and tests at transit agencies in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The results are reproduced in this report for purposes of illustrating the type of outputs obtainable from the framework and are not meant to reflect the accuracy of the data and model results. The major deliverables from this project are as follows: The research framework structure consisting of four modules; Standardized processes for data collection and analysis; Identifying sources, duration, and driver’s perception of distraction; Method of classifying distracting activities into risk zones; Appropriate statistical models to determine the significant factors that impact the levels of distraction; Methods to access model fit and validate the model results; Guidelines on interpreting and using the results; and Recommendations for improving the model results.
KW  - Bus drivers
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Data interpretation
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Research methodology
KW  - Validation
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://docs.hamptonu.edu/student/4907-framework_for_studying_bus_driver_distraction_2013_20131001122817.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264708
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495242
AU  - Hallmark, Shauna
AU  - Turner, Jordan
AU  - Albrecht, Chris
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Synthesis of Work-Zone Performance Measures
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 64p
AB  - The main objective of this synthesis was to identify and summarize how agencies collect, analyze, and report different work-zone traffic-performance measures, which include exposure, mobility, and safety measures. The researchers also examined communicating performance to the public. This toolbox provides knowledge to help state departments of transportation (DOTs), as well as counties and cities, to better address reporting of work-zone performance.
KW  - Cities
KW  - Counties
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Syntheses
KW  - Work zone safety
KW  - Work zone traffic control
UR  - http://publications.iowa.gov/15061/1/IA_DOT_SWZDI_TPF-5%28081%29_work-zone_perf_msrsr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264186
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493300
AU  - Hardman, Matt
AU  - Wilson, Thomas
AU  - Chen, Suren
AU  - Colorado State University, Fort Collins
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Seismic Vulnerability Analysis of Bridges in Mountainous States
PY  - 2013/09
SP  - 40p
AB  - Depending on the location, highway bridges can often support considerable amounts of traffic. Due to the limitations on current earthquake forecasting techniques, a normal amount of traffic will also typically remain on a bridge when an earthquake occurs. In addition to traffic, scour effects are also a potential hazard to bridge piers that may simultaneously impact the structural integrity of the bridge together with seismic loads. Although a few studies investigating the combined effect of extreme and service loads have been conducted on long-span bridges or in high-seismic zones, the studies on typical short- and medium-span bridges in low and moderate seismic zones are rare. A general dynamic simulation methodology is introduced to study the combined realistic service and extreme loads on short- and medium-span bridges. Following the introduction of the methodology, a numerical study investigating the seismic performance of a typical highway bridge in mountainous states is carried out. The bridge is subjected to different combinations of traffic, seismic, and scour and the effects on the structural performance of the bridge are investigated. The bridge, including both superstructure and substructure, is modeled in detail using SAP2000 to accommodate the goals of this study. The traffic load is considered through dynamic interaction analysis of vehicles in the simulated stochastic traffic flow. Through studying the bridge performance under various combined extreme and service loads, findings are made about controlling cases for different bridge responses and the validity of the traditional superposition approach with consideration to load combinations is also discussed. As the initial effort studied the bridge performance under multiple service and extreme loads, this study sheds some light on more comprehensive studies for the future.
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Mountains
KW  - Performance tests
KW  - Scour
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Traffic loads
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC13-255.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262921
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493136
AU  - Thomas, Jeremiah
AU  - Rahman, Farhana
AU  - Hossain, Mustaque
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Investigation of Aged Hot-Mix Asphalt Pavements
PY  - 2013/09//Final Report
SP  - 105p
AB  - Over the lifetime of an asphalt concrete (AC) pavement, the roadway requires periodic resurfacing and rehabilitation to provide  acceptable performance. The most popular resurfacing method is an asphalt overlay over the existing roadway. In the design of asphalt  overlays, the thickness is related to the structural strength of the existing pavement. As the layers are overlaid their structural  characteristics change due to aging of asphalt. However, currently there is no method to determine the effect of aging on the strength of  existing pavement layers. This study examined structural characterization of six pavement test sections in Kansas using three different test methods: Falling  Weight Deflectometer (FWD), Portable Seismic Property Analyzer (PSPA), and Indirect Tensile (IDT) tests. The results were analyzed to  determine how the modulus of an AC pavement layer changes over time.  The results indicate that as the AC pavement ages, its modulus decreases due to pavement deterioration. The most prominent cause  for AC pavement deterioration was observed to be stripping. Two of the test sections on US-169 and K-4 showed little signs of stripping  and had a minimal reduction or even an increase in AC moduli. The analyzed results from different test methods for moduli were inconclusive as far as any correlation among the methods is  concerned. While the correlation between various test methods studied was mostly consistent for a particular roadway, no universal  correlation was found for all pavement sections tested. Fatigue test results show that older pavement layers have a higher propensity for fatigue failure than the newer layers. However,  some older pavement layers showed excellent fatigue life. Fatigue results correlated well with the condition of the cores as assessed by  visual observation.
KW  - Aging (Materials)
KW  - Asphalt concrete pavements
KW  - Falling weight deflectometers
KW  - Fatigue tests
KW  - Hot mix asphalt
KW  - Indirect tensile test
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Modulus of elasticity
KW  - Portable seismic property analyzer
KW  - Stripping (Pavements)
KW  - Test procedures
KW  - Test sections
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003829561
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262482
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496716
AU  - Fathy, Hosam K
AU  - Sandu, Corina
AU  - Unnikrishnan, Avinash
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - West Virginia University, Morgantown
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Stochastic Approach to Online Vehicle State and Parameter Estimation, with Application to Inertia Estimation for Rollover Prevention and Battery Charge/Health Estimation
PY  - 2013/08/31/Final Report
SP  - 82p
AB  - This report summarizes research conducted at Penn State, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia University on the development of algorithms based on the generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) expansion for the online estimation of automotive and transportation system parameters from experimental data. The authors used gPC estimation for determining the state of charge and state of health of a lithium-ion battery in real time, and also for the determination of road-vehicle inertial parameters in real time. The overarching goals in these two applications are to improve vehicle safety through better battery diagnostics and better inertia estimate-based rollover prevention. The authors performed experimental validation studies for both of these applications. Finally, the authors began exploring the application of  gPC-based estimation for stochastic traffic flow models.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Battery charging
KW  - Inertia (Mechanics)
KW  - Lithium batteries
KW  - Polynomials
KW  - Rollover crashes
KW  - Stochastic processes
KW  - Vehicle safety
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/mautc-2010-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265498
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01499621
AU  - Marron, Daniel R
AU  - Corr, David
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Research Engineering Group: Final Report
PY  - 2013/08/29/Final Report
SP  - 393p
AB  - The Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) is a National University Transportation Center (UTC), originally established at Northwestern University (NU) in 1993. ITI develops strategies and tools to protect and improve the condition, capacity and performance of the nation’s highway, railroad, and mass transit infrastructure systems. Within the Institute is a core group of full time professional engineering staff directly employed by ITI. This Research Engineering Group (REG) is dedicated to supporting the overall mission  of ITI while also conducting its own applied research program. For the faculty researchers, the REG provides continuity of experience, expertise, and personnel. Northwestern undergraduate, graduate, and work study students collaborated closely with the REG staff and benefited from field experience on research projects. This final report encompasses the activities undertaken by the REG during the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) grant. The REG final report begins with introductory material covering the overall objectives, approach, and methods of the REG. This is followed by a summary the REG’s own applied research and education programs for each of the five years of the project. Lastly, are the individual technical task documents which contain a complete digest of all methodology, findings, and conclusions.
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Research
KW  - Research projects
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Transportation engineering
UR  - http://www.iti.northwestern.edu/research/completed/safetea-lu/REG_final_20131029_2105.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1266521
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505592
AU  - Shenton, Harry W
AU  - Seymour, Peter
AU  - Delaware Center for Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Resiliency of Bridges on the BOSFOLK Corridor
PY  - 2013/08/26/Final Report
SP  - 89p
AB  - Built with a design life of 50-years, many of the bridges on the Boston to Norfolk (BOSFOLK) corridor are nearing the end of their design life. As the bridges on the BOSFOLK corridor near the end of their design life, one might ask, how resilient were the bridges on the corridor? How did the bridges on I-95 perform compared to those not on the corridor? And what can be learned from the BOSFOLK corridor about the durability and long-term performance of bridges? The objective of this research was to investigate, assess, and document the historic resiliency of bridges on the BOSFOLK corridor through a systematic investigation of historic data from the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database from the period 1992 through 2009. Two different perspectives were considered in this study – the “macroview” perspective and the “microview” perspective. The macroview approach used a very broad definition of the corridor that included more than 78,000 bridges. The microview approach used a much more narrowly defined view that included just under 38,000 bridges.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Durability
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - National Bridge Inventory
KW  - Northeast Corridor
KW  - Transportation corridors
UR  - http://www.ce.udel.edu/UTC/downloads2013/UTC_Final_Report_Shenton_Seymour.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285406
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495328
TI  - Area Coverage Provided by Vehicle to Vehicle Communication in an Urban Network
AB  - Connected Vehicle research has emerged as one of the highest priorities in the transportation field. The information obtained from Connected Vehicles has the potential of providing local and area-wide traffic management solutions which is desperately needed in most large urban areas. The reliability and the frequency of this transmitted information have to be addressed to ensure that the users can properly utilize this information to solve traffic management issues. This research investigates the area covered in space and in time by Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication in an urban network based on different market penetration rates of equipped vehicles and wireless communication coverage distances. This research will give the analyst the ability to assess the coverage level and the frequency of the information obtained from the equipped vehicles for different penetration scenarios, and determines the utility of the investment for different vehicle systems deployment levels. So, these study findings will be useful for making decisions about investments in cooperative vehicles in relation to the expected increase in traffic efficiency.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Mobile communication systems
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264879
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01572675
TI  - Direct Drive AC Rim Motor for Responsive Energy Control of Alternative Electric Vehicle
AB  - The purpose of this project is to investigate environmentally sustainable and safe solutions for alternative vehicles by applying an innovative direct drive power train to a competition model Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Formula Electric Vehicle. The project will meet the goal of Environmental Sustainability by increasing the range and efficiency of an electric vehicle through improved regeneration capabilities and an innovative lightweight "rim motor" topology that converts energy closer to the point of use, thereby making electric vehicles more attractive. This design displaces normal auto emissions to the power generation sector, where the energy can be supplied by renewables or in such a manner that emissions can be more cleanly handled. The project will meet the goal of Safety by allowing for true four wheel direct drive which improves vehicle turning radius, shortens braking time, prevents sliding due to loss of traction, and places both drive torque and regeneration directly at the wheels.
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Engines
KW  - Environmental protection
KW  - Light vehicles
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Power trains
KW  - Range (Vehicles)
KW  - Renewable energy sources
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Vehicle design
UR  - http://tranliveutc.org/engr/research/niatt/tranlive/database/dtrt12gutc17-klk912
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1364761
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516352
AU  - Lewis, M Phil
AU  - Jeong, "David" Hyung Seok
AU  - Woldesenbet, Asregedew
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Data and Information Integration Framework for Highway Project Decision Making
PY  - 2013/08/21/Final Report
SP  - 126p
AB  - This report presents a three-tiered framework to integrate data, information, and decision-making in highway projects. The study uses the Juran’s Triple Role concept and context graph to illustrate the relationship between data, information, and decision-making. The study discusses the complexity of data and information flow through a conceptual 3-D data flow diagram. The evolution of data and information integration in highway agencies is also outlined in the report. Potential methodologies in extracting information from raw qualitative and quantitative data are summarized. The developed framework was applied to three case studies; a) construction daily work reports, b) preconstruction cost estimation, and c) pavement management. In each case study, the three-tiered framework was applied and the current and ideal level of data and information integration for key decisions were identified and areas for improvement were also identified. The developed framework will guide departments of transportation (DOTs) on how to generate and place right information and knowledge in the hands of decision-makers. The implementation of the framework will empower engineers to make informed and justifiable decisions, and lead to the improved accountability of project development and management. In addition, it will allow the active utilization of currently existing databases and justify the continuous and growing data collection efforts by DOTs. Furthermore, DOTs will be able to measure their performances and develop an advanced data collection and information/knowledge generation plan to support key decisions which historically were not well supported with information and data.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Construction projects
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Highways
KW  - Information organization
KW  - Project management
KW  - State departments of transportation
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-30-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300095
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493131
AU  - Fraser, Janet L
AU  - Jovanis, Paul P
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - SHRP2 Naturalistic Driving Study Phase I Summary – State College, PA Data Collection Site
PY  - 2013/08/16/Final Report
SP  - 21p
AB  - The Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2) Naturalistic Driving Study is the largest naturalistic driving study undertaken, collecting data from six sites around the United States, including State College, PA.  Recruitment and admission of human subjects into the study is described, emphasizing the efforts to protect the confidentiality of subjects.  Assessments relating to the driving task that are conducted on subjects are explained in detail for procedure and purpose.  The instrumentation of the vehicle is also explained in detail with illustrations.  In the process of enrolling subjects in the study, several trends were noted, including a high prevalence of Toyota Priuses in those interested in participating.  Finally, the eventual role the data set will have for transportation research is discussed.
KW  - Automatic data collection systems
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Naturalistic driving data
KW  - State College (Pennsylvania)
KW  - Strategic Highway Research Program 2
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/PSU-2010-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262434
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553059
TI  - Distracted Driving - It is not Always a Choice
AB  - The proposed research seeks to identify the influence of roadway complexity on the performance of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) afflicted drivers. This sub-population of drivers, when not medicated, does not appear to be able to eliminate being distracted. However, the influence of medication on these drivers, relative to non-ADHD drivers and non-medicated ADHD drivers is not well known. One of the most dangerous locations for these drivers is work zones along the freeways. Equipment, singnage and other items within the work zone contribute to visually complexity and as such may result in an increase in the frequency of driver distractions. Because non-medicated ADHD drivers are more distractable than their non-ADHD counterparts, one would expect to observe an increase in unsafe driving behaviors for these non-medicated ADHD drivers relative to non-ADHD drivers within these environments. How well medicated ADHD drivers relative to non-ADHD drivers respond to these visually complex roadway environments is not currently known. To address these questions, we will test both ADHD and non-ADHD drivers using a fixed base driving simulator. These two groups of participants will be required to "drive" a variety of roadway routes that vary in visual scene complexity. The ADHD participants will "drive" the routes both when they are normally medicated and when, by their physician's direction, they are non-medicated. The total number of routes driven by both groups will be equal. We are anticipating a sample of 20 ADHD and 20 non-ADHD college age participants. No driving performance differences between the non-ADHD and the medicated group of participants are expected. We do expect to see and interaction between visual scene complexity and non-medicated ADHD and non-ADHD participants such that as visual complexity increases, the non-medicated ADHD participants should be more distracted than the non-ADHD participants. At low levels of visual scene complexity, we expect no performance differences between the two groups. Once we are able to identify the influence of roadway complexity on distracted driving for both ADHD and non-ADHD participants, it should be possible to develop technologies to re-attract drivers. These distracted driving results will be disseminated to schools, driving schools, and physicians as well as the participants in the study. A website detailing the results of distracted driving from this study, and when available, from other studies will be developed. The dissemination of the results to schools and other interested parties is in keeping with the Southern Transportation Research Innovaiton, Development and Education (STRIDE's) core mission.
KW  - Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Visualization
KW  - Work zones
UR  - http://www.stride.ce.ufl.edu/2013-projects
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343132
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516604
AU  - Frazier, Jonathan
AU  - Peckett, Haley
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
TI  - Regional Alternative Transportation Evaluation Report – Region 4
PY  - 2013/08/15/Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Volpe  Center conducted a regional alternative transportation evaluation (RATE) in Region 4, which is comprised of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The RATE helps to ensure effective consideration and integration of alternative transportation systems into the goals and recommendations of the Region 4 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). The Region 4  RATE also serves as a pilot for the integration of ATS into the National FWS LRTP and provides lessons on how ATS may be instituted more broadly across Region 4.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - National Wildlife Refuge System
KW  - Nonmotorized transportation
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Puerto Rico
KW  - Southeastern United States
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
KW  - U.S. Virgin Islands
KW  - Water transportation
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/50000/50600/50660/DOT-VNTSC-FWS-13-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290549
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497807
TI  - The Effects of Reduced Mowing in Medians on Storm Water Filtration and Invasive Species Management
AB  - The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) Maintenance Division has been considering reducing or eliminating mowing of rights of way as a way to reduce costs. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has been encouraging reduced mowing as a way to increase native vegetation along roads. Except for the clear zone, it is expected that a reduction in mowing will result in increased growth of tall grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees as this is the normal succession pattern in New England. The challenges are to allow the forest to return outside of the clear zone while maintaining or improving the capacity of the vegetation to filter storm water and to ensure that the vegetation community which develops is dominated by native trees and shrubs and not the many invasive species common in Rhode Island. This project aims to 1) analyze whether managed and unmanaged vegetation communities (frequently mowed, annually mowed, forest) on roadway medians differ in their capacity to remove pollutants from storm water, and 2) survey plant community changes due to natural succession in roadside grasslands where mowing is reduced or eliminated in order to assess the probability of colonization by invasive species.
KW  - Drainage
KW  - Invasive plants
KW  - Medians
KW  - Mowing
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Vegetation
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1268072
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522380
AU  - Ozbulut, Osman  E
AU  - University of Virginia, Charlottesville
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Feasibility of Using Shape Memory Alloys to Develop Self Post-Tensioned Concrete Bridge Girders
PY  - 2013/08/13/Final Report
SP  - 19p
AB  - Post-tensioned (PT) structural elements are used quite often in bridges due to their ability to span long widths economically while providing an aesthetically pleasing structure. PT systems are also preferred in bridge construction because they greatly increase structural capacities and are fairly easy to implement effectively. Although PT systems provide many advantages for designers and constructors, these systems have raised concerns regarding corrosion of the PT tendons. The degree of corrosion of PT tendons is critical to the structural performance of PT systems and the cost to replace tendons can exceed several hundred thousand dollars per tendon. Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are a class of smart materials that have unique properties such as excellent re-centering ability, good energy dissipation capacity, excellent fatigue resistance, and high corrosion resistance. This project investigated the feasibility of developing self post-tensioned (SPT) bridge girders by activating the shape memory effect of SMAs using the heat of  hydration of grout. In particular, the project investigated the temperature increase due to the heat of hydration of grout. A typical plastic cylinder was filled with grout at room temperature to monitor the temperature inside the duct during the grout’s hydration. Three commercially available grouts were considered in the tests: Euclid, Sika Grout 300 PT, and Five Star Special Grout 400. The grouts were mixed in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendation. A single steel tendon was placed in the center. A thermocouple was attached at that tendon within the duct to measure the temperature. A data acquisition system was used to collect the temperature data for 48 hours. The variation of the temperature versus time was examined.
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Girders
KW  - Grout
KW  - Heat of hydration
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Posttensioning
KW  - Shape memory alloys
KW  - Smart materials
KW  - Temperature measurement
KW  - Tendons (Materials)
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UVA-2013-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1303874
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01518892
AU  - Gopalakrishna, Deepak
AU  - Cluett, Chris
AU  - Klein, Rachel
AU  - Khaleda, Kaniz
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Road Weather Management Performance Measures – 2012 Update
PY  - 2013/08/06/Final Report
SP  - 125p
AB  - In 2007, the Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) conducted a study with stakeholders from the  transportation and meteorological communities to define eleven performance measures that would enable  the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to determine the extent to which its goals were being met. In  2010, FHWA led a task to quantify these performance measures. This report documents a follow-on task to  update these performance measures using information which became available since 2012. The focus of  this update includes: (1) reviewing existing measures for their continued suitability, strengths, and  weaknesses for assessing performance, (2) determining changes to the baseline conditions for existing  measures using updated and new data sources, (3) incorporating new performance measures around  reliability, the operations efficiency index (OEI), Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), and Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act – A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU’s) Section 1201 rule, (4) identifying refinements necessary to the existing performance measurement  framework and developing a plan to quantify the measures; and (5) quantifying all existing and new  performance measures using current data to create a 2012 RWMP performance assessment report. The  following document includes a discussion on the background for the development and update of RWMP  performance measures, the evolution of the measures since 2007 including the approach and data sources  used, a description of each RWMP objective and the quantification of each associated measure, and an  overall assessment of the RMWP based on the performance measures tracked.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Road Weather Management Program
KW  - Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51065/26615E33.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302117
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01518811
AU  - Cybulski, Jonathan D
AU  - Harvard University
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Transportation Infrastructure Resiliency: A Review of Transportation Infrastructure Resiliency in Light of Future Impacts of Climate Change
PY  - 2013/08/06
SP  - 23p
AB  - The threat of global climate change and its impact on our world’s infrastructure is a rapidly growing reality. Particularly, as seen in recent storm events such as Hurricane Katrina and Sandy in the United States, transportation infrastructure is on the front lines of seeing damaging impacts that are costly to repair. Although the world is becoming increasingly aware that climate change is quickly changing the physical landscape, little has been done in preparation for the coming changes. Cities, states, and in some instances countries have put together in depth climate resiliency plans outlining steps that would help in preparation for the coming changes; these plans are not common enough, and are divided and unfunded. There needs to be more action towards the protection of our transportation infrastructure, an entity that impacts the lives of people on a daily basis.
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Resilience (Adaptability)
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - United States
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51100/51162/CYBULSKI_Transportation_Infrastructure_Resiliency_2414.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301942
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489774
TI  - Bridge Deck Cracking: Effects on In-Service Performance, Prevention, and Remediation
AB  - The purpose of this project is to assess the effects of cracking on long-term performance, to determine the causes of bridge deck cracking and to provide recommendations for the prevention and remediation of the causes found.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Preventive maintenance
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Remediation
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259245
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01577989
TI  - Bio-Oils from Oilseed Byproduct Feedstock
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Oils
KW  - Seeds
KW  - Waste products
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1371363
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01575936
TI  - Oil Extraction from Non-Food Oilseeds for Renewable Fuel Production
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Fuels
KW  - Oils
KW  - Renewable energy sources
KW  - Resource extraction
KW  - Seeds
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1368944
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01532800
TI  - Improving Livability Using Green and Active Modes: A Traffic Stress Level Analysis of Transit, Bicycle, and Pedestrian Access and Mobility
AB  - The objective of this research is to develop, apply, evaluate, and enhance a geographic based evaluation and optimization model for transit service using an advanced algorithmic based model and geographic information systems (GIS) tools. One of the novel aspects of the research is the use of expanded state space dynamic programming. An aspect of the research deals with building a model that captures the relationship between bicycle and walk access modes in determining transit service area. It is our desire to investigate the impact of bicycle use on transit mode share. The project endeavors to find ways to improve the state of the practice through lessons learned by comparing algorithmic models built on advanced geographic modeling and network analysis.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/mntrc/research/utc-info.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1318449
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01532653
TI  - Highway Rockfall Measurements Using LIDAR
AB  - This project plans to advance our measurement technologies of rockfall on 1 or moreclocal highway rock cuts using the laser radar (LIDAR) techniques that have developed. Previous research has shown a tentative relationship between rockfall and rainfall. This time used on installing nested piezometers to measure groundwater pressures behind the rock face so that the Principal Investigator (PI) can correlate not only rainfall and freeze-thaw cycles with the rock fall quantities, but also the cumulate buildup of water pressure behind the face. As a result the project hopes to be able to determine why some rainfalls cause rockfalls while others do not. Anticipated benefits include the advancement of a modeling capability, as well as some insight as to whether installing passive drainage in highway rock cuts would serve to decrease rockfall.
KW  - Freeze thaw durability
KW  - Groundwater
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Rainfall
KW  - Rock excavation
KW  - Rockfalls
KW  - Water pressure
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r364/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1318016
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01530503
TI  - Structural Health Monitoring and Remote Sensing of Transportation Infrastructure Using Embedded Frequency Selective Surfaces
AB  - Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) have long been used in the RF/microwave community to control Radar Cross-Section. The scattering parameters of the FSS form a signature which is a function of the frequency, element size and spacing, as well as the local electromagnetic environment, but with proper design is largely independent of angle. These attributes can be related to engineering parameters of a transportation structure such as strain, temperature, moisture, and damage such as cracking or delamination. The project will integrate a FSS into a structure (initially on the surface and eventually embedded within layers). This will allow the properties of the structure to be remotely detected. This application of FSS has significant potential for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). For example the strain on gusset plates as well as other parts of a bridge can be detected from a considerable standoff. Other applications that will be considered are embedding FSS into concrete or composites. Each of these require effective manufacturing approaches which will begin to develop. After implementation, a in service component can be quickly and remotely interrogated for damage, initially using standard microwave network-analyzer/antennas. Additional localized inspection can be performed on an asneeded basis to determine more detailed information regarding local strain field (or other relevant parameters).
KW  - Delamination
KW  - Embedded systems
KW  - Gusset plates
KW  - Microwaves
KW  - Moisture content
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Strain (Mechanics)
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r365/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316138
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01517400
TI  - Assessment of Active Karst Features in Proximity to Paved Roadways
AB  - In an effort to better understand and define the lateral and vertical extent of active karst features in immediate proximity to paved municipal roadways in Nixa Missouri, the Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS&amp;T) will acquire electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data. The intent is to use this non-invasive technology to map the lateral and vertical extent of the active karst features so that appropriate mitigation plans can be developed.
KW  - Electrical resistivity
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Karst
KW  - Mapping
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Traffic lanes
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r367/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301293
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497974
TI  - High Performance Bridge Systems for Lifeline Corridors in the Pacific Northwest
AB  - Reinforced concrete bridges in seismic regions have changed little since the mid-1970s, when ductile details were first introduced. Nearly all bents (intermediate supports) are constructed of cast-in-place reinforced concrete and conventional reinforcing steel. Such bridges have served the Pacific Northwest (PNW) well in the past, but to meet current performance expectations, new structural systems are needed to improve: seismic resilience, speed of construction, durability, and life-cycle costs. Improving seismic performance increases the safety of the travelling public, both by reducing the possibility of collapse and also, by allowing emergency vehicles to use the structure immediately following an earthquake.  Reducing the onsite construction time further improves  safety by reducing the amount of time that workers will be exposed to traffic hazards. It is not enough to develop new systems. Once these new systems have been developed, it will be necessary from bridge engineers to have sufficient information to be able to select the appropriate one for a particular application.
KW  - Durability
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Pacific Northwest
KW  - Reinforced concrete bridges
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Service life
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277017
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497436
AU  - Vij, Akshay
AU  - University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Incorporating the Influence of Latent Modal Preferences in Travel Demand Models
PY  - 2013/08/01
SP  - 155p
AB  - Latent modal preferences, or modality styles, are defined as behavioral predispositions towards a certain travel mode or set of travel modes that an individual habitually uses. They are reflective of higher-level orientations, or lifestyles, that are hypothesized to influence all dimensions of an individual’s travel and activity behavior. For example, in the context of travel mode choice different modality styles may be characterized by the set of travel modes that an individual might consider when deciding how to travel, her sensitivity, or lack thereof, to different level-of service attributes of the transportation (and land use) system when making that decision, and the socioeconomic characteristics that predispose her one way or another. Travel demand models currently in practice assume that individuals are aware of the full range of alternatives at their disposal, and that a conscious choice is made based on a tradeoff between perceived costs and benefits associated with alternative attributes. Though such a representation is convenient from the standpoint of model estimation, it overlooks the effects of inertia, incomplete information and indifference that are reflective of more profound individual variations in lifestyles built around the use of different travel modes and their concurrent influence on all dimensions of individual and household travel and activity behavior.  The objectives of this dissertation are three-fold: (1) to develop a travel demand model framework that captures the influence of modality styles on multiple dimensions of individual and household travel and activity behavior; (2) to test that the framework is both methodologically flexible and empirically robust; and (3) to demonstrate the value of the framework to transportation policy and practice.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Automobile ownership
KW  - Choice models
KW  - Karlsruhe, Germany
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Passes (Transportation)
KW  - San Francisco Bay Area
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7ng2z24q.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262806
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497392
AU  - Sanders, Rebecca L
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Examining the Cycle: How Perceived and Actual Bicycling Risk Influence Cycling Frequency, Roadway Design Preferences, and Support for Cycling Among Bay Area Residents
PY  - 2013/08/01
SP  - 299p
AB  - This dissertation investigates the connection between perceived and actual bicycling risk, and how they both affect and are affected by one’s attitudes, knowledge, behavior, and experiences. Focus groups, an online survey, and an analysis of reported crash data from the San Francisco Bay Area are used to gain a deeper understanding of perceived risk and actual risk. First, cyclists experience pervasive risk in the form of near misses that occur frequently, and acute risk that occurs when a cyclist is struck. Both types—but particularly near misses— significantly affect perceived risk for cyclists and their family and friends. Second,  drivers and cyclists both prefer roadway designs with separated space for bicyclists, particularly if barrier-separated, regardless of cycling frequency. Third, perceived cycling risk extends beyond fear of danger for oneself, and is significantly related to support for cycling in one’s community. A multi-pronged belief in cycling risk significantly negatively affects bicycling support, including support for new bicycle facilities and public funding to encourage cycling. A revised theoretical framework for conceptualizing cycling risk and its influences is proposed. Policy recommendations for addressing perceived risk are provided.
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Design
KW  - Perception
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - San Francisco Bay Area
KW  - Structural equation modeling
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/6ct7x8hp.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262805
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497390
AU  - Mondschein, Andrew S
AU  - University of California, Los Angeles
AU  - University of California Transportation Center
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Personal City: The Experiential, Cognitive Nature of Travel and Activity and Implications for Accessibility
PY  - 2013/08/01
SP  - 249p
AB  - One aspect of accessibility that has received relatively little attention from planners is its cognitive, experiential aspect. Individuals’ activity and travel choices require not just money and time but also information about opportunities in the city. This component of an individual’s accessibility is highly personal but also dependent on the terrain of land uses and transportation options shaped by planners and policymakers. Through a series of empirical analyses of activity patterns and cognitive maps of the Los Angeles region, the factors that shape individual accessibility are explored. The first analysis investigates the spatial nature of personal cities, using the activity spaces of respondents to explore the types of opportunities that different populations within a city can access. The second demonstrates the differences – depending on mode of travel – among individuals’ perceptions of the city, even when location is held constant. The third analysis continues an exploration of the personal city by considering its fundamental components. Overall, the analyses support the relevance of the personal city framework to accessibility research, highlighting in particular that planning interventions are filtered through experiential and cognitive processes. The findings highlight that the accessibility impacts of transportation and land use patterns are felt not just in the instantaneous calculations of a microeconomic choice framework, but also in the long-term, developmental processes of cognition and experience. For urban planners, the implications of this research include evidence of how the built environment can effectively reduce travel while maintaining accessibility and how different transportation modes afford varying levels of functional accessibility. Experience, information, and learning are elements of urban daily life traditionally neglected by planners but with potential to increase opportunity and accessibility for diverse urban populations.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Cities
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Gravity models
KW  - Los Angeles (California)
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Spatial analysis
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7014d9cg
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7014d9cg.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262795
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01542844
AU  - Chi, Guangqing
AU  - Mississippi State University, Mississippi State
AU  - National Center for Intermodal Transportation for Economic Competitiveness
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Passenger Usages of the Intermodal Transportation System: An Analysis of the 2009 National Household Travel Survey Data
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 38p
AB  - The research on intermodal transportation is vast, but most of the efforts have been on the freight side. The research on passenger intermodal transportation is much less comprehensive. It is essential to understand passenger usage of the intermodal transportation system because passengers are the biggest users of transportation systems. This research provides a first look at passenger intermodal transportation in the U.S. by using the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data, which provide for the first time the intermodal usages by passengers. This research provides descriptive statistics on total trips, trips by different travel modes and trip purposes, and different travel modes by trip purposes. This research further investigates the association of these intermodal transportation measures to possible factors by using Poisson and negative binomial regression models. The findings suggest that the majority of trips were made by personal vehicles, but trip purposes varied greatly. Household income and urban residency positively shaped the numbers of total trips, travel modes, and trip purposes. Homeownership, household size, and the number of household drivers also shaped these intermodal transportation measures, although the direction of the effect varied. Future research could focus on demographic variations of passenger intermodal transportation.
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Income
KW  - Intermodal transportation
KW  - National Household Travel Survey
KW  - Negative binomial regression analysis
KW  - Passenger transportation
KW  - Poisson distributions
KW  - Residential location
KW  - Transportation modes
KW  - Trip purpose
UR  - http://www.ncitec.msstate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012-03FR.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1328532
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01523321
AU  - Ozbas, Birnur
AU  - Greenberg, Michael R
AU  - Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation
AU  - Rutgers University, New Brunswick
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Correlation between Hurricane Sandy Damage along the New Jersey Coast with Land Use, Dunes and Other Local Attributes
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 61p
AB  - The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sand dunes along New Jersey’s Coast in  reducing damage during Sandy. The study area included eight selected zones with different damage levels from Ocean County. A model to independently predict the damage level was built from the literature and field observations. The authors used a classification of the damage developed by an independent group, which had classified the damage at 89 blocks by the beach in Ocean County, New Jersey into severe, moderate, low and none. LIDAR data and site visits were used to measure dune attributes, such as height and width, as well as type of land use beyond the beach (boardwalk, building). Statistical analyses, mainly ordered logistic regression and multiple linear regression, were used to estimate the relationships among damage and the predictors. The analysis shows that dunes reduced the likelihood of damage during Hurricane Sandy. Dune width, dune crest height, height of the structure, proximity to structure and type of the structure were the strongest predictors that appeared to have decreased the negative impacts of the storm. In contrast, tall structures on the land were more likely to be severely damaged. The pilot test accurately classified 81% of the sites that had severe to low damage into the category that had been chosen by the independent group. The results suggest a follow-up that would include a more robust measure of damage and a wider range of sites for evaluation.
KW  - Dune sands
KW  - Flood damage
KW  - Hurricane Sandy, 2012
KW  - Hurricanes
KW  - Land use
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - New Jersey
KW  - Regression analysis
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Structures
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/files/CAIT-UTC-019-final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1307065
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516613
AU  - Brown, Nicole King
AU  - Kowalsky, Mervyn
AU  - Nau, James
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Strain Limits for Concrete Filled Steel Tubes in AASHTO Seismic Provisions
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 389p
AB  - Reinforced concrete filled steel tubes (RCFSTs) are commonly used as bridge pipe piles in high seismic regions. The pipe-piles consist of reinforced concrete encased in a steel tube. The steel tube is used as a permanent casing which eases construction. The concrete is confined by the steel tube, increasing the compressive strength, and the concrete core prevents the steel tube from buckling inward. This research program presents experimental tests performed on twelve large scale RCFSTs. The pipe-piles were subjected to reversed cyclic four-point bending with a constant moment region centered in the pile. The tests focused on two variables: (1) diameter to thickness ratio and (2) internal reinforcement ratio. The large scale specimens consisted of outer diameters of 20-24 inches and diameter-to-thickness ratios between 33 and 192. The thin walled piles were tested with varying internal reinforcement ratios ranging from 0.78% to 2.43%. The effect of ratio of tube diameter to tube thickness (D/t ratio) and internal reinforcement ratio on the initiation of buckling and rupture, ductility, damping, and strain compatibility were determined. Analyses were performed to compare the curvature distribution and plastic hinge length of RCFSTs and conventional reinforced concrete columns. A finite element model was created to capture the monotonic response of the specimens.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Concrete filled steel tubes
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Piles (Supports)
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Reinforcement (Engineering)
KW  - Steel pipe
KW  - Strain measurement
KW  - Tubing
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/10/510001.RCFST-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290653
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516448
AU  - Emerson, Robert N
AU  - Pretorius, David
AU  - Sparks, Jared
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Developing County Bridge Repair and Retrofit Techniques
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 126p
AB  - Oklahoma rated first in the Nation in the percentage of bridges that are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. According to Federal Highway Administration data, Oklahoma uses approximately 23,250 bridges maintained by state, County, City, and Tribal governments. The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) estimated that it would cost $3.4 billion to replace these bridges. The research team worked with engineers and bridge maintenance personnel from the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO), ODOT, and Oklahoma Circuit Engineering Districts (CEDs) to identify, evaluate, and develop two repair techniques for deteriorating off system bridges. The project focused on repairing decayed timber piles and corroded H-piles. To repair decayed timber piles, the decayed pile was removed from the pile cap to sound wood below grade and then replaced with steel members that are commonly available to bridge maintenance personnel. These included steel pipe and steel H-pile sections. The corroded H-piles were repaired by welding steel plates to the flanges of H-piles containing corroded webs. The repair techniques were evaluated in the field through load testing strain gauge instrumented bridges. The steel H-pile repair was also investigated under controlled laboratory testing. The repairs were found to adequately restore strength and stiffness and transfer loads from the super structure to the foundation. Straight forward design guidelines and design tables were developed for each of the repair techniques. The recommended repairs are useful for extending the life of a bridge that contains decayed timber piles or steel H-piles with corroded webs. The repairs allow for adequate safety to be maintained while a deteriorating bridge is waiting to be replaced. This allows for county, tribal, and local government officials to prioritize and wisely spend their bridge and road maintenance resources.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Reinforcement (Engineering)
KW  - Retrofitting
KW  - Structural deterioration and defects
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-24-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300092
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516359
AU  - Wu, Changxu
AU  - State University of New York, Buffalo
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Computational Modeling of	Driver Speed	Control with its Applications in Developing Intelligent Transportation System	to Prevent Speeding‐related Accidents in	Region II
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 6p
AB  - Speeding is the leading contributing factor in fatal accidents in New York state, according to New York State Department of Motor Vehicle Accidents Statistical Summary (2009). Understanding and modeling speeding and speed control is one of the major challenges in human performance modeling which involves: a) the modeling of several aspects of human cognitive system: perception, decision making and motor control as well as their interaction with the vehicle model; and b) individual differences in speed control and prediction of speeding in real time. However, few of existing computational models are able to cover all of these important aspects together. To address this problem, the main objective of this project is to build a new mathematical driver speed control model and apply it to develop an intelligent speeding control system. Multi‐disciplinary approaches are used to build the mathematical model of driver speed control, integrating methods in operations research (Queuing Network-Model Human Processor, QN-MHP) and theories in psychology (Rule-Based Decision Field Theory, RDFT) to predict driving speed, pedal angle, acceleration, the time when drivers exceed the speed limit and the magnitude of speeding. The model not only quantifies an average driver's speed control behavior, but also models individual drivers' decision making references and impulsiveness. A human driver experimental study has been conducted to validate the prediction of the model. The model is implemented in a real-time intelligent speeding control system, which provides warnings to drivers to prevent speeding proactively. The intelligent system online monitors the pedal behavior of a driver, calculates the probability of speeding for that driver in the next few seconds, and proactively provides necessary warnings to that driver to prevent his or her speeding behavior in real-time.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Driver support systems
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - New York (State)
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Warning devices
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Final-Report-Computational-Modeling.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51400/51444/Final-Report-Computational-Modeling.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1299689
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01506240
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
TI  - Carrier Safety Measurement System (CSMS) Methodology
PY  - 2013/08//Version 3.0.1
SP  - 130p
AB  - The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has developed its Operational Model through its Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program. The goal of CSA is to implement more effective and efficient ways for FMCSA, its State Partners, and the trucking industry to prevent commercial motor vehicle (CMV) crashes, fatalities, and injuries. Within the CSA Operational Model, the Safety Measurement System (SMS) quantifies the on-road safety performance of individual entities to: 1) Identify entities for interventions. The SMS is a key component in determining the inclusion of entities with significant safety problems into the Intervention Process. 2) Determine the specific safety problems an entity exhibits. The SMS allows enforcement officers to identify the specific safety problems that the system highlights and to surgically address them through a tailored set of interventions. 3) Monitor safety problems throughout the Intervention Process. The SMS will continuously monitor on-road performance to assess whether an entity’s safety performance has improved enough for it to exit the Intervention Process, or if further intervention is warranted. 4) Support FMCSA’s proposed Safety Fitness Determination (SFD) process. The  SMS results can be an important factor in determining the safety fitness of carriers. The SMS identifies the carriers demonstrating the worst safety performance so that they can be considered for an “Unfit” safety determination. Details on the proposed process will be available for public comment as part of  the upcoming Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
KW  - Commercial vehicles
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Truck crashes
KW  - Trucking safety
KW  - U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/49000/49300/49316/smsmethodology.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290267
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505639
AU  - Laybourne, Mindy Joy
AU  - Lee, Earl (Rusty)
AU  - Delaware Center for Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Developing Hybrid Measures of Performance for Signalized Intersections
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 183p
AB  - There are two methods for evaluating performance of signalized intersections – a volume based measure using the Critical Movement Summation (CMS) method and a delay based method, such as using simulation software like Synchro or the Highway Capacity Manual. Each method provides different indicators of the intersections performance. In general the two methods are used separately, which does not provide consistency in measuring intersection performance. This research highlights the differences between accepted methods and examines if there is a way to make the outputs from CMS sheets and Synchro models more comparable and preferably, interchangeable.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Measuring methods
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Software
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Traffic volume
UR  - http://www.ce.udel.edu/UTC/downloads2013/Lee_Laybourne_FinalReport.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285407
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497264
AU  - Zhang, Yuqing
AU  - Luo, Rong
AU  - Lytton, Robert L.
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Comprehensive Characterization of Asphalt Mixtures in Compression
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 79p
AB  - Permanent deformation (i.e., rutting) is one of the major distresses in asphalt pavements, and it consists of irrecoverable deformation due to viscoplastic flow and viscofracture fatigue damage. The mechanisms of rutting have not been well addressed due to the complexities of asphalt mixture including (a) distinctions between compression, extension, and tension; (b) rate and temperature dependence; (c) dilative volumetric change; (d) frictional material with cohesion; (e) inherent anisotropy due to preferential aggregates’ orientation; (f) crack-induced anisotropy due to crack growth; (g) strain hardening during viscoplastic accumulation; and (h) strain softening during viscofracture evolution. In this project, all of the aforementioned fundamentals of asphalt mixtures were simultaneously characterized by a comprehensive viscoplastic-fracture mechanistic model, which was incorporated with (a) a modified effective stress to consider the inherent anisotropy and the crack-induced anisotropy due to viscofracture cracking in compression; (b) a smooth and convex Generalized Drucker-Prager (GD-P) yield surface; (c) a non-associated viscoplastic flow rule; (d) a rate- and temperature-dependent strain hardening rule; and (e) a viscofracture evolution that was modeled by an anisotropic damage density-based pseudo J-integral Paris’ law. The model parameters were related to fundamental material properties that were measurable and understandable for civil engineers. A systemic testing protocol including five individual test methods were proposed to determine the model parameters and material properties. The test protocol was demonstrated to be efficient, as one asphalt mixture could be completely characterized within 1 day. The GD-P yield  surface model was validated by octahedral shear strength tests at different normal and confining stresses. The GD-P model was able to characterize the full range of the internal friction angles from 0 to 90 degrees. In contrast, the widely used Extended Drucker-Prager (ED-P) model can only be used for a material that has an internal friction angle less than 22 degrees due to the convexity criterion of the yield surface.
KW  - Anisotropy (Physics)
KW  - Asphalt mixtures
KW  - Compressive strength
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Deformation
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Properties of materials
KW  - Rutting
KW  - Viscoplasticity
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00006-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1266245
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496753
AU  - Nichols, Brice G
AU  - Kockelman, Kara M
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Life-cycle Energy Implications of Different Residential Settings : Recognizing Buildings, Travel, and Public Infrastructure
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 37p
AB  - The built environment can be used to influence travel demand, but very few studies consider the relative energy savings of such policies in context of a complex urban system. This analysis quantifies the day-to-day and embodied energy consumption of four different neighborhoods in Austin, Texas, to examine how built environment variations influence various sources of urban energy consumption. A microsimulation combines models for petroleum use (from driving) and residential and commercial power and natural gas use with rigorously measured building stock and infrastructure materials quantities (to arrive at embodied energy). Results indicate that the more suburban neighborhoods, with mostly detached single-family homes, consume up to 320% more embodied energy, 150% more  operational energy, and about 160% more total life-cycle energy (per capita) than a densely developed neighborhood with mostly low-rise-apartments and duplexes. Across all neighborhoods, operational energy use comprised 83 to 92% of total energy use, and transportation sources (including personal vehicles and transit, plus street, parking structure, and sidewalk infrastructure) made up 44 to 47% of the life-cycle energy demands tallied. Energy elasticity calculations across the neighborhoods suggest that increased population density and reduced residential unit size offer greatest life-cycle energy savings per capita, by reducing both operational demands from driving and home energy use, and from  less embodied energy from construction. The results support the notion that transportation and the built environment are strongly linked, and improving urban energy efficiency must come from policies and designs targeting embodied sources, not just a household’s travel and daily energy consumption.
KW  - Austin, Texas, USA
KW  - Building materials
KW  - Built environment
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Land use
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Neighborhoods
KW  - Population density
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00067-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265100
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496624
AU  - McCray, Talia
AU  - Durden, Teri
AU  - Schaubert, Eileen
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Cycling in the African American Community : Safety Training Guidelines and Findings
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 32p
AB  - This report is a program user’s manual for the Cycling in the African American Community (CAAC) safety training intervention. The CAAC safety training intervention was designed to “nudge” more African Americans, who are often beginning cyclists or non-cyclists, to participate in a physical activity that promotes health and builds community. One of the most cited reasons for not riding is that cycling is perceived as being unsafe. The CAAC intervention attempts to address this issue through a carefully designed safety intervention that encompasses a pre and post survey, used in conjunction with an on-road cycling curriculum. The report includes best practices for staging the intervention and analyzing outcomes. Preliminary findings show that the safety training is significantly improving perceptions of cycling.
KW  - African Americans
KW  - Austin (Texas)
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Bicycle safety
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Manuals
KW  - Safety programs
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Training
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00070-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265099
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495828
AU  - Scott, Marcia
AU  - Collins, Eileen
AU  - Wicks, Arthur
AU  - University of Delaware, Newark
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Curbside Intercity Bus Industry: Research of Transportation Policy Opportunities and Challenges
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 188p
AB  - Once a declining industry, popularity of the curbside intercity bus services has been spurred by competitive prices; convenient online ticketing; the rise in “transit lifestyles;” and access to free, onboard Wi-Fi technology that caters to a younger demographic. The curbside intercity bus industry now represents the fastest growing mode of intercity travel in the United States—outpacing air and rail transportation. The Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University reports that intercity bus service grew by 7.5 percent between December 2011 and December 2012—the highest rate of growth in four years. Both so-called “Chinatown” buses and corporate intercity bus carriers have contributed to industry growth in the Northeast Corridor and nationwide. BoltBus and Megabus alone experienced a 32 percent growth in departures between 2010 and 2011. Yet rogue bus companies that put passengers at risk by operating unethically and unlawfully have marred the industry. The July 2012 adoption of the two-year transportation reauthorization bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (particularly the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2012), establishes a strategic framework to improve the regulatory environment, provide a program of continuous improvement, and authorize greater rulemaking and enforcement authority of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). In addition, state and local governments are addressing impacts of industry growth by initiating innovative approaches to manage curbside operations. To meet growing demand for service, these approaches include permitting systems, idling laws, regulating curbside conditions, leasing or privatizing curb rights, and consolidating and/or centralizing bus operations in intermodal facilities. This report highlights the issues stemming from deregulation of the industry, its unprecedented growth, and the fragmented regulatory environment. The University of Delaware University Transportation Center (UD-UTC)—that, as a Tier II center, focuses on resiliency of transportation corridors—supported this research project from the Institute for Public Administration (IPA). IPA’s research team conducted a literature review and field assessment of curbside operations, which involved photographing curbside conditions, surveying passengers, and riding various intercity buses between New York City and Washington, D.C. in 2011 and 2012. IPA also conducted a case study on a Chinatown bus that was based in Wilmington, Del., which was cited as an “imminent hazard” and shut down by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) during the course of this research. Finally, IPA hosted the June 13, 2012 Curbside Intercity Bus Transportation Policy Forum to facilitate discussion on transportation policies related to the industry.
KW  - Bus transportation
KW  - Curbside operators
KW  - Deregulation
KW  - Intercity bus lines
KW  - Intercity travel
KW  - Regulation
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - Transportation safety
UR  - http://www.ipa.udel.edu/publications/intercity-bus-report-2013_08-26.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265098
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495182
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - U.S. Air Force
TI  - Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Service Demand 2015-2035: Literature Review and Projections of Future Usage, Version 0.0
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 151p
AB  - This report assesses opportunities, risks, and challenges attendant to future development and deployment of UAS within the National Airspace System (NAS) affecting UAS forecast growth from 2015 to 2035. Analysis of four key areas is performed: technology, mission needs, economics, and existing or anticipated challenges to routine use in NAS operations. Forecast effects of emerging technologies as well as anticipating new technological innovations in areas of airframes, powerplants, sensors, communication, command and control systems, and information technology and processing are evaluated. Anticipated mission needs include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as new areas such as stores delivery, cargo transport, search and rescue, and pilot augmentation; example business case models are developed for each of these areas. Challenges to routine UAS usage in the NAS include: absence of legislation and regulations for safe flight in integrated airspace; pilot training and certification; regulatory, policy, and procedural issues; social issues, such as privacy and nuisance concerns; environmental issues, such as noise and emissions; and safety. Provided these challenges are largely mitigated, the following are projections of UAS fleet size by user in 2035: Department of Defense ~14,000, with additional ~5,000 having optional pilot augmentation (Air Force ~3,500; Navy + Marines ~2,500; Army ~10,000); Public Agencies (Federal, State, & Local) ~ 70,000. Total UAS vehicles will approach~250,000 by 2035, of which~175,000 will be in the commercial marketplace. UAS operations are expected to surpass manned aircraft operations, for both military and commercial domains, by 2035.
KW  - Airframes
KW  - Challenges (Impediments)
KW  - Command and control systems
KW  - Communication
KW  - Drone aircraft
KW  - Electric power plants
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Market development
KW  - Needs assessment
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Technological innovations
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48200/48226/UAS_Service_Demand.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263012
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495179
AU  - Geyer, Michael
AU  - Soares, Melanie
AU  - Hoff, Ashley
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - RNAV (GPS) Total System Error Models for Use in Wake Encounter Risk Analysis of Candidate CSPR Pairs for Inclusion in FAA Order 7110.308
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 17p
AB  - FAA Order 7110.65 (Ref.1), Section 5-9-6, authorizes simultaneous dependent approaches for aircraft pairs with a minimum of 1.5 nautical mile (NM) radar separation to parallel runways whose centerlines are at least 2,500 feet but no more than 4,300 feet apart, with Instrument Landing System (ILS) or Area Navigation (RNAV) Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance permitted for aircraft approaching either runway. FAA Order 7110.308 (Ref.2) authorizes simultaneous dependent approaches for aircraft pairs with a minimum of 1.5 NM radar separation to specific/named parallel runways separated by less than 2,500 feet that have ILS guidance to both runways, with Heavy and B757 aircraft excluded from the lead position. The purpose of this memorandum is to provide recommended Total System Error (TSE) models for aircraft using RNAV (GPS) guidance when analyzing the wake encounter risk of proposed simultaneous dependent (“paired”) approaches, with 1.5 Nautical Mile (NM) minimum radar separation, to Closely Spaced Parallel Runways (CSPR). CSPR are defined as having centerline spacing less than 2,500 feet. RNAV (GPS) is being evaluated as a source of guidance to aircraft approaching one or both runways of specific pairs, in lieu of or in addition to ILS guidance.
KW  - Approach control
KW  - Aviation safety
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Instrument landing systems
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Wakes
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48200/48213/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-13-06_RNAV_GPS_Error.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263013
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493922
AU  - Myers, John J
AU  - Bloch, Kurt E
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Innovative Concrete Bridging System for Pedestrian Bridges: Implementation and Monitoring
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 294p
AB  - Two precast, prestressed pedestrian bridges were designed for rapid construction in Rolla, MO, utilizing high-strength concrete (HSC) and high-strength self-consolidating concrete (HS-SCC) with a target 28 day compressive strength of 68.9 MPa (10,000 psi) and release compressive strength of 24.1 MPa (3,500 psi). In addition, a glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) bar reinforced deck panel system was utilized in one of the two deck panels on each bridge. Material properties were tested for compression, elastic modulus,  modulus of rupture, splitting tensile strength, creep, and shrinkage following ASTM standards. instrumentation systems within the spandrel beams and precast deck panels were implemented to monitor early and later-age temperature and strain variations between the concrete mixtures and reinforcing types. In addition, the sensors were utilized to calculate the prestress losses for HSC and HSSCC in the spandrel beams. A live load test was completed one year after spandrel beam fabrication to investigate the differences in deflection of HSC, HS-SCC, and reinforcement types. All material and mechanical results were compared between HSC and HSSCC. Furthermore, the results were compared to standard empirical models presented by AASHTO, ACI, and PCI.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Compressive strength
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Footbridges
KW  - High strength concrete
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Precast concrete
KW  - Prestressed concrete bridges
KW  - Rolla (Missouri)
KW  - Tensile strength
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/Myers%20Bloch%20NUTC%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262560
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493870
AU  - Cheng, Maggie X
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Pilot Study on Diagnostic Sensor Networks for Structure Health Monitoring
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 4p
AB  - The proposal was submitted in an effort to obtain some preliminary results on using sensor networks for real-time structure health monitoring. The proposed work has twofold: to develop and validate an elective algorithm for the diagnosis of coupled cyber-physical systems in the event of faults, and to monitor and assess the structural condition of bridges in real-time with sensor networks. Through the first year's investigation, the authors have learned that the second part of the proposed work actually requires new measuring methodology. As a result, research in this direction has extended to the following year, and a new project entitled “Data Acquisition, Detection and Estimation for Structural Health Monitoring" has started.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Measuring methods
KW  - Pilot studies
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R303%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262545
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01493867
AU  - Prakash, Shamsher
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - 7th International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 4p
AB  - Funding was used to enhance the objectives of the conference and to present successful case histories of various projects, orally, in posters and in proceedings. This will become a storehouse of knowledge for future reference.
U1  - 7th International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical EngineeringCenter for Transportation Infrastructure and SafetyChicago,Illinois StartDate:20130501 EndDate:20130504 Sponsors:Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Dams
KW  - Earthquake resistant structures
KW  - Footings
KW  - Geotechnical engineering
KW  - Landslides
KW  - Liquefaction
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/ETT314%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262547
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493495
AU  - Hourdos, John
AU  - Zitzow, Stephen
AU  - Abou, Seraphin Chally
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Effectiveness of Urban Partnership Agreement Traffic Operations Measures in the I-35W Corridor
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 142p
AB  - One of the leading transportation project initiatives of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is to reduce transportation system congestion. The Minneapolis Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA) project is one of the five major projects funded by the U.S. DOT’s Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network. Minnesota’s UPA is concerned with Active Traffic Management (ATM) systems along I-35W from the southern junction with I-35 to downtown Minneapolis (which will be referred to as the UPA corridor). Three separate but related evaluations are included in this UPA related project: the effects of the variable speed limit (VSL) system on congestion and driver behavior, the impact of severe weather conditions on road safety, and the behavior of bus rapid transit (BRT) vehicles and their impacts on traffic conditions between 46th Street and Lake Street.
KW  - Active traffic management
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Highway traffic
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Partnerships
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Variable speed limits
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2318
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261331
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493374
AU  - Goodwill, Jay A
AU  - Staes, Lisa
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Flexible Public Transportation Services in Florida
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 57p
AB  - This synthesis research provides an overview of the current use of flexible transportation services in Florida through administration of a survey and subsequent identification and examination of case study locations. The research included a literature review to determine the prevalence of these service delivery methods, the way in which these services are being provided throughout the United States, and the experience of the areas implementing these services, as well as any lessons learned that may be identified through this effort. Based on the information collected during the literature review, the survey of the Florida transit agencies, and the subsequent follow-up and website searches, six Florida transit agencies were identified that provided specific unique flexible service routes. In-depth case studies, comprising interviews and site visits, were presented to document how each of the six agencies have designed their flexible transit service approaches.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Florida
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Routes
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-37-rpt.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262875
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493365
AU  - Evans, John F
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Detection of Water and Ice on Bridge Structures by AC Impedance and Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy Phase II
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - During Phase I of this project, a preliminary evaluation of a novel approach to low-cost sensing systems for monitoring ice, water and deicing solutions on road bridge deck surfaces was carried out. The initial approaches included the techniques of alternating current impedance and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy of responses from simple passive metal sensors. These preliminary results indicated that the second approach of dielectric relaxation spectroscopy was far more promising. Furthermore, likely implementations would be significantly more economical using lower-cost electronics modules connected to passive sensors. The choice for implementation of dielectric relaxation spectroscopy is based on the measurement of high-frequency components of pulse waveforms reflected from the sensor and using time domain reflectometry (TDR). The information content of these waveforms is strongly influenced by the dielectric properties of the media of interest (ice, water or aqueous solutions of deicing chemicals) in contact with or in close proximity (microns) with passive metal conductors, which comprise the sensor. These high-frequency dielectric relaxation measurements using TDR probe the physical state of precipitation and deicing chemicals on the deck or road surface by the detailed examination of the frequency response waveforms returned after the application of a fast rise-time excitation pulse. Signal processing of the acquired waveforms involves taking the derivative of the response followed by digital filtering and subsequent wavelet analysis to emphasize and distinguished low vs high frequency components of the waveforms reflected from the sensors. Determination of the state and nature of the precipitation, solutions or air in contact with a given sensor is made on a statistical basis via correlation of responses to calibration waveforms collected under known conditions for a given sensor. The software to carry out these signal processing tasks in implemented using LabVIEW.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Deicing
KW  - Electrical impedance
KW  - Ice
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Snow
KW  - Snow and ice control
KW  - Spectroscopic analysis
KW  - Surface course (Pavements)
KW  - Time domain reflectometers
KW  - Water
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2320
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262525
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493351
AU  - Eisele, William L
AU  - Schrank, David L
AU  - Kang, Dong Hun (Don)
AU  - Polzin, Steven E
AU  - Chu, Xuehao
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Investigation of Improvements to Truck Volume Assignments and Public Transportation Benefits Methodologies in TTI’s Urban Mobility Report
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - The Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) often-cited Urban Mobility Report (UMR) provides  transportation decision-makers with urban-area congestion statistics and trends. Data and their availability have continued to evolve rapidly over the years that this report has been produced, and TTI researchers have updated the UMR methodology as new data sources and information become available. The objectives of this project were to (a) investigate the UMR methodology assumptions related to the daily volume distributions for trucks and possible methodology improvements, and (b) investigate the UMR methodology related to the benefits of transit ridership and transit delay reduction calculations and possible methodology improvements. To satisfy the first objective, TTI researchers collected vehicle classification data from Georgia, Texas, Washington, and Colorado. While there were only 36 sites used to investigate potentially new truck distribution graphs, the results indicate that trucks have a different time-of-day distribution than a distribution created from all vehicles together. Because the sample size of these findings is relatively low, researchers hope to investigate these  findings on larger samples prior to making methodological changes in the UMR. To satisfy the second objective, TTI researchers collaborated with public transit experts at the University of South Florida, Center for Urban Transportation Research. Chapter 4 provides several proposed methodological  improvements to the transit benefits methodology for the 2013 UMR, including (a) explicitly accounting for the miles traveled by roadway-based transit vehicles operating in mixed traffic conditions, and (b) more accurately accounting for the potential shift to private passenger vehicles in a post-transit environment by transit riders for the passenger miles they have actually traveled by transit. Researchers plan to incorporate these proposed changes into the 2013 UMR. Chapter 4 also documents future improvement opportunities for the short term and long term.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Truck traffic
KW  - Urban Mobility Report
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00013-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262541
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493350
AU  - Godazi, Khosro
AU  - Miller, Alexandra
AU  - Texas Southern University
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Security Institute: Recruiting Next Generation Professionals
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 30p
AB  - The Center for Transportation Training and Research (CTTR), as part of Texas Southern University  (TSU), served as host for the 2013 Transportation Security Institute (TSI) in Houston and surrounding area. The 2013 Houston TSI focuses on the mission and objectives of transportation security professionals and introduces a pre-selected group of high school students to the various career opportunities within the profession. TSI provides a curriculum framework that exposes high school students to the transportation security industry via hands-on technical activities, field trips to transportation facilities, lectures by transportation professionals, and on-site seminars. Furthermore, the primary goal of TSI is to introduce exemplary secondary school students to various career opportunities in transportation security. Secondly, industry professionals will reinforce the importance of mathematics, science, and technology skills in the twenty-first century. Lastly, students will observe how public/private partnerships work to strengthen the link between today’s students and future transportation security professionals.
KW  - Education and training
KW  - High school students
KW  - Lectures
KW  - Public private partnerships
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/161340-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262543
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493337
AU  - Evans, John F
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Detection of Water and Ice on Bridge Structures by AC Impedance and Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy, Phase III and IV: Continued Field Testing and Refinement of Novel Water and Ice Sensor Systems on Bridge Decks
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 30p
AB  - During Phases III and IV of this project it was determined that the physical attributes of the prototypes developed during the earlier work was inappropriate for bridge deck installations. Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) engineers required that they be planar and not require drainage through the deck. As road weather information system (RWIS) platforms had been widely deployed on decks throughout the state, it was decided to adhere to the RWIS geometric format. This necessitated a significant re-engineering of the sensor hardware before installation and testing at remote bridge sites could proceed. To that end extensive development of a robust sensor meeting these requirements was developed and tested without compromise to the earlier performance results. In large part the maintenance of performance was achieved through a significant modification of the software to include Wavelet analysis of the raw data in the determination of surface state of the sensor platform (ice vs air vs water vs electrolyte present on the sensing electrode structure). The combined regression results for raw time domain reflectometry (TDR) responses treated by three analysis procedures are shown to give rise to very reliable results. Unfortunately, remote field testing of sensors installed on bridge decks was not accomplished.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Icing
KW  - Road weather information systems
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Snow
KW  - Snow and ice control
KW  - Software
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2330
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261879
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493297
AU  - Bringardner, Jack W
AU  - Gemar, Mason D
AU  - Machemehl, Randy B
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of an Interactive GIS Based Work Zone Traffic Control Tool
PY  - 2013/08
SP  - 90p
AB  - The purpose of this study was to include consideration for intersections into the previously created geographic information system (GIS) traffic control planning tool. Available data for making intersection control calculations were collected and integrated into the design of the tool. The limitations created by required assumptions were addressed, as well as more advanced techniques for overcoming these problems. The tool can be used to estimate capacity calculations at any signalized intersection within the North Central Texas Council of Government’s (NCTCOG) modeling region. These calculations can be used to inform users about the effects of a construction plan. Inputs for using dynamic traffic assignment to further understand these effects is then addressed, focusing on the development of a subnetwork to reduce computation time for multiple temporary traffic control plans.
KW  - Dynamic traffic assignment
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Software
KW  - Texas
KW  - Traffic control
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Work zone traffic control
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00069-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261880
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493292
AU  - Morris, Ted
AU  - Li, Xinyan
AU  - Morellas, Vassilios
AU  - Papanikolopoulos, Nikos
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Video Detection and Classification of Pedestrian Events at Roundabouts and Crosswalks
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - A well-established technique for studying pedestrian safety is based on reducing data from video-based in-situ observation. The extraction and cataloging from recorded video of pedestrian crossing events has largely been achieved manually. Although the manual methods are generally reliable, they are extremely time-consuming. As a result, more detailed, encompassing site studies are not practical unless the mining for these events can be automated. The study investigated such a tool based on utilizing a novel image processing algorithm recently developed for the extraction of human activities in complex scenes. No human intervention other than defining regions of interest for approaching vehicles and the pedestrian crossing areas was required. The output quantified general event indicators—such as pedestrian wait time, and crossing time and vehicle-pedestrian yield behaviors. Such data can then be used to guide more detailed analyses of the events to study potential vehicle-pedestrian conflicts and their causal effects. The evaluation was done using an extensive set of multi-camera video recordings collected at roundabouts. The tool can be used to support other pedestrian safety research where extracting potential pedestrian-vehicle conflicts from video are required, for example at crosswalks at urban signalized and uncontrolled intersections.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Computer vision
KW  - Crosswalks
KW  - Detection and identification technologies
KW  - Pedestrian movement
KW  - Pedestrian safety
KW  - Roundabouts
KW  - Video cameras
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2328
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262477
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493277
AU  - Yuwen, Weiyuan
AU  - Zhang, Zhanmin
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Simulation of Investment Returns of Toll Projects
PY  - 2013/08//Final Technical Report
SP  - 54p
AB  - This research develops a methodological framework to illustrate key stages in applying the simulation of investment returns of toll projects, acting as an example process of helping agencies conduct numerical risk analysis by taking certain uncertainties associated with toll projects into consideration. The numerical financial model provides a deterministic financial evaluation for the project. Next, there are four risk sources identified in this research, including project-based risks, cost-based risks, toll-based risks and finance-based risks. For each risk source, critical variables are recognized and probability distributions are suggested. The deterministic financial evaluation result is obtained through the projected single-value estimates of these variables. By considering the variability associated with the components of a project, the Monte Carlo simulation technique is used to estimate the overall project risks. Risk simulation results are interpreted through various numerical measures of project’s risks, which further provide agencies with quantitative information to set investment decision criteria. For risk optimization, exploration of optimal value-combination of variables and utilization of single-variable control method are discussed, which could assist agencies in setting threshold toll prices in order to achieve the goal revenue and maximize potential returns on the investment. The risk analysis, consisting of risk simulation and risk optimization, can give the statistical distribution of investment returns for a project under analysis, providing decision makers with a direct approach to the evaluation of the projects’ financial risks and the development of recommendations for risk control measures.
KW  - Financing
KW  - Monte Carlo method
KW  - Public private partnerships
KW  - Return on investment
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Toll facilities
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00075-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262542
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01492448
AU  - Bell, Katherine E
AU  - Figliozzi, Miguel A
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Application of Smart Phone, Weight-Mile Truck Data to Support Freight-Modeling, Performance Measures and Planning
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 102p
AB  - Oregon is one of the few states that currently charge a commercial truck weight-mile tax (WMT).  The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has developed a data-collection system - Truck and Road Use Electronics (TRUE) - to simplify WMT collection.  The TRUE system includes a smart phone application that collects and records Global Positioning System (GPS) data.  The TRUE data have enormous advantages over GPS data used in previous research due to the level of geographic detail and the potential to also integrate trip origin and destination, vehicle class, and commodity-type data.  This research evaluates the accuracy of the TRUE data and demonstrates its use for significant ODOT ancillary applications.  Specifically, ancillary applications that address ODOT freight modeling, performance measures, and planning needs are explored.  The use of the data for highly accurate trip-generation rates and mobility performance measures is demonstrated.  In addition, it is shown that the TRUE data have strong potential to be used for safety, accessibility and connectivity, system condition and environmental stewardship performance measures.  The potential use of the TRUE data for emissions estimates that take into account truck-type details, truck weight and detailed speed profiles is considered.  Results indicate that TRUE data, integrated with ODOT weigh-in-motion (WIM) data, will greatly improve the accuracy of emission estimates at the project and regional level.  This research confirms the potential use of the TRUE data for significant ancillary applications and demonstrates the regional value of the TRUE data to enhance existing freight modeling, performance measures and planning.
KW  - Commercial vehicle operations
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Oregon
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Planning
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Weigh in motion
UR  - http://otrec.us/project/504
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261552
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01492447
AU  - Larco, Nico
AU  - University of Oregon, Eugene
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Overlooked Destinations: Suburban Nodes, Centers, and Trips to Strips
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
AB  - This study looks at travel to typical suburban commercial strips by residents living within one-third of a mile of the strip by focusing on six sites - four in the Portland, OR, metro area and two in the Atlanta, GA, metro area.  The study mapped pedsheds around the commercial strips in these sites and found significant increases in network extents when formal and informal pedestrian paths were added to street centerline data.  Informal networks such as goat paths through vacant land and cuts in fences were widespread and suggest a pent-up demand for route directness.  Travel surveys of residents found significant amounts of walking and biking in these areas - just over one-third of all trips to the commercial strip - with travel distance and walking along or across arterials affecting mode choice.  This suggests network extent and connectivity to be critical factor in increasing walking and biking in these suburban areas.  Resident motivations behind mode choice included convenience (which mode is easiest); cost (active travel is less expensive than auto travel); and culture (a pattern of driving or active travel, regardless of ease or cost).  There was little variation across sites, suggesting that this level of active travel and the motivations behind it are fairly consistent, with a few variations, across income and geography.
KW  - Atlanta (Georgia)
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Commercial strips
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Portland (Oregon)
KW  - Suburbs
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Trip length
KW  - Urban design
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://otrec.us/project/440
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261551
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01492051
AU  - Adams, Teresa
AU  - Perry, Ernie
AU  - Schwartz, Andrew
AU  - Gollnik, Bob
AU  - Kang, Myungook
AU  - Bittner, Jason
AU  - Wagner, Steve
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Wisconsin Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Aligning Oversize/Overweight Permit Fees with Agency Costs: Critical Issues
PY  - 2013/08//Final Report
SP  - 106p
AB  - This project provides an elementary analysis of issues and a proposed framework for the state to evaluate cost recovery options due to oversized and overweight (OSOW) operations. The authors provide a review of current permitting practices, provide a sampling of fee structures, and outline preliminary trends for OSOW demand in the foreseeable future. The basis for the project is the Midwest States, but the findings incorporate national trends and data as appropriate. The research team surveyed state DOTs for information on permit fee structures and the respective distribution and allocation of permit revenue. The research team did not attempt to determine roadway, infrastructure, and other impacts of OSOW loads, but rather document studies that attempt to monetize these values and provide observations. A methodology is proposed to generate said costs, but the validation of such methodology was outside the scope of this study. Finally the project report details other considerations, including truck-to-rail diversion potential if permit fees are increased. A series of best practices is provided to help guide the operations of a permitting process. The research team concludes that permit fees likely cannot recover the costs of issuance, however, in many agencies the permit fee is not designed to be a cost recovery mechanism. This is magnified in the multitrip permitting processes available in most states. The authors do not make a specific recommendation for agencies with respect to permit fee determination. The research team does recommend additional and site specific research to determine the impact and associated cost of pavement damage due to single trip, oversize and overweight movements.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Cost recovery
KW  - Fees
KW  - Midwestern States
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Overweight loads
KW  - Permits
KW  - Policy analysis
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Surveys
UR  - http://wisdotresearch.wi.gov/wp-content/uploads/WisDOT-CFIRE-project-0092-10-21-final-report.pdf
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0317.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259973
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516390
AU  - Lewis, M Phil
AU  - Jeong, David H
AU  - Khaleghian, Hossein
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Calibration of Controlling Input Models for Pavement Management System
PY  - 2013/07/31/Final Report
SP  - 61p
AB  - The Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) is currently using the Deighton Total Infrastructure Management System (dTIMS™) software for pavement management. This system is based on several input models which are computational backbones to develop maintenance and rehabilitation plans for pavements. Some of the major input models include the classification of pavement families, deterioration curves, and effectiveness of various treatment options. These major input models are currently in active use without any thorough validation using actual pavement condition assessment data. Validation and calibration of existing input models for pavement management systems (PMS) has been one of the major technical goals by the pavement management unit of ODOT for many years. ODOT now has about 16 years of pavement condition assessment data, which provides a rich time series dataset. This research project will use the proven Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD) approach to investigate pavement condition assessment data in a structured manner in order to evaluate the performance of current input models and if necessary, develop new models or calibrate the existing models for more accurate and reliable planning for pavement maintenance and rehabilitation activities. The performance of newly developed or calibrated input  models will be compared with the performance of current input models. The successful completion of this research project meets the immediate technical need of the pavement management unit. The data driven models developed in this project provides confidence to the pavement management team in developing short-term and long-term pavement management strategies and realistic pavement budget estimation and allocation. One of the primary outputs of this research project is a spreadsheet-based tool that assists pavement management engineers in updating the input models in the current PMS; thus, the output of this project will be immediately available to ODOT. The results of this project will also be able to answer skeptical questions about the returns on continuous pavement data collection investments of ODOT.
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Databases
KW  - Oklahoma Department of Transportation
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Validation
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-31-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300096
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516386
AU  - Collins, Rodney W
AU  - Miller, Gerald A
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Interpretation of In Situ Tests as Affected by Soil Suction
PY  - 2013/07/31/Final Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - Soil moisture conditions are subject to change depending on the season in which they are tested. In  unsaturated soils the moisture at which a soil is tested can directly affect strength and stiffness of the  material. In situ testing is commonly used for geotechnical investigations; however, the analysis methods assume the soil is either completely dry or saturated. For near surface soils, these conditions are often the exception to the rule rather than the standard. Currently there are no well established methods for interpretation of in situ tests in unsaturated soils. Research is being conducted to investigate the influence of changing moisture conditions on the response of in situ tests in unsaturated soil. Two sites were instrumented with weather monitoring stations and moisture sensors were placed at depths of 1, 3 and 6 feet. At two month intervals a suite of in situ tests including; cone penetration (CPT), standard penetration (SPT), and pre-bored pressuremeter (PMT), were performed. In addition, in situ tensiometers were installed at one site and samples were obtained for water content and suction measurements when in situ tests were conducted. Other laboratory tests were conducted on undisturbed samples to establish baseline saturated and unsaturated soil properties as well as soil water characteristic curves. This report presents results of field tests demonstrating the importance of moisture content and matric suction on the in situ test results. The ultimate goal of the research is to better predict changes in soil moisture based on weather data and develop a framework to interpret in situ test results in unsaturated soils. This report represents a summary of progress during the first half of the project that was partly supported by Oklahoma Transportation Center funding.
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Moisture content
KW  - Soil penetration test
KW  - Soil suction
KW  - Unsaturated soils
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-45-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300099
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516274
AU  - Varsei, Maryam
AU  - Bourasset, Céline M
AU  - Miller, Gerald A
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Effects of Soil Suction on Shallow Slope Stability
PY  - 2013/07/31/Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - This study investigates the slope failures associated with clayey soils so engineers can better understand the problem and better predict shallow slope stability, and implement preventive measures if necessary. This research also examines the mechanics of the soil as related to matric suction changes, soil type, desiccation crack formation and expected degree of wetting. Research involves studying at least two field cases where shallow slope instability has been a problem; one case involves a cut slope section and one case involves an embankment slope. There are three primary objectives of the proposed research: 1) To provide geotechnical engineers with a method for predicting stability of cut slopes and embankment slopes composed of unsaturated soil, incorporating soil moisture condition and suction into the analysis. 2) To provide geotechnical engineers with methods for predicting changes in soil moisture conditions and suction in slopes as a function of climate changes so that a proper “design moisture condition” can be selected. This will also allow for predicting the slope stability over time based on predicted moisture content changes. 3) To provide recommendations to minimize the climate impacts on slope stability including, as necessary,  reducing adverse impacts of desiccation cracking in clayey materials. Successful completion of this  research will provide engineers with tools for improved analysis of shallow slope stability and recommendations for preventing landslides. The research involves field testing and monitoring of suction and moisture content, laboratory testing of unsaturated and saturated strength and flow properties, moisture diffusion modeling based on climate data, investigation of desiccation cracking and its impact on slope stability, and stability analyses. Completed research will have a positive impact on geotechnical practice related to transportation corridors. This report represents a summary of progress during the first half of the project that was partly supported by Oklahoma Transportation Center funding.
KW  - Clay soils
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Desiccation
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Slope stability
KW  - Soil suction
KW  - Soil water
KW  - Unsaturated soils
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-46-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300101
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495387
AU  - Akyurtlu, Ates
AU  - Akyurtlu, Jale
AU  - Eastern Seaboard Intermodal Transportation Applications Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Investigation of Fine Particulate Matter, NOx and Tropospheric Ozone Transport Around a Major Roadway
PY  - 2013/07/31/Final Report
SP  - 18p
AB  - In the Eastern Seaboard Intermodal Transportation Applications Center at Hampton University, the authors started an investigation of the air pollutants around heavily-travelled roadways, shipping channels, airports, and railroads with the purpose of obtaining real time measurements of pollutant concentrations and relating them to real-time weather and traffic information. In the first two cycles of their research program, the authors built a mobile unit containing a NOx and an ozone analyzer, and a weather station to provide simultaneous measurements of wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and solar intensity with the concentration measurements. The measured NO2 concentrations were compared to the predictions of CALINE4. Considering the effects of PM2.5 on public health and the 2008 US Census Bureau report, which showed that around 16% of American households live within 100 m of a highway having four or more lanes, an instrument for the measurements of PM10 and PM2.5 were added to the measurement capabilities for the current research cycle.
KW  - Airports
KW  - Channels (Waterways)
KW  - Highways
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Nitrogen oxides
KW  - Ozone
KW  - Particulates
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Portable equipment
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic
KW  - Weather
UR  - http://docs.hamptonu.edu/student/4973-environmental-final_13_20131008141039.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264707
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489993
AU  - Scheetz, Barry E
AU  - Linzell, Daniel G
AU  - Murtha, Timothy
AU  - Donnell, Eric T
AU  - Jovanis, Paul P
AU  - Pietrucha, Martin T
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Impact of Marcellus Gas Development on the Rural Transportation Infrastructure
PY  - 2013/07/31/Final Report
SP  - 79p
AB  - Deterioration was observed to occur in the wearing surfaces, decks, and parapets for all seven of the structures inspected. To date, little to no deck condition change was observed compared to the reviewed inspection reports.  However, the oldest bridge in this study was noted to be carrying the highest volume of Gas Play truck traffic and manifested some structural deterioration that was not included in the most recent Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) inspection survey. This involved the bridge’s superstructure and substructure showing sagging bridge beams. For all other bridges, an  increase in traffic as a result of the Gas Play was not shown to significantly change the condition of the superstructure  or substructure in the bridges. Bridge 4 received extensive rehabilitation in 2009. After the one-year interval that  followed, this study found deterioration to the wearing surface, parapets, and approach slab. All roadways had  varying amounts of cracking regardless of Gas Play traffic activity, which generally increased with increased truck traffic. Rutting significantly increased as Gas Play activity increased and was the most common form of deterioration  encountered. Secondary and municipal roads have experienced significant deterioration due to the enhanced heavy  truck traffic. Full-depth reclamation is being employed as a cost-effective rehabilitation methodology by the gas  companies. Reconstruction of dirt and gravel municipal roads has commonly been undertaken without the benefit of  good design guidelines. To address this shortcoming, the authors developed and presented a simplified design  methodology for the reconstruction of this class of roads. The enhanced heavy truck traffic has a weak correlation to  increased severity of traffic accidents. Limited data and lack of a good baseline for comparison limit the strength of associated observations. Focus on the direct impact of drilling (e.g., archaeological survey) on cultural resources, while important, doesn’t address important down-the-line impacts. As roads are rebuilt and improved, historic and  prehistoric survey is critical but there are not specific resources and staff available for these issues. Local heritage  leaders are currently bearing the full weight of the new issues associated with Marcellus development. Creating  resources for local and regional leaders is important, so that they can develop long-term planning strategies for  cultural resource management and preservation.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Deterioration
KW  - Heavy duty trucks
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Marcellus Shale
KW  - Preservation
KW  - Reconstruction
KW  - Road construction
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Truck traffic
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/PSU-2010-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258473
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493165
AU  - Wallischeck, Eric York
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Maritime Administration
TI  - ICS Security in Maritime Transportation: A White Paper Examining the Security and Resiliency of Critical Transportation Infrastructure
PY  - 2013/07/29/White Paper
SP  - 48p
AB  - The John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center was asked by the Office of Security of the Maritime Administration to examine the issue of industrial control systems (ICS) security in the Maritime Transportation System (MTS), and to develop a white paper based upon its findings for circulation amongst MTS stakeholders. In evaluating the issue, this paper first discusses the role of the MTS as part of the domestic and international transportation system and global supply chain, and provides examples of the economic impact of past natural and manmade disruptions to the MTS. It next explores the uses and applications of ICS throughout the MTS, identifies potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities of ICS, and provides examples of possible ICS failures and the potential impact on the MTS. Finally, the paper explores the issue in the context of Federal policy governing critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and supply chain resilience, and makes a number of recommendations that government agencies and the private sector might consider in order to mitigate the ICS security risks.
KW  - Computer security
KW  - Control systems
KW  - Data protection
KW  - Maritime industry
KW  - National security
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Security
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48000/48074/DOT-VNTSC-MARAD-13-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261170
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493180
AU  - Rasmussen, Benjamin
AU  - Machek, Elizabeth
AU  - Curtis, Erik
AU  - Choros, John
AU  - Baron, William
AU  - Muhlanger, Michelle
AU  - Coltman, Michael
AU  - Mickela, Barry
AU  - Linthicum, Alex
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Cuyahoga Valley National Park Comprehensive Rail Study
PY  - 2013/07/25/Final Report
SP  - 114p
AB  - Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (CVSR) has been operating in partnership with Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) since 1989 under a cooperative agreement. The railroad has been successfully developing and expanding services and ridership for the past 20 years along with the National Park Service (NPS), which has been developing and expanding railroad infrastructure and facilities to meet the growing needs of CVSR.  This report details a comprehensive rail study for CVNP and CVSR. It articulates coordinated, prioritized transportation investments and short/long term management actions over the next twenty years, consistent with the park's general management plan, CVSR's recently completed strategic plan, and other park and stakeholder guidance. Coordinated improvements and management actions will accommodate more future riders; improve the passenger experience; allow more park visitors to explore CVNP without the use of a personal automobile; reduce operations, maintenance, and administrative costs; and position CVNP and CVSR to take advantage of highly sought-after funding opportunities.
KW  - Cuyahoga Valley National Park
KW  - Improvements
KW  - National parks
KW  - Passenger service
KW  - Passenger trains
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Scenic railroads
KW  - Strategic planning
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48000/48065/DOT-VNTSC-NPS-13-20.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261168
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01612162
AU  - Morgan State University
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Morgan State University Teacher Transportation Institute
PY  - 2013/07/22/Summary Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - This is a summary report of the final reports of the following three Morgan State University projects:  2013 Teacher Transportation Institute (July 22, 2013 – August 2, 2013 & November 2, 2013 – December 14, 2013); 2014 Fall Teacher Transportation Institute (October 4, 2014 – November 22, 2014); and 2015 Summer Teacher Transportation Institute (May 15, 2013 – July 29, 2015).
KW  - Continuing education
KW  - Teachers
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/MSU-2013-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1424173
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489299
AU  - Lawson, Catherine T
AU  - Ravi, Sekharipuram S
AU  - Hwang, Jeong-Hyon
AU  - State University of New York, Albany
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Compressing and Querying Multiple GPS Traces for Transportation Planning
PY  - 2013/07/14/Final Report
SP  - 17p
AB  - In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of vehicles which have been equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. These devices generate huge volumes of trace data, and information extracted from these traces could significantly help transportation planners with routine tasks and special studies. However, extracting information from trace data is a challenging problem because of the proliferation of GPS devices and the rate at which trace data is generated. One approach for handling this problem is to compress the GPS data in such a way that the amount of information lost due to compression is as small as possible. During the period of this project, the focus was on the design, implementation and evaluation of GPS trajectory compression algorithms that can achieve specified compression rates while minimizing the information loss due to compression. This work has led to new algorithms for compressing single and multiple GPS traces.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Data compression
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/GPS-Tracec-for-transportation-planning-final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257426
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530270
AU  - Hayden, Larry
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pager Performance for the Western Transportation Institute’s Augmented Speed Enforcement Project
PY  - 2013/07/06/Final Report
SP  - 35p
AB  - The purpose of the augmented Speed Enforcement (aSE) project is to detect speeding vehicles in a work zone and provide alerts to drivers and warnings to work zone workers. When the system detects a vehicle approaching above a trigger speed,  the system activates a pager system that warns the workers of the speeding vehicle. Basic range measurements were performed for the transmitter and a repeater; the range is about 600 feet. The transmitter to repeater range measures over 1700 feet. Transmitter and repeater power consumption were also measured. This report contains the full results of the pager system tests.
KW  - Pagers
KW  - Radio transmitters
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Vibration
KW  - Work zone safety
KW  - Work zone traffic control
UR  - http://www.dot.ca.gov/research/researchreports/reports/2013/final_report_task_2062e.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302004
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491565
AU  - Nie, Yu (Marco)
AU  - Li, Qianfei
AU  - Chen, Peng (Will)
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Reliable Routing in Transit Networks
PY  - 2013/07/02/Final Report
SP  - 92p
AB  - In this paper, the authors seek to use newly emerging transit data sources for evaluating variations in transit services and to assist passengers with finding optimal routing strategies when faced with these service variations. A data analysis tool (Transit Data Viewer) is developed that uses space-time trajectories of transit vehicles to build and visualize empirical distributions of key transit operational parameters such as headway, segment running time, dwell time and deviation from schedule. Based on the best fitted headway distribution (as determined by statistical analysis), a transit routing tool is developed, built on the notion of hyperpath (Transit Router). Variations in road traffic conditions and demand patterns can impact transit systems, as can major disruptions caused by extreme weather conditions, serious traffic accidents, unforeseen mechanical failures and human error. The authors' proposed routing tool seeks to find an optimal hyperpath to minimize expected travel time. A large-scale case study with data from the Chicago Transit Authority is used to evaluate the proposed tools.
KW  - Chicago (Illinois)
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Dwell time
KW  - Headways
KW  - Hyperpaths
KW  - Networks
KW  - On time performance
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Routes and routing
KW  - Service disruption
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Transit vehicle operations
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y5-03.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258834
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01580350
TI  - A Study of the Usage Potential of a Proposed Expanded Commuter Rail Station at Chicago State University
AB  - Chicago State University (CSU), through the Fred Blum Neighborhood Assistance Center, will perform outreach for the NEXTRANS Center to community organizations needing assistance with transportation and accessibility related geographic information system (GIS) projects on the South Side of Chicago and southern suburbs.  

The specific research project CSU will work on will be a study of the potential effects of the expansion of a commuter rail station that is adjacent to campus.  The station is currently underutilized.  Trains only stop at the station once every one to two hours.  If expanded, the station would become an express stop, with much more frequent service and would better link Chicago State to Chicago’s growing southern suburbs.  The station also currently has security issues. A new station, located in closer proximity to the center of campus, with adequate security, is likely to increase public transportation usage to and from campus, and hypothetically could boost enrollment. CSU is currently working to gain funding for the station from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT).  The CSU NEXTRANS team would work with the CSU administrative group working on this issue to perform a GIS analysis of current and potential CSU students, to model commute times by car and public transportation currently and with the opening of the station.  In addition, the CSU RA team will work to develop a survey of current students focusing on how the building of the station might affect their transportation to and from CSU, as well as whether the new station might affect the enrollment decisions of potential students in areas served by the rail line.

KW  - Campus transportation
KW  - Chicago (Illinois)
KW  - Commuters
KW  - Department of Transportation
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Rail transit stations
KW  - Security
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1373356
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01556864
TI  - Simulation Study of Emergency Evacuation of Greater Jackson due to Hazardous Material Incident
AB  - In response to both natural and man-made disasters, emergency evacuation aims to move a large disaster affected Volume through a multimodal transportation network towards safer areas quickly and efficiently. The derailment of a freight train in downtown Jackson thus causing the spillage of chlorine, a highly toxic hazardous material, is assumed as an emergency evacuation scenario to (1) identify weak links in the highway network; and to (2) develop effective emergency evacuation strategies to reduce congestion on highway networks.  In this report the area that will be affected by the gas spill extends from Mill Street on the west to Airport Road on the east and Meadowbrook Road on the north to Fortification on the south. The traffic operation was simulated using a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) based traffic-network planning and simulation program DynusT. The origin and destination (OD) demand was calibrated using observed traffic volume data at several critical evacuation routes. Various traffic management strategies such as baseline traffic control, traffic management strategies and contra-flow deployment were employed to reduce congestion on highways during emergency situations.
KW  - Dynamic traffic assignment
KW  - Evacuation
KW  - Hazardous materials
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Jackson (Mississippi)
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Traffic volume
UR  - http://www.jsums.edu/imtrans/research/simulation-study-of-emergency-evacuation-of-greater-jackson-due-to-hazardous-material-incident/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1346112
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01543483
TI  - Forensic Testing of Post Tensioned Concrete Girders
AB  - All across the United States, various state departments of transportation are faced with the problem of an aging infrastructure and insufficient resources to meet the needs.  As a result, many bridges are being subjected service lives that are longer than originally anticipated when originally designed.  Understanding the behavior of this aging infrastructure is essential to making judicious decisions with the limited resources.  With the reconstruction of the I-15 Interstate near Provo, Utah many bridge replacements were required.  As part of a previous University Transportation Center (UTC) project, four high strength, self consolidated prestressed concrete girders were obtained an tested to determine residual prestress force, flexural capacity and shear capacity.  During the procurement of these girders researchers discovered and obtained a group of post tensioned concrete girders that are over 40 years old.  These girders were post tensioned using three curved bars.  The girders have a wider end block for the post tensioning anchorage.  These girders are unique in many ways and presented a rare opportunity to evaluate the long term behavior of post-tension bridge girders.  There girders were tested along with the prestressed girders but the analysis has not been performed.  There is very little research that has been done on this type of girder and the results will be valuable for state and federal agencies as well as other researchers.  This research is to analyze and compare the measured results with current design procedures and nonlinear finite-element methodologies.
KW  - Aging (Materials)
KW  - Aging infrastructure
KW  - Flexural strength
KW  - Girder bridges
KW  - Girders
KW  - High strength concrete
KW  - Posttensioning
KW  - Prestressed concrete bridges
KW  - Shear strength
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/forensic-testing-post-tensioned-concrete-girders
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1330939
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01543482
TI  - Bridge Response due to Temperature Variations
AB  - The inclusion of uniform temperature effects for bridges has traditionally been incorporated in design by allowing for expansion and contraction through the utilization of bearings and joints or deformations of the piers and abutments in the case of integral abutment construction. However, as a result of the growth in the multi-modal transportation system, more complex and longer-span bridges are now being constructed, requiring new material technologies and design methodologies.  These modern bridges are increasing the necessity for accurate accounting of thermal effects to achieve the desired in-service performance.  In general, temperature effects not only include these uniform changes but also changes in temperature gradients throughout the day.  A vertical nonlinear temperature gradient over the height of the bridge cross section is caused by the relatively low thermal conductivity of the concrete deck and the variation of ambient temperature magnitudes with time. This nonlinear temperature gradient induces longitudinal stresses over the height of each of the girders across the width of the bridge that can lead to cracking and unacceptable service conditions if not taken into account properly.
KW  - Bridge abutments
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Contraction
KW  - Cross sections
KW  - Expansion
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Piers (Supports)
KW  - Responses
KW  - Temperature
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/bridge-response-due-temperature-variations
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1330938
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534841
TI  - Integrated Embedded Frequency Selective Surface Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring
AB  - The objective of this project is to design an embedded sensor element capable of characterizing mechanical properties including shear strain. This element will be designed using a Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) approach, and will be intended for integration into composite materials. The successful outcome of this project will result in a new embedded integrated sensing method with the potential to significantly impact the method by which composite structures are inspected. Further, the outcomes of this project may directly impact the potential for remote (standoff) inspection of such structures.
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Embedded systems
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Shear strain
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r360/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320621
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534840
TI  - Roller Compacted Concrete - Ripley County Rt 160
AB  - Roller-compacted concrete (RCC) is a concrete of no-slump consistency in its unhardened state that is typically transported, placed, and compacted using asphalt, earth and rock fill construction equipment. The constituents are the same as for conventional concretes but the mixture proportions differ in that the aggregate grading and content has to be such that the RCC can immediately take load. RCC can be designed to develop compressive and flexural strengths in the range associated with structural concrete. The proposed research study will evaluate the fresh and hardened properties, durability, and in-situ performance of RCC. Optimized RCC formulation will be used for widening Route 142 in Doniphan, Missouri. Fieldcast concrete will be extensively sampled and tested to compare its performance to conventional concrete used in pavement construction. The structural health monitoring of the performance of the pavement will also be determined. The results from this study will provide feedback to future field implementation of this technology in transportation-related infrastructure.
KW  - Aggregate gradation
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Durability
KW  - Flexural strength
KW  - Missouri
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Roller compacted concrete
KW  - Traffic loads
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r363/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320620
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01528301
TI  - Trenchless Technology Settlement Investigation
AB  - Once completed, this project will compare two different possible methods that could be used to detect voids in the installation of pipes through trenchless technology.  The first technology examined will be FutureScan, a robot outfitted with a radar system that can scan voids by being placed directly into the pipe.  The FutureScan method is a new method developed by CUES Inc. and Louisiana Tech.  The second method will be ground penetrating radar (GPR), which will be compared to the results from the FutureScan technique.
KW  - Air voids
KW  - Ground penetrating radar
KW  - Pipe
KW  - Robots
KW  - Scanners
KW  - Trenchless technology
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1312722
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01517401
TI  - Feasibility Analysis of System Dynamics for Inland Maritime Logistics
AB  - The commercially important U.S. inland waterway system is an open system consisting of 12,000 miles of navigable waterways managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)(Stern, 2012). Inland and intracoastal waterways serve thirty-eight states with nearly 200 commercially active lock sites (USACE, 2009). Multimodal Transportation Systems (MTS) play an essential role in corporations competing in US maritime logistics operations. In transportation, the effectiveness and efficiency of the whole system depends upon the interconnectivity of its elements. Because disruptions in the supply chain are costly, this research will look at improving the efficiency of Multimodal inland maritime hubs by looking at disruptions that have a negative impact on the elements that make up the MTS. Although past research classifies disruptions in MTS as: congestion, demand fluctuations, time delays, capacity limits, scheduling and, connectivity between the different modes, limited research address the relationship between these failures and the system. System Dynamics (SD) is a fairly sophisticated way of thinking about the interconnections of these elements. This research explores the feasibility of a SD approach to MTS modeling, which will let us iterate and mitigate a system to be able to forecast scenarios and meaningful hypothesis of a system's behavior over time. The SD model will aid to identify and understand those major elements and disruptions that altogether impact the efficiency of the MTS. The model will help determine how the disruptive factors of the supply chain are related to the efficiency of the system. Future work will suggest decision-making strategies that will improve MTS performance over time being able to enhance customer satisfaction.
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Inland waterways
KW  - Interconnections (Transport modes)
KW  - Intracoastal waterways
KW  - Locks (Waterways)
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - River ports
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r356/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301294
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01514357
TI  - Evaluation of Repair Techniques for Impact Damaged Prestressed Beams
AB  - Bridges in the Commonwealth of Virginia and other states are often damaged by impact with over-height vehicles.  The impact damage may be relatively superficial or quite extensive. For precast, prestress concrete beams, superficial damage may be repaired with cosmetic methods such as shot-crete or patching with repair grouts.  More extensive damage may require splicing of severed prestressing strands, or strengthening with steel plates or fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) layups.  External prestressing and near-surface-mounted FRP repairs are also possible.  Virginia does not have in place a policy for evaluation of impact-damaged girders.  A guideline to assist in the evaluation of the severity of the damage, and to recommend repair techniques appropriate for various damage levels is needed to consistently, efficiently, and economically address impact damage.
KW  - Beams
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Grout
KW  - Impact
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Patching
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/evaluation-repair-techniques-impact-damaged-prestressed-beams
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1298765
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01514355
TI  - Sinkhole Risk Assessment along Roadway Construction
AB  - The work completed in this project created a series of online lab modules that transportation professionals could use as a reference to learn how to conduct, how to interpret, and the applications of geotechnical lab tests used in practice to determine engineering soil properties.  These instructional modules were produced and distributed through the Virginia Transportation Training Academy for use by highway design professionals throughout the state of Virginia.  Additionally, the Transportation Training Academy made these videos available through their website for use by other Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center (MAUTC) universities or State Departments of Transportation that wish to offer these instructional video modules as reference tools within their own highway design communities.
KW  - Computer online services
KW  - Geotechnical engineering
KW  - Referencing
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Road construction
KW  - Sinkholes
KW  - Training
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1298763
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503734
TI  - New Generation Bio-Binder Formulation
AB  - Due to growing interest in sustainability, Kansas State University has initiated the search for a non-petroleum binder that could be used for asphalt mixtures.  The objective of this study is to develop a modified asphalt binder from bio-fuel by-products and wastes that can be used as a replacement of bituminous binders derived from the fossil fuel crude. Initial investigations of the structure and physical properties of bio-fuel-derived heavy oils revealed unexpected chemical differences to petroleum-derived asphalt binders. A simple process for removing the unwanted polar groups from bio-fuel based oils by applying heat will be studied and optimized. Subsequent crosslinking of the bio-based asphalt materials will result in better binder properties, such as enhanced wettability, coating (adhesion) and resistance to aging (loss of volatiles).
KW  - Adhesion
KW  - Aging (Materials)
KW  - Asphalt mixtures
KW  - Bituminous binders
KW  - Fossil fuels
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Wastes
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1286098
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503733
TI  - Reducing Work Zone Duration, Comparison of Nighttime vs. Daytime Crashes and Effectiveness of Lighting in Highway Work Zones
AB  - Work zone safety is an important issue in the broad area of highway safety. Accordingly this study will explore several inter-related issues with the intention of identifying effective ways of reducing number of work zone crashes and severity associated with those crashes. In addition to daytime operations, by undertaking construction work during nighttime work zone durations could be reduced. Fewer crashes may be experienced as a result of shortened work zone durations. The contractor incentives for faster completion of the project may be offset by savings due to reduced number of crashes. However, there are special concerns dealing with work zone safety issues related to nighttime conditions due to reduced visibility. Also, traffic volumes at night are typically lower than those during daylight conditions and lower volumes provide greater maneuverability to drivers allowing higher nighttime operating speeds than during day time. Accordingly, severity of the work zone crashes might be related to the lighting condition of the location, which needs to be verified. Effect of these related factors on safety has not been fully explored and this project is expected to serve that purpose.
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Incentives
KW  - Lighting
KW  - Night visibility
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Work zone safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1286097
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503732
TI  - KDOT Column Expert: Ultimate Shear Capacity of Circular Columns using the Modified Compression Field Theory
AB  - The extreme event requirement as a limit state set by AASHTO LRFD makes it necessary to develop the actual capacity of concrete sections to accurately design them to withstand the extreme load events. For confined sections subjected to combined axial force and uniaxial bending moment, the actual ultimate flexural capacity is found using the earlier versions of Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) Column Expert. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop a computer program that evaluates the section capacity in shear by generating accurate shear-moment interaction diagrams for each level of axial force and compares them to the available experimental results. This analysis can prove useful to estimate the existing capacity of damaged bridge piers when subjected to truck impacts. It is also desirable to have a reliable analysis tool that can be used to assess the actual shear capacity of the pier when developing a repair action. Experimental evidences have shown that the modified compression field theory can capture the actual shear capacity of the section very accurately. In addition, the dowel action of the longitudinal bars acting in tension can contribute to increasing the shear capacity, a factor often neglected by design codes of practice. The nonlinear axial load-strain and uniaxial moment-curvature response of reinforced concrete circular section combined with shear forces is very involved. It is important to note that accurate results are guaranteed when the axial load and bending moments are proportional since loading path dependence is avoided. Rasheed and Abd El Fattah have developed a framework for columns that imposes proportional axial force and uniaxial bending moment on circular sections and iterates to obtain the corresponding deformation parameters. However, this procedure needs to be extended to the general case of shear-moment-axial force interaction.
KW  - AASHTO Guide Specifications for LRFD Seismic Bridge Design
KW  - Bearing capacity
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Bridge piers
KW  - Columns
KW  - Flexural strength
KW  - Trucks
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1286096
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503730
TI  - Highway Safety Manual Applied in States II--Freeway/Software
AB  - The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is preparing to release a revision to the Highway Safety Manual that includes models for freeway segments, speed-change lanes and interchanges. Select models that are relevant to Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) states will be calibrated using local sites and local crash data. The calibration of such models will ensure that they reflect local driver population, conditions and environment. The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) has a related software package, the Safety Analyst (SA). This software will be investigated for the generation of the annual needs list (high-severity facilities). There have been some facilities that are unique to the MATC states that do not have HSM models. Two examples are the diverging diamond (or double-crossover) and the J-turn. This project will also develop Safety Performance Functions (SPF) for these innovative geometric designs that are designed to reduce severe crashes.
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Crash severity
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Highway Safety Manual
KW  - Interchanges and intersections
KW  - Software
KW  - Speed change lanes
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1286094
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01498627
TI  - Encouraging Young Civil Engineers: Support for the UAF College of Engineering and Mines Steel Bridge Team Competition Steel Bridge
AB  - The University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) has a long and successful history competing in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Steel Bridge Competition. In this competition, university students design and construct a small steel bridge that meets criteria established by the competition committee. Students learn to apply the knowledge learned in the classroom to an actual design project which they then construct. Not only do students learn application of structural design, but they learn constructability issues, scheduling, estimating and costing principles, and personnel management. Many of these students work for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&amp;PF) after graduation. Dr. Leroy Hulsey is the team faculty adviser. Funds will provide materials for the competition.
KW  - American Society of Civil Engineers
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Civil engineers
KW  - Competition
KW  - Design
KW  - Personnel management
KW  - Steel bridges
KW  - Structural design
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277974
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497975
TI  - Data Collection and Spatial Interpolation of Bicycle and Pedestrian Data
AB  - Cities and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) struggle to collect and use bicycle and pedestrian data in effective and meaningful ways. Monitoring non-motorized traffic is still in its infancy compared to the well-developed practice of monitoring motorized traffic. In the last few years there has been an explosion of citizen-volunteer programs to manually count bicycle and pedestrian volumes. These "grass-roots" efforts to improve bicycle and pedestrian data collection have been motivated by concerns about the environment, community livability, obesity, and personal safety. There are exciting opportunities for using these data for transportation planning purposes (in addition to the benefits of increased citizen engagement), but there are also a number of challenges because the count durations are usually very short (typically only two hours), sporadic, and sometimes inconsistent in terms of when, where, and who is collecting the data. In the last few years there have also been significant advances in sensor technology which have greatly increased the possibilities for automated data collection; but these methods also pose a number of challenges that need to be overcome. This project will develop strategies for improving and integrating automated and manual count programs. Furthermore, this project will create new methodologies and tools to estimate bicycle and pedestrian demand based on manual and automated data collection (i.e. spatial and temporal interpolation of observed data).
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Nonmotorized transportation
KW  - Pedestrian traffic
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Traffic counts
KW  - Traffic data
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277018
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497973
TI  - Performance-Measure Based Asset Management Tool for Rural Freight Mobility in the Pacific Northwest
AB  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) establishes national objectives to increase productivity and economic efficiency of the nation's freight infrastructure. The recent passage of MAP-21 has placed an emphasis on integrating asset and performance management tools to help transportation agencies better manage the critical transportation infrastructure. Infrastructure performance management expands the more traditional definition of Asset Management to include measurement and reporting of how those assets achieve their targeted operational objectives. While congestion and bottlenecks in urbanized areas readily, and deservedly, catch the attention of policy makers, many miles of multimodal transportation occur prior to freight trips arriving in (or accrue after leaving) urban areas. These miles and the ability to efficiently navigate them directly impact the productivity of the region's diverse transportation system. This project identifies and seeks to remedy performance measure gaps and freight mobility issues as they relate to identifying the appropriate infrastructure capacity to meet demand for both domestic and international economic competitiveness.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Competition
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277016
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497968
TI  - SSI Bridge 2: Evaluation of Soil Structure Interaction Effects on PNW Bridges
AB  - The Pacific Northwest (PNW) is prone to large subduction zone earthquakes as well as smaller, shallow, crustal earthquakes. The effects of these types of earthquakes on PNW bridges is not well understood - especially the effects of the large magnitude, long-duration subduction earthquake motions. In this project, we will solve the following problem: How will typical bridges in the PNW respond during impending earthquake events? The term "typical bridges" here is meant to imply the majority of the bridge stock in the PNW that has not been subjected to rigorous seismic analysis and design. Typical bridges are extremely important, because they account for the majority of the PNW's bridge stock, and they are critical for the lifeline routes after the impending earthquake occurs. In summary, this work will eventually lead to guidance for designing and retrofitting typical bridges in the PNW, and this guidance will be critical for ensuring that our transportation corridors remain functional after the impending event. This, in turn, will improve the safety of the PNW's typical bridge stock as well as the overall community livability and economic viability of the PNW following the impending earthquake. PacTrans also funded the first year of this work. In this first year, the project has developed a comprehensive soil-bridge model, which was designed to represent a typical PNW bridge. The project performed analysis of the bridge using a suite of 14 earthquake motions. Seven of the motions were recorded during shallow, crustal earthquakes, and the other seven motions were recorded during the recent subduction zone earthquakes in Chile and Japan. The analysis is showing key differences between the soil-bridge response during the subduction zone earthquakes versus the shallow, crustal earthquakes. In particular, the demands on the soil-bridge system are higher during the subduction zone event. We currently have an MS student finishing a thesis on this project and we are planning on writing a journal paper based on these results.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Chile
KW  - Community livability
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Earthquake resistant structures
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Japan
KW  - Pacific Northwest
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Soil structure interaction
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277011
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497963
TI  - Modeling Passing Behavior on Two-Lane Rural Highways: Evaluating Crash Risk under Different Geometric Condition
AB  - Passing maneuvers on rural two-lane highways are a complex task with a significant effect on safety, capacity, and service quality. This maneuver, which involves driving in the lane of the opposing traffic, is associated with simultaneously increasing crash risk and increasing the driver's speed. Understanding drivers' passing behavior and their decision-making on two-lane rural highways can significantly contribute to accurately predicting risk and service quality. Only limited research has been conducted to capture and document drivers' perception of when they need to pass and passing decision-making. This is partly because it is difficult to collect detailed data on driver perceptions and passing behavior in the real-world environment. Furthermore, field studies offer little control over the intervening variables, and usually no information on the drivers being observed. Evidence showing the effects of this limited research lies in recent work assessing passing sight distance (PSD) standards for two-lane highways in two preeminent manuals.  One is the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Green Book, which states minimum PSD and the other is the Manual on Uniform Traf&amp;#64257;c Control Devices (MUTCD). Marking of passing and no-passing zones is based on PSD criteria presented in the MUTCD. The National Highway Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 605 presented recommendations regarding current procedures and guidelines used to estimate minimum PSD requirements for highway design and pavement marking. The report concluded that the MUTCD PSD criteria for marking passing and no-passing zones should also be used for PSD design.  It also concluded that although the longer AASHTO PSD criteria might provide improved traf&amp;#64257;c operational ef&amp;#64257;ciency, the AASHTO PSD are so long they are often impractical. As a result of the report recommendations, the PSD values in the 2011 AASHTO green book were modified and brought closer to the MUTCD PSD values. The field data used to validate different PSD models in NCHRP 605 was based on video data collection. Videos were used to study distance traveled by the passing vehicle in the opposing lane, the speed differential between the passed and passing vehicles, and the deceleration rate used by the passing vehicle when the passing maneuver was aborted.  No relationship was established between driver perception of quality of service, passing behavior, and the present highway conditions. Finally, the only tool available for estimating two-lane highway performance resides in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM).  This tool is not based on any relationship between observed user perception, documented driver passing behavior, and two lane highway conditions.  As a result, the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Highway Capacity &amp; Quality of Service identified researching two-lane highway traffic operations as a high priority research subject, as did the American AASHTO.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - High risk drivers
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices
KW  - Passing sight distance
KW  - Quality of service
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Traffic control devices
KW  - Two lane highways
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277006
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497808
TI  - Contaminant Accumulation in Best Management Practices: Implications for the Performance of Catchment Basins
AB  - Stormwater runoff contains dissolved pollutants but it is well known that a much larger fraction of the contaminants is associated with suspended solids. The control of these contaminated solids is typically addressed by Best Management Practices (BMP), such as retention/detention ponds or catchment basins in general. This project proposes a comprehensive study of catchment basins to elucidate the impact of seasonal weather conditions onto the fate and multi-phase transport of a particularly important class of petroleum hydrocarbons (PH) in stormwater runoff, which, for the purpose of this project, include semi-volatile poly-aromatic-hydrocarbons (PAH) and volatile mono-aromatic compounds, such as benzene or toluene. The potential outcomes of this study may have important ramifications for designing and maintaining BMP system and, in general, are relevant to meeting National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and MS4 requirements and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) regulations.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Contaminants
KW  - Detention basins
KW  - Hydrocarbons
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Runoff
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1268073
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01490072
TI  - Northern Border Intelligent Transportation System 
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Border regions
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Trucking safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259637
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489748
TI  - Park & Rides
AB  - The objective of this research effort is to collect data about the use of some of the largest park and ride facilities in the Puget Sound region. These data will include the efficiency of the parking facilities (measured in various ways such as average passenger occupancy of vehicles entering the lot, lot utilization rate, and fraction of users actually making use of surrounding transit options) and key characteristics of the users of these facilities during typical weekday conditions, including: origin-destination information, arrival times, trip purpose, and vehicle occupancy. A survey of all transit lines serving the lots and their frequencies will be collected as well. These data will provide the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) with a better understanding of how these facilities serve to connect the surrounding transportation system, and provide quantitative data with which to develop regional parking policies to increase lot efficiency. In addition, this data collection effort will include traveler reactions to incentives for non-SOV (single occupancy vehicle) travel to these facilities, and disincentives to SOV travel. These objectives will be achieved through the following tasks: (1) literature review of previous studies on park and ride efficiency in the United States; (2) development of a survey to understand user demand patterns and motivations; (3) assessment of current facility use; (4) pre-test of survey and survey refinement; (5) survey administration at key facilities in the Puget Sound region; (6) synthesis and analysis of collected data; and (7) final report to WSDOT. A breakdown of the tasks is provided below.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Park and ride
KW  - Parking facilities
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Puget Sound Region
KW  - Single occupant vehicles
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Trip purpose
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259219
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487976
TI  - Project Title Impact of Truck Loading on Design and Analysis of Asphaltic Pavement Structures -- Phase IV
AB  - The goal of this research is to advance current practices in the selection of paving materials and design-analysis methods of pavement structures based on more realistic fundamentals of the effects of heavy-load trucks on pavement damage and performance. Trucking is the most dominant component of U.S. freight transportation and is expected to grow significantly in the future. Better protection of highway infrastructure against heavy-load trucks is therefore necessary, and success can be achieved by a more accurate and realistic understanding of the pavement performance associated with damage. In particular, this study targets a more realistic performance prediction of pavement cracking (fatigue cracking and thermal cracking). To meet the objective, the rate-, mode-, and temperature-dependent fracture behavior of asphaltic materials is characterized based on an integrated experimental-computational approach. Appropriate fracture tests are conducted, and the experimental efforts are then integrated using advanced computational modeling. Findings from this research are expected to improve actual practices in the selection of more engineered paving materials and in more advanced implementation of current design and analysis methods, which will eventually contribute to safer, more efficient, more effective, and more sustainable U.S. roadway infrastructure.
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Fatigue cracking
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Heavy duty trucks
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Paving materials
KW  - Trucking
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257016
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487975
TI  - Testing and Evaluation of Guardrail Posts Installed in Mow Strips
AB  - During an impact event with a W-beam guardrail system, post rotation through the surrounding soil accounts for the majority of the energy dissipation. When guardrail posts are installed in pavements or mow strips that restrict rotation, the amount of energy dissipation is reduced, and the rail is subjected to increased forces. This scenario negatively affects the safety performance of guardrail systems by increasing the risk of rail rupture and vehicle penetration. As a result, it is recommended that strong-post guardrail systems installed in mow strips utilize a blocked-out area or "leave-out" in the pavement around the base of the post. Recently, the Midwest Guardrail System (MGS) Bridge Rail was developed utilizing S3x5.7 posts instead of the standard W6x9 guardrail post. These weak posts were placed in rigid sockets attached to the bridge deck and provided energy dissipation through plastic bending instead of rotation through soil. The MGS Bridge Rail was successfully full-scale crash tested and showed promise as a weak-post design for other applications. 	The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) has an existing project to adapt the MGS Bridge Rail for use in mow strips and other rigid pavements. That project has funding to evaluate design concepts through dynamic component testing and to conduct a full-scale crash test of the selected design. However, further research is needed to evaluate various mow strip configurations and their effects on system performance and damage when coupled with a weak-post guardrail system. Therefore this proposal seeks to supplement the concept development of installing weak posts in mow strip pavements through dynamic component testing.
KW  - Bridge railings
KW  - Dissipation
KW  - Guardrails
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Impact tests
KW  - Midwest Guardrail System
KW  - Mow strips
KW  - Posts
KW  - W-beam guardrail
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257015
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487974
TI  - Diffuse Ultrasound for Damage Detection in Concrete Railroad Ties
AB  - Damage to concrete railroad ties may be caused by many factors including manufacturing defects, overloading, mechanical fatigue, thermal damage, chemical damage or a combination of these factors. Damaged ties are a substantial safety risk and the replacement of ties is a significant expenditure annually. Current visual inspections of ties can quantify some damage prevention, but often internal damage is substantial by the time the cracks reach the tie surface such that they may be detected. Thus, new methods for quantitative assessment of damage using nondestructive methods are essential for determining the structural integrity of ties and for predicting their remaining usable life. The proposed research will address these needs through the study of ultrasound propagation in concrete ties at frequencies higher than those previously explored for tie inspection (e.g., impact echo). The research project is based on a firm theoretical foundation and exploits previous research from the Principal Investigator (PI) associated with the propagation, scattering, and dissipation of ultrasound in concrete. The influence of various types of damage, as identified by Union Pacific, will be explored with respect to the characteristics of ultrasound. The proposed high frequency (> 100 kHz) approach will improve the detection of small-scale damage by using wavelengths that are shorter than those explored previously. The heterogeneous nature of concrete necessitates a statistical approach in order to extract quantitative information from the measurements. It is anticipated that the research will lead to new techniques for assessing damage in concrete ties. The proposed research also will have significant impact on the educational training of one graduate student in nondestructive evaluation techniques applied to essential infrastructure materials.
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Defects
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Railroad ties
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Ultrasonic detectors
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257014
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487973
TI  - Effects of Sediments on BMPs for Highway Runoff Control
AB  - Numerous studies conducted on highway stormwater runoff and its control with Best Management Practices (BMPs) indicate that sediments are the major pollutants that affect performance and longevity of BMPs. Currently, it is essentially unknown: (1) how much sediment will be generated by a construction site or by a section of highway with its surrounding watershed under different conditions&amp;ndash;knowledge gap 1; (2) how sediments are intercepted by different BMPs with or without pretreatment sections&amp;ndash;knowledge gap 2; and (3) what are the effects of these sediments on BMPs&amp;rsquo; hydraulic behavior, longevity, and pollutants removal or release&amp;ndash;knowledge gap 3. The objectives of this study are to: (1) develop models to predict both surface runoff and sediment yield from highway systems under different conditions; and (2) evaluate how to incorporate models into design and management of BMPs for highway runoff control. The project will develop models to estimate sediment yield/delivery from different settings (e.g., construction sites, different highway sections) under different environmental (e.g., soils, vegetation, slopes) and weather conditions (e.g., different storm events). The project will identify a few highway sites (e.g., construction sites or highway sections) to collect storm water samples during storm events; we then will quantify sediments to calibrate the model(s). The project will then evaluate how to use the model(s) in BMP design and management. This project will provide important information to fill knowledge gaps 1&amp;minus;3. The project will assist in the planning, design and management of structural BMPs for highway runoff control.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Sediments
KW  - Watersheds
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257013
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487972
TI  - Protocol for Evaluation of Existing Bridges
AB  - The proposed project will develop protocols for evaluation of existing bridges. The proposed research will involve identification of problems to be addressed -- for example, verification of the load distribution factors, actual live load (weight of trucks), dynamic load factors, minimum load carrying capacity, or fatigue load spectra. The available field-testing procedures will be presented and described. The developed protocols will include description of the required equipment and operational guides. The protocols will also include the assessment of accuracy, potential problems, and best practice observations. The field tests will include the measurement of strain and deflection, with the objective of determining/verifying the dynamic load factor, girder distribution factor, and minimum load carrying capacity. Field-testing will be applied to pre-selected representative structural types and materials, so that the obtained results can be applied to a wider population of bridges. Field-testing will involve instrumentation using strain gauges and LVDT's, a power generator, and a data acquisition system. The test load will be considered in the form of test trucks. For proof loading, it is efficient to use military tanks (acquirable from local National Guard). The developed protocols will be demonstrated on three selected bridges. The structures will be selected in cooperation with the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR). Field tests will be performed to verify the live load distribution factor, dynamic load factor, and minimum load carrying capacity by proof load test.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Fatigue (Mechanics)
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Live loads
KW  - Load factor
KW  - Strain gages
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257012
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487971
TI  - Advanced Decision Modeling for Real Time Variable Tolling - Data Collection Trial
AB  - This investigation extends the state of knowledge of decision modeling under risk and ambiguity by field testing a mobile data collection platform for the capturing of naturalistic choice outcomes, associated environmental states, decision makers&amp;rsquo; self-articulated perceptions of risk and assessments of ambiguity, and socio-economic attributes. This project is a second step in software/hardware development for advancing the ability to forecast future revenue sources in transportation. The data collection platform was developed in 2012 through a grant from the Mid-America Transportation Center and now it will be field tested to obtain insights for developing, testing and implementing new behavioral models that explicitly describe how the precise information is used&amp;mdash;in this case, ambiguous information signaled by variable toll lane charges&amp;mdash;that are superior to those obtained to date.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Forecasting
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Revenues
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Toll roads
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257011
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487970
TI  - Older Driver Acceptance of New Driving Safety Technology
AB  - The objectives of this project are to identify, rate and rank current and future technologies that affect the safety of older drivers and to then determine their acceptance of those technologies.  New vehicle-based safety systems have emerged in the US vehicle fleet in recent years.  This project will identify and evaluate those in-vehicle systems that affect the safety of older drivers.  Using the National Automotive Driving Simulator's (NADS) extensive experience with vehicle safety systems and older drivers, a safety system ranking will be established by taking the composite safety rating of each in-vehicle technology and comparing it to the crash risk and the potential safety benefits of other available technologies.  Older drivers' acceptance of these technologies will be assessed using a focus group setting and surveys and will factor into an overall safety score.
KW  - Acceptance
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Driver information systems
KW  - High risk drivers
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Vehicle safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257010
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487969
TI  - Distracted Driving due to Visual Working Memory Load
AB  - Distracted driving is responsible for many deaths and injuries and a significant portion are due to the use of a cell-phone. Even people who know of the risks continue to use cell-phones, often saying &amp;ldquo;it&amp;rsquo;s no worse than talking to a passenger&amp;rdquo; (which is not true). In order to enhance safety through means beyond public education, a better understanding of the specific manner in which distractions interfere with the cognitive processing required for driving is needed. Focusing on the limitations of visual short-term memory (VSTM), the present work will examine the hypothesis that concurrent distractions, including the use of a cell-phone, interfere with safe driving by reducing the amount of VSTM that is available for those processes needed for driving. This hypothesis will be tested by manipulating the amount of VSTM that is occupied by a secondary task while participants drive in a simulator. It is predicted that, starting at very low levels of VSTM load, responses to unexpected events will be impeded. As concurrent load is further increased, approaching the limits of VSTM capacity, it is predicted that measures of overall driving performance, such as following distance, will also be affected. These findings would provide valuable evidence concerning the causes of distracted-driving effects and would help to explain why many people appear to believe that using a cell-phone isn&amp;rsquo;t as dangerous as it actually is. These findings would also provide preliminary evidence in support of a new model of distracted driving, allowing larger proposals to be submitted to other agencies, while enabling a new collaboration between the National Advanced Driving Simulator, College of Engineering, and the Department of Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, at the University of Iowa. It will expose psychology students to the application of theory and method to problems in traffic safety.
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Crash injuries
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Short-term memory
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257009
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487968
TI  - Dollars for Lives: The Effects of Capital Outlay and Maintenance
AB  - An important strategic goal of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Mid-American Transportation Center is to enhance traffic safety. Understanding determinants of highway fatalities and thus making appropriate policies serve that goal well. Potentially significant determinants of highway fatalities that have never been explored in the highway safety literature are expenditures on highway maintenance and capital outlay. This state-level study using data from 1965 till 2010 examines the effects of highway capital outlay and maintenance expenditures on highway fatalities using advanced panel data methods. This is a timely study given recent increases in highway fatalities and state decreases in highway spending. The findings from this study will shed light on how future continued cutbacks on capital outlay and maintenance spending affect traffic safety, and what policies should be taken to enhance safety.
KW  - Capital investments
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257008
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487967
TI  - Diagnosis and Prognosis of Retrofit Fatigue Crack Reinitiation and Growth in Steel-girder Bridges for Proactive Repair and Emergency Planning
AB  - The deteriorated conditions of retrofitted fatigue cracks on old multiple-steel-girder bridge connections can cause catastrophic consequences if the crack sizes go beyond the acceptable limits and therefore may require immediate action by bridge repair planners and emergency responders. Extensive efforts have been devoted to investigating the causes behind fatigue crack initiation and growth in girder-steel bridges, and several retrofit repair schemes have been suggested and implemented in the field with varying levels of success. One effective way to stop fatigue crack growth involves drilling holes near the crack tips; however, due to uncertainties in operational loading conditions and optimal hole size, cracks can grow around these holes and cause potentially dangerous scenarios. Fatigue cracks can grow quickly and cause unexpected damage before the traditional biennial inspection can take place. Therefore, it is critical to remotely detect fatigue crack reinitiation and growth at retrofit connections to help emergency responders and repair planners determine the action that has to be taken. In the proposed project, an experimental-numerical vibration-based damage-detection methodology will be evaluated with respect to its effectiveness in capturing and predicting fatigue crack reinitiation and propagation of retrofit connections. Extended finite element (X-FEM) models of the retrofit connections will be developed in which fatigue crack growth around circular holes can be modeled and investigated. The goal of this work is to help highway bridge repair and maintenance teams develop more cost-effective repair plans and safer infrastructures. Preliminary results of a current vibration-based damage-detection methodology are very promising when it comes to the method's ability to detect fatigue cracks in field applications.
KW  - Damage detection
KW  - Deterioration
KW  - Fatigue cracking
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Girder bridges
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Repairing
KW  - Retrofitting
KW  - Steel bridges
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257007
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487966
TI  - Evaluation of Air-Coupled Impact-Echo Test Method
AB  - One of the most important and difficult decisions faced by transportation officials on a regular basis is how to best allocate limited resources towards repair and maintenance of transportation infrastructure. To aid in the decision making process, efficient and reliable condition assessment tools are needed so that structurally deficient bridges, pavements and foundations can be identified and ranked in terms of their health. Such information enables decision makers to distribute resources towards those assets in greatest need of repair or retrofit.  The goal of the proposed research is to investigate a promising innovation in the impact-echo (IE) nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method, whereby traditional ground-coupled transducers are replaced with air-coupled transducers. The accuracy of the method in detecting the location and extent of various defects in reinforced concrete bridge decks such as delaminations, voids, and cracking will be determined in the laboratory using a test slab. To provide improvements in the quality of the data, signal processing techniques and an active noise-cancelling technique will be examined. The air-coupled impact-echo approach will then be performed on a bridge deck and compared to results of other NDE methods as part of an existing pooled-fund structural health monitoring (SHM) study. Pending successful performance of the air-coupled impact-echo method, preliminary design recommendations for a mobile scanning system will also be developed in the proposed study. The advantage of an air-coupled IE method is that testing time would be greatly reduced by eliminating the requirement to physically couple transducers to the structure at each measurement point. The method could therefore be implemented in a mobile scanning system for accelerated 2D profiling of bridge decks and pavements, enabling the structural health of transportation infrastructure to be assessed and monitored with greater efficiency. A mobile scanning system may also eliminate the need for lane-closures and traffic direction crews.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Defects
KW  - Impact echo tests
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Resource allocation
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257006
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487965
TI  - Study of the Regulatory Issues Affecting Truck Freight Movement in Region VII
AB  - Freight movement by truck across Iowa and throughout the Midwestern states in Region VII is a critical issue that will impact commerce in the short-term future (5-10 years) as well as the long-term future (20-50 years). Truck movements across the Midwestern states are projected to increase, and this increase points to a need to remove potentially unnecessary barriers/obstacles and establish a more efficient and productive system for the movement of freight. Potential regulatory obstacles/barriers for trucking include requirements for commercial driver licence (CDL), medical certifications, permits for oversize/overweight loads, and hourly limits on drivers. Experiences of other states in changing regulations and policies, and their applicability to Iowa and the other states in region VII, will be important to consider in a bid to facilitate improved freight movement and the free flow of goods in Iowa and surrounding states.  The Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) has requested assistance from the Institute for Transportation in investigating the regulatory issues that may affect or limit freight movement in Iowa and other Midwestern states. The proposed study will complement the findings of the Iowa DOT study with the following: review of regulatory conditions affecting truck freight movement in Region VII; survey of all states in Region VII; and performance analysis of select truck freight corridors in the region, in terms of freight flows, capacity, types of commodities moved, congestion, and crashes.
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Midwest, USA
KW  - Policy analysis
KW  - Regulations
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Trucking
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257005
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487963
TI  - Digital Documentation of Element Condition for Bridge Evaluation
AB  - Bridge condition inspection data provides critical and rich information for assessing structural condition. Currently, the majority of bridge evaluation methods use printed checklists, and their interpretation is labor intensive, subject to personal judgment, and prone to error. To realize the full potential of infrastructure inspections, there is a need to automate the data management process. This research project proposes to use Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) technology, which enables management of information in a three-dimensional (3D) environment. This environment combines a 3D representation of the infrastructure, and allows the integration of inspection data, such as the presence of damages, types of damages, severity, and localization. Building Information Modeling (BIM) has become the standard for vertical construction projects, and the lessons learned is now being transferred to horizontal projects such as highways and bridges. Although the principles, methods, and software are very similar, different acronyms such as Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), 3D Engineered Models, Civil Integrated Management (CIM), Bridge Information Model (BrIM) etc. are used to define BIM for horizontal projects. In this proposal, we use Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM) acronym to refer to the database that integrates a 3D bridge model and bridge element condition data. Using the proposed BrIM, information can be automatically queried, sorted, and evaluated, which will substantially improve infrastructure management operations. This will result in reducing costs associated with infrastructure management, and improving the overall quality of our infrastructure by enabling more effective maintenance and repairs.
KW  - Bridge information modeling
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Condition surveys
KW  - Construction projects
KW  - Digital communication systems
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Virtual reality
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257003
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487962
TI  - Modeling Multi-Modal Freight Transportation Network Performance Under Disruptions
AB  - This research project plans to build a data-driven freight transportation network model that incorporates an intermodal network and the assignment of commodity flows on each route. In the event of natural catastrophes or man-made disasters, part of the network will be closed or operated at a reduced capacity. A fluid-based dynamic queuing approximation is used to perform a quick and relatively accurate estimation of the delays at classification yards, ports, locks or intermodal terminals caused by such disruption in the network. By simulating commodity movements on the disrupted freight transportation network, the proposed network model enables (1) estimation of freight transportation network performance under disruptions; (2) evaluation of emergency response and recovery plans in the immediate aftermath; (3) information provision regarding alternative shipping route and mode for shippers, receivers and carriers; and (4) vulnerability and resiliency analysis of the freight transportation network, identification of the vulnerable links and development of proactive strategies. To demonstrate the operational effectiveness of the proposed modeling approach, a risk area and what-if scenarios will be generated. Vulnerability and resiliency analysis of the study area will be conducted. A set of emergency response and recovery plans will also be evaluated and compared in terms of delays, economic impacts and recovery time. Though the incident affects only a small area, the freight flows throughout the entire network might be impacted, which will be captured by the dynamic network modeling approach.
KW  - Detours
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Intermodal terminals
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Service disruption
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257002
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487961
TI  - Framework for Advanced Daily Work Report System
AB  - Although state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have placed a large emphasis on collecting and integrating project data, little effort has been made on linking the data collection to the agencies' decision making processes. Resident engineers or inspectors spend significant amounts of time in recording field activities in the current daily work report or inspector's daily report system. However, the use of daily work reports is in general only for forensic evidence when there is any legal dispute or claim on the project.  The detailed field level work activity data provide rich and invaluable data to produce meaning information and knowledge to support various decisions throughout the highway project development process and during the operation and maintenance stage as well. However, the current daily work report system is seriously insufficient to meet this need in terms of data attributes, data formats and lack of effective computational algorithms to process the collected data.  This proposed project will develop an advanced framework for daily work report system including: (1) a standard data input structure; (2) identification of decisions that can benefit from daily work report data; and (3) effective data analysis methods and algorithms to produce required information and knowledge to support various decisions. The research team believes that the findings of this project will truly have a long-term effect on decision making processes of highway projects. The results of this project will also be leveraged to look for a national level research project to address the critical and urgent need of smart daily work report system that can support various decisions throughout the life cycle of highway projects.
KW  - Daily
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Highway projects
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Reports
KW  - State departments of transportation
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257001
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487960
TI  - Repair of Skewed Steel Bridge Girders Damaged by Distortion-Induced Fatigue
AB  - Distortion-induced fatigue is the most common cause for fatigue cracking in steel bridges. Skewed steel bridges are highly-susceptible to this failure mode.  Skewed bridges in which the cross-frames are placed parallel to the angle of skew are very difficult to repair due to the acute angle between the bent-plate and the girder line.  Retrofit techniques are urgently needed to repair fatigue cracks in this type of connection details.  A research program is proposed in which girder subassemblies with skewed cross-frames will be tested under distortion-induced fatigue loading. The goal of the study is to develop repair methods that will be also tested in the physical specimens.  It is anticipated that multiple test trials can be conducted with each specimen, allowing the evaluation of several repair techniques.  A suite of finite element analyses will be performed to complement the physical tests and to aid in the development of the retrofit measures.  The proposed research directly addresses the following United States (US) Strategic Goals: (1) enhancing safety; (2) improving the state of good repair; and (3) improving environmental sustainability of the US surface transportation system. Recommendations will be provided regarding the implementation of the various retrofit measures that are developed.
KW  - Distortion (Structures)
KW  - Fatigue cracking
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Girders
KW  - Repairing
KW  - Retrofitting
KW  - Skew bridges
KW  - Steel bridges
KW  - Subassemblies
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257000
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487959
TI  - Evaluation of an Electronic Safety Perimeter System for Kansas Temporary Work Zones
AB  - Highway agencies have recognized that crashes occurring at work zones due to errant vehicles is a serious safety concern for both the driver and work crew. Positive protection on hazardous or long-duration temporary work zones provides a safe means of escape or a lateral buffer space for work crews. However, not all temporary work zones require positive protection leaving sometimes only a shadow vehicle or plastic channelizers to separate open traffic and workers. Work zone perimeter protection devices have been tested and used since the 1990s with limited and/or inconclusive results. Limitations identified by previous research studies have indicated that false-positive alarms, poor communication technology or improper training has led to the discontinued use or poor results of such devices. This research study aims to evaluate a safety perimeter system designed to detect errant vehicles striking a channelizer and immediately alert work crews in both short and long work zone operations. It is expected that with advancements in technology that a proof of concept study and field demonstration will provide potential safety benefits for temporary work zones in Kansas.
KW  - Labor force
KW  - Lane buffers
KW  - Perimeters
KW  - Temporary barriers
KW  - Traffic control devices
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Work zone safety
KW  - Work zone traffic control
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256999
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487958
TI  - Methods for Field Identification of Fouled Railroad Ballast
AB  - Railroads require continuous supplies of crushed stone for use as ballast to maintain tracks.  Over time and with repeated loading from rail traffic, the ballast becomes progressively fouled which inhibits drainage and degrades ballast strength and stability.  This can lead to slow orders and maintenance actions and potentially derailments.  A need exists for one or more inexpensive and efficient means for railroad personnel to identify and characterize the type and degree of fouling so an appropriate course of action can be identified. Kansas University (KU) has conducted research characterizing the relationships between strength, permeability, resistivity, and fouling.  Distinct relationships have been observed between the type and amount of fouling and the permeability and resistivity.  KU has also used a number of field instruments for a variety of geotechnical field investigations.  It is proposed that a series of field tests including dynamic cone penetrometer, lightweight deflectometer, Wenner resistivity, image/video measurement, and other methods be used to characterize fouling, followed by excavation and fouling determination. The testing will be conducted on track in service and may also be conducted on artificial sections constructed at KU.  Based on the results of the testing, recommendations will be developed for the use of the field instruments for characterization of fouling.
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Ballast fouling (Railroads)
KW  - Degradation failures
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Maintenance of way
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Railroad trains
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256998
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487957
TI  - Evaluation of the Intersection Confirmation Light System to Reduce Red Light Running Violations at Freeway Ramp Intersections
AB  - Red light running (RLR) crashes are a serious safety concern at signalized intersections. In 2009 the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported that 676 fatalities (FHWA, 2011) and 130,000 injuries were due to red light running crashes in the United States (IIHS, 2011). The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reported that in 2007 over half of the red lights running fatalities were passengers of the violating vehicle, both passengers and the driver of the vehicle that was collided into, or pedestrians within the intersection (IIHS, 2007). Many communities have installed automated enforcement as a way to enforce red light violations at high-crash intersections. In 2011, it was estimated that over 538 communities had installed automated enforcement (IIHS, 2011). However, automated enforcement may not be practical for an intersection or cannot be implemented due to state legislation. Many communities have implemented low-cost countermeasures at intersections including intersection confirmation lights to alert the driver of the changing light and/or aid law enforcement officials in capturing violators.
KW  - Automated enforcement
KW  - Crash injuries
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Red light running
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256997
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487955
TI  - Ground-based Interferometric Radar for Rockfall Hazard Monitoring
AB  - Rockfall events along transportation corridors are a major public safety hazard and can result in significant economic costs due to traffic delays and road repairs. Transportation agencies are in need of innovative technologies to help them deal effectively with rockfall hazards. Ground-based interferometric radar (GBIR) is an emerging remote-sensing technology that can be used to scan large structures or natural sites and detect sub-millimeter scale surface deformations. The work supported by this grant will supplement a larger research project funded by the Colorado Department of Transportation to study implementation and application of GBIR for rockfall hazard monitoring. The larger project will include: (1) full-scale monitoring of an active rockfall site in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado and (2) a controlled field study monitoring rock movements. The study supported by this grant will focus on quantifying the detection limits of GBIR for rock fall monitoring. A controlled field study will be performed where rocks of various sizes and located over a range of offset distances will be moved and measured. The GBIR will be used to scan the site and study the detection limits of the technology as well as the accuracy of the GBIR measurement.
KW  - Economic factors
KW  - Glenwood Canyon (Colorado)
KW  - Ground penetrating radar
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Rockfalls
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256995
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487954
TI  - Highway Safety Manual in States II -- Freeway/Software
AB  - The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is preparing to release a revision to the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) that includes models for freeway segments, speed-change lanes and interchanges. Select models that are relevant to Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) states will be calibrated using local sites and local crash data. The calibration of such models will ensure that they reflect local driver population, conditions and environment. The HSM has a related software package, the Safety Analyst (SA). This software will be investigated for the generation of the annual needs list (high-severity facilities). There have been some facilities that are unique to the MATC states that do not have HSM models. Two examples are the diverging diamond (or double-crossover) and the J-turn. This project will also develop Safety Performance Functions for these innovative geometric designs that are designed to reduce severe crashes.
KW  - Calibration
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Freeway operations
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Highway Safety Manual
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Validation
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256994
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487953
TI  - Nondestructive Evaluation Technologies for Bridge Inspection
AB  - The goal of this research program in Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) is to improve the safety and reliability of bridges.  The results of this research will enhance the safety of the transportation infrastructure by providing better tools for the safety condition assessment of bridges during fabrication, inspection and repair.  The research will also enhance the state of good repair by developing technologies for detecting deterioration in its embryonic stages, when maintenance and preservation strategies can be implemented to ensure the state of good repair.  The benefit is better, safer and longer lasting steel and concrete bridges and related structures. Two promising areas of research will be carried forward during this research: (1) developing phase array ultrasonic testing for steel fabrication; and (2) improving the quality control process for steel fabrication to improve the reliability, safety and quality of welded constructions.  Ultrasonic Measurement of In-Situ Stress Levels in Gusset Plates Measure the actual in-situ stress levels in the gusset plates to ensure structural safety.   This experimental research will explore that application of these technologies for practical applications for bridge condition assessment.  The research will also make a strong contribution to the education and training of students in the important arena of inspection and condition assessment of the civil infrastructure, where current curriculum is lacking.  These technologies can make significant improvements in the ability of engineers and inspectors to assess the condition of bridges to improve highway safety and ensure the state of good repair.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Fabrication
KW  - Gusset plates
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Steel bridges
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Ultrasonic tests
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256993
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487952
TI  - Unbonded Concrete Pavement/Overlay Monitoring
AB  - An instrumentation system including electric and optic sensors will have been installed by July 1, 2013 in 6 ft × 6 ft, 3 in-thick unbonded concrete panels and their existing substrates over an approximately 500 ft long distance in cell-40 at MnROAD - a pavement test track located near Albertville, MN. The unbonded concrete pavement/overlay panels will be loaded under a standard design truck or subjected to cold weather effects over the years. Their field performance will provide the required data for a widespread implementation of this potentially viable solution for aging highway pavement rehabilitation. Strain, crack width, temperature, and other environmental factors will be measured periodically to understand loading and environmental effects on the behavior and performance of the ultrathin panels and their interaction with substrates over time. Laboratory tests will also be conducted for calibration and optimization of the sensitivity, spatial resolution, and strain transfer effect of optical fiber sensors with various packaging materials (coatings). Major outcomes will include repeatable and precise installation procedures for various sensors in cast-in-place panel applications, packaging sensor performances in field application, verified sensor specification, and performance data of concrete panels. This project represents a collaborative effort among Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&amp;T), North Dakota State University (NDSU), and the University of Minnesota (UMN), taking advantage of their experiences in continuous optical fiber sensing, discrete optical fiber sensing, and pavement engineering.
KW  - Cast in place concrete
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Fiber optics
KW  - Frigid regions
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Overlays (Pavements)
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Unbonded overlays
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256992
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487950
TI  - Quantifying Economic Benefits for Rail Infrastructure Projects
AB  - This project identifies metrics for measuring the benefit of rail infrastructure projects for key stakeholders. It is important that stakeholders with an interest in community economic development play an active role in the development of the rail network. Economic development activities in both rural and urban settings are essential if a nation is to realize growth and prosperity. Many communities have developed goals and visions to establish an economic development program, but they often fail to achieve their goals due to uncertainties during the project selection and planning process. Communities often select a project from a vast pool of ideas with only limited capital available for investment. Selecting the right project at the right time becomes imperative for economic and community development. This process is significantly hampered by limited methods for quantifying the economic benefit to key stakeholders.
KW  - Economic benefits
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Quantifying
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Uncertainty
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256990
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487949
TI  - Develop a UAV Platform for Automated Bridge Inspection
AB  - Inspecting the health of bridges is important to maintain the operation of a road network while protecting public users' safety. However, routinely inspecting numerous bridges in a state over a long time period by human is a labor-intense and costly task, or a dangerous task in some environments such as inspecting the underneath of a bridge spanning across a rushing river. This project seeks to develop an automated bridge inspection technology that can make the inspection process safer, more efficient and convenient. The focus of this research is to study the technical foundation of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system capable of remotely inspecting bridges with sensors without interfering with the road operation. The applicability of this technique will be validated by a prototype UAV system with field testing.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Drone aircraft
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Safety
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256989
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487948
TI  - Freeway Travel Time Estimation using Existing Fixed Traffic Sensors - A Computer-Vision-Based Vehicle Matching Approach
AB  - Travel time information is of interest to both road users and road network operators. The direct travel time estimation method such as probe vehicles has high accuracy but it requires a high probe rate to collect the complete travel time information of a road network, which is too costly for the daily operation of a road network. The indirect method by point sensors assumes stable speed within a roadway segment and it has low accuracy when the traffic becomes congested. The project explores a fundamental advancement in the theoretical and practical research related to travel time estimation in a freeway network by matching vehicles in a network of traffic surveillance cameras. The accurately computed travel time will sustain the transportation system in a manner that is more effective, more efficient, and more economic competitive.
KW  - Probe vehicles
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic estimation
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Travel time
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256988
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487947
TI  - Investigation of Freight Data and Operations in Nebraska
AB  - This research is proposed in light of the importance of efficient freight movement for the economic well-being of Nebraska and the emphasis on freight planning in the recent transportation legislation titled "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act" (MAP-21). The objectives of this research project are to identify Nebraska's freight data needs, systematically evaluate available Nebraska-specific freight data, distinguish the needs fulfilled by available data and identify gaps in data, and develop a plan to address Nebraska's unmet freight data needs.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Freight data
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Nebraska
KW  - Needs assessment
KW  - Operations
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256987
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01542158
AU  - Chatman, Daniel G
AU  - Broaddus, Andrea
AU  - Young, Cheryl
AU  - Brill, Matthew
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Role of Behavioral Economics in Residential Choice: A Pilot Study Of Travel Patterns, Housing Characteristics, Social Connections, and Subjective Well-Being
PY  - 2013/07
SP  - 48p
AB  - Do people make imperfect decisions about where to live and how to travel? There is some evidence that people may overvalue privacy and material goods like housing and undervalue time for activities and social connections. The authors surveyed 84 individuals, almost all of them university students, before and after a planned move between homes. Respondents answered questions at two points in time about six months apart, before and after moving. They reported ratings of subjective well-being, information on travel patterns, characteristics of homes and neighborhoods, the number and type of social connections, demographics, and significant life events. This working paper describes the survey design and data collection process, and reports on survey results.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Commuting
KW  - Economics
KW  - Housing
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Multiple criteria decision making
KW  - Residential location
KW  - Time
UR  - http://uctc.net/research/papers/UCTC-FR-2013-05.pdf
UR  - https://merritt.cdlib.org/d/ark%3A%2F13030%2Fm55t50p2/1/producer%2F890328854.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1323135
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01538204
AU  - Zhou, Xuesong
AU  - Martin, Peter T
AU  - Zlatkovic, Milan
AU  - Tasic, Ivana
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - University of Utah, Salt Lake City
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Traffic Modeling of Transit Oriented Development: Evaluation of Transit Friendly Strategies and Innovative Intersection Designs in West Valley City, UT
PY  - 2013/07
SP  - 161p
AB  - Street networks designed to support Transit Oriented Development (TOD) increase accessibility for non-motorized traffic. However, the implications of TOD supportive networks for still dominant vehicular traffic are rarely addressed. Due to this lack of research, decision making in favor of TOD supportive street networks is often a difficult process. The goal of this project is to quantify the traffic impacts of TOD using a study network in West Valley City, Utah. In the methodology, the test network is modified using not only designs typical for TODs, but also some network designs that enhance traffic operations. Proposed network designs represent the alternatives to traditional street widening approaches that should increase traffic efficiency while not discouraging non-motorized modes. This approach would increase the potential of the test network to become a TOD in the future, with two Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines already in place. The results indicate that network designs that could be beneficial for TOD, such as enhanced street connectivity, innovative intersection designs, traffic calming measures and Transit Friendly Designs (TFD), do not necessarily decrease the efficiency of vehicular traffic for the most critical travel demand conditions. The major contributions of this study are the indications that TOD-supportive network designs are not necessarily associated with negative effects for vehicular traffic, even in conditions where mode shift does not occur and auto-mode travel demand remains the same. This is a significant finding that could be useful for metropolitan regions looking to retrofit the suburban neighborhoods into multimodal developments.
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Traffic calming
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Transit oriented development
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - West Valley City (Utah)
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC14-270.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1322302
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01528607
AU  - Wang, Jianmin
AU  - Shi, Honglan
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Effect of Trona on the Leaching of Trace Elements from Coal Fly Ash
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - Fly ashes were sampled from the ESPs by on-site contractors during air emission control tests. The injection tests were short-term, lasting approximately three hours per test condition. EPRI received three batches of samples since November 2011, representing baseline conditions and selected injection conditions. The sample information are listed in respective tables. EPRI analyzed the samples for total composition and leaching characteristics.
KW  - Fly ash
KW  - Heavy metals
KW  - Leaching
KW  - Sodium carbonate
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R285%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1313137
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516420
AU  - Cook, Daniel
AU  - Ghaeezadah, Ashkan
AU  - Ley, Tyler
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Investigation of Optimized Graded Concrete for Oklahoma
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 73p
AB  - This report presents the results of several novel test methods to investigate concrete for slip formed paving.  These tests include the Box Test, a novel test to evaluate the response of concrete to vibration, the Aggregate Imaging Measurement System 2 (AIMS2), an automated test for aggregate shape and texture, and the use of a pan mixer to serve as a concrete rheometer. The results show that both the Box Test and AIMS2 tests seem to be useful and provide reliable data. The pan mixer results do not appear to be reliable. The establishment of these test procedures provides a basis for future investigations of materials and mixtures from the state of Oklahoma.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Aggregate tests
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Rheology
KW  - Slip form paving
KW  - Test procedures
KW  - Vibration tests
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-39-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300097
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01506247
AU  - Senzig, David A
AU  - Cumper, Jordan
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Fuel Consumption of ADS-B and non-ADS-B Helicopter Operations in the Gulf of Mexico
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 31p
AB  - Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast (ADS‐B) is a key enabling technology for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) in the United States. The NextGen system replaces the current ground based command‐and‐control system with a Global Positioning System (GPS)‐based autonomous system where both controllers and fully equipped aircraft will be able to detect all nearby aircraft and their important state data in real time. This report examines the potential improvements in helicopter operations in the Gulf of Mexico due to the implementation of ADS‐B. While there may be other benefits to ADS‐B operations, such as reduced noise exposure, this report looks exclusively at potential fuel consumption reductions due to improved routing. Examination of the ADS‐B operations and (Enhanced Traffic Management System) ETMS flight plans shows a small but measurable improvement in the efficiency of the helicopter flights under ADS‐B due to more direct routing.
KW  - Air traffic control
KW  - Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast
KW  - Flight plans
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Gulf of Mexico
KW  - Helicopters
KW  - Next Generation Air Transportation System
KW  - Routing
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/50000/50900/50906/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-13-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290393
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497507
AU  - Strathman, James G
AU  - Kwon, Sung-Moon
AU  - Callas, Steve
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - TriMet
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Bus Operator Perceptions of Safety Risks
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 34p
AB  - This paper presents the results of a survey of TriMet bus operators addressing safety risks in their assigned work. Surveyed risk factors were organized into five categories: vehicle design and condition; route layout; operating conditions; fatigue; and stress. Operators perceived fatigue and stress to be the greatest sources of safety risk, with split shifts, schedule pressures, passenger distractions, and negligence of other roadway users being the primary contributors to these conditions. Operators were also surveyed on the frequency and nature of “close calls,” with two-thirds of the operators indicating that such incidents occurred at least weekly and most often involved being cut off by other roadway users. Operators endorsed high visibility enforcement initiatives to improve safety, focusing primarily on negligent behavior. Other operator-recommended changes addressed scheduling practices and the need for more public information and outreach on safety risks.
KW  - Bus drivers
KW  - Bus routes
KW  - Fatigue (Physiological condition)
KW  - Near miss collisions (Ground transportation)
KW  - Operating conditions
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Stress (Psychology)
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Transit safety
KW  - Vehicle design
UR  - http://files.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/online/unrestricted/2013/OTREC-RR-13-09.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1266662
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493873
AU  - Sneed, Lesley
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM) Composites for Reinforced Concrete Strengthening
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 6p
AB  - Fiber-reinforced composite systems are widely used for strengthening, repairing, and rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structural members. A promising newly-developed type of composite, comprised of fibers and an inorganic cement-based matrix, provides several environmental, structural, and sustainability-related advantages over fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites traditionally used in structural applications, which potentially expands the strengthening applications beyond those currently utilized. Such advantages include: 1) high resistance to fire and high temperatures; 2) resistance to UV radiation; 3) ease of handling during the application because the inorganic binder is water-based; 4) easy cleanup and reuse of tools; 5) low odor and toxin emissions during application and curing; 6) permeability compatibility with the concrete substrate; and 7) unvarying workability time (between 40°F and 105°F). Stress-transfer mechanisms and interfacial fracture propagation of fiber-reinforced composites externally-bonded to a concrete substrate are complex phenomena that are highly dependent on the bond characteristics of the composite matrix material to the fibers. These phenomena have not yet been clearly defined and understood for FRCM composites. Experimental work will be carried out in this study to isolate the shear debonding phenomenon using single lap shear tests.
KW  - Bridge superstructures
KW  - Fiber composites
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Repairing
KW  - Strengthening (Maintenance)
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R308%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262552
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493866
AU  - Sneed, Lesley
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Repair of Earthquake Damaged Bridge Columns with Fractured Bars
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 6p
AB  - The objective of this study is to repair three, half-scale RC bridge columns that will be tested to failure under slow cyclic loading. These columns will have fractured longitudinal and transverse steel. The ultimate goal is to develop repair methods for these columns using different techniques. In the first two columns, different Caltrans approved ultimate splices will be used, and in the third column, an enlarged section will be built in the plastic hinge area. The target performance for the repaired columns is to restore the lateral load and ductility capacity to the level that is comparable to that of the original columns.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Columns
KW  - Defects
KW  - Deformation
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Repairing
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R310%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262550
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493368
AU  - Borden, Eric J
AU  - Boske, Leigh B
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Electric Vehicles and Public Charging Infrastructure: Impediments and Opportunities for Success in the United States
PY  - 2013/07
SP  - 53p
AB  - This report seeks to reach conclusions over the role that electric vehicles (EVs) and public charging  infrastructure should play in the future United States transportation system As demonstrated in this report, electric vehicles are neither new nor technologically infeasible. Current circumstances have initiated what appears to be a revival of the EV – these circumstances include high oil prices, geopolitical instability, and growing awareness of environmental concerns resulting from conventional vehicles (CV) usage. Nevertheless, impediments remain. One of the most important is the prospect of building public charging infrastructure to allow drivers to use an EV like their conventional vehicle, for both long and short distances. Public charging infrastructure, however, cannot be built without some critical mass of EVs on the road to use them – otherwise they are not economically feasible. This report analyzes various facets of both EVs and public charging infrastructure to give the reader a clear understanding of the complex criteria that must be understood to assess EVs in the United States. Texas is given special consideration as a case study in this report, particularly the Austin area where public charging infrastructure for EVs is currently being implemented.
KW  - Austin (Texas)
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Electric utility facilities
KW  - Electric vehicle charging
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - United States
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00064-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261550
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493139
AU  - Kamga, Camille
AU  - Miller, Benjamin
AU  - Spertus, Juliette
AU  - Douglass, Lisa
AU  - Ross, Brian
AU  - Eickemeyer, Penny
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
AU  - New York State Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - A Study Of The Feasibility Of Pneumatic Transport Of Municipal Solid Waste And Recyclables In Manhattan Using Existing Transportation Infrastructure
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 121p
AB  - This study explored possibilities for using existing transportation infrastructure for the cost-effective installation of pneumatic waste-collection technology in Manhattan. If shown to be economically and operationally feasible, reducing the number of trucks used on the island’s densely encumbered streets could offer significant environmental, public-health, and quality-of-life benefits. Two cases were considered: 1) installing a pneumatic pipeline under the High Line Park (a retrofitted former elevated railroad) to collect waste from the Chelsea Market retail/office/hotel complex along with waste from the Park and adjacent buildings; and 2) installing pipelines in the space being excavated below Second Avenue for the construction of the Second Avenue Subway, in order to collect waste from residential, commercial, and hospital buildings, and from litter bins along a stretch of Second Avenue and in the subway station beneath it. Both design concepts were determined to be physically and operationally feasible and to offer significant quality-of-life benefits. Relative to conventional manual collection, the pneumatic systems would reduce energy use by 60% and greenhouse gas emissions by more than half. Direct operating costs for the proposed pneumatic installations, including the container dray from the pneumatic terminal to the transfer station, would be 30% less than those for conventional manual/truck collection in the two cases. But due to high initial capital costs, overall costs, including debt service, would be 55% higher in the High Line case and 30% higher in the Second Avenue Subway case. On a Net Present Value (NPV) basis, the cost of the pneumatic systems would be between 3.3 and 6.6 times greater than for conventional collection (for the Second Avenue Subway and High Line respectively). NPV costs would be equalized, however, if there were externality benefits on the order of $300,000 to $400,000 per year (respectively), using conservative assumptions. Given the space savings and other public-health and quality-of-life benefits associated with pneumatic systems--and the monetized value of decreased carbon emissions and energy use--externality benefits of this order of magnitude would appear to be likely.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Manhattan (New York, New York)
KW  - Operating costs
KW  - Pipelines
KW  - Pneumatic capsule pipelines
KW  - Public health
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Solid waste disposal
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pneumatic-waste-manhattan-report-Final_0.pdf
UR  - https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/trans-r-and-d-repository/C-10-21%20Final%20Report%2007-11-13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262825
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493138
AU  - Kamga, Camille
AU  - Miller, Benjamin
AU  - Spertus, Juliette
AU  - Douglass, Lisa
AU  - Ross, Brian
AU  - Eickemeyer, Penny
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Eliminating Trucks On Roosevelt Island For The Collection Of Wastes
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 146p
AB  - This study examined alternatives for improving the efficiency of the pneumatic system that has been used for collecting residential municipal solid waste on Roosevelt Island, New York since 1975. Alternatives included a basic equipment upgrade; expansion to include separate recyclables streams (metal/glass/plastic; paper); and a further expansion of the system to include commercial and litter-bin waste. These three scenarios (plus the No-Action alternative, representing a continuation of the status-quo system) were compared to conventional truck collection. The No-Action alternative produced the greatest adverse economic and environmental impacts. Compared to conventional collection, all of the pneumatic scenarios offered advantages in terms of service frequency and reliability, labor and space requirements, and quality-of-life benefits. Because containers of pneumatically collected waste need to be drayed from the terminal to a transfer station or processing facility, some truck miles are still required. The simple equipment upgrade would generate 15% more truck miles than the conventional alternative, but when recyclables are included, overall truck miles would be reduced by 10%, and when commercial and litter-bin waste is included, by 70%, while diesel fuel use for the three pneumatic scenarios would decline by 10 to 90%. Since reductions in diesel fuel require increased use of electricity, and since the pneumatic scenarios collect 8 times more often, overall energy demand for these expanded systems would increase by 25% to 70% relative to manual collection. Likewise, greenhouse gas emissions for pneumatic collection would be up to twice as high as for conventional collection. Since up to 90% of the energy demand for pneumatic systems may be supplied by electricity rather than diesel fuel, electricity generated by low-carbon sources could reduce these greenhouse gas emissions. These pneumatic scenarios cost 10 to 25% less to operate, including the truck dray of containers from the pneumatic terminal to the long-haul transfer station, but when debt service for capital investments is included, overall operating costs for the pneumatic alternatives are 40 to 90% higher than for conventional collection. On a Net Present Value basis, this difference could be equalized if annual externality benefits on the order of $255,000 to $1,140,000 were realized. Given the value of potential savings by waste-generators (in space and labor costs) and of potentially monetizable public benefits (public-health and quality-of-life improvements), the pneumatic alternatives may achieve these levels of benefits.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Modernization
KW  - Operating costs
KW  - Pipelines
KW  - Pneumatic capsule pipelines
KW  - Public health
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Roosevelt Island (New York, New York)
KW  - Solid waste disposal
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/pneumatic-waste-roosevelt-island-report-Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262826
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491539
AU  - Edwards, Christopher
AU  - Morris, Nichole
AU  - Manser, Michael
AU  - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Pilot Study on Mitigating Run-Off-Road Crashes
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - Run off the road crashes account for approximately 50% of motor vehicle related fatalities on a national and on a state level. To address this unacceptably high rate of fatalities this pilot project first sought to identify the primary factors associated with run off the road crashes and identify limitations and shortcomings of existing countermeasures. This was accomplished through the development of a taxonomy that summarized existing engineering related and human factors related literature according to infrastructure, environment, and driver related factors that have been found to be most associated with run off the road crash-related fatalities. Based on the taxonomy results a new potentially useful countermeasure was identified that consisted of a haptic and auditory feedback. The pilot project then sought to develop and then evaluate a series of prototype countermeasure systems based on haptic and auditory feedback presented either individually or in parallel. The primary results of the driving environment simulator study in which participants drove through a series of realistic worlds experiencing the countermeasures in response to lane departure events found that the presentation of multiple countermeasure systems can provide increased user satisfaction but can also increase driver response times to critical situations. Secondary results of the study suggest that the haptic countermeasures can provide additional information to drivers but that it may not be interpreted by drivers as expected by designers.
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Crash causes
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Pilot studies
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Tactile perception
KW  - Taxonomy
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2312
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258812
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491387
AU  - Bradshaw, Aaron S
AU  - Davis, Sean
AU  - University of Rhode Island, Kingston
AU  - University of Rhode Island Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessment of Current AASHTO LRFD Methods for Static Pile Capacity Analysis in Rhode Island Soils
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 39p
AB  - This report presents an assessment of current American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) load and resistance factor design (LRFD) methods for static pile capacity analysis in Rhode Island soils. Current static capacity methods and associated resistance factors are based on pile load test data in sands and clays. Some regions of Rhode Island including Providence and Narragansett Bay are underlain by very silty soils. Therefore, the use of the AASHTO pile capacity methods is uncertain in these soils, which can have important safety or cost implications. To address this objective, static loading test data were compiled from recent bridge projects within the state. The capacity of the test piles were also predicted using the Nordlund method and SPT method as specified by AASHTO. The measured and predicted capacities were compared to assess both the accuracy  and the precision of the methods as well as calibrate preliminary resistance factors. The results showed that capacities of high-displacement piles were overpredicted in the majority of the cases. Gross overpredictions were observed at the Jamestown bridge site. Preliminary resistance factors of 0.20 and 0.42 were calibrated for the Nordlund and SPT methods, respectively, for high-displacement piles driven to glacial till in Providence.
KW  - AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications
KW  - Bearing capacity
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Load and resistance factor design
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Pile foundations
KW  - Piles (Supports)
KW  - Resistance (Mechanics)
KW  - Rhode Island
KW  - Silts
KW  - Silty soils
UR  - http://131.128.106.203/uritc-org/media/finalreportspdf/S000149.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259152
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491307
AU  - Mattson, Jeremy
AU  - Small Urban and Rural Transit Center
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Rural Transit Fact Book 2013
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 41p
AB  - The intent of the Rural Transit Fact Book is to serve as a national resource for statistics and information on rural transit in America. This publication includes rural demographic and travel behavior data as well as financial and operating statistics for agencies receiving section 5311 funding. In addition to national level data, statistics are presented by state, Federal Transit Administration (FTA) region, tribe, and mode, as well as other agency characteristics.
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Financing
KW  - Operating costs
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Rural transit
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Trend (Statistics)
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.surtc.org/transitfactbook/downloads/2013_rural_transit_fact_book.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259776
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490552
AU  - Wittwer, Ernie
AU  - Perry, Ernie
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Minnesota Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Northwest Passage Permitting—Phase 3
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 34p
AB  - The efficient movement of freight is a key to the economic success of any state, region or nation. Rising transport costs will tend to make products from the region more expensive and less competitive in the national and global markets. This trend can be addressed by adding capacity, a very expensive and long-term solution; improving the management of the highway and rail systems; and by easing the regulatory burden on carriers. Some states have organized themselves into compacts or coalitions to  issue permits for these routine loads on a regional basis. While permitting is one of the issues often raised by truckers as a costly and frustrating process, a number of concerns over exactly how individual state rules can be harmonized to facilitate regional permitting must be resolved before multi-state agreements can be put into place. To better understand the nature of regional permitting processes, existing compacts or agreements must be reviewed and their rules, processes and administrative procedures documented. In addition, members of those compacts must be interviewed to measure their perceptions of the costs and benefits entailed in regional agreements.
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Interstate compacts
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Northwest Passage
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Overweight loads
KW  - Permits
KW  - States
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/CFIRE-06-02-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258472
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490320
AU  - Bassett, Ellen
AU  - Tremoulet, Andree
AU  - Moe, Allison
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Relocation of Homeless People from ODOT Rights-of-Way
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 176p
AB  - This research project consists of an investigation of responses to homeless encampments on rights-of-way owned by Departments of Transportation (DOTs). While DOTs are not housing or social service agencies, their role as major public landowners involves them in dealing with the consequences of homelessness. The research goals included analyzing the prevalence of the problem, documenting how DOTs are responding, and culling from this data information that could be used as a basis for creating a best practices guide. The research included a single mixed-methods, in-depth case study, electronic surveys of practitioners and follow-up interviews. Products consist of two reports (included as appendices to this document): A Case Study of the Baldock Rest Area and Homeless Encampments on Public Right-of-Way: A Planning and Best Practices Guide.
KW  - Homeless persons
KW  - Households
KW  - Oregon
KW  - Relocation
KW  - Right of way (Land)
KW  - Roadside rest areas
KW  - Social welfare
KW  - State departments of transportation
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1307
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258450
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490197
AU  - Holian, Matthew J
AU  - Kahn, Matthew E
AU  - San Jose State University
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - California Voting and Suburbanization Patterns: Implications for Transit Policy
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 112p
AB  - Public transit is an environmentally friendly transportation mode that usually focuses on transporting people within and to the city center. However, over the last 60 years, population and employment has been suburbanizing. As the median voter lives further from the city center, and thus enjoys fewer benefits from accessing public transit, does this reduce such a voter’s propensity to support public investment in public transit improvements? We analyze voting patterns on 20 transit-related ballot propositions from state-wide elections in California between 1990 and 2010. Controlling for demographic, socioeconomic and political ideological factors, we focus on the role of suburbanization as a possible causal factor in determining public support for public transit investment. The results provide a rich picture of the attitudes towards transportation policy among California voters, and will help policy makers to better understand citizen preferences and to better predict how future trends will shift support towards or against transit. Finally, we suggest ways policy makers can use urban land markets to increase support for transit.
KW  - California
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Finance
KW  - Land use
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Socioeconomic factors
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Suburbs
KW  - Urban transportation policy
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1105-California-Voting-Suburbanization-Patterns-Implications-for-Transit-Policy.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256971
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490184
AU  - Haas, Peter J
AU  - Fabish, Lisa
AU  - Mineta Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Measuring the Performance of Livability Programs
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
AB  - This report analyzes the performance measurement processes adopted by five large “livability” programs throughout the United States. The report entails a comprehensive literature review of the current research on performance measurement methods from the perspective of various stakeholders including the public and government agencies. Additionally, the results of this literature review are used to examine the actual performance measures of the target programs from the perspective of different stakeholders. The analysis revealed that programs commonly measure sources and uses of funds, volume of development activity, changes in land value, and jobs created. While some programs characterize the development activity based on livability criteria (e.g., percent affordable) most programs do not capture all of their customers’ livability goals in their development activity statistics. Beyond these commonalities, factors reported across programs are very diverse.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Customer satisfaction
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Metrics (Quantitative assessment)
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Program management
KW  - Quality of life
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1126-livability-program-performance-measurement.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257348
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490006
AU  - Joslin, Ann
AU  - Morris, William P
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Ridership Impacts of South Florida’s EASY Smart Card
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 105p
AB  - Smart card-based Automated Fare Collection Systems (AFCS) are being increasingly deployed in transit systems across the US. Miami-Dade Transit (MDT) has recently deployed such a system branded as the EASY Card. The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) also deployed the same system for Tri-Rail. The technology provides a stored value electronic purse or the choice of various period passes, and in that respect is similar to smart card systems in other US cities. The EASY Card system will be used as a case study to document some of the issues related to the ridership and customer behavior aspects related to fare policy when smart card systems are introduced. Given the benefits of such AFCS in terms of reduced fare evasion, cash handling fraud, transfer abuse and increased customer convenience, it is likely that other transit systems in Florida will deploy such systems in future years.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Fare collection
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Smart cards
KW  - South Florida
KW  - South Florida Regional Transportation Authority
KW  - Transit riders
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-42-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/77946.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259537
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489951
AU  - Breck, Andrew
AU  - Daddio, David
AU  - Linthicum, Alex
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - NPS National Transit Inventory, 2012
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
AB  - This document summarizes key highlights from the National Park Service (NPS) 2012 National Transit Inventory, and presents data for NPS transit systems system-wide. The document discusses statistics related to ridership, business models, fleet characteristics, funding sources, and other categories. Key findings include: 36.3 million total passenger boardings in 2012; 66% of NPS transit systems operate under  concession contracts; and, 12 NPS transit systems are operated by a local transit agency; 66% (175/264) of NPS-owned vehicles operate on alternative fuel. The inventory will be reported annually.
KW  - Business models
KW  - Financing
KW  - Inventory
KW  - National Park Service
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Vehicle fleets
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47871/NPS_WASO_2013_Transit_Inventory.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257639
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489513
AU  - Qin, Xiao
AU  - Cutler, Chase E
AU  - South Dakota State University, Brookings
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Review of Road User Costs and Methods
PY  - 2013/07
SP  - 134p
AB  - The South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) uses road user costs (RUC) to calculate incentive or disincentive compensation for contractors, quantify project-specific liquidated damages, select the ideal sequencing of a project, and forecast the long-term effects new construction will have on the traveling public. The current RUC calculations were initially set in 1996 by research project SD1995-07 Criteria and Guidelines for Innovative Contracting; they have undergone little updating aside from unit cost values. Since the last research project, the two offices (Project Development and Operations Support) that depend on RUC have updated these values to keep up with inflation, but have done so independently. Currently, they use different worksheets with similar fields, but the values used to calculate RUC are substantially different. Maintaining the most up-to-date RUC is extremely important to SDDOT, as underestimation of RUC results in increased costs to the traveling public, while overestimation results in the SDDOT overpaying on incentives for early completion of construction projects. Obtaining proper RUC also helps to justify the deployment of new technologies that can accelerate the construction process for pavement and bridges and strengthen the economic competitiveness of SD in the region. Calculated RUC in South Dakota are currently much lower than those of surrounding states, in part due to infrequent updates. As a result, South Dakota construction projects may be given a lower priority compared with projects managed by the same contractor in surrounding states that have greater incentive/disincentive values. The subsequent impacts to South Dakota road users include extended construction periods, prolonged traveler delays, compromised safety, and inconvenience. The study covered in this report was undertaken to address the following two main objectives: Develop a methodology to calculate RUC specific to South Dakota; and Develop an RUC worksheet and instructions for updating it. In this study, the current RUC methodology and associated unit costs were evaluated and changes were implemented to the methodology to allow for a more complete analysis that aligns with the needs of each department and their use of RUC. The methodology was used to construct a worksheet that allows users to calculate the RUC for both stages of project construction for which it is currently being calculated.
KW  - Calculation
KW  - Costs
KW  - Disincentives
KW  - Externalities
KW  - Incentives
KW  - Road construction
KW  - South Dakota
KW  - Travelers
KW  - Unit costs
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC13-254.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258449
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489508
AU  - Stevanovic, Aleksandar
AU  - Martin, Peter T
AU  - Zlatkovic, Milan
AU  - University of Utah, Salt Lake City
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Transit Signal Priority Strategies for Bus Rapid Transit Project on 3500 South Street in Salt Lake County, UT
PY  - 2013/07
SP  - 43p
AB  - Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is becoming one of the most popular transit services in the United States. BRT is a viable option for many cities and can offer commuters travel times comparable to those experienced in private cars. With about 100 miles of BRT service scheduled for deployment in future years, Utah Transit Authority (UTA) for the first time is facing questions related to BRT service. How will the service interact with private traffic? Will passengers accept unfamiliar features of the new service? The authors looked at the new BRT deployment in West Valley City, Salt Lake County, UT. Lacking BRT operational data from the field, but with a need to estimate operational challenges before the actual implementation, they used estimates generated from a microsimulation model. In addition, a series of surveys were conducted to gain feedback from the users of the BRT system. Results from the microsimulation runs show that the new BRT line leads to significant improvements of transit operations, with reductions of close to 20% in travel times and 40% in dwell times. An additional transit signal priority (TSP) feature is estimated to reduce travel times another 15%. The results showed that TSP has minor negative impact on side-street traffic and no impact or minor positive impact on main traffic. Results from the surveys show a high degree of acceptance of the new MAX buses among passengers and drivers. In short, the first BRT system in Utah can be qualified as another success story for the BRT systems in the United States.
KW  - Acceptance
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Customer satisfaction
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Salt Lake County (Utah)
KW  - Traffic signal priority
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC09-213C.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258458
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489296
AU  - Chu, Xuehao
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Tool for Assessing the Economic Impact of Spending on Public Transit
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 82p
AB  - In this project, an Excel-based template tool was developed for transit agencies, local governments, and other stakeholders of public transit to estimate the economic impacts of spending on public transit. Features include the following: (1) Uses input-output multipliers from the Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II) (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis) to capture the direct, indirect, and induced effects of spending on public transit in terms of gross output (sales), value added (regional gross domestic product, GDP), labor earnings, and jobs (person-years of full- and parttime employment) for any study area consisting of one or more spatially-contiguous counties.  (2) Explicitly considers whether spending originated from funds inside or outside the study area, whether spending was made inside or outside the study area, whether funds originated from borrowing, whether spending was for land acquisition, and the effect of full employment on estimated job impacts. (3) Is designed for estimating the economic impacts of spending on transit primarily on existing service or on service expansion in an area that already has transit service; is applicable, with caution, to new transit services for areas that do not already have transit service. (4) Use of the tool for any study area requires several type II final-demand multipliers from RIMS II and the following data specific to the study area: total spending for operations and maintenance, capital spending by project category, sources of funds for the spending, and geographic destinations of the spending; most of the required spending data for existing services can be derived from the National Transit Database. (5) Presents the results separately for capital projects, operations and maintenance, and total spending; also presents results in terms of total impacts and unit impacts per dollar spent. (6) Provides estimates of net economic impacts that may be considered as being created by the spending on transit and would not exist without the public transit service and related spending, and estimates of gross economic impacts that may be considered as being supported by the spending on transit. This report discusses methodological factors, describes the tool and its use, and presents applications of the tool to Central Florida counties with urban public transit service.
KW  - Capital expenditures
KW  - Central Florida
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Expenditures
KW  - National Transit Database
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Regional Input-Output Modeling System (RIMS II)
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-36-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/77941.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257423
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487886
AU  - Figliozzi, Miguel
AU  - Monsere, Christopher
AU  - Slavin, Courtney
AU  - Albright, Eric
AU  - Feng, Wei
AU  - Moore, Adam
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of the Performance of the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) on Powell Boulevard in Portland, OR
PY  - 2013/07//Final Report
SP  - 84p
AB  - The Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) is used to mitigate traffic congestion along urban arterial corridors. Although there has been research on SCATS’ performance, this report combines three different areas of research about SCATS that are not known to be represented in any research literature. These include: (a) the relationship between SCATS, traffic volumes, and Transit Signal Priority (TSP); (b) between TSP and traffic conditions; and (c) the correlation between signal timing and air quality; in particular, human exposure to the air pollutant PM2.5 at intersections. In addition, this research looked at the key factors affecting transit user exposure to traffic-related pollutants at bus shelters. All areas of study present the results of statistical tests and regressions to determine SCATS or traffic variables impacts. SCATS did show statistically significant improvements regarding traffic speeds at one minor intersection, even when traffic volumes showed a statistically significant improvement. At a major intersection, results were mixed and not conclusive. Overall, it was determined that the improvements available through SCATS vary depending on the time of day and the direction of travel. TSP was not negatively affected by SCATS. In controlling for both priority and traffic conditions, each were shown to have a distinguished and significant impact on bus travel time. Non-priority signals had a much greater impact on travel time than priority signals (11.0 and 0.6 seconds for the corridor model, respectively). In controlling for both priority and traffic conditions, each were shown to have a distinguished and significant impact on travel time. Utilizing a regression model, results in an intuitive ranking of the intersections’ delay was produced; major intersections with high traffic volumes on crossing streets are likely to not experience TSP benefits. To a high degree, this research has shown that pedestrian exposure can be considered as an outcome of traffic-signal timing decisions made by cities and counties. The statistical results have shown the high impact that signal timing and queuing have on pedestrian level exposure. Heavy vehicle volume was a significant variable as well as the presence of buses. The reduction of bus idling time through more efficient operations and transit-signal priority is likely to reduce pedestrian and transit users’ pollution exposure levels. Longer green times along the main corridor are able to significantly reduce particulate matter for transit users and pedestrians waiting at the sidewalk of the intersection, whereas time allocated to cross the street increases queuing and exposure along the main corridor. The impact of heavy-duty diesel engines is also clear. The reduction of bus idling time through more efficient operations and transit-signal priority is likely to reduce pedestrian and transit users’ pollution exposure levels. Transit agencies can also reduce pollution significantly by improving the efficiency and cleanliness of their engines. TriMet (the local transit agency) initiatives to improve fuel efficiency by installing EMP engine-cooling devices not only improve fuel efficiency, but also air quality. Finally, significant reductions in transit users’ exposure to traffic-related pollution can be made at bus stops by properly orienting the shelter and by reducing bus idling.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Bus priority
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Portland (Oregon)
KW  - Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Traffic signal preemption
KW  - Traffic signal timing
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1297
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256676
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526368
AU  - Macias, Thomas
AU  - Williams, Kristin
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Social Drivers of Conservation: Social Capital, Environmental Concern and Transportation
PY  - 2013/06/30
SP  - 29p
AB  - What kinds of personal ties to organizations, community and family would be most strongly associated with pro-environmental behavior, especially within the realm of transportation? What role do participation in community activities and organizations play in motivating people to engage in carpooling, rideshare programs and other environmentally beneficial activities which might not themselves generate an immediate material payback or benefit for individuals? In this paper, the authors propose that the work on social capital provides novel insights into the constraints and opportunities shaping individual environmental and transportation behavior. Specifically, the interest is why – given their interactions with friends, family and neighbors – people opt to make changes in transportation and other environmental-friendly behavior.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Conservation
KW  - Environment
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Motivation
KW  - Social factors
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51800/51813/13-006-04APR2014.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1309815
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516467
AU  - Liu, Tieming
AU  - Collins, Terry
AU  - Hong, Yang (Eric)
AU  - Vogel, Jason
AU  - Yu, Hongbo
AU  - Zhu, Lan
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Decision Support System for Road Closures in Flash Flood Emergencies
PY  - 2013/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 41p
AB  - Among all the natural hazards, flash flood ranks as the number 1 weather-related killer in United States. More than half of the deaths in flash flood are due to drowning victims in a traffic environment. So road  closure is critical to save lives from flash floods. Unfortunately, the current static roadside Turn Around Don’t Drown (TADD) signs simply could not draw enough attention from travelers. In this project, the authors develop a novel decision support system (DSS) to predict the roads in threats, remotely turn on TADD Red flash lights to close the roads to dangerous sections in flash flood emergencies. The DSS will help Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management (OEM) to make prompt and effective decisions to mitigate the risk of flash flood.
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Flash floods
KW  - Floods
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Street closure
KW  - Warning signs
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-41-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300098
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487083
AU  - Eppstein, Margaret J
AU  - Rizzo, Donna M
AU  - Marshall, Jeffrey S
AU  - UVM Transportation Center
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Multi-Scale Model of the U.S. Transportation Energy Market for Policy Assessment
PY  - 2013/06/30
SP  - 21p
AB  - While studies based on past data trends for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and other fuel-efficient vehicles provide relevant insight, they are of limited applicability for estimating consumer response to the very different conditions associated with current-day adoption of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technology. The plug-in technology offers new challenges to market penetration, and environmental attitudes and awareness are also very different than in past decades. While awareness of the role of vehicle emissions in global climate change is high in many parts of the world, it is not clear how consumers will weigh a vehicle’s heuristically perceived benefits against rational financial considerations when making a vehicle purchasing decision. The research goals of this project were: to create a model to study potential PHEV market penetration in the personal transportation sector; to assemble data to properly inform the model; to develop methods for efficient up-scaling of model behavior; to use the model to assess the sensitivities of system behavior to various policies and market conditions; and to understand the regulatory regime necessary to support widespread adoption of PHEVs. Various complex systems modeling approaches were used to tackle these goals. To fill  identified gaps in the data, the authors designed, conducted, and analyzed an extensive survey on consumer attitudes towards PHEVs using the Amazon Mechanical Turk crowd-sourcing platform.
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Consumer preferences
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Market assessment
KW  - Market share
KW  - Market surveys
KW  - Plug-in hybrid vehicles
KW  - Policy
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-13-004.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256473
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486976
AU  - Aboutaha, Riyad S
AU  - Jnaid, Fares
AU  - Sotoud, Sara
AU  - Tapan, Mucip
AU  - Syracuse University
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Deteriorated Concrete Bridge Components
PY  - 2013/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 194p
AB  - Corrosion of steel bars in reinforced concrete structures is a major durability problem for bridges constructed in New York State (NYS). The heavy use of deicing salt compounds this problem. Corrosion of steel bars results in loss of steel cross section, deterioration of bond between concrete and reinforcing bars, and more importantly, in most cases, it results in unsymmetrical concrete sections that are susceptible to shear stresses produced by torsion. Though earthquake frequency of occurrence and expected ground accelerations in NYS is less than in western states, the  potential for earthquake damage in or around NYS is still very real. Given the level of deterioration in many reinforced concrete bridges in NYS, they are considered very vulnerable to major damage during a moderate seismic event. There is an urgent need for proper guidance for evaluation of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridge components that could assist structural engineers in estimating the reserved strength of deteriorated bridges and designing cost-effective methods for retrofit.  Proper evaluation and retrofit of existing deteriorated reinforced concrete bridges will limit the collapse of bridges during moderate seismic events in NYS and the surrounding states, and consequently save people’s lives. The findings of this investigation suggest the need for seismic retrofit of deteriorated reinforced concrete bridge columns, particularly those with corroded lap splice in longitudinal reinforcement. The study also suggests the need for retrofit of corroded pedestals over piers and abutments, as they may cause sudden unseating of girders.
KW  - Bridge members
KW  - Columns
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - New York (State)
KW  - Reinforced concrete bridges
KW  - Retrofitting
KW  - Structural deterioration and defects
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Seismic-Evaluation-Retrofit-of-Deteriorated-Bridges--Riyad-Aboutaha--Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256477
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01572500
TI  - Project 12 - Climate
AB  - The direct impact of aviation on climate via the emission of greenhouse gases and particles is small relative to other anthropogenic sources. However, the potential impact of aviation on climate is unique because aviation associated sources occur at high altitudes where other anthropogenic sources are absent, and aircraft are the only major source of emissions above the Arctic Circle. The climatic and chemical impact of aviation emissions and the resulting contrails and contrail-enhanced cirrus in the troposphere and stratosphere may be significant. There are large uncertainties in relating aviation emissions to changes in radiative forcing or surface temperature, especially for contrail-associated pathways. The research seeks to find robust relationships between aircraft emissions and the properties of contrails generated by aircraft under a variety of atmospheric conditions using both a high-resolution large-eddy simulation model and telescoping global-regional climate model.
KW  - Aircraft exhaust gases
KW  - Climate
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Pollutants
UR  - http://partner.mit.edu/projects/emissions-atmospheric-impacts
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1364464
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01506702
TI  - Transit Manager Certificate Program
AB  - The Transit Manager Certificate Program (TMCP) was developed by the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT) Office of Freight, Logistics and Passenger Operations.  Through FDOT's, insight and innovation, the TCMP offers professional development to Florida's public transportation managers, and provides them with the educational tools and resources necessary to solve today's public transportation challenges. The program, sponsored and directed by FDOT, will be administered by the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and offered in cooperation with the University of South Florida's (USF) Continuing Education's University College and CUTR. The Program will be structured to offer a combination of online courses, self-paced computer based training, traditional classroom courses and peer to peer exchanges.  By being at the forefront of the progressive educational movement and integrating technological advancements, students have easy access to courses that are relevant to today's public transportation professional. TMCP will provide training in various supervisory and management principles including, but not limited, to leadership, law, finance, supervision, ethics, business communications and performance appraisals.  In addition to general supervision and management courses, the TMCP will also include seminars geared specifically to the transit operations, maintenance and administrative challenges within agencies.  The seminars, along with networking opportunities, will challenge students with real-world issues and projects to consider and solve. By presenting contemporary seminars and subsequent group projects, students will be fully-engaged in their education development and apply their newly acquired knowledge.
KW  - Bus transit operations
KW  - Continuing education
KW  - Florida Department of Transportation
KW  - Management
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Training
KW  - Workshops
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/02/transit-manager-certificate-program-2/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290919
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485060
AU  - Srinivasan, Sivaramakrishnan
AU  - Dhakar, Nagendra Singh
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Route-choice Modeling using GPS-based Travel Surveys
PY  - 2013/06/25/Final Report
SP  - 88p
AB  - The advent of global positioning system (GPS)-based travel surveys offers an opportunity to develop  empirically-rich route-choice models. However, the GPS traces must first be mapped to the roadway network, map-matching, to identify the network-links actually traversed. For this purpose, two enhanced map-matching algorithms are implemented and compared. Next, the choice set must also be constructed by identifying possible alternate routes between the origin and destination. This is accomplished using an enhanced version of the Breath First Search Link Elimination (BFS-LE) algorithm. The data assembled from the two steps, map matching and choice set generation, are then used for developing route choice using the path-size logit structure. The GPS data from the Chicago Travel Survey are used in this analysis. In addition to travel time, the number of intersections, turns, and the circuity of the route and the proportion of route by facility type were found to be statistically-significant predictors of route choice. In addition, the sensitivity to these factors also varied depending on trip purpose, time of the day of the trip, and traveler characteristics.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Logits
KW  - Mapping
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/srinivasan_final_report_2011-008.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253779
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01551377
AU  - Miller, Kevin
AU  - Bouattoura, Fariel
AU  - Seymour, Ed
AU  - Poe, Chris
AU  - Forgang, Marc
AU  - Macias, Roberto
AU  - Zingalli, Joe
AU  - Miller, Bryan
AU  - Dallas Area Rapid Transit
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - US-75 ICM System Design Document: Dallas Integrated Corridor Management
(ICM) Demonstration Project
PY  - 2013/06/21/Final Report
SP  - 231p
AB  - This System Design document for the US-75 Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Program has been developed as part of the US Department of Transportation Integrated Corridor Management Initiative. The basic premise behind the ICM initiative is that independent, individual network-based transportation management systems, and their cross-network linkages, can be operated in a more coordinated and integrated manner, thereby increasing overall corridor throughput and enhancing the mobility of the corridor users. This document is intended as System Design for the US-75 Corridor in Dallas consisting of freeway, arterial, bus and rail networks, and serving a central business district. The System Design provides a detailed description of the three subsystems: the Decision Support Subsystem, the SmartNET Subsystem, and the SmartFusion Subsystem.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Dallas (Texas)
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Public transit
KW  - System design
KW  - Transportation corridors
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54100/54137/US-75_ICMS_System_Design_Final_508.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1340047
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491337
AU  - Baxter, Christopher D P
AU  - Trautman, Jan
AU  - Taylor, Oliver-Denzil S
AU  - University of Rhode Island, Narragansett
AU  - University of Rhode Island, Narragansett
AU  - University of Rhode Island Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Volume Change of Silts Following Cyclic Loading
PY  - 2013/06/21/Final Report
SP  - 49p
AB  - Estimating the settlement of adjacent structures during pile installation in silts is a challenging problem for practicing engineers. The current state-of-practice relies primarily on local case studies and monitoring efforts, such as inclinometers and site surveys, where adjacent structures are in relatively close proximity to pile driving activity. Few predictive models exist to aid engineers, and those that do exist are limited to relatively “clean” sands and are rarely used in practice. A very important aspect of pile driving are the shear waves that will be generated causing localized regions of increased pore pressures resulting in significant reduction of soil strength and stiffness. Unfortunately, current practice does not provide an engineer with any quantifiable means to estimate how these shear waves would affect the local soil behavior. The objective of this study was to perform a detailed review of the literature regarding pile driving-induced settlements and to develop a laboratory testing program to quantify the relationship between cyclic loading, generation of pore pressures, and the resulting volume changes in silts. In the first part of the present work a review of case studies and a  summary of settlement prediction methods are presented and the most important facts concerning those are highlighted. The second part focuses on a series of cyclic triaxial tests carried out to evaluate volumetric change caused by pore pressure dissipation of silt samples following cyclic loading. It was found that the greater the pore pressure ratio generated during cyclic loading, the greater the volume changes of the silt sample resulting from pore pressure dissipation. Cyclic loading and drainage caused a maximum of 5% volumetric strain in the silt samples, compared to less  than 1% for sands in comparable studies. The measured increase in volumetric strain was small up to a pore pressure ratio of 0.6. The results of this research work supply important information on the behavior of volume changes of silt cyclically loaded and provide a sound basis for future settlement predictions of silt due to dynamic loading.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Pile driving
KW  - Pore pressure
KW  - Repeated loads
KW  - Settlement (Structures)
KW  - Silts
KW  - Triaxial shear tests
KW  - Volume changes
UR  - http://131.128.106.203/uritc-org/media/finalreportspdf/0001851.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259151
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526397
AU  - Fijalkowski, Jared
AU  - McCoy, Kevin
AU  - Lyons, William
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Developing a Regional Approach to Transportation Demand Management and Nonmotorized Transportation: Best Practice Case Studies
PY  - 2013/06/12/Final Report
SP  - 56p
AB  - This report highlights four metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that embrace transportation demand management (TDM) and nonmotorized transportation in an ambitious, conscious, and holistic manner at both regional and local scales. These MPOs, which represent a diversity of sizes and geographic areas, can serve as models for other MPOs seeking to take a holistic approach to TDM and nonmotorized transportation to further advance their agencies' goals. The case studies in this report answer how and why regional scale approaches to TDM and nonmotorized transportation are embraced, and assesses how they contribute to meeting regional transportation goals.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Nonmotorized transportation
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel demand management
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51600/51621/regional_Approach_report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1310485
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530303
AU  - Hayden, Larry
AU  - Galarus, Doug
AU  - Ward, Nicholas
AU  - Ye, Zhirui 
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Final Report for the Western Transportation Institute's Augmented Speed Enforcement Project
PY  - 2013/06/06/Final Report
SP  - 118p
AB  - The augmented Speed Enforcement (aSE) project developed systems to detect speeding vehicles in a work zone and provide warnings to both the vehicle driver and work zone workers. The system  consists of 28 orange traffic drums (smart drums or sDrums) positioned adjacent to orange cones marking the work zone lane closure. When the system detects a speeding vehicle, it synchronously flashes the orange lights on top of the drums, warning the driver to slow down and the workers of a speeding vehicle. If the vehicle speed is above a set trigger speed, the systems activates a pager system to warn the workers of the speeding vehicle. System effectiveness and deployability were evaluated for four weeks near Los Banos, CA. Daily deployment makes the system labor intensive and time consuming.
KW  - Drums (Containers)
KW  - Speed detectors
KW  - Vehicle detectors
KW  - Warning systems
KW  - Work zone safety
KW  - Work zone traffic control
UR  - http://www.dot.ca.gov/research/researchreports/reports/2013/final_report_task_2062b.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302000
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530302
AU  - Hayden, Larry
AU  - Galarus, Douglas
AU  - Ward, Nicholas
AU  - Ye, Zhirui 
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Executive Summary for the Western Transportation Institute’s Augmented Speed Enforcement Project
PY  - 2013/06/06/Final Report
SP  - 11p
AB  - The purpose of the augmented Speed Enforcement (aSE) project is to detect and warn speeding vehicles in a work zone and provide warnings to work zone workers. One system comprises traffic drums positioned adjacent to orange cones marking the work zone lane closure. When a speeding vehicle is detected, the driver and workers are warned. Daily deployment and retrieval of the system is labor intensive and time consuming. Evaluation of speed data appears to show that the system does have an impact in reducing overall average speed and percentage of vehicles traveling at high speeds.
KW  - Speed detectors
KW  - Vehicle detectors
KW  - Warning systems
KW  - Work zone safety
UR  - http://www.dot.ca.gov/research/researchreports/reports/2013/final_report_task_2062c.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302002
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01562963
TI  - Laser Scanning Aggregates for Real Time Property Identification
AB  - The objectives of this research proposal have been divided into two phases to address the major issues of concern. Phase I includes a thorough literature review and assessment of laser technology to be utilized for real-time characterization of aggregate properties in the laboratory, while Phase II addresses field implementation and training of personnel.
KW  - Aggregates
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Lasers
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Properties of materials
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Training
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/laser-scanning-aggregates
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1353744
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01556885
TI  - Collaborative Proposal: Analyzing Asset Management Data Using Data and Text Mining
AB  - Recently, new data derived from non-destructive testing, structural health monitoring, and text mining of nontraditional data sources have evolved as new techniques to analyze infrastructure assets. The purpose of this research is to explore how different types of data mining algorithms can be employed to provide useful predictive information for asset management decision making. This research will focus on the analysis of numerical data from monitoring of bridge structures, and the use of text mining and data to monitor complex infrastructure projects.  The researchers at Utah State University have access to several streams of data from actual highway bridges in service currently. These bridges include a steel girder bridge in Salt Lake City, Utah a precast-prestressed concrete girder bridge in Perry, Utah and a concrete box girder bridge along I-5 near Sacramento, California. These three bridges collect data using a variety of sensors. The sensors include strain gages, accelerometers, tilt meters, temperature gages, and environmental conditions (such as wind speed/direction, precipitation, ambient temperature, etc.).
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Bridges
KW  - California
KW  - Data mining
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Strain gages
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Text mining
KW  - Utah
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/collaborative-proposal-analyzing-asset-management-data-using-data-and-text-mining
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1346133
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01532654
TI  - Analysis of Carbon Emission Regulations in Supply Chains with Volatile Demand- Missouri S&T
AB  - The objective of this research is to evaluate the impact of carbon emission regulations on supply chains with volatile demand. Supply chain operations such as inventory holding, freight transportation, logistics, and warehousing activities are major contributors to emissions for manufacturing, retailing, transportation, health, and service industries. Therefore, it is crucial that supply chain agents plan their operations with environmental considerations. Recently, several forms of carbon emission regulations have been proposed and/or implemented to reduce emissions. This research will model and solve a supply chain agent's operations planning problem under two well-known carbon regulations: carbon-taxing and carbon-cap-and-trade. The growing literature on "green" supply chains and emissions is nearly exclusively focused on settings with deterministic demand. To better capture practical aspects of supply chains/logistics, our research will formulate an integrated inventory control and transportation model with stochastic demand under the  aforementioned carbon regulations. This model will be solved using engineering management/operations research concepts. This project will provide decision-making algorithms to help supply chain agents better manage inventory and transportation in light of economic and environmental pressures in the presence of demand volatility. The theoretical modeling and sensitivity analysis will be complimented with a pilot case study using a Missouri firm.
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Missouri
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Regulations
KW  - Supply chain management
KW  - Warehousing
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r358/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1318017
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526389
AU  - Kay, Michael
AU  - McCoy, Kevin
AU  - Lyons, William M
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Moving Together in the 21st Century: How Ridesharing Supports Livable Communities
PY  - 2013/06/01/Final Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - This white paper is a follow-up to the Volpe Center report for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), “Ridesharing Options Analysis and Practitioners’ Toolkit.” The white paper provides an update to current ridesharing options and further explores technology and policy developments that make new methods of ridesharing possible. In addition, the report assesses ridesharing as a key contributing factor to supporting livable communities, and in particular, how ridesharing can be part of a "tipping point" in reducing the need for vehicle ownership and demand for parking.
KW  - Automobile ownership
KW  - Carpools
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Communities
KW  - Development
KW  - Parking demand
KW  - Ridesharing
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - Vehicle sharing
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51600/51602/ridesharing_report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1310513
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01506700
TI  - Florida Statewide Transit Training and Technical Assistance Program
AB  - The Florida Statewide Transit Training and Technical Assistance Program provides training and technical assistance to Florida's transit professionals and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District Offices. The purpose of the program is to ensure the highest level of productivity among transit professionals; promote and encourage management and operational efficiencies; promote and ensure safety and security at Florida's transit properties; and ensure the provision of more cost-effective transit services. Training and technical assistance shall be made available to Florida's transit professionals and FDOT District Office staff including those in operations, planning, marketing, and maintenance. The training and technical assistance will be provided in a number of topic areas including  professional development, planning, operations, management, marketing, and other topics when deemed necessary by the FDOT Project Manager. The purpose of this Scope of Work (SOW) is to define the operational and administrative tasks required by a contractor to support the program.
KW  - Continuing education
KW  - Florida
KW  - Management
KW  - Planning
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Safety
KW  - Technical assistance
KW  - Training
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/02/florida-statewide-transit-training-and-technical-assistance-program/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290917
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489308
TI  - Collaborative Proposal: Evaluation of Biotechnologies for Flexible Pavement Applications
AB  - The use of biotechnology has many benefits in construction applications, in this case, the construction and performance of flexible pavements.  From a materials standpoint, the potential use of biomaterials can reduce the dependency on petroleum products required for asphalt materials, as well as helping to reduce greenhouse emissions during production and construction.  If adaptable, biomaterials may also be able to help increase the general life of the pavement while reducing the cost of construction.  Biotechnologies may also be able to help in the stabilization of subgrade soils prior to constructing roadways over top of them.  Researchers have found that the use of microbial activity allows for a level of stabilization in liquefiable soils.  Including the use of biomaterials to help stabilize these problematic soils is a cost effective and environmentally sensitive solution.  Although biomaterials has shown to help improve pavement and soil performance, there is also evidence to show that some pavement biodeterioration does occur and may affect the general roughness of the pavement.  To conclude the research study, an assessment of paved road deterioration due to biodeterioration and how it influences roughness progression will also be conducted.
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Biodeterioration
KW  - Flexible pavements
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Liquefiable soils
KW  - Roughness
KW  - Soil stabilization
KW  - Subgrade (Pavements)
KW  - Technology
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/collaborative-proposal-evaluation-biotechnologies-flexible-pavement-applications
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258322
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481783
TI  - Wisconsin Study on the Impact of OSOW Vehicles on Complex Bridges
AB  - The use of special purpose highway vehicles, over the legal limit in size and in weight, is increasing as industry grows and large items must be shipped over highways. The freight on those vehicles includes pressure vessels and transformers used in power plants, boilers, military hardware, and more recently components for wind turbine construction. Such vehicles may weigh 5 to 6 times the normal legal truck weight. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is asked to provide special permits for the vehicles along a specified pathway. Because of the unusual configuration of the vehicles, it is a time consuming job for the agency since simple analysis methods for determining effects on complex bridges subjected to those overloads are not well established and the possibility of errors in estimating the impact of the loads on these structures could affect safety. A simplified analysis method to predict the effects of overload vehicles on normal girder span bridge systems has been successfully developed through a project sponsored by the Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research (CFIRE) working with WisDOT. The work proposed in this project aims to help WisDOT in evaluating the impact of oversize over weight (OSOW) vehicles on the unusual complex bridges in the State.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Heavy vehicles
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Overweight loads
KW  - Permits
KW  - Traffic loads
KW  - Trucking
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/08-03/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250964
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01544671
AU  - Nelson, David A
AU  - Miller, Michelle
AU  - Morales, Alfonso
AU  - Zietlow, Ben
AU  - Adams, Teresa M
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Achieving Scale Strategically: Understanding Freight Flows in Regional Food Supply Chains
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 70p
AB  - The past several years have seen a rising interest in all things sustainable, from energy efficient homes  and vehicles, to alternative energy sources, to increasing focus on recyclable and renewable material  usage. This trend has also been accompanied by an increased examination by consumers of where our  foods come from and how it reaches us. Decades of globalization have drastically altered supply chains.  Along with consumer goods, the distance in that food travels to reach its markets has grown exponentially, and stressed freight transportation systems. This research will identify how the local food  supply and distribution systems function in the Upper Midwest States and suggests ways that regional  food transportation movements can become more efficient and retain and enhance other values.
KW  - Commodity flow
KW  - Food
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Midwestern States
KW  - Physical distribution
KW  - Regional transportation
KW  - Supply chain management
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0517.2.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1330897
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01531149
AU  - Qin, Xiao
AU  - Sultana, Most Afia
AU  - Chitturi, Madhav V
AU  - Noyce, David A
AU  - South Dakota State University, Brookings
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Madison
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Developing Safety Risk Index for Truck Preferred Arterial Corridor
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 82p
AB  - Truck safety has been of great interest to transportation officials, engineers and researchers for many years because  of the amount of freight transported by trucks, the safety impact of trucks in traffic, and trucks’ invaluable  contribution to the country’s economic growth. Connecting between traffic generators, arterial streets are key links  for door-to-door deliveries. It is imperative to study and evaluate truck safety impact on arterial streets in response  to the continued strong growth of truck traffic. This project provided a comprehensive analysis of truck-related  crashes that occurred on arterial streets. By collecting extensive roadway geometries, pavement conditions, traffic data on selected arterial corridors heavily  traveled by trucks, truck crash frequency and injury severity contributing factors have been identified. Statistical  models have been tested with different combinations of datasets, with and without access parameters. Without the  access related variables, truck miles traveled, annual average daily traffic (AADT), signal density, shoulder width,  pavement service index (PSI) and its standard deviation are statistically significant factors for predicting the crash  frequency. After incorporating access information, commercial driveway design related variables exhibit statistical  significance while the previously significant variables such as AADT, PSI and its standard deviation are no longer  statistically significant. This noticeable change of the statistical models warns that a spurious relationship may be  formed if a causal relationship cannot be sufficiently supported via the data collected. For crash severity prediction, twelve contributing factors such as posted speed limit, lane width, number of lanes, pavement condition index, and  undivided roadway portion were identified. Subsequently, the corridors safety performance measured by a truck  crash severity index (CSI) as a function of crash frequency and injury severity has been established. It is  anticipated that the findings in the study will not only benefit state and local agencies in planning, designing, and  managing a safe arterial corridor for trucks and other motorists, but also help motor carriers to optimize their routes  from a safety perspective.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Crash causes
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Crash risk forecasting
KW  - Crash severity
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Highway factors in crashes
KW  - Truck crashes
KW  - Trucking safety
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0415.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316831
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516382
AU  - Boving, Thomas
AU  - University of Rhode Island Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Installation of Stormwater Mangement and Treatment Demonstration Facility
PY  - 2013/06
SP  - 6p
AB  - The Rhode Island Stormwater Technology Demonstration Facility (RI STD) was conceived as a demonstration facility for testing innovative stormwater treatment systems and best management practices (BMP). In the past, University of Rhode Island students and faculty were forced to conduct stormwater studies off-campus, along heavily traveled roads or in places unsafe to work during nighttime. Also, timing the field tests to storm events has been extremely difficult and logistically challenging. The field studies, therefore, were often plagued by incomplete coverage of storm events or data gaps between sampling campaigns because of difficulties mobilizing man power and field equipment in time for a rain storm. These logistical challenges can now be minimized with immediate access to the field equipment and the man power available near to where the field tests are conducted. Hence, having built the RI STD facility on the campus of University of Rhode Island (URI) in Kingston provides the stormwater research community with a safe and highly instrumented test ground for evaluating commercial or innovative in-situ BMP technologies. This report describes the goals and objectives achieved by constructing the RI STD and what can be expected from it in the future.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Installation
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Test facilities
KW  - Water quality management
UR  - http://131.128.106.203/uritc-org/media/finalreportspdf/S000141.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1291112
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516308
AU  - Kane, Douglas L
AU  - Stuefer, Svetlana
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - New 2012 Precipitation Frequency Estimation Analysis for Alaska: Musings on Data Used and the Final Product
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 32p
AB  - The major product of this study was a precipitation frequency atlas for the entire state of Alaska; this atlas is available at http://dipper.nws.noaa.gov/hdsc/pfds/. The process of contributing to this study provided an opportunity to (1) evaluate the complete precipitation data-collection program for Alaska and (2) compare the new precipitation frequency estimates with those published in 1963. It has been known for some time that the precipitation data-collection program in Alaska has many limitations and challenges. This present report summarizes the limitations of the data collection program identified during the study and includes a comparison of the 1963 and 2012 results for selected stations at major population centers. The authors hope that this report will lead to improvements in data collection so that better precipitation frequency estimates can be made in the future.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Data quality
KW  - Estimating
KW  - Precipitation (Meteorology)
KW  - Statistical sampling
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/10/207119.Kane_.3.2013_fp_Doug_fp.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290650
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497500
AU  - Davies, Jamie
AU  - Kurani, Kenneth S
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Variation in Charging of Privately-Held PEVs: Implications for Analysis, Markets, and Policy
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 16p
AB  - As the markets for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and the deployment of electricity infrastructure to charge them are in an initial, dynamic launch phase, there is an absence of stable data on PEV purchase and charging behavior. How then are social, economic, and environmental effects of PEVs being estimated? How are plans for PEV and electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) production made? How are the effective means to manage that behavior anticipated? In the absence of data, analysts make assumptions. These are often simple assumptions, or perhaps simplifying assumptions. PEV charging assumptions are compared to real world measures and the implications of changing these assumptions for analysis, markets and policy are assessed.
KW  - Battery chargers
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Electric vehicle charging
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Plug-in hybrid vehicles
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1900
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263017
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497438
AU  - Mishra, Gouri Shankar
AU  - Kyle, Page
AU  - Teter, Jacob
AU  - Morrison, Geoffrey M
AU  - Kim, Sanling
AU  - Yeh, Sonia
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Module of Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM): Model Documentation
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 118p
AB  - The objective of this project was to update and refine the transportation module of the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM, formerly MiniCAM). The project broadly encompasses the following four refinements to the transportation sector of GCAM: 1. Increased resolution to include the full spectrum of sub-modes and technologies available in passenger and freight transport; 2. Refined estimates of input parameters so as to better represent real-world heterogeneity in a way consistent with the latest literature on transportation; 3. Refined estimates of base year (2005) estimates of transportation demand, and disaggregation of IEA energy estimates between modes and size classes; 4. Included the non-motorized modes of walking and biking. The purpose of this document is to describe the methodological approaches taken in this update; no results or forecasts from GCAM are given.
KW  - Demand
KW  - Energy
KW  - Global Change Assessment Model
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Transportation policy
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1884
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262949
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497430
AU  - El-Gamal, Mahmoud Admin
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Oil Demand, Supply, and Medium-Term Price Prospects: A Wavelets-Based Analysis
PY  - 2013/06
SP  - 96p
AB  - The global “great recession” was precipitated in part by record high prices of oil and other commodities. Previous severe recessions have typically resulted in significantly lower energy prices, which in turn spurred growth and fueled a healthy recovery. In part due to expansionary monetary policies worldwide, oil prices have remained relatively high, making it difficult for the global economy to stage a strong recovery. The result is a short to medium term forecast of weak to modest growth, which – combined with continuously falling energy intensity of GDP – means that oil demand will remain stagnant or at best grow modestly. Under these circumstances, surging supply from U.S. shale and similar technologically driven unconventional oil sources is likely to create excess supply and put strong downward pressure on oil prices. Voluntary reduction in oil production to prevent falling prices is highly unlikely, because swing producer Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries need revenues at the level of current volumes and prices in order to meet core budgetary requirements and prevent regime change risk in the aftermath of “Arab Spring” revolts. Our wavelet analysis of all countries that have ever produced more than one million barrels of oil per day shows that regime change by itself would not result in significant reduction in oil production – although it may result in lower investment and therefore prevention of further increase in production capacity. However, war that destroys physical installations for the production and/or transport of oil can significantly disrupt oil supplies. In sum, if the outright war scenario is excluded, we expect prices to fall precipitously in the medium term (35 years). However, the continued threat of currently contained civil wars into larger confrontations can maintain the current prices, especially if unprecedented monetary easing continues.
KW  - Demand
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Petroleum
KW  - Politics
KW  - Prices
KW  - Supply
KW  - Wavelets
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1934
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262947
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496765
AU  - Barbato, Michele
AU  - Hassan, Marwa
AU  - Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving the Self-Healing Properties of Concrete Materials by Using Composite Action with Fiber Reinforced Polymers
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 42p
AB  - This research study is motivated by the need to reduce the costs of maintenance and repair of the  aging transportation infrastructure in the United States. The proposed approach is to use self-healing concrete. The objectives of this study were: (1) to evaluate the effects of preparation parameters (namely, temperature, agitation rate, and pH) on the shell thickness and size (diameter) of healing agent microcapsules used in self-healing concrete; (2) to evaluate the effects of these microcapsules’ shell thicknesses and size diameters on the concrete self-healing mechanism; and (3) to test the hypothesis that composite action due to fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) confinement of cylindrical concrete specimens can improve the self-repairing properties of self-healing concrete materials. Two healing agents were evaluated for the first two objectives of this study, i.e., dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and sodium silicate. The use of sodium silicate was considered for the third objective of this study. Based on the results of the experimental program, the following conclusions were made: (1) as the pH was reduced, the shell thickness increased for DCPD microcapsules and decreased for sodium silicate microcapsules; (2) the more uniform and coherent microcapsules were produced at a temperature of 55°C for both DCPD and sodium silicate healing agents; (3) an increase in agitation rate resulted in a decrease in the average diameter of the microcapsules for DCPD, while it minimally affected the diameter of sodium silicate microcapsules; (4) sodium silicate microcapsules were effective in repairing the concrete after cracking for contents equal to or higher than 1% of cement weight, with the best performance obtained for 5% sodium silicate content; and (5) FRP-confinement generally improved the strength and stiffness of the specimens. Additional research is needed to investigate the effects of FRP-confinement on stiffness recovery.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Dicyclopentadiene
KW  - Encapsulation
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Repairing
KW  - Self-healing concrete
KW  - Sodium silicate
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47910/12-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264192
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496717
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 52p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (July - August), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument (SUCR) at a site deployed for approximately 30 days. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at SUCR include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
UR  - http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/471091
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51027/SUCR_AcousticalMonitoringReport_FINAL_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265811
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496700
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Walnut Canyon National Monument: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 48p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (July - August), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Walnut Canyon National Monument (WACA) at a site deployed for approximately 30 days. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at WACA include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Walnut Canyon National Monument
UR  - http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/471086
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51028/WACA_AcousticalMonitoringReport_FINAL_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265619
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496681
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (September – October 2010), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River (RIGR) at three sites deployed for approximately 30 days each. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at Big Bend (BIBE) include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Big Bend National Park
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River (RIGR)
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Sound transmission
UR  - http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/471296
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51029/RIGR_AcousticalMonitoringReport_FINAL_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265863
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496664
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Wupatki National Monument: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (July-August), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Wupatki National Monument (WUPA) at two sites deployed for approximately 30 days at each site. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at WUPA include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Wupatki National Monument
UR  - http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/471084
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265618
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496643
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Big Bend National Park: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 64p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (September – October 2010), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Big Bend National Park (BIBE) at four sites deployed for approximately 30 days each. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at BIBE include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Big Bend National Park
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Sound transmission
UR  - http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/471290
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51031/BIBE_AcousticalMonitoringReport_FINAL_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265617
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496627
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Tuzigoot National Monument: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/06
SP  - 54p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (July-August), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Tuzigoot National Monument (TUZI) at a site deployed for approximately 30 days. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at TUZI include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Tuzigoot National Monument
UR  - http://irmafiles.nps.gov/reference/holding/471090
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51032/TUZI_AcousticalMonitoringReport_FINAL_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265810
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495191
AU  - Rochat, Judith L
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Motorcycle Noise in a Park Environment
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 68p
AB  - The Blue Ridge Parkway National Park provided an environment where sound level measurements could be made for numerous motorcycle pass-by events. Data were examined for five motorcycle categories: cruiser, sport, dual purpose, touring, and moped/scooter, in terms of broadband sound levels and on a spectral basis (one-third octave bands). Then the cruiser category was examined further since these motorcycles generated the loudest and some of the quietest measured sound levels. Initial investigations were made for the following: sound levels for groups of motorcycles, sound levels at sensitive receiver locations, and predictions of sound levels using five motorcycle categories in a special research version of the FHWA Traffic Noise Model® (TNM®).
KW  - Blue Ridge Mountains
KW  - Motorcycles
KW  - National parks
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
KW  - Traffic noise
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48196/NPS_Motorcycle_Noise_2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263006
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495181
AU  - Cybulski, Jonathan D
AU  - Rochat, Judith L
AU  - Read, David R
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Roadway Departure Warning Indicators: Synthesis of Noise and Bicycle Research
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - The United States National Park Service has voiced concern about roadway departure warning indicators (rumble strips) being installed in locations that affect the natural sound environment inside the park. Rumble strips can effectively alert errant drivers whose vehicles are leaving the travel lane. Some research has been conducted on rumble strips that perform effectively but result in lower noise levels in areas adjacent to a roadway. To date, however, the research is limited and scattered. The purpose of this study was to create a synthesis from collected information in order to have some guidance on how to install rumble strips near or in parks while minimizing disturbances in adjacent noise-sensitive areas. Included in this guidance document is a synthesis of literature on rumble strip noise based on the type of rumble strip, applications of rumble strips, the effects rumble strips have on various road users, including bicyclists, and also recommendations for rumble strip use and application in a park environment.
KW  - Bicycle safety
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Rumble strips
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
KW  - Traffic noise
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48195/NPS_rumble_strip_synthesis_FINAL_NRTR_2013_05_16_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263009
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493942
AU  - Volz, Jeffery S
AU  - Tabatabaei, Zahra
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Long Carbon Fiber Reinforced Concrete to Mitigate Earthquake Damage of Infrastructure Components
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - The proposed study involves investigating long carbon fiber reinforced concrete as a method of mitigating earthquake damage to bridges and other infrastructure components. Long carbon fiber reinforced concrete has demonstrated significant resistance to impact and blast loading. The carbon fibers will potentially reduce spalling and the degree of cracking during an earthquake event as well as increase the overall structural capacity. The scope of the research project includes testing of carbon fibers, development of a fiber-concrete composite material, and dynamic testing to evaluate the response of the material.
KW  - Blast loads
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Dynamic tests
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Fiber reinforced concrete
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Loss and damage
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Spalling
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R288%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262558
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493931
AU  - Volz, Jeffery S
AU  - Arezoumandi, Mahdi
AU  - Drury, Jonathan
AU  - Holman, Kyle
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Bottom Ash as Aggregate Replacement In Concrete
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 8p
AB  - The objective of the proposed study is to evaluate bottom ash as a partial or total replacement of the fine and coarse aggregate in concrete. This program will characterize and evaluate available bottom ash sources as potential replacement of both the fine (sand) and coarse (stone) natural aggregates traditionally used in the construction of bridges, roadways, culverts, retaining walls, and other transportation-related infrastructure components.
KW  - Aggregate replacement
KW  - Bottom ash
KW  - Coarse aggregates
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Fine aggregates
KW  - Fly ash
KW  - Infrastructure
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R284%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262555
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493874
AU  - Kang, Xin
AU  - Bate, Bate
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Beneficial Reuse of Fly Ashes in Geotechnical Engineering with Physicochemical and Electron
Microscopic Methods
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 17p
AB  - The sedimentation behavior of fine grained soil is largely dependent on its pore fluid chemistry. Physicochemical properties of the pore fluid, such as ionic strength and pH, could greatly influence the micro structure of kaolinite which in turn influences the sedimentation behavior. Other than ionic effect, adding fly ash can also cause different sedimentation behaviors due to the change of gradation, increased ionic strength and pozzolanic reactions. There are several tests to characterize the kaolinite micro fabric, such as sedimentation test, grain size distribution test, viscosity test, zeta potential test, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The objective of this project was to investigate the influence of ionic concentration and fly ash on the sedimentation behavior of kaolinite. In addition, zeta potential and particle size distribution in supernatant and suspensions were measured and analyzed. The zeta potential of kaolinite was found closely related to the particle size, micro fabric and settling speed. It was found that an increase in the percentage of fly ash in the fly ash soil mixture could cause an increase in the settling speed. The addition of fly ash found more efficiency than the ionic concentration because the fly ash can not only interact with kaolinite particles, but also increase the ionic strength in the dissolution so that the kaolinite could flocculate and aggregate, which in turn increases the settling speed.
KW  - Electron microscopes
KW  - Fly ash
KW  - Geotechnical engineering
KW  - Kaolinite
KW  - Microstructure
KW  - Physicochemical properties
KW  - Sedimentation
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R286%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262549
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493869
AU  - Volz, Jeffery S
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - High-Volume Fly Ash Concrete
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 8p
AB  - The objective of the proposed study is to design, test, and evaluate high-volume fly ash concrete mixtures. Traditional specifications limit the amount of fly ash to 40% or less cement replacement. This program attempts to increase the ash content to 75% while maintaining strength and durability characteristics. Various mixtures and chemical additives will be tested. The funding would allow calorimetry studies of potential admixtures and additives necessary to increase the percentage of fly ash in the various concrete mixes. The calorimetry would allow a more diverse and extensive set of variables to be studied, and would assist the researchers in developing mixes specific to each type of fly ash available. The funding would also allow testing for leachability of the HVFA concrete to existing FA concrete and non-FA concrete using TCLP, ASTM 3987, and the new LEAF methods, and to potentially evaluate the various products for radioactivity.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Concrete tests
KW  - Durability
KW  - Fly ash
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Properties of materials
KW  - Proportioning
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R278%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262554
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491377
AU  - Fields, Billy
AU  - Cradock, Angie
AU  - Barrett, Jessica
AU  - Melley, Steve
AU  - Texas State University, San Marcos
AU  - Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Active Transportation Measurement: Minneapolis Case Study
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 86p
AB  - This research examines longitudinal bicycle count data to better understand the impact of new bicycle facilities on use. The study site is Minneapolis which has invested close to $25 million over 8 years to improve active transportation facilities as part of the federal Nonmotorized Transportation Program. Geographic information system (GIS) buffering analysis, Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis, and individual growth models were used to analyze the bicycle count data. Longitudinal analysis through the individual growth models found that three key factors appear to be leading to the growth in cycling at study locations: the presence of bicycle facilities at the count location, the existing length of bicycle facilities in the adjacent areas, and the facilities added over time. Each of these factors contributes to the growth in the number of cyclists observed at count locations over the study period.
KW  - Bicycle counts
KW  - Bicycle facilities
KW  - Bicycle lanes
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Minneapolis (Minnesota)
KW  - Regression analysis
UR  - http://www.evaccenter.lsu.edu/pub/11-08.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1260480
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491361
AU  - Sobolev, Konstantin
AU  - Tabatabai, Habib
AU  - Zhao, Jian
AU  - Flores-Vivian, Ismael
AU  - Muzenski, Scott
AU  - Oliva, Michael G
AU  - Rauf, Rehan
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of an Engineered Cementitious Composite to Enhance Bridge Approach Slab Durability
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 94p
AB  - The strength and durability of highway bridges are two of the key components in maintaining a high level of freight transportation capacity on the nation's highways. The National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education project 04-09 demonstrated the feasibility of a new hybrid engineered cementitious composite (superhydrophobic engineered cementitious composite (SECC)), engineered cement based concrete combined with polyvinyl alcohol fibers and hydrophobic compounds, to create a substitute concrete material which can provide the strength and durability demanded in key regions of highway bridges. The Phase II project investigated the durability of the developed SECCs.
KW  - Bridge approaches
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Durability tests
KW  - Fiber reinforced concrete
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Hydrophobic properties
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0510.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257328
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491292
AU  - Beck, Melissa R
AU  - Ericson, Justin M
AU  - Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge
AU  - Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Minimizing Driver Errors: Examining Factors Leading to Failed Target Tracking and Detection
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 31p
AB  - Driving a motor vehicle is a common practice for many individuals. Although driving becomes  repetitive and a very habitual task, errors can occur that lead to accidents. One factor that can be a  cause for such errors is a lapse in attention or a failure to notice critical information. When  driving, individuals must not only attend to the other moving vehicles, but they must also remain  aware of and detect critical information that is in the surrounding environment. As the  environment becomes more complex however, the ease of detecting these critical targets becomes  hindered. Because of these failures in attention, this research focuses not only on the visual  complexity of the environment but also on the dynamic relation of the moving vehicles on  attention. By incorporating a dual task paradigm of vehicle tracking and target detection in a  visually complex environment, a direct examination for the influence of outside vehicle factors  on a driver’s ability to detect critical targets was measured. Furthermore, driver reactions such as  brake onset, steering deviations, and changes in velocity were examined. This research found that  overall improvements in driver reactions are observed when the environment has low clutter and  there were fewer vehicles to be tracked.
KW  - Attention lapses
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driver errors
KW  - Reaction time
KW  - Visual perception
UR  - http://www.evaccenter.lsu.edu/pub/12-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257622
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490195
AU  - Masabumi, Furuhata
AU  - Cohen, Liron
AU  - Koenig, Sven
AU  - San Jose State University
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Using Auctions to Allocate Transportation Requests for Demand Responsive Transit Systems
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - Demand responsive transit (DRT) systems provide ﬂexible transportation services where passengers request door-to-door rides by specifying desired pick-up and drop-off locations and times. Multiple shuttles service these requests in shared-ride mode without ﬁxed routes and schedules. In this report, we deﬁne the online cost-sharing problem in DRT systems and describe typical cost-sharing mechanisms, focusing on proportional and incremental cost sharing and some of their shortcomings in the online setting, where knowledge of future arrivals of passengers is missing. We then determine properties of cost-sharing mechanisms that we believe make DRT systems attractive to both providers and passengers, namely online fairness, immediate response, budget balance and ex-post incentive compatibility. We propose a novel cost-sharing mechanism, called Proportional Online Cost Sharing (POCS); it provides passengers with upper bounds on their fares immediately after their arrival, allowing the passengers to accept or decline, reducing uncertainty about whether they can be serviced or how high their fares will be at most, while the DRT systems reduce their uncertainty about passengers dropping out. Some ﬂexibility to optimize the routes and schedules after future arrivals is retained. The sum of the fares equals the operating cost, with no proﬁt being made and no subsidies required.
KW  - Auctions
KW  - Cost sharing
KW  - Demand responsive transportation
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Routing
KW  - Scheduling
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/research/09-19-using-auctions-allocate-transportation-requests-demand-responsive-transit
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256743
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490000
AU  - Zuschlag, Michael
AU  - Chandra, Divya C
AU  - Grayhem, Rebecca
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - The Usefulness of the Proximate Status Indication as Represented by Symbol Fill on Cockpit Displays of Traffic Information
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 106p
AB  - Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) displays depict traffic advisories, resolution advisories, and information on other aircraft. Symbols for other aircraft include the proximate status indication where the symbols of “proximate” (close) aircraft are filled and the symbols of “non-proximate” (more distant) aircraft are not filled. This web-based study examined the value of the proximate status indication as represented by symbol fill to assess implications for Cockpit Displays of Traffic Information (CDTIs), and found no advantage for it, only a disadvantage. Pilots viewed videos of traffic displays. Analysis of the data failed to show a benefit of the proximate status indication for estimating threat and potential for visual acquisition of traffic. Analysis did find a decrement in performance for identifying the greatest traffic threat, when the proximate status indication was depicted. In contrast to their performance, most pilots say the proximate status indication is useful. However, results indicate that pilots overemphasize proximity and underemphasize closing speeds when assessing threat levels. This bias may account for the pilot preference for displaying proximate status. Results of this study are intended to be of use to the Federal Aviation Administration in developing guidance material for CDTIs.
KW  - Cockpit display of traffic information
KW  - Cockpits
KW  - Instrument displays
KW  - Proximity detectors
KW  - Symbols
KW  - Traffic alert and collision avoidance system
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47600/47675/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-13-03.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257641
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489985
AU  - Barami, Bahar
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Infrastructure Resiliency: A Risk-Based Framework
PY  - 2013/06
SP  - 12p
AB  - This paper provides a framework for the analysis of factors influencing modern transportation systems' ability to anticipate, withstand and recover from disruptions. Such disruptions are becoming increasingly more common, whether caused by natural disasters, structural failures, or human-engineered terrorist events. The factors that contribute to this growing disruption risk include climate change impacts, accelerating growth in the scale of developments in coastal regions, exponential growth in the value of assets lost during catastrophic event, and risks of global connectivity. The author suggests that a risk-based and layered resiliency approach to designing, building, operating and protecting critical infrastructures allow risk factors to be addressed at the systemic level.
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Resilience (Adaptability)
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Service disruption
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47848/Infrastructure_Resiliency_Final_Revised_July_10.docx
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47848/Infrastructure_Resiliency_Final_Revised_July_10.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257638
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489976
AU  - Chandra, Divya C
AU  - Grayhem, Rebecca J
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Evaluation of a Technique to Simplify Area Navigation and Required Navigation Performance Charts
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 98p
AB  - Performance based navigation (PBN), an enabler for the Federal Aviation Administration's Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), supports the design of more precise flight procedures. However, these new procedures can be visually complex, which may impact the usability of charts that depict the procedures. This study evaluated whether there are performance benefits from simplifying aeronautical charts by separating visually complex area navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP) procedures onto different chart images. Forty-seven professional pilots who were qualified to operate with RNAV and RNP participated. They used high-fidelity current and modified charts to find a specific information from RNAV (RNP) approach and RNAV Standard Instrument Departure (SID) chart images that were shown one at a time on a computer monitor. Response time and accuracy were recorded. Results showed a consistent and significant reduction in the time to find information from the simplified chart images. Response time varied linearly with a simple clutter metric, the sum of visual elements in the depiction, indicating serial visual search. Most questions were answered with high accuracy, but some questions about altitude constraints yielded low accuracies. This experiment did not explore practical disadvantages of separating paths, such as the increase number of images to handle.
KW  - Aeronautical charts
KW  - Air traffic control
KW  - Aircraft pilotage
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Instrument flying
KW  - Next Generation Air Transportation System
KW  - Required navigation performance
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47998/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-13-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257637
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489515
AU  - Salama, Talat
AU  - Greene, Randall Blake
AU  - Waldron, Christopher
AU  - University of Alabama, Birmingham
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving Bridge Load Rating Accuracy
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 129p
AB  - Nearly one-quarter of Alabama’s bridges are deemed structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. An additional seven percent of Alabama’s bridges were posted bridges in 2010. (Federal Highway Administration, 2011). Accurate bridge load rating can potentially reduce, and even remove, bridge postings throughout the state. Analytical structural bridge models were used to define new load ratings for ALDOT Bridges 005248, 005318, and 012296. With past methodology, Engineers’ ratings tend to be inaccurate. This is due to the indefinite information in regards to actual traffic loading on bridges. This inaccuracy can lead to either over-estimates of bridge safety or excessive conservatism in repairs. Gaining further knowledge regarding the actual behavior of bridges with the help of analytical models can help reduce inaccuracy in calculations. The University Transportation Center for Alabama (UTCA) tasked The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to develop and verify analytical models from which accurate load rating could be obtained. ALDOT performed load testing and calculated ratings for bridges 005248 and 005318. The UAB team worked with ALDOT in gathering strain data for bridge 012296 via the Bridge Weigh-In-Motion (BWIM) technique. Bridge models for 005248 and 005318 proved capable of accurate load rating per data comparison as presented, and 012296 was load rated using Finite Element Modeling.
KW  - Accuracy
KW  - Alabama
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Load factor
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Traffic loads
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/08/12202-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258457
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489419
AU  - Reep, Amber
AU  - Staes, Lisa
AU  - Perk, Victoria
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Qualitative Analysis of Bus Simulator Training on Transit Incidents - A Case Study in Florida
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - The purpose of this research was to track and observe three Florida public transit agencies as they incorporated and integrated computer-based transit bus simulators into their existing bus operator training programs. In addition to the three Florida case study agencies, four transit agencies outside Florida were contacted and interviewed on their experiences with the use of bus simulators in their operator training programs. The Research Team asked agencies to provide any relevant data they may have collected to track the performance of the simulator training to allow for a more robust discussion of safety improvements that may have resulted. The report also provides insight from the transit agencies’ perspectives on how their simulators are utilized, and offers important perspective on lessons learned and best and model practices.
KW  - Bus drivers
KW  - Bus transit operations
KW  - Florida
KW  - Incident detection
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Training simulators
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-07-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/77701.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257351
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489412
AU  - Bickford, Erica
AU  - Holloway, Tracey
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Madison
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Freight from Space: Evaluating Freight Activity and Emissions from Satellite Data
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 55p
AB  - In this report, the authors investigate the current state of knowledge of freight transport emissions, the importance of freight emissions relative to other sources, and what tools are available, or can be developed to answer these questions and improve the state of knowledge in freight transportation and air quality.  The authors build an updated version of a bottom-up roadway-by-roadway freight truck inventory (WIFE2.0) appropriate for conducting detailed, policy-relevant emissions and air quality analysis.  They also employ a new freight rail inventory developed by the Eastern Regional Technical Advisory Committee.  They evaluate the spatial and seasonal performance of the WIFE2.0 inventory modeled in a regional photochemical model (CMAQ) against an existing on-road diesel emissions inventory from the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO), against surface observations of nitrogen dioxide concentrations, and against satellite retrievals of tropospheric column nitrogen dioxide from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI).  Evaluation of the modeled WIFE2.0 inventory against satellite retrievals of nitrogen dioxide from OMI compared to performance of LADCO's diesel inventory showed better spatial agreement between WIFE and OMI, however with larger bias and error, especially in urban areas.  Further analysis also examined the relative contribution of freight trucks and trains to modeled surface concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in a western U.S. case study.  This preliminary analysis highlights the utility of satellite data for both model validation and constraining emission sources, especially in concert with ground-based monitors, with which surface and atmospheric column model performance can be compared.  The wealth of data available from models, satellites, and monitors opens up a wide range of possible analysis directions for future work.
KW  - Air pollution
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Artificial satellites
KW  - Diesel engine exhaust gases
KW  - Environmental protection
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - Nitrogen dioxide
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0420.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257314
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488652
AU  - Moore, James E
AU  - Ioannou, Petros
AU  - Bardet, Jean-Pierre
AU  - Park, Jiyoung
AU  - Cho, Sungbin
AU  - Abadi, Afshin
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - University of Southern California
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Risks and Recoveries from Extreme Disruptions in Freight Transportation System in a Megacity: Case Study for the Greater Los Angeles Area
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - This research examines the risks imposed on and recoveries of transportation systems in megacities as the result of extreme events such as earthquakes. It also addresses the economic impact due to earthquake scenarios locally as well as nationwide. REDARS software is used to estimate disruption level of earthquake on roadways and bridges. The integrated model consisting of a macroscopic terminal simulator, microscopic traffic simulator, and terminal cost model is developed to estimate the changes in traffic flows due to earthquake and to evaluate the economic impact at the local level. Macroscopic terminal simulator is used to model movement inside container terminals. Road network adjacent to the container terminal are constructed by microscopic traffic flow simulator (VISSIM) and is connected to sea-ports. Also, terminal operational cost model is developed to evaluate additional terminal costs due to disruptions to traffic flows. All three models are integrated with each other, so that various disruption scenarios can be evaluated using the integrated model. NIEMO software is used to evaluate the economic impact of extreme events globally. Southern California is regarded as the region of study and results demonstrate the efficiency of the integrated model. The model can be used to evaluate any other disruptions to sea-ports such as terrorist attack or tsunami.
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Large cities
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Southern California
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/sites/default/files/research-project/09-29_Moore_final_0_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254309
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488502
AU  - Agrawal, Asha Weinstein
AU  - Nixon, Hilary
AU  - San Jose State University
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options to Support Public Transit, Highways, and Local Streets and Roads? Results From Year Four of a National Survey
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 94p
AB  - This report summarizes the results of a national public opinion poll asking respondents if they would support various tax options for raising federal transportation revenues, with a special focus on understanding support for increasing revenues for public transit. Eleven specific tax options tested were variations on raising the federal gas tax rate, creating a new mileage tax, and creating a new federal sales tax. Other questions probed various perceptions related to public transit, including knowledge and opinions about federal taxes to support transit. Results show that a majority of Americans would support higher taxes for transportation—under certain conditions. For example, a gas tax increase of 10¢ per gallon to improve road maintenance was supported by 67 percent of respondents, whereas support levels dropped to just 23 percent if the revenues were to be used more generally to maintain and improve the transportation system. Survey results show that most people want good public transit service in their state and two-thirds of respondents support spending gas tax revenues on transit. However, questions exploring different methods to raise new revenues found relatively low levels of support for raising gas tax or transit fare rates.
KW  - Fares
KW  - Fuel taxes
KW  - Highway user taxation
KW  - Mileage-based user fees
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Streets
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1228-American-tax-poll-2013-public-transit-highways-streets-roads.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256195
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488500
AU  - Lou, Yingyan
AU  - Green, Frances
AU  - Lindly, Jay
AU  - Jones, Steven
AU  - University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Role of Transit Service Providers in Land Development
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - While various transit development initiatives, such as integrated transit and land development and transit-oriented development, have been proposed in the past, many transit agencies in the United States are experiencing declining ridership and increasing dependence on government subsidies for operating costs. Compared to the U.S., several foreign countries have been very successful in transit development. One particular strategy is to encourage (and subsidize) transit service providers to compete and invest in land development. This study is helpful in identifying barriers that need to be overcome in order for transit agencies to reap the benefits from investing and participating in land development. This study also conducted a cost-benefit analysis on data from the financial reports of two agencies praised in the literature for their involvement and investment in land development. These agencies are the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTRC). The analysis showed that participation yields significant profits, but participation coupled with investment is extremely profitable, with a calculated internal rate of return for the MTRC‘s property development activities being 571%.
KW  - Barriers (Challenges)
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Investments
KW  - Mass Transit Railway Corporation (Hong Kong, China)
KW  - Real estate development
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/07/11103-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257247
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488495
AU  - Toutanji, Houssam A
AU  - Anderson, Michael
AU  - Leonard, Kathleen M
AU  - University of Alabama, Huntsville
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Developing Sustainable Transportation Performance Measures for ALDOT
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 52p
AB  - Sustainable transportation is generally used to refer to transportation that contributes to the sustainable development of the community that owns and uses the system. The Transportation Research Board defines sustainability as: “Sustainability is not about threat analysis; sustainability is about systems analysis. Specifically, it is about how environmental, economic and social systems interact to their mutual advantage or disadvantage at various space-based scales of operation.” Sustainability involves improving energy efficiency, reducing dependence on oil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and benefiting the environment. The research project was designed to establish a baseline understanding of the potential for using sustainability performance measures in the Alabama Department of Transportation. Quite a number of sustainability initiatives have discussed various definitions and performance measures of sustainable transportation systems, but very few regional agencies have developed planning tools that successfully incorporate sustainability in the transportation sector. This study develops a working definition of sustainability from various proposed definitions, and demonstrates a feasible methodology for evaluating and quantifying sustainability performance measures, thus incorporating sustainability considerations into the regional transportation decision-making process.
KW  - Alabama Department of Transportation
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Definitions
KW  - Energy efficiency
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Regional transportation
KW  - Sustainable transportation
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48000/48078/12302-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257305
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488186
AU  - Lowe, Kate
AU  - Marmol, Mariana
AU  - University of New Orleans
AU  - Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Worker Experiences of Accessibility in Post-Katrina New Orleans
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 61p
AB  - Existing research has identified transportation challenges that low-income workers face, including a spatial mismatch between suburban entry level-jobs and urban low-income workers. These studies rely on travel models and secondary data and thus may not capture the temporal or other constraints that low-income workers experience. To better understand mobility patterns and accessibility as experienced, this analysis considers commute choices and perceptions of accessibility. Findings are based on open-ended surveys with 50 low-income workers in New Orleans and its inner suburbs. According to a sizable share of respondents (40%), transportation problems do not preclude applying to jobs. Black and centrally located respondents most commonly did not perceive transportation as a limitation to job opportunities. On the other hand, many respondents did describe an inability to get to suburban job opportunities. Even when missed job opportunities were not reported, almost all  respondents cited transportation problems for some locations or activities, especially shopping. Losing a functional automobile was a common reason to change commute mode after Hurricane Katrina, indicating that low-income workers may shift in and out of car ownership, as well change home and job locations. A few respondents— mostly active mode users—were highly satisfied with their journey to work. Interviewees most commonly desired increased frequency and reliability as critical transit improvements. The mixed findings on perceived job accessibility demonstrate the need to better integrate transportation and workforce research and policy. In addition, more transportation research work on perceptions and actual challenges is needed, including the role of time in workplace demands and physical accessibility. Finally, given dynamic auto ownership status, jobs, and residential patterns, longitudinal study is needed.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Commuting
KW  - Job opportunities
KW  - Low income groups
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - New Orleans (Louisiana)
KW  - Suburbs
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Work trips
UR  - http://www.evaccenter.lsu.edu/pub/12-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256735
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486961
AU  - Polzin, Steven
AU  - Bunner, Rodney
AU  - Chu, Xuehao
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
TI  - Transit Boardings Estimation and Simulation Tool (TBEST) Calibration for Guideway and BRT Modes
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 52p
AB  - This research initiative was motivated by a desire of the Florida Department of Transportation and the Transit Boardings Estimation and Simulation Tool (TBEST) project team to enhance the value of TBEST to the planning community by improving its capability to provide forecasts for light rail transit (LRT) and bus rapid transit (BRT) technologies. Specific strategies for calibration were explored and developed for BRT and LRT calibration. The BRT methodology relied on a scoring system to determine the scope of BRT features and scaling the ridership impact accordingly, based on the best available empirical data. The BRT adjustment factor would be a maximum of 30 percent for a very highly specified BRT with exclusive travelway along the full length. The LRT strategy relied on comparison of TBEST results with both sketch planning LRT forecasts and regional model forecasts for Hillsborough County. These results suggested that the scope of system changes and competitiveness of rail was such that large adjustments in TBEST forecasts would be necessary to replicate LRT forecasts. In light of these results, the project team suggests recalibration with a forthcoming Federal Transit Administration sketch planning model and, in the interim, restricting technology adjustments to no more than 50 percent.
KW  - Boarding
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Florida
KW  - Forecasting
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Ridership
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-40-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/77945.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254565
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485999
AU  - McEnroe, Bruce M
AU  - Young, C Bryan
AU  - Williams, Aaron R
AU  - Hinshaw, Matt
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Estimating Design Discharges for Drainage Structures in Western Kansas
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 84p
AB  - Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) engineers have expressed concern that the hydrologic methods in the current KDOT Design Manual (Volume I, Part C, 2011) may lead to over-sizing of drainage structures in Western Kansas. Some new structures designed by the current methods are much larger than the previous structures at these locations or existing structures directly upstream or downstream, where the older structures had no known history of overtopping. There are reasons to suspect that current methods may not be well suited to small watersheds in Western Kansas, particularly for areas with high soil permeability. This report examines the applicability of KDOT’s current hydrologic methods to Western Kansas and develops new Rational C values and flood-frequency regression equations for this region. In addition, KDOT’s current hydrologic methods are compared with those of nearby state DOTs. In order to develop new flood-frequency regression equations and recommendations for Rational C values for Western Kansas, the authors assembled a data set of all U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gaging stations that met the following criteria: (1) at least 10 years of peak flow records, (2) watershed area less than 100 mi², (3) unregulated watersheds (no major lakes or reservoirs), and (4) watersheds within 100 miles of the Kansas border and west of 97.5° longitude. The resulting data set contains 156 stations, 62 of which are in Kansas. Regional flood frequency analyses were performed on this data set using Generalize Least Squares regression in WREG 1.0. Soil permeability was found not to be a significant predictor variable. Regression equations were developed for Western Kansas, but comparisons show that these equations are not a substantial improvement over existing regression equations. Based on an evaluation of available methods, the authors recommend the Extended Rational method for watershed areas > 640 ac and < 30 mi² and the USGS four-parameter regression equation for watersheds ≥ 30 mi² in both Western and Eastern Kansas.  An analysis of Rational C values indicates that C values currently used for design in Western Kansas are too high for recurrence intervals below 100 years. New Rational C values for Western Kansas were developed and checked against regression methods for consistency. The proposed C values for Western Kansas are lower than the current values for all recurrence intervals below 100 years. The authors also propose certain adjustments to the Rational C values for Eastern Kansas. They recommend that urban open spaces and pervious surfaces within the right-of-way be considered equivalent to pasture/range rather than cropland in both Western and Eastern Kansas.
KW  - Data files
KW  - Design
KW  - Design discharge
KW  - Drainage structures
KW  - Flood frequency analysis
KW  - Floods
KW  - Hydrology
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Recurrence intervals
KW  - Regression analysis
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Watersheds
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003828227
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1255039
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485998
AU  - Reich, Stephen L
AU  - Davis, Janet L
AU  - University of South Florida, Tampa
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integrating Transit with Road Pricing Projects
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - This study examined various levels of the treatment of public transportation in conjunction with the implementation of managed lane highway projects. It details the ranges of transit investments identified in and associated with managed lanes that are in operation and those being planned, summarizes the range of those investments, and makes policy recommendations for the inclusion of public transportation elements into managed lane projects. The study includes a framework for deciding the appropriate extent to which transit should be incorporated into managed lane projects.
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - High occupancy toll lanes
KW  - High occupancy vehicle lanes
KW  - Investments
KW  - Managed lanes
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Transportation policy
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-43-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/77948.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1255042
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01484717
AU  - Goodwill, Jay A
AU  - Joslin, Ann
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Forecasting Paratransit Services Demand – Review and Recommendations
PY  - 2013/06//Final Report
SP  - 55p
AB  - Travel demand forecasting tools for Florida’s paratransit services are outdated, utilizing old national trip  generation rate generalities and simple linear regression models. In its guidance for the development of  mandated Transportation Disadvantaged Service Plans (TDSP), the Florida Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged (CTD) refers transit planners to the May 1993 “Methodology Guidelines for Forecasting TD Transportation Demand at the County Level” to develop forecasts of transportation disadvantaged populations. This report examines the current demand forecasting procedure, examines samples of other forecasting methods, and details critical factors that should be considered in addressing the development of a new paratransit demand forecasting model.  The report concludes with the development of an updated paratransit service demand model and details its application. A dynamic model spreadsheet was developed which requires relatively simple and minimal data inputs by the end user.
KW  - Florida
KW  - Forecasting
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Paratransit services
KW  - Transportation disadvantaged persons
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-34-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/77938.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253224
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01483668
AU  - Atadero, Rebecca A
AU  - Allen, Douglas G
AU  - Mata, Oscar R
AU  - Colorado State University, Fort Collins
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Colorado Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Long Term Monitoring of Mechanical Properties of FRP Repair Materials
PY  - 2013/06
SP  - 150p
AB  - Over the years, Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have gained popularity in transportation  infrastructure as a material able to restore and increase the capacity of existing concrete elements.  Properties such as a high strength to weight ratio, non-corrosive nature, durability, and high malleability  make FRP materials an appealing alternative in the reinforcement of these structural elements. However, there are still concerns regarding the long-term performance of these repairs. Numerous studies have been completed by means of accelerated aging in the lab. However, behavior of these materials under realistic field conditions has yet to be thoroughly researched. As a result, this project was created to assess the durability of an FRP repair in the Castlewood Canyon Bridge in Colorado. In addition, a laboratory study was conducted to determine the long-term behavior of concrete reinforced with FRP when exposed to various environmental conditions. The specific tasks in this project include data collection and testing plans for field assessment, on-site testing and sample collection, laboratory testing and data analysis, and testing program with a focus on the effects of deicers on FRP. Finally, a literature review was developed to consider other concerns that the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) engineers may have on the subject.
KW  - Bond strength (Materials)
KW  - Colorado
KW  - Deicing chemicals
KW  - Durability tests
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Field studies
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Reinforced concrete bridges
UR  - http://www.coloradodot.info/programs/research/pdfs/2013/frp.pdf/at_download/file
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC13-253.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252387
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01490551
AU  - Liu, Yue
AU  - Mao, Jing
AU  - Wehner, Kevin
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Wisconsin Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - New Framework and Decision Support Tool to Warrant Detour Operations during Freeway Corridor Incident Management
PY  - 2013/05/31/Final Report
SP  - 126p
AB  - Up to 60% of freeway delays are due to non-recurrent congestion caused by reduced capacity on a freeway section coupled with long incident durations. In such conditions, if proper detour strategies could be implemented in time, traffic could circumvent the congested segments by diverting to parallel arterials. Nevertheless, prior to implementation of any detour strategy, traffic managers need a set of warrants, as detour operations usually demand a substantial amount of resources and manpower. This research will develop an effective decision-support tool to assist traffic managers to warrant appropriate detour operations under various incident scenarios and corridor network configurations. Well-justified detour decisions can result in substantial economic savings (e.g., reduced fuel wastage and emissions) and safety benefits for the freight industry and society due to the less delay and fewer stops of trucks and all other vehicles. Such benefits will increase significantly in the future with the expected increase in freight traffic on the traffic network. The proposed tool also has the flexibility to be further integrated with other incident management modules to better assist traffic managers in making critical decisions during their daily operations.
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Detours
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Incident management
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0515.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258471
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01587713
AU  - Chapman, Michael
AU  - Drobot, Sheldon
AU  - Anderson, Amanda
AU  - Burghardt, Crystal
AU  - National Center for Atmospheric Research
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Concept of Operations for the Use of Connected Vehicle Data in Road Weather Applications
PY  - 2013/05/30/Final Report
SP  - 157p
AB  - With funding and support from the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and direction from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is developing a Vehicle Data Translator (VDT) software system that incorporates vehicle-based measurements of the road and surrounding atmosphere with other weather data sources. The purpose of this document is to provide a short overview of the VDT software, a description of several possible applications for key potential end-users of the VDT, and a description of the data standards that are required in order for the mobile weather data to be useful for various road weather impact applications.
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Mobile communication systems
KW  - Nevada
KW  - Road weather information systems
KW  - Software
KW  - Vehicle Data Translator
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48300/48314/Final_Report_Task_5b_5-31-131.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1386605
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516487
AU  - Runolfsson, Thordur
AU  - Madhavaram, Asish
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Real Time Assessment of Dynamic Loads on Bridges
PY  - 2013/05/30/Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - Highway bridges are an important class of civil structures that are subject to continuously acting and varying dynamic loads due to traffic. A large number of highway bridges in the United States (bridges on interstate highways or state highways which have high speed limits) were built about 50 years ago and are approaching critical age in terms of deterioration and may be in need of maintenance and/or replacement. Consequently, the need for advanced methods of highway bridge health monitoring, damage detection and estimation of load patterns has reached a critical stage. With recent advances in sensor and network technologies, it has become possible to instrument structures with embedded sensors that continuously measure the dynamic response of the structure, which is the combined response of the bridge and  vehicle loads. In this project, the authors developed a technique for data driven real time estimation of  the dynamic loads generated by vehicles passing on bridge structures. The approach is based on robust optimal feedback control ideas and uses a simplified gray box model for the bridge that has been identified using multiple sets of sensor data. Robustness of the developed approach against modeling uncertainties is demonstrated.
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-54-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300102
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01533060
AU  - Galarus, Douglas
AU  - Hayden, Larry
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - aSE Speed Data Evaluation for the Western Transportation Institute System
PY  - 2013/05/29
SP  - 69p
AB  - The purpose of the augmented Speed Enforcement (aSE) project is to detect speeding vehicles in a work zone and provide alerts to drivers and warnings to work zone workers. This report presents an evaluation of speed data collected during the Los Banos pilot test to assess the performance of the system. Improvement was shown, demonstrated by reduced percentages of speeds 60 mph or greater over the baseline. There are statistically significant differences, however, which indicate that other factors should be considered and engineering judgment should be applied.
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Drums (Containers)
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Traffic cones
KW  - Work zone safety
UR  - http://www.dot.ca.gov/research/researchreports/reports/2013/final_report_task_2062d.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302003
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530289
AU  - Hayden, Larry
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Radio Communications for the Western Transportation Institute’s Augmented Speed Enforcement Project
PY  - 2013/05/29/Final Report
SP  - 31p
AB  - The purpose of the augmented Speed Enforcement (aSE) project was to detect and warn speeding vehicles in a work zone and provide warnings to work zone workers. One system, developed by the Western Transportation Institute, comprises 28 orange traffic drums positioned adjacent to the orange cones marking the work zone lane closure. When the system detects a speeding vehicle, it synchronously flashes orange lights on top of the drums, warning the driver to slow down and the workers of a speeding vehicle. If the vehicle speed is above a set trigger speed, the system activates a pager system that warns the workers of the speeding vehicle. A Digi XBee adaptor mesh radio is used for communications and is the focus of this report. Basic antenna pattern and range measurement were performed to validate the published range. The outdoor range was measured as 200 feet, much less than the one mile outdoor range published by the manufacturer and even less than the 300 feet indoor published range. This report contains the full results of the radio tests performed.
KW  - Automated enforcement
KW  - Radio signals
KW  - Specifications
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Warning systems
KW  - Work zone safety
UR  - http://www.dot.ca.gov/research/researchreports/reports/2013/final_report_task_2062a.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302001
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01483684
AU  - Kluger, Robert
AU  - Smith, Brian L
AU  - University of Virginia, Charlottesville
AU  - Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Next Generation Traffic Management Centers
PY  - 2013/05/22/Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - Traffic management centers (TMCs) are critical to providing mobility to millions of people travelling on high-volume  roadways. In Virginia, as with most regions of the United States, TMCs were aggressively deployed in the late 1990s  and early 2000s. Thus, most TMCs use technology of this time period. Recent advances in technology may provide  improvements for TMCs in terms of function and cost. The purpose of this project was to assess the current state of  the traffic management center as well as to look at what TMCs may be able to implement to further improve  operations and accomplish their goals. The primary focus is on new technology as well as an evaluation of business  philosophy and the decision-making process used by TMCs. The report concludes with recommendations for  potential areas of improvement and the feasibility of implementation of those recommendations.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Improvements
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traffic control centers
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UVA-2012-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252432
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485057
AU  - Sheng, Y Peter
AU  - Davis, Justin R
AU  - Figueiredo, Renato J
AU  - Pardalos, Panos M
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Strengthening the resiliency of the coastal transportation system through integrated simulation of storm surge, inundation, and non-recurrent congestion in Northeast Florida
PY  - 2013/05/17/Final Report
SP  - 54p
AB  - In this study, the Multimodal Transportation Educational Virtual Appliance (MTEVA) (developed as part of CMS #2009-010) has been advanced to apply storm surge and evacuation models to the greater Jacksonville area of Northeast Florida. Heuristic and time dynamic algorithms have been enhanced to work with the significantly larger network. Like the existing MTEVA, users are presented with graphical user interfaces to a modeling system which couples a storm surge and inundation model with congestion models for emergency situations. However, in the enhanced MTEVA, these interfaces are built with standards-compliant web services and hosted using a THREDDS Data Server (TDS). The Northeast Florida domain is developed using high resolution State of Florida LiDar data and the transportation network is based on the Northeast Florida Regionally Planning Model (NERPM).
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Coasts
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Education and training methods
KW  - Evacuation
KW  - Graphical user interfaces
KW  - Nonrecurrent congestion
KW  - Northeast Florida
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Storm surges
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/sheng_cms-2011-017-final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253782
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01535087
TI  - A Statistical Analysis of County-level Emission Data
AB  - Air quality issues have been plaguing a majority of the urban areas in the United States. Several agencies and media outlets have been consistently raising this issue and focusing on developing strategies which can control the air pollution in the United States. The health effects of poor air quality in terms of lung diseases and even cancer are well known and documented. Recognizing the issue, the government has passed three clean air acts in an effort to control the processes which lead to poor air quality.  Transportation is a major contributor to air pollution and poor air quality. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transportation activities accounted for 31% of United States carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The contribution of transportation to greenhouse gas emissions has been increasing rapidly since the early 1990s. Currently transportation activities contribute to 26% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.  There is a critical need to develop strategies which can control the emissions from transportation without imposing significant additional costs on the travel which can potentially affect various economic activities in the United States. There is a need to develop models which can aid in quantitative evaluation of the impact of various transportation management strategies.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320956
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534219
TI  - Reliability-based Optimization Design of Geosynthetic Reinforced Road Embankment
AB  - Road embankment is normally a large structure, the construction of which requires for large amounts of soil normally of good quality. In order to limit costs, the utilization of geosynthetic in road embankment allows for construction of steep slopes up to 80 - 85 degrees, which can save vast amounts of fill soil and land take compared to a traditional unreinforced one. It then requires for a stability analysis regarding the geosynthetic reinforced slope, which is highly depending on the selection and properties of geosynthetic including the tensile strength, transfer efficiency, length and number of geosynthetic layers placed in embankment, etc. To minimize costs, the optimization design is necessary to select an optimal combination of those design parameters. In this study, the reliability-based optimization (RBO) will be implemented on the basis of reliability-based probabilistic slope stability analysis considering the variability of soil properties. RBO intends to minimize the cost involved in geosynthetic reinforced road embankment design while satisfying all technical requirements. The limit equilibrium method will be embedded to compute the factor of safety (FS), meanwhile, the MPP-based first-order reliability method (FORM) will be performed to determine the probability of failure (pf). The cost is assumed as a function of design parameters: the number of geosynthetic layers, embedded length, and the tensile strength of geosynthetic. Coupling with the reliability assessment and some other technical constraints, the combination of design parameters can be  optimized for a minimum cost.
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Geosynthetics
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Reliability-based structural optimization
KW  - Slope stability
KW  - Soil properties
KW  - Tensile strength
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r353/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1319698
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01517405
TI  - Optimization of Rheological Properties of Self-Consolidating Concrete by Means of Numerical Simulations, to Avoid Formwork Filling Problems in Presence of Reinforcement Bars
AB  - Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) is a relatively new type of concrete which does not require any energy for consolidation. Consequently, the hardened properties of the cast structural element are largely influenced by the flow pattern of SCC in the formwork. Several examples are available in literature showing the existence of dead-zones, dynamic segregation induced by high shear rates, filling of formworks as a function of the concrete yield stress, lower mechanical properties due to multi-layer casting, etc. All these examples were predicted by means of numerical, single fluid simulations, in which the concrete is assumed to be a fluid without particles. However, numerical simulations that take into consideration the influence of reinforcement bars on local patterns in SCC flow have not been reported extensively. Preliminary simulations have shown that a vertical bar creates additional zones with very low and very high shear rates, compared to the flow in non-reinforced elements. In this project, the influence of reinforcement on the flow of SCC in a vertical wall is studied. Different structural parameters, such as the formwork width, reinforcement bar diameter, concrete cover (distance between rebar and wall) and the distance between the rebars (to investigate group effects) will be considered in the investigation, in combination with the flow rate. The objective of the project is to identify, for each situation, minimum and maximum limits for the rheological properties (yield stress and plastic viscosity) to obtain a good formwork filling. In other words, the rheological properties will be varied for each formwork and reinforcement condition to identify any dead zones, in which the concrete is at rest, or any zones with very high shear rates, which might cause segregation of the concrete. In the dead zone, entrapped air bubbles are less likely to evacuate, reducing the mechanical properties of the concrete and potentially the bond between the concrete and the rebars. Coarse aggregates might migrate away from the zone with high shear rate, increasing the concentration of coarse aggregates in other zones, potentially leading to blocking further downstream the formwork.
KW  - Fillers (Materials)
KW  - Formwork
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Numerical analysis
KW  - Rheological properties
KW  - Self compacting concrete
KW  - Simulation
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r344/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301298
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01517403
TI  - Implementation of RFID Sensors for Monitoring of Bridge Deck Corrosion in Missouri
AB  - This work involves the implementation of a new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) sensor that researchers developed at Oklahoma State University. The sensor uses an Atmel low-frequency RFID transponder. Initial versions used the metal on which corrosion was to be detected to connect the RFID chip to the antenna. If the connection eroded, the RFID transponder would stop working, indicating a potential problem. The second generation of the sensor implements the technology where corrosion is determined by the loss of section on the sensor circuit. When the circuit is broken, that information is transferred to the RFID chip and the information is communicated to the reader the next time the tag is read. Laboratory efforts still need to correlate the sensor's sensitivity to the level of corrosion in the structure.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Missouri
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Radio frequency identification
KW  - Sensitivity
KW  - Sensors
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r351/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301296
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481393
TI  - Integration of MultiModal Transportation Services
AB  - Flexible route paratransit services may complement as well as compete with conventional public transportation services (that have fixed routes and schedules).  Flexible routes are especially suitable for service areas or time periods with low demand densities (and especially rural areas) and may be used to concentrate the low demand for conventional bus and rail services.  Excess drivers and vehicles from conventional services can be leveraged to provide higher quality door-to-door services during off-peak periods.  In the proposed project, practical methods will be developed for planning and operating integrated multi-modal public transportation services.  In particular, these methods will focus on (a) formulating demand relations for integrated multi-modal transportation services, (b) improving the efficiency of algorithms for managing ridesharing and taxi services, (c)  improving the coordination of transfers among vehicles from various routes and modes, and (d) exploring the potential benefits of managing demand through service options, pricing and other incentives.
KW  - Coordination
KW  - Fixed routes
KW  - Flexible routes
KW  - Integrated systems
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Paratransit services
KW  - Quality of service
KW  - Ridesharing
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250545
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01515716
TI  - WVDOT Workforce Study 2013
AB  - The objective of the study was to collect and analyze data concerning the current and projected demographics of the workforce and to recommend strategies which could address any critical shortages of workers, reduce turnover, attract the skilled personnel needed by the department and to develop a cooperative infrastructure of the education and training providers.
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Labor force
KW  - Personnel retention
KW  - Recruiting
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Turnover
KW  - West Virginia
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300152
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482574
AU  - Durango, Pablo L
AU  - Chen, Yikai
AU  - Fitzpatrick, Madison
AU  - Luo, Yidan
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Framework for Estimating Emissions of Freight Transportation Operations
PY  - 2013/05/13/Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - The goal of this project was to develop a rigorous, flexible, and practical framework for estimating the emissions of freight transport operations. To meet this goal, the authors developed a software tool based on simple, yet defensible and reliable economic models of marginal emissions contributions from individual shipments. The initial focus is on trucking, but extensions for other freight modes are possible. The tool provides several practical advantages over currently available methods. In  particular, it:  is based on data that are commonly available from freight carriers; uses models of marginal emissions contributions instead of aggregate models; performs detailed analysis, by route, carrier, and business sector; provides error bounds, describing the precision of emissions estimates; and provides quantitative support for strategic shipping and supply-chain decisions. The tool is intended to be deployed as an online tool, and consulting services could be offered to users in order to support their use of the tool for emissions management.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Economic models
KW  - Estimating
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Software
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y505.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47906/CCITT_Final_Report_Y505.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251362
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01571798
TI  - Developing Short Range Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication Systems
AB  - The objective of this project is to develop dedicated short-range communication systems (DSCS) to connect vehicles with roadside infrastructures (traffic signs, work zone barrels, traffic signals…) so as to not only enhance the safety but also reduce emissions and fuel consumptions of vehicles. The field test beds will be selected in typical work zone and stop sign areas, and simulations in the driving simulator will be also conducted to understand the drivers' reactions due to this type of short range communication system.
KW  - Dedicated short range communications
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Mobile communication systems
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
UR  - http://tranliveutc.org/engr/niatt/tranlive/projects/2013/developing-short-range-vehicle-to-infrastructure-communication-systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1363407
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534472
TI  - Quantitative Modeling of Failure Propagation in Intelligent Transportation Systems
AB  - Unmanned vehicles are projected to reach consumer use within this decade - related legislation has already passed in California. The most significant technical challenge associated with these vehicles is their integration in transportation environments with manned vehicles. Abnormal or incorrect manipulation of the manned vehicles by their human drivers creates a highly nondeterministic environment that is difficult to consider in the control algorithms for unmanned vehicles. Our ultimate goal is to develop a Markovian model that can capture the stochastic elements of this environment, in particular failure propagation from the manned to unmanned vehicles and vice versa. The analytic model will be validated through simulation with a purpose built tool that we plan to develop in the course of the proposed work. In the nine months of the project, we expect to create a qualitative model for the environment, to begin work on the quantitative model (using Petri nets and the qualitative model as a basis), and to develop the simulation environment required.
KW  - Aviation safety
KW  - California
KW  - Drone aircraft
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Legislation
KW  - Markov processes
KW  - Petri nets
KW  - Quantitative methods
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r346/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320103
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01532655
TI  - Nano-Engineered Polyurethane Resin - Modified Concrete
AB  - Latex modified concrete (LMC), also known as polymer portland cement concrete refers to hydraulic cement mixed with organic polymers that are either dispersed or redispersed in water. The dispersion of polymers in water is sometimes referred to as emulsions. When polymer emulsions are mixed with portland cement concrete, the polymer particles come together to form a polymer film coating on aggregate particles and cement grains, and seals any voids or microcracks. The resulting mixture of polymer emulsion and portland cement concrete will have higher strength, high resistance to chloride penetration and is more inert to chemical attack than plain cement. One of the weak links in a cement-aggregate composite material is the bond between the matrix and the aggregates. To improve the performance of the alternative cement binder (ACB), the research team will develop a Nano-Engineered Polyurethane Resin (NEPU) resin to act as an intermediary between the aggregates and the ACB matrix. The NEPU will be used to precoat the aggregates prior to their placement within the ACB matrix. Embedded within the NEPU will be grains of the ACB. Then, when combined with the ACB and water, the unhydrated ACB particles embedded within the NEPU-coated aggregates will react with the surrounding matrix during hydration, providing an enhanced interfacial zone and corresponding improvement in the material properties of the hardened material. In the proposed work, the used of bio-based NEPU emulsion for LMC application will also be investigated. The characterization of NEPU including cure kinetics, rheology, UV resistance, and flame resistance will be conducted. The proposed NEPU-modified concrete will be subjected to physical and mechanical testing. The optimal composition of NEPU system will be investigated for determining the percentage by weight of nano-clay and soy-content.
KW  - Binders
KW  - Chlorides
KW  - Latex modified concrete
KW  - Polymer asphalt
KW  - Polymers
KW  - Polyurethane resins
KW  - Portland cement concrete
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r345/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1318018
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01530504
TI  - Numerical Simulation of CFRP-Repaired Reinforced Concrete Columns
AB  - Damage to bridge structures during an earthquake can have devastating social and economic consequences, particularly for bridges located along key routes critical for emergency response and other essential functions. According to ATC 18, damage to important bridges should be repairable within three days. Thus rapid and effective repair methods for varying levels of damage are needed to enable quick opening of these bridges and to minimize impact on the community. The subject of this study is the rapid repair of severely-damaged concrete bridge columns under combined loading effects. The term "rapid" in the context of this study refers to a 3-day time period as defined in the literature. Research in this field is currently limited to the repair of columns with slight to moderate damage levels; thus this research will fill in a critical gap in the literature with respect to the severe damage level. In this study, one-half scale concrete bridge columns that have been tested to failure as part of a separate ongoing study are repaired using externally-bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) wrap. The repaired columns are then tested under the same loading regime as the original columns, combined action of bending, shear, torsion, and axial effects, and the behavior is compared directly with the original response. Since the current literature contains little information with respect to repair of columns subjected to torsion, the inclusion of torsion in the combined loading is a significant contribution to the state of knowledge, and represents a more comprehensive and realistic loading condition than without. Results of this study will also serve as the basis for and add credibility to future proposals on repair of damaged reinforced columns, with high potential for collaboration with leading researchers in this field.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Carbon fibers
KW  - Columns
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Numerical analysis
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Repairing
KW  - Simulation
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r347/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316139
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01530033
TI  - Adapting Risk Management and Computational Intelligence Network Optimization Techniques to Improve Traffic Throughput and Tail Risk Analysis
AB  - Risk management techniques are used to analyze fluctuations in uncontrollable variables and keep those fluctuations from impeding the core function of a system or business. Examples of this are making sure that volatility in copper and aluminum prices do not force an aircraft manufacturer to abruptly shut down manufacturing and making sure a failed bank or state does not cause an entire financial system to fail. Computer network optimization techniques involve many nodes and routes communicating to maximize throughput of data while making sure not to deadlock high priority or time sensitive data. This project will involve exploring possible remappings of these application spaces from risk and computer networks to traffic. Some of these possible mappings include mapping flash crashes and black swans to traffic jams, bank failure to construction or traffic accidents, data packets to vehicles, network routers to traffic lights and other intersection policies. Due to the large data and large solution/ state/ policy spaces computational intelligence techniques are a natural fit for traffic as they are for risk management and computer network optimization.
KW  - Control systems
KW  - Data quality
KW  - Financial analysis
KW  - Network optimization
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Throughput (Traffic)
KW  - Time sensitive industries
KW  - Traffic flow
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r348/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1314837
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01528772
TI  - Estimation Tools for Advanced Transportation Models
AB  - Statistical and econometric modeling has been used successfully in a variety of transportation modeling contexts such as travel demand and traffic simulation. Recently, tremendous progress has been made in the approaches and methods of choice analysis; more powerful and more flexible methods are now available for real case applications. Unfortunately, transfer to practitioners and agencies has not followed the theoretical developments and advanced forms of discrete choice models mainly remain an academic exercise. This project proposes to transfer new methods for transportation model estimation to a wider audience and to bring advances in discrete choice modeling to practice. Two main actions are part of plan: (1) implementation of software to estimate advanced models which are user-friendly and less time-consuming and (2) development of a graduate class on computational methods for transportation modeling.
KW  - Discrete choice models
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Real time control
KW  - Traffic estimation
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1313832
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01494936
AU  - Guerra, Erick Strom
AU  - University of California, Berkeley
AU  - University of California Transportation Center (UCTC)
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The New Suburbs: Evolving Travel Behavior, the Built Environment, and Subway Investments in Mexico City
PY  - 2013/05/01
SP  - 131p
AB  - Dense and transit dependent suburbs have emerged as the fastest-growing form of human settlement in cities throughout Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Wealthier and at a later stage in its economic development than other developing-world metropolises, Mexico City is a compelling place to investigate the effects of rising incomes, increased car ownership, and transit investments in the dense, peripheral areas that have grown rapidly around informal transit in the past decades. This research considers: 1) how has the influence of the built environment on travel behavior changed as more households have moved into the suburbs and aggregate car use has increased?; 2) how much are the recent trends of increased suburbanization, rising car-ownership, and the proliferation of massive commercially built peripheral housing developments interrelated?; and, 3) how has the Metro’s Line B, one of the first and only suburban high-capacity transit investments, influenced local and regional travel behavior and land use? Findings indicate that the connection between land use and transportation in Mexico City is different from the connection in US and other rich-world cities. In particular, there is a physical disconnect between the generally suburban homes of transit users and the generally central location of high capacity public transit. Policies to reduce car use or increase accessibility for the poor in the short and medium term would do well to focus on improving the flexible, medium capacity informal transit around which the city’s dense and transit-dependent suburbs have grown and continue to grow.
KW  - Advanced public transportation systems
KW  - Automobile ownership
KW  - Land use
KW  - Mexico City, Mexico
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Socioeconomic factors
KW  - Suburbs
KW  - Subways
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/88t7k9p5.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262772
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493236
AU  - Filosa, Gina
AU  - Fisher, Frances
AU  - Laube, Melissa
AU  - Linthicum, Alex
AU  - Mejias, Luis
AU  - Duffy, Catherine
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Gateway National Recreation Area, Jamaica Bay Unit Alternative Transportation Feasibility Study
PY  - 2013/05/01/Final Report
SP  - 102p
AB  - The National Park Service Gateway National Recreation Area (GATE) was created to provide convenient access to outdoor recreation in the National Park System for residents and visitors to the New York City (NYC) area. The Volpe Center completed a number of tasks to analyze the feasibility of transit service at the Jamaica Bay Unit of GATE. Planning efforts have been undertaken over the last 10 years to improve access to the Jamaica Bay Unit. The current study builds on these earlier efforts and the experience of a pilot ferry service to determine the feasibility of providing greater access to the Jamaica Bay Unit by alternative modes. This report discusses: 1) Consolidation and review of existing conditions, data, and documents relevant to the project; 2) Evaluation of the 2009 pilot shuttle bus service, based on field observation and data collection by project staff; 3) Analysis of demand for a new shuttle bus service based on needs and patterns of movement throughout the local area; 4) Planning and analysis for one or more shuttle services to provide access to Jamaica Bay Unit resource areas and amenities; and 5) Recommendations and conclusions regarding the viability of improving transit linkages between the Jamaica Bay Unit and the NYC transit system.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Ferry service
KW  - Gateway National Recreation Area
KW  - National parks
KW  - Outdoor recreation
KW  - Passenger service
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Shuttle buses
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48106/DOT-VNTSC-NPS-13-22.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261169
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489413
AU  - Mohammadian, Kouros
AU  - Kawamura, Kazuya
AU  - Sturm, Karl
AU  - Pourabdollahi, Zahra
AU  - University of Illinois, Chicago
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - GPS Based Pilot Survey of Freight Movements in the Midwest Region
PY  - 2013/05/01/Final Report
SP  - 40p
AB  - This report explains the methodology and results surrounding a recently completed study of a major grocery trucking firm’s travel patterns. The research group used Global Positioning System (GPS) logging devices to trace the temporal and spatial movements of grocery trucks throughout the study period in the spring and summer of 2012. At the end of this survey, the research team successfully recorded 108 logs that represented a full truck-days’ worth of GPS data. GPS data collection is passive and only requires participants to ensure that the GPS devices have sufficient battery power and satellite visibility. In this study, the research team did not require the participant’s truck drivers to do anything. Even without driver logs or written surveys, the GPS devices collected a great deal of information that the research team used to make behavioral inferences. Logistical decisions and behavior gleaned from this collected GPS data included destination choice, route choice, time-of-day choice, and trip length. The variables reflecting these behaviors, as well as those of speed and time management, are denoted to illustrate the practicality of modeling freight travel via this methodology. The information presented here has been collected through the cooperation of a major Illinois based grocery chain with their headquarters and distribution center located in the Chicago region. The research team used the digital log files extracted from GPS tracking devices and the driver logs filled out during distribution tours as part of the analysis. The research team cleaned, processed, analyzed, and summarized this data.
KW  - Chicago (Illinois)
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0413.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257312
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489328
TI  - Potential Use and Applications for Reclaimed Millings
AB  - The purpose of this project is to document the usefulness of retaining and using milled asphalt material for a number of maintenance activities.
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Coarse aggregates
KW  - Fines (Materials)
KW  - Milling
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Reclaimed asphalt pavements
KW  - Recycled materials
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258342
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01485432
TI  - Phase II Evaluation of Waste Concrete Road Materials for Use in Oyster Aquaculture - Field Test
AB  - The overall objective of this project was to determine the suitability of waste concrete from road projects as bottom conditioning material for on bottom oyster aquaculture in the Chesapeake Bay. The objectives for Phase 2 are to: (1) evaluate the potential introduction of organisms attracted to the reclaimed concrete aggregate (RCA) pile that may be potential predators of oyster spat; and (2) determine potential impacts or disruptions in the use of traditional harvesting gear on aquaculture areas conditioned with RCA. As appropriate, recommendations of thickness of native shell overburden will be provided to mitigate any identified impacts.
KW  - Aquaculture
KW  - Chesapeake Bay
KW  - Concrete aggregates
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Recycled materials
KW  - Thickness
KW  - Waste products
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254150
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01570253
AU  - Schonfeld, Paul M
AU  - Kim, Myungseob (Edward)
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integration of Multi-modal Public Transportation Systems
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 40p
AB  - Transit ridership may be sensitive to fares, travel times, waiting times, and access times, among other factors. Thus, elastic demands are considered in formulations for maximizing the system welfare for conventional and flexible bus services. Two constrained nonlinear mixed integer optimization problems are solved with a genetic algorithm: (1) welfare maximization (for conventional and flexible services) with service capacity constraints and (2) welfare maximizations with the service capacity and subsidy constraints. Numerical examples find that with the input parameters assumed here, conventional services produce greater system welfare (consumer surplus + producer surplus) than flexible services. Numerical analysis also finds that if the operating cost is fully subsidized, flexible services generate more actual trips than conventional services. For comparing actual trips between the zero subsidy and the fully subsidized cases, the actual trips for conventional services is increased 10.5% while the actual trips for flexible services is increased 15.6%.
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Consumers surplus
KW  - Demand responsive transportation
KW  - Fixed routes
KW  - Genetic algorithms
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Producers surplus
KW  - Subsidies
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UMD-2012-04.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/55000/55200/55265/UMD-2012-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1360047
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01543896
AU  - Prince, Theodore
AU  - National Center for Intermodal Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Intermodal Terminals
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 24p
AB  - The location and development of an intermodal terminal is an important decision for a railroad; however, such decisions are increasingly interrelated to private and/or public initiatives. Not only are these projects significant for the railroad, but they are increasingly viewed as drivers of regional supply chain efficiency, quality of life and infrastructure utilization to other stakeholders. While public sector policy makers recognize that the private sector has a different decision making process, this is other viewed through a policy lens, rather than recognizing the railroads' technical business requirements. This white paper synthesizes railroad perspectives on intermodal terminal development. A more intensive analysis, complete with qualitative and illustrative case studies that classify the considerations and interests of various stakeholders is available online.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Development
KW  - Intermodal terminals
KW  - Location
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Stakeholders
UR  - http://www.ncit.msstate.edu/NCIT%20Reports/2008_12_Whit%20-%20Prince%205-20-2013_Intermodal%20Terminals%20%282ps%29.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1332051
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522378
AU  - Bennert, Thomas
AU  - Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation
AU  - New Jersey Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Laboratory Evaluation of Honeywell Polymer vs SBS Polymer Modified Asphalt Mixtures
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - The scope of the study is to evaluate the laboratory performance of two asphalt mixtures; one modified with Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) polymer and the second modified with a polymer from Honeywell. Both asphalt binder and mixture properties are proposed to be evaluated in the study. Laboratory asphalt mixture tests are proposed to evaluate the overall performance of the asphalt mixtures developed using the two asphalt binders modified with the Honeywell polymer and the SBS polymer.
KW  - Asphalt mixtures
KW  - Bituminous binders
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Polymer asphalt
KW  - Styrene butadiene styrene
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/files/Hnywll-RU3086-final_2.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1306841
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516177
AU  - Hatami, Kianoosh
AU  - Miller, Gerald A
AU  - Esmaili, Danial
AU  - Chan, Edmund
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Prototype reinforced soil embankment for reconstruction of US 62 slope failure in Chickasha, OK
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 74p
AB  - One of the main concerns in internal stability of reinforced soil structures constructed with fine-grained or marginal quality soils is the change in shear strength of the soil-reinforcement interface when the soil gravimetric water content (GWC) increases. This increase can occur during construction or service life of the structure, e.g. due to prolonged precipitation. The resulting loss in the soil matric suction could reduce the interface shear strength leading to serviceability problems or even failure of the reinforced soil structure. In this study, several 3.2 ft-high embankment models were constructed in the laboratory, which were subjected to strip footing loading in plane-strain condition. The embankment models were constructed using a lean clay at the GWC values ranging between OMC-2% and OMC+2% (OMC: Optimum Moisture Content). Each embankment model included a single reinforcement layer which was placed 7 inches below the embankment surface. The location of the reinforcement layer was selected based on preliminary embankment tests and numerical simulations to ensure that it would intercept the failure surface that developed underneath the strip footing near the embankment slope. The reinforcement was a woven geotextile material that had been used earlier by the authors in a series of pullout and interface shear tests on the same soil. The embankments were instrumented to measure the footing load, earth pressure, reinforcement strains and the soil GWC and matric suction values during the tests. A primary objective of the embankment tests was to investigate the influence of the soil as-compacted GWC value on the performance of the model embankments and thereby, validate or make necessary adjustments in the values of the moisture reduction factors (MRF) for reinforced embankment design that the authors had developed based on their prior pullout and interface shear tests.
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Geotextiles
KW  - Gravimetric analysis
KW  - Mechanically stabilized earth
KW  - Shear strength
KW  - Slope failure
KW  - Slope stability
KW  - Soil water
KW  - Unsaturated soils
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-26-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300093
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505681
AU  - Kropat, Elisa C
AU  - Lee, Earl (Rusty)
AU  - Delaware Center for Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Impact of Disruptions along the I-95 Corridor on Congestion and Air Quality, Phase 2
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 128p
AB  - Although the National Highway System provides an efficient network to move people and goods across the country, disruptions in the system can quickly bring the flow to a halt. The freeway-arterial corridors of the highway system are crucial nodes allowing users to enter and exit yet are vulnerable to considerable disruptions in the flow of traffic due to the frequency of closely spaced grade separated roadways and  high traffic volumes surrounding interchanges. By analyzing the closure of the interchanges and assessing the subsequent traffic conditions throughout the network using travel demand modeling software, it is possible to determine the effects, adverse or not, of major closures. Such an assessment is purposeful, ensuring the resiliency of the freeway by understanding the resulting congestion to relieving or preventing its  occurrence. Through a detailed understanding of the effects, transportation authorizes may be better able to maintain an efficient flow of people and goods. This research analyzes the prevailing traffic conditions along the Interstate-95 corridor in New Castle County, Delaware due to the closure of three separately analyzed freeway-arterial interchanges along I-95: SR 896, SR 1, and US 202. It examines the change in volume, change in speed, and change in volume to capacity ratio on the network from before to after conditions. Each interchange closure produced distinctive network traffic conditions. While SR 896 primarily induces local effects SR 1 and US 202 results in a wider expanse of effects along the I-95 corridor. Significant disruptions in the flow of the network were contained to a few major arterials particularly during  morning and afternoon peak periods.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Delaware
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Interstate 95
KW  - Lane closure
KW  - Ramps (Interchanges)
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic diversion
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.ce.udel.edu/UTC/downloads2013/Lee_Kropat_FinalReport.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285405
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01499734
AU  - Brock, Timothy J
AU  - Souleyrette, Reginald R
AU  - University of Kentucky, Lexington
AU  - National University Rail Center (NURail)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An Overview of U.S. Commuter Rail
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 56p
AB  - Planners view commuter rail as a means of managing urban sprawl, stimulating economic development and reducing the environmental impacts of transportation. Commuter rail systems, which use shared rights-of-way to connect suburban hubs with downtown urban centers, are beginning to have a large impact on the way people and freight move through United States cities. Currently, there are 26 commuter rail systems operating in 29 major U.S. metropolitan areas. However, there is confusion among the general public and disagreement among transportation organizations as to what constitutes a commuter rail system and how to classify some rail systems. This research establishes a complete and definitive list of U.S. commuter rail systems, situates commuter rail in the context of U.S. rail systems at-large and establishes a 'new start' and 'legacy' classification for commuter rail. Included in this report are profiles of all U.S. commuter rail systems, highlighting governance, financing, ridership and service area demographics. This research also traces the historical development of commuter rail and the best practices employed by 'new start' commuter rail systems. This includes highlighting shared-corridor acquisition practices and highlighting policy mobility practices.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Classification
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Financing
KW  - History
KW  - Railroad commuter service
KW  - Ridership
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.ktc.uky.edu/files/2013/10/KTC_13_18_UTCNURAIL1_12_1F.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/59000/59200/59298/NURail2012-UKY-R02_Final_Report_Commuter_Rail_with_appendices1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1267304
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493950
AU  - Pickerill, Heath
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - 2012 Missouri Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) at Missouri S&T
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - This annual report is a summary of the activities during 2012 for the Missouri Local Technical Assistance Program (Missouri LTAP), which is located at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). The report highlights Missouri LTAP’s performance and activities over the past year. It gives detailed information on how the four focus areas of the National LTAP Strategic Plan were met through training and various activities and projects. It also includes information on how Missouri LTAP accomplished the six tasks that support the four focus areas. Performance indicators for each of the tasks are included. The four focus areas and six tasks are covered in detail under the 2013 Work Plan. Further, this report contains information on the training provided, training summaries for 2012; summaries of Missouri LTAP’s advisory and ambassadors’ meetings; the 2013 Work Plan and the 2013 budget.
KW  - Local Technical Assistance Program
KW  - Missouri University of Science and Technology
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Technical assistance
KW  - Technology transfer
KW  - Training
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/ETT291%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262559
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493341
AU  - Jones, Sharon Monica
AU  - Evans, Joni K
AU  - Reveley, Mary S
AU  - Withrow, Colleen A
AU  - Ancel, Ersin
AU  - Barr, Lawrence
AU  - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
AU  - Analytical Mechanics Associates, Incorporated
AU  - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
AU  - National Institute of Aerospace
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Identification of Crew-Systems Interactions and Decision Related Trends
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 35p
AB  - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Vehicle System Safety Technology (VSST) project management uses systems analysis to identify key issues and maintain a portfolio of research  leading to potential solutions to its three identified technical challenges. Statistical data and published safety priority lists from academic, industry and other government agencies were reviewed and analyzed by NASA Aviation Safety Program (AvSP) systems analysis personnel to identify issues and future research needs related to one of VSST's technical challenges, Crew Decision Making (CDM). The data examined in the study were obtained from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Aviation Accident and Incident Data System, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Accident/Incident Data System and the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). In addition, this report contains the results of a review of safety priority lists, information databases and other documented references pertaining to aviation crew systems issues and future research needs. The specific sources examined were: Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) Safety Enhancements Reserved for Future Implementation (SERFIs), Flight Deck Automation Issues (FDAI) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Most Wanted List and Open Recommendations. Various automation issues taxonomies and priority lists pertaining to human factors, automation and flight design were combined to create a list of automation issues related to CDM.
KW  - Aircraft pilotage
KW  - Automation
KW  - Aviation safety
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Flight crews
KW  - Human factors engineering
KW  - Statistical analysis
UR  - http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20130013709_2013013497.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262531
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493164
AU  - North Central Texas Council of Governments
AU  - Colorado Department of Transportation
AU  - Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
AU  - Metropolitan Transportation Commission
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - North Central Texas Council of Governments Peer Exchange on Bicycle and Pedestrian Count Programs: A TPCB Peer Exchange
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 26p
AB  - This report highlights key recommendations and best practices identified at the peer exchange on bicycle and pedestrian count programs, held on May 29 and May 30, 2013 in Arlington, Texas, through the FHWA/FTA Transportation Planning Capacity Building (TPCB) Program. The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) requested this peer exchange to learn about different approaches for setting up and operating bicycle and pedestrian count programs to inform transportation planning. NCTCOG serves as the MPO for the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area and is responsible for the regional transportation planning process for all modes. The NCTCOG Transportation Department is responsible for preparing and maintaining the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (Mobility 2035-2013 Update) for the 12-county area of the metropolitan planning area (MPA). This plan includes the region's `Active Transportation' (bicycle and pedestrian) strategies for improving mobility region-wide. NCTCOG also coordinates the regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) which includes stakeholders and advocates from multiple agencies, cities, counties, special interest groups, and non-profit organizations. NCTCOG is seeking to implement a bicycle and pedestrian monitoring program in the region to support these efforts and to obtain reliable data to address bicycle and pedestrian performance measures, prioritize future projects, and quantify the benefits of investments.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area
KW  - Data collection
KW  - North Central Texas Council of Governments
KW  - Pedestrian counts
KW  - Peer exchange
KW  - Regional planning
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48113/Bicycle_Pedestrian_Count_Peer_Exchange-_Dallas_May_2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261171
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489979
AU  - Peirce, Sean
AU  - Rainville, Lydia
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - NPS Transportation Innovative Finance Options
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 20p
AB  - This paper provides a summary of innovative transportation finance techniques and discusses their applicability to the National Park Service (NPS). The primary finding of this analysis is that while NPS is engaging in innovative finance techniques such as public-private partnerships, use of other techniques would likely require specific Congressional authorization and/or may raise questions regarding their appropriateness within the framework of the mission and values of the NPS. Section 1 of the paper provides a background discussion of innovative finance. Section 2 provides an overview of specific mechanisms and techniques and their potential applicability to the National Park Service. Section 3 presents examples of innovative finance that have previously been used by NPS.
KW  - Finance
KW  - Innovation
KW  - National Park Service
KW  - Public private partnerships
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47700/47798/DOT-VNTSC-NPS-13-07.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257640
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489961
AU  - Yeh, Michelle
AU  - Goh, Juliana
AU  - Chase, Stephanie
AU  - Gabree, Scott
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - MITRE Center for Advanced Aviation System Development
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Capstone 3 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) – Airport Moving Map Operational Evaluation: Human Factors Report
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - This report documents the human factors activities conducted as part of the Capstone 3 Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) – Airport Moving Map operational evaluation. The purpose of that operational evaluation was to understand the safety implications of an airport moving map on a Class 2 or Class 3 EFB and/or an approved aural runway safety alerting system. Three airlines (Atlas Air, Shuttle America, and US Airways) established an EFB program for the Capstone 3 operational evaluation. This report describes (1) the status of the EFB programs at these three airlines in September 2012 when the program ended, (2) the  considerations in the development of the surveys designed to gather human factors information from this operational evaluation, and (3) the human factors findings on the usability of the EFB and airport moving map. The information in this report is intended to be of use to the Federal Aviation Administration in developing guidance material for EFBs and airport moving maps.
KW  - Air traffic control
KW  - Aircraft operations
KW  - Airlines
KW  - Airport operations
KW  - Alert systems
KW  - Aviation safety
KW  - Electronic flight bags
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Runway incursions
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47847/Capstone_3_May_2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257635
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489956
AU  - Juni, Emil
AU  - Adams, Teresa M
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Wisconsin Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Compass 2011 Data Analysis and Reporting
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 90p
AB  - The “Compass” program collects rating data each year to help the department understand current infrastructure conditions and trends. Past efforts include data analysis and reporting performance and outcomes for signs, pavement, shoulders, roadsides, drainage, traffic, and bridges. In the 2005 Compass report, measures for bridge inspection and maintenance were added, and historic data was transformed from District to Region levels. In 2006, Compass reports began presenting trends for pavement condition associated with the agency’s biennial inspection cycle. In addition, starting from 2006 the Compass report took on a slightly more customer-focus by presenting overall results as a report card and by organizing the  measures according to their maintenance objectives such as safety, stewardship, and aesthetics. Starting from 2008, pavement condition is presented  based on the PMMS (Pavement Maintenance Management System) data.
KW  - Annual reports
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Compass program (Wisconsin)
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Traffic signs
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0601.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258466
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489949
AU  - Najm, Wassim G
AU  - Ranganathan, Raja
AU  - Srinivasan, Gowrishankar
AU  - Smith, John D
AU  - Toma, Samuel
AU  - Swanson, Elizabeth
AU  - Burgett, August
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - URC Enterprises, Incorporated
AU  - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
TI  - Description of Light-Vehicle Pre-Crash Scenarios for Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 109p
AB  - This report describes pre-crash scenarios that might be addressed by vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The focus is on crashes involving at least 1 light vehicle with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less. The 2004-2008 General Estimates System crash databases were used to quantify the societal cost and describe the driving environment, driver characteristics, and crash contributing factors. The National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey was queried to statistically portray crash causal factors. Data from Event Data Recorders drawn from model year 2000-2007 vehicles were analyzed to describe the kinematics  of pre-crash scenarios in terms of travel speed, brake application, and deceleration level over a period of five seconds before the crash. Most crashes occurred on straight roads, dry surfaces, in clear weather, and during daylight hours. About 56 percent of drivers were male and 60 percent were of middle age. About 27 percent of all drivers were inattentive, 4 percent were under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs, and 10 percent were fatigued. Speeding was a factor in 13 percent of all crashes. The average effective deceleration level was over 0.6g in the ‘lead vehicle moving’ and ‘lead vehicle decelerating’ pre-crash scenarios, when  braking was initiated 2 to 3 seconds before the crash.
KW  - Braking
KW  - Crash causes
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Deceleration
KW  - Kinematics
KW  - Light vehicles
KW  - National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey
KW  - Precrash phase
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NVS/Crash%20Avoidance/Technical%20Publications/2013/811731.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47600/47669/DOT-VNTSC-NHTSA-11-11.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257636
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488703
AU  - Sobolev, Konstantin
AU  - Tabatabai, Habib
AU  - Zhao, Jian
AU  - Oliva, Michael G
AU  - Flores-Vivian, Ismael
AU  - Rivero, Rossana
AU  - Muzenski, Scott
AU  - Rauf, Rehan
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Superhydrophobic Engineered Cementitious Composites for Highway Applications: Phase I
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 84p
AB  - The strength and durability of highway bridges are two of the key components in maintaining a high level of freight transportation capacity on the nation’s highways. This research focused on developing new hybrid superhydrophobic engineered cementitious composites (SECCs), engineered cement based concrete materials combined with polyvinyl alcohol fibers and hydrophobic compounds, to create a substitute concrete which can provide the strength and durability demanded in key regions of highway bridges.
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Concrete construction
KW  - Durability
KW  - Fiber composites
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Hydrophobic properties
KW  - Polyvinyl alcohol fibers
KW  - Strength of materials
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0409.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257311
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488496
AU  - Sullivan, Andrew J
AU  - Sisiopiku, Virginia P
AU  - Kallem, Bharat R
AU  - University of Alabama, Birmingham
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Measuring Non-Recurrent Congestion in Small to Medium Sized Urban Areas
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 66p
AB  - Understanding the relative magnitudes of recurrent vs. non-recurrent congestion in an urban area is critical to the selection of proper countermeasures and the appropriate allocation of resources to address congestion problems. Small to medium sized cities such as Birmingham, Alabama typically lack the extensive traffic sensor networks necessary to monitor and record traffic performance on a continuous basis. Alternative methods are needed to gain an understanding of the magnitudes of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion and implement proper countermeasures to reduce them. The objective of this study was to test methodologies for quantifying non-recurrent congestion in a small to medium sized urban area such as Birmingham which has limited traffic monitoring infrastructure. More specifically, the study investigated the potential use of commercially available vehicle probe data to quantify incident-related non-recurrent congestion on key interstate facilities in the Birmingham region. Archived Global Positioning System (GPS) probe data collected in the Birmingham Region were analyzed and combined with accident reports from the State’s ASAP (Alabama Service and Assistance Patrol) incident response system to test the effectiveness of measuring non-recurrent congestion in this manner.
KW  - Birmingham (Alabama)
KW  - Crash reports
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Medium sized cities
KW  - Nonrecurrent congestion
KW  - Probe vehicles
KW  - Small cities
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic incidents
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/07/09201-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257304
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488344
AU  - Grau-Torrent, David
AU  - Back, W Edward
AU  - McElvy, Robert JP
AU  - University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Impact of Nighttime Paving Operations on Asphalt Roughness Behavior
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 98p
AB  - The relationship between nighttime construction scheduling and future road quality in terms of roughness was investigated. Research was three-phased: interviews with local leaders in paving, on-site observations, and historical data analyses. Interviews and on-site observations served to explore potential differences in the paving practices and general opinions in the paving industry regarding daytime versus nighttime paving, while the bulk of empirical research took place in the historical data analyses. Differences in road quality, defined as pavement roughness in this study, between day-scheduled construction and night-scheduled construction were determined by an analysis of the International Roughness Index over the pavement lifecycle as made available to researchers by the Alabama Department of Transportation. Results showed that the roughness values of pavements laid at night were significantly higher than those of pavements laid in the day. Analyzed in 3, 30-month intervals beginning at project completion, night and day roughness values were equal in the first interval, but differences in means and variances expanded in the second and third intervals, with increasing significance over time. Researchers believe the increasing gap over time could be the result of initial night-time construction conditions, lack of inspector involvement, low illumination levels and poor visibility, and worker fatigue, with inspection problems being most detrimental. Several previous reports investigated the initial construction quality of pavements constructed during the day vs. pavements constructed at night. This report follows the difference in roughness of such pavements over time. The research and results are further discussed in this report.
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Night
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Paving
KW  - Quality control
KW  - Roughness
KW  - Service life
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/07/11108-Final-Report_revised.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257089
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488181
AU  - Anderson, Michael
AU  - Khan, Tahmina
AU  - University of Alabama, Huntsville
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of Rural Public Transit in Alabama
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 42p
AB  - As rural America continues to "age", access to basic necessities and health care will continue to  strain rural transit providers. The state of Alabama has numerous Rural Public Transportation  Providers, and while every provider is unique, each can benefit from a performance assessment  and identification of methods to improve performance. This project uses recently published  guides on measuring, assessing, and improving performance for rural transit operators and  collects data from the rural transit providers in Alabama to evaluate the operations of the metrics  and the providers, analyze performance measures, and suggest improvements. The data was  collected from the Alabama Department of Transportation as well as individual agencies. The  project presents alternative performance measures to evaluate rural transit providers.
KW  - Alabama
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - Rural transit
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/07/11305-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257088
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488058
AU  - Roth, Emilie
AU  - Rosenhand, Hadar
AU  - Multer, Jordan
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Using Cognitive Task Analysis to Inform Issues in Human Systems Integration in Railroad Operations
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 56p
AB  - U.S. Railroad operations are undergoing rapid changes involving the introduction of new technologies such as positive train control (PTC), energy management systems (EMS), and electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes in the locomotive cab. To help ensure these and other new technologies are optimally designed for safe and efficient use, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is interested in introducing Human Systems Integration (HSI) to the railroad industry. HSI is a systematic, organization-wide approach to implementing new technologies and modernizing existing systems that can increase the likelihood of successful deployment as well as user acceptance. This report provides guidance to the industry pertaining to the need for HSI in the technology acquisition process, and more specifically, how to use Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) methods and results as part of the HSI process. It draws on examples from prior FRA-sponsored CTAs for locomotive engineers, conductors, dispatchers, and roadway workers to illustrate the kinds of insights that can be drawn from performing a CTA when introducing new technologies into railroad operations. The report also provides a starting point for the industry with respect to identifying likely emerging issues that need to be explored as part of the technology introduction process.
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Conductors (Trains)
KW  - Dispatchers
KW  - Human information processing
KW  - Human systems integration
KW  - Modernization
KW  - Positive train control
KW  - Road construction workers
KW  - Task analysis
KW  - Technology
KW  - Train operations
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3204
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47500/47559/Using_Cognitive_Task_Analysis_20130523_final_1_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257066
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486864
AU  - Metzger, Andrew T
AU  - Kwiatkowski, Jason
AU  - Hutchinson, Jonathan
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Washington State Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Characterizing the Load Environment of Ferry Landings for Washington State Ferries and the Alaska Marine Highway System
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 219p
AB  - Anybody riding a ferry wants it to dock safely — and for port managers, having passengers and goods in the water is never a good thing. This project aims to mitigate uncertainty and assumptions about load demands on ferry terminal structures, specifically, ferry landing structures. The project will provide information needed to safely and efficiently design ferry berthing and landing facilities, decrease the uncertainty in design criteria, and remove assumptions associated with procedures traditionally used to design these structures. For Alaska Marine Highway System facilities, loads imposed on dolphin structures and mooring line loads are of most concern. Due to a lack of information about the magnitude of these loads or how they may be determined, AMHS engineers are forced to make (sometimes gross) design assumptions. The Washington State Ferry System also confronts these uncertainties, specifically in the design of wingwall structures that accept vessels during loading/unloading of passengers and vehicles. While the structures used by AMHS and WSFS have fundamental differences, the metrics needed to determine appropriate design criteria are the same. Thus, the instrumentation used to monitor these facilities in operation is also similar. These similarities present an opportunity for a cost-sharing project in which the ADOT&PF and Washington State DOT are able to leverage research funding and benefit from a much more comprehensive project than either might be able to support individually. To achieve this project’s goals, the research team will acquire a robust statistical sample of the metrics (strains and displacements) needed to define the design criteria (loads from vessels and waves). The data will be gathered via in situ monitoring of in-service facilities, specifically, the AMHS terminal at Auke Bay near Juneau, Alaska, and the WSF Seattle terminal in Washington.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Bearing capacity
KW  - Berthing facilities
KW  - Design
KW  - Docking
KW  - Ferries
KW  - Marine transit
KW  - Washington (State)
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/06/Loads-on-Ferry-Landings-Metzger-AUTC-Final-Report_FINAL.pdf
UR  - http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/804.1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256470
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486736
AU  - Begley, Justin T
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Effectively Managing Consumer Fuel Price Driven Transit Demand
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 91p
AB  - This study presents a literature review of transit demand elasticities with respect to gas prices, describes features of a transit service area population that may be more sensitive to fuel prices, identifies where stress points in the family of transit services will emerge, and assembles short- and long-term strategies for transit providers to manage their service when there is volatility in fuel prices.
KW  - Elasticity (Economics)
KW  - Gasoline
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Prices
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transit demand
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-39-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/77944.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1255616
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485852
AU  - McDonald, Tom
AU  - Sperry, Robert
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Mitigation for Safety Concerns on Low-Volume, Unpaved Rural Roads
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 79p
AB  - The Institute for Transportation (InTrans) at Iowa State University completed work on an in-depth study of crash history on low-volume, rural roads in Iowa in December 2010. Results indicated that unpaved roads with traffic volumes greater than 100 vehicles per day (vpd) exhibit significantly higher crash frequencies, rates, and densities than any other class of low-volume road examined, paved or unpaved. The total mileage for this class of roadway in Iowa is only about 4,400 miles, spread over 99 counties in the state, which is certainly a manageable number of miles for individual rural agencies. The purpose of this study was to identify and examine several unpaved, local road segments with higher than average crash frequencies, select and undertake potentially-beneficial mitigation, and evaluate the results as time allowed. A variety of low-cost options were considered, including engineering improvements, enhanced efforts by law enforcement, and educational initiatives. Using input, active support, and participation from local agencies and state and Federal safety advocates, the study afforded a unique opportunity to examine useful tools for local rural agencies to utilize in addressing safety on this particular type of roadway.
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Crash rates
KW  - Driver education
KW  - Improvements
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Low volume roads
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Safety education
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Unpaved roads
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/low-vol%20_unpaved_rural_safety_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254306
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485780
AU  - Brown, Jeffrey
AU  - Batuhan, Tuna
AU  - Bhattacharya, Torsha
AU  - Jaroszynski, Michal
AU  - San Jose State University
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analyzing the Effects of Transit Network Change on Agency Performance and Riders in a Decentralized, Small-to-Mid-sized US Metropolitan Area: A Case Study of Tallahassee, Florida
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 216p
AB  - In July 2011, StarMetro, the local public transit agency in Tallahassee, Florida, restructured its entire bus network from a downtown-focused radial system to a decentralized, grid-like system that local officials and agency leaders believed would better serve the dispersed local pattern of population and employment. Local officials and agency staff hoped the change would increase transit’s attractiveness and usefulness to the community. One year after the service restructuring, overall ridership and productivity are lower than before the service restructuring, due to the short time frame for rider adjustments and longer-than-anticipated headways, but new ridership has appeared in previously unserved or under-served corridors and neighborhoods. While the service restructuring resulted in longer walks to bus stops, overall transit travel times are shorter due to more direct routing. No particular neighborhoods or community groups disproportionately benefited from or were harmed by the change. The service restructuring was supported by some who viewed the older system as ill-suited to the increasingly decentralized community, while it was opposed by others who worried about the loss of service in some neighborhoods and issues of access and safety. StarMetro’s extensive public outreach efforts and ongoing service adjustments have reduced the intensity of the opposition to the service restructuring over time.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Network analysis (Planning)
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Quality of service
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Routes and routing
KW  - Tallahassee (Florida)
KW  - Transportation disadvantaged persons
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1102-transit-network-change-impact-riders-agency.pdf
UR  - https://merritt.cdlib.org/d/ark%3a%2f13030%2fm5t157db/1/MTI12-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250311
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482572
AU  - Ngamdung, Tashi
AU  - daSilva, Marco
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Driver Behavior Analysis at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings using Field Operational Test Data—Light Vehicles
PY  - 2013/05//Final Report
SP  - 52p
AB  - The U. S. Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration’s (RITA) John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), under the direction of the U.S. DOT Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development (R&D), conducted a research study focused on collecting and analyzing data related to driver behavior at or on approach to highway-rail grade crossings. Volpe Center reviewed and coded 4,215 grade crossing events involving light vehicle drivers collected during a recent field operational test of vehicle safety systems. The data collected for each grade crossing included information about drivers’ activities, driver and vehicle performance, driving environment, and vehicle location at or on approach to highway-rail grade crossings. One of the findings of the data analysis was that, on average, drivers were likely to engage in secondary tasks 46.7 percent of the time. Additionally, results showed that drivers failed to look either left or right on approach to passive grade crossings approximately 35 percent of the time. The ultimate objective of this research study is to assess basic driver behavior at highway-rail grade crossings so as to identify potential driver education/awareness strategies that would best mitigate risky driver behavior at grade crossings.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Risk taking
KW  - Traffic violations
KW  - Video data
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3189
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251183
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482297
AU  - Koch, Scott
AU  - Huntington, George
AU  - Ksaibati, Khaled
AU  - University of Wyoming, Laramie
AU  - Wyoming Department of Transportation
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Performance of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement on Unpaved Roads
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 170p
AB  - As the volume of traffic on unpaved roads in Wyoming increases with increased drilling activities, dust loss and surface distresses will continue to rise. It would make sense to pave some of these roads, but many counties cannot afford these expensive operations especially when future traffic volumes on these roads are unknown. An alternative option needs to be explored that will reduce dust loss and associated surface distresses. Recycled or reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has been used as a surfacing additive on Wyoming’s unpaved roads, streets, and alleys for many years. Recent state legislation compensates the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) for RAP donated to  Wyoming counties. WYDOT and local agencies need to evaluate the performance of blended RAP and virgin aggregate as a surfacing material for unpaved roads. Therefore, it is the intent of this research project to determine the feasibility of using RAP blends as surfacing material with a particular emphasis on its ability to reduce dust loss while maintaining road serviceability. Section 1 of this report describes the reasons this project was undertaken and how it will satisfy the problems  laid out. Section 2 describes the use of reclaimed and RAP. It also describes issues involving  gravel roads and dust control. Section 3 describes the procedures used to meet this study’s objectives, including descriptions of the test sites and construction procedures. Section 4 describes the performance of the test sections, focusing on fugitive dust emissions and roadway  surface conditions as evaluated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) unsurfaced road condition index (URCI) evaluation procedure (Eaton and Beaucham 1992). Section 5 compares the cost effectiveness of using RAP as a surfacing additive for unpaved roads with RAP’s use in hot mix asphalt pavement and as road base. Section 6 briefly summarizes the discussions presented in sections 3, 4, and 5, presenting an overall view of this study’s findings. Section 7 provides advice as to how the findings of this study should be implemented. The appendices provide additional information and data that support the descriptions and  conclusions presented in the body of this report, along with a list of abbreviations used in this report and their meanings.
KW  - Base course (Pavements)
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Dust control
KW  - Gravel roads
KW  - Paving
KW  - Reclaimed asphalt pavements
KW  - Recycled materials
KW  - Surface course (Pavements)
KW  - Unpaved roads
KW  - Wyoming
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC13-251.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47909/MPC13-251.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251065
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482286
AU  - Celoza, Amelia
AU  - Weimert, Kayla
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Compendium of Student Papers: 2012 Undergraduate Transportation Scholars Program
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 56p
AB  - This report is a compilation of research papers written by students participating in the 2012 Undergraduate  Transportation Scholars Program. The 10-week summer program, now in its 22nd year, provides  undergraduate students in Civil Engineering the opportunity to learn about transportation engineering  through participating in sponsored transportation research projects. The program design allows students to  interact directly with a Texas A&M University faculty member or Texas A&M Transportation Institute  researcher in developing a research proposal, conducting valid research, and documenting the research  results through oral presentations and research papers. The papers in this compendium report on the following topics: 1) Analysis of Factors Influencing Run-off  Road Crashes on Horizontal Curves; and 2) Impact of Nighttime Work Zone Lighting on Motorists’  Detection of Objects.
KW  - Geometric design
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Lighting
KW  - Night
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Work zones
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/compendiums/600451-00003-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250796
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482123
AU  - Balogh, Jeno
AU  - Atadero, Rebecca
AU  - Metropolitan State University of Denver
AU  - Colorado State University, Fort Collins
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Fatigue Testing of Wood-Concrete Composite Beams
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 24p
AB  - Currently, wood-concrete composite structural members are usually applied in building structures. There are a relatively small number (in the low 100s) of known bridge applications involving wood-concrete composites. A problem with using these novel composite members in bridges with high traffic is that the fatigue behavior of the composite member under long-term repeated loading is not known. This report describes research performed in coordination with work at the University of Stuttgart, attempting to establish the S-N curve for fatigue loading of notched wood-concrete connections based on low/high-cycle, repeated loading tests. Experimental results are obtained on fourteen 1524 mm span composite beam specimens in which the wood and concrete are interconnected by embedded anchor screws at the notch locations. Five specimens are loaded statically while the others are cycled to failure with a maximum to minimum cyclic load ratio of 10. Points on the S-N curve are determined for three levels of the maximum load as a function of the average static failure load. Typical observed failure modes are block-shear of the wood at the notch and tension failure of the wood at mid-span. As a result, the obtained S-N curve could be proposed for future consideration in drafting design codes addressing the timber-concrete composite structures for bridges.
KW  - Beams
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Failure analysis
KW  - Fatigue tests
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Timber
KW  - Wood
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC13-252.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251067
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481004
AU  - Tolliver, Denver
AU  - Lu, Pan
AU  - Benson, Douglas
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of Railroad Energy Efficiency in the United States
PY  - 2013/05
SP  - 81p
AB  - The purpose of this study is to provide information about railroad fuel efficiency that may be useful in evaluating transportation energy policies and assessing the sustainability of potential projects. The  specific objectives are to: (1) develop railroad energy efficiency models that describe differences in fuel economy among classes of trains and commodities; (2) apply these models to a wide range of movements to estimate fuel efficiency ratings for coal, grain, iron ore, food products, and other key commodities; (3) develop comparable procedures for estimating truck and waterway fuel consumption; and (4) compare rail, truck, and waterway energy efficiencies. The focus on railroads in this study is appropriate, because many of the alternatives to highway investment involve railroad transportation or multimodal options.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Commodities by type
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Railroad trains
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Trucks
KW  - United States
KW  - Waterways
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC13-250.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249878
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489955
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Beyond Bouncing Back: A Roundtable on Critical Transportation Infrastructure Resilience
PY  - 2013/04/30
SP  - 9p
AB  - This publication reports on a roundtable hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe Center, featuring experts who discussed resiliency in the context of challenges facing the nation's transportation system. The concept of resiliency characterizes a complex transportation system that can better withstand disruptions. The design of a resilient system allows it to withstand severe blows and adapt in order to respond appropriately to threats. Among the program presentations highlighted in this report were the following: Our Fracture-Critical Transportation System; Resilience in Organizations, Systems, and Communities; A State and Local Transportation Perspective; and Preparing for the Rising Tide.
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Policy analysis
KW  - Resilience (Adaptability)
KW  - Service disruption
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47853/Bouncing_Back_Critical_Transportation_Infrastructure_Resilience_Summary.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257633
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482116
AU  - Lin, Pei-Sung
AU  - Fabregas, Aldo
AU  - Gunpinar, Serkan
AU  - Perez-Angon, Osiel
AU  - Behzadi, Bijan
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Recommendations for Yield-to-Bus Traffic Control Devices and Bus Pullout Bays Design Characteristics
PY  - 2013/04/30/Final Report
SP  - 42p
AB  - Traffic control devices such as roadside signs and pavement markings are used to promote highway safety and efficiency for all road users. A bus pullout bay is a special geometric roadway feature that allows transit buses to stop outside the travel lanes. It facilitates the traffic flow of vehicles on the road while patrons board the stopped bus. In this project, bus pullout bays in Hillsborough and Lee counties were studied with the objectives of: (1) identifying the critical design features and prevailing conditions affecting the safety of the merging maneuvers of buses entering traffic from bus pullout bays; (2) designing a set of roadside treatments or traffic control devices to promote yield-to-bus (YTB) behavior at bus pullout bays; and (3) providing recommendations for implementation and evaluation of YTB traffic control devices on the State Highway System. First, a set of roadside sign alternatives are presented. In addition, bus bays in the participating transit agencies were measured to obtain performance measures for bus bay design features. It was found that the average acceleration distance was 70 ft. Field data collection was performed to verify the before conditions at one of the potential test sites. Field data indicated that 33% of the merging maneuvers ended in a yield to the bus. Recommendations for the implementation of an advanced YTB roadside sign included using laser detectors and incorporating bus bay data in GIS transit inventory.
KW  - Bus bays
KW  - Bus stops
KW  - Florida
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Traffic control devices
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Transit safety
KW  - Yield to bus
KW  - Yielding
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-33-rpt.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250556
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01517404
TI  - Non-invasive Imaging and Assessment of Active Karst Features in Proximity to Paved Roadways
AB  - In an effort to better understand and define the lateral and vertical extent of active karst features in immediate proximity to paved Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) roadways in Springfield Missouri, Missouri Science &amp; Technology (MS&amp;T) will acquire electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data. The intent is to use this non-invasive technology to map the lateral and vertical extent of the active karst features so that appropriate mitigation plans can be developed.
KW  - Electrical resistivity
KW  - Karst
KW  - Noninvasive assessments
KW  - Paved roads
KW  - Tomography
KW  - Video imaging detectors
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r350/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301297
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489300
AU  - Martin, Andrew
AU  - Bell, Mark
AU  - Sowards, Kent
AU  - Inglis-Smith, Chandra
AU  - Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Consolidation Study for Motor Carrier Services
PY  - 2013/04/17/Final Report
SP  - 85p
AB  - This study aims to facilitate the consolidation of motor carrier services and the  enforcement of the laws which assist in the final implementation of functions by the state in  order to achieve core Commercial Vehicle Information Systems and Networks (CVISN)  compliance. The West Virginia State Legislature found that it is very cumbersome and onerous  for motor carrier business entities to obtain the necessary permits, licenses and file the necessary  returns, reports and other documents through numerous state agencies, whose offices are  scattered both geographically and administratively throughout state government. The lack of  centralization of these various state agencies also results in the redundancy of information  provided by motor carrier entities to those agencies. The Legislature finds the lack of  centralization of these government functions does not encourage the growth and success of this  industry in the State.  As a result, the West Virginia Legislature passed House Bill No. 4103 during the 2012  Regular Session, which designated the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) as the  lead agency to develop a plan for the consolidation of motor carrier regulation and taxation  responsibilities in the State of West Virginia. The Legislature also found that it would be more  cost effective and efficient to all the state agencies and the motor carrier industry to provide these  services through consolidated facilities, licensing and permitting processes and electronic  information and communication technologies. The legislation also notes the suitability of the  DMV because of its role as the lead agency of the West Virginia CVISN project and other  interagency motor carrier-related projects. The agents conducting this study have examined the  state agencies, divisions, and departments responsible for the delivery of government services  and the enforcement of laws pertaining to the commercial vehicle or motor carrier industry, and  have provided a report detailing the best options available for consolidation as mandated by H.B. 4103 (2012).
KW  - CVISN (Program)
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Law enforcement
KW  - Licensing
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Permits
KW  - State laws
KW  - West Virginia
KW  - West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles
UR  - http://www.mticutc.org/assets/pdf/DMV_Consolidation_Study_Final_Document.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257559
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01485438
TI  - Benchmarking for Asset Hierarchy, Criticality Assessment and Risk Analysis at the MTA and other Transportation Companies
AB  - The objective of this project is to conduct a comprehensive review of best practices in asset system hierarchies, criticality assessment and risk analysis in asset intensive industries. This project will include a comprehensive look at other major companies and a comparison to New York City Transit (NYCT) existing risk management.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Benchmarks
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Critical analysis
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Risk management
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/benchmarking-for-asset-hierarchy
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254156
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478698
AU  - Hulme, Kevin F
AU  - Thorpe, Lisa
AU  - University at Buffalo
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Simulation-based Assessment Approach to Increase Safety among Senior Drivers
PY  - 2013/04/04/Final Report
SP  - 14p
AB  - Statistics show that in the United States, there are about 38 million licensed drivers over age 65; about 1/8 of the population. By 2024, this figure will double to 25%. The current research is intended to address the driving capabilities of our older population, as accident and injury risk has been statistically shown to increase – normalized per mile driven – with advanced age. The primary objective is to perform a preliminary Pilot Study (N=10) that allows the team to analyze the impact of supplementing traditional driver evaluation for senior persons with cognitive impairment using state-of-the-art driving simulation technologies. Within a simulator, a variety of driving scenarios can be implemented that sufficiently challenge drivers in a way that, due to safety and logistical concerns, cannot be accomplished within the confines of a real vehicle. Longer-term, a driving simulator can be used to define driving tasks that are most likely to be affected by stages of dementia, and to measure, capture, and analyze vital driver performance metrics. Each driver is evaluated at Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) using a conventional driver evaluation mechanism: in-clinic (to measure cognitive, motor and visual skills) and in-vehicle (to measure mechanical ability to operate a vehicle). Prior to these examinations, each driver is evaluated in a motion-based driving simulator located at the University at Buffalo (UB). A subsequent data analysis is performed in an effort to identify any trends or patterns between the three evaluation mechanisms.
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Vehicle operations
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/safety-among-senior-driver-final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247736
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534923
TI  - Admixture Compatibility of Alternative Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Pavement and Structural Concrete
AB  - The objective of the research plan presented in this proposal are: (1) to gain a better understanding about the interaction among alternative SCMS and chemical admixtures in portland cement mixtures; and (2) to facilitate implementation of alternative SCMs in transportation structures. Such information can assist in the encouraging adoption of alternative SCMs in the United States, both in pavement and infrastructure applications. In order to accomplish these goals, the NUTC supported project seeks to: (1) Investigate the influence of selected types of alternative SCMs on air-void system in concrete; and (2) Investigate the influence of selected alternative SCMs on key fresh and hardened properties of concrete designated for the construction of bridge infrastructure.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Compatibility
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Pavements
KW  - Portland cement
KW  - Supplementary cementing materials
KW  - United States
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r366/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320727
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522345
AU  - Shah, Vaishali
AU  - Burnier, Carolina
AU  - Hicks, Drennan
AU  - Hatcher, Greg
AU  - Greer, Liz
AU  - Sallman, Doug
AU  - Ball, William
AU  - Fender, Katie
AU  - Murray, Dan
AU  - Noblis
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Longitudinal Study of ITS Implementation: Decision Factors and Effects
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 87p
AB  - The Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO) is placing increasing emphasis on transferring ITS technology from research to deployment, and on accelerating the rate of ITS technology adoption. As part of these efforts, the JPO has sponsored research studies intended to improve the state of knowledge regarding the underlying characteristics and factors for technology adoption and deployment. This report is the final deliverable from the most recent of these studies, the Longitudinal Study of Implementation: Decision Factors and Effects (started in January 2012). This final report documents the findings and key observations from all tasks of the Longitudinal Study of Implementation. The Longitudinal Study of Implementation builds upon a body of existing work related to decision factors influencing ITS adoption, growth, maintenance or decline within the public and private sectors. The Longitudinal Study uses an interview-based approach to further analyze decision factors among public sector transportation agencies and the trucking industry; interviews with connected vehicle technology representatives from the  automotive industry to assess their perspectives on what is needed for the connected vehicle environment to be fully realized; a post-hoc set of studies reviewing deployments, costs, and benefits at early ITS deployment sites; and a workshop and analysis of how to present cost and benefit information in a way that best informs and influences decision-makers. Finally, based on a cross-cutting assessment of these findings, the study team suggests several major themes for the federal government to consider regarding next generation ITS and the connected vehicle environment. Results indicate that for the public sector, the most important technology and application factor was quality and reliability, followed by interoperability  considerations and demonstration of benefits. The most important external factor was budget and funding sources. For the trucking industry, the most important factors for adopting a new technology were the price/ Return-on-Investment (ROI), compatibility with existing systems, readiness and maturity of the technology, quality and reliability, and product service and support.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Deployment
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Mobile communication systems
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Motor vehicle industry
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Transportation departments
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47600/47681/FHWA-JPO-13-067_Final_Pkg_508.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1305300
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522323
AU  - Plotkin, Kenneth J
AU  - Page, Juliet A
AU  - Gurovich, Yuriy
AU  - Hobbs, Christopher M
AU  - Wyle
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Detailed Weather and Terrain Analysis for Aircraft Noise Modeling
PY  - 2013/04//Final Contractor Report
SP  - 107p
AB  - A study has been conducted supporting refinement and development of Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA’s) airport environmental analysis tools. Tasks conducted in this study are: (1) updated analysis of the 1997 KDEN noise model validation study with newer versions of integrated noise model (INM) and related tools; (2) analyze a sample of the 1997 KDEN validation data with simulation modeling; (3) develop algorithms for detailed weather modeling in FAA tools; (4) assess available validation data from studies at other airports; and (5) develop simplified terrain processing implementation, adapting the process successfully employed in simulation models.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Airport noise
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Noise models
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Terrain
KW  - Validation
KW  - Weather
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51500/51557/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-14-08.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1306565
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01518921
AU  - Jacobsen, Karina
AU  - Llana, Patricia
AU  - Carolan, Michael
AU  - Sullivan, Laura
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Fuel Tank Integrity Research: Fuel Tank Analyses and Test Plans
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 10p
AB  - The Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Research and Development is conducting research into fuel tank crashworthiness. Fuel tank research is being performed to determine strategies for increasing the fuel tank impact resistance to mitigate the threat of a post-collision or post-derailment fire. In accidents, fuel tanks are subjected to dynamic loading, often including a blunt or raking impact from various components of the rolling stock or trackbed. Current design practice requires that fuel tanks have minimum properties adequate to sustain a prescribed set of static load conditions. Current research is intended to increase  understanding of the impact response of fuel tanks under dynamic loading. Utilizing an approach that has been effective in increasing the structural crashworthiness of railcars, improved strategies can be developed that will address the types of loading conditions which have been observed to occur in a collision or derailment event.
U1  - ASME/ASCE/IEEE 2013 Joint Rail ConferenceAmerican Society of Mechanical EngineersAmerican Society of Civil EngineersIEEEKnoxville,Tennessee,United States StartDate:20130415 EndDate:20130418 Sponsors:American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers, IEEE
KW  - Crashworthiness
KW  - Design
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Fuel tanks
KW  - Impact
KW  - Railroad crashes
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/50000/50900/50984/JRC2013-2425_Fuel_Tank_Integrity_Research.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302154
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516366
AU  - Lee, Ming
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Fairbanks North Star Borough
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Fairbanks North Star Borough Rural Roads Upgrade Inventory and Cost Estimation Software User Guide: Version I
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
AB  - The Rural Road Upgrade Inventory and Cost Estimation Software is designed by the Alaska University Transportation Center (AUTC) research team to help the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB) estimate the cost of upgrading rural roads located in the Borough's Service Areas. The Software performs two major functions: existing road condition inventory and upgrade cost estimation. Upgrade cost estimation  requires road condition inventory data, thus it can only be performed after existing inventory data are entered. Estimation of upgrade cost also requires that material unit costs be specified and updated by the software users before the estimation can be performed.
KW  - Computer program documentation
KW  - Condition surveys
KW  - Cost estimating
KW  - Fairbanks (Alaska)
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Software
KW  - Upgrades (Roads)
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2014/01/309020.Final_.Lee_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290647
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497434
AU  - Salon, Deborah
AU  - Sciara, Gian-Claudia
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Survey of Local Sustainability Practices in California
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
AB  - This report conveys the Round I results of the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) sponsored survey of local governments’ sustainability practices in California. Part I discusses the development and administration of the survey. Part II reports and examines the survey results. The SGC has an important interest in measuring local government activity to improve environmental sustainability. Captured in Spring 2012, these measurements establish a baseline snapshot of city- and county-level efforts to increase the resource efficiency of both local governments and the communities they serve. These baseline data provide a view of local government sustainability activity across various sectors and the factors that may encourage local governments to enhance their efforts further. When paired with future survey measurements, the data will allow the Council to identify trends in local sustainability efforts over time, as well as to assess the impact on local sustainability of the SGC sponsored Sustainable Communities Learning Network
KW  - California
KW  - Local government
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Transportation policy
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1898
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262948
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497433
AU  - Handy, Susan
AU  - Sciara, Gian-Claudia
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Cultivating Cooperation without Control: A Study of California's MPO-Driven Smart Growth Programs
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 41p
AB  - California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (SB375) establishes a new framework for the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that plan and allocate federal funding for regional transportation investments in California. MPOs must plan for transportation investments that would support land use and development patterns to reduce automobile reliance and transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions; this plan is called the Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS). MPOs themselves have no direct control, however, over land use and development patterns. SB375 anticipates that they will instead leverage the federal transportation funds at their disposal to incentivize local land use decisions compatible with their SCS (and ultimately SB 375 GHG reduction goals). Four longstanding MPO-driven programs to encourage smart growth in the state’s four largest metropolitan regions are examined to determine whether such incentives are likely to achieve the desired results.
KW  - California
KW  - Federal aid
KW  - Government funding
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Metropolitan Transportation Commission (California)
KW  - Planning methods
KW  - Redevelopment
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Sacramento Area Council of Governments
KW  - San Diego Association of Governments
KW  - Smart growth
KW  - Southern California Association of Governments
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1897
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262946
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489425
AU  - Meier, Paul J
AU  - Holloway, Tracey
AU  - Luedke, Matt
AU  - Frost, Ethan A
AU  - Scotty, Erica
AU  - Williams, Scott P
AU  - Bickford, Erica
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Does Natural Gas Make Sense for Freight? Environmental and Resource Implications of the “Pickens Plan”
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 40p
AB  - The “Pickens Plan” is a highly promoted U.S. energy strategy, proposing to use natural gas as a transportation fuel to displace imported oil and, simultaneously, to increase renewable contributions to national electricity production. While the principal goal of the Pickens Plan is to improve domestic energy security and its associated foreign trade imbalance, the authors  investigated the proposed strategies for their environmental benefits. They simulated a variation of the Pickens Plan across a seven-state Midwestern U.S. region to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality implications of the plan. In this scenario, liquefied natural gas (LNG) is used to replace 100 percent of long-haul, diesel-powered freight, while wind-power is roughly doubled over the anticipated 2020 levels under existing renewable portfolio standards. Relative to a business-as-usual (BAU) reference case, the Pickens scenario reduces NOx, SO2, and GHG emissions. Most reductions occur within the electricity sector versus the freight sector: 73 percent of NOx reductions, 99 percent of SO2 reductions, and 94 percent of GHG reductions occurred within the power sector. While the LNG truck is estimated to have 21 percent lower GHG emissions than its diesel counterpart, methane leakage from the natural gas fuel cycle significantly reduces the GHG benefit from LNG trucking. Thus, LNG-powered freight only slightly reduces greenhouse gas emissions relative to the diesel-powered freight. To assess the benefits of natural gas in the transportation sector (Pickens Plan) versus the electricity sector, the authors considered a scenario where natural gas is increased in the electricity sector instead of the freight sector. This scenario yielded greater emissions reductions than the Pickens plan for all species, suggesting that natural gas fuel switching has more impact as an emissions mitigating measure within the electricity sector, rather than within the freight sector. To assess how emissions reductions would affect ambient pollutant concentrations, and the formation of secondary air pollutants, the authors employed a regional air quality model. Under the Pickens scenario, ambient concentrations of SO2, NO2, O3 and PM2.5 were all reduced relative to BAU. In general, the largest reductions were simulated near metro areas, along major highways, and in the Ohio River Valley.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Diesel engine exhaust gases
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Liquefied natural gas
KW  - Trucks
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0422.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257315
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489297
AU  - Stewart, Richard D
AU  - Lautala, Pasi
AU  - Ogard, Elizabeth
AU  - Chartier, Steven
AU  - Rasul, Irfan
AU  - Peterson, Brady
AU  - Chong, Kenneth
AU  - Anderson, Andre
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Superior
AU  - Wisconsin Department of Transportation
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating Export Container Pooling Options in MN, WI, and MI's Upper Peninsula
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 104p
AB  - Research was undertaken to investigate the issues impacting the expansion of containerized cargo in  Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Best practices in container pooling, load matching, inland ports and electronic tracking were assessed. Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders to determine regional anomalies. Regional intermodal terminals and depots were cataloged and selective ones toured. Proposals were made for adopting best practices. Outreach to the stakeholders in the region on the results of the study was undertaken.
KW  - Automatic tracking
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Container traffic
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Intermodal terminals
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Michigan
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - River ports
KW  - Stakeholders
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://wisdotresearch.wi.gov/wp-content/uploads/WisDOT-CFIRE-project-0092-12-12-final-report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257434
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487060
AU  - Ashford, Scott A
AU  - Scott, Michael H
AU  - Rayamajhi, Deepak
AU  - Oregon State University, Corvallis
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Oregon Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Reducing Seismic Risk to Highway Mobility: Assessment and Design of Pile Foundations Affected by Lateral Loading
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 178p
AB  - Damage in pile supported structures due to liquefaction and liquefaction induced deformation were reported in past earthquakes around the world. For example, a reconnaissance report from a recent subduction zone event, the 2010 Chile earthquake (Mw=8.8), showed the pervasive nature of liquefaction and liquefaction-induced lateral spreading damage to bridge foundations. In terms of seismic hazard, the Pacific Northwest shares similar conditions from a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake source with the expected earthquake magnitude of 9.0 (Mw) and return period of 300 years. The risk and damage from a CSZ earthquake event is widely recognized by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). A large number of bridges were found to be vulnerable to a CSZ event, and repair and replacement costs of Oregon bridges have been estimated at more than 1 billion USD. Moreover, thousands of bridges require some kind of modification and/or seismic retrofitting to the foundation in order to improve seismic performance under liquefaction induced lateral spreading. To evaluate the seismic performance of bridge foundations and liquefaction mitigation alternatives, Department of Transportation/Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium funded collaborative research between Oregon State University (OSU), University of California at Davis (UCD), University of California at San Diego (UCSD), Hayward Baker Inc., and Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER). The main objectives of the research were to develop design charts for different liquefaction mitigation alternatives and to develop methodologies for assessing the performance of bridge pile foundations in laterally spreading ground. The cooperative research focuses on two aspects of liquefaction and liquefaction induced lateral spreading: (1) ground improvement methods, particularly using stone columns and deep soil mixing (DSM) grids, and (2) assess the seismic performance of bridge foundations (e.g., drilled shaft, pile groups) and seismic retrofitting alternatives for the bridge foundation. Stone columns for  liquefaction mitigation and pile groups foundation assessment were investigated by the OSU team, while DSM and large diameter piles/shafts alternatives were investigated by the UCD team. Research teams used OpenSees (http://opensees.berkeley.edu/), an open source computational platform for three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) modeling and analysis. OpenSeesPL, a graphical user interface developed by the UCSD team, was used to investigate liquefaction mitigation alternatives (i.e., stone columns and DSM grids) and the performance of pile foundations in liquefaction induced laterally spreading ground.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Bridge foundations
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Liquefaction
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Oregon
KW  - Pile foundations
KW  - Seismicity
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47821/OTREC-RR-13-05_Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254237
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01484800
AU  - Dayan, Sinaya
AU  - Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute
AU  - West Virginia Department of Commerce
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Enterprise GIS; Economic Development Data Portal
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 67p
AB  - The West Virginia Development Office (WVDO) and the Office of Coalfield Community Development (OCCD) have identified a need for broad access to geospatial data and applications throughout the West Virginia Department of Commerce. The agencies shared a need to establish a framework  through which they can access, manage, disseminate, and display their data using available client and mobile connections. The project objectives included the establishment of an ArcGIS for server to deliver advanced GIS (Geographic Information System) capabilities, integration of the spatial data owned by the WVDO and OCCD, hosting and management of related services. The solution developed by the Rahall Transportation Institute (RTI) enables sharing of data and facilitates access to the server through both ArcGIS desktop and mobile ArcGIS applications. The application is restricted to  authorized users through the use of tiered access control mechanism and role based management control.
KW  - ArcGIS
KW  - Data access
KW  - Data integration
KW  - Data management
KW  - Data sharing
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Geospatial data
KW  - West Virginia
UR  - http://www.mticutc.org/assets/pdf/213041EDDPFinalReport.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253472
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01483676
AU  - Reich, Stephen L
AU  - Kolpakov, Alexander
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Tracking Costs of Alternatively Fueled Buses in Florida – Phase II
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - The goal of this project is to continue collecting and reporting the data on the performance and costs of alternatively fueled public transit vehicles in Florida in a consistent manner in order to keep the Bus Fuels Fleet Evaluation Tool (BuFFeT) cost model current. Over the course of this project, repeated data requests were sent to all fixed-route transit agencies in Florida. Despite the challenges in data collection and low response rate, enough data were collected to represent the majority of the Florida fixed-route fleet and perform a valid analysis of costs. Data for both fixed-route and paratransit vehicles were requested. However, due to the low response rate and inconsistency of reporting for the demand response vehicles, the extent and reliability of the analysis of the paratransit fleet is limited and should be interpreted with caution. As more data are collected, the reliability of the analysis will improve.
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Costs
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Florida
KW  - Paratransit vehicles
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Transit buses
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-38-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/77943.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252430
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482556
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Multimodal Transportation Indicators
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 34p
AB  - This report provides statistical data for a range indicators within the transportation industry, and places the data in economic and societal context. The indicators' broad categories are safety, economy, fuel prices, end-user prices, passenger usage, freight usage, system performance and capital expenditures. Tables included within the report compare the indicator's current value to a comparable preceding period of time.
KW  - Capital expenditures
KW  - Economic indicators
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Passengers
KW  - Performance
KW  - Prices
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Safety
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/mti_2013_04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250022
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482296
AU  - Mokwa, Robert
AU  - Foster, Andrew
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - Montana Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Testing and Evaluation of Recovered Traction Sanding Material
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 72p
AB  - The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is searching for a solution to the accumulation of  traction sand that is applied to Montana highways every winter. An analysis of reuse and recycle  options for salvaged traction sand was conducted using results of mechanical and chemical tests  conducted on samples collected along the Bozeman Pass and the Lookout Pass areas. The results  indicate there are viable alternatives to landfilling or roadside dumping of collected traction sand. The  most appealing and cost-effective option is to reuse the collected material as traction sand in  subsequent winters. A potential secondary option would be to process and mix (co-mingle) collected  sand with gravel to produce a material that meets MDT gradation specifications for imported  aggregate. The most promising co-mingling options are those that only necessitate the addition of finer  aggregate and do not require additional coarse particles. MDT materials including plant mix surfacing,  cement treated base, shoulder gravel, and crushed top surfacing could be economically produced by co-mingling collected traction sand with additional aggregate. Based on laboratory tests conducted to measure chemical and metals concentrations, it appears that the  samples tested in this study have chemical and metal concentrations that are generally characteristic of  naturally occurring background levels. Nonetheless, a quality assurance process is recommended before reusing recovered traction sanding material to confirm that unhealthy levels of contaminants are  not present. An implementation plan outlining best practices for separating, collecting, testing and  processing salvaged traction sand is described. The results of this study indicate that the practice of  recycling and reusing traction sand could potentially save money by eliminating landfill costs and by  reducing the amount of new abrasives and aggregates that are purchased every year
KW  - Aggregate mixtures
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Montana
KW  - Quality assurance
KW  - Recycling
KW  - Reuse
KW  - Sand
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/research/external/docs/research_proj/recycling/final_report_apr13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250947
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482214
AU  - Gillham, Olivia
AU  - Horton, Suzanne
AU  - Schwenk, Judith
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
TI  - FMCSA Safety Program Effectiveness Measurement: Intervention Model Fiscal Year 2009
PY  - 2013/04//Executive Summary
SP  - 48p
AB  - The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), in cooperation with the researcher, has developed an analytic model to measure the effectiveness of roadside inspections and traffic enforcements in terms of crashes avoided, injuries avoided, and lives saved. Traffic enforcements and roadside inspections are considered interventions and this analytic model is known as the Intervention Model. This model provides FMCSA management with information to address the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GRPA), which obligates federal agencies to measure the effectiveness of their programs as part of the budget cycle process. It also provides FMCSA and State safety program managers with a quantitative basis for optimizing the allocation of safety resources in the field.
KW  - Commercial vehicles
KW  - Crash avoidance
KW  - Government Performance and Results Act
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Measures of effectiveness
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Roadside
KW  - Safety programs
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Truck crashes
KW  - Trucking safety
KW  - U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48198/FMCSA-Intervention-FY-2009.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250628
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482129
AU  - Reich, Stephen L
AU  - Davis, Janet L
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Quantifying the Benefits of the Florida Transit Research Inspection Procurement Services (TRIPS) Program
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - This study details the analysis of the Florida Transit Research Inspection Procurement Services (TRIPS) Program. It provides a comparative assessment of the program with respect to out-of-state practice, provides recommendations to improve life cycle vehicle data reporting procedures and details benefits of the program. The collection of this information can be used to compare TRIPS vehicle performance with vehicles purchased by transit agencies by other means, or to compare TRIPS vehicles with similar vehicle fleets in sample out-of-state locations.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Florida
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Procurement
KW  - Public transit
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-31-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/77936.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250557
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481618
AU  - Jensen, Terry
AU  - Wendt, Scott
AU  - Gray, Joe
AU  - Lo, Chester
AU  - Margetan, Frank
AU  - Eisenmann, David
AU  - Nakagawa, Norio
AU  - Brasche, Lisa
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Feasibility Study for Detection and Quantification of Corrosion in Bridge Barrier Rails
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 103p
AB  - Technical challenges exist with infrastructure that can be addressed by nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods, such as detecting corrosion damage to reinforcing steel that anchor concrete bridge railings to bridge road decks. Moisture and chloride ions reach the anchors along the cold joint between the rails and deck, causing corrosion that weakens the anchors and ultimately the barriers. The Center for Nondestructive Evaluation at Iowa State University has experience in development of measurement techniques and new sensors using a variety of interrogating energies. This research evaluated feasibility of three technologies—x-ray radiation, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and magnetic flux leakage (MFL)—for detection and quantification of corrosion of embedded reinforcing steel. Controlled samples containing pristine reinforcing steel with and without epoxy and reinforcing steel with 25 percent and 50 percent section reduction were embedded in concrete at 2.5 in. deep for laboratory evaluation. Two of the techniques, GPR and MFL, were used in a limited field test on the Iowa Highway 210 Bridge over Interstate 35 in Story County. The methods provide useful and complementary information. GPR provides a rapid approach to identify reinforcing steel that has anomalous responses. MFL provides similar detection responses but could be optimized to provide more quantitative correlation to actual condition. Full implementation could use either GPR or MFL methods to identify areas of concern, followed by radiography to give a visual image of the actual condition, providing the final guidance for maintenance actions.
KW  - Anchor bolts
KW  - Bridge railings
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Ground penetrating radar
KW  - Magnetic flux
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Radiography
KW  - Reinforcing steel
KW  - Story County (Iowa)
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/bridge_barrier_rails_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250623
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481611
AU  - Metaxatos, Paul
AU  - Sriraj, P S
AU  - University of Illinois, Chicago
AU  - Illinois Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pedestrian/Bicyclist Warning Devices and Signs at Highway-Rail and Pathway-Rail Grade Crossings
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 176p
AB  - Federal reporting shows a relatively constant number of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities at highway-rail and pathway-rail grade crossings over the past 10 years. This is in contrast to a marked decrease in train–vehicle collisions at highway-rail crossings. Although engineering solutions and education and enforcements initiatives have been proposed and implemented, little is known about their effectiveness to mitigate such incidents. This study reports on findings from the literature, discussions with professionals in the public and private sectors involved in safety at rail grade crossings, and pedestrian/non-motorized user behavior and attitudes toward safety at such crossings. The study highlights the multitude of factors related to pedestrian safety in this context and provides an informed discussion for stakeholders to advance safety initiatives.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Bicycle crashes
KW  - Grade crossing protection systems
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway facilities for nonmotorized users
KW  - Pedestrian safety
KW  - Pedestrian-vehicle crashes
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Warning signals
KW  - Warning signs
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/2142/45777
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250622
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481610
AU  - Hallmark, Shauna
AU  - Hawkins, Neal
AU  - Knickerbocker, Skylar
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Speed Management Toolbox for Rural Communities
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 96p
AB  - The primary objective of this toolbox is to summarize various known traffic-calming treatments and their effectiveness. This toolbox focuses on roadway-based treatments for speed management, particularly for rural communities with transition zones. Education, enforcement, and policy strategies should also be considered, but are not the focus of this toolbox. The research team identified treatments based on their own research, a review of the literature, and discussion with other professionals. This toolbox describes each treatment and summarizes placement, advantages, disadvantages, effectiveness, appropriateness, and cost for each treatment. The categories of treatments covered in this toolbox are as follows: horizontal physical displacement, vertical physical displacement, narrowing, surroundings, pavement markings, traffic control signs, and other strategies.
KW  - Communities
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Speed zones
KW  - Traffic calming
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/rural_traffic_calming_toolbox_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250621
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481518
AU  - Markos, Stephanie H
AU  - Pollard, John K
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Passenger Train Emergency Systems: Review of Egress Variables and Egress Simulation Models
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 96p
AB  - Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations are intended to ensure the safe, timely, and effective evacuation of intercity and commuter rail passengers when necessary during passenger train emergencies. Although it is recognized that during the majority of emergency scenarios, it is much safer for passengers to remain on the train, it may be necessary for passengers and crew to evacuate a passenger train quickly, due to certain life-threatening conditions (e.g., fire). FRA is sponsoring a research program to investigate a variety of emergency evacuation concepts, strategies, and techniques for applicability to passenger trains operating in the United States. One aspect of the FRA research program is directed at evaluating the potential applicability to passenger trains of performance-based criteria specifying minimum necessary evacuation times. No methodology currently exists for evaluating the passenger rail car emergency egress system as a whole, or the effects on egress times of failures within this system. However, with certain refinements to existing egress computer model calculations, time-based egress models could have potential applicability to passenger rail cars. This report presents the results of a review of passenger rail car egress variables and evaluation of the potential application of computer models that simulate egress for developing passenger train evacuation times.
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Emergency exits
KW  - Evacuation
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Passenger trains
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Simulation
KW  - U.S. Federal Railroad Administration
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3124
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3188
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47400/47438/DOT-VNTSC-FRA-12-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250354
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481517
AU  - Carolan, Michael E
AU  - Jeong, David Y
AU  - Perlman, Benjamin
AU  - Murty, Yellapu V
AU  - Namboodri, Shannon
AU  - Kurtz, Bob
AU  - Elzey, R K
AU  - Anankitpaiboon, Satima
AU  - Tunna, Lucy
AU  - Fries, Robert
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Cellular Materials International, Incorporated
AU  - Transportation Technology Center, Incorporated
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Application of Welded Steel Sandwich Panels for Tank Car Shell Impact Protection
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 76p
AB  - This report describes research conducted to examine the application of sandwich structure technology to provide protection against the threat of an indenter striking the side or shell of a tank car in the event of an accident. This research was conducted in two phases over a 3-year period. Testing and analysis of flat, welded steel sandwich panels was conducted in the initial phase of the research. Based on the observations and results from that initial phase, a curved, welded steel sandwich panel was designed and built to protect the side or shell of a decommissioned liquid chlorine tank car during a full-scale impact test. Although the protective panel experienced severe damage, the commodity-carrying tank experienced only permanent deformation and did not puncture.
KW  - Impact
KW  - Impact tests
KW  - Panels
KW  - Sandwich panels
KW  - Tank cars
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3125
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250355
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481347
AU  - Abd El Fattah, Ahmed Mohsen
AU  - Rasheed, Hayder
AU  - Esmaeily, Asad
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - LRFD Software for Design and Actual Ultimate Capacity of Confined Rectangular Columns
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 220p
AB  - The analysis of concrete columns using unconfined concrete models is a well established practice. On the other hand, prediction of the actual ultimate capacity of confined concrete columns requires specialized nonlinear analysis. Modern codes and standards are introducing the need to perform extreme event analysis. There has been a number of studies that focused on the analysis and testing of concentric columns or cylinders. This case has the highest confinement utilization since the entire section is under confined compression. On the other hand, the augmentation of compressive strength and ductility due to full axial confinement is not applicable to pure bending and combined bending and axial load cases simply because the area of effective confined concrete in compression is reduced. The higher eccentricity causes smaller confined concrete region in compression yielding smaller increase in strength and ductility of concrete. Accordingly, the ultimate confined strength is gradually reduced from the fully confined value fcc (at zero eccentricity) to the unconfined value f’c (at infinite eccentricity) as a function of the compression area to total area ratio. The higher the eccentricity, the smaller the confined concrete compression zone. This paradigm is used to implement adaptive eccentric model utilizing the well known Mander Model. Generalization of the moment of area approach is utilized based on proportional loading, finite layer procedure and the secant stiffness approach, in an iterative incremental numerical model to achieve equilibrium points  response up to failure. This numerical analysis is adapted to assess the confining effect in rectangular columns confined with conventional lateral steel. This model is validated against experimental data found in literature. The comparison shows good correlation. Finally computer software is developed based on the non-linear numerical analysis. The software is equipped with an elegant graphics interface that assimilates input data, detail drawings, capacity diagrams and demand point mapping in a single sheet. Options for preliminary design, section and reinforcement selection are seamlessly integrated as well. The software generates 3D failure surface for rectangular columns and allows the user to determine the 2D interaction diagrams for any angle between the x-axis and the resultant moment. Improvements to Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) Bridge Design Manual using this software with reference to AASHTO LRFD are made. This study is limited to stub columns.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Columns
KW  - Confined concrete
KW  - Design practices
KW  - Eccentricity
KW  - Load and resistance factor design
KW  - Load factor
KW  - Reinforced concrete bridges
KW  - Software
KW  - Structural analysis
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003827536
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250287
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481108
AU  - Toma, Samuel
AU  - Swanson, Elizabeth
AU  - Najm, Wassim G
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
TI  - Light Vehicle Crash Avoidance Needs and Countermeasure Profiles for Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 48p
AB  - This report discusses light-vehicle crash countermeasure profiles and functions for five target pre-crash scenario groups based on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. Target pre-crash scenario groups include rear-end, lane change, opposite direction, junction crossing, and left turn across path from opposite direction (LTAP/OD) crashes involving at least one light vehicle (e.g., passenger car, van, minivan, sport utility vehicle, or light pickup truck with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or less). There are 10 pre-crash scenarios in these groups to be addressed by V2V-based crash countermeasures. Kinematic equations are presented for the time-to-collision and avoidance maneuvers to identify information needs for these crash countermeasures. Information needs are translated into countermeasure functional requirements based on relevant safety applications devised in two prior research projects dealing with cooperative V2V communications and autonomous vehicle-based sensing systems. This report identifies two target pre-crash scenarios that would require new safety applications not developed in prior projects, including the LTAP/OD and “opposite direction/no vehicle maneuver” pre-crash scenarios.
KW  - Automobiles
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Crash avoidance
KW  - Equations
KW  - Pickup trucks
KW  - Precrash phase
KW  - Precrash scenarios
KW  - Sport utility vehicles
KW  - Time to collision
KW  - Vans
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://www.nhtsa.gov/Research/Crash+Avoidance/ci.Office+of+Crash+Avoidance+Research+Technical+Publications.print
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249907
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481107
AU  - Liu, Henry X
AU  - Sun, Jie
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving Freeway Traffic Speed Estimation Using High-Resolution Loop Detector Data
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 27p
AB  - In this project, the authors developed an innovative methodology to solve a long-standing traffic engineering problem, i.e., measuring traffic speed using data from single inductive loop detectors. Traditionally, traffic speeds are estimated using aggregated detector data with a manually calibrated effective vehicle length. The calibration effort (usually through running probe vehicles), however, is time consuming and costly. Instead of using aggregated data, in this project, the data collection system records every vehicle-detector actuation "event" so that for each vehicle the authors can identify the time gap and the detector occupation time. With such high-resolution "event-based" data, the authors devised a method to differentiate regular cars with longer vehicles. The proposed method is based on the observation that longer vehicles will have longer detector occupation time. Therefore, the authors can identify longer vehicles by detecting the changes of occupation time in a vehicle platoon. The "event-based" detector data can be obtained through the implementation of the SMART-Signal (Systematic Monitoring of Arterial Road Traffic Signals) system, which was developed by the principal investigator and his students in the last five years. The method is tested using the data from Trunk Highway 55, which is a high-speed arterial corridor controlled by coordinated traffic signals. The result shows that the proposed method can correctly identify most of the vehicles passing by inductive loop detectors. The identification of long vehicles will improve the estimation of effective vehicle length on roads. Consequently, speed estimation from the inductive loop detector is improved.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Automatic vehicle classification
KW  - Estimating
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Loop detectors
KW  - Speed measurement
KW  - Traffic speed
KW  - Vehicle length
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2280
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249882
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481103
AU  - Najm, Wassim G
AU  - Toma, Samuel
AU  - Brewer, John
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
TI  - Depiction of Priority Light-Vehicle Pre-Crash Scenarios for Safety Applications Based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 79p
AB  - A template of pre-crash scenarios is presented to depict national crash statistics and kinematic information of time-to-collision for the design of appropriate crash countermeasures based on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. This template serves the development of functional requirements, performance specifications, test procedures, and benefits estimation for potential light-vehicle V2V safety applications. A set of ten pre-crash scenarios is suggested as a priority list to be addressed by V2V technology for light vehicles (i.e., passenger cars, vans and minivans, sport utility vehicles, and light pickup trucks with gross vehicle weight ratings of 10,000 pounds or less). This report presents the time-to-collision equations as well as the crash statistics for each of the ten priority scenarios based on data available in the General Estimates System, National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey, and Event Data Recorder databases.
KW  - Automobiles
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Crash avoidance
KW  - Crash causes
KW  - Databases
KW  - Event data recorders
KW  - General Estimates System
KW  - National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey
KW  - Pickup trucks
KW  - Precrash phase
KW  - Precrash scenarios
KW  - Sport utility vehicles
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Time to collision
KW  - Vans
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://www.nhtsa.gov/DOT/NHTSA/NVS/Crash%20Avoidance/Technical%20Publications/2013/811732.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249869
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481006
AU  - Brown, Daniel J
AU  - Danforth, Christopher M
AU  - UVM Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Intelligent Traffic Signals: Extending the Range of Self-Organization in the BML Model
PY  - 2013/04
SP  - 17p
AB  - The two-dimensional traﬃc model of Biham, Middleton and Levine (BML) is a simple cellular automaton that exhibits a wide range of complex behavior. It consists of both northbound and eastbound cars traveling on a rectangular array of cells, each cell equipped with a traﬃc signal. The traﬃc signals switch synchronously from allowing northbound ﬂow to eastbound ﬂow. By gating individual traﬃc signals, i.e. allowing individual traﬃc signals to break from synchrony in predetermined, deterministic scenarios based on the local state of traﬃc, the range for which the system self-organizes into a state of unimpeded ﬂow is extended. On a 100x100 cell array, this additional intelligence enables accomodation of 200 cars more than the original BML model, without any reduction in average velocity.
KW  - Traffic flow theory
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Traffic signals
KW  - Two dimensional flow
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/pdf/12-005DANFORTH.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249663
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480968
AU  - Hurwitz, David S
AU  - Monsere, Chris
AU  - Oregon State University, Corvallis
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improved Pedestrian Safety at Signalized Intersections Operating the Flashing Yellow Arrow
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 80p
AB  - In some jurisdictions, protected left-turn phasing has been replaced with the flashing yellow arrow (FYA) for protected/permissive left turns (PPLTs) to reduce delay. However, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the conflict between pedestrians and the permissive left-turning vehicle. This presentation summarizes the results of research conducted with a high-fidelity, motion-based driving simulator and mobile eye-tracking equipment to study the effects of the opposing traffic, the presence and walking direction of pedestrians, and the number of section heads to display the FYA on driver performance. To accomplish this research, a six-intersection simulated environment was created. In total, 27 subjects completed the course, allowing the analysis of 620 permissive left-turn maneuvers. Eye-glance durations for the intersection approach and turning maneuver were captured for left-turn pavement bay markings, the signal indication, the pedestrian and vehicle waiting area, and the pedestrian signal heads. The total glance durations for each of these areas were analyzed. The following results were obtained: 1) the increased presence of pedestrians led drivers to focus more attention on these crossing pedestrians; 2) as the number of opposing vehicles increased, drivers spent less time fixating on pedestrians; 3) Four to seven percent of drivers did not focus on pedestrians in the crosswalk; and 4) there did not appear to be a difference between any variable and the presence of a three- or four-section head. In terms of practice, the results suggest that it may be desirable to limit the permissive operation when pedestrians are present. Moreover, the findings may indicate that the additional cost of four-section heads is not justified.
KW  - Arrows (Signals)
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Exclusive permissive phasing
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Flashing traffic signals
KW  - Left turn phase
KW  - Opposing traffic
KW  - Pedestrian safety
KW  - Pedestrian traffic
KW  - Signalized intersections
UR  - http://library.state.or.us/repository/2013/201304261019565/
UR  - http://otrec.us/project/484
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249598
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480463
AU  - Snyder, Jeremy D
AU  - Bullough, John D
AU  - Radetsky, Leora C
AU  - Besenecker, Ute
AU  - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Innovative Roadway Light Source and Dye Combinations to Improve Visibility and Reduce Environmental Impacts
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - Sky glow light pollution is caused largely by reflected light off of roadway and other surfaces. The  authors investigated the feasibility of a system consisting of a specialized light emitting diodes (LED) streetlight and a dye-based roadway surface coating that would reduce sky glow, but still provide adequate illumination of objects in the road. As envisioned, the streetlight would produce white light with narrow-band LEDs of red, green, and blue wavelengths. The roadway surface coating would use three dyes that would selectively absorb the specific wavelengths produced by the streetlight. This investigation examined the optical properties of green and blue absorbing dyes. The dyes, when in their liquid states, did selectively absorb light at the expected wavelengths. However, the dyes did not selectively absorb light when applied as a surface coating, so appropriate encapsulants would need to be developed for subsequent implementation. Also, issues of stability over time, cost, and safety were identified. A number of significant hurdles would need to be overcome before this could become a practical method of reducing sky glow from roadway illumination systems.
KW  - Blue
KW  - Dyes
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Green
KW  - Light emitting diodes
KW  - Light pollution
KW  - Luminance
KW  - Night visibility
KW  - Optical properties
KW  - Seal coats
KW  - Street lighting
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/LRC-Dye-FinalReport.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248919
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480421
AU  - Harrison, James
AU  - daSilva, Marco
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - 2012 Right-of-Way Fatality and Trespass Prevention Workshop
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - Based on the success of the 2008 Trespasser Workshop, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) sponsored this follow-on workshop. The keynote speech by FRA Administrator, Mr. Joseph C. Szabo, was followed by 23 technical presentations in the areas of Pedestrian Safety, Hazard Management, Design Technology and Infrastructure, Community Outreach, Enforcement, and Intentional Deaths/Acts. Workshop attendees broke into working groups charged with developing prioritized recommended actions for their respective topics; they developed more than 90 ideas which covered new or expanded initiatives, strategies, and research projects. Each group then defined three to five top recommended actions for its respective topic area. This resulted in the identification of 23 high-priority recommended actions.
KW  - Communities
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Hazards and emergency operations
KW  - Law enforcement
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Outreach
KW  - Pedestrian safety
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Right of way (Land)
KW  - Trespassing
KW  - Workshops
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47400/47439/DOT-VNTSC-FRA-12-06.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248939
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478958
AU  - Fay, Ginny
AU  - Schwörer, Tobias
AU  - Guettabi, Mouhcine
AU  - Armagost, Jeffrey
AU  - University of Alaska, Anchorage
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of Alaska Transportation Sectors to Assess Energy Use and Impacts of Price Shocks and Climate Change Legislation
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 93p
AB  - The authors analyzed the use of energy by Alaska’s transportation sectors to assess the impact of sudden fuel price changes. They conducted three types of analysis: 1) development of broad energy use statistics for each transportation sector, including total annual energy and fuel use, carbon emissions, fuel use per ton-mile and passenger-mile, and cost of fuel per ton-mile and passenger-mile; 2) economic input-output analysis of air, rail, truck, and water transportation sectors and; 3) adjustment of input-output modeling to reflect sudden fuel price changes to estimate the potential impact on industry output and employment. Alaska air transportation used approximately 1.9 billion gallons of fuel annually; 961 million gallons were used for intra-state and exiting Alaska flights. Water transportation used 101.8 million gallons annually, with approximately 84.3 million gallons for intra-state and exiting segments. Railroad and truck transportation used 5.1 and 8.8 million gallons annually, respectively. Simulated fuel price increases resulted in an estimated $456.8 million in value-added losses to the Alaska economy through cost increases of transportation services. The cost increases, or equivalent loss in income, to Alaska households are $26.8 million. A carbon emissions tax would have the greatest impact on the cost of air transportation services followed by water, trucking and rail.
KW  - Air transportation
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Fuel costs
KW  - Fuel prices
KW  - Input output models
KW  - Legislation
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Prices
KW  - Railroad transportation
KW  - Taxes
KW  - Trucking
KW  - Water transportation
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/04/309002.Fay_.Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247862
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478896
AU  - Yager, Christine
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute, College Station
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Voice-To-Text Programs at Reducing Incidences of Distracted Driving
PY  - 2013/04//Final Project Report
SP  - 142p
AB  - Text messaging is no longer limited to manual-entry. There are several mobile applications that aim to assist the driver in sending and receiving text messages by incorporating a voice-to-text component. To date, there has been no published research that evaluates the impact of voice-to-text mobile applications on driver behavior and safety. To address this issue, 43 participants drove an instrumented vehicle on a closed course for a baseline as well as three texting conditions: manual-entry, using Siri, and using Vlingo. Results indicate that driver reaction times were nearly two times slower than the baseline condition, no matter which texting method was used. Eye gazes to the forward roadway also significantly decreased compared to baseline, no matter which texting method was used. Additionally, it took drivers longer to complete the same texting task using the voice-to-text applications than it did when texting manually, though Siri produced the fewest errors. Self-assessment feedback revealed that participants felt less safe using any of the three texting methods compared to the baseline, but felt safer using either voice-to-text application than when manually texting. These results have immediate implications for improving our understanding of the dangers of texting while driving and the potential safety improvements of using voice-to-text options.
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Hands free telephones
KW  - Reaction time
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Text messaging
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Voice communication
KW  - Voice to text
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/600451-00011-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247909
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478883
AU  - Ban, Xuegang Jeff
AU  - Sun, Zhanbo
AU  - Rensselaer  Polytechnic Institute
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Vehicle Classification Using Mobile Sensors
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - In this research, the feasibility of using mobile traffic sensors for binary vehicle classification on arterial roads is investigated. Features (e.g. speed related, acceleration/deceleration related, etc.) are extracted from vehicle traces (passenger cars, trucks) collected from real world arterial roads. Machine learning techniques such as support vector machines (SVM) are developed to distinguish passenger cars from trucks using these features. To address privacy concerns, classification is conducted using long vehicle traces and short vehicle traces separately. For classification  using long traces, the proportions of accelerations and decelerations larger than 1meter per second square (mpss) and the standard deviations of accelerations and decelerations are the most effective features. By classifying general trucks from passenger cars, the average misclassification rate for the best 4-feature SVM model is about 1.6% for the training data, and 4.2% for the testing data. For classification using short traces, it is necessary to define multiple types of traces and analyze them case-by-case. It was found that particularly for the turning movement traces, features such as average speed, standard deviation of speed, maximum acceleration/deceleration and standard deviation of acceleration/deceleration are fairly effective to classify vehicles. The misclassification rate for the best SVM classifier using short traces is about 14.8% for the stop-and-go traffic, and 15.6% for the non-stopped traffic.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Automatic vehicle classification
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Mobile sources
KW  - Passenger cars
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Trucks
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Vechile-Classification-Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247901
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478712
AU  - Liu, Henry X
AU  - Hu, Heng
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - SMART-Signal Phase II: Arterial Offset Optimization Using Archived High-Resolution Traffic Signal Data
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - Traditionally, offset optimization for coordinated traffic signals is based on average travel times between intersections and average traffic volumes at each intersection, without consideration of the stochastic nature of field traffic. Using the archived high-resolution traffic signal data, this project developed a data-driven arterial offset optimization model that will address two well-known problems with vehicle-actuated signal coordination: the early return to green problem and the uncertain intersection queue length problem. To account for the early return to green problem, the authors introduce the concept of conditional distribution of the green start times for the coordinated phase. To handle the uncertainty of intersection queue length, the authors adopt a scenario-based approach that generates optimization results using a series of traffic-demand scenarios as the input to the offset optimization model. Both the conditional distributions of the green start times and traffic demand scenarios can be obtained from the archived high-resolution traffic signal data. Under different traffic conditions, queues formed by side-street and main-street traffic are explicitly considered in the derivation of intersection delay. The objective of this model is to minimize total delay for the main coordinated direction and at the same time it considers the performance of the opposite direction. Due to model complexity, a genetic algorithm is adopted to obtain the optimal solution. The performance of the optimized offsets are tested not only in a simulated environment but also in the field. Results from both experiments show that the proposed model can reduce travel delay of coordinated direction significantly without compromising the performance of the opposite approach.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Genetic algorithms
KW  - Green interval (Traffic signal cycle)
KW  - Offsets (Traffic signal timing)
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Queuing
KW  - Traffic actuated controllers
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic signal timing
KW  - Traffic signals
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2288
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247810
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478097
AU  - Sternberg, Steven P
AU  - Hasan, A Rashid
AU  - Mereddy, Venkatram R
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Prototype System for Chemical Hydrogen Generation and Storage for Operating ITS Devices
PY  - 2013/04//Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - This research project sought to develop a prototype hydrogen-based fuel cell system for intelligent transportation system (ITS) devices. The project investigated hydrogen storage capacities of the various candidate chemical hydride analogs; selected the most efficient of the candidates for energy storage based on volume, mass, and cost; developed a prototype system; and estimated the capital and operating cost for such a system. A hydrogen fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, providing a clean, high-efficiency energy source that circumvents the problems associated with conventional batteries. A major drawback that limits its utility, however, is the use of heavy and bulky compressed metal cylinders as the source of hydrogen. The chemical-based hydrogen generation used in this project can provide a compact, atmospheric-pressure storage option for the controlled release of hydrogen. Many ITS-based applications can be envisaged with hydrogen-based fuel cells, such as alternating-traffic signs, directional signals, speed-limit signs, blinkers in series, warning blinkers, and backup power sources at traffic signals during power outages. This system is particularly attractive because many remote traffic signals on northern Minnesota roads lack access to a power grid, requiring the use of batteries that must be changed often, thus incurring maintenance costs
KW  - Electricity
KW  - Energy storage systems
KW  - Fuel cells
KW  - Hydrogen storage
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Power outages
KW  - Traffic signals
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2286
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247381
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01587633
AU  - Karaa, Fadi A
AU  - New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Development of a Comprehensive Inventory Management System for Underground
Fiber Optic Conduits
PY  - 2013/03/31/Final Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - Major State Departments of Transportation operate and maintain networks of thousands of miles of conduits, many carrying fiber optic cables that are vital to State communication systems. These conduits are located alongside or across highways and frequently must be located and marked to avoid damage from digging or boring resulting from construction. The existing inventory system often consists merely of sections of pipelines of varying length with differing lengths and sometimes unknown or changing diameters and materials. In order to facilitate the location of fiber optic facilities by operations personnel and enable access to junction boxes and conduits, a computerized connectivity-based inventory system of all external (pipes, junction boxes) and internal assets (conduits, cables) was developed. In a first phase, the system enabled the transition from a flat incomplete and inaccurate system of facility identification to a network model of fiber optic segments and nodes (junction boxes). In this work, a comprehensive hierarchical system of facility cataloguing was achieved through an expansion of the system to include multiple inner layers within pipes and junction boxes, such as Conduits and Cables. This enabled the definition of a Routing entity, an essential component of a comprehensive fiber optic connectivity-based system. Key to the system design is the definition of the multi-layered hierarchical relationship between various levels of facility definition. The ability to “drill-down” from an external layer to an inner component and to establish multi-directional facility contiguity enables the progressive improvement of data quality and the establishment of a reliable connectivity model between facilities. This extended prototype enables the successful future transition from a system based on section records to a more connectivity-based hierarchical asset management model of fiber optic underground facilities, with significant savings in operational costs and reliability of the field investigative work, and the support of improved maintenance management and capacity/capital planning.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Conduits
KW  - Data quality
KW  - Fiber optics
KW  - Inventory
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - System design
KW  - Underground structures
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/Final-Report-Inventory-Management-Fiber-Optic-Conduits.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1394945
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489534
AU  - Li, Zhixia
AU  - Chitturi, Madhav V
AU  - Noyce, David A
AU  - University of Wisconsin, Madison
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of Next Generation Intersection Control
PY  - 2013/03/31/Final Report
SP  - 84p
AB  - A reservation-based autonomous intersection control system, named Autonomous Control of Urban TrAffic (ACUTA), was developed as a part of this research effort. ACUTA allows centralized management of autonomous vehicles within a certain distance from an intersection to allow vehicles to pass the intersection with fewer stops and no conflicts. To address the operational issues of reservation-based autonomous intersection management identified in previous studies, three operational enhancement strategies are introduced and incorporated into ACUTA. The three strategies were evaluated and shown to be effective in reducing intersection delay. Along with the operational improvements offered by ACUTA, its implementation in VISSIM, a standard simulation platform is a significant achievement. By using a widely applied standard simulation platform, measures of effectiveness for different autonomous control algorithms can be standardized, and simulation results can be more reliable. Most importantly, results from different studies, particularly for operational performance, can be compared to each other through standardization of the simulation platform. In addition, various simulation experiments were conducted to evaluate operational performance of both multi-tile ACUTA and single-tile ACUTA. Results show that multi-tile ACUTA has significant operational superiority over optimized signal control, especially under high traffic demand conditions, while single-tile ACUTA shows promise in replacing four-way stop control for efficient management of autonomous vehicles at low volume intersections. Evaluation results also indicate that ACUTA system has successfully resolved both minor-road starvation issue under unbalanced demand conditions and slow-speed reservation issue identified in previous studies. To optimize ACUTA system’s operational performance, sensitivity analyses were conducted on ACUTA’s configurable parameters, identifying parameters that intersection delay is sensitive to, along with their trend in impacting intersection delay. Finally, ACUTA’s capability of accommodating heavy trucks was also evaluated. Results show that ACUTA can efficiently accommodate high demands of heavy trucks with short delays.
KW  - Advanced traffic management systems
KW  - Advanced vehicle control systems
KW  - Autonomous vehicle guidance
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0418.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258464
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481639
AU  - Sanchez, Alex
AU  - Unnikrishnan, Avinash
AU  - Martinelli, David
AU  - Schonfeld, Paul
AU  - Kim, Myungseob (Edward)
AU  - West Virginia University, Morgantown
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improved Methods for Operating Public Transportation Services
PY  - 2013/03/31/Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - In this joint project, West Virginia University and the University of Maryland collaborated in developing improved methods for analyzing and managing public transportation services. Transit travel time data were collected using global positioning system (GPS) tracking services and the resulting trends were analyzed to understand the variations in corridor travel time. Special events like football and basketball games were found to increase travel times significantly. Median was found to be a more robust statistic than mean due to the high number of missing values and discrepancies. Analytical models were developed to minimize the total system cost by jointly optimizing the type of bus services (i.e., conventional or flexible service), vehicle sizes, numbers of zones (i.e., route spacings or service areas) for conventional and flexible bus services, headways, and resulting fleet sizes. For the numerical example tested in the study, conventional bus services were found to be economical over flexible services with given input parameters. For the specific instance tested in the study, total costs of conventional bus services were 9.5~10.8 percent lower than the total costs of flexible bus services, by region.
KW  - Bus routes
KW  - Bus travel
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Scheduling
KW  - Special events
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/MAUTC-2011-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250551
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01570303
AU  - Conklin, Clifford A
AU  - Bahler, Stephen J
AU  - Belmore, Katherine L
AU  - Hallenbeck, Mark
AU  - Ishimura, John
AU  - Schnell, Genevieve M
AU  - Clark, James E
AU  - Curley, Cathleen E
AU  - Kandarpa, Ram
AU  - Hill, David
AU  - But, Alexander
AU  - Booz Allen Hamilton
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Transportation Management Center Data Capture for Performance and Mobility Measures Guidebook
PY  - 2013/03/27/Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - The Guide to Transportation Management Center (TMC) Data Capture for Performance and Mobility Measures is a two-volume document consisting of this summary Guidebook and a Reference Manual. These documents provide technical guidance and recommended practices regarding concepts, methods, techniques, and procedures for collecting, analyzing, and archiving TMC operations data to develop measures of roadway and TMC performance, as well as documenting the benefits of TMC activities for a variety of stakeholders. This guide is designed to be used by TMC technical and management staff involved in developing, implementing, and/or refining a TMC performance monitoring program. Effective performance monitoring efforts can assist the user in a variety of tasks including traffic performance monitoring, asset management, evaluation of TMC activities and strategies, and planning and decision-making. They can also provide persuasive data in support of continued or enhanced TMC programs; conversely, a lack of available data regarding the value of TMC programs can make agencies more vulnerable to budget reductions when resources are constrained and the remaining budgets are being allocated. The contents of this guide are based on a literature survey, a survey of TMC Pooled-Fund Study (PFS) members, follow-up interviews, and the project study team’s experience and judgment. The study team began with a literature survey of publications regarding TMC data, performance data, performance measures, performance analysis, and reporting. Next, a survey of the PFS members was performed to gain an understanding of the current state of the practice and to determine PFS member needs. The team conducted follow-up discussions with members as needed and then selected a core set of performance measures that would form the basis for this guide.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Handbooks
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Traffic control centers
UR  - http://www.its.dot.gov/data_capture/pdf/data_capture_performance_guidebook.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1359889
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485050
AU  - Steiner, Ruth L
AU  - Cho, Heedeok
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Florida Long-distance Travel Characteristics and Their Potential Impacts on the Transportation System
PY  - 2013/03/15/Final Report
SP  - 92p
AB  - The overall goal of this project is to enhance the fundamental understanding of Florida long-distance travel characteristics, and to provide policy implications for long-distance transportation planning in the future. To achieve the research goal, this study first conducts a descriptive analysis of long-distance travel with special emphasis on the modes used, distance traveled, and origins and destinations. Then, this study estimates mode choice models for long-distance travel that are sensitive to alternative specific attributes and traveler characteristics. It is important to have appropriate models that are able to provide accurate predictions of travelers’ mode choice behavior that consider how people choose one mode or another. The descriptive analysis shows that nearly 90% of trips are made by personal passenger cars, and most are on I-4, I-95, and Turnpike corridors that connect the Tampa, Orlando, and Miami/Fort Lauderdale urbanized areas as defined by Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Among MSAs in Florida, Orlando is the hub for long-distance travel. The estimated model shows that both travel time and travel cost decrease car users’ utility, indicating that people will have a greater chance to shift to other modes as travel time and travel costs increase. In contrast, air travel has a positive sign for travel time, and a negative sign for travel cost, while bus has a negative coefficient for travel time and a positive sign for travel cost. Positive signs of these estimated parameters may imply that air travelers and bus users are willing to increase travel time and travel cost, respectively. In addition, residents in rural areas seem to have a higher probability to drive personal cars for long-distance travel. Considering that less air and other public transportation service options are available in rural areas, the sign of this estimated parameter is reasonable. These results suggest Florida needs to focus more on long-distance travel up to the 200-mile range between MSAs . The I-4 corridor between Daytona and Tampa/Saint Petersburg MSAs, the Turnpike – I-95 corridor that connects the Orlando, Port Saint Lucie, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami MSAs, and the northern section of I-95 between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach MSAs will need to be planned for in the near future. For this 200-mile travel distance, a new alternative mode may need to be provided at a speed of 150 or more miles per hour, while maintaining a lower cost level than for air travel.
KW  - Choice models
KW  - Florida
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Transportation modes
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel costs
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Trip length
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/steiner_final_report2011-013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253781
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01479819
AU  - Yi, Huiming
AU  - Columbia University
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Prototype Development of the Open Mode Integrated Transportation System (OMITS)
PY  - 2013/03/12
SP  - 19p
AB  - This report presents an overview of the Open Mode Integrated Transportation System (OMITS), introduces its key components and algorithms in the recent development and implementation, and demonstrates the working mechanism of dynamic transit service. The OMITS has been designed to integrate the availability of multiple transit modes into the ridesharing service to provide riders and driver s flexible, efficient, and reliable transportation services, through dynamic matching and routing algorithms and emerging information communication and data mining and fusion technologies. The OMITS App, which is run on a smart phone (iPhone or Android), has been developed for customers to communicate with the OMITS server, detect roadway traffic conditions, and receive driving directions. Using the multimodal travel system, the OMITS integrates multimodal transit option s including the information of time-dependent arc weights, namely travel time, and switching delays and provides the time-dependent multimodal shortest path using the Dijkstra’s algorithm under the FIFO condition. The OMITS also applying Dijkstra’s algorithm on social network calculation, to find out the best matching for users. The OMITS system provides an optimized ridesharing and transit service based on spontaneous transportation demands and service availability.
KW  - Data mining
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Open Mode Integrated Transportation System (OMITS)
KW  - Ridesharing
KW  - Shortest path algorithms
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Integrated-Transit-System-Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248192
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516169
AU  - Vogel, Jason R
AU  - Storm, Daniel E
AU  - Barfield, Billy J
AU  - Harp, Sam
AU  - Bhadbhade, Neha
AU  - Mittelstet, Aaron
AU  - McLemore, Alex
AU  - Rogers, Brad
AU  - Neupane, Sagar
AU  - Garbrecht, Karl
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Design of Turbidity Controls for Oklahoma Highway Construction
PY  - 2013/03/04/Final Report
SP  - 206p
AB  - The Environmental protection Agency (USEPA) has issued new requirements on the construction industry to control the discharge of pollutants from the sites. The construction effluent guidelines or ELG’s require construction sites to reduce the pollutant discharge to ‘maximum extent practicable’ and comply with the Clean Water Act. Sediment is the primary pollutant in a construction site effluent runoff. It is mainly composed of large amounts of fine silt, clay and colloidal particles. These particles have low settling velocities and remain in suspension for long durations and therefore cannot be trapped effectively in conventional BMP’s like detention ponds, grass lined channels, sedimentation basins that rely on gravity for settling. The trapping efficiencies of the particles can be enhanced by flocculation, where addition of the flocculant to the sediment discharge would bind multiple particles together, increasing them in size and increasing the settling velocity. Construction sites often experience space restrictions and therefore a modular sediment trapping system based on flocculation would require much less space compared to a settling pond especially in those regions which have high clay content in their soil, which is commonly found in state of Oklahoma. The following report presents the improved design for our passive flocculent and mixing devices. The report includes the refined algorithms for the prediction of the flocculation system performance to remove the sediment from the construction site runoff and the simple Visual Basic Model designed for turbidity control. Preliminary research data required to quantify the turbidity constants for Port A and Port B soils from Oklahoma is presented.
KW  - Construction sites
KW  - Effluents
KW  - Environmental protection
KW  - Flocculating agents
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Road construction
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Sediments
KW  - Turbidity
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-61-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300103
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01543485
TI  - 3D Laser Scanning for Quality Control and Assurance in Bridge Deck Construction
AB  - The inspection of rebar installations and other embedded components in bridge deck construction is a tedious task for field inspectors, requiring considerable field time for measurement and verification against approved working drawings. The verification of rebar and dowel locations after concrete placement is another difficult but important task. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is often used to verify the locations of dowels and rebar after the construction of bridge deck is completed. Although GPR is an effective method for this purpose, the discovery of quality problems, if there is any, associated with rebar installations is often too late to secure timely and cost efficient repair. Delay in opening the bridge to public traffic is a common sequence with this sort of quality problem. Repairing a just constructed bridge deck can also raise public dissatisfaction. There is a need for proactive quality control and assurance methods that can assist field inspectors to quickly inspect and monitor code compliance of installations of rebar and other embedded components before and during the placement of concrete.
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Dowels (Fasteners)
KW  - Ground penetrating radar
KW  - Quality assurance
KW  - Quality control
KW  - Reinforcing bars
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/3d-laser-scanning-quality-control-and-assurance-bridge-deck-construction
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1330941
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01543484
TI  - Development of A Real-Time Vibrator Tracking System for Intelligent Concrete Consolidation
AB  - Proper consolidation of concrete is critical to the long-term strength of concrete bridge structures. Vibration is a method commonly used to consolidate concrete and remove the excessive entrapped air. Vibrations are introduced to freshly placed concrete using various tools. Producing a dense concrete without segregation requires an experienced vibrator operator that is able to minimize over or under consolidation. The industry currently relies on visual inspection for quality control, which may result in quality problems. Thus, there is no reliable method available to track the quality of concrete consolidation during concrete placement. There is a need to develop methods to reliably and rapidly record the vibration penetration patterns used to consolidate concrete, and use the information in real-time to guide operators in properly consolidating freshly placed concrete.
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Entrapped air
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Quality control
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Segregation (Aggregates)
KW  - Vibration
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/development-real-time-vibrator-tracking-system-intelligent-concrete-consolidation
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1330940
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01520413
TI  - Mixing and Compaction Recommendations for Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) with Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS)
AB  - Research is required in this area due to the difference in material handling and processing of asphalt mixtures containing recycled asphalt shingles (RAS). Due to production and use, the shingle asphalt binder, which comprises of almost 20% by total weight of the shingle, is much stiffer than virgin asphalts and approximately twice as stiff as recycled asphalt pavement (RAP). This becomes an issue when using RAS at lower production temperatures (i.e. warm mix asphalt) as production temperatures are typically increased to help melt and mobilize the RAS binder. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted to assess what are the proper mixing and compaction temperatures required when using RAS with warm mix asphalt (WMA) technologies
KW  - Asphalt shingles
KW  - Binders
KW  - Compaction
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Recycled materials
KW  - Shingles
KW  - Warm mix paving mixtures
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/mixing-and-compaction-recommendations-warm-mix-asphalt-wma-recycled-asphalt-shingles-r
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1303795
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01500093
TI  - City Logistics: Predictive Analytics for Real-Time Freight Management
AB  - The challenges of contemporary freight management are moving beyond cost efficiency towards superior customer service, agility, and responsiveness to requirements that vary over time and space. By its nature, freight distribution entails a stochastic and dynamic optimization problem. It deals with future events in an environment with significant sources of uncertainty. Ignoring the possible occurrence of uncertain events during operation may lead to delays, higher costs and inferior customer service. To handle the inherent dynamism, real-time information obtained from recent innovative technologies provides promising improvements in freight management systems. The integration of available real-time information and the utilization of dynamic network traffic assignment (DTA) models to obtain prevailing and anticipated traffic conditions on the network remains to be accomplished in practical applications. The principal focus of this research is to find good and computationally efficient approaches that would allow a commercial vehicle fleet operation manager, or dispatcher, to take advantage of real-time information to dynamically manage available resources to serve time-sensitive customer requests while recognizing the prevailing and anticipated traffic conditions on the road network.
KW  - Customer service
KW  - Dynamic traffic assignment
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic distribution
KW  - Uncertainty
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/research/projects/Mahmassani_Y6-03.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1278438
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01541499
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Eco-Logical Successes
PY  - 2013/03//Fourth
SP  - 6p
AB  - In 2006, an interagency steering team of eight Federal agencies created a process for developing infrastructure that is sensitive to terrestrial and aquatic habitats. This approach, documented in the publication Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects (Eco-Logical), encourages an integrated planning approach across agency and disciplinary boundaries and endorses ecosystem-based mitigation. Since signing the document, the eight signatory agencies have  continued to promote the principles embodied in Eco-Logical. This edition of Eco-Logical Successes focuses on three agencies’ programs that exemplify the Eco-Logical approach to infrastructure development:The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Regional Ecological Assessment Protocol (REAP), The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Watershed-Based Mitigation Approach, and The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs).
KW  - Ecosystems
KW  - Environmental policy
KW  - Federal government agencies
KW  - Habitat (Ecology)
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
KW  - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
KW  - U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
KW  - Watersheds
UR  - http://www.environment.fhwa.dot.gov/ecological/successes/fourth_edition.asp
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48300/48342/EcoLogical_Successes_IV.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1327138
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516566
AU  - Lee, Ming
AU  - Moose, Dan
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of the Overheight Detection System Effectiveness at Eklutna Bridge Final Report
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - The Eklutna River/Glenn Highway bridge has sustained repeated impacts from overheight trucks. In 2006, Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) installed an overheight vehicle warning system. The system includes laser detectors, alarms, and message boards. Since installation, personnel have seen no new damage, and no sign that the alarm system has been triggered. Although this is good news, the particulars are a mystery: Is the system working? Is the presence of the equipment enough to deter drivers from gambling with a vehicle that might be over the height limit? Is it worth installing similar systems at other overpasses? This project is examining the bridge for any evidence of damage, and is fitting the system with a datalogger to record and video any events that trigger the warning system. Finally, just to be sure, researchers will test the system with (officially) overheight vehicles. Project results will help ADOT&PF determine if this system is functioning, and if a similar system installed at other bridges would be cost-effective.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Height
KW  - Overheight vehicles
KW  - Trucks
KW  - Warning signals
KW  - Warning signs
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/10/Final-Report-for-Eklutna-March-2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290649
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516452
AU  - McHattie, Robert
AU  - Mullin, Anthony
AU  - Liu, Juanyu
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating the Need to Seal Thermal Cracks in Alaska’s Asphalt Concrete Pavements
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 129p
AB  - The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF) has promoted routine sealing of all cracks in asphalt concrete (AC) pavements for many years. In doing so, AKDOT&PF follows the generally accepted “best practice” of sealing pavement cracks to the extent that time and money allows. This study of 91 sites on 20+ year old AC pavements in AKDOT&PF’s Central and Interior Regions identified two distinct types of thermal cracks. Both types are known to be ubiquitous on AC pavements throughout all but the most southern parts of the State. Based on the field observations during 2012, researchers conclude that significant maintenance funds can be saved or redirected by not sealing or  reduced sealing of thermal cracks in AC pavements. Furthermore, the authors suggest that thermal crack maintenance be significantly reduced without negatively influencing general long-term pavement performance. The report addresses, separately, each of the two recognized forms of thermal cracking. It recommends that “lessor thermal cracking” receive little or no maintenance. The report recommends that maintenance treatment of even the relatively large “major transverse thermal cracks” can be greatly reduced based on inexpensive, long-term assessments following new pavement construction.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Asphalt concrete pavements
KW  - Cracking of asphalt concrete pavements
KW  - Field studies
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Sealing compounds
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2014/01/510005.Thermal-Crack-Sealing_Final-Report-07-02-13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290651
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516192
AU  - Zaman, Musharraf
AU  - Gransberg, Douglas
AU  - Bulut, Rifat
AU  - Commuri, Sesh
AU  - Pittenger, Dominique
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Develop Draft Chip Seal Cover Aggregate Specification Based on AIMS Angularity, Shape and Texture Test Results
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 105p
AB  - The objective of the study is to improve Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) chip seal design and performance through introducing new criteria for the selection of cover aggregate and binder. These criteria will be based upon the recent technological advances in the characterization of aggregate shape and texture as well as aggregate-binder compatibility. The study evaluates the shape and texture-related index properties, as well as durability, of commonly used cover aggregates in chip seal programs in Oklahoma. Additionally, it will provide a methodology for inclusion of these characteristics as a metric in future chip seal specifications. The study includes both laboratory testing and construction and performance evaluation of chip seal test sections. The study is ongoing and is quantifying how well the newly developed performance-based uniformity coefficient (PUC) correlate with chip seal performance in Oklahoma, and if it should be incorporated into state chip seal specifications. It has generated aggregate-binder compatibility data, based on the surface free energy (compatibility ratio) approach, for commonly used aggregates and asphalt emulsion binders in Oklahoma. Moreover, the chip seal construction practice followed by different ODOT Maintenance Divisions was documented and the best practice identified. This repository of information will be a useful resource for ODOT maintenance divisions.
KW  - Aggregates by shape and surface texture
KW  - Angularity
KW  - Binders
KW  - Chip seals
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Paving
KW  - Preservation
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-65-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300104
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493940
AU  - Maerz, Norbert
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of a Quantitative Model for the Mechanism of Raveling Failure in Highway Rock Slopes
using LIDAR
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 18p
AB  - Rock falls on highways while dangerous are unpredictable. Most rock falls are of the raveling type and not conducive to stability calculations, and even the failure mechanisms are not well understood. LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) has been shown to be able to measure the volumes of raveled rock as small as 1cm when repeatedly scanned over a period of 16 months. Rock fall volumes can be correlated to external stimuli such as rainfall, seismic activity, and freeze thaw cycles to determine trigger for failure. A modeling method for raveling rock has been proposed and demonstrated.
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Highways
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Quantitative analysis
KW  - Rock mechanics
KW  - Rock slopes
KW  - Slope failure
KW  - Stripping (Pavements)
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R274.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262556
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493357
AU  - Hagemann, Garrett
AU  - Hymel, Kent
AU  - Klauber, Adam
AU  - Lee, Douglass B
AU  - Noel, George
AU  - Pace, David
AU  - Taylor, Catherine
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
TI  - Delay and Environmental Costs of Truck Crashes
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 132p
AB  - This report presents estimates of certain categories of costs of truck- and bus-involved crashes. Crash related costs estimated as part of this study include vehicle delay costs, emission costs, and fuel consumption costs. In addition, this report also develops improved methods for estimating property damage costs and presents the results of that improved methodology used on updated data. Finally, the report presents costs specific to crashes involving hazardous material (HM) releases. The development of each of these costs, including underlying assumptions, model framework and methodology, and data analysis, is discussed in detail.
KW  - Bus crashes
KW  - Costs
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Hazardous materials
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Property damage
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Truck crashes
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48200/48200/Crash-Costs-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261153
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491356
AU  - Lin, Jane
AU  - Chen, Qin
AU  - Kawamura, Kazuya
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - University of Illinois, Chicago
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Environmental and Energy Benefits of Freight Delivery Consolidation in Urban Areas
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - Among new, innovative city logistics strategies, delivery cooperation has received increasing academic and practical attention mostly in Europe and Japan. The idea is to establish cooperation among the suppliers, carriers and the customers through Urban Consolidation Center (UCC), a public facility usually located at the city boundary; with proper consolidation of loads and routing, the goods are then sent to the customers in the urban area with cleaner vehicles and less vehicle miles traveled (VMT). This study investigates the feasibility of UCC in an urban setting at the tactical level with respect to total logistics cost and environmental impact. In other words, whether UCC could reduce the logistics cost which involves the monetary costs for activities from production to consumption, while maintaining acceptable level of energy consumption and vehicular emissions. It is found that under certain conditions, UCC may become a favorable last-mile urban delivery solution to the current one without a UCC. Especially the benefits of UCC strategies become significant when the customer rent cost is high and UCC terminal operation cost is low. UCC becomes more beneficial as the economic scale is greater (i.e., higher numbers of customers and suppliers). In addition, public subsidy for UCC terminals would make urban cooperative delivery more competitive, resulting in lower truck VMT and emissions in the urban area.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Delivery service
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Urban freight consolidation centers
KW  - Urban goods movement
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0319.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257323
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491336
AU  - Eisele, William L
AU  - Fossett, Tyler
AU  - Schrank, David L
AU  - Farzaneh, Mohamadreza
AU  - Meier, Paul J
AU  - Williams, Scott P
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Estimating and Incorporating CO2 Emissions and Associated Fuel Consumption into the Urban Mobility Report
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute's (TTI's) Urban Mobility Report (UMR) is acknowledged as the most authoritative source of information about traffic congestion and its possible solutions. As policymakers from the local to national levels devise strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, the level of interest in the environmental impact of congestion has increased. To this end, this research effort developed and applied a methodology for determining the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to congestion for use in the UMR. The methodology also estimated fuel consumption based upon the carbon dioxide emissions estimates. Researchers at TTI collaborated with researchers at the Wisconsin Energy Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop CO2 estimates to include in the UMR. Researchers developed a five-step  methodology using data from three primary data sources: 1) the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS), 2) INRIX traffic speed data, and 3) The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) model. The research successfully developed and applied the methodology. Emission rates (lbs of CO2 per mile) were validated in selected cities, with results in the range of 80% to 99% of the literature values. Researchers incorporated the new methodology for all urban areas into the 2012 Urban Mobility Report and plan to include these same measures in future releases of the report. Researchers reported that, in 2011, 56 billion pounds of additional CO2 were produced in all 498 urban areas during congestion only, equating to 2.9 billion gallons of “wasted” fuel. Researchers reported the amount of CO2 produced at free-flow conditions (i.e., absent congestion) is 1.8 trillion pounds in 2011 in all 498 urban areas.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  - Estimating
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0516.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257330
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489743
AU  - Lin, Jane
AU  - Chen, Qin
AU  - Kawamura, Kazuya
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Environmental and Energy Benefits of Freight Delivery Consolidation in Urban Area
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 65p
AB  - Among new, innovative city logistics strategies, delivery cooperation has received increasing academic and practical attention mostly in Europe and Japan. The idea is to establish cooperation among the suppliers, carriers and the customers through Urban Consolidation Center (UCC), a public facility usually located at the city boundary; with proper consolidation of loads and routing, the goods are then sent to the customers in the urban area with cleaner vehicles and less vehicle miles traveled (VMT). In this study, the authors investigated the feasibility of UCC in an urban setting at the tactical level with respect to total logistics cost and environmental impact. In other words, whether UCC could reduce the logistics cost which involves the monetary costs for activities from production to consumption, while maintaining acceptable level of energy consumption and vehicular emissions. It is found that under certain conditions, UCC may become a favorable last-mile urban delivery solution to the current one without a UCC. Especially the benefits of UCC strategies become significant when the customer rent cost is high and UCC terminal operation cost is low. UCC becomes more beneficial as the economic scale is greater (i.e., higher numbers of customers and suppliers). In addition, public subsidy for UCC terminals would make urban cooperative delivery more competitive, resulting in lower truck VMT and emissions in the urban area.
KW  - Cities
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Costs
KW  - Delivery service
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Freight consolidation
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0319.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258468
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489415
AU  - Cao, Mei
AU  - Golias, Mihalis M
AU  - Karafa, Jeffery
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of the Effect of Gate Strategies in Drayage Related Emissions
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 74p
AB  - Intermodal Marine Container Terminals are experiencing growth in container volumes and are under pressure to develop strategies to accommodate increasing demand. One of the major factors contributing to the problem is inefficient gate operations that can cause serious safety, congestion, and environmental problems. There is a plethora of ongoing discussions concerning the implementation of different operational strategies that may relieve the effects of congestion and improve air quality. This research presents the development of a traffic simulation model capable of measuring the impact of various gate strategies on congestion at terminal gates. The proposed model is used to quantify both travel time and delay, and emission levels at terminal gates before and after gate strategies have been implemented. To the authors' knowledge this is the first attempt, in the published literature, to capture delays and emissions at the gates of terminals using a traffic simulation model.
KW  - Container terminal gates
KW  - Container terminals
KW  - Drayage
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Water traffic
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0419.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257313
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486984
AU  - Hamric, Karly
AU  - Martinelli, David R
AU  - Unnikrishnan, Avinash
AU  - Martinelli, Diana
AU  - West Virginia University, Morgantown
AU  - West Virginia Department of Transportation
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An Evaluation of School Zone Traffic Control Strategies, Phase I
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 81p
AB  - Throughout the past six decades, the predominant mode of student transport has shifted from walking to riding in a school bus or personal vehicle which has impacted both the safety and efficiency of school zone traffic control strategies. In order to improve school zone operations in West Virginia, current warrant and laws relevant to school zones within West Virginia and other states are researched. Concerns are characterized with respect to traffic efficiency and safety parameters and are addressed in a survey polling county and district transportation officials throughout West Virginia. In addition, school zone crash data provided by the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) is analyzed for Ohio and North Carolina to gain a better understanding of the cause and nature of school zone crashes. Through multi-disciplinary cooperation, school zone traffic control strategies should implement uniform procedures that target driver awareness and education on their actions and the effect they have on safety and efficiency and how the two issues are inter-related.
KW  - Crash data
KW  - North Carolina
KW  - Ohio
KW  - Schools
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Traffic control devices
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - West Virginia
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/WVU-2010-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254564
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01484416
AU  - Atkinson-Palombo, Carol
AU  - Marshall, Wesley
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - Center for Transportation and Livable Systems
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Quantifying Transit-Oriented Development's Potential Contribution to Federal Policy Objectives on Transportation-Housing-Energy Interactions
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 231p
AB  - This project involved a comprehensive and compact study of the built environment in light rail transit (LRT) station areas in Denver, Colorado and travel behaviors in both Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)- and non-TOD areas in the region. Graduate students from the University of Connecticut and University of Colorado, Denver participated in a workshop in Denver in Spring 2011 to collaborate on designing questions for two comprehensive travel surveys and subsequently carry out an intensive field campaign to collect data. The principal objectives were to provide insight into how different types of TOD affect travel behavior patterns—specifically reductions in vehicle miles traveled (VMT)—and to understand what prevents people from living in TOD areas. The latter information was intended to help assess the potential for region-wide reductions in VMT. An additional objective was to provide University of Connecticut students with experience in carrying out collaborative, integrative, and interdisciplinary research with students from a National Science Foundation (NSF) Integrative Graduate Education, Research and Training (IGERT) Program. The intention was to help to build a community of emerging scholars equipped to engage in trans-disciplinary work on policy-relevant issues, and help to better position faculty at the University of Connecticut to advance ongoing initiatives to establish an IGERT in Sustainable Urbanism. The main findings of the research are that although the LRT system in Denver, Colorado, may have met its goals with respect to congestion relief and ridership, the fact that the system has been located in existing travel corridors housing freeways and heavy freight trains limits the extent to which the system can become integrated into the fabric of the built environment. A thorough and systematic index of pedestrian level-of-service shows a tremendous variation in the pedestrian accessibility of stations across the system. In addition, stations that have park-and-ride lots show similar levels of vehicle ownership and VMT to other locations across the metropolitan area that are nowhere near LRT systems. Only those stations defined as walk-and-ride locations (i.e., those without park-and-ride lots) register lower car ownership and lower levels of VMT. The results of the research are in the process of being disseminated to academics, practitioners, and policymakers interested in the interactions between transportation, housing, and energy demand. To date, the research has resulted in one MA Thesis completed in May 2011, one MS Thesis due to be completed at the end of August 2013, one presentation at the Transportation Research Board January 2013 annual meeting, one presentation at the Annual Association of American Geographers’ annual meeting in New York in March 2012, one paper in the Transportation  Research Record, and one presentation at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Built environment
KW  - Denver (Colorado)
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Housing
KW  - Land use
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Policy
KW  - Rail transit stations
KW  - Transit oriented development
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.ctls.uconn.edu/pdf/10-01Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252658
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482773
AU  - Schlossberg, Marc
AU  - Meyer, Cody
AU  - Dill, Jennifer
AU  - Ma, Liang
AU  - University of Oregon, Eugene
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Department of Transportation
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Measuring the Performance of Transit Relative to Livability
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 120p
AB  - This project sought to understand the relationship between urban form, transit service characteristics, and ridership measured at the stop level. Most previous work in this area has looked at these issues separately, by either linking system performance (e.g. on-time performance, cost, etc.) to ridership or exploring the connection between urban form (e.g. density) and transit use. This project synthesized these disparate approaches. While transit service characteristics (e.g. frequency, travel time, etc.) are important to help individuals reach their desired destinations, most transit users are pedestrians at the beginning and end of any transit trip. Therefore, focusing on the walkable zone around each transit stop was also important.
KW  - Land use
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Oregon
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Rail transit stations
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Urban design
UR  - http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TP_RES/ResearchReports/SPR735.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251380
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481619
AU  - Akin, Michelle
AU  - Huang, Jiang
AU  - Shi, Xianming
AU  - Veneziano, David
AU  - Williams, Dan
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - Minnesota Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Snow Removal at Extreme Temperatures
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 80p
AB  - Extremely cold winter storms (below about 10°F) bring about different considerations for taking care of roads than warmer winter storms, where granular salt and salt brine are cost-effective measures of melting snow and ice when used in combination with other operations (e.g., plowing). At temperatures lower than about 10°F, either extremely large quantities of salt are needed or no amount of salt can melt snow or ice pack. Best practices for using chemicals during extremely cold winter storms include: waiting until the end of the storm, using deicers in daylight hours only, mixing salt with MgCl2, CaCl2, and/or agriculture by-products, and using high application rates. Despite their environmental and hidden costs (air pollution, sedimentation, spring cleanup & disposal), abrasives are frequently used during extreme temperatures to provide temporary traction. Best practices for using abrasives during severe cold includes prewetting with liquid deicers (although not plain salt brine - it may freeze) or hot water. Innovative strategies continue to be tested at severe temperatures, including conductive pavements and geothermal systems, which have demonstrated to be potentially effective tools.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Deicing chemicals
KW  - Frigid regions
KW  - Low temperature
KW  - Snow and ice control
KW  - Snow removal
KW  - Snowstorms
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://www.clearroads.org/downloads/Snow-Removal-Extreme-Temps-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250619
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481003
AU  - Bose, Pablo S
AU  - UVM Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Refugees and Transportation in Vermont: Travel Behaviour and Critical Questions Based on Gender, Age and Transportation Hierarchies
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - This study examines the travel behaviour and attitudes of recently resettled refugees in Chittenden County, Vermont, with particular attention to distinctions based on gender and age. It is based on an earlier project conducted between 2008-2012 that examined transportation practices amongst recently arrived refugees in Vermont as a generalized group. One of the findings from that initial study was that more in-depth research was necessary in order to understand the ways in which mobility and access to transportation impact specific parts of the refugee population, especially women, children and the elderly. Drawing on qualitative research methods using techniques such as interviews, focus groups, and surveys, this current study examines what kinds of possibilities and barriers exist to full mobility for these sub sets of the refugee population. In addition one of the key goals of this project was to examine what particular mode choices were favored by refugees both within the larger community but also within these subgroups of the population.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Chittenden County (Vermont)
KW  - Focus groups
KW  - Gender
KW  - Interviews
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Refugees
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/pdf/13-002FinalReportBose.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249662
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478889
AU  - Drew, Daniel
AU  - Hayes, Caroline
AU  - Nguyen, Mai-Anh
AU  - Cheng, Xuan
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Hand Images in Virtual Spatial Collaboration for Traffic Incident and Disaster Management
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 190p
AB  - The purpose of this study was to develop demonstration technology that can overlay hand videos on spatial images such as traffic maps, and assess the impact of this technology on virtual collaboration. This work explores to what degree gestures impact collaboration effectiveness in the task of traffic incident management, with the goal of informing design of tools to support virtual collaboration in this domain. Eighteen participants worked in pairs to solve three traffic incident scenarios using three different interaction approaches: 1) face-to-face: participants worked together by marking up an electronic map projected on the table in front of them; 2) separated: participants were separated by a soft wall while they worked together on the electronic map with electronic drawing tools; or 3) hand images: same as 2 with the addition of the partner’s hand images projected on the map. Participants were video recorded. The questionnaires were given to participants after each trial to evaluate workload, positive interactions, team behaviors, connection to teammate, and frustration. Participants spent more time on the task and perceived a higher level of time pressure when using hand images than when working face-to-face. When working face-to-face, participants felt more like their teammate was at the same table and felt less disconnected from their teammate than when working separately or using hand images. The results indicate that adding hand videos to a virtual drawing tool for the task of traffic incident management can increase team behaviors and change the way in which team members communicate information.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Communication
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Hand
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Nonverbal gestures
KW  - Teams
KW  - Technology assessment
KW  - Traffic incidents
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2282
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247904
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478885
AU  - Davis, Gary A
AU  - Mudgal, Abhisek
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Field Study of Driver Behavior at Permitted Left-Turn Indications
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 35p
AB  - A digital video camera was used to record left-turning vehicles and through vehicles at an urban intersection. A total of 39 left-turn events, with a total of 195 gap decisions, were identified and vehicle trajectories corresponding to those were extracted from the video and transformed into real coordinates using photogrammetry. Bayes estimates of each opposing vehicle’s distance, speed, and time-to-arrival were then computed from the trajectories and used as predictors in logit models of acceptance/rejection decisions. It was found, when models are penalized for the numbers of their parameters, that arrival time, the ratio of initial distance to initial speed, was best predictor. This contrasts with an earlier study that found distance clearly superior to arrival time. This may be due to the fact that in the current study, speeds and initial distances were substantially higher than in the earlier study.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Gap acceptance
KW  - Left turn phase
KW  - Left turns
KW  - Logits
KW  - Photogrammetry
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2272
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247905
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478669
AU  - Zeng, Huanghui
AU  - Schrock, Steven D
AU  - Mulinazzi, Thomas E
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Safety Effectiveness of Composite Shoulders, Wide Unpaved Shoulders, and Wide Paved Shoulders in Kansas
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 71p
AB  - Incremental increases in paved shoulder widths have been studied and are shown in the Highway Safety Manual. While each incremental increase in shoulder width is beneficial, there is evidence that suggests the relationship between safety improvements and incremental increases in shoulder width may not be linear. It is possible that the net safety gains for wider shoulder increments are not as high as incremental benefits of the initial increments of shoulder width. Thus, a highway agency may have opportunities for greater system-wide safety benefits from paving longer roadway segments with a narrower shoulder rather than paving shorter roadway segments with a wider shoulder. This approach is tempered by consideration of long term degradation in shoulder width and slope over the life of a facility due to normal pavement maintenance activities. Practitioners must balance long-term sustainability, cost, expected operations and safety benefits of proposed improvements. For new and reconstruction projects, the cost of additional shoulder width is minimal compared to retrofitting an existing facility. Determining the benefits of various shoulder improvement approaches fits within the Kansas Department of Transportation’s (KDOT) “Practical Improvements” approach to maximize benefits relative to the construction and maintenance costs required. Among the 8,300 miles of rural two-lane highways in Kansas, approximately 25 percent are equipped with composite shoulders consisting of three feet of pavement, with the remainder aggregate or turf. Their safety effectiveness was studied using the Empirical Bayes (EB) approach and the cross-sectional approach. Three developed Safety Performance Functions (SPFs) were used to create Kansas-specific Crash Modification Factors (CMFs) for composite shoulders compared with segments with no or unpaved shoulders. It was found that upgrading narrow unpaved shoulders to composite shoulders can reduce shoulder related crashes by up to 61 percent and fatal and injury crashes by 31 percent. It was also found that wide paved shoulders can provide more safety benefit than composite shoulders, and wide unpaved shoulders can provide slightly less safety benefit than composite shoulders. Based on these results, 20-year projections were developed projecting the safety effectiveness that can be achieved through implementing these safety improvements.
KW  - Crash modification factors
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Empirical Bayes method
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Improvements
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Kansas Department of Transportation
KW  - Paved shoulders
KW  - Road shoulders
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Safety Performance Functions
KW  - Two lane highways
KW  - Width
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003827019
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247472
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478576
AU  - Yang, Jiann-Shiou
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of an Innovative Prototype Lane Departure Warning System
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 51p
AB  - Development of various techniques such as lane departure warning (LDW) systems can improve traffic safety significantly. An LDW system should be able to detect when the driver is in danger of departing the road and then trigger an alarm to warn the driver early enough to take corrective action. This report presents the development of a new prototype LDW system. It is mainly an image-based approach to find the vehicle's lateral characteristics and then uses that information to establish an operation algorithm to determine whether a warning signal should be issued based on the status of the vehicle deviating from its heading lane. The system developed takes a mixed approach by integrating the Lucas-Kanade (L-K) optical flow and the Hough transform-based lane detection methods in its implementation. The L-K point tracking is used when the lane boundaries cannot be detected, while the lane detection technique is used when they become available. Even though both techniques are used in the system, only one method is activated at any given time because each technique has its own advantages and also disadvantages. The developed LDW system was road tested on Interstate-35, US-53, Rice Lake Road, Martin Road, and Jean Duluth Road. Overall, the system operates correctly as expected, with a false alarm occurring only roughly 1.18% of the operation time. This report presents the system implementation together with findings. Factors that could affect the system performance are also discussed.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Hough transforms
KW  - Image processing
KW  - Lane lines
KW  - Lateral placement
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2258
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247566
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477792
AU  - Chen, Hongyi
AU  - Chen, Fang
AU  - Anderson, Chris
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Developing an Intelligent Decision Support System for the Proactive Implementation of Traffic Safety Strategies
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 81p
AB  - The growing number of traffic safety strategies, including the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and low-cost proactive safety improvement (LCPSI), call for an integrated approach to optimize resource allocation systematically and proactively. While most of the currently used standard methods such as the six-step method that identify and eliminate hazardous locations serve their purpose well, they represent a reactive approach that seeks improvement after crashes happen. In this project, a decision support system with Geographic Information System (GIS) interface is developed to proactively optimize the resource allocation of traffic safety improvement strategies. With its optimization function, the decision support system is able to suggest a systematically optimized implementation plan together with the associated cost once the concerned areas and possible countermeasures are selected. It proactively improves the overall traffic safety by implementing the most effective safety strategies that meet the budget to decrease the total number of crashes to the maximum degree. The GIS interface of the decision support system enables the users to select concerned areas directly from the map and calculates certain inputs automatically from parameters related to the geometric design and traffic control features. An associated database is also designed to support the system so that as more data are input into the system, the calibration factors and crash modification functions used to calculate the expected number of crashes will be continuously updated and refined.
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2264
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247047
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477342
AU  - Guin, Angshuman
AU  - Laval, Jorge
AU  - Chilukuri, Bhargava R
AU  - Georgia Institute of Technology
AU  - Georgia Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Georgia Transportation Institute University Transportation Center (GTI-UTC)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Freeway Travel-time Estimation and Forecasting
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 57p
AB  - Real-time traffic information provided by Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has proven invaluable for commuters in the  Georgia freeway network. The increasing number of Variable Message Signs, addition of  services such as My-NaviGAtor, NaviGAtor-to-go etc. and the advancement of the 511 traffic  information system will require the Traffic Management Center to provide more detailed and  accurate traffic information to an increasing number of users. In this context, the ability to  forecast traffic conditions (both in space and time) would augment the services provided by  NaviGAtor by allowing users to plan ahead for their trip. Forecasts built into the estimation  model will make the travel-time estimates more accurate by reducing the use of stale data.  Additionally, spatial forecast can help GDOT provide reliable information in areas with  temporary outages in coverage; e.g. outages due to detector or cameras malfunction.  The vast majority of real-time travel-time estimation algorithms proposed in the literature are  based on data mining techniques. Unfortunately, this approach is unable to produce reliable  forecasts because it does not take into account traffic dynamics (e.g., via a simulation model).  In Germany, a simulation-based forecast system is in place at most metropolitan areas, with  very favorable user impacts. Although successful, the German example is based on a type of  simulation model (a Cellular Automata model) that has critical drawbacks: difficulty of  calibration, inability to incorporate different user classes (e.g., cars and trucks), and inadequate  capability of replicating detailed traffic dynamics on freeways. The model proposed in this  study overcomes these drawbacks by incorporating the latest advances in traffic flow theory and  simulation.  This study demonstrated the use of a simulation based framework to make short-term travel-time predictions in real-time. The results show that sufficiently accurate 5-minute and 10- minute predictions can be made using this framework. The lessons learned from the study  stresses that it is critical to adequately calibrate the simulation model and for this purpose it is  essential to accurately calibrate the vehicle detection sensors. Currently, the simulation is  manually initiated each time a new origin destination (OD) matrix becomes available. For a seamless  implementation, the initiation process needs to be automated. In future studies the researcher  would like to automate the simulation to run continuously by getting sufficient predictions from  a run, pausing the simulation until the next OD update is available, and updating the OD flows  and initial queues. When incidents occur, the corresponding lane blockage can be incorporated  in the simulation before predictions are made.
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Georgia
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic estimation
KW  - Traffic flow theory
KW  - Traffic forecasting
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Trip matrices
UR  - http://www.utc.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/projects/reports/guin_laval__freeway_travel_time_estimation_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246696
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477162
AU  - Lindsey, Greg
AU  - Hankey, Steve
AU  - Wang, Xize
AU  - Chen, Junzhou
AU  - Gorjestani, Alec
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Feasibility of Using GPS to Track Bicycle Lane Positioning
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - Researchers have shown that Global Positioning System (GPS) units in smartphones can be used to identify routes taken by cyclists, including whether cyclists deviate from shortest paths to use bike lanes and other facilities. Researchers previously have not reported whether GPS tracking can be used to monitor whether and how bicyclists actually use lanes on streets, where these lanes have been provided, or other types of facilities. The objective of this research was to determine whether smartphone GPS units or enhanced GPS units could be used to track and map the location of cyclists on streets. The research team modified an open-source smartphone application (CycleTracks) to integrate with a higher-quality external GPS unit. Cyclists then mounted the smartphone with route-tracking applications to bicycles and repeatedly rode four different routes. The routes for the field tests were chosen because each included a striped lane for bicycle traffic and because the routes bisected a variety of built urban environments, ranging from an open location on a bridge over the Mississippi River to a narrow urban street lined by tall, multi-story office buildings. The field tests demonstrated that neither the smartphone GPS units nor the higher-quality external GPS receiver generate data accurate enough to monitor bicyclists’ use of bike lanes or other facilities. This lack of accuracy means that researchers interested in obtaining data about the propensity of cyclists to ride in lanes, when available, must rely on other technologies to obtain data for analyses.
KW  - Bicycle lanes
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Mapping
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Smartphones
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2268
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246590
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477160
AU  - Harrison, Robert
AU  - Trevino, Manuel
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating the Impacts of the Panama Canal Expansion on Texas Gulf Ports
PY  - 2013/03
SP  - 56p
AB  - This report covers a four-year period after contractors started work on the third set of locks, which in 2015 will effectively double the size of the ship using the Panama Canal. Many of the impacts linked to the new locks remain unknown (like lock fees, demand, and shipper response) but it has been successfully promoted as an economic stimulus to a number of the larger Gulf and East Coast Atlantic ports. This in turn has generated a number of studies that reported during 2012. This report concentrates on three issues raised in these reports that fit the resources and focus of the original study—statewide planning. Chapter 2 gives a Texas Gulf perspective on the potential impacts of the new locks. Chapter 3 examines a major, yet unresolved, issue facing shippers and steamship companies – offering “direct” versus “hub and spoke” services to ports that may not have the status of true load centers or sufficiently deep access channels. Finally, Chapter 4 provides planning observations and recommendations, which could strengthen Texas statewide multimodal plans over the next 20 years.
KW  - Channels (Waterways)
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Landside operations (Ports)
KW  - Locks (Waterways)
KW  - Panama Canal
KW  - Port operations
KW  - Ports
KW  - Routes and routing
KW  - Texas Gulf Coast
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00062-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246729
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477080
AU  - Kish, Andrew
AU  - Samavedam, Gopal
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Track Buckling Prevention: Theory, Safety Concepts, and Applications
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 168p
AB  - This report is a part of the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center’s Track Stability Research Program for the Federal Railroad Administration on thermal buckling of continuous welded rail (CWR) track and its prevention. Presented in this report are the developments of theoretical results and the development and application of the CWR-SAFE computer software model for prediction of CWR track buckling strength. This comprehensive predictive model encompasses several different modules designed to perform both deterministic and probabilistic buckling analyses, based on the dynamic buckling theory previously validated by tests, and predicts safe limits for buckling prevention. The model accounts for all the important parameters influencing track buckling, such as rail size, curvature, lateral resistance, tie-ballast friction, fastener torsional and longitudinal resistances, track vertical stiffness, misalignment amplitude and wavelength, and vehicle parameters. Applications of the model are demonstrated through analyses of parametric sensitivity, development of buckling safety limits in terms of safe and critical temperatures, and evaluation of annual probability of buckling occurrences for typical CWR line segments. The report also presents techniques to determine the input parameters for CWR-SAFE application and a practical methodology for CWR track safety monitoring. A risk-based approach is proposed to provide more flexibility to the industry in achieving a minimum number of annual buckles in a given territory and to provide science-based guidelines for improved slow order policies when operating at elevated rail temperatures.
KW  - Buckling
KW  - Continuous welded rail
KW  - Curvature
KW  - Lateral stability
KW  - Maintenance of way
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Temperature
KW  - Thermal degradation
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3036
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47200/47265/TR_Track_Buckling_Prevention.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246606
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477076
AU  - Melnik, Gina
AU  - Rosenhand, Hadar
AU  - Isaacs, Matthew
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Cab Technology Integration Laboratory Demonstration with Moving Map Technology
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 35p
AB  - A human performance study was conducted at the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) using a locomotive research simulator—the Cab Technology Integration Laboratory (CTIL)—that was acquired by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The primary objective of the study was to conduct a hands-on simulator training exercise and system demonstration. A moving map experiment was chosen for the study because FRA is interested in determining the human performance and safety implications of this technology following prior FRA research on preview information in cab displays (Einhorn, Sheridan & Multer, 2005). However, because surrogate (novice) engineers were used for the experiment instead of experienced locomotive engineers, the results have limited applicability. Lessons learned and general best practices for designing and running future CTIL experiments are discussed in this report. Possibilities for future research regarding operator use of moving map displays are also considered.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Cab Technology Integration Laboratory
KW  - Locomotives
KW  - Operators (Persons)
KW  - Performance evaluations
KW  - Railroad engineers
KW  - Safety
KW  - Technology
KW  - Training
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3038
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47200/47264/CTIL_2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246608
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476610
AU  - Golay, Leslie
AU  - Tuller, Mikchael
AU  - Walsh, Benjamin
AU  - Barnes-Farrell, Janet
AU  - Morrow, Stephanie
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Rail Industry Job Analysis: Freight Conductor
PY  - 2013/03
SP  - 32p
AB  - This document describes the results from a job analysis that was conducted for the position of Freight Conductor. Key aspects of the position were identified, including main tasks and knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to carry out the requirements of the job successfully. The job analysis process is provided in detail, including meeting agendas, survey questionnaires, and a finalized list of job tasks and KSAOs identified by subject matter experts (SMEs). Conclusions report the specific results of the job analysis, including information from SME focus group discussions regarding demands and strains of the job. Implications for training and development are also discussed.
KW  - Abilities
KW  - Conductors (Trains)
KW  - Experts
KW  - Freight trains
KW  - Job analysis
KW  - Job skills
KW  - Knowledge
KW  - Personnel development
KW  - Tasks
KW  - Training
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/3010
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48181/TR_Rail_Industry_Job_Analysis_Freight_Conductor.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246331
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476043
AU  - Darrow, Margaret M
AU  - Jensen, David D
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of MEMS-based In-Place Inclinometers in Cold Regions
PY  - 2013/03//Final Report
SP  - 12p
AB  - Inclinometer probes are used to measure ground movement. While an industry standard, this technology has drawbacks, including costly trips for manual measurements, operator error, and limited measurements due to casing deformation. Relatively new MEMS-based in-place inclinometers (M-IPIs) consist of MEMS accelerometer segments separated variously by flexible joints or field-connection systems, and encased in watertight housing. M-IPIs provide nearly continuous ground movement measurements, accommodate greater ground movement due to their flexibility, and may contain temperature sensors. Two M-IPIs from different manufacturers were evaluated for three different vertical and horizontal applications in Interior Alaska. Each M-IPI was evaluated for ease of installation and subsequent retrieval, durability, and functionality in frozen ground. Measurements from both devices compare dwell to those from the inclinometer probe, indicating that these devices are suitable for use in cold regions. Field experience indicates that the installation procedure for each instrument is better undertaken at above freezing temperatures, due to required manual dexterity and the temperature requirements of casing adhesive. If used to measure both ground movement and temperature in frozen ground, the M-IPI temperature sensors should be calibrated. We recommend replacing cold-affected plastic components between installations to avoid unwanted breakage during re-installation.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Deformation
KW  - Inclinometers
KW  - Measurement
KW  - MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) device
KW  - Permafrost
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Slope stability
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/03/DARROW_AIMIS_FINAL_REPORT_MARCH_2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245880
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486987
AU  - Rakha, Hesham
AU  - Sangster, John
AU  - Du, Jianhe
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Naturalistic Driving Data for the Analysis of Car-Following Models
PY  - 2013/02/21/Final Report
SP  - 49p
AB  - This report presents two research efforts that have been published as conference papers through the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, the first of which is under review for journal publication. The first research effort investigates the general application of naturalistic driving data to the modeling of car-following behavior. The driver-specific data available from naturalistic driving studies provides a unique perspective from which to test and calibrate car-following models. As equipment and data storage costs continue to decline, the collection of data through in situ probe-type vehicles is likely to become more popular, and thus there is a need to assess the feasibility of these data for the modeling of driver car-following behavior. The first research effort seeks to focus on the costs and benefits of naturalistic data for use in mobility applications. Any project seeking to utilize naturalistic data should plan for a complex and potentially costly data reduction  process to extract mobility data. A case study is provided using the database from the 100-Car Study, conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. One thousand minutes worth of data comprised of over 2,000 car-following events recorded across eight drivers is compiled herein, from a section of multilane highway located near Washington, D.C. The collected event data is used to calibrate four different car-following models, and a comparative analysis of model performance is conducted. The results of model calibration are given in tabular format, displayed on the fundamental diagram, and shown with sample event charts of speed-vs.-time and headway-vs.-time. The authors demonstrate that the Rakha-Pasumarthy-Adjerid model performs best both in matching individual drivers and in matching aggregate results, when compared with the Gipps, Intelligent Driver, and Gaxis-Herman-Rothery models. The second effort examines how insights gained from naturalistic data may serve to improve existing car-following models. The research presented analyzes the simplified behavioral vehicle longitudinal motion model, currently implemented in the INTEGRATION software, known as the Rakha-Pasumarthy-Adjerid (RPA)  model. This model utilizes a steady-state formulation along with two constraints, namely: acceleration and collision avoidance. An analysis of the model using the naturalistic driving data identified a deficiency in the model formulation, in that it predicts more conservative driving behavior compared to naturalistic driving. Much of the error in simulated car-following behavior occurs when a car-following event is initiated. As a vehicle enters the lane in front of a subject vehicle, the spacing between the two vehicles is often much shorter than is desired; the observed behavior is that, rather than the following vehicle decelerating aggressively, the following vehicle coasts until the desired headway/spacing is achieved. Consequently, the model is enhanced to reflect this empirically observed behavior. Finally, a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the original  and proposed model formulations demonstrates that the proposed modification significantly decreases the modeling error and produces car-following behavior that is consistent with empirically observed driver behavior.
KW  - Automatic data collection systems
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Car following
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Traffic simulation
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/VT-2010-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254562
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476287
AU  - Garvey, Philip
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - United States Sign Council
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Development of Optimal On-Premise Electronic Message Center (EMC) Lighting Levels and Sign Lighting Measurement Techniques
PY  - 2013/02/20/Final Report
SP  - 8p
AB  - Research conducted recently for the United States Sign Council Foundation found no consensus in the research literature or the practices of the commercial electronic message center (EMC) industry on lighting measurement or appropriate lighting levels of on-premise EMCs, nor are there any national standards for EMC lighting levels developed through research at this time. It was clear that, in order to make them optimally legible during daytime hours and at night, the lighting levels of these EMCs must be (and typically are) adjusted automatically as a function of ambient light level. However, the procedures for measuring EMC light levels and the appropriate levels to set the signs during some daytime scenarios (e.g., dusk/dawn and overcast) and at night are inconsistent among the leading U.S. EMC manufacturers and are not supported by empirical, independent, human factors data. This has led to complaints of EMC’s being “over bright,” primarily at night, though this issue has also been reported during dusk and dawn hours and under overcast daytime conditions. The objective of this research was to begin addressing this situation by developing, through original field and test track research, EMC lighting levels that would optimize sign legibility at night from the prospective of a motorist who is viewing the EMC, and to develop standard light level testing procedures.
KW  - Brightness
KW  - Electronic message signs
KW  - Legibility
KW  - Lighting
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Periods of the day
KW  - Signs
KW  - Standards
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/PSU-2011-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245470
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476292
AU  - Rakha, Hesham A
AU  - Ahn, Kyoungho
AU  - Park, Sangjun
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Predictive Eco-Cruise Control (ECC) System: Model Development, Modeling, and Potential Benefits
PY  - 2013/02/19/Final Report
SP  - 93p
AB  - This research develops a reference model of a predictive eco-cruise control (ECC) system that intelligently modulates vehicle speed within a pre-set speed range to minimize vehicle fuel consumption levels using roadway topographic information. The study includes five basic tasks: (1) develop a vehicle powertrain model that can be easily implemented within eco-driving tools; (2) develop a simple fuel consumption model that computes instantaneous vehicle fuel consumption levels based on power exerted; (3) evaluate manual driving and conventional cruise control (CC) driving using field-collected data; (4) develop a predictive ECC system that uses the developed vehicle powertrain and fuel consumption models; and (5) evaluate the potential benefits of the proposed predictive ECC system on a pre-trip and fleet-aggregate basis. This study develops a predictive ECC system that can save fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions using road topography information. The performance of the system is tested by simulating a vehicle trip on a section of Interstate 81 in the state of Virginia. The results demonstrate fuel savings of up to 15% with execution times within real time. The study found that the implementation of the predictive ECC system could help achieving better fuel economy and air quality.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Cruise control
KW  - Ecodriving
KW  - Fuel conservation
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Power trains
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/VT-2009-03.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245471
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476290
AU  - Rakha, Hesham A
AU  - Zohdy, Ismail H
AU  - Kamalanathsharm, Raj K
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Agent-Based Game Theory Modeling for Driverless Vehicles at Intersections
PY  - 2013/02/19/Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - This report presents three research efforts that were published in various journals: "An Agent- Based Framework for Modeling Driver Left-Turn Gap Acceptance Behavior at Signalized Intersections"; "Game Theory Algorithm for Intersection-Based Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) Systems"; and "Intersection Management for Autonomous Vehicles Using ICACC." The first research effort presents a reactive-driving agent based algorithm for modeling driver left turn gap acceptance behavior at signalized intersections. This model considers the interaction between driver characteristics and vehicle physical capabilities. The model explicitly captures the vehicle constraints on driving behavior using a vehicle dynamics model. In addition, the model uses the driver’s input and the psychological deliberation in accepting/rejecting a gap. The model is developed using a total of 301 accepted gaps and subsequently validated using 2,429 rejected gaps at the same site and also validated using 1,485 gap decisions (323 accepted and 1,162 rejected) at another site. The proposed model is considered as a mix between traditional and reactive methods for decision making and consists of three main components: input, data processing and output. The input component uses sensing information, vehicle and driver characteristics to process the data and estimate the critical gap value. Thereafter, the agent decides to either accept or reject the offered gap by comparing to a driver-specific critical gap (the offered gap should be greater than the critical gap for it to be accepted). The results demonstrate that the agent-based model is superior to the standard logistic regression model because it produces consistent performance for accepted and rejected gaps (correct predictions in 90% of the observations) and the model is easily transferable to different sites. The proposed modeling framework can be generalized to capture different vehicle types, roadway configurations, traffic  movements, intersection characteristics, and weather effects on driver gap acceptance behavior. The findings of this research effort is considered as an essential stage for modeling autonomous/driverless vehicles. The second effort develops a heuristic optimization algorithm for automated vehicles (equipped with CACC systems) at uncontrolled intersections using a game theory framework. The proposed system models the automated vehicles as reactive agents interacting and collaborating with the intersection controller (manager agent) to minimize the total delay. The system is evaluated using a case study considering two different intersection control scenarios: a four-way stop control and the proposed intersection controller framework. In both scenarios, four automated vehicles (a single vehicle per approach) were simulated using a Monte Carlo simulation that was repeated 1000 times. The results show that the proposed system reduces the total delay relative to a traditional stop control by 35 seconds on average, which corresponds to an approximately 70% reduction in the total delay. The third effort presents a new tool for optimizing the movements of autonomous/driverless vehicles through intersections: iCACC. The main concept of the proposed tool is to control vehicle trajectories using CACC systems to avoid collisions and minimize intersection delay. Simulations were executed to compare conventional signal control with iCACC considering two measures of effectiveness - delay and fuel consumption. Savings in delay and fuel consumption in the range of 91% and 82% relative to conventional signal control were demonstrated, respectively. It is anticipated that the findings of this report may contribute in the future of advanced vehicles control and connected vehicles applications.
KW  - Autonomous intelligent cruise control
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Game theory
KW  - Gap acceptance
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Left turns
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Unsignalized intersections
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/VT-2010-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245469
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01551342
AU  - Miller, Kevin
AU  - Bouattoura, Fariel
AU  - Zingalli, Joe
AU  - Macias, Roberto
AU  - Miller, Bryan
AU  - Olyai, Koorosh
AU  - Dallas Area Rapid Transit
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - System Acceptance Test Plan: Dallas Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Demonstration Project
PY  - 2013/02/16/Final Report
SP  - 234p
AB  - The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is leading the US 75 Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Demonstration Project for the Dallas region. Coordinated corridor operations and management is predicated on being able to share transportation information on highways, arterials, transit, weather, and incidents. The ICM system will utilize the existing Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Center-to-Center standards based communication infrastructure, and will provide direct connections to agencies not on the Center-to-Center network, via a web-based interface known as SmartNET. The ICM system uses SmartNET as the main graphical user interfaces for the ICM Stakeholders to create, edit, and view events in the corridor and region, view current conditions of field devices and congestion on the roadway network, and coordinate responses to incidents within the corridor. This Systems Acceptance Test Plan covers the test process and scripts for validating the requirements of the ICM system.
KW  - Acceptance tests
KW  - Communication systems
KW  - Dallas (Texas)
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Software
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Validation
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54100/54133/Dallas_ICMS_-_SAT_Plan__-_Final_508.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1340039
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489749
TI  - Evaluating the Clearview Typeface System for Negative Contrast Signs
AB  - The development of Clearview typeface began in response to a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) study that recommended a 20 percent increase in sign letter height to provide greater reading distances for aging drivers.  The original Clearview studies showed that it was possible to obtain significant improvements in guide sign reading distances for older drivers without increasing letter height by using mixed-case Clearview typefaces in place of all-uppercase Standard Highway Alphabets.  Furthermore, the positive contrast (i.e., lighter letters on darker background) mixed case Clearview typefaces were found to be significantly more legible than the mixed case Standard Highway Series E(M) in several independent studies.  This body of research led to the 2004 interim approval of Clearview on positive contrast guide signs by the FHWA. Clearview was specifically designed to improve guide sign readability at night for older drivers when used with high brightness sign materials by reducing or eliminating the negative effects of halation and overglow.  However, the Clearview Typeface System also includes negative contrast versions to be used on regulatory and warning signs.  The difference between positive contrast versions of Clearview and negative contrast versions are limited to stroke width; with negative contrast being heavier to counter-balance the halation effect of the lighter background when viewed at a distance and with high brightness retroreflective materials.  While the research discussed above led to the development of guidelines and approval for the use of Clearview in positive contrast, definitive studies have not been conducted for negative contrast applications.  Without this research, Clearview's approval will remain restricted to positive contrast applications and full adoption will not take place. The objective of the proposed research is to compare the legibility distance of the negative contrast (i.e., darker letters on a lighter background) Clearview Typeface System with that of Standard Highway Alphabets on regulatory signs in the daytime and nighttime with older and younger motorists.  The researchers will identify the legibility distances and evaluate the effects of letter spacing of sign legends using: mixed case Clearview (Clearview 2B, 3B, and 4B) and both mixed and all upper-case Standard Highway Alphabets (Series C, D, and E) on white signs with black legends.
KW  - Clearview font
KW  - Contrast
KW  - Legibility
KW  - Sign legend typefaces
KW  - Traffic signs
KW  - Visibility
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259220
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485398
AU  - Colgate, J Edward
AU  - Peshkin, Michael A
AU  - Northwestern University, Evanston
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Haptic Interface for Vehicular Touch Screens
PY  - 2013/02/13/Final Report
SP  - 12p
AB  - Once the domain of purely physical controls such as knobs, levers, buttons, and sliders, the vehicle dash is rapidly transforming into a computer interface. This presents a challenge for drivers, because the physics - based cues which make traditional controls easy to operate with limited visual confirmation are absent on traditional screens. The authors investigate the addition of programmable physics–based cues to a visual display as a method to reduce eyes–off–road time. A TPaD variable friction touchpad was installed in the Ford VIRTTEX motion driving simulator. Subjects performed target acquisition and slider adjustment task s under visual, visual/haptic, and haptic feedback conditions. For the two tasks, the authors found that the visual/haptic condition resulted in 39% and 19% decreases in total eyes–off–road time per task while showing negligible differences in task performance. Subjects showed a clear preference for combined visual and haptic feedback.
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Eye location
KW  - Instrument panels
KW  - Tactile perception
KW  - Vehicles
KW  - Visual display units (Computers)
KW  - Visual perception
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y501.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47908/CCITT_Final_Report_Y501.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253848
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01483040
AU  - Mullenbach, Joe
AU  - Blommer, Mike
AU  - Colgate, J Edward
AU  - Peshkin, Michael A
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Reducing Driver Distraction with Touchpad Physics
PY  - 2013/02/13/Final Report
SP  - 12p
AB  - Once the domain of purely physical controls such as knobs, levers, buttons, and sliders, the vehicle dash is rapidly transforming into a computer interface. This presents a challenge for drivers, because the physics-based cues which make traditional controls easy to operate with limited visual confirmation are absent on traditional screens. This report investigates the addition of programmable physics-based cues to a visual display as a method to reduce eyes-off-road time. A tactile pattern display (TPaD) variable friction touchpad was installed in the Ford VIRTTEX motion driving simulator. Subjects performed target acquisition and slider adjustment tasks under visual, visual/haptic, and haptic feedback conditions. For the two tasks, the visual/haptic condition resulted in 39% and 19% decreases in total eyes-off-road time per task while showing negligible differences in task performance. Subjects showed a clear preference for combined visual and haptic feedback.
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driver vehicle interfaces
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Information display systems
KW  - Instrument panels
KW  - Tactile perception
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y501.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251696
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01483047
AU  - Dolinskaya, Irina
AU  - Smilowitz, Karen
AU  - Chan, Jennifer
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integration of Real-Time Mapping Technology in Disaster Relief Distribution
PY  - 2013/02/12/Final Report
SP  - 34p
AB  - Dynamic environments and uncertainty are the norm during disasters. Many of the datasets currently used in emergency response become critically out of date in a fast changing environment. As a result, models and routing pathways often fall short of their intended goals to provide timely transfer of goods and services to organizations and disaster-affected communities. This project focuses on dynamic routing models for the distribution of relief supplies and services in humanitarian settings. The focus is on the potential to improve these models, and thus improve the effectiveness of humanitarian relief, by using new applications of mapping technologies and real-time information to mitigate the effects of dynamic changes during humanitarian crises and disasters and the significant uncertainty that exists in these settings.
KW  - Disaster relief
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Dynamic models
KW  - Information processing
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Mapping
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Routing
KW  - Uncertainty
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/2011.Dolinskaya.Final.Report.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47907/2011.Dolinskaya.Final.Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251695
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01571989
TI  - Calibration of Multi-scale Energy and Emission Models
AB  - The primary goal of the project is to provide vehicle emission and fuel consumption data that can be used to calibrate and validate multi-scale energy and emission models that can assess the environmental impact of different transportation alternatives.
KW  - Calibration
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Pollutants
UR  - http://tranliveutc.org/engr/research/niatt/tranlive/database/dtrt12gutc17-klk905
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1363595
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01570486
TI  - Quantifying Impact of Port Truck Traffic on Highway Operations Using GPS-Based Speed Data
AB  - Providing efficient transportation connectivity between the port facilities and industrial complexes and markets is vital in supporting regional economic activity and competitiveness, and promotes regional economic growth. Port terminal operations play an important role in this context as well, as they are directly connected and interact with the highway and rail systems providing access to the port. For example, inefficient gate operations can spill truck queues over to the surrounding roadway network causing serious congestion and safety problems. Since intermodal freight terminals tend to be located in or near major cities, where right of way is limited and very expensive to expand, implementing various operational strategies to increase efficiency of terminal operations is of paramount importance to providing conditions for sustainable growth in port volume and regional trade.  The first step in evaluating viable strategies is gaining a good understanding of and quantifying impacts of the port-related truck and rail traffic (demand) on highway and rail operations in the vicinity of the port. This impact can be measured in terms of changes in vehicle speeds and train velocity, as well as resulting level of service due to increased truck demand.
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Marine terminals
KW  - Speed data
KW  - Truck traffic
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/quantifying-impact-port-truck-traffic-highway-operations-using-gps-based-speed-data
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1362127
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01521844
TI  - Correlation Between Hurricane Sandy Damages Along NJ Coast with Land Use, Demographic and Other Local Characteristics
AB  - The goal of this study is to understand the correlation between Hurricane Sandy damages along NJ Coast with land use, demographic and other local characteristics and evaluate whether modifying or adding additional sea wall and sand dune infrastructure would have reduced the surge related damages that occurred from Sandy, and how their effectiveness compared to each other given location and community characteristics to assist "Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Mitigation Research &amp; Modeling" Project of Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.  The study will try to evaluate the effectiveness of these mitigation/resiliency strategies in reducing surge flooding, including the movement of huge quantities of sand from beaches, and related damages that occurred considerable distances from the ocean front.
KW  - Coast and river protective works
KW  - Coastal engineering
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Floods
KW  - Hurricane Sandy, 2012
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - New Jersey
KW  - Storm surges
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/correlation-between-hurricane-sandy-damages-along-nj-coast-land-use-demographic-and-ot
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1305706
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01521533
TI  - Novel High Speed Fiber-Optic Pressure Sensor Systems
AB  - This project would develop and improve a new class of high-speed pressure transducers that would allow for high pressure and high speed events to be accurately monitored. A major effort is the reduction of cost to allow pressure readings in critical applications such as automobile airbag deployment, engine combustion monitoring, wind-pressure loading, road and bridge load recording and traffic flow control. Applications in the defense sector such as gun barrel life monitoring and aerodynamic pressures on airplanes could potentially be drastically improved. This sensor technology can potentially revolutionize the way pressures in engineering systems are monitored, in definition, fidelity and how much those systems cost.  These new sensors are fiber-optic and constructed of non-metallic synthetics which alleviate the inherent electrical interference and corrosion problems associated with the current metallic electrical systems. The nature of this technology incorporates a thin diaphragm design coupled with an optical demodulation scheme which provides a very fast response time. The compact construction also allows for high spatial resolution in applications, providing a vastly more complete data set than is currently possible. Preliminary tests have shown linearity with a correlation coefficient of .9999 as well as a hysteresis of less than 0.3% and demonstrated rise time of less than 2&amp;#956;s from 0 kPa to 140 kPa. The goal of this project is to develop a complete test of this technology for high-speed, high-accuracy applications, specifically cost-effective data acquisition techniques and practical mounting methods tailored for the subject environment. The secondary goal is to develop improvements to increase pressure capabilities to 500 MPa suggest manufacturing methods for sensor production. The testing will center on the high-speed and high pressure end of the performance envelope as this would provide information that is also useful for the slower and lower pressure applications. This work was split out of the CTME High Strain Rate Proposal when Picatinny Arsenal came forward with the connection to Dr. Xingwei Wang's (UMass-Lowell) work on this new fiber-optic pressure sensor technology just after the original white paper was submitted. Picatinny Arsenal would commit additional money (not used for match) for this effort to augment this effort and help facilitate the work with UMass-Lowell through Picatinny. This can present a significant leverage opportunity for CTME money on an emerging technology that has the possibility for wide-ranging impact on transportation systems in areas of safety, efficiency, performance and life monitoring.
KW  - Fiber optics
KW  - Pressure transducers
KW  - Prototype tests
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Speed
KW  - Test procedures
UR  - http://web.ysu.edu/gen/stem_generated_bin/documents/basic_module/Novel_High_Speed_Pressure_Sensor_Project_Description_R3.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1304817
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01503575
TI  - Fabrication and Testing of Low-Temperature Catalytically Active Washcoat Materials for Next-Generation Vehicle Catalytic Converters
AB  - The vehicle catalytic converter consists of three main components: the ceramic honeycomb substrate, the washcoat materials, and the catalysts. A washcoat is a carrier for the catalytic materials and is used to disperse the materials over a high surface area. The current Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>/CeO<sub>2</sub>-based washcoat materials is limited to rather high temperatures (>600<sup>o</sup>C) for the required oxygen storage capacity (OSC), which adversely affect the fuel efficiency of the engine-exhaust system. During cold start conditions, the low OSC of washcoat materials is especially problematic and provides the primary impetus for the development of lower temperature catalytically active washcoat materials for next generation vehicle catalytic converters. This proposed study presents an alternative approach for next generation vehicle catalytic converters by coating current inserts (i.e. cordierite ceramic honeycomb; cordierite: 2Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub>&amp;#61655;2SiO<sub>2</sub>&amp;#61655;5MgO) with high surface area low-temperature catalytically active CeO<sub>2</sub> and CeO<sub>2</sub>-based mixed oxides nanorods and nanotubes. Because of the superior low-temperature catalytic activity of CeO<sub>2</sub> and CeO<sub>2</sub>-based mixed oxides nanorods and nanotubes, platinum group metal (PGM, Pt, Pd, Rh) can be deposited directly on the nanorods/nanocubes by impregnation techniques increasing the surface area that will be accessible to exhaust gases, thus resulting in increase of exhaust gas conversion efficiency and the decrease of the overall amount of the precious metal required. Also due to the small size and high porosity of the CeO<sub>2</sub> and CeO<sub>2</sub>-based mixed oxides nanorods and nanotubes, the presence of nanoscale CeO<sub>2</sub>-based washcoat materials has a negligible effect on the exhaust back pressure, which incurs a decrease of power output that must be compensated by increasing fuel consumption. In this proposal, specifically the authors will tackle the following objectives: 1) prepare high surface-area CeO<sub>2</sub> and CeO<sub>2</sub>-based mixed oxides nanorods and nanotubes washcoat materials using a solution-based hydrothermal method;  2) load washcoat materials onto commercial cordierite ceramic honeycomb by three different methods: spray method; impregnation method; in situ hydrothermal impregnation method, and investigate the thermal and chemical compatibility of the washcoat materials and ceramic honeycombs; 3) and test the low-temperature activity of CO conversion and thermal stability of new washcoat materials on commercial ceramic honeycombs.
KW  - Catalytic converters
KW  - Chemical analysis
KW  - Coatings
KW  - Fabrication
KW  - Low temperature
KW  - Nanostructured materials
KW  - Thermal analysis
UR  - http://web.ysu.edu/gen/stem_generated_bin/documents/basic_module/CTME_2013_Final_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285918
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495769
TI  - Systemic Safety Improvement Risk Factor Evaluation and Countermeasure Summary
AB  - More than half of the crash fatalities in the United States occur along rural roadways. A reduction in these events is necessary, but their widespread nature requires the application of a project identification and prioritization methodology that is different than the traditional reactive "hot spot" approach. Proactive systemic safety improvement methodologies and tools use crash data and roadway characteristics to approximate risk and identify/prioritize potential safety improvement locations. There are currently several proactive systemic safety improvement alternatives in various stages of development. This research will systematically evaluate the weighting of the factors used in one or more of these. The first objective of this project is to summarize and compare the proactive systemic safety improvement tools available. One or two of them will then be applied and evaluated with data from a sample of low volume paved rural roadways. Of particular interest is the methodology currently used to develop county safety plans in Minnesota. The prioritization results from this activity will be compared as the weighting of the risk factors are altered. The second objective of this research is to identify additional or new factors that might be considered if of the proactive approach was applied to unpaved roadways. The third objective of the project is to identify and summarize completed research about safety improvements that might be implemented on low volume rural roadways (paved and unpaved). The results of this research can be used to better guide the choices and decision-making related to the form and application of the methodologies used for systemic safety improvement programs along low volume rural roadway systems. The current state of the knowledge related to some of the safety improvements that might be implemented at the locations identified by these methodologies will also be summarized.
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Improvements
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Safety improvement
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=449
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265561
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01477309
TI  - The Effects of Network Characteristics on Traffic Flows and Emissions
AB  - The objective of this research is to use state-of-the-art macroscopic traffic models to relate the characteristics of a street network (e.g., block lengths, signal settings, road widths, etc.) and the level of travel demand to aggregated properties of the traffic demand (e.g., number of vehicle stops, total vehicle hours cruising, total vehicle hours idling, etc.). This relationship will provide the inputs to state-of-the-art greenhouse gas emissions models as developed through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES).  The resulting methodology and tools will describe the relationship between network characteristics and network-wide emissions.  These results will be useful for developing insights about the environmental performance of urban street networks in general, and provide a foundation for studying specific networks and improvement plans on real street networks.  Achieving this objective entails three parts. (1) Develop an analytical tool to relate network characteristics to the aggregate greenhouse gas emissions. (2) Verify analytical results through simulation of simple street networks with a variety of traffic conditions. (3) Use both the analytical tool and simulations to compare the effects of street network design on aggregate emissions in a systematic way.
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/effects-network-characteristics-traffic-flows-and-emissions
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246908
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01475081
TI  - Stainless Steel Prestressing Strands and Bars for Use in Prestressed Concrete Girders and Slabs
AB  - Stainless steel alloys such as 2205 and 2304 show promise for use to address the corrosion deterioration of steel in prestressed concrete girders and slabs given their inherent properties. The expectation is that the stainless steel will provide durable corrosion protection and prevention of premature spalling or corrosion-induced cracking. Results from past studies will be investigated and examined to determine the feasibility and accessibility of these materials to be considered for use in prestressed concrete girders and slabs. The research team will identify stainless steel manufacturers (in concert with SHA OMT and Office of Structures, Bridge Design Division) to verify the material properties and other facts about the material to determine its feasibility and accessibility. The information will also be documented in a web-generated survey conducted by Morgan State University (MSU) (using SurveyMonkey, for example) for which manufacturers will also be asked to complete to document information and ascertain their experiences. Other materials that may achieve similar results and be more advantageous to use such as carbon fiber strands or even aramid fiber reinforced polymer bars (AFRPs), which have been used by this project's Principal Investigator in previous research.  A life-cycle cost analysis will be conducted to determine the long-term advantage of stainless steel compared to conventional prestressing steel and alternate materials when compared to the future maintenance and/or repair costs, thereby providing a life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis.  Some studies have shown that stainless steel rebar is ductile, has the capability of 3 times its diameter for bends, and can be welded together for the commonly used grades. Reported challenges of some potential "hazards" while welding stainless steel will also be noted and tested, where appropriate. Moreover, stainless steel does not need to be coated or covered.  This information along with more information on costs/lb will be determined to complete the life-cycle cost analysis, and be of benefit to state highway administration (SHA )as to how to proceed for the future.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Corrosion resistance
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Girder bridges
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Prestressed strands
KW  - Reinforcing bars
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245631
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01474754
TI  - Development of On-Board H2 Storage and Recovery System Based on Lithium Borohydride
AB  - The transportation infrastructure depends on the continuing discovery, drilling, and refining of crude petroleum.  Nearly half of that petroleum presently comes from foreign sources, some of which are oftentimes openly hostile to the US.  Domestic reserves are steadily becoming depleted, leaving only low-grade inaccessible deposits to be tapped.  Identifying other types and sources of vehicular fuel is necessary. Hydrogen fuel based on the simple molecular gas, H2, derived from natural gas, water electrolysis, or biomass processing, represents a domestic, environmentally "green" fuel that could be produced in sufficient abundance to largely supplant our 14 million barrels of oil per day transportation dependency.  Its gravimetric energy density is unmatched at 51,590 Btu/lb; however, because it is a gas under standard conditions, it must be stored on-board in heavy pressurized cylinders.  In plain language, it is difficult to carry enough H2 on the vehicle to go very far.  One way to enable facile H2 storage is to convert it to the solid state.  Lithium borohydride (LiBH4), is a white crystalline solid that reacts spontaneously with water to generate H2 and metaborate:1 LiBH4 + 2 H2O &amp;#61614; LiBO2 + 4 H2.  The storage density of H2 in LiBH4 is actually 69% greater than cryogenic liquid hydrogen itself!  Just one gram of LiBH4 liberates 4.11 liters of hydrogen gas at standard temperature and pressure.  One could envision developing an on-board "H2 on demand" delivery system based on this reaction for either a fuel cell or a H2-burning internal combustion engine power train.  The challenges are how to control the rate of H2 generation and how to regenerate the borohydride from the metaborate.  In both cases, the development of new catalysts to promote the respective processes is key.  The principal investigator already has patented 2-4 nonmetallic catalysts that promote H2 generation.  The development of membranes and catalysts that would go into an electrochemical conversion scheme for recycling the metaborate would be the main thrust of this effort.
KW  - Catalysts
KW  - Electrochemical processes
KW  - Fuel storage
KW  - Hydrogen fuels
KW  - Lithium compounds
UR  - http://web.ysu.edu/gen/stem_generated_bin/documents/basic_module/CTME_borohydride_proposal_Linkous1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245324
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01537414
AU  - Washer, Glenn
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Field Evaluation of Thermographic Bridge Concrete Inspection Techniques
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - The goal of this research is to develop new technologies for the condition assessment of concrete to help ensure bridge safety and improve the effectiveness of maintenance and repair. The objectives of the research are to: Quantify the capability and reliability of thermal imaging technology in the field; Field test and validate inspection guidelines for the application of thermal imaging for bridge inspection; and Identify and overcome implementation barriers. The project will provide hand-held infrared cameras to participating state Departments of Transportation (project partners), train individuals from these states in camera use, and conduct field test of the technology. The reliability of the technology will be assessed and previously developed guidelines for field use will be evaluated through systematic field testing. Project partners will be provided training and hardware for testing within their existing bridge evaluation programs, to identify implementation challenges, evaluate the effectiveness of guidelines, and assess the utility of the technology for bridge condition assessment. A series of field tests that include field verification of results will be conducted by the project partners in cooperation with the research team. These field tests will seek to quantitatively evaluate and verify the capabilities and reliability of the technology under field conditions. These data will be used to validate and improve the guidelines and support practical implementations of the technology. The outcome of the research will be a new tool for improving bridge safety and identifying repair and maintenance needs.This report addresses the training phase of the project, during which states participating in the pooled fund were training in the underlying theories and procedures for implementing infrared thermography for the condition assessment of bridges. The primary technology developed under this portion of the study was the training modules and slides, which are included herein as an appendix to the report.
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Condition surveys
KW  - Infrared imagery
KW  - Infrared thermography
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Thermal imaging
KW  - Thermographs
KW  - Training
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R293%20Final%20Report%20-%20reduced.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1321500
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530299
AU  - Heres, David R
AU  - Salon, Deborah
AU  - Jack, Darby
AU  - Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas
AU  - Columbia University
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Do Public Transit Investments Promote Urban Economic Development? Evidence from Bogotá, Colombia
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 31p
AB  - In this paper, the authors use a repeated cross-section labor market dataset to assess whether access to the TransMilenio Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in  Bogotá, Colombia, affects the incomes of those who live in station area neighborhoods. Results indicate that the opening of the system was associated with increased income for those living near – but not immediately adjacent to – trunk line stations. This relationship is strongest in the lower and middle-income range. Two possible explanations for this result are that existing residents earn higher wages, or higher income workers relocate to the neighborhood. While available data do not allow the authors to distinguish clearly between these two causes, evidence suggests that much of the effect is likely due to relocation. The results stand in contrast to prior work, which has largely suggested that improvements in public transit will tend to reduce wages in station areas.
KW  - Bogota (Colombia)
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Bus terminals
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Income
KW  - Investments
KW  - Spatial analysis
KW  - TransMilenio
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1835
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263020
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530293
AU  - Tal, Gil
AU  - Nicholas, Michael A
AU  - Woodjack, Justin
AU  - Scrivano, Daniel
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Who Is Buying Electric Cars in California? Exploring Household and Vehicle Fleet Characteristics of New Plug-In Vehicle Owners
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 17p
AB  - This study explores the demographics and socioeconomic characteristics of 1,200 households who purchased a new plug-in vehicle in California during 2011-2012, part of the developing market for such vehicles. Most purchased the Nissan LEAF, a  battery electric vehicle (BEV), while small portion purchased a Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), or a Tesla roadster, also a BEV. Data from the 2009 National household Travel Survey are used to compare the plug-in car buyer’s characteristics to the general population and new car buyers in California. The results of this study can be used to improve the modeling process of the potential demand for plug-in vehicles and the derived demand for charging. They also can help in evaluating the impact of policies to increase the demand for these vehicles.
KW  - California
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Demand
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Location
KW  - Motivation
KW  - Plug-in hybrid vehicles
KW  - Socioeconomic factors
KW  - Vehicle fleets
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1839
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263023
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530283
AU  - Circella, Giovanni
AU  - Johnston, Robert
AU  - Holguin, Andrew
AU  - Lehmer, Eric
AU  - Wang, Yang
AU  - McCoy, Michael
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Updating the PECAS Modeling Framework to Include Energy Use Data for Buildings
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 124p
AB  - This study investigates the consumption of electricity and natural gas for building operations for several categories of residential and non-residential buildings. The study updates the Production Exchange Consumption Allocation System (PECAS) land use modeling framework to include energy components. An energy database was assembled to study energy consumption in buildings. The authors conducted statistical analysis of utility data and estimated linear regression models to predict energy consumption in buildings. Results are validated using data from independent sources, including the California Residential Appliance Saturation Study (RASS) and the Commercial End-Use Survey (CEUS). Results are used to update PECAS and form part of the baseline study to estimate energy and greenhouse gas balances in an urban metabolism framework for the analysis of the environmental impacts of complex urban regions. The results also allow the total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for residential and commercial building operations to be estimated through the application to the total residential and commercial building inventory in the region. These results are then useful for the evaluation of possible energy savings in buildings.
KW  - Dwellings
KW  - Energy conservation
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Industrial buildings
KW  - Land use models
KW  - PECAS (Computer model)
KW  - Sustainable development
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1851
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263022
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522381
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Montezuma Castle National Monument: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 54p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (July-August), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at  Montezuma Castle National Monument (MOCA) at two sites deployed for approximately 30 days each. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at MOCA include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Ambient noise
KW  - Montezuma Castle National Monument
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51100/51158/MOCA_AcousticalMonitoringReport_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1303916
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01497437
AU  - Mokhtarian, Patricia L
AU  - Neufeld, Amanda J.
AU  - Dong, Zhi
AU  - Circella, Giovanni
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Did Free Wi-Fi Make a Difference to Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor Service? An Evaluation of the Impact on Riders and Ridership
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 83p
AB  - In November 2011, Amtrak launched free Wi-Fi service on all trains traveling the California Capitol Corridor route. Surveys of passengers found that wi-fi access has a positive impact on the expected travel frequency, especially for new riders. A discrete choice model was used to predict the choice to use the free wi-fi service; results identified demographic characteristics and other factors that indicate which passengers are more likely to use the service. Prior to installation, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority indicated that a 1-2% increase in ridership would justify the free wi-fi. That result appears to have been met and most likely exceeded.
KW  - Amtrak
KW  - California
KW  - Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority
KW  - IEEE 802.11 (Standard)
KW  - In transit passenger services
KW  - Railroad commuter service
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1845
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262941
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495170
AU  - Sohaney, Richard
AU  - Rasmussen, Robert O
AU  - Donavan, Paul
AU  - Rochat, Judith L
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Transtec Group, Incorporated
AU  - Illingworth & Rodkin, Incorporated
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Quieter Pavements Guidance Document
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 68p
AB  - This report provides guidance and better practice recommendations to the National Park Service for selecting pavement surfaces to minimize tire-pavement noise. The report contains an overview of common technologies and methods for quieter pavements, descriptions of research and quieter pavement specifications developed by several state agencies, and a directory of state agency noise and materials/pavement engineers. A brief introduction to some of the fundamentals of tire-pavement noise is included in an appendix.
KW  - National Park Service
KW  - Noise control
KW  - Pavements
KW  - Surface course (Pavements)
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
KW  - Traffic noise
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48194/NPS_QP_guidance_document_FINAL_NRTR_2013_05_16_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263015
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495167
AU  - Rochat, Judith L
AU  - Lau, Michael
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Demonstration of Using Quieter Pavement in Death Valley National Park
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 56p
AB  - Death Valley National Park provided an environment that allowed a demonstration of quieter pavement use. Sound measurements near the tire-pavement interface, near the road, and in areas of frequent human use were conducted and analyses performed in order to determine the general sound environment in the park and the potential benefit of using quieter pavements. Tire-pavement noise data were collected using the on-board sound intensity (OBSI) methodology, where sound levels for 15+ locations were identified. The OBSI levels for specific pavements in Death Valley were then used in a special research version of the FHWA Traffic Noise Model® (TNM®) in order to predict the potential effect of using quieter pavements at the park.
KW  - Death Valley
KW  - National parks
KW  - On Board Sound Intensity
KW  - Quiet pavements
KW  - Rolling contact
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
KW  - Traffic noise
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48197/NPS_Death_Valley_Quieter_pavement.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263004
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491389
AU  - Rakha, Hesham
AU  - Chen, Hao
AU  - Haghani, Ali
AU  - Sadabadi, Kaveh Farokhi
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessment of Data Quality Needs for Use in Transportation Applications
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 123p
AB  - The objective of this project is to investigate data quality measures and how they are applied to travel time prediction. This project showcases a short‐term travel time prediction method that takes into account the data needs of real‐time applications. The objective of this research is to prepare and disseminate accurate short‐term (up to 15 minutes ahead) travel time predictions on major highway corridors in the state of Maryland using real‐time and archived Bluetooth travel time samples, probe-based INRIX data, and stationary sensor data pooled together in Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS). In addition the research effort also develops a medium-term travel time prediction algorithm using pattern recognition techniques. The algorithm is used to predict travel times between Richmond and Virginia Beach in the state of Virginia. Unlike previous studies that use travel time as the variable, the traffic state spatiotemporal evolution is used to predict traffic patterns. The approach uses traffic state data for the current day matched with a historical data set to identify similar traffic patterns and predict travel times into the future. The tasks of this study start from data collection and analysis. The raw INRIX data, including data from I-64 and I-264 between Richmond to Virginia Beach for the past three years, are used in this study. Several problems with the raw data are analyzed, including geographically inconsistent sections, irregular time intervals of data collection, and missing data. Subsequently, a travel database is constructed to obtain daily spatiotemporal traffic states in which traffic state information and dynamic travel times are included. A travel time prediction algorithm is developed using speed measurements and which fully utilizes the relationship between traffic state and travel time. INRIX data for the selected 37-mile freeway stretch (Newport News to Virginia Beach) are used to test the proposed algorithm. The testing results indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the other three methods including using instantaneous measurements, using a Kalman filter, and using the k-nearest-neighbor method. Moreover, the case study on the entire 95-mile freeway stretch from Richmond to Virginia Beach demonstrates the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the instantaneous approach that is currently used by Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The proposed prediction method reduces the prediction error by approximately 50% compared to the current instantaneous method, especially at the shoulders of the peak periods.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Data quality
KW  - Forecasting
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Maryland
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47817/MAUTC-2011-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258432
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487028
AU  - Darrow, Margaret M
AU  - Daanen, Ronald P
AU  - Zottola, Jason T
AU  - Fortier, Daniel
AU  - de Grandpre, Isabelle
AU  - Veuille, Sabine
AU  - Sliger, Michel
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Universite de Montreal
AU  - Transport Canada
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Impact of Groundwater Flow on Permafrost Degradation and Transportation Infrastructure Stability
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 141p
AB  - A warming climate has been identified as unequivocal by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with greater and faster temperature increase demonstrated at northern latitudes, and with an overall increase in precipitation. Analysis of field data collected throughout the arctic and subarctic corroborates with these findings, demonstrating an overall warming of permafrost temperatures. As indicated by thermal modeling, the stability of permafrost below roadway embankments is greatly  affected by surface temperatures; thus, as climate warms, permafrost degradation represents a major issue for the design and maintenance of embankments. While the thermal stability of embankments in a warming climate has been investigated, the impact of groundwater and the effect of advective heat transfer on permafrost  degradation below embankments has been overlooked. Recent studies indicate that groundwater flow along the permafrost table will cause permafrost degradation to  occur one to several orders of magnitude faster than atmospheric warming alone. Thus, it is imperative for the long-term stability of infrastructure in permafrost regions for a better understanding of  the complex interaction among groundwater, permafrost, and overlying embankments. The overall goal of this research is to develop a relationship among groundwater flow, permafrost degradation, and embankment stability.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Groundwater
KW  - Permafrost
KW  - Thermal degradation
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/07/AUTC510015.Darrow.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256271
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478327
AU  - Anderson, Neil
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Mapping Subsurface in Proximity to Newly-Developed Sinkhole along Roadway
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 14p
AB  - Missouri University of Science and Technology (MS&T) acquired electrical resistivity tomography profiles in immediate proximity to a newly-developed sinkhole in Nixa, Missouri. The sinkhole has closed a well-traveled municipal roadway and threatens proximal infrastructure. The intent of this investigation was to characterize the subsurface expression of the sinkhole so that appropriate mitigation efforts can be designed and implemented.
KW  - Electrical resistivity
KW  - Geotechnical engineering
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Missouri
KW  - Sinkholes
KW  - Subsoil
KW  - Tomography
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R262.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247035
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478303
AU  - Chu, Xuehao
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Dynamic Delivery of the National Transit Database Sampling Manual
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 138p
AB  - This project improves the National Transit Database (NTD) Sampling Manual and develops an Internet-based, WordPress-powered interactive Web tool to deliver the new NTD Sampling Manual dynamically. The new manual adds guidance and a tool for transit agencies to develop sampling plans customized to their conditions but similar to those in Circular 2710.1A. Additionally, the manual adds requirements for a minimum sample size of 50 for all new NTD sampling plans and for the sample data to be used for developing new NTD sampling plans. The new manual is included in this report as an appendix. The Web tool can deliver the portion of the new manual relevant to the special circumstances of individual agencies that they specify through the user interface of this tool. Agencies can also use the tool to browse the manual in terms of its sections, subsections, and individual pairs of questions/answers. Agencies can search the new manual with keywords as well. The tool currently can be found at http://ntd.transitgis.org/ and is planned to be taken over by the official NTD website at http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/. In addition to an introduction and a conclusion section, this report covers the following three aspects of the research project: 1. Enhancements to the Sampling Manual – discusses both enhancements that were implemented and those not implemented because their shortcomings are expected to outweigh their potential benefits. 2. Alternative Content Management Systems – considers different content management systems for building the Internet-based interactive tool and selects WordPress as the final approach for this project. 3. Dynamic Delivery through WordPress – describes the different aspects of the implementation and the final Web tool for dynamic delivery of the new sampling manual and includes guides to use and update the tool. The enhancements to the manual help improve the reliability of NTD sampling plans and give transit agencies more options to identify the best sampling plans for their special circumstances. The Internet-based tool greatly condenses and simplifies the comprehensive full manual for many transit agencies and their special circumstances, particularly small- and mid-size agencies.
KW  - Content management
KW  - Manuals
KW  - National Transit Database
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Statistical sampling
KW  - Statistics
KW  - User interfaces (Computer science)
KW  - Websites (Information retrieval)
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-28-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/77933.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246226
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476697
AU  - Rosandich, Ryan G
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Roadway Maintenance Phase II: Developing a Vision Guidance System for the Robotic Roadway Message Painter
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - Repainting existing roadway markings (turn arrows, STOP messages, railroad crossings, etc.) is an important task for transportation maintenance organizations. Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) estimates that over 75% of symbol and message painting is the repainting of existing markings. It would be extremely valuable for an automated painting system to have a vision guidance capability whereby an existing mark could be repainted accurately with little operator input. In this project a vision system was developed that is capable of identifying existing painted pavement markings and determining their dimensions, location, and orientation. Techniques were also developed whereby this information could be used to determine the location of the marking in the workspace of a painting robot to enable it to accurately repaint the marking. The vehicle-mounted robotic painter is still being built and tested, so final test results will not be available until the vision system can be completely integrated with the painter, and the two can be tested together. The accuracy of the projection produced using the techniques developed in this project would suggest that the final system will be capable of repainting pavement markings almost exactly where they appear on the roadway. Expected benefits of the deployment of a vision-guided robotic painting device include improved operator safety, improved productivity, and improved flexibility in roadway marking and repainting operations. Eventual users of a device using this technology could be city, county, state, and federal government agencies and private companies or contractors.
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Machine vision
KW  - Painting
KW  - Road markings
KW  - Robotics
KW  - Robots
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2240
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246489
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476433
AU  - Kato, Ken
AU  - Schlossberg, Marc
AU  - Meacham, James
AU  - University of Oregon, Eugene
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of Mobile Mapping Technology to Facilitate Dialogue between Transportation Agencies and the Public
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 18p
AB  - The purpose of this proposal was to develop enhancements in mobile application functionality as well as develop a model that facilitates a direct, two-way exchange of data between citizens and transportation authorities. The project demonstrated a process by which transportation authorities are now able to “push” quantitative data to public users and also instantly “pull/receive” qualitative assessments back. Data is exchanged live and dynamically. Application users can reference current spatial data and provide mobile feedback instantly at the moment of observation. Through the application, road authorities and decision makers have real-time access to collected data for analysis by planners and researchers.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Data sharing
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Mapping
KW  - Mobile telephones
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Transportation departments
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1244
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246329
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475811
AU  - Clifton, Kelly J
AU  - Muhs, Christopher
AU  - Morrissey, Sara
AU  - Morrissey, Tomas
AU  - Currans, Kristina
AU  - Ritter, Chloe
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Examining Consumer Behavior and Travel Choices
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 74p
AB  - This study represents a first attempt to answer a few of the questions that have arisen concerning multimodal transportation investments and the impacts of mode shifts on the business community. This research aims to merge the long history of scholarly work that examines the impacts of the built environment on non-work travel with the relatively new interest in consumer spending by mode of travel. This empirical study of travel choices and consumer spending across 89 businesses in the Portland metropolitan area shows there are important differences between the amounts customers spend on average at various businesses by their mode of travel. However, these differences become less pronounced when we control for demographics of the customer and other attributes of the trip. This study of consumer spending and travel choices has some compelling findings that suggest some key spending and frequency differences by mode of travel that will likely invigorate the discussion of the economic impacts of these modes. Key findings are: 1) Bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders are competitive consumers. When demographics and socioeconomics are controlled for, mode choice does not have a statistically significant impact on consumer spending at convenience stores, drinking establishments and restaurants. When trip frequency is accounted for, the average monthly expenditures by customer modes of travel reveal that bicyclists, transit users and pedestrians are competitive consumers and, for all businesses except supermarkets, spend more on average than those who drive. 2) The built environment matters: the authors support previous literature and find that residential and employment density, the proximity to rail transit, and the amount of automobile and bicycle parking are all important in explaining the use of non-automobile modes. In particular, provision of bike parking and bike corrals are significant predictors of bike mode share at the establishment level. Other findings lend more insight into the relationship between consumer behavior and travel choices. For the non-work destinations studied, the automobile remains the dominant mode of travel. Patrons are largely arriving by private vehicle to most of the destinations in this study, particularly to grocery stores where larger quantities of goods tend to be purchased. But, high non-automobile mode shares and short travel distances exist in areas of concentrated urban activity. In sum, this study provides some empirical evidence to answer the questions of business owners about how mode shifts might impact their market shares and revenues. More work is needed to better understand the implications of future changes and to provide a robust assessment of the returns on these investments and their economic impacts.
KW  - Automobile drivers
KW  - Consumer behavior
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Portland (Oregon)
KW  - Transit riders
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244464
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475284
AU  - Clark, Kelton L
AU  - Hunter, James G
AU  - Bundy, Mark M
AU  - Kang, Dong Hee
AU  - Morgan State University
AU  - Maryland State Highway Administration
AU  - Morgan State University
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Waste Concrete Road Materials for Use in Oyster Aquaculture
PY  - 2013/02//Final Report
SP  - 61p
AB  - The primary objective of this study was to determine the suitability of recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) from road projects as bottom conditioning material for on-bottom oyster aquaculture in the Chesapeake Bay. The testing was designed to (1) evaluate the impact on water chemistry from the introduction of RCA and (2) evaluate the effect of RCA on the survivorship and growth of oyster spat. The results of this project showed that using RCA as a base material for oyster reefs did not adversely affect oyster spat growth and survival, or the surrounding environment.
KW  - Aquatic life
KW  - Chemistry
KW  - Chesapeake Bay
KW  - Concrete aggregates
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Recycled materials
KW  - Salvage
KW  - Wastes
KW  - Water
UR  - http://www.roads.maryland.gov/OPR_Research/MD-13-SP109B4E_Waste-Concrete-for-Oyster-Aquaculture_Report.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47000/47014/MD-13-SP109B4E_Waste-Concrete-for-Oyster-Aquaculture_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244061
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01474161
AU  - Shapiro, Jenna
AU  - Quinn, Jared
AU  - Barnes-Farrell, Janet L
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Rail Industry Job Analysis: Passenger Conductor
PY  - 2013/02//Draft Final Technical Report
SP  - 35p
AB  - This document describes the results of a job analysis that was conducted for the position of railroad Passenger Conductor. Key aspects of the position were identified, including main tasks and knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) required to perform the job successfully. The job analysis process is described in detail, including meeting agendas, survey questionnaires, and a finalized list of job tasks and KSAOs identified by subject matter experts (SMEs). Conclusions report the specific results of the job analysis, including information from SME focus group discussions regarding demands and strains of the job. Implications for training and development are also discussed.
KW  - Abilities
KW  - Conductors (Trains)
KW  - Focus groups
KW  - Job analysis
KW  - Job skills
KW  - Knowledge
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Safety-sensitive positions (Transportation)
KW  - Task analysis
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2930
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48100/48182/TR_Rail_Industry_Job_Analysis_Passenger_Conductor_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244482
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478713
AU  - Hess, Daniel B
AU  - Conley, Brian W
AU  - Farrell, Christina M
AU  - University at Buffalo
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Resource Coordination for Multi-Modal Evacuation Planning
PY  - 2013/01/31/Final Report
SP  - 160p
AB  - This research project seeks to increase knowledge about coordinating effective multi-modal evacuation for disasters. It does so by identifying, evaluating, and assessing current transportation management approaches for multi-modal evacuation planning. The research increases equity by identifying strategies for evacuation of all residents, including carless residents during a disaster. The research also seeks to address the challenges of effectively incorporating multi-modalism into local emergency plans by enhancing transportation resource coordination through exploration of the feasibility of a new concept—a Transportation Reserve Corps (TRC). A TRC seeks to integrate planning for households without automobiles, multi-modal evacuation, and coordinated volunteerism with disaster preparedness, response and recovery.
KW  - Coordination
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Emergency transportation
KW  - Evacuation
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Resource utilization
KW  - Volunteers
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Final-Report-multi-modal%20coordination_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247737
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476039
AU  - Batson, Robert G
AU  - Cochran, Charles
AU  - Cover, James P
AU  - Ijaz, Ahmad
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Alabama Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - ALDOT Economic Sustainability
PY  - 2013/01/31/Final Report
SP  - 143p
AB  - This research used quantitative methods to document 15-year trends in various economic factors, from the very detailed (e.g., cost per ton for aggregate) to the very broad (total ALDOT annual receipts and expenditures), and for categories of receipts and expenditures as found in Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT) annual reports. Based on these trends and accepted statistical forecasting methods, forecasts are developed and presented in tabular and graphical form for the 19-year period 2012-2030, with particular interest in 2020 and 2030. Econometric methods were used on monthly and quarterly records of Alabama gasoline consumption 1992-2011 to identify causal variables, such as Alabama employment levels, income, and gasoline tax rate, and their elasticities. The overall objective of this research was to provide an unbiased analysis of the Department’s ability to sustain its current program of maintenance and new construction, or to expand the construction expenditures to create transportation system enhancement. Where expenditure reductions could fund shortfalls in forecasted baseline budget, the impact (difficult trade-offs) of absorbing the shortfall in alternative ways has been quantified. Growth in demand for construction activity is analyzed as a factor affecting ALDOT’s economic sustainability, as is the projected decline in gasoline consumption in the state. Both of these factors in ALDOT’s future were shown to create huge shortfalls in total revenue that cannot be absorbed by cost cutting; an increase in the fuel tax rate, or new sources of revenue, are clearly needed to sustain ALDOT in the next nineteen years.
KW  - Annual reports
KW  - Construction
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Expenditures
KW  - Fuel conservation
KW  - Fuel taxes
KW  - Maintenance
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/03/12410-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245874
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478009
AU  - Solaimanian, Mansour
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating Resistance of Hot Mix Asphalt to Reflective Cracking Using Geocomposites
PY  - 2013/01/28/Final Report
SP  - 36p
AB  - The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has sponsored a project with Penn State to evaluate new or existing products to ensure satisfactory application and performance of these products. PennDOT Publication 447 contains those products that are approved for application in lower-volume local roads. The objective of this effort was to review and evaluate a specific product listed in Publication 447 under specification MS-0360-0019,  Bituminous Fiber Reinforced Stress Absorbing Membrane Interlayer (SAMI). The work toward evaluation of this product included three parts: a literature review, site visits, and an assessment of current specification under Publication 447. Evidence to date indicates satisfactory performance of this material and it is recommended that  SAMI remain in PennDOT Publication 447. Emphasis should be placed on sealing cracks wider than ¼ inch  before application of SAMI. Field evaluation indicates that wide cracks, if not properly sealed, do migrate to the surface regardless of SAMI application.
KW  - Bituminous binders
KW  - Fiber reinforced materials
KW  - Geocomposites
KW  - Geosynthetics
KW  - Hot mix asphalt
KW  - Low volume roads
KW  - Overlays (Pavements)
KW  - Pavement interlayers
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Performance tests
KW  - Reflection cracking
KW  - Resistance (Mechanics)
KW  - Stress absorbing membrane interlayers
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/PSU-2008-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247326
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01487677
TI  - Investigation, Quantification and Recommendations - Performance of Alternatively Fueled Buses
AB  - The research objectives for this project are: (1) Collect large sample of maintenance, parts and energy usage of heavy duty urban transit fleets in the U.S. to facilitate on-going life cycle cost analysis of vehicles of varying propulsion types. (2) Create a statistically reliable database to assess investment in energy efficient public transportation vehicles. (3) Provide policy-makers with recent and reliable data on fuel and maintenance savings resulting from investments in non-traditionally fueled or powered heavy-duty buses.  (4) Assess the willingness of the transit agencies around the U.S. to actively participate in a proposed national alternative fuel bus clearinghouse.
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Buses
KW  - Databases
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Vehicle fleets
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256823
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472538
AU  - Zangui, Mahmood
AU  - Zhou, Yian
AU  - Yin, Yafeng
AU  - Chen, Shigang
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Privacy-Preserving Methods to Retrieve Origin-Destination Information from Connected Vehicles
PY  - 2013/01/23/Final Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - This report investigates technical approaches to address privacy concerns associated with two innovative applications enabled by connected vehicle systems, i.e., origin-destination (OD) ﬂow measurement and differentiated congestion pricing. The former is to retrieve the OD information from connected vehicles while the latter charges congestion tolls with respect to travel characteristics of connected vehicles, e.g., origins, destinations or paths that they traverse between their origins and destinations. Since both applications require tracking vehicles, they may violate the “anonymity by design” principle adopted by connected vehicle systems. For OD ﬂow measurement, a novel measurement scheme is developed to collect aggregate OD ﬂow data without compromising motorists’ privacy. For differentiated congestion pricing, an incentive program is designed to encourage motorists to voluntarily reveal their private information and create a win-win situation for both motorists and the society.
KW  - Congestion pricing
KW  - Connected vehicle technologies
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Privacy
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/yin_final_report_2011-009.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46877/yin_final_report_2011-009.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239480
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01537409
AU  - Richardson, David N
AU  - Lusher, Steven M
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Guayule Plant: A Renewable, Domestic Source of Binder Materials for Flexible Pavement Mixtures
PY  - 2013/01/16/Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - The guayule (pronounced 'why-YOU-lee') plant grows in arid and semi-arid regions (e.g. the southwestern U.S.) and is a source of natural rubber. It was cultivated and processed during the World War II rubber shortage and is currently being processed primarily for the manufacture of hypo-allergenic latex (e.g. medical gloves, personal hygiene products). Depending on the process, many materials can be extracted from guayule. However, there are three basic products: rubber, resin, and bagasse. The rubber and resin (biopolymers) are of particular interest as they could prove to be renewable binder materials for flexible pavement mixtures. Limited preliminary testing showed that the resin could potentially be used as a recycling agent (viscosity modifier) when designing flexible pavement mixtures with a high percentage of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), a small percentage of processed roofing shingles, and some virgin aggregate. The concept is to design a flexible pavement mixture produced with little to no virgin petroleum-based material. Due to the rising price of crude oil, flexible pavement costs have increased significantly. In regard to the concept, the potential impact on highway construction could be lower costs. A thorough experimental program is necessary to assess the limits of the use of the guayule rubber and resin in the context of this concept. Additionally, the guayule processing industry could benefit through the opening of another market for its products. Maybe more importantly, national security could be enhanced by decreasing the dependence on foreign oil.
KW  - Asphalt mixtures
KW  - Binders
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Guayule plant
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Natural resins
KW  - Natural rubber
KW  - Reclaimed asphalt pavements
KW  - Viscosity modifying admixtures
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R253%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1322316
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01551379
AU  - Miller, Kevin
AU  - Bouattoura, Fariel
AU  - Seymour, Ed
AU  - Poe, Chris
AU  - Roberts, Ed
AU  - Olyai, Koorosh
AU  - Dallas Area Rapid Transit
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Training Plan: Dallas Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Demonstration Project
PY  - 2013/01/11/Final Report
SP  - 23p
AB  - The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is leading the US 75 Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Demonstration Project for the Dallas region. Coordinated corridor operations and management is predicated on being able to share transportation information on highways, arterials, transit, weather, and incidents. The ICM system will utilize the existing Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)  Center-to-Center standards based communication infrastructure, and will provide direct connections to agencies not on the Center-to-Center network, via a web-based interface known as SmartNET. The ICM system uses SmartNET as the main graphical user interfaces for the ICM Stakeholders to create, edit, and view events in the corridor and region, view current conditions of field devices and congestion on the roadway network, and coordinate responses to incidents within the corridor. This Training Plan covers the policy, process, and technology training requested by the users and maintainers of the system for the Dallas ICM project.
KW  - Communication systems
KW  - Dallas (Texas)
KW  - Graphical user interfaces
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Software
KW  - Training
KW  - Transportation corridors
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54100/54132/Dallas_ICM_Training_Plan_v3_3_Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1340046
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472544
AU  - Lin, Zhibin
AU  - Fakhairfar, Mostafa
AU  - Wu, Chenglin
AU  - Chen, Genda
AU  - Bevans, Wesley
AU  - Gunasekaran, Arun Vijay Kumar
AU  - Sedighsarvestani, Sahra
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Design, Construction and Load Testing of the Pat Daly Road Bridge in Washington County, MO, with
Internal Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymers Reinforcement
PY  - 2013/01/10/Final Report
SP  - 210p
AB  - The overarching goal of this project is to deploy and assess an innovative corrosion-free bridge construction technology for long-term performance of new and existing bridges. The research objective of this project is to conduct a comprehensive study (instrumentation, construction, both laboratory and field evaluation) of a rapidly constructed and durable, three-span bridge with cast-in-place cladding steel reinforced concrete substructure and precast concrete decks/girders reinforced with glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP). The bridge has one conventional concrete-girder span, one conventional steel-girder span, and one innovative concrete box-girder span. The conventional concrete and steel girders were used to demonstrate the effective use of corrosion-free bridge decks in deck replacement projects and, as benchmarks, to demonstrate the pros and cons of the innovative concrete box girders. The bridge was instrumented with embedded strain gauges to monitor the strains at critical locations during load testing. The collected data will allow the understanding of load distribution in various GFRP bars of the innovative concrete box girders and bridge deck slabs. Specifically, a full-scale concrete box girder and a full-scale concrete slab with internal GFRP reinforcement were tested in the Highbay Structures Laboratory at Missouri University of Science and Technology to ensure that the test bridge components behaved as designed prior to the field construction. Furthermore, in-situ load tests of the completed bridge were conducted to demonstrate the load capacity and behavior of individual components and the bridge as a system. The field validated technology will have a longlasting value for future deck replacement projects of existing bridges and new constructions. It will provide a viable alternative to conventional bridge systems/materials for the improvement of our Nation’s deteriorating infrastructure.
KW  - Box girders
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Glass fiber reinforced plastics
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Precast concrete
KW  - Strength of materials
KW  - Washington County (Missouri)
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R275%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243481
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516186
AU  - Havlicek, Joseph P
AU  - Barnes, Ronald D
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - GPS Location Data Enhancement in Electronic Traffic Records
PY  - 2013/01/06/Final Report
SP  - 57p
AB  - In this project the authors developed a new GPS-based Geographical Information Exchange Framework (GIEF) to improve the correctness and accuracy of location data reported on electronic police forms in Oklahoma. A second major goal was to provide a base level of automatic vehicle location (AVL) technology to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) to improve operational efficiency and inter-agency asset coordination and to enhance police officer safety. The GIEF was successfully developed and integrated with the existing statewide electronic police forms system and was deployed to a select group of OHP Troopers for beta testing. The beta tests demonstrated that high quality position data were acquired from GPS receivers in the field during actual police operations, were used to populate electronic crash reports and citations, and were automatically transmitted to the main Department of Public Safety (DPS) data warehouse and to the statewide court system. High resolution position data were also acquired on a continuous basis for all of the beta test police vehicles and were stored in a new secure data base created for this project. These data were used to demonstrate real-time AVL functionality that will be evaluated by the OHP to determine how it can best be used in the future to improve police operations and officer safety. The enhanced position data provided by this project will be important to a wide range of traffic safety stakeholders for planning and assessing highway improvement projects, highway safety projects, and law enforcement activities directly in terms of public safety impact. The GIEF is fully upwards compatible with the new PARIS system scheduled for deployment in 2013.
KW  - Automatic vehicle location
KW  - Data quality
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Law enforcement
KW  - Police operations
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Safety
KW  - Traffic data
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-27-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300094
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534843
TI  - Strength of Unbonded Post-Tensioned Walls
AB  - Post-tensioned masonry walls (PT-MWs) will be an ideal candidate for accelerating the construction of sound barriers in highways. PT-MWs have been in use for a while; however, there has been no rigorous single-study in the United States about in-plane strength of PT-MWs built out of concrete masonry units. This project will investigate the in-plane behavior of six full-scale unbonded post-tensioned walls. All the walls will have the same total post-tensioning force and identical dimensions of 104 in. long, 96 in. high, and 8 in. wide. Spacing between tendons ranging from 32 in. to 96 in. will be investigated. The walls will be subjected to in-plane shear loads of increasing amplitude. Both flexural strength and shear strength will be evaluated and compared to the strengths given by MSJC (2011). The stresses in the tendons will be measured using strain gauges and compared to different formulae.
KW  - Flexural strength
KW  - Masonry construction
KW  - Noise barriers
KW  - Posttensioning
KW  - Shear strength
KW  - Tendons
KW  - Unbonded tendon
KW  - Walls
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r349/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320623
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534842
TI  - Behavior of Double-Skin Bridge Columns
AB  - This research program aims to investigate the behavior of thin-wall circular hollow columns. Hollow core columns have lighter weight compared to columns having solid cross sections which rescue the seismic demand on the column and make it ideal candidate for accelerating bridge construction. In the past few years, several researchers explored the constructability of hollow core circular columns; however, confining the internal layer of flexural steel is a challenging issue. This project will investigate the behavior of thin-wall concrete cylinders having an outer fiber reinforced polymer tube and internally have a steel tube. Concrete cylinders having different void ratios and different types of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) will be subjected to axial cyclic loads.
KW  - Axial loads
KW  - Columns
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Hollow columns
KW  - Repeated loads
KW  - Thin walls
KW  - Void ratios
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r357/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320622
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01577878
TI  - Conversion of Eastern Redcedar to Butanol using a Novel Biocatalytic Process
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Alcohol fuels
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Catalysis
KW  - Energy conversion
KW  - Trees
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1371183
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01577866
TI  - Developing a Cost-Effective Technology for Conditioning Biomass-Generated Syngas with In-Situ Bed of Biochar-Based Catalysts
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Biomass
KW  - Catalysts
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Gases
KW  - Synthesis (Chemistry)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1371109
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01576082
TI  - Improving Conversion of Syngas to Biofuels via Direct Monitoring and Control of CO/H2 in Bioreactors
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Carbon monoxide
KW  - Energy conversion
KW  - Fuel gas
KW  - Hydrogen fuels
KW  - Synthesis (Chemistry)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1370155
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01575943
TI  - Multi-Scale Fouling Characterization of Fermented/Hydrolyzed Sweet Sorghum
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Fermentation
KW  - Fouling (Naval architecture)
KW  - Grasses
KW  - Hydrolysis
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1368966
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01575903
TI  - Simultaneous Starch and Cellulose Hydrolysis for Whole Stalk Processing of Sweet Sorghum
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Biomass
KW  - Cellulose
KW  - Grasses
KW  - Hydrolysis
KW  - Processing (Materials)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1368827
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01567228
TI  - Accessibility-Based Evaluation of Transportation and Land-Use Planning: From Laboratory to Practice
AB  - Accessibility measurement has been integral to transportation and land-use scholarship since the 1950s, and since the 1970s researchers have argued that it forms the theoretically correct basis for transportation and land-use evaluation. Accessibility-measurement metrics are well-defined and can be based on data readily available to transportation planners. Yet accessibility-based evaluation has largely failed to make the leap from laboratory to practice, and has nowhere displaced traditional mobility-based evaluation. The proposed project seeks to understand barriers to the greater use of accessibility evaluation in practice; to develop qualitative, quantitative, and graphical approaches to overcoming those barriers; and to work cooperatively with practitioners on assessment of accessibility-based evaluation.

The project will be informed by lessons derived from a previous multi-year project at the University of Michigan that measured regional accessibility among the top 50 metropolitan regions of the United States, and will proceed in four interrelated stages: (i) Research political and technical barriers to the adoption of accessibility-based evaluation, (ii) Develop case studies of accessibility- and mobility-based evaluation, (iii) Develop approaches to incorporating accessibility-based evaluation, and (iv) Collaborate with practitioners and decision-makers on assessment of accessibility-based evaluation.

KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/research/research_in_progress.php
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1359199
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01560556
TI  - Collaborative Proposal: Multi-Sensor Sheets Based on Large-Area Electronics for Advanced Structural Health Monitoring of Civil Infrastructure
AB  - Many bridges in the country have reached their intended service life limit. Some of them do not pass current load-ratings or show deterioration such as corrosion and cracking. Monies for replacement and repair of bridges, however, are scarce. In order to keep these critical infrastructure components in operation, inspection, maintenance, and monitoring play a vital role. Existing monitoring approaches use sensors such as strain gauges or accelerometers that capture a physical measurement at a point. One pressing problem is fatigue cracking in fracture critical bridge members, which can have disastrous consequences to the infrastructure and public safety. Because detection of fatigue cracks can be difficult, it is essential that a sensing technology is utilized that is able to measure strains at a large number of points with high accuracy. One challenge by deploying a traditional array of strain gauges or strain rosettes is the complexity in the wiring. Also, for reinforced or prestressed concrete structures, damage that may lead to catastrophic failure is typically associated with internal processes such as wire fracture that may not necessarily be detectable on the surface. Acoustic Emission (AE) monitoring techniques represent a possible solution to this problem. Often, however, it is not feasible to install a network of AE sensors due to the prohibitive costs associated with such a system. Current available technologies give bridge managers access to sparsely spaced sensors. These, unfortunately, do not allow reliable early detection of anomalies such as strain concentrations or cracks at locations of even modest distances away from the sensor. To infer localized anomalies, such forms of indirect sensing rely on complex algorithms whose reliability is challenged by practical noise sources (i.e., temperature, precipitation, and normal loading variability). Thus, a need exists for a cost-effective sensing approach that is able to incorporate a variety of sensors applied in form of very dense arrays to maximize the chances for capturing damage externally as well as internally at an early stage. The measurements should support the bridge owners for informed decision making. This research addresses the need for direct sensing, where anomalies are sensed at close proximity via a dense array of sensors.
KW  - Acoustic emission
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Fatigue cracking
KW  - Load factor
KW  - Service life
KW  - Strain gages
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/collaborative-proposal-multi-sensor-sheets-based-large-area-electronics-advanced-struc
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1350573
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01551920
TI  - Feasibility of Bridge Structural Health Monitoring Using Short Term, Data Acquisition System
AB  - As a national trend, Departments of Transportation (DOTs) are faced with difficult financial decisions.  The age of the infrastructure is increasing and deteriorating, needing maintenance and in some cases replacement.  This does not include the additional needs of infrastructure expansion due to the population increasing.  However, there simply is not enough money available to meet the required needs.  As a result judicious decisions need to be made based on accurate assessment of bridge performance. Bridge performance is dependent on many factors and therefore is often different than the assumed designed behavior.  Factors such as loading frequency and magnitude, load distribution, support conditions and environment are critical variables that can lead to changes in bridge performance. This proposed research will obtain the critical bridge performance factors by developing a self-contained, rapidly deployable data acquisition system that can be applied to a bridge and monitor the required data.  It is proposed that this system will be deployed on two bridges, one in the Commonwealth of Virginia and another in the State of Utah.  The data gathered from this system will be compared with comprehensive date gathered from comprehensive long-term data acquisition systems already deployed on the two bridges.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Deterioration
KW  - Load factor
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Utah
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/feasibility-bridge-structural-health-monitoring-using-short-term-data-acquisition-syst
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1342094
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01537820
TI  - Integration of Ground Access to Airports in Measures of Inter-urban Accessibility
AB  - Recent research by the author has focused on the levels of accessibility on the basis of actual air passenger demand and travel patterns across particular origin and destination pairs. The feedback received from this study strongly suggests that the additional factor of surface transport access to airports, particularly in more remote and rural regions, is very important in any measurement of accessibility and service quality. In fact, as is well known in transportation systems models, there are some complex trade-offs. The proposal is to develop a more comprehensive quality indicator of interaction between urban places. The study examines service in conjunction with the ground transport accessibility and travel time to these airports from their probable catchment area. The project would attempt to develop a more comprehensive estimate of door to door travel time from origin to destination. The air side component, via direct or multistep trips is already quite well covered, and this project would add a term for the ground location origin to the estimated destination. Such considerations are quite important to the economic development and employment retention of communities that rely on extensive travel by employees to deliver technical, sales, or other support to dispersed markets.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Airport operations
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Quality of service
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/research/research_in_progress.php
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1324051
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01537819
TI  - Segmenting, Grouping and Tracking Vehicles in LIDAR Data
AB  - Roadway congestion impacts almost all aspects of everyday lives in the United States (US), from safety, to the environment, to the quality of life, to the cost of goods and services. A comprehensive understanding of the traffic conditions over space that give rise to congestion remains elusive. To date, these issues have been studied predominantly with macroscopic data from point detectors (e.g., loop detectors), aggregated over fixed time periods ranging from 20 sec to 15 min. Many new theories have emerged in recent years to explain several on-going anomalies in traditional traffic flow theory. At the core of these new theories is the presence of non-trivial disturbances that last far less than the fixed time aggregation periods commonly used to study traffic, and thus, these micro-disturbances have not been empirically observed. If these theories are proven empirically, they should lead to better congestion management and control.  The proposed research seeks to develop the tools to measure traffic flow at a resolution sufficiently precise to measure the micro-disturbances and prove or disprove the traffic flow theories that depend on their presence. Under support from National Science Foundation (NSF) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), OSU has developed an instrumented probe vehicle that includes positioning sensors (differential global positioning system [DGPS] and inertial navigation) and ranging sensors (six LIDAR, one radar). The focus of the RNS is the one forward facing and one rear facing LIDAR sensors. These LIDAR collect a rich, 180° scan out to 80 m, in a plane approximately 0.5 m above the roadway, at 40 Hz. Although hundreds of hours of data have been collected, the tools to automatically reduce this vast quantity of data to useful information still need to be developed. The proposed research would undertake the task of segmenting the vehicle returns from the non-vehicle objects in the LIDAR data, grouping the vehicle returns into discrete vehicles, and tracking the resulting vehicle groups across scans. Once these tools are developed, they would be used to mine hundreds of hours of existing instrumented probe vehicle data.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Loop detectors
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Tracking systems
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic flow
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/research/research_in_progress.php
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1324050
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01537712
TI  - Rail Highway At-Grade Crossing Prioritization and Ranking Program Analysis
AB  - The objective of this project is to revisit the current approach to rail highway at-grade crossing (RHGC) prioritization and ranking programs.  The project will apply statistical modeling methods in line with those recommended by the Highway Safety Manual (HSM) to analyze safety performances of rail highway at-grade crossings.  The cost and the effectiveness of selected improvement treatments will also be evaluated using the state-of-art HSM methodologies.  A prioritized list of safety improvement programs will then be developed based on the analysis results.  This list will be compared with the existing safety improvement programs to identify the effectiveness of incorporating statistical modeling approaches in ranking rail highway at-grade crossings.
KW  - At grade intersections
KW  - Highway Safety Manual
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Ranking (Statistics)
KW  - Safety performance
KW  - State of the art
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/research/projects/?id=13401
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1323571
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01534975
TI  - Influence of Mixing Procedure on Robustness of Self-Consolidating Concrete
AB  - Self-Consolidating Concrete (SCC) is, in the fresh state, more sensitive to small variations in the constituent elements and the mixing procedure compared to Conventional Vibrated Concrete. Several studies have been performed recently to identify robustness of SCC and to develop solutions to increase the robustness of SCC. Ghent University obtained a major research project from the Research Foundation in Flanders (FWO) to investigate fundamentally robustness of SCC and to identify potential solutions in the form of alternative materials to enhance robustness. In the proposed research project, Missouri Science and Technology (S&amp;T) intends to extend the research at Ghent University by investigating the influence of the mixing procedure on the robustness of SCC. The project is split into four tasks. In the first task, the sequence of adding the constituent elements and mixing will be investigated by measuring the rheological properties of the produced mortars. In the second task, the consequences of the main influences of the mixing procedure will be compared to the influence of small variations of the most important constituent elements. In the third task, the results obtained on mortars are validated on concrete scale, while in the fourth task, the robustness of thixotropy and loss of workability will be investigated on concrete scale. The research team hopes in this way to acquire more knowledge on the influence of the mixing procedure on the robustness of SCC, enabling the establishment of a set of guidelines. As a result, the practical application and perception of SCC in the construction and transportation industry can be enhanced.
KW  - Concrete mixing
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Robustness
KW  - Self compacting concrete
KW  - Thixotropy
KW  - Transportation
KW  - Workability
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/research/r333/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1320832
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01521843
TI  - Elevated Temperature Properties of Weathering Steel
AB  - In recent decades, bridge fires have become a major concern in the United States (U.S.) Fire hazard in bridges can result in significant economic and public losses. Traffic on fire damaged bridges is usually hard to detour and can significantly affect traffic quality in the region. Further, a severe fire may result in permanent damage or even collapse of the bridge. While the perception may be that it is unlikely that a bridge will collapse under fire, a recent nationwide survey by the New York Department of Transportation (NYDOT) has shown that nearly three times more bridges have collapsed due to fire than earthquakes. New construction of bridges often use "Weathering Steel" (also known as "Corten Steel"), which has a corrosion-retarding effect since the steel forms a protective layer on its surface under the influence of the weather.  To date, no information exists on the effect of high temperature (heated and residual) on the mechanical properties of weathering steel.  This proposal will develop this knowledge. There are two important reasons to know the high temperature properties of bridge steels: (a) to make a rapid post-fire assessment of a steel girder; and (b) to make informed decisions for potential heat straightening of bridge overpasses that have been affected by fire or have been impacted by a vehicle that exceeds the vertical clearance.  This proposal is motivated by bridge fires, although the results can be applied to heat-straightening of impacted bridge girders as well.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Collapse strength
KW  - Fires
KW  - Girders
KW  - High temperature
KW  - New York (State)
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Weathering steel
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/elevated-temperature-properties-weathering-steel
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1305705
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01517370
TI  - Smart Headlights for Driver Safety
AB  - The primary goal of a vehicular headlight is to improve safety in low-light and poor weather conditions. The typical headlight however has very limited flexibility - switching between high and low beams, turning off beams toward the opposing lane or rotating the beam as the vehicle turns - and is not designed for all driving environments. Thus, despite decades of innovation in light source technology, more than half of the vehicular accidents still happen at night even with very less traffic on the road. This projct will develop a new design for a headlight that can be programmed to perform several tasks simultaneously and that can sense, react and adapt quickly to any environment with the goal of increasing safety for all drivers on the road. For example, drivers will be able to drive with high-beams without glaring any other driver and will be able to see better during rain and snowstorms when the road is most treacherous to drive. The headlights can also increase contrast of lanes, markings and sidewalks and can alert drivers to sudden obstacles. This project will address the several engineering challenges in building this headlight and develop appropriate algorithms for the various tasks. Then, the prototypes will be deployed on vehicles and road tested to determine the safety benefits to drivers in a wide range of environmental conditions.
KW  - Design
KW  - Driving
KW  - Headlamps
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Nighttime crashes
KW  - Vehicle lighting systems
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ILIM/projects/IL/smartHeadlight/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301263
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01498009
TI  - Analyzing Social Media for Improving Transportation Safety
AB  - The goal of this project is to develop an online intelligent system that automatically monitors and collects timely and comprehensive information from social media (e.g., blogs, online forums, and twitter) about the current status of the transportation network and traffic flow to support advanced safety enhancement. The proposed approach is composed of five major components: (1) Public Safety Data Extraction. The project plan is to build a classifier (e.g., SVM) to automatically identify transportation-safety related posts on local social media platforms covering the area of interest. However, it is computationally expensive to train a classifier for social media, because of the short length and large volume of the messages, as well as the non-standard abbreviations. It is much cheaper to collect labels for news articles (e.g., national transportation safety board), so transfer learning techniques can be applied to build the classifier without the direct labeling of social media.(2) Heterogeneous Safety Data Modeling. Social media is heterogeneous by nature and has a variety of both entity types (e.g. user, post, hashtag, term, link, mention, location, and time) and relationships (e.g. originator, reply, friendship, and followership). To model this very complex data structure, we plan to build a heterogeneous network model for the safety data. (3) Transportation Safety Topics: Discovery. Transportation safety could include many different topics, such as road blockage or damage due to heavy snows or floods, missing people swept away by a flood, the malfunctioning of traffic lights, traffic incidents, and drunk driving to name but a few. In addition, topics may relate to different geographic locations and time periods. The project proposers to design a customized spatiotemporal topic model specifically for transportation safety applications. (4) Bias Estimation Using Traditional Traffic Sensor Data. Social media could potentially be a biased sample, and it is important to estimate this bias by cross-validation using traditional transportation census data, such as loop detector and camera data, incident reports, and transportation surveys. (5) User Interface and High Level Applications. These will include a regional sentiment index, safety alarms, and safety recommendations.
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Safety
KW  - Social media
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Transportation networks
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://www.utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/projectitem.asp?ID=88
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277080
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01498008
TI  - Smart Automotive Headlights for Safe Driving
AB  - The long term goal of the project is to develop the next generation headlights for vehicles, that are programmable, multi-task, react to the road environment and enhance driver safety. Smart headlights will better illuminate the road, spotlight obstacles, signs and lanes, project directions on the road, reduce glare and increase visibility in dangerous rain and snowstorms. The U.S. National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that annually 400,000 crashes and 4,000 fatalities happen during rain and snowstorms at night. The additional cost of the headlight will be small (a few hundred dollars per vehicle) compared to the direct and indirect savings due to reduced crashes. The project has strong commercialization potential, with vehicle exterior lighting becoming more and more adaptive recently. For 2013, the goal will be to design and build a prototype headlight with 500 Hz reaction capability and algorithms that can detect and highlight obstacles as well as reduce glare for oncoming drivers. This prototype will be tested in laboratory conditions and outdoors.
KW  - Glare
KW  - Headlamps
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Luminance
KW  - Prototypes
KW  - Vehicle design
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://www.utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/projectitem.asp?ID=90
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1277079
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495441
TI  - Enhancing the Safety of the Carnegie Mellon Campus for Blind Navigators
AB  - Safety is a primary concern for the visually impaired when navigating unfamiliar urban environments. Since most environments are constructed to be easily navigated by sighted people, people with disabilities have to often seek help and use secondary cues to navigate many urban environments safely. This work aims to start addressing this safety problem by exploring a variety of tools and frameworks that can enhance the safety of blind adults navigating the Carnegie Mellon campus and its connections to the surrounding community. The project envisions a suite of tools accessible via ubiquitous smartphones and personal computers that can assist blind navigators with navigation tasks. By enhancing safe navigation in this pilot site, we will be poised to expand the application to other locations in the city of Pittsburgh and beyond.
KW  - Blind persons
KW  - Carnegie Mellon University
KW  - Safety
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Transportation disadvantaged persons
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Visually impaired persons
UR  - http://www.utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/projectitem.asp?ID=89
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265123
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495439
TI  - Multi-Camera System Based Driver Behavior Analysis
AB  - Understanding driver behavior is an essential component in human-centric driver systems. Particularly, driver's interaction with the environment is an important factor in controlling the vehicle, though there have been very few research studies on analyzing driver behavior. Multi-camera array system has a variety of applications because of its improved resolution, frame rate, depth of field, dynamic range and disparity map from such system. This report will present an implementation of multi-camera array system with GoPro cameras to interact with the external environment of a moving vehicle on streets. So far, our major contribution contains specific analysis of GoPro hardware and protocol, integrating the system with various sensors to collect both internal and external environment information. The project will also introduce a calibration and rectification method with bundle adjustment for the multi-camera array. The goal of this project is to implement realtime intension prediction of drivers with the multi-camera array system.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Cameras
KW  - Driver interaction
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Real time control
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Vehicle design
UR  - http://www.utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/projectitem.asp?ID=91
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265121
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495438
TI  - Real-Time Bus Recognition for Adaptive Signal Control
AB  - The ability to detect buses in oncoming traffic in real-time offers unique opportunities to improve overall traffic flow in urban environments. Buses regularly disrupt traffic flow as they pickup and discharge passengers. Yet, if traffic flows at a given intersection are not simultaneously blocked in multiple directions, there are often traffic signal control decisions that can be taken adaptively to minimize these disruptive effects (e.g., by servicing cross traffic) and reduce overall traffic congestion. Existing adaptive traffic signal control systems do not attempt to recognize and act upon the presence of buses in incoming traffic streams. Alternatively, existing approaches to bus prioritization start from the assumption that bus movement trumps all other vehicles, give no attention to how disruptive it is to overall traffic flow to keep buses moving, and relies on additional hardware, both within the vehicles and at each intersection. We propose to investigate development of the capability to use video streams from commercial traffic cameras to detect the presence of buses in real-time and integrate the use this information into an adaptive traffic signal control scheme.
KW  - Bus priority
KW  - Bus traffic
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Real time control
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Traffic signal control systems
UR  - http://www.utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/projectitem.asp?ID=87
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265120
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489751
TI  - The Development of On-Premise Electronic Message Center Lighting Levels and Sign Lighting Measurement Techniques, Phase 2
AB  - Research conducted recently for the United States Sign Council Foundation (USSCF) found that there is no consensus on lighting measurement or appropriate lighting levels of on-premise Electronic Message Centers (EMCs).  This is the second phase of a two-phase study to remedy this situation.  In Phase 1, standard EMC light level testing procedures are being established and EMC lighting levels that optimize sign legibility at night from the prospective of a motorist who is viewing the EMC are being developed.  Phase 2 will result in EMC lighting levels that optimize sign legibility during daylight.   The proposal consists of two tasks.  Task 1 uses The Larson Institute's test track to conduct original human factors research with the goal of optimizing daytime EMC lighting levels based on sign legibility.  Task 2 is the development of a Final Report that will include standards for daytime EMC light levels based on the results of Task 1.
KW  - Daylight
KW  - Electronic message signs
KW  - Legibility
KW  - Lighting
KW  - Messages (Communications)
KW  - Test tracks
KW  - Traffic signs
KW  - Variable message signs
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259222
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489499
TI  - 400 South Corridor Assessment
AB  - Light Rail Transit (LRT) is the fastest growing rail transportation mode in urban environments in the United States (US). LRT usually operates in a semi-exclusive right-of-way (ROW) at street grade with different separations and protections from other traffic, but can sometimes operate in exclusive, fully grade-separated, or non-exclusive, mixed traffic ROW. Operating LRT in semi-exclusive or non-exclusive ROW can cause some safety problems, mainly caused by turning vehicles, pedestrians at LRT/pedestrian malls, and/or complex intersection geometry. Major characteristics of transportation technology, specifically designed for rapid transit modes which should be followed during design/implementation, include special guideways and crossings, upgraded widely spread stations, upgraded vehicles, off-board fare collection, high capacity, Transit Signal Priority (TSP) of preemption, and speed competitive to private cars. In order to make LRT faster, more reliable and competitive, as well as to resolve some safety problems, it is necessary to provide certain priority or preemption to Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs).
KW  - Guideways
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Right of way (Traffic)
KW  - Safety
KW  - Traffic signal priority
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258548
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489498
TI  - Experimental and Numerical Study for the Debonding Interface Between an Existing Pavement and a New Concrete Overlay
AB  - Most pavement projects today are a rehabilitation or rejuvenation of existing and distressed pavements. We often add more overlay layers or mill out patches for repair material rather than reconstruct the entire roadway. One of the key requirements for those repair systems is to have adequate bond strength between the existing concrete substrate and overlay throughout the service life. When a repair is performed, the differences in the properties of two materials will affect bond strength and stress distribution. Of particular relevance are differences in shrinkage, elastic modulus and thermal movement. Repaired sections of concrete pavement often fail due to debonding or delamination of the top repaired layer. Thus there is a need to improve or to maintain the bond by improved material properties or improved interface conditions.
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Debonding
KW  - Delamination
KW  - Milling
KW  - Modulus of elasticity
KW  - Overlays (Pavements)
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Shrinkage
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258547
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489496
TI  - Seismic Rehabilitation of Skewed and Curved Bridges Using a New Generation of Bulking Restrained Braces
AB  - Buckling restrained braces (BRBs) can be used as structural fuses by dissipating the seismic input energy to a structure while the main structural components remain undamaged. In the case of a bridge, this implies that in an earthquake the BRBs act as dampers and could be damaged; however, the building structural components should be protected to a large degree. BRBs have been used in buildings in Japan since the 1995 Kobe earthquake (Reina and Normile, 1997) and in the United States (US) after the Northridge earthquake (Clark et al., 1999). Almost all applications have been limited to buildings, either as components of new buildings. Recently, researchers proposed implementing BRBs as structural fuses in steel bridges. Kanaji et al. (2003) used BRBs for retrofit of a truss bridge (Minato Bridge) which is one of the longest bridges in the world. El-Bahey and Bruneau (2010, 2011) introduced the concept of using BRBs for making ductile end diaphragms or bracing bridge bents in concrete slab on steel girder bridges. This concept has been experimentally verified using specially designed ductile end diaphragms. Cardeni et al. (2004) conducted shake table tests on a 2/5 scale slab-on-girder bridge which had short length BRBs at its end diaphragm. In all previous research BRBs were used in the transverse direction in order to retrofit bridges against seismic excitations; however, Celik and Bruneau (2009) introduced the idea of using BRBs in two directions in steel bridges.
KW  - Bents
KW  - Braces
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Buckling
KW  - Diaphragms (Engineering)
KW  - Earthquake resistant structures
KW  - Kobe Earthquake, January 17, 1995
KW  - Northridge Earthquake, January 17, 1994
KW  - Retrofitting
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258545
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489495
TI  - Highway Structures Supported on Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Embankment without Deep Foundations
AB  - In 1972, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) adopted the use of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) geofoam as a super light-weight fill material in road embankments. The first project involved the successful reconstruction of road embankment adjacent to a bridge founded on piles to firm ground. Prior to reconstruction, the pre-existing embankments, resting on a 3 m thick layer of peat above 10 m of soft marine clay, experienced a settlement rate of more than 200 mm per year. However, by replacing 1 m of ordinary embankment material with two layers of EPS blocks, each 0.5-m thick, the settlement was successfully halted. The EPS blocks deployed had a density of 20 kg/m3, which is nearly 100 times lighter than the replaced materials. Subsequently, EPS geofoam technology has been successfully used elsewhere in Europe, Japan and the United States as a super light-weight material which is placed around highway bridges supported on deep foundations. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), funded National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 24-11(01) titled "Guidelines for Geofoam Applications in Embankment Projects" and Project 24-11(02) titled "Guidelines for Geofoam Applications in Slope Stability Projects." The results of these projects are available in the following reports: NCHRP Report 529, NCHRP Web Document 65, NCHRP 24-11(02) Final Report. The results of both NCHRP Project 24-11 studies demonstrate that EPS-block geofoam is a unique lightweight fill material that can provide a safe and economical solution to construction of stand-alone embankments and bridge approaches over soft ground, as well as an effective and economical alternative to slope stabilization and repair. Benefits of utilizing EPSblock geofoam as a lightweight fill material include: (1) ease of construction, (2) can contribute to accelerated construction, (3) ability to easily implement phased construction, (4) entire slide surface does not have to be removed because of the low driving stresses, (5) can be readily stored for use in emergency slope stabilization repairs, (6) ability to reuse EPS blocks utilized in temporary fills, (7) ability to be placed in adverse weather conditions, (8) possible elimination of the need for surcharging and staged construction, (9) decreased  maintenance costs as a result of less settlement from the low density of EPS-block geofoam, (10) alleviation of the need to acquire additional right-of-way for traditional slope stabilization methods due to the ease with which EPS-block geofoam can be used to construct vertical-sided fills, (11) reduction of lateral stress on bridge approach abutments, (12) excellent durability, (13) potential construction without utility relocation, and (14) excellent seismic behavior.
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Europe
KW  - Expanded materials
KW  - Fillers (Materials)
KW  - Foundations
KW  - Lightweight materials
KW  - Polystyrene
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Slope stability
KW  - United States
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258544
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489493
TI  - Building a Sustainable GIS Framework for Supporting a Tribal Transportation Program
AB  - As the oil boom in the Bakken oil field changes the way of life on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and increases the need to adapt to rapid change, the leaders are assessing the reservation's government structure, needs, and vision for the long term. The tribal members' awareness of the need for change is a starting point for planning for a sustainable social and economic development on the reservation. For sound sustainable development, maintaining close relationships among federal, state, county, and reservation agencies is critically important. Because of jurisdiction and longstanding traditions, the relationship among the entities might be complex, sensitive, and challenging. Through well-established information systems and by sharing data/information, these challenges can be overcome to achieve synergy in establishing a plan and vision for the reservation.
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Indian reservations
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Native Americans
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Tribal government
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258542
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489375
TI  - Campus Transit Laboratory: Infrastructure for Research, Education, and Outreach
AB  - The Ohio State University (OSU) Campus Transit Laboratory (CTL) is a living laboratory that provides the infrastructure for integrated transit-related research investigations, educational activities, and applied studies. The CTL benefits from advanced automatic data collection and information technologies deployed on the OSU Campus Area Bus Service (CABS), accessibility of the CABS system and the OSU community to researchers, instructors, and students for data collection and in situ observations, and regular interaction between CTL investigators and CABS operators and decision makers. This NEXTRANS project would continue to: (1) sustain, develop, and showcase the CTL;  (2) collect, process, and archive CTL data; (3) exploit the CTL for research, education, and outreach activities; and (4) develop collaborations with transit agencies and investigators.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Bus transit operations
KW  - Campus Transit Lab (Ohio State University)
KW  - Campuses
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Data banks
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/research/research_in_progress.php
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258397
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01484105
TI  - Identification of Low-Risk Adjusted Work Schedules Designed to Manage Fatigue During Peak Service Demand Periods in the Shortline Railroad Industry
AB  - Based on input from representatives of the Short Line Railroad Association (ASLRRA) it is apparent that there is an issue with the impact of the hours of Service rules as generated by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 that creates difficulty for short line railroad operators during peak harvest season. Since the service demands are very extreme it is difficult for crews to operate within the time constraints. Consequently, there is a need to address ways to assist operating crews in better managing the fatigue associated with long hours of work.
KW  - Demand
KW  - Fatigue (Physiological condition)
KW  - Labor force
KW  - Peak periods
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Schedules
KW  - Short line railroads
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252864
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01484103
TI  - Re-Use of Mine Waste Materials Amended with Fly Ash in Transportation Earthwork Projects
AB  - Environmental sustainability and land stewardship are challenging but laudable constraints for all infrastructure development in the United States. Our nation's prevalent energy concerns, which include the desire for energy independence coupled with a growing population requiring additional energy capacity, constrain energy available to repair and build new infrastructure. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has identified the maintenance and improvement of roadways in addition to increased construction of local road systems as strategic goals in the statewide transportation plan (CDOT 2008). These goals will support an overarching objective in Colorado to enhance transportation safety while meeting future needs of increased transportation capacity.
KW  - Colorado
KW  - Earthwork
KW  - Fly ash
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Mines
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Wastes
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252862
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01484102
TI  - Fatigue Strength of CFRP-repaired Reinforced Concrete Bridge Girders under Service Temperature
AB  - Fatigue cracking is known to be a common problem in steel and concrete bridge girders due to the frequent passage of axle loads. In reinforced concrete bridges, elements such as slabs, girders, and piers, are subjected to a high number of stress cycles that can lead to the development of cracking in the concrete or the reinforcing steel. Fatigue crack development in the reinforcement is a frequent issue, which have been previously studied by various researchers. One promising solution for mitigating such cracks is the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) patches or plates for the repair of the cracked elements. The application of CFRP patches result in an overall increase in member stiffness and strength, thereby reducing the stress range applied and slowing down or arresting crack propagation.
KW  - Axle loads
KW  - Bridge members
KW  - Fatigue cracking
KW  - Girder bridges
KW  - Patching
KW  - Reinforced concrete bridges
KW  - Reinforcing steel
KW  - Stiffness
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252861
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01484100
TI  - Quantifying Sustainability Metrics for Trunkline Bridges in the Mountain Plains Region
AB  - Sustainability is a critical consideration in the decision making process for construction projects. The building construction sector has the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification of the US Green Building Council (USGB). This certification requires an explicit justification of sustainability aspects of a candidate building's design and construction processes. Several levels can be certified, depending on a point system developed by the USGB. Bridge construction in the United States has no equivalent sustainability certification system, although several sustainability initiatives have been developed in the recent past. A sustainability index has been tested by Atkins Global. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) in the UK has specified that future structural design codes must consider sustainability, although no specific measures have been included to date. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official's (AASHTO's) Center for Environmental Excellence has publications on sustainability; and the most recent USGB guide gives more emphasis to building exterior factors. The ability to quantify the sustainability of bridges and their construction will provide an important metric for decision makers during the bidding and public policy making process.
KW  - Bids
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Sustainable development
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252859
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01484099
TI  - Framework of Performance-based Earthquake Design of Curved and Skewed Bridges
AB  - Earthquakes pose serious threat to society and transportation infrastructure in the United States and around the world. Among all the highway bridges, most of them are straight ones with short and simple spans, which have been extensively studied during the past decades. Comparatively, there are a group of complex bridges which are more vulnerable to earthquake but not yet been sufficiently investigated, such as curved and skewed bridges. It is known that the offset angle of the superstructure of the skewed bridges may present advantages to the transportation layout. However, the dynamic response of this type of bridge has in the past led to failures, particularly due to unseating, under seismic loading. Examples of this kind of failure of skewed reinforced concrete bridges have been observed after the earthquakes in Northridge (1981), Costa Rica (1991), and more recently in Chile (2010) (Moehle &amp; Eberhard, 2000). Curved bridges are also susceptible to the same asymmetrical failure response as that of skewed bridges. An example of where the curved geometry may have contributed to failure was the collapse of the South Connector Overcrossing during the 1971 San Fernando earthquake of magnitude 6.6 Mw. The South Connector Overcrossing (SCO) suffered collapse of two of its deck segments in addition to the column supporting it (Williams and Godden 1979). Despite the significant risk associated with failure and poor performance of those complex bridges, the related studies are still very limited (Bignell et al. 2005; Saadeghvaziri and Yazdani-Motlagh 2000; Maleki 2001; Saiidi and Orie 1992). There are also very little information which can be used for the design of these vulnerable bridges. The PI (along with a co-PI and a graduate student) is currently conducting a study on seismic analysis of Colorado bridges through advanced finite element method (FEM) modeling, which is sponsored by Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). In this study, curved and skewed bridges are of special interests and will be modeled in detail. By taking advantage of the CDOT-funded study, the proposed study is to further develop the performance-based design framework specifically for curved and skewed bridges. It is expected that some useful design guidelines and insights can be found through the proposed study by applying the performance-based concept.
KW  - Bridge superstructures
KW  - Collapse strength
KW  - Curved bridges
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Failure
KW  - Reinforced concrete bridges
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Skew bridges
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252858
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01484098
TI  - Development and Testing of Crashworthy Ipe Bridge Rails
AB  - Bridge and guard rails are extraordinarily common along roads and highways around the world (Ritter et al. 1999, Wacker and Smith 2001). Even the most low-traveled rural bridge likely has rails installed for safety, and of course interstate highway systems have rails that can vary from concrete along bridges to cable lines across medians and metal railings at shoulders. Various types of railing have been studied for decades, and excellent design guidelines exist for nearly every class of railing. Typical types of railing can include formed steel in the shape of convex shell structures, simple solid wood timbers spliced with lap joints, hollow steel or other metal tubing that can be arrayed in either its strong or weak direction to adjust the stiffness at impact, glu-lam beams attached to solid wood posts, and cable "rails". Clearly, there are massive differences in cost and effectiveness between various barriers, and there are only limited numbers of studies that have attempted to compare the various types of railing (Shankar et al. 2000, Plaxico et al. 2000). This study completes a thorough review of all previously published studies of guardrails (including both performance and cost) throughout the United States along with collecting data on guard rail events in Colorado. But the  primary emphasis of this work is exploring the use of an extremely durable and tough alternative structural material: the hardwood commonly known as ipe, also known as Brazilian walnut (ocotea porosa). Ipe has tremendous benefits compared to existing alternatives and has yet to be used in conjunction with transportation structures. In fact, there are almost no studies related to its structural performance. This is in part because it is an imported wood, and has a slightly higher cost than common structural wood species. But it appears to have excellent potential for use in applications where durability, environmental stability, and strength/stiffness are paramount.
KW  - Bridge cables
KW  - Bridge railings
KW  - Colorado
KW  - Crashworthiness
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Guardrails
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Rural highways
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252857
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481784
TI  - Compass 2012 Data Analysis and Reporting
AB  - The Compass Annual Report is issued each year to communicate the condition of Wisconsin's state highway network and to demonstrate accountability for maintenance expenditures. Past efforts of Compass include data analysis and reporting performance and outcomes for signs, pavement, shoulders, roadsides, drainage, traffic, and bridges. Starting from the 2005 Compass report, measures for bridge inspection and maintenance were included, and historic data was transformed from District to Region-levels. In 2006, Compass reports began presenting trends for pavement condition associated with the agency's biennial inspection cycle. In addition, starting from 2006 the Compass report took on a slightly more customer-focus by presenting overall results as a report card and by organizing the measures according to their maintenance objectives such as safety, stewardship, and aesthetics. Starting in 2008, pavement condition has been based on the Pavement Maintenance Management System (PMMS) data.
KW  - Compass program (Wisconsin)
KW  - Condition surveys
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Expenditures
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/08-02/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250965
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481554
TI  - Getting the Goods without the Bads: Freight Transportation Demand Management Strategies to Reduce Urban Impacts
AB  - This project will identify and evaluate strategies to reduce the negative externalities associated with goods movement in urban areas through transportation demand management (TDM) strategies. To evaluate the cost effectiveness of potential strategies; the project will assess the costs associated with highway and rail transportation; develop estimates of strategy costs and impacts, as well as challenges to implementation, through surveys and interviews with implementers; and develop case studies of example freight TDM strategies.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Impacts
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Travel demand management
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-02/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250714
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01480062
TI  - Stationary LiDAR for Traffic and Safety Applications - Vehicles Interpretation and Tracking
AB  - The project aims to develop a data processing module for a novel LiDAR-based traffic scanner - TScan. The TScan is being developed by the Center for Road Safety to collect microscopic highly accurate traffic data at road intersections. TScan uses Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology. This technology can detect various types of road users including buses, cars, pedestrians, and bicycles and, unlike video detection, it does not experience the well-known occlusion problem. The system consists of the LiDAR HDL-64E manufactured by the LiDAR Division of Velodyne Acoustics, Inc. installed on a pneumatic 42-foot telescoping mast elevated above the ground and positioned near a studied intersection. The sensor head rotates 900 times per minute, which results in 1.3 million data points per second. Data collected over a period of several hours to several days is stored in high-capacity devices. The system has been designed and all the components of the TScan system have been purchased or manufactured. The proposed effort covers the first phase of the overall effort. The second phase (not included in this proposal) will immediately follow the first one and it is meant to demonstrate the quality and usefulness of the obtained data for traffic conflict analysis. This phase will build an interface between the already developed data processing module and the existing Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM), which is freely available public domain software developed by Siemens ITS with Federal Highway Administration  funding. SSAM will convert the microscopic traffic information produced with TScan into meaningful safety-related information such as traffic conflicts and other risky interactions.  The proposed research component focuses on developing a module capable of converting the source data into the microscopic measurements of the motion of identified objects across the field of view in a way to make it useful for more advanced analysis. Although the HDL64E unit in our possession was found useful for autonomous driving, it is still not clear if it can measure the dimensions and motion of objects at a sufficient level of quality for the envisioned applications. This is the primary research objective besides developing the data process to facilitate the required data conversion.
KW  - Automatic vehicle detection and identification systems
KW  - Information processing
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Microscopic traffic flow
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/assets/pdfs/134PY2.1%20Stationary%20LiDAR%20for%20Traffic%20and%20Safety%20Applications%20Vehicles%20Interpretation%20and%20Tracking.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249126
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01480060
TI  - Driving Simulator Laboratory: Traveler Behavior Modeling and Interactive Experiments to Address Mobility and Safety Needs
AB  - The Purdue Driving Simulator Laboratory (DSL) will be a quasi-living laboratory for mobility and safety research, interactive learning, and outreach. The DSL will develop behavioral and operational models and assess impacts to address current and emerging needs of the U.S. Department of Transportation, state and local departments of transportation, and private sector firms in the information and locational services domains.  It seeks to address fundamental questions related to the costs-benefits of infrastructure investment in advanced traveler information based management systems, the explicit quantification of the psychological impacts of information provision, traveler behavior to develop effective operational road-space management strategies, evacuee behavior under large-scale disasters, and the holistic understanding of real-time information provision and dissemination mechanisms from the mobility and safety perspectives.  The ability to quantify physical and psychological benefits of real-time information has several dimensions of significant impact for practitioners and researchers. The proposed experiments will enable development of realistic behavior models and understanding of the benefits and safety implications associated with information provision and road space management strategies.
KW  - Driver information systems
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Laboratories
KW  - Laboratory studies
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249124
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479975
TI  - Standardized Metrics for Accessibility: Establishing a Federal Policy-Relevant Knowledge Base
AB  - Transportation planning and policy has traditionally been evaluated with metrics of mobility, such as highway level-of-service or time lost to delay. Standardized metrics of mobility are abundantly available to planners and engineers through such widely used resources as the Highway Capacity Manual and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Standardized data about mobility facilitate consistent evaluations of transportation outcomes across both time and place. The purpose of transportation, however, is not movement but access, and ubiquitous reliance on mobility-based evaluation has tended to favor--via both transportation and land-use planning--low-density, auto oriented development patterns. A shift to accessibility-based metrics can help alter this trend, and can better align planning practice with transportation's fundamental purpose. Yet no standardized metrics are currently available to assist decision makers about progress on accessibility. This project seeks to understand how a standardized set of data generated by regional agencies might be collected in a repository to facilitate consistent and dependable accessibility-based analysis among places and through time. Tasks include assessing the current state of standardized transportation data, documenting the range of current practice with regard to the needed inputs to accessibility analysis, and developing a framework for standardizing the inputs to accessibility metrics. The objective is to provide assistance to federal agencies in modify their procedures for data collection and publication and for Metropolitan Planning Organizations and local governments to gain the capacity to compare their outcomes over time to other peers.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Metrics (Quantitative assessment)
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Policy analysis
KW  - Standardization
KW  - Traffic congestion
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249038
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479972
TI  - Mapping New Mobility Business, Innovation, and Employment Opportunities in Michigan: Developing a Data-Driven Graphic Platform for Assessing and Advancing Laboratory Development and Entrepreneurship Opportunities in Urban Regions
AB  - This work will develop a data-driven mapping platform for assessing local and regional economic development, employment, entrepreneurship, and industry cluster development opportunities related to New Mobility, starting with southeast Michigan as the initial prototype area. The mapping activity will assemble through a geographic information system (GIS) based toolset, a dynamic visualization and geospatialization platform to illuminate existing material and economic flows between related sector agents, as well as to identify network gaps via methodologies related to value-chain mapping. In general, this suite of network visualization tools relates specifically to New Mobility industry and enterprise, fills an important analysis gap and will result in more informed decision making and innovation by governments, large business, entrepreneurs and other innovators. The work addresses the specific interests of project partners by integrating diverse sets of data and interrelations that operate within 'blind spots' of individual sector participants. The tools proposed for development aim to result in more informed decision-making and risk assessment in emerging sectors, while identifying the priority strategic actions Michigan policy and business leadership can advance that support the growth of the new mobility industry sector in Michigan. The proposed tools will be developed with the intent that process and product can be scaled and translated to other sites and globally.
KW  - Business practices
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Innovation
KW  - Mapping
KW  - Michigan
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Regional economics
KW  - Risk assessment
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249035
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479787
TI  - Variational Bayes Method for Estimating Transit Route OD Flows Using APC Data
AB  - This project builds upon the progress made by the NEXTRANS investigators in using automatic passenger counter (APC) data from transit buses to estimate route-level origin-destination (OD) flows considering a variety of new dimensions and identified limitations. Specifically, these efforts relate to the temporal representation of OD flows. Route-level bus passenger OD flow estimation methods recently developed by the NEXTRANS investigators are presently being used to provide insights on empirical flow patterns for a few transit agencies. The research here is targeted to improve upon these applications for sustained, long-term use. As was done in moving the recently developed approaches toward empirical implementation, methodological formulations must be developed, evaluated, and refined before being put into use. The advanced methods eventually developed would form the basis for long-term benefits to transit agencies and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). The methods being developed are based on exploiting spatially and temporally extensive boarding and alighting data that are now available from APC technologies in use on many transit properties. As with previously developed methods, the new methods will be inspired by an understanding of bus passenger behavior that is consistent with data and in situ observations collected on Ohio State University's (OSU's) living Campus Transit Lab and refined according to these data and observations. The developed methods will lead to a richer representation of OD flow patterns and more accurate estimates of such patterns. In both cases, improved service planning and operations, where OD flow patterns are used as inputs, are expected. Planning applications include, for example, extending, splitting or combining, and designing new routes, and operations applications include short-turning, expressing, and holding. Improved service and operations will eventually result in a more competitive transit mode, with subsequent effects on reduced congestion, improved sustainable use of energy resources, and mitigated environmental impacts stemming from passenger travel.
KW  - Boarding and alighting
KW  - Bus routes
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Passenger counting
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248925
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479786
TI  - Using Naturalistic Driving Performance Data to Develop an Empirically Defined Model of Distracted Driving
AB  - Approximately 33,000 fatalities and over 2.2 million nonfatal injuries result from motor vehicle crashes each year in the United States, with a total cost that exceeded $US230 billion in 2009 alone (NHTSA, 2010a). In 2009, 16% of fatal crashes and 20% of non-fatal injury crashes included reports of distracted driving (NHTSA, 2010b). Findings from the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study suggested that 22% of all crashes and near-crashes were related to secondary-task distraction (Klauer, 2006). The measurement of driver distraction is a challenge. Driver self-assessment of distraction is inaccurate, observational studies can only detect observable distractions, and naturalistic driving studies are costly. The prevention of distraction-related crashes requires a better understanding of the nature of driver distraction. This, in turn, requires a means to accurately assess the occurrence and degree of driver distraction in large samples. The goal of this project is to identify kinematic indicators of distracted driving for devising a model that would allow distracted driving to be measured using technological approaches. The result will be a new definition of distracted driving that is based on measurable kinematic variables. This ability would facilitate an epidemiologic approach to studying driver distraction, as well as contribute to potential warning systems that redirect distracted drivers' attention back to the task of driving.
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Empirical methods
KW  - Epidemiology
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Self assessments
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - United States
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248924
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479204
TI  - Developing Operational and Policy Insights into Next Generation Vehicle Needs Based on an Integrated Understanding of the Transportation and Energy System of Systems
AB  - Rapidly evolving transportation and energy technology is opening up a tremendous number of possibilities for simultaneously achieving environmental sustainability, economic development, and energy security, but the many possibilities for their interaction greatly complicate analysis to understand the best policy options and strategies for individuals and companies to take to maximize opportunities. This project proposes to explore the effects of various vehicle design options and more detailed vehicle behavior on the integrated transportation and energy system, with particular interest in studying the effect of vehicle design options on traffic system behavior and fuel and electricity use. The study proposes augmenting the use of metropolitan planning organization (MPO) data to incorporate the detailed behavior of drivers, new vehicle capabilities, and advanced information systems. The resulting agent based model will be suitable for investigating transportation system behavior under next generation systems and its interaction with the energy system.
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Energy security
KW  - Integrated systems
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Next generation design
KW  - Policy analysis
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Vehicle design
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248208
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479202
TI  - Field Data Based Data Fusion Methodologies to Estimate Dynamic Origin-Destination Demand Matrices from Multiple Sensing and Tracking Technologies
AB  - Recent advances in real-time traffic sensing, including global positioning system (GPS) data from probe vehicles, automatic vehicle identification using radio frequency identification (RFID) and Bluetooth sensors, and automatic number plate recognition, provide richer data when combined with traditional origin-destination (O-D) estimation techniques. However, the data obtained from these different sensors do not convey similar information on the traffic conditions of the network. This project seeks to develop and test a systematic methodology to integrate the different data sources, also labeled data fusion, to address the O-D estimation problem, leveraging the availability of different types of data with disparate characteristics. The study will involve collecting data from intelligent transportation system (ITS) test-bed corridors in Chennai (Madras), India. The data collected will also serve as a benchmark data archive for O-D estimation techniques and will augment ongoing research to develop dynamic O-D demand matrices based on partial observability of the field network.
KW  - Automatic vehicle identification
KW  - Chennai (India)
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Integrated systems
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Probe vehicles
KW  - Radio frequency identification
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic data
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248206
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479201
TI  - Estimation of Time-Dependent Intersection Turning Proportions for Adaptive Traffic Signal Control under Limited Link Traffic Counts from Heterogeneous Sensors
AB  - This research seeks to estimate time-dependent intersection turning proportions using partial link traffic counts and observed turning proportions provided by heterogeneous sensor technologies. It will help transportation/highway management agencies determine a desirable sensor deployment plan in terms of how to prioritize the critical links for different sensor characteristics under an annual budget constraint. It will also illustrate that interdependencies arise between information and infrastructure in relation to the vehicles, and that they lead to complexities that require solutions as technology is increasingly leveraged in conjunction with the limited budgets. In terms of broader significance, several methodological approaches involving network-level solutions developed to leverage intelligent transportation system (ITS) technologies have been previously limited in terms of real-world deployment due to the unavailability of such origin-destination (O-D) matrices. Hence, the proposed research has key practical implications for transportation agencies.
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Time dependence
KW  - Traffic counts
KW  - Traffic signal control systems
KW  - Turning traffic
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248205
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479200
TI  - Information and Transportation Choices, Long- and Short-Term, that Link Sustainability and Livability
AB  - The research presented is this project is designed to test the sensitivity of the long-term decision of residential location choice to information; and the sensitivity of short-term travel behavior to long-term residential location choice. Rare among policy investigations, information-related questions can be researched through true experimental designs. This project proposes to assign movers in the two cities randomly to control and experimental groups. Experimental groups in Ann Arbor, MI and Lafayette, IN will be exposed to an information-delivery strategy designed to address transportation-relevant decision-making over a range of time scales. Control and experimental groups will be surveyed for transportation-related outcomes, and intergroup differences will be analyzed with standard statistical models to determine treatment effects. This project proposes to study how travelers' long- and short-term transportation-related decisions are affected by information interventions, providing potentially new perspectives to fostering sustainable transportation choices and bridging methodological gaps in holistically approaching the notion of livability. Current strategies for the dissemination of transportation information concentrate at the short-term end of the spectrum. Not enough is known about the sensitivity of choices at varying time scales to information interventions or about the "downstream" impact of longer-term choices on those made over the shorter term. This project will develop new decision-making models informed by multiple disciplines, including cognitive science, behavioral economics, marketing, transportation, and urban planning. The project will design information interventions intended for the full range of transportation-relevant decisions and test their impacts on people moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and West Lafayette, Indiana, as well as consumers in the market for a vehicle.
KW  - Ann Arbor (Michigan)
KW  - City planning
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Residential location
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - West Lafayette (Indiana)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248204
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479198
TI  - Truck Activity and Wait Times at International Border Crossings
AB  - Determining the times trucks incur at international border crossings is of interest to the private freight industry and to the border crossing facility operators and planners.  Private carriers and shippers can benefit from having objective travel time measures for trip planning, scheduling, and routing. Facilities operators and planners can detect when conditions warrant changes in operations or infrastructure.  Private and public stakeholders at two of the busiest international truck crossings in North America, both of which are situated in Region 5, do not have access to such travel time data.
KW  - Border crossing time
KW  - International borders
KW  - North America
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Trip planning
KW  - Trucks
KW  - Waiting time
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248202
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479196
TI  - Impact of Passenger Transportation Modes, Travel Choices, and Urban Geography on CO2 Emissions
AB  - The primary objectives of continuing the investigation of the effects of various factors on passenger transportation carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are to: (a) further expand the dataset to effectively improve the reliability and wider applicability of the relationships of interest, (b) address the transit utilization limitation and additional travel and regulation characteristics, and (c) broaden the scenario analyses based on the improved models to capture joint factor effects and to demonstrate their use as a policy-making support tool.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248200
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479195
TI  - LIDAR Based Vehicle Classification
AB  - Vehicle classification data are used in many transportation applications, including: planning, pavement design, environmental impact studies, traffic control, and traffic safety. Every state in the US maintains a network of vehicle classification stations to explicitly sort vehicles into several classes based on observable features, e.g., length, number of axles, axle spacing, etc. Various technologies are used for this automated classification, the three most common approaches are: weigh in motion (WIM); axle-based classification from a combination of loop detectors, piezoelectric sensors or pneumatic sensors; and length-based classification from dual loop detectors. All of these sensor technologies suffer from the difficulty of deploying and maintaining in/on pavement sensors. There has recently been an increasing interest in developing non-intrusive sensors to classify vehicles, e.g., there are several non-intrusive sensors now on the market that offer vehicle classification and most of these sensors rely on microwave radar (e.g., RTMS, SmartSensor, etc.). The research will deploy LIDAR based system using high vantage points (10-30 m) at one or more multi-lane facilities to monitor traffic and overcome the current limitation due occlusions. In addition to algorithm development, the research will include extensive, labor-intensive ground truth data extraction, both for development and validation of the algorithms. The budget and scope of the work is for the task of developing the LIDAR based system.
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Loop detectors
KW  - Microwave detectors
KW  - Traffic classifiers with piezoelectric sensors
KW  - Traffic control
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Vehicle classification
KW  - Weigh in motion
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248199
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01474211
TI  - Collaborative Proposal: Analysis of Interactions between the Marine Terminal and Highway Operations
AB  - The objective of the proposed study is to develop a simulation model that will be capable of ascertaining the interactions between the marine terminal operations and a highway system that provides access to the port. The model will be specifically focusing on the underlying relationship between the changes in the wharf operations caused by large ships and their schedules, and resulting peak truck demand on regional highways, along with the distribution of truck arrivals and departures at the port's gates. In addition, a set of operational and policy improvements will be defined to address the deficiencies of the highway system in handling the growing and evolving port-related truck demand. These improvements will be formulated in the simulation model as well, allowing the planners to evaluate the effectiveness of each improvement. Ultimately this model would be used as a decision-support tool in analyzing alternative capital strategies to address port intermodal connectivity, regional highway and freight mobility in the context of port growth, and economic competitiveness of a region from a freight transportation service aspect.
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Marine terminals
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Ports
KW  - Terminal operations
KW  - Trucks
UR  - http://cait.rutgers.edu/cait/research/collaborative-proposal-analysis-interactions-between-marine-terminal-and-highway-opera
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244702
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471026
TI  - Honey, Can You Pick-up Groceries on Your Way Home? Analyzing Activities and Travel in Non-traditional Households
AB  - Except for walks in the park and cruising on a Saturday night, travel is a means to an end. Economists describe the demand for travel as "derived" because people travel in order to access other things--work, shops, restaurants, friends, and so on. Transportation is often a critical link to education, paid work, recreation, health care, culture, and many other aspects of quality living. While conventional measures like person-miles of travel (PMT) are excellent measures of mobility, they do not tell us much about access, or the utility of personal travel. To examine travel utility or access, one's attention must turn to activity participation--the taking of trips for various purposes. Trip-making is an excellent, albeit indirect and understudied window on activity participation. People's work habits, shopping behavior, recreational preferences, and so on are revealed by the stated purpose of their travel in surveys like the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), as well as in activity surveys such as the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). This project proposes to examine how activity participation differs by household type. This is increasingly relevant as the share of two-sex, married couple households with children continue to decline, while what has been (increasingly misleadingly termed) "non-traditional" households continues to grow. How members of this new majority of non-traditional households divide labor, organize activities, and travel about is of critical importance to transportation officials charged with planning for the next generation of travel. In particular, the project will  aim to add to the existing knowledge of the ways in which sex and gender roles influence activity patterns in households. Numerous scholars have investigated the important differences between men and women in travel and particular outcomes such as employment (e.g. Hanson and Pratt 1991; Hanson and Pratt 1995; McGuckin and Murakami 1999; Blumenberg 2004; Crane 2007), though none have taken a comprehensive look at gender and activity participation more broadly. Further, few researchers have considered the ways in which gender and sexuality may intersect to influence within-household activity allocation (cf. Rapino and Cooke 2011, who use same-sex partnered households as a counterfactual). A deeper understanding of how gender and household arrangements--including same-sex partnerships, opposite-sex partnerships, roommates, and other arrangements--influence activity and travel patterns may shed light on the mechanisms behind the gendered differences in travel. For instance, the research team expects that the study will suggest whether it is in fact sex in a broad societal context that drives the differences, or rather sex in a very specific context: that of the opposite-sex partnered household--the explicit or implicit subject of most prior studies. The project proposes to examine activity participation by sex and household type using two datasets. The first will be the confidential, geo-coded version 2009 NHTS, which will allow the project to examine the connection between gender, household structure, and outside-the-home activity participation, as well as the availability and utilization of transportation resources of individuals in the household. The strength of this dataset is its ability to provide valuable information on specific transportation variables such as details on the vehicles owned by a household. However, a significant weakness of this dataset is the lack of within-household activity participation information, such as household chores and in-home childcare activities. In order to understand how gender, sexuality, and household structure influence both within-household and out-of-the-home activity patterns, the project will also attempt to employ the American Time Use Survey, a detailed activity survey conducted in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey. From this research, the project expect  to produce two academic papers--first, one that focuses on automobile usage and activity participation in various household types, with a particular emphasis on the differences between same-sex partnered and opposite-sex partnered women. The second paper will examine the trade-offs between within-household and out-of-the-home activities, again with a special focus on the differences between women in same-sex and opposite-sex partnered households. Finally, the project will produce a report for the University of California Transportation Center summarizing the findings from these two analyses.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Automobile travel
KW  - Gender
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Households
KW  - Mobility
KW  - National Household Travel Survey
KW  - Stated preferences
KW  - Travel surveys
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239198
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471025
TI  - The Role of Habitat Plans in Facilitating Transportation Infrastructure
AB  - Since the federal Endangered Species Act prohibits any action that causes harm to endangered species or destruction of their habitat, prior to the authorization of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) in 1982, non-federal entities were limited in their ability to proceed with otherwise lawful activities, including transportation infrastructure projects, which might incidentally harm endangered species. HCPs provide a way to move forward on infrastructure projects without fear of criminal or civil endangered species violations by establishing agreed upon conservation or mitigation measures. The proposed research seeks to determine whether HCPs facilitate the delivery of large transportation infrastructure projects undertaken by non-federal entities. The research will involve case studies of six to twelve public HCPs with a specific focus on transportation infrastructure projects and off-site mitigation. The final report will include an assessment of the relationship between HCPs and environmental review processes for large infrastructure projects, and will develop a set of policy implications based on the research findings.
KW  - Conservation
KW  - Endangered species
KW  - Environmental policy
KW  - Habitat (Ecology)
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Policy
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239197
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01542850
AU  - Adams-Price, Carolyn E
AU  - Mississippi State University, Mississippi State
AU  - National Center for Intermodal Transportation for Economic Competitiveness
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Aging in Place: Intermodal Transportation and Options for Meeting the Unmet Transportation Needs of Nonmetropolitan Older Adults
PY  - 2013/01
SP  - 43p
AB  - Most older adults today depend on driving their own automobiles as their sole mode of transportation, and are reluctant to give up driving. This is problematic because some older adults, especially the oldest old, have deficits that make driving dangerous. For this study, a nationwide random sample of approximately 1200 older adults was surveyed on their driving and riding habits, their trip planning behavior, and their perceptions of five types of possible transportation alternatives communities might set up for older adults (volunteer drivers, point-to-point shuttle buses, senior center-based buses, prepaid taxis, and coordinated bus/train systems to distant medical centers). Results indicated that most older adults drive their own vehicles, and do so on a very regular basis. Most report that they would be devastated if they had to give up driving. Not only do they drive in their own communities, but a sizable proportion frequently drives more than 20 miles from home. Despite frequently driving away from home, most older adults reported that they were uncomfortable driving in unfamiliar cities. Among this sample, which included metropolitan and non-metropolitan older adults, most said that they did not currently use public transportation to get around. Most also said that they would not use any of the transportation alternatives as long as they still drove. However, respondents did say that they were likely to use three of the five alternatives if they could NOT drive. The prepaid taxi alternative was the least popular overall, although it was particularly unpopular among non-metropolitan respondents. Not surprisingly, bus/train systems to distant medical centers were perceived more positively by non-metropolitan residents than by metropolitan residents. Finally, recommendations were made for community governments or organizations that wish to institute elderly transportation alternatives. Acceptable transportation options should be reasonably priced, but not free. Community groups may have to do a great deal of education and marketing to get older adults to accept transportation alternatives, even occasionally. However, if older adults can be convinced to use alternative transportation on occasion, even if they still drive, it might make driving cessation easier and less debilitating for older adults.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Driving
KW  - Intermodal transportation
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.ncitec.msstate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012-01FR.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1328530
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01530304
AU  - Nicholas, Michael A
AU  - Tal, Gil
AU  - Woodjack, Justin
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - California Statewide Charging Assessment Model for Plug-in Electric Vehicles: Learning from Statewide Travel Surveys
PY  - 2013/01//Working Paper
SP  - 24p
AB  - Electric vehicle travel and charging was simulated using gasoline vehicle travel information from approximately 15,000 households in the CalTrans 2001 California Statewide Travel Survey. Ranges of 60, 80, and 100 miles were simulated to investigate the travel that could not be completed with home charging alone. Different types of chargers including workplace level 1 and level 2 chargers, level 2 public chargers, and DC quick chargers were then posited to determine the effect of each charging type on electric vehicle miles traveled (eVMT). If all statewide vehicle were 80 mile range battery electric vehicle (BEVs) and began the day with a full charge, 71% of miles (95% of home-based tours) are possible with home charging alone. Travel that requires some charging accounts for a corresponding 29% of miles (5% of tours). Workplace charging can enable about 7% more eVMT, public level 2 at stops greater than 1.5 hours could provide an additional 4% of eVMT, and quick charging could provide an additional 12% of eVMT. 6% of eVMT (0.6% of tours) would be difficult to complete in an 80 mile range BEV. 200 DC fast locations could provide an initial network to serve most Californians with the number of chargers growing past 200 to handle congestion at charging areas. Scenarios for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) show that for a 30 mile range PHEV, 61% of miles could be completed with home charging alone.
KW  - Battery chargers
KW  - California
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Plug-in hybrid vehicles
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Travel surveys
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1832
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263024
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526271
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - CAPTool User Guide: Using CAPTool to Implement the “Costing Asset Protection: An All-Hazards Guide for Transportation Agencies (CAPTA)” Methodology
PY  - 2013/01
SP  - 93p
AB  - The Costing Asset Protection for Transportation Agencies (CAPTA) methodology is an approach that agencies can use to analyze threats and hazards relevant to critical multimodal transportation infrastructure assets. Transportation agencies are constantly faced with events like crashes, extreme weather, vandalism, and criminal activities. CAPTA gives agencies a capital planning and budgeting tool to use as a strategic point of departure for informing resource allocation decisions. The purpose of this guide is to help agencies: (1) become familiar with CAPTA Methodology; (2) learn how to use CAPTool to implement the CAPTA Methodology; (3) understand CAPTool results, and how to use those results in capital budget and decision making; and (4) acquire more detailed information about CAPTA and other analysis tools and planning methodologies that enhance asset safety and security.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Budgeting
KW  - Capital investments
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Hazard mitigation
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Resource allocation
KW  - Safety and security
KW  - Spreadsheets
KW  - Transportation departments
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51600/51601/captool_users_guide.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1310514
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522341
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Petroglyph National Monument: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 54p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (August – September), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Petroglyph National Monument (PETR) at two sites deployed for approximately 30 days each. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the  regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at PETR include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Ambient noise
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Petroglyph National Monument
KW  - Sound level
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51100/51160/PETR_AcousticalMonitoringReport_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1306381
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522244
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - Schulz, Noah
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Pecos National Historical Park: Acoustical Monitoring 2010
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 64p
AB  - During the summer of 2010 (August – September), the Volpe Center collected baseline acoustical data at Pecos National Historical Park (PECO) at four sites deployed for approximately 30 days each. The baseline data collected during this period will help park managers and planners estimate the effects of future noise impacts and will help to inform future park planning objectives such as creating soundscape management plans, as well as the development of an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP), which provides for the regulation of commercial air tours. The sound sources of concern at PECO include developments near park boundaries, air tours, commercial and private aircraft activities, and requests for special use permits for noisy activities. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Ambient noise
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Pecos National Historical Park
KW  - Sound level
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51100/51159/PECO_AcousticalMonitoringReport_nrss.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1306380
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493865
AU  - Cerato, Amy B
AU  - Horne, Karen
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Graduate Student Recruiting into Critical Transportation Infrastructure Areas of Interest
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - This report presents the results of a three-year, intensive recruiting and mentoring program in the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) College of Engineering (CoE). Highly qualified and diverse graduate students were sought to pursue degrees in transportation related engineering fields, spanning the disciplines of Civil Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The purpose of the project was to explore innovative ways in which to recruit, educate, retain and mentor the next generation of transportation engineers to fill both Oklahoma’s and the United State’s critical need for qualified engineers to help our aging infrastructure. The graduate students recruited to these programs became Oklahoma Transportation Center (OkTC) Fellows, gaining significant experience in transportation research and industry. All OkTC Fellows were gainfully employed in the transportation industry after graduation or currently pursuing advanced degrees.
KW  - Education
KW  - Graduate students
KW  - Graduate study
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Recruiting
KW  - Research projects
KW  - Transportation careers
KW  - Transportation engineers
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS9.1-13-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262838
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481569
AU  - Willemsen, Peter
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Snow Rendering for Interactive Snowplow Simulation - Supporting Safety in Snowplow Design
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 41p
AB  - During a snowfall, following a snowplow can be extremely dangerous. This danger comes from the human visual system’s inability to accurately perceive the speed and motion of the snowplow, often resulting in rear-end collisions. For this project, the researchers' goal is to use their understanding of how the human visual system processes optical motion under the conditions created by blowing snow to create a simulation framework that could be used to test emergency lighting configurations that reduce rear-end collisions with snowplows. Reaction times for detecting the motion of the snowplow will be measured empirically for a variety of color set-ups on a simulated snowplow that slows down while driving on a virtual road with curves and hills. Current efforts have implemented a blowing snow model that will eventually be integrated into a real-time driving simulation environment. Concurrently, a simulated driving environment has been developed that will serve as the basis for testing the effects of color and lighting alternatives on snowplows. In initial pilot experiments, the simulated driving environment has been effective at testing subject reaction times for following a snowplow through high luminance contrast (normal daylight driving) and low luminance contrast (daylight fog) conditions. The results of this work will move the researchers closer to determining optimal color and lighting configurations on actual snowplows.
KW  - Color
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Reaction time
KW  - Rear end crashes
KW  - Rear lighting
KW  - Snow
KW  - Snowfall
KW  - Snowplows
KW  - Vehicle lighting
KW  - Visibility
KW  - Visual perception
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2216
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250499
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481187
TI  - The Determinants of Metropolitan Congestion-Resilience
AB  - Using yearly metropolitan-scale congestion data available from the Texas Transportation Institute, this project will develop a series of statistical models of per capita congestion levels (and by extension, congestion resilience) spanning the period from 1990 to 2010 for the 88 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The major independent variables will include: (1) selected economic and demographic characteristics; (2) Summary measures of roadway capacity, level of service, connectivity, and utilization; (3) Summary measures of transit system capacity, utilization, service area coverage, and levels of services; (4) Summary measures of the density and spatial distribution of trip-makers (principally households); (5) Summary measures of the density and spatial distribution of trip destinations, principally job and retail centers; and (6) Qualitative measures of the effectiveness of local congestion relief efforts.
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Texas
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Trip purpose
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250257
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477341
AU  - Russell, Eugene R
AU  - Landman, E Dean
AU  - Godavarthy, Ranjit
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Accommodating Oversize/Overweight Vehicles at Roundabouts
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 240p
AB  - Safety and traffic operational benefits of roundabouts for the typical vehicle fleet (automobiles and small trucks) have been well documented. Although roundabouts have been in widespread use in other countries for many years, their general use in the United States began only in the recent past. 1990 is generally accepted as the year the first modern roundabouts were built in the United States (US), but their use is growing. Roundabouts can offer several advantages over signalized and stop-controlled intersection alternatives, including better overall safety performance, lower delays, shorter queues, better management of speed, and opportunities for community enhancement features. However, potential use of roundabouts with all their benefits may be greatly diminished if they cannot  accommodate oversize/overweight vehicles (OSOW). Accommodating OSOW at roundabouts is the central issue and the need for this research. Note that the acronym OSOW has been used in this report as a universal term, generally understood to mean a permitted vehicle. OSOWs impact pavement structure, roadway geometrics, and traffic operations. These issues are discussed in the report. OSOWs are a reality for American industry and often critical for certain industries. A better understanding and sharing of current practices is essential for states that permit such movement, and the industry which must rely on state highways and a permit to deliver large loads. Thus, the main objectives of this report are to compile current practice and research by various states and countries related to the effects OSOW have on roundabout location, design, and accommodation. Second, the research will attempt to fill in information gaps with respect to roundabout design and operations for this class of vehicles. A literature review uncovered no published reports on OSOW accommodation per se; however, much information on the advantages of having designated truck and OSOW networks is analyzed and reported. The authors make an argument that states should consider conducting  a study to develop a freight network, which includes segments where OSOW need to be accommodated, in accordance with state and federal commerce laws and policies and the state’s economy. The study should include determining all motor vehicles whose size and turning movements are critical to developing routes on  which all segments will accommodate these vehicle. To obtain information on the state-of-the–art of OSOW accommodation, the authors turned to personal  contacts, unpublished material, case studies and surveys. Examples of accommodating OSOW in general, and various turning movements, found in the literature,  surveys, and personal contacts are provided in the report as examples of ideas and concepts that could be considered, and possibly adapted to the needs of a specific site. From all surveys and contacts made during  the course of this investigation, based on the most mentioned concern, the authors conclude that vertical ground clearance in general, and curbs in particular, are a  major problem for large trucks and OSOW and definitely need to be mitigated whenever OSOW need to be accommodated. The authors conclude that ground clearance is an issue that has not been given as much attention as it deserves and must be addressed. The authors further conclude that three inches should be  considered as a maximum height of splitter islands, truck aprons and curbs. Many other issues uncovered by the surveys are presented and discussed in the report.  Numerous ideas are presented and design strategies are illustrated. The authors primary conclusion from conducting great numbers of vehicle path simulations is that, given the knowledge of what OSOW need to be accommodated, and their turning characteristics, any knowledgeable designer can do it, provided that right of way is available. It is up to the state to determine the economic benefits or dis-benefits of doing so. A final section of the report presents guidelines developed by Wisconsin DOT to check and  avoid low, ground clearance vehicles (“low boys”) from scraping bottom while traversing roundabouts (“hang ups”), believed to be one of the first such studies in  the USA. The authors present over three pages of other conclusions and recommendations, based on the literature reviewed, four surveys, examples of OSOW  accommodation obtained from personal contacts, numerous OSOW simulations on various roundabout scenarios, the seven OSOW check vehicles used, and the low ground clearance concern that was the number one reported concern of the trucking industry.
KW  - Curbs
KW  - Geometric design
KW  - Ground clearance (Vehicles)
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Oversize vehicles
KW  - Overweight loads
KW  - Roundabouts
KW  - Traffic islands
KW  - United States
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003826789
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246702
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477165
AU  - Milburn, Ashlea Bennett
AU  - Rainwater, Chase
AU  - Boudhoum, Othman
AU  - Young, Sean
AU  - Mack Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Models for Disaster Relief Shelter Location and Supply Routing
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 53p
AB  - This project focuses on the development of a natural disaster response planning model that determines where to locate points of distribution for relief supplies after a disaster occurs. Advance planning (selecting locations for points of distribution prior to the disaster) is complicated by the expectation that buildings and transportation infrastructure in the impact zone may experience damage. For example, highway bridges in affected areas are predicted to be non-functional after an earthquake. The response planning model developed in this project specifies how points of distribution should be chosen once the specific disaster scenario, and the damage caused, is known. The model relies on real-time information regarding actual damage to transportation infrastructure and locations of persons in need of assistance. Response time is critical in saving lives after a disaster, so an approximate solution approach is developed to obtain good solutions quickly. A case study motivated by a New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) catastrophic event is used to test the model. The case study region includes nineteen counties in Northeastern Arkansas that are most likely to sustain damage in such a scenario. Given a constraint on the total budget available to open and operate points of distribution, it is  demonstrated that solutions obtained using the optimal offline approach are able to serve an average of 81% of total demand across test instances considered in a computational study. Solutions obtained using the approximate online approach are able to serve an average of 63% of total demand. A number of assumptions had to be made when populating the case study with data. The solutions presented here are intended simply to illustrate the model and solution approach. The quality of conclusions that can be based on the model and solutions will increase as higher-quality data becomes available for populating the model.
KW  - Arkansas
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Disaster relief
KW  - Emergency response time
KW  - New Madrid Seismic Zone
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Shelters
UR  - http://www.arkansastrc.com/MBTC%20REPORTS/MBTC%203028.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47100/47185/MBTC_DOT_3028.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246217
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476969
AU  - Kappes, Lenci
AU  - Berry, Mike
AU  - Stephens, Jerry
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - Montana Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Performance of Steel Pipe Pile-to-Concrete Cap Connections Subject to Seismic or High Transverse Loading: Phase III Confirmation of Connection Performance
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 148p
AB  - The efficacy of a new procedure developed by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) to  design concrete filled steel tube (CFT) pile to concrete pile cap connections was investigated in this  project. A series of CFT piles embedded in a concrete pile cap is a desirable system to support small to  mid-span bridges. Traditional methods for designing the connection between the CFT piles and pile  cap often lead to congested and complex reinforcing schemes, and this complexity can limit the use of  this support system. MDT has developed a simple design method for this connection utilizing a new  reinforcing scheme that greatly simplifies the design and construction of this connection. The new  reinforcing scheme includes U-shaped reinforcing bars that encircle the embedded CFT piles within  the cap that counteract the moment related demands introduced by the embedded pile under lateral load events. The efficacy of the MDT design method implementing the new reinforcing scheme, which was developed from previous research and testing completed by Montana State University, is evaluated in this research. In particular, this report presents the details and results of tests on six half-size connections designed to exercise various design parameters in the MDT design guide. In these tests four primary limit states were observed: (1) formation of a plastic hinge in the concrete-filled steel tube, (2) crushing of the concrete surrounding the embedded pile, (3) yielding of the longitudinal reinforcement, and (4) splitting failure of the concrete cap. The MDT design methodology addresses all of these limit states fairly accurately. Some possible improvements to MDT’s methodology suggested by the test results are presented and discussed.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Bridge piers
KW  - Design methods
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Montana Department of Transportation
KW  - Pile caps
KW  - Piles (Supports)
KW  - Steel pipe
KW  - Structural connection
KW  - Ultimate load design
UR  - http://www.mdt.mt.gov/other/research/external/docs/research_proj/seismic/phaseiii/final_report_jan13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246594
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476050
AU  - Holec, Eric
AU  - Somasundaram, Guruprasad
AU  - Papanikolopoulos, Nikolaos
AU  - Morellas, Vassilios
AU  - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Monitoring the Use of HOV and HOT Lanes
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 26p
AB  - This report presents the formulation and implementation of an automated computer vision and machine learning based system for estimation of the occupancy of passenger vehicles in high-occupancy vehicles and high-occupancy toll (HOV/HOT) lanes. The authors employ a multi-modal approach involving near-infrared images and high-resolution color video images in conjunction with strong maximum margin based classifiers such as support vector machines. The authors attempt to maximize the information that can be extracted from these two types of images by computing different features. Then, the authors build classifiers for each type of feature which are compared to determine the best feature for each imaging method. Based on the performance of the classifiers the authors critique the efficacy of the individual approaches as the costs involved are significantly different.
KW  - High occupancy toll lanes
KW  - High occupancy vehicles
KW  - Infrared detectors
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Passenger vehicles
KW  - Traffic counting
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2230
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245878
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476049
AU  - Davis, Gary A
AU  - Chatterjee, Indrajit
AU  - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Using Detailed Signal and Detector Data to Investigate Intersection Crash Causation
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - Traffic crashes may not always result in severe or fatal injuries, but they can still have nontrivial impacts on system performance, particularly during heavy traffic conditions. One way toward reducing the frequency of such incidents is to first identify the necessary circumstances that resulted in the collision. However, road crashes, particularly intersection related crashes, are complex phenomenon and often result from different combinations of causal factors. Recently, methods for recording high-resolution arterial traffic data have been developed, and it is important for traffic safety engineers to explore such high-resolution data to understand the causes of crashes. In this research one such integrated event based system, known as SMART SIGNAL, which collects and stores detailed loop detector and signal activity, was used to identify the events leading to a crash or a potential crash and illuminate the mechanisms by which traffic conditions and driver decisions interact to produce those events. Two specific event types, a signal violation crash and vehicle pedestrian crash, were evaluated. For the signal violation crash study, SMART SIGNAL data were used to identify the incident and the vehicles involved in the crash. It was then shown how high-resolution data could support a traditional reconstruction of this crash. For vehicle pedestrian interactions, detector and signal activity data were used to predict pedestrian crash risk in the absence of clearance interval at three signalized intersections. A simulation-based method was used to first estimate crash probabilities, and then a counterfactual approach to calculate the probability of the absence of the all-red phase as a necessary condition for the occurrence of the crash provided an alternate estimate of crash-reduction factors for the all-red phase.
KW  - Clearance interval (Traffic signal cycle)
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Injuries
KW  - Loop detectors
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2234
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245877
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475840
AU  - Fulmer, Steven J
AU  - Kowalsky, Mervyn J
AU  - Nau, James M
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - North Carolina State University, Raleigh
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Seismic Performance of Steel Pipe Pile to Cap Beam Moment Resisting Connections
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 680p
AB  - This research, a joint effort between Alaska University Transportation Center and North Carolina State University, is a continuation of an ongoing project that investigated bridge and marine structure design practices, aiming to identify improved connection design approaches to produce the necessary ductility and energy absorbing capacities required for satisfactory designs in Alaska. Through earlier testing, researchers not only proved what methods were inadequate (such as the current practice of fillet-welding the cap beam to the pile as well as an alternative welding methods) but also confirmed that a new method of using a plastic hinge-relocating concept was more successful. This method utilized a round steel column capital in which the top portion welded to the cap beam is thicker than the bottom thinner portion welded to the pile. The approach successfully reduced the inelastic demands of the cap beam weld, and forced the inelastic action to occur in the pile itself. Current research includes optimizing the new design to improve displacement capacity and ductility in bridge and marine structure design, as well as investigating additional connection designs proposed by Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities engineers. The research will result in a series of design recommendations consistent with the various levels of seismicity found within Alaska. The primary benefit will be the improved design and performance of steel bridges and marine structures containing similar connections.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Ductility
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Marine structures
KW  - Pile caps
KW  - Piles (Supports)
KW  - Steel bridges
KW  - Steel pipe
KW  - Structural connection
KW  - Structural tests
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/02/410001.Kowlasky.FINAL_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244075
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472553
AU  - Zhou, Debao
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Thermal Image-Based Deer Detection to Reduce Accidents Due to Deer-Vehicle Collisions
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 67p
AB  - Deer-vehicle collision (DVC) is one of the most serious traffic issues in the Unite States. To reduce DVCs, this research developed a system using a contour-based histogram of oriented gradients algorithm (CNT-HOG) to identify deer through the processing of images taken by thermographic cameras. The system is capable of detecting deer in low visibility. Two motors are applied to enlarge the detection range and make the system capable of tracking deer by providing two degrees of freedom. The main assumption in the CNT-HOG algorithm is that the deer are brighter than their background in a thermo image. The brighter areas are defined as the regions of interest, or ROIs. ROIs were identified based on the contours of brighter areas. HOG features were then collected and certain detection frameworks were applied to the image portions in the ROIs instead of the whole image. In the detection framework, a Linear Support Vector Machine classifier was applied to achieve identification. The system has been tested in various scenarios, such as a zoo and roadways in different weather conditions. The influence of the visible percentage of a deer body and the posture of a deer on detection accuracy has been measured. The results of the applications on roadside have shown that this system can achieve high detection accuracy (up to 100%) with fast computation speed (10 Hz). Achieving such a goal will help to decrease the occurrence of DVCs on roadsides.
KW  - Accuracy
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Crash avoidance systems
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Deer
KW  - Detection and identification systems
KW  - Thermal imagery
KW  - Wildlife
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2224
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243817
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472549
AU  - Wei, Chia
AU  - Becic, Ensar
AU  - Edwards, Christopher
AU  - Manser, Michael
AU  - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Bus Driver Intersection Task Analysis: Investigation of Bus-Pedestrian Crashes
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 57p
AB  - The current report includes two specific research efforts. The primary objective of the first research effort was to conduct a task analysis of a left-turn maneuver by a bus driver. The goal of this task analysis was to provide insight into the cognitive and perceptual processes that bus drivers complete while performing a left-turn maneuver. An additional goal of the first research effort included the development of potential countermeasures that could help reduce the frequency of bus-pedestrian collisions. The interviews conducted as part of the task analysis revealed that drivers engage in a large number of subtasks and cognitive/perceptual processes when completing a left-turn maneuver. We proposed two potential interventions for the reduction of bus-pedestrian collisions. One of the proposed interventions was designed to aid a driver in detection of pedestrians at a crosswalk. The second intervention was designed to remove a need to perform a particular attention-demanding subtask to reduce the cognitive and perceptual load that drivers experience during this maneuver. The second research effort was designed as a pilot simulator study in which we examined the potential effectiveness of proposed interventions. The second study uncovered unanticipated findings (i.e., high rate of collisions with pedestrians) that may be due to the nature of the simulator studies – lack of real-world consequences. The results of the pilot study provided sufficient data for further examination of different support tools for the reduction of the fatalities between left-turning buses, and also uncovered potential relationship between work-related stress and the impact on driving performance.
KW  - Bus crashes
KW  - Bus drivers
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Driver experience
KW  - Left turns
KW  - Pedestrian-vehicle crashes
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Perception
KW  - Task analysis
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2218
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243811
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472517
AU  - Alexander, Lee
AU  - Rajamani, Rajesh
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Friction Measurement System for Hennepin County
PY  - 2013/01//Technical Report
SP  - 10p
AB  - A friction measurement system was developed for Hennepin County and installed on a snowplow in their winter road maintenance fleet. The major components of the developed system were a special instrumented wheel, a pneumatic pressure-controlled cylinder, force-measurement load cell and accelerometers, and a data processing micro-processor and LCD display. The project plan initially included interfacing the friction measurement system with an applicator and automatic control of the applicator on detection of a low tire-road friction coefficient on the road. However, due to concerns from Hennepin County about interfacing with the applicator electronics and its potential influence on normal operation of the Force America applicator, the friction coefficient was estimated in real-time and just displayed for the snowplow operator. It was not used for real-time control of the applicator. The  stand-alone hardware developed in this project is being used as a platform for development and installation of friction measurement systems on two snowplows in Polk County during the 2012-2013 winter. The Polk County installation is being funded by the Minnesota Local Road Research Board.
KW  - Friction
KW  - Hennepin County (Minnesota)
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Snow and ice control
KW  - Snowplows
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2220
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243815
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472496
AU  - Gebre-Egziabher, Demoz
AU  - Mokhtarzadeh, Hamid
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of Single Frequency, Carrier Phase Based GPS Positioning Performance and Sensor Aiding Requirements
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - The work described in this report outlines the design and testing of a low-cost, single frequency, carrier phase positioning system. Furthermore, aiding sensor accuracy requirements are analyzed to improve the robustness of the carrier phase system after emerging from signal outages. The applications of interest are ones with safety-of-life implications such as driver assist systems.
KW  - Ambiguity resolution
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Information processing
KW  - Integer programming
KW  - Sensors
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2212
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243814
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472469
AU  - Han, Jie
AU  - Gautam, Ashwani
AU  - Pokharel, Sanat K
AU  - Parsons, Robert L
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Tolerable Strains for Hot Mix Asphalt Overlays over Concrete Pavements
PY  - 2013/01//Final Report
SP  - 113p
AB  - Due to change of temperature and/or moisture, freeze-thaw cycles, loss of subgrade support by erosion, and traffic loading, concrete pavements can develop different types of distresses during service life. Hot mix asphalt (HMA) overlays are commonly used to improve the serviceability of damaged concrete pavements. The most challenging issue for HMA overlays over concrete pavements is the development of reflection cracks through the overlays at the locations of joints and existing cracks on concrete pavements. Even though different techniques have been used to overcome this issue, they often do not yield satisfactory results and performance. Cracking of HMA overlays results from intolerable tensile strain and/or shear movement developed in the overlays due to the movement of concrete pavements. Limited studies have been conducted so far to determine the tolerable tensile strain and shear deformation of HMA overlays on concrete pavements. If the strain and shear deformation the HMA can endure are known, the methods that will limit or prevent that strain and deformation can be sought. This research experimentally determined the tolerable tensile strain and the relative shear movement of the HMA overlays. Direct shear tests and semi-circular bend tests of HMA specimens and HMA overlay loading tests under static and cyclic loading on gapped concrete blocks were conducted in this research. HMA materials from two Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) projects, namely 089 C-4318-01 (Mix 1) and 56-29 KA-1087-01 (Mix 2), were used in the laboratory study. All testing was conducted at room temperature. Considering typical HMA overlay thicknesses used in Kansas, the selected thicknesses of the HMA overlays were 1.5 and 2.0 inches. Direct shear tests and semi-circular bend tests were conducted on these chosen HMA mixtures to characterize their shear and tensile properties respectively. Overlay loading tests were conducted on HMA overlays adhered to gapped concrete blocks to evaluate the interaction between the HMA overlays and the concrete blocks with a gap subjected to static or cyclic loading. Steel bars having a diameter of 0.25, 0.375, or 0.5 in. were used as spacers to create a gap in a direct shear test in the lab. These gaps simulate joints in concrete pavements. Measured relative shear displacements of these HMA specimens at failure varied from 6% to 9% of the specimen thickness depending upon the simulated gap width. Tolerable tensile strains of Mix 1 specimens under fatigue loading in the semi-circular bend tests were from 1.2% to 4% while those of Mix 2 specimens were from 0.6% to 1.4%. Test results show that the compressive load capacity of a specimen under the semi-circular bend test was linearly correlated to the shear load capacity of the specimen at the same mix and thickness under the direct shear test. Specimens at the onset of cracking in the overlay loading tests had the permanent vertical displacements with similar magnitudes as the shear displacements corresponding to the shear load capacities in the direct shear tests. The tolerable tensile strains of HMA specimens in the overlay tests were smaller than those in the semi-circular bend tests; however, an increase of the applied load or gap width minimized their differences. The overlay loading tests showed that the cracking could be avoided if the  tensile strains in the HMA overlays were less than 0.5%. Based on the HMA mixes, the specimen thicknesses, the gaps between the concrete blocks, the load levels, and the test temperatures used in this research, it can be concluded that: 1) the shear failure could be avoided if the shear deformation of the HMA overlay was less than 6% of the overlay thickness and 2) the cracking could be avoided if the tensile strain in the HMA overlay was less than 0.6%. The methods that will limit or prevent reflection cracks due to shear deformation and tensile strain should be sought in a future study.
KW  - Bituminous overlays
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Hot mix asphalt
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Portland cement concrete
KW  - Reflection cracking
KW  - Shear tests
KW  - Tension tests
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46791/doccontent.dll.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243319
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470630
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pocket Guide to Transportation 2013
PY  - 2013/01
SP  - 62p
AB  - This booklet provides a statistical guide on the state of transportation in the United States. Covering highway, air, rail, maritime, urban transit and pipeline, the contents include transportation topics such as transportation system and equipment; safety and security; system use and livable communities; economic competitiveness; and environmental sustainability. A glossary of terms is provided.
KW  - Economic indicators
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Security
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Transportation safety
KW  - United States
KW  - Utilization
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/publications/pocket_guide_to_transportation/2013
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/pocket_guide_2013.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46806/pocket_guide_2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238493
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470627
AU  - Guarino, Jenny
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Survey Reveals Public Open to Ban on Hand-Held Cell Phone Use and Texting
PY  - 2013/01//Special Report
SP  - 5p
AB  - A study performed by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reveals that the public is open to a ban on hand-held cell phone use while driving. The study is based on data from 2009’s Omnibus Household Survey (OHS), which is administered by BTS to a national sample of approximately 1,000 households. The OHS assesses the public’s satisfaction with the U.S. transportation system. In October 2009, the survey examined public perceptions1 of several activities related to distracted driving, including cell phone use. Analysis of the study showed: 1) 96 percent thought that text messaging using a cell phone, smart phone, or similar device should not be permitted while driving; 2) 80 percent thought that drivers should not be allowed to talk on a hand-held cell phone while driving; and 3) nearly three-quarters of the public (72 percent) thought that more controls on new cars should be mounted on the steering wheel.
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driving
KW  - Handheld devices
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Text messaging
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/special_report_january_2013_0.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46809/special_report_january_2013_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238494
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01593946
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - National Transportation Atlas Databases 2013
PY  - 2013
AB  - The National Transportation Atlas Databases 2013 (NTAD2013) is a set of nationwide geographic databases of transportation facilities, transportation networks, and associated infrastructure. These datasets include spatial information for transportation modal networks and intermodal terminals, as well as the related attribute information for these features. Metadata documentation, as prescribed by the International Organization of Standards, is also provided for each database. The data support research, analysis, and decision-making across all modes of transportation. They are most useful at the national level, but have major applications at regional, State, and local scales throughout the transportation community. All data included here are in shapefile format.
KW  - Databases
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Intermodal terminals
KW  - Metadata
KW  - Spatial analysis
KW  - Transportation modes
KW  - Transportation, hydraulic and utility facilities
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_atlas_database/2013/index.html
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/56000/56600/56699/NTAD_2013.zip
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1400283
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01539722
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - State Transportation Statistics 2013
PY  - 2013
SP  - 146p
AB  - The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), presents State Transportation Statistics 2013, a statistical profile of transportation in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This is the eleventh annual edition of the State Transportation Statistics, and a companion document to the National Transportation Statistics (NTS), which is updated quarterly on the BTS website. Like the previous editions, this document presents transportation information from RITA/BTS, other federal government agencies, and other national sources. A picture of the states’ transportation infrastructure, freight movement and passenger travel, system safety, vehicles, transportation related economy and finance, energy usage and the environment is presented in tables covering the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Tables have been updated with the most recently available data. Included in this State Transportation Statistics 2013 report is a brief description of the data sources used and a glossary of terms. Also contained in this publication is a summary table that displays the approximate timing of future data releases and contact information for each state’s department of transportation.
KW  - Air pollution
KW  - Economics
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Finance
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Passenger transportation
KW  - Registrations
KW  - States
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Tables (Data)
KW  - Transportation safety
KW  - United States
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/STS_2013_C.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1324878
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526359
AU  - Schlossberg, Marc
AU  - Rowell, John
AU  - Amos, Dave
AU  - Sanford, Kelly
AU  - University of Oregon, Eugene
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Rethinking Streets: An Evidence-Based Guide to 25 Complete Street Transformations
PY  - 2013
SP  - 143p
AB  - This book documents the redesign of 25 streets across the United States and some of the effects the redesign had on traffic, safety, and economic measures. Each of the streets treats the balance between transportation modes and the balance between thoroughfare and place differently, and the results differ  accordingly. Each case study includes information on design, community context, traffic levels and economic indicators - providing evidence readily accessible to planners, community groups, traffic engineers and merchants. The case studies range from small rural towns to major metropolitan areas and from light traffic loads to state highways. The goal of this book is to use already finished projects to help  communities better visualize new ways to use their commercial streets to serve multiple purposes and multiple modes of transportation.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Complete streets
KW  - Context sensitive design
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Transportation modes
KW  - United States
UR  - http://rethinkingstreets.com/download.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1307316
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01517326
JO  - Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
PB  - Transportation Research Board
AU  - Browne, Michael
AU  - Goodchild, Anne V
TI  - Modeling Approaches to Address Urban Freight’s Challenges: A Comparison of the United States and Europe
SN  - 9780309294874
PY  - 2013
IS  - 50
SP  - pp 77-92
AB  - The rise in urbanization at a global level has reinforced the need to understand complex city growth patterns and rapidly changing urban systems. These urban environments present special challenges to the movement of people and goods. The flow of freight is essential to the growth and functioning of cities but also contributes to problems such as congestion, air pollution, and degradation of the urban environment. Researchers bring insight to these challenges through their work. Analytical models support a better understanding of urban freight and constitute an important tool in addressing these problems. This paper identifies the problems that urban freight research aims to address in Europe and the United States; provides a better understanding of existing data, analytical tools, and methods; and lays out some gaps and challenges in addressing these problems with existing resources.
U1  - City Logistics Research:  A Transatlantic PerspectiveEuropean CommissionResearch and Innovative Technology AdministrationTransportation Research BoardWashington,District of Columbia,United States StartDate:20130530 EndDate:20130531 Sponsors:European Commission, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Transportation Research Board
KW  - Cities
KW  - European Union countries
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Research
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - United States
KW  - Urban goods movement
UR  - http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/170031.aspx
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301157
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01517325
JO  - Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
PB  - Transportation Research Board
TI  - City Logistics Research: A Transatlantic Perspective. Summary of the First EU-U.S. Transportation Research Symposium
SN  - 9780309294874
PY  - 2013
IS  - 50
SP  - 112p
AB  - In 2012, an international consortium consisting of the European Commission, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration, and the Transportation Research Board was created to support and conduct a series of four symposia from 2013 through 2016, with each symposium focused on a selected transportation topic. The symposia provide forums for the exploration of opportunities for transatlantic collaboration in transportation research. The first of these symposia, titled “City Logistics Research: A Transatlantic Perspective,” was conducted May 30–31, 2013, at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, D.C. The symposium program included four plenary sessions:  Demand Patterns and Trends; Schemes and Technologies for Enhancing Urban Distribution; Terminals and Hubs: Impacts and Strategies; and Logistics Efficiency in Urban Areas. These Proceedings follow the symposium format and plenary sessions in chronological order. All research topics that speakers identified in the course of their presentations are included in the summary. The symposium participants included 25 European and 25 American subject matter experts, researchers, academicians, and industry practitioners. The speakers reflected on the challenges of “last mile” cargo delivery in major metropolitan areas and the global supply chain and offered myriad examples of innovative uses of technology to increase throughput efficiency and reduce cost, traffic congestion, and vehicle emissions. This report, prepared by the symposium rapporteurs, is a compilation of the presentations and a factual summary of the ensuing discussions at the event. Two commissioned white papers, which review the state of research on city logistics, are included as appendices.    
U1  - City Logistics Research:  A Transatlantic PerspectiveEuropean CommissionResearch and Innovative Technology AdministrationTransportation Research BoardWashington,District of Columbia,United States StartDate:20130530 EndDate:20130531 Sponsors:European Commission, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Transportation Research Board
KW  - Conferences
KW  - Demand
KW  - Economic efficiency
KW  - Europe
KW  - Freight terminals
KW  - Hubs
KW  - Last mile
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Research
KW  - Supply chain management
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Trend (Statistics)
KW  - United States
KW  - Urban goods movement
UR  - http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/170031.aspx
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300107
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01517324
JO  - Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
PB  - Transportation Research Board
AU  - Giuliano, Genevieve
AU  - Dablanc, Laetitia
TI  - Approaches to Managing Freight in Metropolitan Areas
SN  - 9780309294874
PY  - 2013
IS  - 50
SP  - pp 63-76
AB  - The flow of freight in metropolitan areas has emerged as a major urban planning challenge. Most urban freight is moved in trucks. Although trucks make up a relatively small share of all vehicle traffic, they generate a disproportionate share of many externalities, including congestion on local streets and highways, infrastructure damage, vehicle emissions, greenhouse gases, and noise. The purpose of this paper is to examine strategies, policies, and practices that have been implemented in different countries to manage freight impacts on metropolitan areas and assess their effectiveness and potential for transferability. Researchers and local stakeholders have explored a broad range of measures aimed at reducing truck travel, emissions, or carbon consumption. Examples include freight partnerships, smaller or newer trucks, better routing algorithms, consolidated local delivery stations, alternative modes, off-peak deliveries, and low-emission zones. These efforts have had varying levels of success. On the basis of an extensive review of the literature, an assessment of the most effective strategies for solving urban freight problems is presented. The authors find that policy strategies and outcomes are quite different between the United States and the European Union and explain these differences as a function of local context, including political and regulatory structures. They conclude that experimentation is extensive and that there appear to be many possibilities for addressing urban freight externalities. More research and more careful and comprehensive evaluations of policy experiments are suggested by the authors to improve the understanding of urban freight problems. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 discusses the nature of the urban freight problem and the challenges of effectively addressing freight problems. Section 3 provides an overview of policies and strategies organized around four major urban freight areas:  1) freight flows in the metropolitan core; 2) emissions; 3) metropolitanwide truck vehicle miles traveled;  and 4) freight hubs. Section 4 presents conclusions, and Section 5 offers suggestions for EU-U.S. collaborative research.
U1  - City Logistics Research:  A Transatlantic PerspectiveEuropean CommissionResearch and Innovative Technology AdministrationTransportation Research BoardWashington,District of Columbia,United States StartDate:20130530 EndDate:20130531 Sponsors:European Commission, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Transportation Research Board
KW  - Best practices
KW  - European Union countries
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Hubs
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - United States
KW  - Urban goods movement
KW  - Urban transportation policy
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/170031.aspx
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1301154
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01506237
AU  - Chandra, Divya C
AU  - Grayhem, Rebecca
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Evaluation of a Technique to Simplify Depictions of Visually Complex Aeronautical Procedures for NextGen
PY  - 2013
SP  - 5p
AB  - Performance based navigation supports the design of more precise flight procedures. However, these new procedures can be visually complex, which may impact the usability of charts that depict the procedures. The purpose of the study was to evaluate whether there are performance benefits from simplifying aeronautical charts that depict visually complex flight procedures by separating the procedures onto different chart images. Forty-seven professional pilots participated. They used high-fidelity current and modified charts to find specific information from approach and Standard Instrument Departure (SID) chart images that were shown one at a time on a computer monitor. Response time and accuracy were recorded. Results show a consistent and significant reduction in the time to find information from the simplified chart images. Response time varied linearly with a simple clutter metric, the sum of visual elements in the depiction, indicating serial visual search. Most questions were answered with high accuracy, but some questions about altitude constraints yielded low accuracies.
U1  - Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 57th Annual Meeting, 2013San Diego,California StartDate:20130930 EndDate:20131004
KW  - Accuracy
KW  - Aeronautical charts
KW  - Air pilots
KW  - Aircraft pilotage
KW  - Approach
KW  - Arrivals and departures
KW  - Next Generation Air Transportation System
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/50000/50600/50626/Chandra_and_Grayhem_HFES2013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290308
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01506234
AU  - Jacobsen, Karina
AU  - Carolan, Michael
AU  - Llana, Patricia
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Test Requirements of Locomotive Fuel Tank Blunt Impact Tests
PY  - 2013
SP  - 9p
AB  - The Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Research and Development is conducting research into passenger locomotive fuel tank crashworthiness. A series of impact tests are planned to measure fuel tank deformation under two types of dynamic loading conditions. Current design practice requires that Tier 1 locomotive fuel tanks have minimum properties adequate to sustain a prescribed set of static load conditions. In accidents, fuel tanks are subjected to dynamic loading, often including a blunt or raking impact from various components of the rolling stock or trackbed. Current research is intended to increase  understanding of the impact response of fuel tanks under dynamic loading. This paper describes test requirements for conducting two preliminary tests. These tests are referred to as preliminary because they will be used to evaluate the loading setup and instrumentation planned for the larger series of tests. These preliminary tests will evaluate a blunt impact on the bottom surface of two conventional passenger locomotive fuel tanks.
U1  - ASME 2013 Rail Transportation Division Fall Technical ConferenceASMEAltoona,Pennsylvania StartDate:20131015 EndDate:20131017 Sponsors:ASME
KW  - Crashworthiness
KW  - Deformation
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Fuel tanks
KW  - Impact tests
KW  - Locomotives
KW  - Passenger trains
KW  - Test procedures
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48500/48594/RTDF2013-4701.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290309
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502127
AU  - Sussman, Joseph
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Teaching Transportation Systems Thinking Concepts to Undergraduates
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Systems thinking is thought by many academics to be a graduate level educational venture. Many traditional educators in the engineering field argue that first a student should gain a grounding in some traditional branch of engineering (civil and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering and so forth) and only after that bachelors degree is attained should students be exposed to systems level ideas. The notion is that without the context of some traditional disciplines, students will find the systems discussions too abstract to be of value. This study looked at the question of what the appropriate components of a new subject offering, intended to introduce undergraduates as early as freshman or sophomore year, to systems ideas. The author developed and taught such a class at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, evaluated the subject carefully and wrote several papers discussing the educational outcomes. Further, a detailed curriculum was developed for such an introductory subject and the team worked on developing a full specification for an undergraduate program in engineering systems.
KW  - College students
KW  - Curricula
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Education and training methods
KW  - Systems
KW  - Systems engineering
KW  - Transportation engineering
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITE20_13FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279129
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502125
AU  - Glass, Jim
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Study of Speech Interfaces for the Vehicle Environment
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Over the past few years, there has been a shift in automotive human machine interfaces from  visual-manual interactions (pushing buttons and rotating knobs) to speech interaction. In terms of  distraction, the industry views speech interaction as a “low” or “no” cost way of providing advanced information to the driver. However, limited data exist on how older and more technologically adverse operators currently experience difficulty learning command based syntaxes for speech interaction. These syntaxes are often unfamiliar, cumbersome and stepwise. The ultimate acceptability of speech based systems for in-vehicle interactions therefore lies in the development of more intuitive naturalistic modes of interaction. For example, when considering in vehicle-based speech interfaces, one would like to know how speech, language, and dialogue can be most effectively used by drivers of different ages and technological backgrounds to perform information retrieval tasks. To optimize this technology for groups with different technological backgrounds and demographics, this project investigated the extent to which a conversational spoken language speech-interface can enhance the driver and passenger experience while minimizing distraction and confusion.
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driver information systems
KW  - Driver vehicle interfaces
KW  - Information retrieval
KW  - Speech recognition
KW  - Voice communication
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21_5FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279134
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502124
AU  - Coughlin, Joseph F
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Multimodal Approach to Meeting Older Adult Transportation Needs
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - America is graying and, therefore, the aging of the population will require rethinking everything. Transportation infrastructure, vehicles and future demand must respond to the aging of the nationʼs largest generation. This study conducted an assessment of current demographic trends as well as a secondary analysis of transportation studies to better understand the changes needed, the potential shortfalls and the opportunities to ensure that an older America remains a nation on the move.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - United States
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR20-3FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279124
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502118
AU  - Coughlin, Joseph F
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of an Older Adult Empathy System to Assess Transit and Livability
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The majority of older adults choose to drive to meet their transportation needs; however, driving may not be a lifelong option for many. Consequently, public transportation must be more than simply accessible - it must be easy to use and be an attractive option. This project developed and applied an empathy approach to better understand the experience of older users in a transit environment, including rail and bus. Using Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MITʼs) Age Gain Now Empathy System, or AGNES, researchers identified and mapped the friction points for older users accessing public transportation. This study teamed MIT students and researchers who explored and experienced various aspects of public transportation on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) rail system (Green and Red lines). These included the conspicuity and readability of signage, ease of use of benches, accessing transit vehicles and travel to and from transit stations.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Aged
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Seats
KW  - Signs
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21-2FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279131
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502113
AU  - Gao, Song
AU  - Fisher, Donald
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Adaptive Route Choice Modeling in Uncertain Traffic Networks with Real-Time Information
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The objective of this research was to study travelers' route choice behavior in uncertain traffic networks with real-time information. The research was motivated by two observations of the traffic system: 1) the system is inherently uncertain with random disturbances such as incidents, bad weather, and work zones, and therefore travel times are at most known with uncertainty; and 2) traveler information is or will be available so that travelers could make travel decisions adaptive to the random disturbances to reduce negative effects of uncertainty. Two central research questions focused on were: 1) Can we build and estimate an econometric model for travelers' en route updating of route choices? 2) Can such a model provide more realistic prediction of travelers’ route choices than existing ones? A state prefererence survey was conducted to measure two aspects of the subjects’ route choice behavior: risk attitude and strategic thinking.
KW  - Choice models
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Risk
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
KW  - Uncertainty
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UMAR21_11FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279138
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502106
AU  - Coughlin, Joseph F
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing the Transportation Readiness of an Aging America
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The transportation needs of an aging society are becoming more urgent with time. One baby boomer - those born between 1946 and 1964 - is now turning 61 years old every seven seconds. How are transportation planners and policy makers responding to the coming mobility demands of the nationʼs largest cohort, nearly 80 million people? Previous research (pre-Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)) was conducted, surveying metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) across the country to assess their state of ʻaging readinessʼ.  That work revealed that, while planners and senior MPO decision makers were well aware of the aging issue and coming transportation demands, few identified the challenge as high on their programmatic agenda. Moreover, many suggested that boomers may find a transportation environment in their old age looking very similar to their parentsʼ experience: few options, car dependent and low density communities. This work conducted - and reports on - a  second survey of MPOs, two years after SAFETEA-LU, and the high priority given to transportation by the 2005 White House Conference on Aging to determine if the issue has gained prominence and action.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR20-2FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279123
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502103
AU  - Ferreira, Joseph
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - New Data for Relating Land Use and Urban Form to Private Passenger Vehicle Miles
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This research project developed the most extensive and spatially detailed analysis of annual vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by type of vehicle, place of residence, and land use pattern. The authors combined a unique Massachusetts State dataset of annual odometer readings since 2001 for more than six million vehicles with geographic information system (GIS) data layers of housing,  infrastructure, and demographic characteristics in order to associate actual miles driven (for private passenger vehicles) with place of garaging at a very fine grain of spatial detail. The work involved close collaboration with MassGIS (the State's GIS Office) and the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), two key state and regional planning agencies involved in the policy analysis and modeling of land use, growth management, and transportation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Land use
KW  - Massachusetts
KW  - Private passenger vehicles
KW  - Residential location
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21-4FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279133
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502099
AU  - Tonguz, Ozan K
AU  - Viriyasitavat, Wantanee
AU  - Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Cars as Roadside Units: A Self-Organizing Network Solution
PY  - 2013
SP  - 14p
AB  - Deploying Roadside Units (RSUs) for increasing the connectivity of vehicular ad hoc networks is deemed necessary for coping with the partial penetration of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) radios into the market at the initial stages of DSRC deployment. Several factors including cost, complexity, existing systems, and lack of cooperation between government and private sectors have impeded the deployment of RSUs. In this paper, the authors propose to solve this formidable problem by using a biologically inspired self-organizing network approach whereby certain vehicles serve as RSUs. The proposed solution is based on designing local rules and the corresponding algorithms that implement such local rules. Results show that the proposed approach can increase the message reachability and connectivity substantially
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Dedicated short range communications
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Self organizing systems
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicular ad hoc networks (Computer networks)
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/SON_IEEE_CM_Final_Figures.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279704
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502096
AU  - Howitt, Arnold M
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management Capabilities in Transportation--Year II
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - While disaster preparedness and emergency management have had a high public profile over the past decade, Hurricane Katrina revealed serious weaknesses in the United States’ emergency response capabilities. There is thus much left to do before full consolidation of agencies into the Department of Homeland Security and parallel efforts across various levels of government are achieved. This study examined how several functional areas that are not traditionally considered part of the first responder community but still play important roles in emergency response are developing the capabilities necessary to integrate more fully into the country’s emergency management system. Following earlier work on terrorism preparedness and emergency evacuation, the research team focused on how these so-called “second circle” response organizations (including those from the transportation sector) are implementing the National Incident Management System (NIMS), a Congressionally-mandated template for coordinated organization, operational command, and implementation of response. Researchers looked at this  issue from national, state, and local perspectives, with significant concentration on the linkages between these levels of government.
KW  - Crisis management
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Emergency management
KW  - Incident management
KW  - National Incident Management System (NIMS)
KW  - United States
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/HVDR20_6FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279127
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502095
AU  - Howitt, Arnold M
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Teaching Case Studies on Earthquake Preparedness Efforts in the Transportation Sector, Los Angeles Metropolitan Area
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 2p
AB  - Through the development of a Harvard Kennedy School case study (intended for use as curriculum in graduate-level and executive education programs), this project examines earthquake preparedness and planning processes in the Los Angeles metropolitan region - specifically in connection to the area’s transportation network. By providing an in-depth description of how regional transportation and emergency management authorities planned and otherwise prepared for dealing with a high-consequence hazard (the United States Geological Service has determined that Southern California is overdue for an extremely powerful earthquake), the case enables students of public policy and administration to examine critical pre-event emergency management functions and to improve their ability to deal with similar challenges in their future professional work.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Earthquakes
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Emergency management
KW  - Los Angeles (California)
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/year21/HVDE21_13_FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279139
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502093
AU  - Sussman, Joseph
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Data Use & Organizational Innovations in Transportation Planning
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - In response to transportation innovation and particularly high-speed rail (HSR) as well as various  political factors, there is a need to rethink the underlying precepts of transportation planning for  urban areas and also planning at a regional scale. The innovative concept of “discontinuous regions” is explored in this research. By discontinuous regions, the authors mean that a region can be created ‘integrating” two cities – which become connected via HSR, while the locations between those two cities, that lack a station and hence access to high-speed rail, may be less advantaged. Portugal and the United Kingdom serve as the test beds for the study of these concepts and provide a useful framework for thinking through this new planning framework.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - High speed rail
KW  - Portugal
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - United Kingdom
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21_7FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279136
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502092
AU  - D'Ambrosio, Lisa
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Caregiving and Travel Patterns
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This study explored the impact of caregiving for older adults on mobility and travel patterns. Specifically, the focus was on how caregivers managed trips on behalf of another who receives care. Caregiving is becoming increasingly common as the population ages, and the number of people providing care for loved ones is expected to grow in the future. A 2004 survey by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) estimated that there were nearly 44.4 million people who provided unpaid care for another adult. Caregiving for others often requires that caregivers make adjustments in their lives, fitting caring for their  loves ones - and trips on behalf of their loves ones - around already busy schedules. Caregivers are also more likely to be women than men. For many older couples where the husband had long been the primary driver, caregiving roles can also mean a change in driving roles and in travel patterns. In spite of the growth in caregiving, and the increases expected in the future, relatively little is known about the impact of caregiving on travel behavior. This project focused on the trips that caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s or other dementias made on behalf of those for whom they provided care,  and how they may have adjusted their travel patterns to accommodate the additional needs they must satisfy. The questions in this study include the nature of the relationship between caregivers and those who receive care, the types of trips caregivers make for their loved ones, and how caregivers accommodate these trips - either by trip chaining, making additional trips, foregoing the trip (or having someone else make the trip), or having the goods or services brought in-home where possible. The goal of this work was to highlight some of the changes in trip and travel behavior  we might expect as more people take on caregiving roles in their lives.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Caregivers
KW  - Driving cessation
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel patterns
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR20_4FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279125
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502090
AU  - Branscomb, Lewis M
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Hazardous Material Transportation and the Security Externality: What Should be Done?
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project examined the “safety and security externalities” which exists in the transportation of hazardous materials (particularly toxic inhalant hazards) and identified alternative mitigation strategies. The combination of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, and human error has brought increased attention to the vulnerability of our infrastructure and population resulting from the transportation of hazardous materials, especially through cities. The primary objectives of this study were to identify risks associated with transporting toxic inhalant hazards (TIH) and propose approaches to mitigate the negative safety and security externalities created by hazardous materials  transportation.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Cities
KW  - Externalities
KW  - Hazard mitigation
KW  - Hazardous materials
KW  - Poisons
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Safety and security
KW  - Toxic inhalation hazards
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/HVDR20_7FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279128
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502088
AU  - Mehler, Bruce
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating Driver Reactions to New Vehicle Technologies Intended to Increase Safety and Mobility across the Lifespan
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Personal vehicle manufactures are introducing a wide range of new technologies that are  intended to increase the safety, comfort, and mobility of drivers of all ages. While part of the challenge of developing and implementing such systems is technical, equally important considerations include the extent to which the general public is willing to trust these technologies appropriately and actually use the systems in ways that produce the intended benefits. This may be particularly the case for older drivers for whom many of these technologies represent significant challenges to their mental models of how to operate a vehicle and who may be less trusting of new technologies per se. This project evaluated drivers’ reactions to a semi-autonomous system for parallel parking and a cross traffic warning alert system designed to warn drivers of encroaching vehicles when they are attempting to back out of a parking space. Both technologies are being promoted by the manufacturer, in part, as systems intended to reduce driver stress.
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Backing (Driving)
KW  - Driver support systems
KW  - Parking
KW  - Stress (Psychology)
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Vehicle safety
KW  - Warning devices
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_4FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279161
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502084
AU  - Gomez-Ibanez, Jose A
AU  - Luberoff, David
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Teaching Cases on Transportation and Global Warming
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project developed a series of three teaching cases that explore the implications of global  warming for transportation policy in the United States. The cases are intended to be used in  graduate and undergraduate courses on transportation policy and planning and are available free  of charge from the website of the Case Program at the Harvard Kennedy School:  http://www.case.hks.harvard.edu/. The teaching cases are: Electric Vehicles in Cities; The California Global Warming Solutions Act; and Ambitious but Achievable: Using Land Use and Transportation Plans to Reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions in California.
KW  - California
KW  - City planning
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Global warming
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Land use
KW  - Laws and legislation
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - United States
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/HVDE22_17FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279157
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502079
AU  - Sussman, Joseph
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Alternative Approaches to High Speed Rail
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - With high-speed rail (HSR) on the national agenda in the United States for the first time in quite a few years, and with the support of the executive branch of the U.S. government, it is of value to  study various alternatives in terms of how services might be provided with particular focus on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) of the U.S. Building high-speed rail in the international image of the Shinkansen in Japan and TGV in France is one possibility. This would involve new infrastructure and train sets. Another is to create so-called incremental high-speed rail (some call it “higher-speed rail”) in which existing services coupled with some infrastructure changes permit a superior level-of-service than exists now (say, with Acela) and at lower costs than the international quality mentioned above. There are many technical and market development issues inherent in the NEC but further,  institutional issues abound in the corridor with nine states, various large city governments,  freight movements and other issues to deal with to say nothing about the organizational structure  that would support operations. In this research, we consider technological alternatives as well as institutional alternatives in the NEC.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - High speed rail
KW  - Northeast Corridor
KW  - United States
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_7FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279343
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502078
AU  - Gonza'lez, Marta C
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Disruptive Technologies for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Business Strategy Exploration
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This research had three tasks. (1) A Methodology to extract Road Usage Patterns from Phone Data. The researchers combined the most complete record of daily mobility, based on large-scale mobile phone data, with detailed Geographic Information System (GIS) data, uncovering previously hidden patterns in urban road usage. (2) A Methodology to analyze Global Positioning System (GPS) Data for Control of Bus Performance. The researchers investigated the potential of "low-frequency" bus localization data for the monitoring and control of bus system performance. Data with a sampling rate as low as one minute was shown, when processed appropriately, to provide ample information. In particular, accurate estimates of stop arrival and departure times were obtained, which in turn allowed the analysis of headways and travel times. (3) Inferring Land Use from Mobile Phone Activity. The locations and communication patterns of millions of individuals are recorded alongside information about the function of the places they go. This work used dynamic data to quantify the  relationship between activity within an area (measured via mobile phones) and land use. Results provide a temporal dimension to understanding land use and suggest new data sources that may give a more accurate description of activity in a place.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Bus transit operations
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Land use
KW  - Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
KW  - Mobile telephones
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Urban highways
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_3FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279160
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502063
AU  - D'Ambrosio, Lisa
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Role of Driver Rehabilitation in Extending the Driving Lifetimes and Enhancing the Mobility of Older Adults
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This study explored the role and impact of driver rehabilitation for older adults on extending driving lifetimes and enhancing mobility. Specifically, the focus was on the effects of driver rehabilitation on older adults’ abilities to continue driving safely, their attitudes toward driving, and their overall satisfaction with their mobility. Thanks to improvements in public health, medicine, education and technology, people are living, and driving, longer than ever before. Not only are the projected numbers of older drivers on the rise, so too are the numbers of miles driven by older drivers in an average year. While older driver education offerings promote efforts to keep older adults driving safely, they do not provide remedy for individual physical or medical issues that may present challenges for safe continued driving. In spite of the possibilities that driver rehabilitation offers to older drivers, relatively few take advantage of the driver assessments and rehabilitation available. For many older drivers, the possibility of a driving assessment may be equated with driving cessation; thus, they may be reluctant to initiate such a process if they believe they will automatically lose their licenses. Thus, the current use of driving evaluation resources and driver rehabilitation  services is smaller than the overall demand, especially with the growing older population, would  suggest. This qualitative project focused on older drivers’ experiences with driving rehabilitation - what they thought it would be, what it was, how it affected their driving skills and habits, and  whether they feel it enhanced their mobility.
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Driver rehabilitation
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Mobility
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21_3FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279132
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502057
AU  - Coughlin, Joseph F
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Alternative Transportation Options, Well-Being & Livable Communities
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This research examined subjective well-being or SWB in several dimensions: physical well-being, emotional well-being, access to services, work environment, life evaluation and healthy behaviors. How does transportation and selected community design elements affect well-being, especially among disadvantaged populations such as the elderly? This project queried the Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index, a survey of 1000 Americans everyday over an ongoing 25 year period, to identify the possible impact of transportation and community on SWB, e.g., walkability, access to parks, public transportation options, etc. Several questions were addressed: how does transportation and area type-related variables impact SWB, for example, does your commute time affect SWB; do high alternative transportation service levels improve SWB; and does where you live, e.g. city, rural or area type, affect SWB?
KW  - Aged
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Communities
KW  - Emotions
KW  - Health
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Socioeconomic areas
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transportation modes
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23-1FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279158
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502056
AU  - Garrick, Norman
AU  - Lownes, Nicholas
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Case Studies of Freeway Removal
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - As our road infrastructure ages, more cities will be faced with the decision of what to do with freeways within their urban core. With local budgets tightening, more cities will begin considering the removal of these roads as a way to save on maintenance and rebuilding costs. In many cases, however, people fear that reducing road capacity will cause traffic gridlock or adversely affect the economy of a city. Limited empirical evidence exists to explain how removing a freeway link affects travel behavior. Understanding how people adjust their transportation choices when faced with the removal of a high capacity link is critical to planning efforts for future projects. In this study we examine three case studies of urban freeway removal: two within San Francisco and one in Milwaukee.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Freeway operations
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Milwaukee (Wisconsin)
KW  - San Francisco (California)
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Urban highways
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UCNR21_9FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279137
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502045
AU  - D'Ambrosio, Lisa
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Keeping Fit and Fit to Drive: An Experimental Intervention to Explore the Impact of Physical Exercise on Older Adults’ Driving
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The purpose of this research was to approach the question of mobility for older adults from a  positive perspective rather than focus on the negative of stopping a behavior. The question was  what older adults might be able to do proactively to extend their safe driving careers. A few  studies have shown that physical activity might have a positive impact on safe driving behaviors  among older adults. Maintaining different elements of fitness may be important for continued safe driving behavior. For example, Staplin et al. (2003a, 2003b) found an increase in crash risk among drivers who failed a head and neck rotation task. Thus, maintaining flexibility as part of a fitness routine may be important for helping older drivers to continue to drive safely. To explore further how positive action might help to extend driving, this study was designed as an experimental intervention to examine the impact of physical exercise on older adults’ safe driving behaviors.
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Automobile drivers
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Physical fitness
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_2FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279159
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502043
AU  - Sodhi, Manbir
AU  - Wood, Mark
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessment of Older Driver Performance Under Low Level Alcohol Impairment
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This report summarizes the outcome, to date, of work undertaken to examine the effects of low level alcohol impairment, especially for older drivers, based on on-road driving studies. Some of the questions the project initially sought to answer were: (1) How does alcohol impairment at low (legal) levels influence driver performance and eye movements of drivers in laboratory experiments? (2) How does alcohol impairment at low (legal) levels influence driver performance and eye movements of drivers in on-road experiments? (3) How do the use of devices such as cell phones and navigation devices impact the eye movements of drivers who are operating vehicles, whilst  under the legal limits of alcohol impairment?
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Blood alcohol levels
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Drunk driving
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Laboratory studies
KW  - Navigation devices
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/URIR22_16FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279156
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502038
AU  - Reimer, Bryan
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing the Impact of Age on Cognitively Induced Visual Tunneling
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Driver attention to the roadway is paramount to safety. Therefore, the debate on driver distraction is  largely concerned with maximizing the time a driver’s eyes are focused on the road. The demands visual-manual interfaces place on driver’s visual attention are relatively overt. Previous research has shown that many cognitive activities impact the allocation of visual attention as well. Although a driver’s eyes overtly remain oriented towards the road during periods of heightened cognitive activity, a more central concentrated scan path appears. Numerous studies have reported a decrease in reaction time associated with increased cognitive activates.
KW  - Age
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Eye movements
KW  - Reaction time
KW  - Visual perception
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21_6FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279135
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502034
AU  - Reimer, Bryan
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Age Related Changes in Cognitive Response Style in the Driving Task Part II
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project explored the patterns in drivers’ physiological arousal to periods of heightened  cognitive workload. While in many cases heart rate increases with cognitive demand, results from a set of driving simulation studies completed as part of this project illustrate that situations exist where an increase in overt cognitive demand does not result in an increase in heart rate. In essence, this research suggests that there are cognitively demanding situations where heart rate may increase or decrease, depending on how attention is directed or allocated. In the first phase of this project, other than having consistently higher heart rates, what appeared to differentiate late middle age and younger drivers was not so much a specific pattern of response to a cell  phone task, but the relative distribution of individuals showing increases, decreases, or unchanged heart rates. As part of this project, a subsequent assessment considered data on a continuous performance task and found consistent results.
KW  - Age
KW  - Attention
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Heart rate
KW  - Physiological aspects
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR20_5FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279126
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502017
AU  - Ben-Akiva, Moshe
AU  - Abou-Zeid, Maya
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Measuring and Modeling Travel Well-Being in a Dynamic Context
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Travel behavior models typically assume that people base their travel choices on time and cost  considerations and do not account sufficiently for qualitative factors that affect the choice. Travel  choices are however more likely to be motivated by a desire to maintain or enhance travel well-being. In addition to time and cost, travelers value factors such as reliability, comfort, convenience, safety, etc. Thus, travel well-being is a broader concept that encompasses generalized cost. While there have been numerous studies that have measured some travel well-being in one form or another (happiness, stress, satisfaction, liking), most of these studies have been cross-sectional. Yet well-being is a dynamic process, and measurements of well-being could produce different answers depending on the moment in time at which it is measured, such as under habitual or non-habitual travel conditions. The aim of this research is to assess these dynamics in travel well-being and to develop a modeling framework that captures the relationship between well-being and travel behavior.
KW  - Choice models
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Dynamic models
KW  - Emotions
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR21_1FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279130
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502005
AU  - Salvucci, Frederick P
AU  - Attanucci, John
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - MIT Employee Commuter Behavior Trial
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The objectives of this project included the following: (1) to evaluate the potential impact (in terms of commuter mode shifts) from the introduction of disruptive technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including new transit benefits for automobile commuters, real-time, location aware mobile phone applications and a new web-based reward incentive program; (2) to determine improved employer transportation benefit program design; and (3) to influence future Federal and state funding eligibility priorities with respect to transit commuting incentives and real-time ridesharing and transit user information. This project report only partially addresses these objectives, due to the fact that events beyond the control of the researchers have delayed key elements necessary for the successful implementation of the full commuter behavior trial. Significant directly-related and supportive research has progressed so that when the key factors causing delay are resolved, it will be feasible to implement most, if not all, of the initial research design at MIT during the coming year.
KW  - Automobile drivers
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Commuters
KW  - Employee benefits
KW  - Employees
KW  - Government funding
KW  - Incentives
KW  - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Web applications
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_6FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279162
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01502000
AU  - Reis, Andre B
AU  - Sargento, Susana
AU  - Neves, Filipe
AU  - Tonguz, Ozan K
AU  - Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Deploying Road Side Units in Sparse Vehicular Networks: What Really Works and What Does Not
PY  - 2013
SP  - 13p
AB  - The 802.11p/Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) standard relies on the presence of Onboard Units (OBUs) and Roadside Units (RSUs) for communications in vehicular networks. In this paper, the authors study the beneﬁts of deploying RSUs to improve communications in highway scenarios. An analytical model is developed to analyze communication delay in a highway scenario with bi-directional trafﬁc, considering both connected and disconnected RSUs, and the model is validated via simulations and experimental measurements with 802.11p equipment. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the results show that signiﬁcant beneﬁts of RSUs in terms of connectivity and message dissemination can only be achieved when the deployed RSUs are interconnected. Conversely, deploying a large number of disconnected RSUs will lead to little or no beneﬁt in message dissemination delay.
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Highways
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Messages (Communications)
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Vehicular ad hoc networks (Computer networks)
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/Andre_Ozan_IEEE_TVT-2013_final_Nov25.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279705
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501359
AU  - Ben-Akiva, Moshe
AU  - Abou-Zeid, Maya
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - American University of Beirut
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Capturing Well-Being in Activity Pattern Models Within Activity-Based Travel Demand Models
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The activity-based approach which is based on the premise that the demand for travel is derived from the demand for activities, currently constitutes the state of the art in metropolitan travel demand forecasting and particularly in a form known as the day schedule approach. This approach first models the day activity pattern of an individual (number of activities and tours by type), and then models the travel dimensions including destination, mode, and time-of-travel given an activity pattern. Several modeling developments have been incorporated into these models over the last decade or so. Yet, the specification of the activity pattern model in operational activity-based model systems is not founded in a behavioral theory, but rather combines in ad-hoc ways a number of socio-economic, demographic, lifestyle, and accessibility variables based on empirical considerations. The authors postulate that activities are planned and undertaken to satisfy needs so as to maintain or enhance subjective well-being, and extend activity pattern models in this direction. The authors develop two extensions to enhance the specification of the activity pattern model. The first extension maintains the standard activity pattern utility specification but adds information about the utility using well-being measures in addition to the usual choice indicators. It is expected that the activity pattern models that incorporate well-being would be behaviorally more realistic and would enhance the efficiency of the activity pattern models thereby yielding better prediction of travel patterns. The second extension explicitly models the drivers of activity participation, based on the notion that individuals pursue different activities to satisfy their needs (sustenance, social, recreation, etc.). Each activity that an individual conducts may satisfy one or several of his/her needs. Conversely, each need may be satisfied by one or several activities. The authors model an individual’s choice of activity dimensions including frequency, sequence, location, mode, time-of-travel, etc. as one that maximizes his/her need-satisfaction.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Traffic forecasting
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Well-being
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22_1FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279141
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501358
AU  - Howitt, Arnold M
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Crisis Management in Transportation: Building Capacity through Exercises
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Building on research conducted in part with UTC Year 20 funding, this project examined the experience of organizations from the “second circle” of the emergency response community – including surface transportation agencies – in using exercises and drills as a form of disaster preparedness. (“Second circle” organizations are defined as those whose core missions do not focus on the delivery of emergency response services but which still perform important response functions during major disasters.) In particular, the research team focused on how a set of second circle agencies in select metropolitan areas have trained their personnel in utilizing the National Incident Management System (NIMS), a national template for coordinated organization, operational command, and implementation of response. Among other things, researchers explored how these agencies have used NIMS training to prepare their personnel for a range of potential disaster situations, increase proficiency in emergency response skills, and to become more integrated into a comprehensive emergency management system that reaches across agency, jurisdictional, and level-of-government boundaries. (This study of how transportation systems prepare for disaster situations is well-aligned with the NEUTC’s theme – strategic management of disruptive change in transportation systems, specifically the focus on disruptive environments.)
KW  - Crisis management
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Emergency management
KW  - Ground transportation
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Transportation departments
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/HVDR22_12FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279152
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501357
AU  - Fu, Tat
AU  - Gress, David
AU  - Caron, Rosemary
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - University of New Hampshire, Durham
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Encouraging Alternative Transportation Behavior among Baby Boomers via Simulations
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Due to disruptions prompted by changing demographic patterns, aging infrastructure, and a growing ‘green’ culture New England states have been at the forefront of searching for options to encourage sustainable transportation alternatives. However, this quest has not translated in substantive behavior change. Mitigation of the environmental impact of automobile traffic can be facilitated through a number of technological, economic, and regulatory factors. But in order to achieve widespread adoption of alternatives, changes in individual knowledge, attitude, and behavior are essential. This proposal addresses the NEUTC theme: The strategic management of disruptive change in transportation systems. It is designed to apply the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) to baby boomer populations to improve transportation choices and help the environment. Given the tremendous success of TTM in other areas of behavior change this team is in a unique position to develop an innovative project, which can serve as a model for sustainable transportation for campuses and communities nationwide. The work presented here reflects the findings of a multi-year, multi-site interdisciplinary project designed to promote alternative/sustainable transportation (AT or ST) and to encourage mode shift from single occupancy vehicle commuting to transit, carpooling, walking or biking.
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Baby boomer generation
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Carpools
KW  - Knowledge
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Transtheoretical Model of behavior change
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UNHR23_1FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279352
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501356
AU  - Ferreira, Joseph
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Linking Mileage to Auto Accident Risk and Urban Form
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Pricing auto insurance on a per-mile basis provides a beneficial, cost-based incentive to reduce vehicle miles traveled compared with traditional rating plans that charge annual premiums with little or no consideration of miles driven. The research project is a continuation of UTC Project MITR21-4 which combines spatially detailed information about vehicle miles traveled (VMT), urban form, and automobile accidents into the most extensive analysis yet undertaken of mileage based risk and the influence of urban form. The author combined spatially detailed GIS data layers for housing, infrastructure, and demographic factors with two unique Massachusetts State datasets for millions of vehicles in order to associate accident experience both with actual miles driven (for private passenger vehicles) and with driver and place-of-garaging characteristics. The work involved close collaboration with MassGIS (the State's GIS Office) and with the Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), two key state and regional planning agencies involved in the policy analysis and modeling of land use, growth management, and transportation strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These per-mile estimates are then combined with price elasticity of demand for gasoline and with MAPC projections of regional growth in order to estimate the VMT savings from mileage-based insurance pricing and from alternative metropolitan growth scenarios.
KW  - Automobile insurance
KW  - Boston Metropolitan Area
KW  - Crash risk forecasting
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Insurance rates
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Urban form
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22-5FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279145
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501354
AU  - Zegras, Chris
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Travel Behavior of the Aging Boomers: Evidence from Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (Phase IV)
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project represented ongoing research into the relationship of the built environment and travel behavior of older baby boomers (for the purposes of the research, we focus on baby boomers aged 55 to 64, so-called “leading edge” baby boomers). The author's previous project phases focused on suburban areas of Boston, with a particular focus on identifying variation across ‘traditional’ suburban neighborhoods and nearby age-restricted neighborhoods. This particular research phase turned to the more urban settings of Boston, specifically the cities of: Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline. There were two basic objectives: 1) Understand the relationships between the built environment and baby boomers’ “active travel” (walking and biking) in urban areas, including understanding the relationships with traffic risk. 2) Understand the differences in travel behavior between urban and suburban boomers.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Baby boomer generation
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Boston Metropolitan Area
KW  - Built environment
KW  - Suburbs
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22_9FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279149
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501353
AU  - Glass, Jim
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of a Natural Speech Based Informational Inquiry System as a Potential Means to Increase Transit Utilization
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project proposed to explore the potential of a user friendly, natural speech based information inquiry application as one means of increasing public transit utilization. It suggested that a key challenge to expanding transit ridership is to encourage people who have not used a system to develop familiarity with it. The initial phase of the project focused on gathering strategic information from potential users on implementations of a speech interface they would be most likely to use and the types of information they perceive as being most useful in supporting and/or increasing their use of the transit system. In the first phase of this effort, research was directed towards expanding the transit information capability of the CityBrowser spoken dialogue prototype, and incorporating crowdsourcing methods for query collection to enhance the robustness of the system. In a second component of this effort, a 2010 Lincoln MKS with a SYNC™ voice interface was assessed. The vehicle was instrumented for time synchronized recording of vehicle information from the controller area network (CAN) bus, a MEDAC System/3 physiology monitoring unit, FaceLAB® 5.0 eye tracking, cameras for capturing driver behavior and vehicle surroundings, and GPS tracking. Subjects were asked to complete six in-vehicle task areas: manual control of the radio, voice command control of the radio, navigation system destination entry, song selection (from an MP3 storage device), stored phone number dialing, and an auditory presentation / verbal response calibration task (n-back).
KW  - Driver vehicle interfaces
KW  - Driver workload
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Speech recognition
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
KW  - Voice communication
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22-6FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279146
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501351
AU  - Sussman, Joseph
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Strategy Development Under Economic Uncertainty
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The interests of the researchers here were to understand various modes for developing long term – that is strategic – plans with particular concern for the economic uncertainties one invariably faces in such a planning environment. Often resources cannot be confidently projected many years into the future and yet when one talks about transportation systems one is talking about large scale infrastructure that is very long lived. So how does one “do strategy”? There are two schools of thought on the general question of how strategies are developed. One mode of thought championed by Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School is deliberative strategy where one maps out a long-term strategic direction for, in our case, the transportation network and then makes individual decisions within the framework of that strategy statement. The other major school of thought, championed by Professor Henry Mintzburg at McGill University, is called emergent strategy. In essence, that approach argues that in many cases we “discover” our strategy after the fact--by looking at decisions we actually made and backtracking to a statement of “what our strategy must have been.” Of course, in practice, strategy development in most fields is a hybrid of these two approaches and this is certainly true in the transportation area. The author studied this phenomenon of deliberative and emergent strategy using the transportation highway network in Portugal as his case study.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Economic factors
KW  - Portugal
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22_8FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279148
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501350
AU  - Coughlin, Joseph F
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - AGNES and Livable Communities
PY  - 2013
SP  - 4p
AB  - Earlier research used ‘empathy’ to inform transportation students and professionals by producing personal experiences that provided insights to improve public transportation or at least identify ‘friction points’ in an otherwise accessible system. This project explored the ‘age-readiness’ of communities as to their livability for an aging America. Using MIT’s Age Gain Now Empathy System or AGNES, researchers and students sought to better understand everyday movements and friction points using sidewalks, retail environments, housing, and other pedestrian accessible destinations. In addition to using the AGNES system, a collaboration with the AARP provided a platform for shared learning about livability, aging and the critical role of mobility in quality of life across the lifespan.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Age Gain Now Empathy System
KW  - Aged
KW  - Livable communities
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Pedestrian movement
KW  - Pedestrian safety
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22-3FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279143
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501348
AU  - Mundorf, Norbert
AU  - Redding, Colleen
AU  - Prochaska, James
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Encouraging Alternative Transportation Behavior Among Baby Boomers
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The heavy reliance on single occupancy vehicles used by commuters is one of the most preventable contributors to the carbon footprint of campuses and communities. Besides technical innovations, behavior change is pivotal to reducing SOV (single occupancy vehicle) travel. This proposal addresses the NEUTC theme strategic management of disruptive change in transportation systems. It is designed to apply the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) to baby boomer populations to improve transportation choices, help the environment, and the quality of life in campus communities. Given the tremendous success of TTM in other areas of behavior change this team has developed an innovative project, which can serve as a model for sustainable transportation for campuses and communities nationwide. The work presented here reflects the findings of a multi-year, multi-site interdisciplinary project designed to promote alternative/sustainable transportation and to encourage mode shift from single occupancy vehicle commuting to transit, carpooling, walking or biking. A study of faculty, staff and students at two public universities in the Northeast was designed to develop and test the methodology of applying the TTM to transportation behavior.
KW  - Baby boomer generation
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Carpools
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Transtheoretical Model of behavior change
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/URIR23_14FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279354
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501347
AU  - Zegras, P Christopher
AU  - Ben-Joseph, Eran
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Sensing the Baby Boomers: Tracking Older Adults’ Travel Behavior Using Android-Based Smartphones
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project intends to demonstrate the possibilities for using smartphones to obtain highly resolved behavioral information for older adults, especially leading edge baby boomers. Towards this end, the authors are implementing a pilot study which will help to establish the foundation for larger-scale, widely-applicable, and more-reliable smartphone-based travel and activity data collection efforts for the baby boomer cohort, and beyond. The ultimate objectives are to: 1. draw upon innovations in communications technologies to enhance travel data collection; 2. develop a non-intrusive tool that may be widely used for travel survey purposes; and 3. demonstrate the usefulness of the technology in gathering data that can be especially helpful to understanding particular behavioral- and built environment-related characteristics that might influence older adult travel behavior (e.g., safety risks).
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Aged
KW  - Baby boomer generation
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel surveys
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_9FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279346
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501345
AU  - Garder, Per E
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - University of Maine, Orono
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - All-Wheel Drive and Winter-Weather Safety
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 2p
AB  - It is frequently stated that people living in northern states, the so called Snowbelt of the United States, benefit with respect to safety from driving all-wheel or four-wheel drive vehicles as opposed to front or rear-wheel drive only. This study tries to answer whether that is true or not.
KW  - Crash rates
KW  - Four wheel drive
KW  - Front wheel drive
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Rear wheel drive
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Vehicle safety
KW  - Weather conditions
KW  - Winter
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UMER23_1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279350
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501344
AU  - Trancik, Jessika
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Environmental and Economic Impacts of Alternative Transportation Technologies
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This project has focused on comparing alternative transportation technologies in terms of their environmental and economic impacts. The research is data-driven and quantitative, and examines the dynamics of impact. The author has developed new theory and metrics to use in the forward-looking evaluation of a wide range of technologies. In particular, she has developed revised emissions factors for biofuels, to assess their climate change mitigation potential against other alternatives. The author  has also evaluated the supply risks and the potential for price volatility of biofuels.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Mitigation
KW  - Technology
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR23_8FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279344
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501341
AU  - Howitt, Arnold M
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving Emergency Evacuation Preparedness: Policy and Organizational Implications for Transportation Agencies
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ravaged the United States’ Gulf Coast in 2005, the storms revealed woeful inadequacies in our nation’s emergency preparedness and response capacities, including – notably – how we plan for and execute large-scale evacuations. Since then, all levels of government have striven to improve the ways in which the public sector manages the mass movement of people in the face of a major disaster. Building on previous work conducted by the investigators, this project explored changes select metropolitan areas have made in planning for and implementing emergency evacuations in the post-Katrina era, placing particular emphasis on how transportation and emergency management officials across multiple levels of government have collaborated in developing and refining regional mass evacuation plans and procedures. Given the complications disasters can cause for traffic management and infrastructure, along with the pivotal role surface transportation plays in support of emergency evacuations, this study directly addressed the NEUTC’s theme of strategic management of disruptive change in transportation systems – with a specific focus on disruptive environments.
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Emergency management
KW  - Evacuation
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transportation departments
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/HVDR23_1FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279347
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501340
AU  - Reimer, Bryan
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Individual Differences in Peripheral Physiology and Implications for the Real-Time Assessment of Driver State (Phase I & II)
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Cognitively oriented in-vehicle activities (cell-phone calls, speech interfaces, audio translations of text messages, etc.) increasingly place non-visual demands on a driver’s attention. While a driver’s eyes may remain oriented towards the road, attention may be diverted elsewhere, resulting in decreased situational awareness, inattentional blindness, or situations of “look-but-fail-to-see” (Kass, Kerstan, & Stanny, 2007; Recarte & Nunes, 2003; Strayer, Drews, & Johnston, 2003). Physiological measures have long been established to change with escalating workload in aviation environments (Backs & Seljos, 1994; Veltman & Gaillard, 1998). At the onset of this project, the degree to which different physiological measures are sensitive to changes in driver workload had yet to be fully established. Mehler, Reimer, Coughlin and Dusek (2009) presents results from a simulation study that assessed the sensitivity of multiple physiological measures to changes in cognitive demand through the delayed digit recall (n-back) task. While mixed results on the sensitivity of particular physiological measures such as heart rate and skin conductance appeared in the literature (see Mehler, Reimer & Coughlin, 2012 for a comprehensive review), a series of simulation and field studies completed as part of these projects clearly demonstrates the reliability of heart rate and skin conductance as measures of driver workload and illustrate the important relationships between these measures to quantify an individual’s overall level of demand. In particular, the results presented in Mehler, Reimer and Coughlin (2012) highlight the consistency of response patterns across healthy participants in their 20’s, 40’s and 60’s. In addition to establishing the sensitivity of these measures to change in driver demand, Reimer and Mehler (2011) illustrates the highly consistent patterning of heart rate to changes in demand across simulation and field studies. While basic fixed based driving simulation does not provide the same level of cognitive demand that exists as part of real world driving (e.g. lower overall heart rate), this research demonstrated pattern of changes in heart rate from a period of single task driving to a period where the driver is engaged in a cognitive secondary task is almost identical to what would be observed if the driver was on a real road.
KW  - Attention
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driver workload
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Physiology
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Simulation
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22_7FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279147
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501339
AU  - Coughlin, Joseph F
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Caregiver Information Search Behavior for Alternative Transportation
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Numerous factors contribute to cessation of driving, ranging from a decline in cognitive capability to a decrease in overall physical health. When driving cessation occurs, responsibility often falls on adult child caregivers to extend the personal mobility of their parents deeper into old age. While not the end-all solution, alternative transportation can alleviate some of the pressure placed on family and friends in transporting the driving disadvantaged to essential destinations such as a grocery store or pharmacy, as well as ‘nonessential’ social destinations that have been shown to improve the mental health of the elderly. Today’s caregiver has a more robust toolset at their disposal than their predecessors in the search for information on alternative transportation. However, while information available on the Internet can be rich, relevant and instructive, finding it is not as simple as googe-ling a few key words and declaring ‘mission accomplished.’ The family caregiver must reconcile this information with the context and specific demands of their loved one. This project focused on understanding the means through which different types of caregivers find information on alternative transportation, and aimed to develop a cohesive framework to demonstrate the process a caregiver undertook in obtaining information.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Driving cessation
KW  - Information services
KW  - Information sources
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Public information programs
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Search strategies
KW  - Transportation disadvantaged persons
KW  - Websites (Information retrieval)
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22-2FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279142
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501338
AU  - Gao, Song
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Characterizing Traffic under Uncertain Disruptions: An Experimental Approach
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The objective of the research is to study long-term traffic patterns under uncertain disruptions using data collected from human subjects who simultaneously make route choices in controlled PC-based laboratory experiments. Uncertain disruptions to a traffic system usually include incidents, bad weather and work zones which result in uncertain travel times. Meanwhile, real-time information is and will be available to travelers so they can adapt to actual traffic conditions and reduce the negative effects of uncertainties. In conventional traffic prediction models, these disruptions are excluded and travelers are assumed to face a deterministic network. However, as uncertain disruptions account for a significant portion of the total traffic delays on the road, it is imperative to incorporate them in a traffic prediction model. In a New England UTC Year 21 project, the author developed an individual behavioral model of route choice in an uncertain network with real-time traveler information. This project builds on the behavioral model and considers the collective congestion effects of many individual drivers’ route choices. Two central research questions are to be answered: 1) Is there a steady traffic pattern in terms of probability distributions of traffic variables under uncertain disruptions, with and without real-time traveler information? 2) Can a model be built to characterize traffic patterns under such situations?
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Traffic characteristics
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic forecasting
KW  - Traffic incidents
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
KW  - Weather conditions
KW  - Work zones
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UMAR22_14FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279154
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501337
AU  - Lownes, Nicholas
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Hypernetwork Generation for Multi-modal Transportation System Modeling
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - The transportation debate has evolved in recent decades to include ideas such as sustainability and livability alongside mobility and safety. Definitional complexities aside, there is no doubt that this evolution has created a national transportation agenda that is heavy on multi-modal transportation systems. Multi-modal systems can, and should be, more than disconnected auto, train and bicycle networks operating in parallel. A holistic, systemic viewpoint requires that these modes complement each other as part of an integrated whole. This project challenges the traditional notion of transportation network design – by approaching the problem as integrated and multi-modal from the start. Hypernetworks enable one to model the transportation system not only as a set of links and nodes, but as a network of interconnected decisions that face travelers as they traverse the network. This concept has been deployed successfully in several public transit applications (which are inherently multi-modal), though it is only beginning to be explored in a multi-modal network design. Not surprisingly perhaps, hypernetworks are not trivial to generate for even small networks. The primary foci of this project are: i. Integrate new diverse ideas from complementary fields of inquiry into the framework of multi-modal network design. Calls for integrating the transportation system are coincident with calls for accountability through performance-based management. Tools are needed to evaluate transportation system design holistically in order to serve these pressing needs. ii. Formulate new models of multi-modal transportation network design that explicitly account for multi-modal paths through the use of these interconnected decision sets. The network design problem is well-studied, though at the scale of multi-modal transportation networks it is still an emerging concept.
KW  - Hypernetworks
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Networks
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - System design
KW  - Transportation systems
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UCNR23_3FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279349
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501336
AU  - Garrick, Norman
AU  - Marshall, Wesley
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - University of Colorado, Denver
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improved Characterizing of Access for Assessing the Impact of Community Design
on Active Transportation and Health Outcomes
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This study was aimed at characterizing transportation access by incorporating the Street Smart Walk Score®. This was done by conducting an assessment of common measures of street design, street network design, land use, and Street Smart Walk Score®, and their impact on travel behavior. The overall goal was to better characterize the built environment in order to assess how the built environment might affect mode choice for active transportation and health outcomes.
KW  - Access
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Built environment
KW  - Health
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Land use
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Streets
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Urban design
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UCNR23_1FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279348
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501333
AU  - Lownes, Nicholas E
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Influence of Real-time Rural Transit Tracking on Traveler Perception
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Public transportation systems require accurate and reliable information as part of their day-to-day operations and are increasingly engaging their customers through a variety of online services and smart phone applications, such as real-time vehicle tracking. This technology requires a significant investment on the part of the operators. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether transit agencies can expect to reap benefits from their investments in technology. Zhang et al. (2008) examined this question using ridership characteristics and found that bus tracking technology does not necessarily lead to increased ridership, but does lead to improved perceptions of nighttime safety and overall satisfaction with the transit service. This study examines additional attitudes towards a bus service that recently deployed a real-time tracking technology. The University of Connecticut bus system was utilized in this study.
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Automatic vehicle location
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Customer satisfaction
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Night
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Rural transit
KW  - Transit riders
KW  - Transportation safety
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/UCNR22_13FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279153
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501330
AU  - Mehler, Bruce
AU  - Potter, Anya
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing Methods of Enhancing Older Driver Performance
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - Research has demonstrated improvements in neuropsychological measures following participation in cognitive training programs in normal aging individuals (Ball, et al., 2002; Ball, Edwards, & Ross, 2007; Willis, et al., 2006; Wolinsky, et al., 2006). While claims have been made that cognitive training reduces accidents up to 50% (https://www.drivesharp.com/), studies examining on-road driving performance to date have not provided comprehensive data on whether functional changes in driving performance, driving behavior, or the allocation of a driver’s attention to the roadway are associated with the reported neuropsychological findings. In particular, this research set out to: (1) assess neuropsychological improvement following intervention with a commercial brain-training software program, Posit Science Cortex™ with InSight Drive Sharp™ and (2) examine whether measurable improvements in on-road driving performance can be quantified following intervention with the brain-training program.
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Attention
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Brain
KW  - Driver performance
KW  - Neuropsychology
KW  - Training programs
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22_10FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279150
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501329
AU  - D'Ambrosio, Lisa
AU  - New England University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Planning for the Future: The Role of Mobility in Residential and Lifestyle Choices of Baby Boomers and Older Adults
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 3p
AB  - This study explores the extent to which Baby Boomers and older adults take mobility and transportation issues into consideration as they make individual residential and lifestyle plans for their future older years. While transportation and urban planners may be aware of what has been called a gray tsunami, little attention has been paid to how individuals weigh mobility in their decisions about living, working and playing in their older years. Yet because mobility is so crucial for continued quality of life, it seems as if it should be a prime factor in decision making for one’s older years – transportation should be central to questions about whether to age in place, part of a choice to relocate to another community, and a consideration in decisions about future work and medical issues. This project focuses on the extent to which mobility and transportation issues play into Baby Boomers’ and older adults’ decisions about future residence and lifestyle, and why such issues may be often overlooked rather than explicitly considered.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Baby boomer generation
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Future
KW  - Life styles
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Residential location
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://agelab.mit.edu/files/finalreports/MITR22_4FP.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279144
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01496665
AU  - Alexy, J Karl
AU  - Jeong, David Y
AU  - Gonzalez, Francisco
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Monte Carlo Study of Holding Forces for Tank Cars on Grades
PY  - 2013
SP  - 9p
AB  - This paper describes a numerical procedure to examine the holding forces needed to secure a cut of railroad tank cars staged on a grade during loading and unloading operations. Holding forces are created by applying emergency brake systems and blocking (or chocking) wheels. Moreover, the  holding force to secure the cut of cars must be greater than or equal to the gravitational component of force acting on the cars that is parallel to the grade. Engineering statics are applied to examine the forces acting on the individual cars resting on an inclined plane. An equation to calculate holding force is developed that includes two types of factors: constants (i.e. nonrandom or deterministic factors) and probabilistic variables (i.e. factors with inherent uncertainty or randomness). The numerical procedure applies Monte Carlo simulation techniques to study the uncertainties in the engineering analysis. The Monte Carlo approach is well suited to study the uncertainties and inherent variability associated with some of these factors. The factors assumed to be deterministic in this procedure are:  steepness of the grade, total number of cars on the grade, number of cars with hand brakes applied, number of chocked wheels, and weight of the tank cars. The factors treated as random variables are: tension in the hand brake chain, mechanical efficiency in the linkages of the brake system, coefficient of friction between the brake pad and the wheel, and the coefficient of friction between the chocks and the rail. Probability distributions are assumed for each of the random variables. In addition, a probabilistic sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine the relative effect of the random variables  on the reliability of the braking system to secure the cut of tank cars on a grade.
U1  - 2013 Joint Rail ConferenceASMEIEEEASCEKnoxville,TN StartDate:20130415 EndDate:20130418 Sponsors:ASME, IEEE, ASCE
KW  - Blocking
KW  - Emergency brakes
KW  - Hazardous materials
KW  - Loading and unloading
KW  - Monte Carlo method
KW  - Railroad cars
KW  - Sensitivity analysis
KW  - Tank cars
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47800/47846/JRC2013-2563.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264934
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496659
AU  - Futurepast, Incorporated
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Alternative Aviation Jet Fuel Sustainability Evaluation Report: Task 3: Sustainability Criteria and Rating Systems for Use in the Aircraft Alternative Fuel Supply Chain
PY  - 2013
SP  - 45p
AB  - This report identifies criteria that can be used to evaluate the sustainability of biofuels introduced into the aviation fuel supply chain. It describes the inputs, criteria and outputs that can be used in a sustainability rating system. It identifies two methodological approaches for assessing lifecycle biofuel sustainability from feedstock production to an airport's fuel tank farm. The report describes three categories of sustainability principles, criteria and indicators: environmental, social and economic. Elements of rating systems are analyzed, including outputs that can provide useful information to purchasers of aviation biofuel. It concludes with recommendations for policy makers and purchasers of aviation biofuel. Research for the report revealed a long historical context for the consideration of sustainability by United States government policy makers stretching back to the enactment of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 which itself echoed sentiments prominent in the conservation movements of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries.
KW  - Aircraft fuels
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Aviation fuels
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Ratings
KW  - Social impacts
KW  - Supply chain management
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47600/47652/Alternative_Aviation_Jet_Fuel_Sustainability_Evaluation_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264953
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495426
AU  - Buehler, Ralph
AU  - Hamre, Andrea
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Alexandria
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Trends and Determinants of Multimodal Travel in the USA
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 82p
AB  - This report analyzes trends and determinants of multimodal individual travel—defined as the use of more than one mode of transportation during a given time period—in the U.S. The authors analyze U.S., South Atlantic Census Division, and Virginia samples using household, person, daily trip, and tour files from the 2001 and 2009 National Household Travel Surveys. The report focuses on multimodality during a week, but also highlights multimodal travel behavior during a travel day and a tour. The report primarily utilizes four modality groups to analyze multimodality at the tour, day, and week levels: (1) monomodal car users who drive for all trips; (2) multimodal car users who drive and also use at least one non-automobile mode; (3) monomodal green users who rely exclusively on one non-automobile mode (e.g. walking, cycling, or riding public transport); and (4) multimodal green users who combine different non-automobile modes. According to the analysis, over 70% of Americans walk, bike, or use public transport during the week. This includes two-thirds of drivers who additionally report walking, cycling, or riding public transportation during the week. The share of travelers who are monomodal drivers decreased between 2001 and 2009, while shares for monomodal and multimodal greens increased. Walking is the dominant green mode for most Americans. In addition, the intensity of multimodality seems to be increasing, as multimodal drivers are making more trips by green modes. A multivariable regression finds that multimodal drivers, monomodal greens, and multimodal greens are more likely than monomodal drivers to be male and younger, have higher education levels, own fewer cars, and live at higher population densities and in areas with rail access. Additionally, multimodal drivers are more likely white, while multimodal greens are more likely minorities. Individuals in households with children are less likely monomodal or multimodal greens than monomodal drivers. Individuals in the highest income quartile are more likely multimodal—as drivers or users of green modes—while individuals in the lowest income group are less likely multimodal drivers and more likely monomodal greens. Individuals with a driver’s license are less likely multimodal or monomodal greens. Increased understanding of multimodality helps identify target groups for policies aimed at increasing walking, cycling and public transport use across the U.S..
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Highway travel
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Transit riders
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Trend (Statistics)
KW  - United States
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/VT-2012-09.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264713
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493480
AU  - Dowding, Charles H
AU  - Abeel, P
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of Strain Based Vibration Controls to Lower Costs of Constructing Transportation Facilities in Dense Urban Locations
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 24p
AB  - The objective of this research is to  begin development of strain and displacement based methods, guidelines and criteria for the evaluation and protection of structures subjected to close-in blasting for development of urban transit facilities. In 2012 New York City agencies are fragmenting by blasting large volumes of rock to construct transit facilities in close proximity to existing facilities. Transit projects with a total cost exceeding 17 Billion dollars are currently underway in Manhattan. Since all of these projects involve tunnels, shafts and escalator inclines in rock, rock excavation costs are a significant cost factor. This work relates to protection of existing structures from external loads and improving construction efficiency and safety. Primary hazards associated with blasting adjacent, contiguous and within structures include permanent rock mass displacement owing to delayed gas pressures ground strains from wave propagation as well as vibratory response. Existing methodology is often applied quite conservatively in the form of permissible ground particle velocity which leads to confusing specifications and increased construction costs.
KW  - Blast loads
KW  - Costs
KW  - Dislocation (Geology)
KW  - Excavation and tunneling
KW  - Manhattan (New York, New York)
KW  - Rail transit facilities
KW  - Strain (Mechanics)
KW  - Urban transit
KW  - Vibration control
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-5-Dowding-NY.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261337
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493462
AU  - Dowding, Charles H
AU  - Abeel, P
AU  - Kosnik, D
AU  - Koegel, T
AU  - Meissner, J
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - ACM: Autonomous Crack Monitoring Systems for Monitoring the Health of Transportation Related Structures
PY  - 2013
SP  - 341p
AB  - This project report begins with this overarching summary of the project and is followed by full reports of the details of ten principal phases of the project. Each of these phase reports begins with a summary that describes the objective, context, work and the major findings. The longer, full phase reports contain detailed findings and supporting information. This report on Autonomous Crack Monitoring (ACM) systems describes the continuing development of systems to monitor the response of cracks for structural health monitoring (SHM) on and near transportation related structures. This development involved continually evolving AC powered digital data loggers (with and without wireless internet connections), special gages wired to the data loggers, new measurement techniques involving structural displacement, and graphical displays for automated reporting and public interpretation. The system may also be applied to strain measurement in critical locations on steel structures such as bridges. For an extensive description of the final system that has been employed for multiple Infrastructure Technology Institute projects, see Kosnik (2012). The Special studies were undertaken to measure and analyze the response of special types of construction. This ACM work was conducted on structures in a wide variety of locations.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Data logging
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Reporting
KW  - Strain gages
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-5-Dowding-ACM.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261336
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01492443
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - State Transportation Statistics 2012
PY  - 2013
SP  - 137p
AB  - The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a part of the U.S.  Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Research and Innovative  Technology Administration (RITA), presents State Transportation Statistics  2012, a statistical profile of transportation in the 50 states and the District of  Columbia. This is the tenth annual edition of the State Transportation Statistics, and a companion document to the National Transportation Statistics (NTS), which is updated quarterly on the BTS website. Like the previous editions, this document presents transportation information from RITA/BTS, other federal government agencies, and other national sources. A picture of the states’ transportation infrastructure, freight movement and passenger travel, system safety, vehicles, transportation related  economy and finance, energy usage and the environment is presented in tables covering the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Tables have been updated with the most recently available data. Included in this State Transportation Statistics 2012 report is a brief description of the data sources used and a glossary of terms. Also contained in  this publication is a summary table that displays the approximate timing of future data releases and contact information for each state’s department of transportation.
KW  - Air pollution
KW  - Economics
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Finance
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Passenger transportation
KW  - Registrations
KW  - States
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Tables (Data)
KW  - Transportation
KW  - Transportation safety
KW  - United States
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/state_transportation_statistics/state_transportation_statistics_2012/index.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261549
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489414
AU  - Boban, Mate
AU  - Viriyasitavat, Wantanee
AU  - Tonguz, Ozan
AU  - Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Modeling Vehicle-to-Vehicle Line of Sight Channels and its Impact on Application-Level Performance Metrics
PY  - 2013
SP  - 10p
AB  - The authors analyze the properties of line of sight (LOS) channels in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication. They use V2V measurements performed in open space, highway, suburban, and urban environments. By separating LOS from non-LOS data, they show that a two-ray ground reflection path loss model with effective reflection coefficient range fits the LOS channels better than the frequently used free space path loss model. Two-ray model is a better fit not only in open space, but also in highway, suburban, and urban environments. The authors investigate the impact of using the modified two-ray model on the application-level performance metrics packet delivery rate, throughput, latency, and jitter. Their results show that considerable differences arise in application performance when using two-ray and free space channel models. For this reason, the authors advocate the use of the two-ray ground model with an appropriately chosen effective reflection coefficient range.
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - ITS program applications
KW  - Line of sight
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/LOS_Channels_Tech_Rep.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257349
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01488567
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Yeh, Sonia
AU  - Witcover, Julie
AU  - Kessler, Jeff
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Status Review of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (Revised)
PY  - 2013
SP  - 11p
AB  - California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) aims to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases  (GHGs) by creating financial incentives for innovation and deployment of low carbon fuels. From 2011 through Q4 2012, there was a net excess of 1.285 million credits (metric tons of CO2e); if all available for use, the excess credits represent about half of what is needed to cover the 2013 obligation. During the period, the average fuel carbon intensity (CI) of gasoline and diesel substitutes declined. There was a rise in credit trading and credit trade prices. Feedstock-specific issues are examined.
KW  - California
KW  - Carbon credits
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Low carbon fuels
KW  - Renewable energy sources
KW  - Standards
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1861
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248907
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01484434
AU  - Mineta Transportation Institute
AU  - American Public Transportation Association
AU  - California State University, Fullerton
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Americans’ Support for Public Transportation
PY  - 2013
SP  - 3p
AB  - The Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at California State University, Fullerton conducted 1,501 phone surveys with Americans concerning funding and public transportation. Approximately 74% of respondents in 2013 support using tax dollars for public transportation investment. This is a 5% increase over the prior year. In 2012 and 2013, 78% of respondents agreed that public transportation can be a solution to pave the way to a stronger economy.
KW  - Financing
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Taxation
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/Documents/APTA-Survey-Americas-Support-Public-Transportation.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252961
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01483686
AU  - Nakamurakare, Manuel
AU  - Viriyasitavaty, Wantanee
AU  - Tonguz, Ozan K
AU  - Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Prototype of Virtual Traffic Lights on Android-based Smartphones
PY  - 2013
SP  - 3p
AB  - Virtual Trafﬁc Lights (VTL) is a recently proposed self-organizing trafﬁc control scheme that has the potential to mitigate trafﬁc congestion in urban areas. This paper reports a prototype design effort on Virtual Trafﬁc Lights using Android-based smartphones. The experiments performed show the feasibility of implementing VTL using smartphones’ WiFi devices.
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Prototypes
KW  - Self organizing systems
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic mitigation
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
KW  - Virtual Traffic Lights
KW  - WiFi services
UR  - http://tonguz-lab.ece.cmu.edu:9200/download/recentpapers/Prototype_SECONDemo13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252400
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482449
AU  - Mesa-Arango, Rodrigo
AU  - Zhan, Xianyuan
AU  - Ukkusuri, Satish V
AU  - Mitra, Amlan
AU  - Mannering, Fred
AU  - NEXTRANS
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Estimating the Economic Impacts of Disruptions to Intermodal Freight Systems Traffic
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 111p
AB  - The goal of this work is to develop and apply a methodology to identify and estimate the economic impacts due to disruption of goods movement. The developed model is based on state of the art economic concepts that will allow the quantification of system wide impacts at the regional level. This advanced research contributes to the NEXTRANS theme of vehicle-infrastructure interactions (Pillar 2) and in integration of various modes and methods. The developed research is beneficial to government agencies such as departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan transportation organizations (MPOs). A case study is included of the 2008 Northwestern Indiana highway closures due to floods. Findings: (1) There are limited secondary data sources appropriate for freight transportation modeling and analysis. (2) The best available data source for freight transportation modeling and analysis, the Freight Analysis Framework version 3, can be used for regional freight modeling under a set of assumptions developed in this project in order to overcome limitations associated to data aggregation. (3) The framework presented in this paper can be used as a good approximation for the analysis of economic impacts due to freight disruptions. Recommendations: (1) Public agencies must improve the way in which secondary data for freight modeling and analysis is presented to the researchers and general public. (2) Availability of more data will improve the calibration of the model and, hence, its accuracy. (3) Regional planning agencies need to develop freight plans that integrate appropriate data sources and models.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Indiana
KW  - Input output models
KW  - Intermodal transportation
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Regional economics
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/assets/pdfs/Final%20Report%20053PY03%20Estimating%20the%20Economic%20Impacts%20of%20Disruptions%20to%20Intermodal%20Freight%20Systems%20Traffic.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251192
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01479818
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - National Transportation Statistics 2013
PY  - 2013
SP  - 507p
AB  - This document presents information on the U.S. transportation system, including its physical components, safety record, economic performance, energy use, and environmental impacts. National Transportation Statistics is a companion document to the Transportation Statistics Annual Report, which analyzes some of the data presented here, and State Transportation Statistics, which presents state level data on many of the same topics presented here. The report has four chapters and one appendix. Chapter 1 provides data on the extent, condition, use, and performance of the physical transportation network. Chapter 2 details transportation's safety record, giving data on accidents, crashes, fatalities, and injuries for each transportation mode and hazardous materials. Chapter 3 focuses on the relationship between transportation and the economy, presenting data on transportation's contribution to the gross domestic product, employment by industry and occupation, and transportation-related consumer and government expenditures. Chapter 4 presents data on transportation energy use and transportation-related environmental impacts. Appendix A contains metric conversions of select tables.
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Economic factors
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Hazardous materials
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Transportation safety
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/NTS_Entire_13Q4.pdf
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_statistics/index.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248195
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01477969
JO  - Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings on the Web
PB  - Transportation Research Board
AU  - Harrison, Frances D
TI  - Meeting Critical Data Needs for Decision Making in State and Metropolitan Transportation Agencies: Summary of a Conference
PY  - 2013
IS  - 9
SP  - 114p
AB  - The objective of the conference, Meeting Critical Data Needs for Decision Making in State and Metropolitan Transportation Agencies, was to understand the data needs of today’s transportation decision makers and to identify and discuss strategies to ensure that essential data will be available to support transportation decisions in the future. Approximately 100 policy makers, program managers, data experts, and analysts from states, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), academia, and the private sector came together to establish an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for addressing transportation data needs. This conference summary presents summaries of the conference presentations that are intended to capture the key points made by each speaker. After the presentation summaries, brief descriptions of each application presented at the electronic poster session are provided, with links to follow for further information. This report includes selected references that were provided to the conference participants in advance of the conference and a list of the attendees. Appendix A provides a summary of key themes and observations from the three preconference workshops. Appendix B provides a tabular synthesis of the information needs, research questions, and potential approaches discussed by each breakout group. Appendix C presents the results of a postconference survey that was distributed to conference participants to identify what insights they gained at the conference and what follow-up activities they felt were important.
U1  - Meeting Critical Data Needs for Decision Making in State and Metropolitan Transportation AgenciesFederal Highway AdministrationFederal Transit AdministrationResearch and Innovative Technology AdministrationNational Cooperative Highway Research ProgramStrategic Highway Research Program 2Transportation Research BoardIrvine,California,United States StartDate:20111205 EndDate:20111207 Sponsors:Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, National Cooperative Highway Research Program, Strategic Highway Research Program 2, Transportation Research Board
KW  - Conferences
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Data needs
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - States
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Workshops
UR  - http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/168754.aspx
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247606
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475250
AU  - Cortes, Pedro
AU  - Peters, Klaus-Markus
AU  - Hetzel, Brian P
AU  - Youngstown State University, Ohio
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Fracture Properties of Novel Sandwich Structures
PY  - 2013///Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - The use of sandwich structures based on a light-weight foam metal matrix composite as the core component of hybrid systems with fiber-metal laminates as the skin layers represents a feasible technological approach for the development of novel automotive, aerospace and rail transportation components. These sandwich structures offer valuable physical and mechanical features such as weight reduction, improved safety, and superior impact and vibration properties. The main goal of the present project is to develop a novel sandwich structure based on an Interpenetrated Phase Composite foam and skin layers constituted by a metal/high-impact composite. The research program has been divided in two phases. The first phase, which is presented in this report, mainly concentrates on the development, analysis and characterization of the skin layers, with an initial mechanical evaluation of the foam and the sandwich structure. The second phase focuses rather on the dynamic properties of the foam and the sandwich material. Indeed, a full investigation on the sandwich system is currently in progress and will be presented in the subsequent final report.
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Foamed materials
KW  - Fracture properties
KW  - Lightweight materials
KW  - Metals
KW  - Sandwich construction
KW  - Thermoplastic materials
UR  - http://stem.ysu.edu/gen/stem_generated_bin/documents/basic_module/FinalreportPCMPBH.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244487
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516173
AU  - Commuri, Sesh
AU  - Zaman, Musharraf
AU  - Beainy, Fares
AU  - Singh, Dharamveer
AU  - Nazari, Moeen
AU  - Imran, Syed
AU  - Barman, Manik
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pavement Evaluation Using a Portable Lightweight Deflectometer
PY  - 2012/12/31/Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - The use of Zorn ZFG-3000 portable Lightweight Deflectometer (LWD) in the in-situ assessment of pavement quality was investigated in this research. A lower load and a shorter load pulse duration are used in a LWD as compared to a Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD). LWDs are ideally suited for the structural evaluation of a single pavement layer at a time. LWDs could serve as a cost effective, non-destructive, in-situ test method for the evaluation of the mechanistic properties of the pavement and help to bridge the gap between the design and the construction of the pavements. The performance of the Zorn ZFG3000 LWD device in measuring the stiffness of asphalt layer was studied during construction of full-depth asphalt pavements. While it was observed that the Zorn ZFG-3000 LWD was easy to use and able to determine the general trends in increasing/decreasing stiffness of the asphalt pavement layer, the researchers found very little correlation between the LWD measured modulus and the density of the asphalt mat at the test locations as determined from roadway cores. Further, very little correlation was observed between the LWD measured modulus and the dynamic modulus of the pavement at the test locations. The LWD measurements also did not appear to depend on any pavement parameters such as mix type and gradation, lift thickness, total asphalt pavement thickness, and type of construction. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the Zorn ZFC-3000 LWD is not suitable for measuring the stiffness of asphalt pavements and for use in Quality Assurance of pavements.
KW  - Falling weight deflectometers
KW  - Full-depth asphalt pavements
KW  - Light weight deflectometers
KW  - Measurement
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Pavement layers
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Paving
KW  - Quality assurance
KW  - Stiffness
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS11.1-14-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1300091
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491386
AU  - Lennertz, Tracy
AU  - Burki-Cohen, Judith
AU  - Sparko, Andrea L
AU  - Macchiarella, Nickolas
AU  - Kring, Jason
AU  - Coman, Mike
AU  - Haritos, Tom
AU  - Alvarado, Jeffry
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
TI  - NextGen Flight Deck Data Comm: Auxiliary Synthetic Speech Phase I
PY  - 2012/12/31/Final Report
SP  - 247p
AB  - Data Comm—a text-based controller-pilot communication system—is critical to many Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) improvements. With Data Comm, communication becomes a visual task. Interacting with a visual Data Comm display may yield an unsafe increase in head-down time, particularly for single-pilot operations. This study examined the feasibility of supplementing Data Comm with synthetic speech. To this end, 32 pilots flew two experimental scenarios in a Cessna 172 Flight Training Device. In one scenario, air traffic control (ATC) communication was with a text-only Data Comm display, in the other, communication was with a text Data Comm display with synthetic speech that read aloud each message (i.e., text+speech). Pilots heard traffic with similar call signs on the party line and received a conditional clearance (in both scenarios); in either scenario, pilots received a clearance that was countermanded by a live controller. Results indicated that relative to the text-only display, the text+speech display aided single-pilot performance by reducing head-down time, and may have prevented participants from acting early on the conditional clearance. Supplementing text Data Comm with speech did not introduce additional complications: participants were neither more likely to erroneously respond to similar call signs, nor to ignore a live ATC voice countermand.
KW  - Advanced automation system (Air traffic control)
KW  - Air traffic control
KW  - Data communications
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Next Generation Air Transportation System
KW  - Speech synthesis
KW  - Visual display units (Computers)
KW  - Voice communication
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47100/47121/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-17.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259493
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472521
AU  - Nagler, Matthew G
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - New Jersey Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Strategic Significance of Negative Externalities
PY  - 2012/12/31/Final Report
SP  - 31p
AB  - Negative externalities have competitive relevance in a market when they have selective impacts – as, for example, when a product in use imposes greater costs on consumers of rival products than on other people. Because managers have discretion over aspects of product design that affect external costs, the externality in such cases may be viewed as a strategic variable.  This paper presents evidence of the existence of competitively-relevant negative externalities. The author introduces a metric for the externality’s competitive effect, the external cost elasticity of demand, which is estimated econometrically using data from the motor vehicle industry. Managerial implications are considered.
KW  - Consumer behavior
KW  - Demand
KW  - Econometric models
KW  - Elasticity (Economics)
KW  - Externalities
KW  - Motor vehicle industry
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/UTRC2012%20final%20report%20Nagler_0.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46900/46988/UTRC2012_final_report_Nagler_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243483
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485379
AU  - Schroeder, Jeremy L
AU  - Demetsky, Michael
AU  - Friesz, Terry
AU  - Yao, Tao
AU  - University of Virginia, Charlottesville
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Infrastructure Management: Project A: Developing a framework for prioritizing infrastructure improvements on critical freight corridors; Project B: Developing a market based framework for freight infrastructure management
PY  - 2012/12/21/Final Report
SP  - 147p
AB  - Fully operational highways are necessary for efficient freight movements by the trucking industry. Yet, the combination of limited funding and aging infrastructure creates a grim scenario for states, which are dependent upon the economic benefits of goods movements. This research develops a comprehensive, freight-based prioritization framework to identify freight infrastructure needs critical to maintaining economic vitality by incorporating economic metrics associated with infrastructure performance and level of service. Framework outputs are a prioritized list of infrastructure needs to sustain economically critical highway infrastructure with consideration to regional economic impacts and safety and mobility improvements. In summary, the framework first evaluates infrastructure needs on a specified highway network, then prioritizes those needs using a decision model to balance developed economic metrics that estimate regional corridor-wide benefits of the local improvement with severity of needs as quantified with conditional performance measures. The developed metrics and prioritization methods are consistently applicable to any region within the United States, and two proofs of concept examine data from the Virginia highway system to demonstrate the methodology. A review of literature documents existing and proposed highway improvement prioritization frameworks to incorporate best practices into the methodology developed for this research. While the literature discounts use of economic development performance measures and the economic importance of a corridor is typically taken for granted, this research adds the dimension of economic significance of a corridor into the prioritization process for infrastructure improvements to generate motivation for private sector investment. An input-output model is used to identify the most transportation dependent industrial sectors, which are then linked with commodity flows using the Federal Highway Administration’s Freight Analysis Framework. A set of conditional performance measures are selected to identify critical locations meriting improvements, including National Bridge Investment Analysis System (NBIAS) outputs, International Roughness Index (IRI), truck fatality crash rate and truck crash rate, and deficiencies in geometric standards. The prioritization methodology is demonstrated by applying the three developed economic metrics to two proofs of concept in Virginia: the U.S. 460 expressway between Petersburg and Hampton Roads and the U.S. 29 bypass in Charlottesville.
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Economic factors
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Needs assessment
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/MAUTC-2010-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254037
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482563
AU  - Stolle, Cody S
AU  - Sicking, Dean L
AU  - University of Nebraska, Lincoln
AU  - Nebraska Department of Roads
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Cable Median Barrier Failure Analysis and Prevention
PY  - 2012/12/17/Final Report
SP  - 230p
AB  - Cross-median crashes have been identified as one of the highest injury or fatality risk crash types. Although cross-median crashes account for only 2% to 5% of all median crash events, they are disproportionately represented in the number and frequency of fatalities on interstate roadways. Many states have utilized cable median barriers to reduce the risk of cross-median crashes, frequently with great success. However, cable median barriers are also fixed obstacles to errant vehicles. Cable median barriers can place occupants at increased risk of severe injury or fatality if the barrier fails to adequately contain and redirect errant vehicles, resulting in a vehicular penetration through the barrier or rollover. As total cable median barrier mileage continues to climb, there is an opportunity to prevent many penetration, rollover, and serious injury or fatality crashes by improving barrier design, installation guidelines, and crash-testing guidelines to more adequately address crash concerns with these barrier types. More than 6,000 cable median barrier crashes from 12 different states were analyzed to determine causes of barrier containment failures, and new crash test conditions which were reflective of these impact conditions were identified. Further crash testing and barrier redesign should reduce the frequency of barrier penetrations and rollovers.
KW  - Cable barriers
KW  - Cables
KW  - Containment capacity (Barriers)
KW  - Crash analysis
KW  - Design
KW  - Failure analysis
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Impact tests
KW  - Median barriers
KW  - Redirection (Impacting vehicle)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251176
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526269
AU  - Lyons, William
AU  - Peckett, Haley
AU  - Morse, Lindsey
AU  - Khurana, Monisha
AU  - Nash, Logan
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Metropolitan Area Transportation Planning for Healthy Communities
PY  - 2012/12/10/Final Report
SP  - 117p
AB  - Based on research including four best practice studies, the report proposes a framework for Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and partners to use to integrate health into metropolitan area transportation planning. The framework addresses both how MPOs can approach health as a direct, broadly-based goal for their interdisciplinary planning, and how they can consider health during all stages of the metropolitan area transportation planning process. The report identifies a "holistic" approach to health, including consideration of active transportation, safety, air pollution, and access to opportunities for healthy lifestyles. The report includes summaries of Federal and State regulations, policies, and funding programs; available technical tools; applicable research and reports; four MPO case studies and a broad scan of additional MPO examples; and a synthesis with observations. This research demonstrates that although each MPO may have a unique experience, approach, and set of actors involved in incorporating health into their planning activities, the planning processes, strategies, and challenges are very similar.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Financing
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Policy
KW  - Public health
KW  - Regulations
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://www.planning.dot.gov/documents/Volpe_FHWA_MPOHealth_12122012.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51500/51591/Volpe_FHWA_MPOHealth_12122012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1308608
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473713
AU  - Noel, George J
AU  - Wayson, Roger
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - MOVES2010a Regional Level Sensitivity Analysis
PY  - 2012/12/10/Final Report
SP  - 120p
AB  - This document discusses the sensitivity of various input parameter effects on emission rates using the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) MOVES2010a model at the regional level. Pollutants included in the study are carbon monoxide (CO), Oxides of Nitrogen (NOX), Particulate Matter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Similar trends for PM10 as reported for PM2.5 and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) as NOX exist and inferences to these pollutants may also be made. Results are presented using the predicted emission rates (grams/mile) for running exhaust and starts across multiple Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) source types.
KW  - Carbon monoxide
KW  - Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
KW  - Nitrogen oxides
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Sensitivity analysis
KW  - Vehicles
KW  - Volatile organic compounds
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46500/46598/DOT-VNTSC-FHWA-12-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244180
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01500094
TI  - Flexible Transit Operations for Dynamic Mobility
AB  - Although increasing transit mode share is known to improve congestion, Americans still prefer driving for its relative reliability, comfort and convenience. Despite awareness of sustainability and climate change, transit mode share has seen only slight increases each year as it has adapted poorly to changes in human behavior and activity patterns. This proposal outlines a plan to measure the role of customer satisfaction and schedule flexibility in mode choice and explicitly model behavior in the system design via more open communication between riders and operators. The proposed solution moves toward managing passenger mobility rather than merely a single agency's role in it by delineating potential demand- and time-varying service concepts.
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Modal split
KW  - Passenger comfort
KW  - Passenger transportation
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/research/projects/Mahmassani_Y6-02.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1278439
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471038
TI  - Social Networks and Travel Behavior: A Comparative Analysis
AB  - Using a comparative approach, this project explores how social networks influence travel behavior at three, large public universities that differ in environmental constraints such as climate, infrastructure and city/university-wide transportation culture. Focus groups and interviews of students and transportation policy decision-makers provide qualitative context for survey design and statistical analysis. Surveys of random samples of students provide measures of mode choice, as well as the "egonetworks" of contacts with whom each respondent communicates about transportation choices. Analysis includes measurement of network structures such as network density and centrality. Discrete choice models are estimated to predict travel mode as a function of individual characteristics as well as social networks attributes. Models from each university are compared to identify environmental factors which affect how social influences impact travel behavior. A key comparative hypothesis is that the influence of social networks is smaller in contexts with greater environmental constraints; high levels of environmental constraints make social networks less relevant. A greater understanding of the social processes that influence travel behavior can help improve policy and education programs designed to increase the use of alternative transportation modes and sustainable transportation behaviors.
KW  - Focus groups
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Social networking
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Universities and colleges
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239210
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01543897
AU  - Ekşioğlu, Sandra D
AU  - Searcy, Erin
AU  - National Center for Intermodal Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analyzing the Impact of Intermodal Facilities on the Design and Management of Uniform Format Advanced Biomass Supply Systems
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 27p
AB  - Using densified biomass to produce biofuels has the potential to reduce the cost of delivering biomass to biorefineries. Densified biomass has physical properties similar to grain, and therefore, the transportation system in support of delivering densified biomass to a biorefinery is expected to emulate the current grain transportation system. Intermodal facilities, such as, rail ramps and inland ports provide access to cost-efficient modes of transportation for densified biomass. This research analyzes the rail and barge transportation costs for products like grain and woodchips. This analysis helps identify the main factors that impact the delivery cost of densified biomass. This research provides a transportation-cost analysis which will aid the design and management of biofuel supply chains. This evaluation is very important because the expensive logistics and transportation costs are one of the major barriers slowing development in this industry. Regression analysis indicates that transportation costs for densified biomass will be impacted by transportation distance, volume shipped, transportation mode used, and shipment destination, just to name a few. This study suggests: (1) If a biorefinery must locate in the Southeast, then locations close to an inland port are preferable; (2) If a biorefinery must locate in the Northeast, then locations close to a rail ramp are preferable; and (3) If a biorefinery relies on rail shipments of biomass, then locating to East would result in lower inbound transportation costs compared to the West.
KW  - Barge carriers
KW  - Biomass
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Biorefineries
KW  - Costs
KW  - Densified biomass
KW  - Intermodal facilities
KW  - Location
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Regression analysis
KW  - River ports
KW  - Supply chain management
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://ncit.msstate.edu/NCIT%20Reports/2008_05_Eksioglu%20and%20Allen%20(Searcy)_Biomass_NCIT_Report%20(1).pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1331601
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516586
AU  - Zhang, Xiong
AU  - Li, Lin
AU  - Lytton, Robert L.
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Texas A&M University, College Station
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Fast Determination of Soil Behavior in the Capillary Zone Using Simple Laboratory Tests
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 187p
AB  - Frost heave and thaw weakening are typical problems for engineers building in northern regions. These unsaturated-soil behaviors are caused by water flowing through the capillary zone to a freezing front, where it forms ice lenses. Although suction-controlled tests are the standard for characterizing unsaturated soils, such testing is too laborious, time-consuming, and costly for routine engineering projects. Characterizing the stress/strain behavior for only one unsaturated soil can take up to three years, and moisture content  measurements are unreliable. This research team seeks to develop a method for rapidly determining and analyzing unsaturated soil behavior through a new approach, the Modified A shake table model of a single pipe embedded in a frozen silt layer overlying a liquefiable sand layer adjacent to a river channel. In these experiments, the loads induced on the bridge foundations by unfrozen and frozen ground crust will be measured from two shake table tests by means of strain gauges. The Modified State Surface Approach (MSSA) can potentially reduce the time required to characterize unsaturated soils to a few weeks, as well as provide more reliable measurements and more representative soil behavior. If successful, this research will produce a useful tool for geotechnical engineers, allowing fast, practical, and more comprehensive soil characterization for more complicated soil behavior problems.
KW  - Capillarity
KW  - Deformation curve
KW  - Freeze thaw tests
KW  - Frost heaving soils
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Soil mechanics
KW  - Unsaturated soils
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2014/01/Fast-Determination-of-Soil-Behavior.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290645
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01499964
AU  - Khattak, Aemal
AU  - Mohlman, Carrie
AU  - University of Nebraska, Lincoln
AU  - Nebraska Department of Roads
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Characteristics of Fatigued Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers—A Preliminary Investigation
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - The goal of this research was to identify and correlate easily observable characteristics of drivers to different levels of fatigue, thus enabling state patrol officers to make more judicious decisions related to driver fatigue. A literature review was conducted pertaining to the characteristics of fatigued drivers. Next, a nationwide survey was administered to state patrol agencies to assess their practices regarding fatigue-involved driving. To explore relationships between state patrol agency practices and vehicular safety, data collected from the telephone survey were merged with data from different states on fatigue-involved vehicle fatalities and vehicle miles traveled. Analysis revealed that states with greater numbers of vehicle miles traveled reported higher numbers of fatigue-related fatalities, while relatively fewer fatigue-involved fatalities were reported in states where patrol agencies provided formal fatigue identification training to officers, where public service announcements and educational programs to counter fatigued driving were implemented, and where patrol officers used driving cues to stop commercial motor vehicles for fatigue-related issues. A plan was prepared for future research that will develop a tool kit for the field measurement of fatigue. The tool kit will be based on input from driver facial clues, physiological aspects, and steering cues, and will include field measurement techniques and criteria for identifying fatigue. When fully developed, the tool kit will give patrol officers the flexibility of using one or more means of fatigue identification in the field. The research plan also includes an exploration of practices of those agencies that make fatigue-related training available to patrol officers, as well as an exploration of the role of public service announcements in relation to fatigued driving.
KW  - Commercial drivers
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Fatigue (Physiological condition)
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Human characteristics
KW  - Police
KW  - Public information programs
KW  - States
KW  - Training
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.transportation.nebraska.gov/mat-n-tests/research/Traffic/Final%20Report%20M319.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1278098
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01494504
AU  - Chesner, Warren H
AU  - McMillan, Nancy J
AU  - Cross, Stephen A
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Laser Characterization of Fine Aggregate
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - This report describes the results of a research effort to establish the feasibility of using a laser monitoring system to provide real-time data to characterize aggregate properties in a laboratory or field environment. This was accomplished by using the known physical, chemical and mechanical properties and aggregate criteria as defined by AASHTO and ASTM test methods and correlating these properties with spectral emission data induced by a laser in a process referred to as Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).  The authors believe that the success of this research in making such a correlation is based on two primary factors: 1) the laser ablation process can generate an emission with over 13,000 potential wavelengths, and these data provide a rich spectra that can be used to pattern match or fingerprint latent properties within the material that are not readily identifiable by conventional elemental or mineralogical testing methods; and 2) the development of multivariate statistical software models that can process large spectral arrays has made it possible to manage and analyze in real time data from the emission spectra generated during a laser ablation process. The primary advantage of LIBS over conventional aggregate testing and screening methods is its potential to identify the aggregate source in real time in the field without sample preparation. This provides a means to identify preapproved materials and to ensure that only such materials are being introduced into the production process. It also provides a means to calibrate the spectral pattern or fingerprint against known engineering properties to determine whether the aggregate can be expected to pass  or fail designated test criteria. A pooled fund study is currently under development to demonstrate the subject technology in the field, providing owner/agencies with a real-time, recording tool for monitoring materials used in highway construction.
KW  - Aggregates
KW  - Construction
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy
KW  - Lasers
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Properties of materials
KW  - Real time data processing
KW  - Spectroscopy
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS10.1-12-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262833
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491706
AU  - Peck, Steven M
AU  - Bousquet, Paul E
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Highway-Rail Intersection GPS-Based In-Vehicle Warning Systems—Literature Review and Recommendations
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 33p
AB  - In 2008, there were 2,395 incidents at highway-rail intersections (level crossings) in the United States, resulting in 939 injuries and 287 fatalities. Crossing elimination, grade separation, and the implementation of traditional warning devices are not always economic ally feasible. The development of new intelligent transportation systems and the advancement of such technologies could potentially provide a solution to enhance safety at these intersections. The concept of in-vehicle warning systems for level crossings is not new. Multiple systems have been developed and tested using proprietary equipment and technology in the 1990s as evidenced by the former Federal Highway Administration Joint Program Office (JPO). The Réseau Ferré de France (French Rail Network) and the Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) have independently initiated in-vehicle level crossing warning system development programs. The system architectures vary from previously U.S.-developed systems and u s e advanced and cost-effective technologies. At varying stages of development, the two in-vehicle warning system designs address many of the shortcomings of previous generation systems and show great promise at meeting the design goals of being a cost-effective, reliable warning system. They also have the potential for additional capabilities and easy integration into other roadway vehicle intelligent transportation safety systems being developed in both the United States and internationally. The advancement of commercially available technology and equipment create the environment for the development and deployment of a viable global-positioning system-based in-vehicle warning system for highway-rail intersections.
KW  - Audible warning devices in vehicles
KW  - Finland
KW  - France
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Railroad safety
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46718/DOT-VNTSC-FRA-10-06.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246592
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491421
AU  - Principe-Martinez, Carla S
AU  - Anderson, Marc
AU  - Oliva, Michael
AU  - Tejedor, M Isabel
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Corrosion Protection of Prestressing Strand in Transportation Structures and Strand-Concrete Bond Improvement
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 111p
AB  - Corrosion can lead to the premature deterioration and failure of transportation structures. In pre-stressed bridge structures corrosion is more severe, leading to sudden failures when cracking is induced at pitting sites by tensile or compressive stresses. This work studies the viability and effectiveness of inorganic nanoporous coatings as corrosion protection for carbon steel prestressing strand. Inorganic nanoporous metallic coatings can offer the benefit of not reducing, but possibly enhancing the steel-concrete bond and adding some corrosion resistance to the strand. Anodic Polarization measurements of critical pitting corrosion potential were performed on Grade 270 low-relaxation steel wires from three strand manufacturers in bare and coated conditions. In addition, the wires were subjected to tensile stresses as they would be on a prestressing application and subsequently tested for pitting corrosion potential. Two metallic oxide coatings were used in this work namely acidic zirconia (ZrO2) and acidic titania (TiO2). The steel-concrete bond characteristics were measured by pull-out tests based on the current North American Strand Producers (NASP) Bond Test Research. Finally, tension tests measure the elastic modulus and strength of the steel before and after the heat treatment involved the coating process. Findings show an increase in corrosion resistance of coated wires prior to being stressed in tension. After tensioning the wires to 80% of their ultimate capacity, the corrosion resistance generally decreases. Pull-out tests show a 100-150% increase of bond strength for coated wires. No effects on the mechanical properties of the steel can be appreciated for heated treated samples with respect to those that have not been heated.
KW  - Anticorrosion coatings
KW  - Bond strength (Materials)
KW  - Corrosion protection
KW  - Pitting
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Pull out test
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Tension tests
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0512.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257329
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491290
AU  - Long, Robert A
AU  - Begley, James S
AU  - MacKay, Paula
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - Washington State Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Baseline Wildlife Monitoring at I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East, Prior to the Installation of Wildlife Crossing Structures
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 287p
AB  - The I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project (SPE) is located along a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 90  that passes through the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. The project corridor has been  identified as a critical connectivity zone for Pacific Northwest wildlife populations linking natural  habitats both to the north and south of the project area. The Washington State Department of  Transportation (WSDOT) will help alleviate the effects of increased traffic volume, a wider  highway and increased traffic speed by enhancing ecological connectivity at 14 Connectivity  Emphasis Areas (CEA) throughout the project area for multiple species and ecological processes.  Wildlife monitoring is needed both prior to and following the installation of project mitigation  measures to ensure that efforts to enhance ecological connectivity are achieving their intended  goals. WSDOT contracted with Western Transportation Institute (WTI) to conduct preconstruction baseline wildlife monitoring within the I-90 SPE project area from 2008-2012.  This baseline wildlife monitoring report addresses the collection of baseline data related to  monitoring objectives. These objectives include: characterizing the rate and location of wildlife-vehicle collisions, assessing the extent of sub-grade and at-grade crossings by wildlife, and  assessing species occurrence within the Project Area. This report identifies survey methods and  approaches, provides a review of monitoring achievements, and outlines future efforts required to  ensure project success.
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Habitat (Ecology)
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest
KW  - Washington (State)
KW  - Wildlife
KW  - Wildlife crossings
UR  - http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/803.1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1260489
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488172
AU  - Wang, Linbing
AU  - Xue, Wenjing
AU  - Druta, Cris
AU  - Wang, Dong
AU  - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Virginia Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integration of Structural Health Monitoring with Asset Management
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 70p
AB  - Currently, an integrated transportation monitoring system was developed at Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which was funded by the collaborative project “Integrated Infrastructure  Asset Monitoring Assessment and Management”. This project investigated the feasibility and  potential benefits of the integration of infrastructure monitoring systems into transportation  management system. This wireless monitoring system is located on Route 114 in Christiansburg, Virginia. The instrumentation was devised to provide asphalt pavement responses of strain, stress, temperature and moisture. The purpose of this transportation monitoring system is to monitor both traffic and pavement conditions. When finished, it will serve as a Weigh-in-Motion system and traffic classification system in addition to collecting the mechanical response and monitoring the health status of the pavement. A novel back calculation method based on a distribution model will be present for estimating a vehicle’s speed, wandering, number of axles, distance between axles, distance between wheels, and axle weights.
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Traffic speed
KW  - Vehicle classification
KW  - Virginia
KW  - Weigh in motion
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/MAUTC-2009-01%20VT.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257075
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487056
AU  - Hulsey, J L
AU  - Wardell, Ty
AU  - Brandon, Patrick
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Wearing Surface Testing: Yukon River Bridge
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report (Part 1)
SP  - 24p
AB  - The Yukon River Bridge, also known as the E.L. Patton Bridge, carries the two-lane Dalton Highway and the trans-Alaska oil pipeline across the Yukon River at a 6% grade. It is 30 feet wide, with 6 spans; it was designed to withstand negative 60 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures, huge ice loads from the river, truck loads hauling supplies to the oil fields, the oil pipeline, and, in the future, a gas line. Over 30 years, the timber decking has been replaced several times - in 1981, 1992, 1999, and 2007. The trees that produced the original decking were massive old-growth firs, strong and close-grained. Subsequent decking has come from younger trees, which produce softer wood. As timber quality has decreased, time between replacements has also decreased, while material costs increase. Every time the Yukon River Bridge deck is resurfaced, it costs the public millions of dollars. Further, in the past only timber was used, and the quality of this material is decreasing as the cost is increasing. It is imperative that new materials for use as a wearing surface for this bridge be identified. This research seeks to identify a material suitable for bridge decking that will last more than 15 years. A longer-lasting material will mean future savings to the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities in the millions of dollars.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Costs
KW  - Durability tests
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Materials selection
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Yukon River
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/04/YRB-Final-Report-FINAL_fp-jlh.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256270
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487049
AU  - Yang, Zhaohui "Joey"
AU  - Zhang, Xiaoyu
AU  - University of Alaska, Anchorage
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Seismic Performance and Design of Bridge Foundations in Liquefiable Ground with a Frozen Crust
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 114p
AB  - Two major earthquakes in Alaska, namely the 1964 Great Alaskan earthquake and the 2002 Denali earthquake, occurred in winter season when the ground crust was frozen. None of the then-existing foundation types was able to withstand the force from the frozen crust overlying liquefied soils. This project aims to study how the frozen ground crust affects the performance of bridge pile foundations and how one can estimate the loads imposed by the frozen ground crust. A shake table experiment was conducted to gain in-depth understanding of the mechanism of frozen ground crust-pile foundation interaction and collect data to validate a solid-fluid coupled finite element (FE) model and a simplified method, i.e. the beam-on-nonlinear-Winkler-foundation (BNWF) or p-y approach. Loads imposed on pile foundations by the frozen crust were studied through solid-fluid coupled FE analyses of a typical Alaskan bridge foundation under two soil conditions-one with an unfrozen crust and the other with a frozen crust-and by comparison of results obtained from these two cases. The effectiveness of the p-y approach in predicting the response of piles subject to frozen ground lateral spreading in liquefiable soils was evaluated by comparing the analyses of results with those obtained from the FE modeling. Finally, guidelines were proposed for design practitioners to analyze the performance of pile foundations embedded in liquefiable soils subject to frozen ground crust lateral spreading with the p-y approach.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Beam-on-Winkler Foundation
KW  - Bridge foundations
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Frozen soils
KW  - Liquefaction
KW  - Pile foundations
KW  - Seismicity
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/07/309010.410015.Yang_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256269
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486951
AU  - Perkins, Robert A
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Selection of Preservatives for Marine Structural Timbers in Herring Spawning Areas
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 120p
AB  - Alaska marine harbors use wood for many structures that come in contact with saltwater, including piles, floats, and docks, because it is economical to buy and maintain. However, wood immersed in saltwater is prone to attack by marine borers, various types of marine invertebrates that can destroy a wood structure in only a few years. In Alaska marine waters there are only two wood preservatives currently recommended: ACZA (ammoniacal copper zinc arsenate) and creosote. ACZA is a water-based preservative that leaches copper into the marine environment; copper is toxic to marine invertebrates and other species. Creosote is an oil-based preservative made from coal tar; it leaches a class of hydrocarbon chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into the water. Some research indicates that copper leaching from ACZA is slight after a year or so, while creosote leaches PAH at a declining rate over time, but is still measurable after many years. Field research with both preservative methods is hampered because harbors are frequently contaminated with many chemicals, so determining how the wood preservatives alone impact marine life over time is difficult. This project will test the toxicity of marine structural materials to herring eggs under a variety of conditions common in Alaska marine waters, focusing on Southeast Alaska; it will also compare the durability of creosote-versus ACZA-treated marine timbers under comparable climatic and service conditions. This research aims to provide relevant information to ADOT&PF to improve its selection of wood structural materials in the marine environment, especially the selection of wood-preserving methods.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Aquatic life
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Habitat (Ecology)
KW  - Offshore structures
KW  - Port structures
KW  - Preservation
KW  - River herring
KW  - Timber
KW  - Toxicity
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/07/410037.MarineTimbers.Perkins.Final_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256379
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486735
AU  - Perkins, Robert A
AU  - Bennett, F Lawrence
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Knowledge Transfer Needs and Methods
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 121p
AB  - The State of Alaska has an aging workforce. There is a paucity of workers in the 25 to 45 year age group. The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF) has almost one third of its workforce eligible to retire within five years. In earlier research the authors examined this problem with respect to recruitment, retention, and succession planning. This project will focus on issues related to knowledge transfer, the passing of knowledge from more experienced employees to newer employees, especially in the engineering and technical areas. Both the state and the AKDOT&PF are well aware of the employment demographics and knowledge transfer issues. These are indeed nationwide problems and in developed countries worldwide. Here the authors propose to review the knowledge transfer needs of the AKDOT&PF, the current practices with respect to the many tools available, and meet with AKDOT&PF managers and professionals in focus groups to determine which tools are likely to be effective in enhancing knowledge transfer. The authors plan to identify barriers to knowledge transfer, such as managers’ reluctance, corporate culture, and history. Following reviews, this project will present recommendations to the AKDOT&PF with tools that can be implemented to enhance knowledge transfer.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Knowledge
KW  - Labor force
KW  - Personnel development
KW  - State of the practice
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/07/510009.Perkins.-FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256236
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485995
AU  - Neufeld, Amanda J.
AU  - Mokhtarian, Patricia L
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Survey of Multitasking by Northern California Commuters: Description of the Data Collection Process
PY  - 2012/12//Research Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - An empirical study investigated whether multitasking could affect the utility of travel. This report describes the survey instruments and data collection process that yielded a rich dataset.
KW  - Commuters
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Design
KW  - Multitasking
KW  - Travel surveys
UR  - http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/download_pdf.php?id=1802
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247837
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485993
AU  - Li, Hui
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Cool Pavement Strategies for Heat Island Mitigation
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 367p
AB  - This dissertation research examines the effects of different cool pavement design and management strategies on improving the thermal environment and mitigating near-surface heat island effects through field measurements, modeling and simulation. In this research, nine experimental test sections were designed, constructed and instrumented and the thermal performance of different types of pavements and management strategies were empirically investigated. A local microclimate model was developed, validated and applied to conduct sensitivity analysis on some key parameters to evaluate the thermal impacts of different cool pavement strategies in different climate regions. In addition, the impacts of different strategies on outdoor human thermal comfort were evaluated for different climate regions (Sacramento and Los Angeles in California and Phoenix in Arizona). One type of thermal load associated with building energy use was evaluated for Davis, California. Preliminary recommendations on the application of cool pavement strategies for mitigating near-surface heat island are: Pave less and plant more; use permeable pavements; use care when using high-reflectance pavements; consider evaporation and shading; use models developed in this study; perform life cycle cost analysis and/or benefit-cost analysis, as well environmental life cycle assessment.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Cooling
KW  - Heat island effect
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Pavement design
KW  - Porous pavements
KW  - Reflectorized materials
UR  - http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/download_pdf.php?id=1803
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247838
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485991
AU  - Pike, Susan
AU  - Mokhtarian, Patricia L
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Understanding Factors Associated with Commute Behavior Changes: An Empirical Investigation from Northern California
PY  - 2012/12//Research Report
SP  - 72p
AB  - Changes in travel behavior of regular commuters during the temporary closure of Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento, California were investigated by analyzing “temporary” vs. “longer-term” changes in the frequency of drive-alone commuting. A similar proportion of the sample increased driving alone (23%) as decreased (22%). Those who increased driving alone were substantially more likely to make this change a regular, longer-term, behavior (83%) compared to those who decreased (52%), increasing emissions. About 61% of the sample did not change their driving alone in either direction. Numerous variables are considered to be potentially important predictors of changes, including socio-demographic traits, environmental and travel attitudes, and land use characteristics. The influence of the freeway closure is also explored. Discrete choice models of the changes are estimated, and characteristics associated with making positive or negative, temporary or longer-term changes are identified. Important land use characteristics include access to amenities such as grocery stores and schools in the vicinity of home and work locations. Additional characteristics that are important factors in the changes modeled include the background commute patterns, occupation types and attitudes towards transportation and travel.
KW  - Choice models
KW  - Commuting
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Land use
KW  - Socioeconomic factors
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/download_pdf.php?id=1804
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247839
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481189
TI  - How Real People Respond in Real Time to Real Congestion
AB  - Much of the current wave of investments in distributed traffic information systems is predicated on the assumption that given the right information, travelers will individually adapt to congestion in ways that boost system performance. But what if this assumption isn't true? This two-phase project will explore how commuters change their travel behavior in response to the availability of customized, real-time information regarding traffic congestion on their preferred travel route
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250259
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481196
TI  - A Model for Enabling Trustworthiness in V2V Networks
AB  - Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) networks are temporary, short-duration wireless networks designed for improving the overall driving experience by exchanging a multitude of information between vehicles and fixed infrastructure. However, given the presence of malicious entities, greedy drivers, and pranksters, blindly accepting any such information received (even one received through a cryptographically secured channel) can be catastrophic. In this project, we focus on building a model for managing (computing and maintaining) the trustworthiness of messages received over V2V networks.
KW  - Automotive computers
KW  - Driver information systems
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Security
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/projectitem.asp?ID=47
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250266
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480994
AU  - Wang, Ming-Heng
AU  - Schrock, Steven D
AU  - Vander Broek, Nate
AU  - Mulinazzi, Thomas
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Use of Cell Phone Network Data in Traffic Data Collection and Long-Haul Truckshed (Geographic Extent) Tracking
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - This study analyzed the potential of cell phone positioning techniques in freight truck data collection and long-haul truckshed (geographic extent) tracking. Freight truck identification and tracking algorithms were developed by means of cell phone network data and the established freight truck analysis geographic information system (GIS), to recognize freight trucks and determine their truckshed. A case study was conducted to illustrate the truckshed tracking process and verify the tracking results from the cell phone network. Cell phones leaving from the test logistics distribution center were tracked and classified based on the developed tracking algorithms. The case study also demonstrated the processes of determining the geographic extent and traffic impact on the transportation network from the test logistics distribution center. The results showed that the proposed tracking algorithms can identify a similar percentage of freight truck data from the test facility compared with manual counts. The analysis of geographic extent indicated that 60% of freight traffic stayed within 30 miles of the facility, and approximately 20% of the traffic was considered long-haul freight traffic traveling more than 80 miles away. The long-haul tracking results found that most of the long-haul trucks returned to the original test facility during the same day. It is recommended that the tracking algorithms and data analysis process could also be applied to any other freight trucking terminal or intermodal transportation facility, as long as the cell phone network data are available. A complete freight GIS analysis network around the study area is also recommended to understand the likely destinations.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Cellular telephones
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Detection and identification
KW  - Freight terminals
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Haul distance
KW  - Traffic data
UR  - http://files.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/online/unrestricted/2012/MATC-KU-361.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249596
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480992
AU  - Noble, Alexandria M
AU  - Martinelli, David R
AU  - Unnikrishnan, Avinash
AU  - Martinelli, Diana
AU  - West Virginia University, Morgantown
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - West Virginia Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of West Virginia’s Graduated Driver Licensing Program
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 70p
AB  - Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for individuals between the ages of 15-20 years old in the United States. Top safety concerns involving teen drivers include; safety belt use, impaired driving, and distracted driving. Rules that address these safety concerns have been implemented into multifaceted graduated driver licensing (GDL) programs in the United States as well as in state legislation. There are a limited number of studies focusing on the perspective, knowledge and opinion of GDL policy. The effectiveness of the GDL program in West Virginia is being measured  through the administration of surveys. The surveys have been designed to assess awareness among high school students, parents of high school students, and police officers. GDL limits teenage driver exposure to high risk situations but its potential to reduce fatalities is limited by people's willingness to comply with the laws and the enforcement of the program restrictions by parents and law enforcement officers. Using the insights provided by these surveys, ways to improve GDL policy and awareness to increase program effectiveness will be identified.
KW  - Analysis
KW  - Awareness
KW  - Graduated licensing
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Teenage drivers
KW  - West Virginia
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/WVU-2010-03.pdf
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/WVU-2011-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249409
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480988
AU  - Schrock, Steven D
AU  - Fitzsimmons, Eric J
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Large-Truck Fixed-Object Crashes at Bridge Structures in Kansas
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 30p
AB  - The aim of this study was to investigate any possible relationships between roadway geometry, pavement conditions, and large-truck, fixed object crashes at bridge sites. Data on single-vehicle and multiple-vehicle large-truck crashes were extracted from the Kansas Department of Transportation’s crash and roadway database for a five year study period (2006-2010). This analysis was limited to bridge sites located on state and federal roadways in both rural and urban environments. A total of 77 crashes were extracted, in which 73 were single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes where a large-truck struck a fixed object at or very close to the bridge site. Due to the limited sample size, a simple odds ratio analysis was used to evaluate the crash data. Because no fatalities were reported, the likelihood of an injury crash or a property damage only crash were tested. The results of the simple odds ratio analysis showed that the odds of an injury resulting from a fixed-object crash were 4.93 times higher on a limited access facility. This finding was statistically significant at the 95% level of confidence, while all other tested variables were found to be non-significant.
KW  - Base course (Pavements)
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Expressways
KW  - Geometric configurations and shapes
KW  - Heavy duty trucks
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Single vehicle crashes
KW  - Truck crashes
UR  - http://files.library.northwestern.edu/transportation/online/unrestricted/2012/MATC-KU-466.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249597
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01479008
AU  - Shi, Xianming
AU  - Li, Yongxin
AU  - Jungwirth, Scott
AU  - Fang, Yida
AU  - Seeley, Nicholas
AU  - Jackson, Emily
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Washington State Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Identification and Laboratory Assessment of Best Practices to Protect DOT Equipment from the Corrosive Effect of Chemical Deicers
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 216p
AB  - The objective of this project is to identify, evaluate and synthesize best practices that can be implemented to minimize the effects of deicer corrosion on department of transportation (DOT) winter  vehicles and equipment, such as design improvements, maintenance practices, and the use of coatings and corrosion inhibitors. The research in Part I will include a comprehensive literature review coupled with a survey of current practice and the state of the art from DOTs; airlines; automobile/trucking, waterborne transportation, defense and other industries. This will be followed by phone interviews and laboratory evaluation of select products and practices, culminating in the cost benefit analysis of select practices and products and the development of implementation recommendations. Part II of this project will include the development of best practice guidelines and their periodical updates along with laboratory and field research to validate best practices if deemed necessary.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Corrosion protection
KW  - Deicing chemicals
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Vehicles and equipment
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/04/AUTC-410005FinalReport-ver1.51.pdf
UR  - http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/796.1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248009
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478285
AU  - Anderson, Neil
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for Pavement Evaluation
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 8p
AB  - In the near future the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department Pavement Management System (PMS) will utilize a Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) to collect network level pavement structural data to aid in predicting performance of pavement sections. One of the drawbacks to running the FWD is that pavement thickness is required for the tested pavement section. The standard method for obtaining pavement thickness information is coring. Coring for a network level survey would be cost prohibitive. Coring costs can run between $3,000 and $3,600 per day with a typical collection distance of 20 miles per day. The Department manages over 16,000 centerline miles of highways. Previous research has shown Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a proven and reliable technology that can be used as a feasible alternative to provide pavement thickness data. GPR data collection can be costly as well; contract services for pavement thickness can cost between $50 and $100 per mile from a reputable service provider. GPR equipment has become less cumbersome, more user-friendly and more affordable in the last few years. There are GPR technologies that employ multiple antennas to provide pavement layer thickness for network level surveys. These newer technologies could provide the pavement layer thicknesses required for network level FWD data collection in a timely and cost-effective manner.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Arkansas
KW  - Costs
KW  - Falling weight deflectometers
KW  - Ground penetrating radar
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Thickness
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247239
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478006
AU  - Shahabi, Mehrdad
AU  - Hlaing, Aung
AU  - Martinelli, David R
AU  - Unnikrishnan, Avinash
AU  - West Virginia University, Morgantown
AU  - West Virginia Department of Transportation
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Fog Detection for Interstate and State Highways
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 71p
AB  - Fog is a common and recurrent phenomenon in West Virginia and the cause of nearly 1.3% of all fatal crashes occurring across the state. All three types of fog--upslope, radiation, and advection--are common in the state, resulting in lack of visibility, limited  contrast, distorted perception, judgment errors, and reduction in headway and speed of the vehicle traveling in foggy conditions. The state of West Virginia is suffering from lack of suitable fog detection and warning systems along many of its arterials where fog is a major issue. The purpose of this project is to determine favorable fog conditions in terms of different meteorological components and to introduce various forecasting tools utilized by different agencies in fog forecasting processes. In addition, efforts are made to identify the critical fog-prone areas across the state. These places might serve as potential locations for implementation of fog detection and warning systems. Also, a complete description of the available detection and warning systems that are currently active across the country is presented in this report to provide useful insight regarding these systems' capabilities and effectiveness. Finally, through a simple benefit-cost analysis, justification of the efficiency of fog detection and warning systems is demonstrated.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Driving conditions
KW  - Fog
KW  - Fog detection
KW  - Interstate highways
KW  - State highways
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Visibility
KW  - Warning systems
KW  - Weather forecasting
KW  - West Virginia
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/WVU-2010-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247325
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477152
AU  - Qi, Yi
AU  - Chen, Xiaoming
AU  - Li, Da
AU  - Texas Southern University, Houston
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating Safety Performance and Developing Guidelines for the Use of Right Turn on Red (RTOR)
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 59p
AB  - This research project investigates the safety performance of Right Turn on Red (RTOR) at intersections. Also, new design alternatives, such as dual right-turn lanes and guidelines incorporating the use of RTOR at intersections are evaluated. To this end, the following tasks were performed: (1) review literature on safety performance of RTOR; (2) review literature on driver behavior under RTOR operation; (3) synthesize best practices and existing guidelines on RTOR; (4) conduct field study to investigate driver behavior under RTOR operation at dual right-turn lanes; and (5) develop guidelines for the use of RTOR. The results of this study showed that RTOR operations contributed to only a small portion of the total crashes at the intersections, and RTOR operations did not increase the crash rates after the implementation at the intersections. In this study, according to the existing guidelines and the field observation, a set of comprehensive guidelines were developed to support decision-making on the use of RTOR.
KW  - Before and after studies
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Crash rates
KW  - Dual right turn lanes 
KW  - Guidelines
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Right turn on red
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/161242-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246731
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476052
AU  - Darrow, Margaret M
AU  - Daanen, Ronald P
AU  - Simpson, Jocelyn M
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Monitoring and Analysis of Frozen Debris Lobes, Phase I
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 73p
AB  - A slow-moving landslide (termed Frozen Debris Lobe-A (FDL-A)) is approaching the Dalton Highway near MP 219, at a distance of 195 ft from the northbound shoulder as of November 2012. Previous analysis of images from 1955 through 2008 indicated an average movement rate of 0.4 in. per day. To better understand the movement of FDL-A, including its soil properties, the direction and rate of movement, and the nature of the shear zone, we initiated a drilling/sampling and monitoring program in 2012. Based on the drilling results, FDL-A consists of silty sand with gravel, overlying white mica schist bedrock at a depth of 86.5 ft (where drilled). Measurements indicate that temperatures within FDL -A average 30ºF, which is 2ºF warmer than the surrounding permafrost. Water pressure exists within this feature, demonstrating a potentiometric surface 35 ft above the lobe surface. FDL-A demonstrated at least two modes of movement, with a shear zone between 66 ft and 74 ft below ground surface, and slow to moderate flow above this depth; combining these, FDL-A was moving at an average rate of 1.0 in. per day between September and November 2012. Recommendations for future work are included in the report
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Dalton Highway
KW  - Drilling
KW  - Frozen soils
KW  - Landslides
KW  - Permafrost
KW  - Silty sands
KW  - Soil mechanics
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/03/02-FDL-final-draft_12_7_12-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245879
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476034
AU  - Brecher, Aviva
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Transit Bus Applications of Lithium Ion Batteries: Progress and Prospects
PY  - 2012/12//2007-2012
SP  - 42p
AB  - This report provides an overview of diverse transit bus applications of advanced Lithium Ion Batteries (LIBs). The report highlights and illustrates several FTA programs that fostered the successful development, demonstration, and deployment of fuel-efficient hybrid-electric and electric drive transit buses in operational urban fleets over the last decade. The focus is on recent progress in the rechargeable energy storage systems (RESS) that successfully integrated the lighter, more compact LIBs with higher energy density and capacity in a broad range of power and propulsion configurations for urban transit bus fleets. Improvements in fuel efficiency and environmental performance of succeeding generations as well as LIB-related safety, cost, reliability, availability, and maintainability challenges are discussed in context, including recent recalls due to LIB safety issues. Progress in and prospects for future LIB improvements and remaining bus application challenges are also discussed.
KW  - Electric buses
KW  - Energy storage devices
KW  - Fuel cell vehicles
KW  - Hybrid vehicles
KW  - Lithium batteries
KW  - Rechargeable batteries
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Urban transit
UR  - http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/FTA_Report_No._0024.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47000/47077/FTA_Report_No._0024.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245585
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475806
AU  - Huseth, Andrea
AU  - Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Common Practices and Performance
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 70p
AB  - This report gives a summary of the current state of alcohol-impaired driving and countermeasures in the United States and individual states, including North Dakota.  Characteristics in alcohol-impaired driving, such as, gender, age, and rural/urban environment are examined.
KW  - Age groups
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Drunk driving
KW  - Gender
KW  - North Dakota
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - United States
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.ugpti.org/pubs/pdf/SP177.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244465
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475468
AU  - Pol, James
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - An Open Dialogue on the Draft Focus and Themes for the Next ITS Strategic Research Plan – Engaging Stakeholders in Their Discussion and Development
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 15p
AB  - The purpose of this document is to identify the focus and themes for the next installment of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Strategic Research Plan and to invite stakeholders to participate in their discussion. The goal of presenting themes is to enable continuity of the current research programs while establishing new or redefined goals and objectives to meet emerging research needs. The themes fall into three broad categories: (1) Maturing Connected Vehicle Systems – Focuses on what is needed to accelerate the maturity of vehicle based communications with surrounding systems. (2) Piloting and Deployment Readiness – Focuses on the security, policy, business opportunities, capabilities, pilots, and incentives needed to support vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) implementation. (3) Integrating with the Broader Environment – Focuses on the integration and decision support capabilities to enable V2V and V2I interaction with other governmental services and public utilities.
KW  - Deployment
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Stakeholders
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46762/FHWA-JPO-13-032_FINAL_PKG.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245596
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473294
AU  - Kos, Richard M
AU  - Carvalho, Brent
AU  - Javier, Maria-Louise
AU  - Agrawal, Asha Weinstein
AU  - Mineta Transportation Institute
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - 2012 Census of California Water Transit Services
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 86p
AB  - The United States (US) Bureau of Transportation Statistics conducts a nationwide census of ferry boat operators for the US 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 data is current for MAP-21. The Mineta Transportation Institute was contacted by Caltrans to conduct this research. The research team compiled a spreadsheet and accompanying maps that include ferry boats, routes, and operators along with a number of related characteristics including ownership (public or private), daily trip counts, regulation of fares, terminal locations (street address and coordinates), boarding statistics, and route segment lengths. The spreadsheet contains fields that will allow it to be linked in a Geographic Information System to Caltrans Earth software for further analysis. Additionally, where relevant, the report includes a brief description of expansion plans for certain ferry service providers.
KW  - California
KW  - Fares
KW  - Ferries
KW  - Ferry service
KW  - Ferry terminals
KW  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
KW  - Ownership
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Routes
KW  - Water transportation
UR  - http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1133-california-water-transit-services-census-2012.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46900/46999/1133-california-water-transit-services-census-2012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243803
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472590
AU  - Steiner, Ruth L
AU  - Chung, Hyungchul
AU  - Kim, Jeongseob
AU  - Blanco, Andres G
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Modeling the effect of accessibility and congestion in location choice
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 101p
AB  - This study explores the relationship between accessibility and congestion, and their impacts on property values. Three research questions are addressed: (1) What is the relation between accessibility and congestion both regional and neighborhood level? (2) Is there a tradeoff between accessibility and congestion? (3) What is the effect of accessibility and congestion on property value? To answer these questions, spatial analysis and econometrics are applied to four metropolitan areas in Florida: Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville. The spatial patterns of accessibility and congestion, and the possibility of trade-offs are analyzed using the Hot Spot analysis and correlation analysis. The hypotheses that accessibility has a positive effect and congestion has a negative effect on property value are tested using econometric models. The results show that the effects of accessibility and congestion vary by metropolitan statistical area (MSA) because each MSA has different degrees of coordination between land use and transportation systems. Only neighborhood park accessibility and neighborhood congestion show a consistent result with the hypothesis regardless of metropolitan areas. Several possibilities of trade-off between accessibility and congestion are shown in the Miami and Tampa MSA. For instance, residents who reside in neighborhoods with low congestion might experience low regional job accessibility. In this case, residents should consider trade-off between neighborhood congestion and regional job accessibility in their residential choice.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Correlation analysis
KW  - Econometric models
KW  - Florida
KW  - Land use
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Property values
KW  - Spatial analysis
KW  - Traffic congestion
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/steiner_CMS-2011-019-FINAL.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46875/steiner_CMS-2011-019-FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239483
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472582
AU  - Lau, Michael C
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Fleming, Gregg G
AU  - Rapoza, Amanda S
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - McCurdy, David A
AU  - Shepherd, Kevin P
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
TI  - Behind Start of Take-off Roll Aircraft Sound Level Directivity Study
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 89p
AB  - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Langley Research Center (LaRC) and the Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division of the United States Department of Transportation’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe) conducted a noise measurement study to examine the sound level directivity pattern behind aircraft start-of-takeoff roll.  This report discusses the procedures and methodologies used to measure and quantify data acquired from the Study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Airport noise
KW  - Airport runways
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Directivity pattern
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - Sound level
KW  - Takeoff
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46667/DOT-VNTSC-NASA-12-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239016
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472565
AU  - Kaufman, Sarah M
AU  - New York University, New York
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - How Social Media Moves New York: Part 2: Recommended Social Media Policy for Transportation Providers
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 16p
AB  - Social media networks allow transportation providers to reach large numbers of people simultaneously and without a fee, essential factors for the millions of commuters and leisure travelers moving through the New York region every day. This report, based on earlier findings (from Part 1) which analyzed local transportation providers’ use of social media, and a seminar on the subject in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, recommends social media policies for transportation providers seeking to inform, engage and motivate their customers. The goals of social media in transportation are to inform (alert riders of a situation), motivate (to opt for an alternate route), and engage (amplify the message to their friends and neighbors). To accomplish these goals, transportation providers should be: accessible, informative, engaging, and responsive.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - New York (New York)
KW  - Social media
KW  - Transportation departments
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46737/Final-Report-Social-Media-NYC.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243280
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472515
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Schulz, Noah E
AU  - Lee, Cynthia S Y
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Fleming, Gregg G
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Analysis of Modeling Cumulative Noise from Simultaneous Flights; Volume 2: Supplemental Analysis
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - This is the second of two volumes of the report on modeling cumulative noise from simultaneous flights. This volume examines the effect of several modeling input cases on Percent Time Audible results calculated by the Integrated Noise Model. The cases presented in this volume include changes to ambient noise input type as well as changes to sampling duration for ambient inputs. The results are compared with those presented in the Volume 1 report.
KW  - Aircraft
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - Sound transmission
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46500/46552/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-08.II.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239019
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472491
AU  - Schrank, David
AU  - Eisele, Bill
AU  - Lomax, Tim
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Texas A&M Transportation Institute
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - 2012 Urban Mobility Report
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 67p
AB  - Congestion levels in large and small urban areas were buffeted by several trends in 2011. Some caused congestion increases and others decreased stop-and-go traffic. The 2011 data are consistent with one past trend, congestion will not go away by itself – action is needed! The problem is very large. In 2011, congestion caused urban Americans to travel 5.5 billion hours more and to purchase an extra 2.9 billion gallons of fuel for a congestion cost of $121 billion. In order to arrive on time for important trips, travelers had to allow for 60 minutes to make a trip that takes 20 minutes in light traffic. While congestion is below its peak in 2005, there is only a short-term cause for celebration. Prior to the economy slowing, just 5 years ago, congestion levels were much higher than a decade ago; these conditions will return as the economy improves. The data show that congestion solutions are not being pursued aggressively enough. The most effective congestion reduction strategy, however, is one where agency actions are complemented by efforts of businesses, manufacturers, commuters and travelers. There is no rigid prescription for the “best way”—each region must identify the projects, programs and policies that achieve goals, solve problems and capitalize on opportunities.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Travel time
KW  - United States
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2012-wappx.pdf
UR  - http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243151
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472485
AU  - Anderson, Neil
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Determination of Optimum “Multi-Channel Surface Wave Method” Field Parameters
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 7p
AB  - Multi-channel surface wave methods (especially the multi-channel analyses of surface wave method; MASW) are routinely used to determine the shear-wave velocity of the subsurface to depths of 100 feet for site classification purposes.  Users are aware that the output shear-wave velocity function at a specific site will vary if acquisition parameters (including array orientation, geophone spacing, shot-to-receiver offset) are varied.  However, these variations have never been statistically analyzed (quantitatively or qualitatively).  As part of this investigation, the researchers will acquire MASW data at multiple study areas in karst terrain with a view to statistically analyzing the extent to which variations in field parameters can affect data quality, data utility, the output shearwave velocity function and the output site classification.
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Karst
KW  - Multi-channel analysis of surface waves
KW  - Rayleigh waves
KW  - S waves
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Subsoil
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R292%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243482
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472472
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Ahearn, Meghan J
AU  - Schulz, Noah E
AU  - Lee, Cynthia S Y
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Fleming, Gregg G
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Analysis of Modeling Cumulative Noise from Simultaneous Flights; Volume 1: Analysis at Four National Parks
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 71p
AB  - This is the first of two volumes of the report on modeling cumulative noise from simultaneous flights. This volume includes: an overview of the time compression algorithms used to model simultaneous aircraft; revised summary of a preliminary study (which includes updated measured data); an expanded analysis of cumulative noise from simultaneous flights for several additional National Parks; and a discussion of the remaining issues and tasks that are recommended be addressed.
KW  - Aircraft
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - National parks
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Time compression
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46500/46551/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-08.I.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239018
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470768
AU  - Mereddy, Venkatram R
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of Novel Hydrogen-Based Power Systems for ITS Applications: Phase-I
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 24p
AB  - There are many remote traffic signals on the road that don’t have access to a regular power supply, so they use batteries that need to be changed quite often. A hydrogen fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. It offers a clean and high-efficiency energy source to circumvent the problems associated with conventional batteries. However, one major drawback that limits its utility is the use of compressed metal cylinders as a source of hydrogen. Chemical-based hydrogen production can provide a very compact and low-pressure storage option for the controlled release of hydrogen gas in large amounts. The hydrogen-based fuel cells can also be used as a backup power source at critical traffic signals to prevent accidents during power outages. Other possible applications include: alternating-traffic signs, directional signals, speed-limit signs, blinkers in series, and warning blinkers, etc. This project deals with the development of novel chemical-based hydrogen storage materials, efficient generation of hydrogen, and recycling of spent materials. The authors have explored several boron-based chemical hydrides as hydrogen storage materials. These hydrides offer an attractive solution in the quest to find materials that are safe, compact, and readily provide large quantities of hydrogen on demand. In this work, the authors have carried out generation of hydrogen from several boron hydrides, such as sodium borohydride (SBH) and ammonia-borane (AB), etc., utilizing solvents such as water and alcohols under catalytic and non-catalytic conditions.
KW  - Boron
KW  - Energy resources
KW  - Fuel cells
KW  - Hydrides
KW  - Hydrogen production
KW  - Hydrogen storage
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Sodium borohydride
KW  - Traffic signal control systems
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2214
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2214
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238458
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470566
AU  - Ngamdung, Tashi
AU  - daSilva, Marco
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Driver Behavior Analysis at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings using Field Operational Test Data – Heavy Trucks
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 51p
AB  - The United States Department of Transportation’s (U.S. DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration’s (RITA) John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), under the direction of the U.S. DOT Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development (R&D), conducted a research study focused on collecting and analyzing data related to driver characteristics at or on approach to highway-rail grade crossings. Volpe Center reviewed and coded 3,171 grade crossing events involving heavy vehicle drivers collected during a recent field operational test of vehicle safety systems. The data collected for each grade crossing included data about drivers’ activities, driver and vehicle performance, driving environment, and vehicle location at or on approach to highway-rail grade crossings. One of the findings of the data analysis was that, on average, drivers were likely to engage in secondary tasks, an indicator of distraction, about 21 percent of the time while traversing a highway-rail grade crossing. Additionally, results showed that drivers failed to look either left or right on approach to passive grade crossings about 41 percent of the time. The ultimate objective of the research is to provide the basic driver behavior research needed to identify potential driver education/awareness strategies that would best mitigate risky driver behavior at grade crossings.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Driver education
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Field studies
KW  - Heavy vehicles
KW  - Railroad crashes
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Risk taking
KW  - Video data
KW  - Videotapes
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2721
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46647/DOT-VNTSC-FRA-12-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238498
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470564
AU  - Peck, Steven M
AU  - Bousquet, Paul E
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Highway-Rail Intersection Intelligent Transportation Systems Global Positioning Systems- Literature Review and Recommendations
PY  - 2012/12
SP  - 33p
AB  - In 2008, there were 2,395 incidents at highway-rail intersections (level crossings) in the United States, resulting in 939 injuries and 287 fatalities. Crossing elimination, grade separation, and the implementation of traditional warning devices are not always economically feasible. The development of new intelligent transportation systems and the advancement of such technologies could potentially provide a solution to enhance safety at these intersections. The concept of in-vehicle warning systems for level crossings is not new. Multiple systems have been developed and tested using proprietary equipment and technology in the 1990s as evidenced by the former Federal Highway Administration Joint Program Office (JPO). The Réseau Ferré de France (French Rail Network) and the Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland) have independently initiated in-vehicle level crossing warning system development programs. The system architectures vary from previously U.S.-developed systems and use advanced and cost-effective technologies. At varying stages of development, the two in-vehicle warning system designs address many of the shortcomings of previous generation systems and show great promise at meeting the design goals of being a cost-effective, reliable warning system. They also have the potential for additional capabilities and easy integration into other roadway vehicle intelligent transportation safety systems being developed in both the United States and internationally. The advancement of commercially available technology and equipment create the environment for the development and deployment of a viable global-positioning system-based in-vehicle warning system for highway-rail intersections.
KW  - Audible warning devices in vehicles
KW  - Automobile navigation systems
KW  - Finland
KW  - France
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Integrated systems
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - System architecture
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2784
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46718/DOT-VNTSC-FRA-10-06.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238497
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470323
AU  - Lin, Pei-Sung
AU  - Kourtellis, Achilleas
AU  - Wills, Matthew
AU  - University of South Florida, Tampa
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Camera-Based Systems to Reduce 
Transit Bus Side Collisions-Phase II
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - The sideview camera system has been shown to eliminate blind zones by providing a view to the driver in real time. In order to provide the best integration of these systems, an integrated camera-mirror system (hybrid system) was developed and tested. Traditional aftermarket systems utilize wide-angle cameras, which provide up to 100-degree horizontal field of view. The developed camera system had 65-degree horizontal view, which was adequate to cover the side blind zones. The initial system was tested in a controlled driving test with 29 drivers. The drivers used the system to drive the bus and identify objects placed around the bus. Comparison was performed with the mirrors only versus the hybrid system. Statistical analysis showed that with the camera system, drivers had a 96-98% correct identification of the location of the object vs. 70-78% with the mirrors only. Also surprisingly, drivers were faster in identifying the objects using the camera system, even though two additional search locations were present with the camera system. Driver feedback also showed that the majority of drivers agreed that the system can eliminate blind zones, and thus help drivers reduce side collisions by providing better side views. The recommendations of the drivers were taken into account when finalizing the system to be used for a longer field deployment that occurred in the second part of this project. For the type A bus, the most common transit vehicle, a weatherproof housing was developed for the cameras, to protect them from water, dust, and other environmental factors. For the cutaway bus, a smaller bus used for paratransit services, a system obtained from a company that specializes in mirror-camera integration was used. With the deployment of the systems for a longer period, drivers had positive feedback for the system and thought it helped them cover the blind zones thus reducing side collisions. Both the driving test and field deployment helped identify major factors to aid in the development of specifications for such systems. Using the results from the  testing and literature review, recommendations for specifications were compiled to help practitioners, industry professionals, and operating managers when choosing such systems for their fleets.
KW  - Blind spots
KW  - Bus crashes
KW  - Cameras
KW  - Crash avoidance systems
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Mirrors
KW  - Side crashes
KW  - Transit buses
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_PTO/FDOT-BDK85-977-35-rpt.pdf
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/77940.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46800/FDOT-BDK85-977-35-rpt.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238010
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469996
AU  - Gedafa, Daba
AU  - Hossain, Mustaque
AU  - Ingram, Lon
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Review of Data in Construction Management System (CMS) and Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QC/QA) Databases to Improve Current Specifications for Superpave and Concrete Pavements in Kansas: Part 1
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 132p
AB  - Statistical  specifications for highway construction are usually part of a statistical quality control  process. These specifications provide the means to measure the important quality control attributes and ensure their compliance. The pay adjustments, part of these specifications, reflect the amount of deduction or bonus and the optimized risk distributed between the owner and the contractor. The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) has built a comprehensive database of as-constructed properties of materials for Superpave pavements from the tests required as part of the Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QC/QA) program. Currently, KDOT pays incentives/disincentives for air voids and in-place density for Superpave pavements and thickness and strength for Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavements. A practical performance model and a composite index that include air voids, in-place density, asphalt content, and voids in mineral aggregate for Superpave pavements and thickness and strength for PCC pavements, respectively are needed to reflect the factors that affect their performance. The main objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of levels of significance and lot size, and to develop practical performance models and composite index for Superpave and PCC pavements in Kansas. Thirty-five Superpave pavements and 13 PCC projects from six administrative districts of KDOT were selected for this study. Lot-wise comparison showed that QC/QA means are significantly different in most cases. The number of cases with a significant difference in means increases with an increase in significance level. Practical performance models and composite index values from multiple quality characteristics have been proposed as integral parts of performance-related specifications (PRS) for Superpave and PCC pavements in Kansas.
KW  - Construction management
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Performance based specifications
KW  - Portland cement concrete
KW  - Properties of materials
KW  - Quality assurance
KW  - Quality control
KW  - Significance (Statistics)
KW  - Superpave
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003825011
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1231145
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469978
AU  - Uppu, Kiran Kumar
AU  - Hossain, Mustaque
AU  - Ingram, Lon
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
TI  - Review of Data in Construction Management System (CMS) and Quality Control and Quality Assurance (QC/QA) Databases to Improve Current Specifications for Superpave and Concrete Pavements in Kansas: Part 2
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 164p
AB  - A recent study at Kansas State University has shown that asphalt producers in Kansas are producing  hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures with lower asphalt contents than those in the job-mix formula. These drier mixtures are thought to be susceptible to moisture. This project evaluated the effect of asphalt content on rutting and moisture resistance of HMA. Two different mixtures and four varying asphalt contents, optimum and lower, were selected. Another large-size mixture with four varying asphalt contents was also studied. The Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device (HWTD) test (TEX-242-F) and the Kansas Standard Test-56 (KT-56), or modified Lottman test, were used to predict moisture damage and rutting potential of these mixes. All specimens tested were prepared with the Superpave gyratory compacter. Results of this study showed the drier mixtures performed better in rutting and were less susceptible to moisture. Asphalt content significantly affects the number of wheel passes in the HWTD test. The study also revealed a weak correlation between asphalt film thickness and performance test results. Thus, the effect of varying asphalt content is somewhat nonconclusive from a durability point of view. However, performance simulations using a theoretical model show that very dry mixes in asphalt pavements are likely to have shorter performance lives.
KW  - Asphalt content
KW  - Dry mixes
KW  - Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device
KW  - Hot mix asphalt
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Moisture content
KW  - Performance tests
KW  - Rutting
KW  - Superpave
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003825015
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1231074
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469949
AU  - Parr, Alfred David
AU  - Young, C Bryan
AU  - Gonzalez, Pablo
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Unsteady Flow Analysis of Relief Bridges
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 125p
AB  - This study was performed to investigate the hydraulics of multiple opening bridges that include a main channel bridge and one or more relief bridges. A relief bridge is installed in an overbank to reduce the return flow to the main channel bridge by conveying some of the total flow. Since significant erosion/scour has been observed at some relief bridges in Kansas, it has been hypothesized that there may be a lag in the rise of the tailwater elevation relative to the rise in headwater as a flood wave passes through a bridge system.  As a flood wave passes through a bridge system, significant ponding could occur on the upstream side of the bridge particularly if the main channel bridge were undersized relative to the flood. This could, in turn, “meter” the flow through the opening causing a delayed rise in the tail water elevation downstream from the bridge relative to the rise in the headwater elevation. If this were to happen, very high velocities would be observed through the relief bridge, resulting in significant local scour. The initial objective of this project was to use the HEC-RAS Unsteady Flow model Version 4.1.0  to study the condition hypothesized above by using the Multiple Opening Analysis option.  Three bridge sites with relief bridges were selected for analysis. The HEC-RAS water surface profiles throughout the flood simulations showed little if any tailwater lag for any of the studies. The Flo2D model produced depth versus time plots for individual grid cells. This enables users to look more carefully at local variations in flow parameters. No significant tailwater time lags were observed in Flo2D for the three sites studied. In conclusion, it seems that for the large floods considered in this study, the tailwater time lag condition was not observed in either unsteady HEC-RAS or Flo2D modeling. However, this does not mean that such a condition does not exist. The assumption used by Kansas Department of Transportation for the relief bridge is to assume critical depth and velocity at relief bridges for scour calculations. This assumes that the minimum depth (regardless of tailwater) is critical when the approach flow is subcritical. Subcritical approach flow is nearly always the case for major rivers in Kansas. While HEC-RAS and its predecessor HEC-2 were the dominant flood modeling software for three decades, two-dimensional modeling is now increasing in popularity due to improvement in programs, availability of detailed terrain data, the widespread use of Geographic Information Systems and faster computers. Still, execution times for large basins like those studied herein are at least an order of magnitude longer than analogous HEC-RAS unsteady flow models.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Floods
KW  - Headwater depth
KW  - HEC-RAS (Computer model)
KW  - Hydraulics
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Ponding
KW  - Scour
KW  - Tailwater
KW  - Unsteady flow
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003824828
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1230969
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469946
AU  - Anderson, Michael D
AU  - Sisiopiku, Virginia P
AU  - Lou, Yingyan
AU  - University of Alabama, Huntsville
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Seminar and TRB Conference Attendance: Year 9
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 11p
AB  - Students from the three campuses of the University of Alabama System are engaged in a variety of transportation related research activities.  This project intended to provide a forum for transportation students to present their research results to faculty and students from their home campuses as well as transportation professionals in a professional setting.  The students selected to make presentations, by faculty representatives from the three campuses, were rewarded with travel money to cover the cost of attending the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington D.C.
KW  - College students
KW  - Research
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2012/12/11306-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46763/11306_Final_Report_pdf.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1237306
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469923
AU  - Phanomchoeng, Gridsada
AU  - Rajamani, Rajesh
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Prediction and Prevention of Tripped Rollovers
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 95p
AB  - Vehicle rollovers account for a significant fraction of highway traffic fatalities, causing more than 10,000 deaths in the United States each year. While active rollover prevention systems have been developed by several automotive manufacturers, the currently available systems address only un-tripped rollovers. This project focuses on the development of a new real-time rollover index that can detect both tripped and un-tripped rollovers. A new methodology is developed for estimation of unknown inputs in a class of nonlinear dynamic systems. The methodology is based on nonlinear observer design and dynamic model inversion to compute the unknown inputs from output measurements. The developed approach can enable observer design for a large class of differentiable nonlinear systems with a globally (or locally) bounded Jacobian. The developed nonlinear observer is then applied for rollover index estimation. The rollover index estimation algorithm is evaluated through simulations with an industry standard software, CARSIM, and with experimental tests on a 1/8th scaled vehicle. The simulation and experimental results show that the developed nonlinear observer can reliably estimate vehicle states, unknown normal tire forces, and rollover index for predicting both un-tripped and tripped rollovers. The final chapter of this report evaluates the feasibility of rollover prevention for tripped rollovers using currently available actuation systems on passenger sedans.
KW  - Estimation theory
KW  - Nonlinear systems
KW  - Prevention
KW  - Rolling
KW  - Rollover crashes
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2206
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2212
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1226267
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469909
AU  - Cheng, Pi-Meng
AU  - Shankwitz, Craig
AU  - Arpin, Eddie
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Inexpensive 2D Optical Sensor for GPS Augmentation
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 79p
AB  - Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS) are susceptible to outages due to blocked or missing satellite signals and/or blocked or missing DGPS correction messages. Outages arise primarily due to environmental reasons: passing under bridges, passing under overhead highway signs, adjacent foliage, etc. Generally, these outages are spatially deterministic, and can be accurately predicted. These outages distract drivers using DGPS-based driver assistive systems, and limit the system robustness. Inertial measurements have been proposed as an augmentation for DGPS. Tests have shown that error rates for even emerging technologies are still too high; a vehicle can maintain lane position for less than three to four seconds. Ring laser gyros can do the job, but $100K per axis is still too expensive for road-going vehicles. To provide robust vehicle positioning in the face of DGPS outages, the IV Lab has developed a technique by which a non-contact, 2D true ground velocity sensor is used to guide the vehicle. Although far from fully developed, the system can maintain vehicle position within a lane for GPS outages of up to 20 seconds. New dual frequency, carrier phase DGPS systems generally require less than 20 seconds to acquire a "fix" solution after a GPS outage, so the performance of this system should be adequate for augmentation. Proposed herein is basic research which may lead to the development of an inexpensive, 2D, non-contact velocity sensor optimized for vehicle guidance during periods of DGPS outages.
KW  - Augmentation systems
KW  - Differential Global Positioning System
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Signal outages
KW  - Vehicle position
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2210
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1226264
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469481
AU  - Wujcik, Evan K
AU  - Heskett, David
AU  - Bose, Arijit
AU  - University of Rhode Island, Kingston
AU  - University of Rhode Island Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Co-Electrospun Lead Selenide/Titania-Core/Sheath Nanowires for Photovoltaic Applications
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 10p
AB  - This study presents a novel, low-cost, all-inorganic lead selenide-titania (PbSe/TiO2) nanowire heterostructure material synthesis for photovoltaic applications. PbSe nanorods (NRs) have been coelectrospun within a TiO2 nanotube with high connectivity for highly efficient charge carrier flow and electron-hole pair separation. This material has been characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), and Photovoltaic testing.
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Nanostructured materials
KW  - Photovoltaic effect
KW  - Renewable energy sources
KW  - Solar cells
KW  - Sustainable transportation
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46633/001891.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225808
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469396
AU  - Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon
AU  - Jones, Elizabeth
AU  - Swadener, Lauren
AU  - Haverian, Mohammad Jaft
AU  - University of Nebraska, Lincoln
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Nebraska Department of Roads
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of the Environmental Impacts of Bridge Deck Runoff — Preliminary Draft
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 122p
AB  - Bridges are located in very close proximity to receiving waters, and regulatory agencies often require specific stormwater control measures for bridge deck runoff. While there is some information available on roadway runoff, few studies have focused on bridge deck runoff. Currently, there is no information available regarding the impacts of bridge deck runoff on receiving waters in Nebraska. Due to the cost, maintenance, and design issues associated with implementing structural controls for bridge deck runoff, it is important to develop a better understanding of the relationship between bridge deck runoff and potential impacts to receiving streams. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the quality of bridge deck runoff; to determine the effects of bridge deck runoff on surface water bodies in Nebraska by evaluating water and sediment chemistry; and to evaluate the effects of bridge deck runoff on aquatic life. The goal was to identify the potential environmental impacts of bridge deck runoff on receiving streams, and to determine design criteria that could be used by NDOR or regulatory agencies to identify when structural controls for bridge deck runoff may be necessary to protect instream water quality and aquatic life. Throughout the course of the project, the authors conducted in-stream dry weather sampling, sediment sampling, wet weather bridge runoff sampling, and preliminary toxicity testing. Statistical analysis of upstream and downstream in-stream samples showed that bridges did not impact the quality of the water body. Sediment sampling did not show an increase in streambed sediment concentrations from downstream to upstream. The concentrations of bridge runoff samples were higher than literature event mean concentration (EMC) values. This was mainly due to the fact that the summer of 2012 had only two rain events of significant size and there was a large antecedent dry period (ADP) between storms, making the samples much more concentrated. Two runoff events were also used in a 48-hour 5 dilution series toxicity test with fat head minnows, and no negative effects were found. These preliminary results show that there were no apparent effects of bridges on water quality and aquatic life.
KW  - Aquatic life
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Nebraska
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Streams
KW  - Water quality
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46900/46960/Evaluation_of_the_Environmental_Impact_of_Bridge_Deck_Runoff.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1237154
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01366313
AU  - Tang, Fujian
AU  - Chen, Genda
AU  - Volz, Jeffery S
AU  - Brow, Richard K
AU  - Koenigstein, Michael
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Mechanical Characterization of Enamel Coated Steel Bars
PY  - 2012/12//Final Report
SP  - 14p
AB  - In this study, the corrosion process of enamel-coated deformed rebar completely immersed in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution was evaluated over a period of 84 days by EIS testing.  Three types of enamel coating were investigated: pure enamel, 50/50 enamel coating, and double enamel.  Surface condition of the enamel coatings that were intentionally damaged prior to corrosion tests was visually examined at different immersion times.  After 84 days of testing, the damaged coating areas were characterized by SEM, and the corrosion products on and adjacent to the damaged areas were collected and analyzed by XRD.  Corrosion initiated at the damaged locations with no undercutting observed.  The 50/50 enamel coating had the least corrosion resistance, due to its interconnected pore structure, and prior damage drastically reduce the corrosion resistance of pure and double enamel coated rebar.
KW  - Anticorrosion coatings
KW  - Corrosion resistance
KW  - Enamels
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Reinforcing bars
KW  - Reinforcing steel
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1134965
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488499
AU  - Cohen, James K
AU  - John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Financing Rail Capital Projects: Historical Lessons; Contemporary Cases
PY  - 2012/11/30/Final Report
SP  - 39p
AB  - Two large questions informed the research for this article: first, how and why did the mid-20th century shift from private to public ownership, financing and operation of passenger railways affect the subsequent financing and development of high speed rail? Second, does high speed rail create opportunities for the return of the private sector to a significant role in passenger rail transport, such as financing and operating new lines? To answer these questions, the author adopted an historical, cross-national approach, which is relatively unusual in the field of public policy. While a number of articles have been written about general lessons that can be learned from foreign experience with high speed rail, the author's approach analyzes the specific reasons why the U.S. has lagged behind other countries. France was selected as a comparison case because, first, its history of moving from private to public provision of passenger rail services closely paralleled American rail history up to the Great Depression; and, second, because the divergence between the two countries at the end of the Great Depression provides powerful evidence for analyzing the causes of the decline of U.S. passenger railways in the post-World War 2 period. Scholars can build upon this work by carrying out other cross-national and historical comparisons that further elucidate the reasons why high speed rail has succeeded so well in other parts of the world, but not in the U.S.
KW  - Financing
KW  - France
KW  - Governments
KW  - High speed rail
KW  - History
KW  - Passenger rail
KW  - Passenger trains
KW  - Private enterprise
KW  - Railroads
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/Financing-High-Speed-Rail-in-US-and-France-Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257342
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458074
AU  - Inglis-Smith, Chandra
AU  - Rahall Appalachian Transportation Institute
AU  - West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - eCDL and CSTIMS Integration Project
PY  - 2012/11/30/Final Report
SP  - 8p
AB  - In coordination with the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles, the Rahall Transportation Institute integrated the eCDL program with the Commercial Skills Testing Information Management System (CSTIMS), a software program owned by the American Motor Vehicles Administrators Association.  eCDL is a multi-phase approach in the development and implementation of an electronic version of the commercial driver license skills testing program which includes real-time testing validation through global positioning system (GPS), imagery, audio, and wireless tests with auditing functions.  CSTIMS was built to reduce fraud and automate the administrative processes at the beginning and at the end of the commercial driver license skills testing procedure including scheduling, test site direction, reporting, and fraud alerts. The project integrated the two software programs allowing a schedule test inserted into CSTIMS to be displayed in the eCDL interface in the field. When the CDL test is completed the results are then transmitted back through both organizations’ servers for display in CSTIMS allowing for a full circle of display, analysis, and tracking.
KW  - Commercial drivers
KW  - Commercial Skills Testing Information Management System (CSTIMS)
KW  - Driver licenses
KW  - Driving tests
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Information management
KW  - Software
KW  - West Virginia Department of Transportation
UR  - http://www.mticutc.org/assets/pdf/212143_eCDL_to_CSTIMS.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225600
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475465
AU  - Toumazis, Iakovos
AU  - Kwon, Changhyun
AU  - State University of New York, Buffalo
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Robust Routing for Hazardous Materials Transportation with Conditional Value-at-Risk on Time-Dependent Networks
PY  - 2012/11/29/Final Report
SP  - 32p
AB  - New methods are proposed for mitigating risk in hazardous materials (hazmat) transportation, based on Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) measure, on time-dependent vehicular networks. While the CVaR risk measure has been popularly used in financial portfolio optimization problems, its application in hazmat transportation has been very recently proposed. The CVaR models are shown to be flexible and general routing models for hazmat transportation, and be solved efficiently. This research project will extend the previous research by considering CVaR for hazmat transportation on time-dependent networks
KW  - Hazardous materials
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Routing
KW  - Shortest path algorithms
KW  - Time dependence
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46734/Final_Report-Robust-Routing.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245601
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491314
AU  - Sriraj, P S
AU  - Li, Zongzhi
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - University of Illinois, Chicago
AU  - Illinois Institute of Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Rapid Replacement/Construction of Bridges
PY  - 2012/11/19/Final Report
SP  - 97p
AB  - Bridges are a key element of the transportation system because they control system capacity and are normally built at the highest cost to the system. Once a bridge reaches its useful design service life, it needs to be replaced or reconstructed in order to safely accommodate traffic and efficiently utilize the system. While highways can be repaired relatively quickly, bridges require special planning, engineering, materials procurement, and longer periods of construction time. This study synthesized current state-of-practices of rapid bridge construction methods, developed a decision-making framework for determining the feasibility of adopting rapid bridge replacement/construction, that considers issues of criticality of the bridge, contractor’s prefabrication ability, contractor’s construction management, and agency and user costs of bridge construction. The findings provide highway agencies with a framework to determine whether it is appropriate to utilize rapid bridge replacement/construction techniques for specific bridges. Based on these findings, a decision support framework using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is presented to allow for agencies to rank order priorities amongst those assets (bridges) that are determined to be candidates for rapid replacement/construction. Finally, a preliminary analysis was performed to explore a conceptually new bridge design and construction system that may be considered as a candidate for rapid replacement/construction of bridges with similar geometric design standards governed by comparable traffic conditions and site characteristics. Major technical issues addressed in this study include: 1) identifying existing literature on rapid bridge replacement/construction techniques developed worldwide; 2) finding current state-of-practices of rapid bridge replacement/construction in the United States; 3) developing a decision-making procedure for justifying the use of rapid bridge replacement/construction techniques over the conventional bridge construction methods; and 4) exploring a new conceptual bridge design and construction system that supports rapid construction. This report provides both technical and non-technical information. Some readers may wish to skip over the analysis details and focus on broader concepts of the analysis strategy.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/CFIRE_RRCB_final-report_UIC_IIT_revnov-2012-revised.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257324
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473707
AU  - Lewis, Kristin
AU  - Mitra, Shuchi
AU  - Xu, Sheila
AU  - Tripp, Lyle
AU  - Lau, Michael
AU  - Epstein, Alexander
AU  - Fleming, Gregg
AU  - Roof, Chris
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Alternative jet fuel scenario analysis report
PY  - 2012/11/14/Final Report
SP  - 77p
AB  - This analysis presents a “bottom up” projection of the potential production of alternative aviation (jet) fuels in North America (United States, Canada, and Mexico) and the European Union in the next decade. The analysis is based on available plans from individual companies and considers existing and emerging fuel production technologies. The analysis also forecasts how alternative fuels might contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) goals. Based on a review of fuel production companies’ stated plans to produce jet fuel, the study incorporated company-specific data into seven scenarios varying alternative jet fuel production and expansion assumptions. This study supports the use of advanced alternative fuels as one important component of achieving emissions and environmental targets, although other additional measures and/or new technologies may also be required. The analysis suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) goal of 1 billion gallons of alternative jet fuel use by U.S. aviation in 2018 is achievable. A combination of the most optimistic demand forecasts and the “product switch” production scenarios leads to North American aviation greenhouse gas emissions leveling off or decreasing between years by 2020. For the limited scenarios considered, additional measures would be needed to return to 2005 emissions levels in North America in 2020. In the European analysis, leveling of GHG emissions by 2020 only occurs in cases where ethanol and/or biodiesel producers switch to producing some jet fuel. As this “bottom up” projection could not account for all potential alternative fuel producers (either because public data were not available or because these companies were unknown to the authors), the results presented should be viewed as one possible range of future production levels that could occur in North America and Europe. It does not consider the amount of alternative fuels that could be produced from all potentially available feedstocks (i.e., technical potential) which would be much greater. Further, production outside of North America and Europe was not included in the analysis so actual demand for alternative jet fuels in North America and Europe could be met with alternative fuels produced outside the region. Finally, the development of new technologies, new market conditions, new participants, and improved processes for known technologies could all lead to production levels higher than shown in this analysis. In fact the technical potential of biofuels production greatly exceeds projected demand. Likewise, policies and economic conditions could lead to lower, or nonexistent production levels.
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Aviation fuels
KW  - Biodiesel fuels
KW  - European Union countries
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - North America
KW  - Pollutants
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46500/46597/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244179
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493227
AU  - Biton, Anna
AU  - Burger, Charlotte
AU  - Cotton, Benjamin
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Petersburg National Battlefield Alternative Transportation Feasibility Study
PY  - 2012/11/13/Final Report
SP  - 106p
AB  - This report studies the feasibility of alternative solutions to several transportation problems affecting Petersburg National Battlefield in Petersburg, Virginia. Current transportation problems include site-specific access issues, wayfinding and navigational challenges, and inefficient transportation-based interpretive programs. The report evaluates opportunities for a new shuttle program that will replace an existing caravan tour, a comprehensive signage program for managing all directional signs, non-motorized access and connectivity, and technology-based wayfinding and interpretation. With a proposal in Congress to expand the boundaries of the Battlefield, the document also illustrates potential transportation implications as new land holdings are acquired, including signage, parking, wayfinding, and shuttle routes.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Guide signs
KW  - Historic sites
KW  - National parks
KW  - Petersburg (Virginia)
KW  - Shuttle buses
KW  - Tourists
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
KW  - Wayfinding
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48000/48022/DOT-VNTSC-NPS-13-21.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261172
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486737
AU  - Hicks, R Gary
AU  - Cheng, DingXin
AU  - Zubeck, Hannele
AU  - Liu, Jenny
AU  - Mullins, Tony
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Develop Guidelines for Pavement Preservation Treatments and for Building a Pavement Preservation Program Platform for Alaska
PY  - 2012/11/12/Final Report
SP  - 158p
AB  - This reports summarizes the project findings including the following: An evaluation of the current pavement preservation program used in Alaska and a roadmap to grow the program; A summary of the best practices in terms of pavement preservation for cold regions and for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF); The development of a pavement preservation database which contains information on pavement preservation projects placed in Alaska, along with the development of a strategy selection program for determining the best treatments to use under Alaska conditions; and Conclusions and recommendations resulting from the study including the collection of pavement data to support pavement preservation and the modification of the pavement management system to include pavement preservation treatments. Finally, an implementation plan is included to help Alaska grow the pavement preservation program using workshops and other planned efforts.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Databases
KW  - Frigid regions
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Pavement preservation
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/05/AUTC_Combined_report-12-11-12-final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256381
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01530516
TI  - Traffic Management Centers: Challenges, Best Practices, and Future Plans
AB  - Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) are the "brains" for most freeway and arterial management systems. TMCs monitor and manage the traffic flow and the transportation network, as well as provide traveler information through the deployment of various Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies and proactive management strategies. A TMC also functions as the technical and institutional hub that facilitates interagency coordination and integrates a wide range of traffic management strategies to achieve the collective goal of providing safer, more efficient and sustainable transportation infrastructure to meet the mobility needs. The success of a TMC directly influences the efficiency of the transportation network, the economic competitiveness of a region in moving people and goods, and the quality of life for the communities. The intent of this research is to review the state-of-the-practice in TMC operations in order to increase the understanding of the common features that have led to their success. This benchmarking process will help in establishing a general standard in TMC performance, and provide the opportunity for information exchange and sharing among the agencies that will lead to improved performance and services. This research will add to the literature by providing an updated and comprehensive scan of current practices in TMC operations. The results of this study will help agencies assess their practices, learn from others' experiences, improve the performance and services of the centers, and eventually contribute to the efficient management of the transportation network and effective implementation of technologies in responding to traffic conditions and emergencies (such as incidents, special events, and other recurring and non-recurring delays).
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Traffic control centers
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Traffic surveillance
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316151
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494653
TI  - National Alternative Fuel Bus Clearinghouse
AB  - Transit agencies and funding entities around the country continue to be under pressure to reduce operating costs and to run a more sustainable and environmentally friendly operation in the urban environment. Acquisition of alternatively-fueled urban buses has been a popular strategy to attempt to reach these goals. The pressures on the agencies to procure alternatively fueled buses have only escalated with the push toward compressed natural gas as a domestically produced urban fleet fuel. National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) have funded efforts in the last few years to gain a better understanding of the true life-cycle costs and operational issues associated with shifting a fixed-route bus system from traditional diesel-powered units to ones with a different power plant. Acquisition, maintenance and operating data are collected on the fixed-route fleet in Florida and are used to provide Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and agencies with up-to-date information when acquisition or funding decisions are being made. Recently, a life-cycle cost model (BuFFeT©) was developed using data from fleets across the United States. Detailed data were obtained on nearly 5,000 heavy duty buses. These data, however, have not been updated since 2009. As technology has improved and agencies have gained more experience with operating alternatively fueled vehicles, another effort to collect fresh data will assist in creating a more reliable database for decision support. In addition, sharing the experience of various transit agencies with alternative propulsion technologies will be extremely valuable both for the agencies already running alternative fuel vehicles in their fleets, as well as the agencies that are only considering adopting them. The National Center for Transit Research (NCTR - a Tier-1 University Transportation Center) will establish and maintain an on-going National Alternative Fuel Bus Clearinghouse covering all aspects related to the adoption and operation of alternative fuel buses by transit operators nationwide. The Clearinghouse will be a useful resource to public transportation providers, local and state governments, the private sector, and other transit stakeholders seeking the practical knowledge related to the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles by transit operators in the United States. The segment that follows provides a brief discussion of the envisioned activities of the proposed Clearinghouse.
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Florida
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Operating costs
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2012/11/national-alternative-fuel-bus-clearinghouse/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263868
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489747
TI  - Open Access to High Resolution Elevation Data for Transportation Planning in Rhode Island
AB  - Transportation planners and consultants in Rhode Island need ready access to accurate geospatial data to assist in the design and development of plans and bids for transportation-based construction projects. These same data are of prime importance in evaluating the potential impacts of climate change, including the vulnerability of existing transportation infrastructure to environmental hazards, storm surge, and sea level rise. Complete, accurate, and consistent high resolution elevation data are a key geospatial data theme used in these applications, yet these data remain largely inaccessible by transportation planners and design consultants due to unique file structures and large file sizes. The focus of the work will be to: (1) assemble, tile, and distribute products obtained from The Northeast Multiphase LiDAR Project; (2) organize and package the Northeast LiDAR data in a manner that streamlines Rhode Island Department of Transportation's (RIDOT) ability to update and export elevation products; and (3) conduct a pilot study testing the validity of refining these data to achieve the resolution needed for transportation planning activities.
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Construction projects
KW  - Data collection
KW  - High resolution data
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Rhode Island
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://131.128.106.203/uritc-org/research/searchresults_2.asp
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1259218
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481552
TI  - Assessing Sustainable Freight Policies using Micro-simulation Approach
AB  - The proposed study addresses one of National Center for Freight &amp; Infrastructure Research and Eduction (CFIRE's) Signature Technical Areas of Research: Assessment of Environmental and Energy Impacts of Freight Transportation. The project will be built upon an earlier work at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in which a behavioral freight movement micro-simulation model, called FAME, was developed. The model considers the crucial role of freight activity in the economic vitality of the country, and the economic, social, and environmental impacts of freight transportation. The project proposes to link the FAME model and a network simulator so that it could be used as a test-bed for evaluating various freight policies (e.g., curfew and load/time restrictions for freight movements) and whether they help or hinder achieving sustainability goals. The project will examine the effects of different policy measures in controlling the impacts of the freight transportation system.
KW  - Curfew
KW  - Economic analysis
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Loading and unloading
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Policy making
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-04/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250712
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481548
TI  - Characterizing Rider Safety in Terms of Asphalt Pavement Surface Texture
AB  - Measuring pavement friction directly involves specialized equipment with a relatively high initial cost. Many devices require that measurements be made on field pavement sections, incurring further delay in opening a new pavement to traffic. Several recent studies have correlated asphalt pavement surface texture with friction using relatively inexpensive, non-intrusive devices. These devices can be used in the laboratory as well as in the field and have shown promise in estimating not only pavement surface texture and friction, but also noise emissions and energy usage in terms of vehicle rolling resistance. With further development, these methods will give pavement designers the necessary tools to characterize asphalt pavement surface texture in terms of pavement friction, leading to safer roadways. This project refines and applies these methods to several plant produced mixtures to estimate surface texture and friction. This will allow for the assessment of rider safety in terms of surface texture and friction. Limits on the mix design parameters most affecting rider safety (friction) will be proposed and a straw-man specification may be drafted. It is expected that at least one peer-reviewed journal article and a final report will be produced.
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Friction
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Pavement design
KW  - Rolling contact
KW  - Texture
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-08/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250708
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01537418
AU  - Sneed, Lesley H
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Rapid Repair of Severely Damaged Reinforced Concrete Columns
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 4p
AB  - Research on rapid repair of reinforced concrete (RC) columns has been limited to columns with slight or moderate damage. Moreover, few studies have been conducted on repair of severely damaged columns, particularly with buckled or fractured reinforcing bars. In those studies, however, the techniques used involve considerable time and effort and are not considered “rapid”. The goal of this study was to develop an effective technique to rapidly repair severely damaged RC columns for temporary service use with externally bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). This paper describes the repair and retest of three half-scale severely damaged square RC bridge columns within four or five days. Damage to each column included buckled longitudinal bars, and one column had  fractured bars near the column base. The repairs were designed to restore the column strength using longitudinal and transverse CFRP. A novel anchorage system was designed to anchor the longitudinal CFRP to the column footing. This study illustrates the effectiveness and limitations of this repair technique. The technique was found to be successful in restoring the strength of the columns without fractured bars, but only partially successful for the column with fractured bars located near the base because of CFRP anchorage limitations.
KW  - Bridge superstructures
KW  - Carbon fibers
KW  - Columns
KW  - Damage (Bridges)
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Rapid repair
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Repairing
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R289%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1322141
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01535750
AU  - Hymel, Kent
AU  - Lee, Douglass B
AU  - Pearlman, Jonathan
AU  - Pritchard, Robert
AU  - Rainville, Lydia
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
TI  - Financial Responsibility Requirements for Commercial Motor Vehicles
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 120p
AB  - Minimum liability insurance levels and related requirements for motor carriers to demonstrate financial  responsibility in case of damages from crashes were established in the 1980s by Congressional legislation. These levels have not been changed since then. The question is whether these levels should be raised, weighing the benefits of improved compensation of injured third parties, internalization of freight and passenger transportation costs, reduction of truck- and bus-involved crashes, costs imposed on commercial motor vehicle (CMV) operators, and other relevant considerations. Affected motor carriers are for-hire general freight and passenger carriers in interstate commerce and hazardous materials carriers.
KW  - Commercial vehicles
KW  - Crash rates
KW  - Financial responsibility
KW  - For hire carriers
KW  - Insurance rates
KW  - Liability insurance
KW  - Motor vehicles
KW  - United States
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51700/51745/12-045-Financial_Responsibility_Requirements_for_CMVs.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1317668
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01531912
AU  - Dolcek, Tolga
AU  - Warren, Benjamin
AU  - Edil, Tuncer
AU  - Tinjum, James
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Mechanical Behavior of Fouled Polyurethane Stabilized Ballast (PSB)
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 100p
AB  - The United State (US) Department of Transportation (DOT) estimates that the demand for rail freight transportation (tonnage) will increase 88% by 2035. North American railroads spend about $3.4 billion every year on track substructure maintenance and renewal due to track-component degradation. With increases in traffic density and weight will come more deformation and consequently more maintenance of the ballast layer. It is necessary to develop an alternative method in order to decrease maintenance cost. One such  method is injection of polyurethane resin at critical locations in the ballast. It has been demonstrated that this method is effective on clean ballast as a preventive measure. This study is aimed at evaluating its effectiveness in remediating already fouled ballast. Thus, clean ballast was mixed with various types of fouling at different amounts, water contents, and sealed in rectangular (76 mm x 76 mm  x 290 mm) and cylindrical (254 mm x 508 mm) molds. The polyurethane was injected into the molds and the specimens were allowed  to cure for 24 hours. This testing protocol was developed to quantify plastic deformation, flexural strength and unconfined compressive strength of the fouling ballast stabilized by polyurethane. The results show that the injection of polyurethane into fouled ballast significantly reduces plastic strain, increases strength, and minimizes fines intrusion. Increasing the amount of fouling material and water content reduces strength and increases plastic strain. Results of this study are also compared with a previous study conducted on clean ballast induced by polyurethane. It is found that a use of polyurethane injection into the ballast can be a fast and cost effective solution for maintenance of the railway systems.
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Compressive strength
KW  - Flexural strength
KW  - Maintenance of way
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Polyurethane resins
KW  - Preventive maintenance
KW  - Railroad tracks
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0701.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316828
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526400
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Baseline Ambient Sound Levels in Everglades National Park
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 113p
AB  - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service (NPS), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Transportation, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) are developing Air Tour Management Plans (ATMPs) for all national parks with commercial air tours, with the exception of the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP), tribal lands within or abutting the GCNP, air tour  operations flying over or near the Lake Mead National Recreation Area solely as a transportation route to conduct an air tour over GCNP, Rocky Mountain National Park, and national park units located in Alaska. An important area of technical support is the determination of representative baseline ambient sound levels for the study parks. During the summer (August - September 2008) and winter (February – April 2009), the  National Park Service conducted baseline ambient sound level measurements in Everglades National Park. Up to one month of acoustical and meteorological data were measured at five sites throughout the park. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Ambient noise
KW  - Everglades National Park
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51600/51622/EVER_AmbientReport_Nov2012LoRes.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1310484
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01526340
AU  - Lee, Cynthia
AU  - MacDonald, John
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Baseline Ambient Sound Levels in Dry Tortugas National Park
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 77p
AB  - The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Park Service (NPS), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Transportation, John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) are developing Air Tour Management Plans (ATMPs) for all national parks with commercial air tours, with the exception of the Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP), tribal lands within or abutting the GCNP, air tour  operations flying over or near the Lake Mead National Recreation Area solely as a transportation route to conduct an air tour over GCNP, Rocky Mountain National Park, and national park units located in Alaska. An important area of technical support is the determination of representative baseline ambient sound levels for the study parks. During the summer (August - September 2008) and winter (February – April 2009), the  National Park Service conducted baseline ambient sound level measurements in Dry Tortugas National Park. Up to one month of acoustical and meteorological data were measured at one site within the park. This document summarizes the results of the noise measurement study.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Ambient noise
KW  - Dry Tortugas National Park
KW  - National parks
KW  - Noise sources
KW  - Sound level
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51600/51623/DRTO_AmbientReport_Nov2012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1310483
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01501999
AU  - Krechmer, Daniel
AU  - Perry, Noel
AU  - Destro, Lisa
AU  - Gallaher, Sarahjoy
AU  - Cambridge Systematics, Incorporated
AU  - FTR Associates
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Weather Delay Costs to Trucking
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 72p
AB  - Estimates of the nation’s freight sector of transportation range to upwards of $600 billion of total gross domestic product with 70 percent of total value and 60 percent of total weight moving by truck. Weather-related delays can add significantly to shipping costs, resulting in negative impacts on the overall economy. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funded this project in order to estimate the impact of adverse weather on United States roadway freight operations. The findings of the study were that weather phenomena impact freight traffic between 3 percent and 6 percent of the time, depending on location, with a national average of 4.6 percent. The cost of weather-related delay to the freight industry was estimated at $8.659 billion or 1.6 percent of the total estimated freight market of $574 billion. While this appears on the surface to be a small percentage the dollar value is significant and it is important to note that improvements to road weather management programs, which are generally relatively inexpensive, can have major payoffs from a benefit/cost standpoint. Specific research required to refine this estimate is recommended in the report
KW  - Costs
KW  - Delays
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Trucking
KW  - United States
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48200/48291/2019837E.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1279464
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496738
AU  - Koopmann, Jonathan
AU  - Ahearn, Meghan
AU  - Boeker, Eric
AU  - Hansen, Andrew
AU  - Hwang, Sunje
AU  - Malwitz, Andrew
AU  - Senzig, David
AU  - Solman, Gina Barberio
AU  - Dinges, Eric
AU  - Yaworski, Michael
AU  - Soucacos, Philip
AU  - Moore, Jim
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): Technical Manual, Version 2a
PY  - 2012/11
SP  - 203p
AB  - The Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Environment and Energy (FAA-AEE) has developed the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) version 2a software system with the support of the following development team: FAA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States Department of Transportation Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), ATAC Corporation, Metron Aviation, Wyle Laboratories, CSSI, Inc., Foliage, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Tech. AEDT2a is designed to dynamically model aircraft performance in space and time to compute aircraft noise, emissions, and fuel burn. In the U.S., the model is used to evaluate aircraft noise, emissions, and fuel burn of proposed air traffic airspace actions under the current version of FAA Order 1050.1E. This Technical Manual describes the technical methodology in AEDT2a.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Computer program documentation
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Software
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47700/47752/AEDT2a_TechManual.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264950
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496720
AU  - Moore, Jim
AU  - Lautman, Mark
AU  - Pepper, Jeremiah
AU  - DiFelici, John
AU  - Augustine, Stephen
AU  - Koopmann, Jonathan
AU  - Solman, Gina Barberio
AU  - Ahearn, Meghan
AU  - Hwang, Sunje
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): AEDT Standard Input File (ASIF) Reference Guide, Version 2a
PY  - 2012/11
SP  - 146p
AB  - The Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Environment and Energy (FAA-AEE) has developed the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) version 2a software system with the support of the following development team: FAA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States Department of Transportation Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), ATAC Corporation, Metron Aviation, Wyle Laboratories, CSSI, Inc., Foliage, Massachusetts Institute o Technology, and Georgia Tech. AEDT2a is designed to dynamically model aircraft performance in space and time to compute aircraft noise, emissions, and fuel burn. In the U.S., the model is used to evaluate aircraft noise, emissions, and fuel burn of proposed air traffic airspace actions under the current version of FAA Order 1050.1E. This document provides detailed information on the AEDT Standard Input File format and requirements.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Computer program documentation
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Software
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47700/47753/AEDT_2aSP1_ASIFRefGuide.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264949
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496719
AU  - Koopmann, Jonathan
AU  - Solman, Gina Barberio
AU  - Ahearn, Meghan
AU  - Hwang, Sunje
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): User Guide, Version 2a
PY  - 2012/11
SP  - 177p
AB  - The Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Environment and Energy (FAA-AEE) has developed the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) version 2a software system with the support of the following development team: FAA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), United States Department of Transportation Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), ATAC Corporation, Metron Aviation, Wyle Laboratories, CSSI, Inc., Foliage, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Georgia Tech. AEDT 2a is designed to dynamically model aircraft performance in space and time to compute aircraft noise, emissions, and fuel burn. AEDT 2a software runs on PCs using a minimum hardware configuration of a Microsoft Windows XP or 7 operating systems, Dual-core w/ 1.6 GHz FSB and 512KB L2 Cache processor, 4 GB RAM, and 500 GB hard disk storage. In the U.S., the model is used to evaluate aircraft noise, emissions, and fuel burn of proposed air traffic airspace actions under the current version of FAA Order 1050.1E. This document is the User Guide to setup and run analyses with AEDT 2a.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Computer program documentation
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Software
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47700/47726/AEDT2a_UserGuide.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264951
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488699
AU  - Keene, Andrew
AU  - Edil, Tuncer B
AU  - Tinjum, James M
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Mitigating Ballast Fouling and Enhancing Rail Freight Capacity
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 254p
AB  - In this report, an application using polyurethane void filling and particle bonding technology for stabilizing ballast is evaluated. Application of rigid-polyurethane foam (RPF) as an in situ stabilization method does not require premixing with aggregates, soil, or with water, would not require track shutdown, and reaches 90% full strength in 15 minutes after application. Polyurethane-stabilized ballast (PSB) is found to have suitable mechanical properties for use as a material in track-substructure. Ease of injection and negligible curing period for PSB makes it an attractive option for railway maintenance, especially for time-sensitive maintenance activities, such as intersections and bridge approaches. Use of PSB stemming from the research presented in this report can serve as an economically feasible/favorable maintenance approach compared with traditional methods, such as undercutting, track raising and ballast addition, tamping, etc.; especially for preserving uninterrupted track operations during track stabilization/enhancement.
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Polyurethane foams
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Stabilized materials
KW  - Substructures
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0407.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257310
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487614
AU  - Cox, Brady R
AU  - Ellis, Trenton B
AU  - Griffiths, Shawn C
AU  - Mack Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Site-Specific Seismic Ground Motion Analyses for Transportation Infrastructure in the New Madrid Seismic Zone
PY  - 2012/11//Technical Report
SP  - 87p
AB  - Generic, code-based design procedures cannot account for the anticipated short-period attenuation and long-period amplification of earthquake ground motions in the deep, soft sediments of the Mississippi Embayment within the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). As a result, generic, code-based seismic designs may lead to short-period structures being over-designed at a significant cost, and long-period structures being under-designed at a significant risk. For these reasons, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) explicitly recommends site-specific ground motion response analyses for this part of the country. Most bridges constructed by the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) within the NMSZ are in the short-period range (i.e., 0.1-0.5 seconds), where site specific analyses can potentially allow engineers to reduce seismic design forces by up to 33% according to AASHTO guidelines. Site-specific ground motion response analyses have been conducted for an example bridge site in Blytheville, AR. Results from the site-specific analyses clearly show that the generic seismic design forces could have been reduced by the AASHTO- allowed 33% if these site-specific analyses had been performed prior to design. Similar results are expected for short-period bridges throughout Northeast Arkansas, where probabilistic seismic hazards are generally dominated by a single earthquake scenario and subsurface conditions are relatively homogenous.
KW  - Arkansas
KW  - Attenuation (Engineering)
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - New Madrid Seismic Zone
KW  - Sediments
KW  - Seismicity
UR  - http://www.arkansastrc.com/MBTC%20REPORTS/MBTC%203032.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47700/47794/MBTC-3032FinalReport.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253850
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486734
AU  - Zubeck, Hannele
AU  - Liu, Juanyu
AU  - Mullin, Anthony
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pavement Preservation Practices in Cold Regions
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 84p
AB  - The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (AKDOT&PF) has recognized the value of pavement preservation and is  in process of incorporating the concept in its road upkeep strategy. A research project was initiated to aid in the development of a  pavement preservation program for Alaska. Part of the effort was to collect information on pavement preservation treatments used in  cold regions. More specifically, the object was to identify the performance of pavement preservation techniques used in other similar  climatic conditions (when compared to Alaska). The purpose of this report is to describe the state-of-the-art and best practices of pavement  preservation in cold regions. The information was collected by a comprehensive literature review and by conducting a survey on  pavement preservation issues. All surveyed pavement preservation treatments (Crack Sealing, Patching, Fog Seals, Chip Seals, Slurry  Seals, Asphalt Surface Treatment/Bituminous Surface Treatment, Microsurfacing, Thin Overlays, Bonded Wearing Courses, Interlayers and In-place Recycling) have been used in cold  regions for over 30 years. Crack sealing and patching are the most extensively used pavement preservation techniques.  Recommendations for research and implementation are included.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Frigid regions
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement preservation
KW  - State of the art
KW  - Surveys
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/05/Pavement-Preservation-Practices-in-Cold-Regions-12-05-12.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256380
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01479012
AU  - Washburn, Scott
AU  - Li, Jing
AU  - Hammontree, Heather
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of an Analytical Methodology for Two-Lane Highway Facility Analysis
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 97p
AB  - Florida is experiencing rapid growth and development. This applies not only to urban areas, but to rural areas as well. This growth is now resulting in congestion on facilities that previously did not have any. One area that is becoming a concern, particularly in Florida, is rural areas transitioning into a more developed area. Access to these areas is usually by two-lane highways, but within these areas, there may be an occasional traffic signal, and possibly segments of multilane highway as well. The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) contains an analysis procedure for basic two-lane highway segments that serves as the de facto standard in the United States. However, this procedure does not provide for the capability of performing an integrated analysis of an extended length of two-lane highway that also contains occasional signalized intersections. In this project, based upon the new two-lane highway simulation capability in CORSIM, the previous methodology for two-lane highway facility analysis developed by Yu and Washburn (2009) was updated. The new methodology retains the concept of facility segmentation from the previous methodology, but was developed in a different way. First, the testing facility, which included both two-lane highway segments and a signalized intersection, was established integrally in CORSIM, while the previous methodology used a hybrid simulation approach. Second, the algorithms used to determine upstream and downstream intersection influence areas were developed based upon individual vehicle trajectories, instead of aggregate link performance that was used in developing the previous methodology.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - CORSIM (Traffic simulation model)
KW  - Florida
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Two lane highways
KW  - Vehicle trajectories
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/washburn_s_cms_final_report_2010-007.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248018
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478350
AU  - Keskin, Burcu B
AU  - Li, Shirley Rong
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Bi-Criteria Dynamic Location-Routing Problem for Patrol Coverage
PY  - 2012/11
SP  - 37p
AB  - This paper addresses the problem of dynamic patrol routing for state troopers for effective coverage of highways. Specifically, the authors model a fixed number of state troopers, starting their routes at patrolling critical locations with high crash frequencies and ending their shift at other (or the same) temporary stations so the starting points for the next period are also optimized. The temporary stations are selected from a given set of potential locations. The problem, therefore, is a multi-period dynamic location-routing problem in the context of public service. The objective is to maximize the critical location coverage benefit while minimizing the costs of temporary station selections, vehicle utilizations, and routing/travel. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model and solved using both off-the-shelf optimization software and custom-built on the decomposition of location and routing problems. By allowing starting from multiple locations, the models improve the coverage as much as 10% compared to the coverage models forced to start from a single depot.
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Highways
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Resource allocation
KW  - Routes and routing
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Traffic patrol
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246874
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472486
AU  - Rickley, Edward J
AU  - Rosenbaum, Joyce E
AU  - Fleming, Gregg G
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Development of Simplified Procedure for Computing the Absorption of Sound by the Atmosphere and Applicability to Aircraft Noise Certification: Proposed SAE Method
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - This report presents the results of the study to extend the useful attenuation range of the Approximate Method outlined in the American National Standard, “Method for Calculation of the Absorption of Sound by the Atmosphere” (ANSI S1.26-1995), and provide a basis for replacing the current Society of Automotive Engineers Aerospace Recommended Practice 866A, “Standard Values of Atmospheric Absorption as a Function of Temperature and Humidity” (SAE ARP 866A).  The report describes the implementation of the one-third octave-band adaptations of the ISO/ANSI pure-tone equations, and the development and testing of the proposed SAE Method.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Atmosphere
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Certification
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - Sound absorption
KW  - Sound transmission
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46400/46441/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-14.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239152
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470571
AU  - daSilva, Marco P
AU  - Baron, William
AU  - Carroll, Anya A
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Highway Rail-Grade Crossing Safety Research: Railroad Infrastructure Trespassing Detection Systems Research in Pittsford, New York
PY  - 2012/11
SP  - 43p
AB  - The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, under the direction of the Federal Railroad Administration, conducted a 3-year demonstration of an automated prototype railroad infrastructure security system on a railroad bridge. Specifically, this commercial-off-the-shelf technology system was installed at a bridge in Pittsford, New York, where trespassing is commonplace and fatalities have occurred. This video-based trespass monitoring and deterrent system had the capability of detecting trespass events when an intrusion on the railroad right-of-way (ROW) occurred. The interactive system comprised video cameras, motion detectors, infrared illuminators, speakers, and central processing units. Once a trespass event occurred, the in-situ system sent audible and visual signals to the monitoring workstation at the local security company where an attendant validated the alarm by viewing the live images from the scene. The attendant then issued a real-time warning to the trespasser(s) via pole-mounted speakers near the bridge, called the local police, and then the railroad police, if necessary. All alarm images were stored on a wayside computer for evaluation. The system was installed in August 2001 and evaluated over a 3-year period ending in August 2004. This paper describes the results of this research endeavor. Topics addressed include the project location, system technology and operation, system costs, results, potential benefits, and lessons learned. The results indicate this interactive system can serve as a model for railroad infrastructure security system for other railroad ROW or bridges deemed prone to intrusion.
KW  - Central processing units (Computers)
KW  - Detection and identification systems
KW  - Deterrents
KW  - Erie Canal
KW  - Field studies
KW  - Infrared detectors
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Motion detectors
KW  - Off-the-shelf
KW  - Pittsford (New York)
KW  - Railroad bridges
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Trespassers
KW  - Video cameras
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2551
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238509
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01457386
AU  - Gebre-Egziabher, Demoz
AU  - Lie, Fidelis Adhika Pradipta
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of GPS-based Real Time Attitude Determination System for ITS Application
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 29p
AB  - This work describes the development and testing of Global Positioning System (GPS)-based attitude and heading determination system (AHRS) using single-frequency (L1) carrier phase differential GPS (CPDGPS). Vehicle's attitude can be uniquely determined from two non-collinear relative position vectors, known as the baseline vectors. The accuracy of the resulting attitude estimate depends on the accuracy of the baseline vector estimates and their respective magnitudes (length). The shorter the baseline, the higher the vector accuracy required to give the same attitude accuracy that can be obtained through longer baseline system. Issues such as ambiguity resolution and phase center variations are discussed. Test result shows that single-frequency CPDGPS is still a challenge, mainly caused by the integer ambiguity problem inherent to CPDGPS problem. A more feasible but less accurate method using a short baseline is also discussed. Phase center calibration remains a challenge for this attitude determination system.
KW  - Attitude (Flight dynamics)
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Vector analysis
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2196
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2206
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225455
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01457383
AU  - Yang, Zhaohui Joey
AU  - Yang, Ting
AU  - Song, Gangbing
AU  - Singla, Mithun
AU  - University of Alaska, Anchorage
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Experimental Study on an Electrical Deicing Technology Utilizing Carbon Fiber Tape
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - In cold regions, snow and ice cause serious safety problems to transportation systems. South central Alaska, particularly Anchorage, is susceptible to a number of icing events due to frequent freeze/thaw cycles in the winter season. Traditionally, deicing has been accomplished by mechanical, chemical, and thermal means. However, these methods suffer from one or more the following shortcomings: labor intense, damage to pavement, pollution in the environment, corrosion to vehicles and reinforcing steel in concrete, and high cost. A new type of deicing system that uses commercially available carbon fiber tape is proposed. This report presents the design of a deicing heating panel, the layout and construction of a test sidewalk, experimental results and analyses, and a cost comparison with other deicing technologies. Sixteen deicing and three anti-icing experiments were conducted in the winter of 2010–2011 to examine the performance and energy consumption of the proposed system. Experimental results reported include system performance, deicing time, energy consumption, deicing cost, and temperature variation with time and location. The sensitivity of the deicing unit to ambient air temperature, wind chill, and snow density is analyzed. Finally, this system is compared with other deicing systems in terms of annual operating cost, unit energy cost, and power density. The cost comparison shows that the proposed deicing system demonstrates higher energy efficiency than its competitors and has great potential for applications in cold regions. A provisional patent application has been filed on this new deicing technology.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Anti-icing
KW  - Carbon fibers
KW  - Costs
KW  - Deicing
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Field tests
KW  - Frigid regions
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2012/12/410014.Yang_.Deicing.2012.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46657/410014.Yang.Deicing.2012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225584
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01456884
AU  - Higgins, Christopher
AU  - Hafner, Anthony
AU  - Dusicka, Peter
AU  - Kay, Thomas
AU  - Oregon Department of Transportation
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Experimental Tests and Numerical Analyses of Steel Truss Bridge Gusset Connections
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 144p
AB  - Gusset plates connect individual steel truss bridge members together at a node. In 10% of the 200,000 steel bridges in the United States in 2008, failure of a single truss or connection could lead to collapse. Regular inspection and load rating are essential for the safe operation and maintenance of these bridges. The Minneapolis I-35 Bridge collapse was the first gusset failure where a design flaw was implicated. Load rating gusset plates is a significant challenge given the number of connections and the complexity of accurately evaluating each one. The majority of research on gusset plate strength is from small-scale connections. More refined techniques are needed to conduct high-fidelity capacity evaluations. Finite element analysis (FEA) is widely used in structural engineering. Using FEA in gusset plate evaluation presents challenges due to the connections’ large-scale, high degree of geometric variability and complex load paths.
KW  - Bearing capacity
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Gusset plates
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Performance tests
KW  - Steel bridges
KW  - Structural connection
KW  - Trusses
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1218
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1224392
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01456854
AU  - Figliozzi, Miguel
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of Travel Time Reliability for Freight Corridors Connecting the Pacific Northwest
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 104p
AB  - A new methodology and algorithms were developed to combine diverse data sources and to estimate the impacts of recurrent and non-recurrent congestion on freight movements’ reliability and delays, costs, and emissions. The results suggest that traditional traffic sensor data tend to underestimate the impacts of congestion on commercial vehicles travel times and variability. This research also shows that congestion is not only detrimental for carriers and shippers costs but also for the planet due to major increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for the local community due to large increases in harmful pollutants. The methodologies developed throughout this work have the potential to provide useful freight operation and performance data for transportation decision makers to incorporate freight performance measures into the planning process.  This first part of this report focuses on performance measures on the Portland metropolitan region and the second part on longer freeway segments for the more than 300 miles of Interstate Highway 5 (I-5) in Oregon. In the Portland Metropolitan Area, this research focused on the development of multi-criteria tools for measuring and analyzing the impacts of recurring and non-recurring congestion on freight corridors. Unlike previous studies, this work employs several distinct data sources to analyze the impacts of congestion on I-5 in the Portland Metropolitan Area: global positioning system (GPS) data from commercial trucks and Oregon Department of Transportation corridor travel-time loop data and incident data. In addition to studying a pre-defined urban corridor, this research was expanded to investigate longer corridors, using programming logic and available GPS data from commercial trucks to segment the roadway into manageable, coherent study areas. Long freight corridors are comprised of segments with potentially different reliability characteristics. This research has developed a programming logic that uses available truck GPS data to: (a) identify corridor natural segments or regions (urban centers, interstate junctions, rural areas), and (b) estimate corridor wide impacts of travel time unreliability. The case study presented within this report investigates the I-5 corridor in Oregon. After identifying corridor segments, this research applies statistical techniques to compute vehicle travel time and reliability for freight movements within each segment. The proposed methodology has been successful in identifying distinct segments and characteristics of travel time reliability in freight corridors. This travel time information was then used to compute cost impacts within rural and urban areas along the I-5 corridor.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Commercial vehicles
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Pacific Northwest
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Portland (Oregon)
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1213
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1224393
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01456851
AU  - Clifton, Kelly J
AU  - Currans, Kristina M
AU  - Muhs, Christopher D
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Contextual Influences on Trip Generation
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 102p
AB  - This study examines the ways in which urban context affects vehicle trip-generation rates across a variety of land uses. An establishment-intercept travel survey was administered at 78 establishments in the Portland, Oregon region during the summer of 2011. Data were collected from high-turnover (sit-down) restaurants (Mexican and pizza), 24-hour convenience markets, and drinking establishments. Combined with person-trip counts, vehicle-trip counts and built-environment data, a method to adjust Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) vehicle-trip rates to reflect a local community’s context has been developed. Results from this study reveal a trend: for all land uses tested here, vehicle-trip rates decrease as neighborhood types become more urban. Comparisons between ITE trip-generation rates and vehicle-trip rates from this study indicate a need for a local adjustment for both convenience markets (open 24-hours) and drinking establishments. High-turnover (sit-down) restaurants are consistently predicted by the ITE methodology, but based on our findings we recommend a vehicle-trip rate adjustment to better match locally observed travel patterns. A model to adjust ITE’s trip-generation rate for urban contexts was developed in this study. The key measure representing urban context is the average Urban Living Infrastructure (ULI) score from the Metro Context Tool within a half-mile buffer around establishments. ULI is a measure representing the density of retail and service establishments serving daily needs, and is highly correlated with other built-environment measures such as lot coverage, density and accessibility to transit. The model developed here has a good statistical fit and ease of use in an evaluation of new development. The approach is also useful in guiding plans as we have related the ULI measure to other planning-relevant, built-environment measures. The study findings are limited in a number of ways. The three land uses examined and the relatively small sample size limit the number of factors that could be accounted for in the statistical analysis. In addition, data collection was limited to the weekday, evening peak hour of the facility for each of the three land uses. The findings are localized and may not have broad applicability beyond the Portland region. Work planned for the immediate future includes validation of the method using data collected from additional sites in Portland and elsewhere, and analysis of site-level attributes that include parking, building orientation, pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, and other design features.
KW  - Convenience stores
KW  - Drinking establishments
KW  - Institute of Transportation Engineers
KW  - Land use
KW  - Neighborhoods
KW  - Portland (Oregon)
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Regional transportation
KW  - Restaurants
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Trip generation
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1214
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1224394
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01456673
AU  - Russell, Eugene R
AU  - Landman, E Dean
AU  - Godavarthy, Ranjit
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Study of the Impact of Roundabouts on Traffic Flows and Business
PY  - 2012/11//Final Report
SP  - 112p
AB  - For a number of years there has been a controversy regarding whether installing roundabouts in a business area are good for business in the area, or whether they have negative impacts on business in the area. This study attempts to answer this question with emphasis on Kansas cities, particularly Topeka, Kansas; however, it does use examples and data from other cities and studies that are relevant to this study. This study reviewed the literature and all sources where national data or reliable case studies addressed the issue of the impact of roundabouts on business to serve as a basis for Kansas studies. Some data that was initially thought to be available; namely, business profits, before and after economic data like sales taxes, property values, building permits and so forth, were not generally available and/or beyond the scope of the project. The study concentrated on the literature, surveys to businesses, and case studies that showed roundabouts’ ability to move traffic more efficiently. Conclusions were based on the widely accepted assumption that businesses and business areas that have good vehicle and pedestrian access and traffic flow should prosper and grow and, conversely, businesses that do not have good access and good traffic flow will not. Case studies that were found in the literature, and from personal contacts, are reported in the study report. Surveys were conducted and sent to several Kansas cities as well as Carmel, Indiana, which is known to have a great number of roundabouts in the city. Personal contact was also made with a number of business managers and/or owners in Topeka. Since no reliable before and after corridor data could be found that would lead to definite conclusions, a task was added to do a simulation study of a business corridor in Topeka, Kansas. The study used VISSIM software to simulate a hypothetical before and after study of converting several traditional intersections in the corridor to roundabouts. The most relevant study found in the literature was a study of South Goldman Road in Golden, Colorado, where four roundabouts were built in a business corridor with many positive results which led to the conclusions that “yes, roundabouts are good for business.” Survey results, reported in detail in the full report, were generally positive albeit mixed. For example, the survey results from businesses in Topeka indicated that 76.9% of businesses answered that the impact of the addition of roundabouts was fair, good or very good, and only a combined 15.2% indicated they were bad or very bad. Personal contact with business managers and owners in Topeka found that they were of the opinion that roundabouts in their area were good for business. The simulation study of the Topeka business area, assuming several intersections were replaced with roundabouts, showed significant reductions in delay and queuing for most all significant traffic movements. Based on the authors’ assumption that better traffic flow and access are good for business, it was concluded that the addition of roundabouts in this corridor would have been good for business. The overall conclusion of the study was that roundabouts have a positive impact on traffic flows and business.
KW  - Business districts
KW  - Carmel (Indiana)
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Golden (Colorado)
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Roundabouts
KW  - Topeka (Kansas)
KW  - Traffic flow
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003824540
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1224265
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01494503
AU  - Cheng, Qi
AU  - Chandler, Damon
AU  - Sheng, Weihua
AU  - Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - OKCARS: Oklahoma Collision Analysis and Response System
PY  - 2012/10/31/Final Report
SP  - 106p
AB  - By continuously monitoring traffic intersections to automatically detect that a collision or near-collision has occurred, automatically call for assistance, and automatically forewarn oncoming traffic, the Oklahoma Collision Analysis and Response System.(OKCARS) has the capability to effectively reduce emergency response time, and in turn potentially save thousands of lives and millions of dollars each year. The authors have designed and developed an affordable hardware platform consisting of four smart audio visual (SAV) nodes and a cellular modem. For networking of multiple nodes, they have also developed a software platform. To meet the critical and challenging system requirements, they have developed a near realtime vehicle detection and tracking algorithm requiring modest computing power. As an alternative and complement detection system, they have developed modules for efficient collision sound recognition and localization. The authors have shown that fusion of data from multiple microphone arrays and/or fusion of results from audio-video subsystems can significantly improve detection accuracy. They have developed a small-scale testbed for validating and verifying OKCARS and associated algorithms. OKCARS is non-intrusive, does not require specialized in-car equipment, operates using existing 3G communication technologies, and is relatively low-cost. It is a significant improvement from traffic monitoring systems currently available, where a human analyst has to make decisions by constantly monitoring several video stream inputs. Through improvement of service monitoring and emergency response preparedness, OKCARS has the potential to enhance roadway traffic safety and security.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Automatic crash notification
KW  - Data fusion
KW  - Emergency response time
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Multiple sensors
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Real time data processing
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Validation
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS9.1-15-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262828
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454112
AU  - Myers, James R
AU  - Ruberto, Gregory S
AU  - Paccella, Robert A
AU  - Ventura, Jose A
AU  - Boehman, Andre L
AU  - Briggs, R J
AU  - Stager, Paul A
AU  - Pietrucha, Martin T
AU  - Bloser, Steve
AU  - Anstrom, Joel R
AU  - Penn State Facilities Engineering Institute
AU  - Pennsylvania State University, University Park
AU  - Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Feasibility Study for Liquefied Natural Gas Utilization for Commercial Vehicles on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
PY  - 2012/10/31/Final Report
SP  - 234p
AB  - Recent advances in horizontal drilling and fracturing technology in gas shale formations have increased natural gas supply such that its price has decoupled from petroleum and is likely to remain significantly lower for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, gasoline and diesel fuel prices in the United States have peaked above 4 dollars per gallon several times, creating renewed interest in natural gas as an economical, alternative fuel for long-haul commercial vehicles. Liquified natural gas (LNG) has become particularly attractive for commercial long-haul trucks due to its price and ability to provide a safe traveling distance of approximately 600 miles between stops for refueling if the truck is equipped with dual fuel tanks. Owners of commercial trucking fleets are beginning to recognize the competitive advantages that LNG fuel may bring to their business but remain cautious with new truck purchases or engine conversions. This cautious approach to LNG fuel is a result of the increased price for equipment (as compared to the conventional, diesel-fueled truck) and lack of infrastructure for LNG fueling stations. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission recognized the increased spotlight on alternative fuels for vehicles as well and released a white paper in February 2012 titled Feasibility of Utilizing Natural Gas Vehicles Traveling/Maintaining the Pennsylvania Turnpike, from which recommendations to conduct a feasibility study on the topic were recommended. The recommendations from the white paper were further refined for the purposes of this study to focus on the use of LNG as an alternative fuel for the commercial trucking industry along the Turnpike highway system. This study provides detailed  information on these issues, including a mathematical model that shows the optimal locations, specific site considerations, and costs for construction of fueling stations at the site of existing service plazas; technical and economic information on LNG engines; and numerous other issues such as safety and benchmarking with other states.
KW  - Alternate fuels
KW  - Commercial vehicles
KW  - Construction costs
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Fueling stations
KW  - Liquefied natural gas
KW  - Location
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Natural gas
KW  - Pennsylvania Turnpike
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/PSU_2011_03.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222616
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472577
AU  - Finno, Richard
AU  - Sarabia, Fernando
AU  - Kern, Kristi Sue
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Condition Monitoring of Urban Infrastructure : Effects of Ground Movement on Adjacent Structures
PY  - 2012/10/26/Final Report
SP  - v.p.
AB  - This document consists of two thesis papers: "Hypoplastic Constitutive Law Adapted to Simulate Excavations in Chicago Glacial Clays" by Fernando Sarabia submitted June 2012; and "Analysis of Top‐Down Construction at the Block 37 Project in Chicago, Illinois" written by Kristi Sue Kern, 6/6/2011.   Economic considerations drive the more effective use of space in urban areas, promoting the construction of taller buildings with deeper basement structure. The crowded nature of urban environments imposes strict restrictions to the tolerable performance of these new constructions. These restrictions are translated in the need for the development of more precise tools that can be used by engineering practitioners to predict construction induced deformations. Geotechnical finite element simulations are a common technique to estimate construction performance. This methodology can be enhanced by the use of optimization routines to calibrate the constitutive model parameters with existing data. Specifically the finite element simulation strategy adopted in this research incorporated the use of an advanced soil model that is conceptually capable of capturing the nonlinear nature of soil stiffness from the very small to large strain levels. In the second paper, the Block 37 Project in Chicago, Illinois presented a good case study to evaluate the performance of an excavation support system during top-down construction.  Top-down construction is an increasingly popular form of construction being employed by contractors in urban environments because of its apparent ability to minimize adjacent ground movements.  The ground movements observed during the Block 37 excavation were evaluated and compared to previous case studies.  A finite element simulation was produced to recreate the excavation activities to more closely see the effect of specific construction activities on adjacent ground movements.  The creep and shrinkage of the lateral support elements were calculated as a possible explanation for the discrepancy between the observed movements and the calculated movements from the finite element simulation.
KW  - Chicago (Illinois)
KW  - Clay
KW  - Construction
KW  - Excavation
KW  - Finite element model
KW  - Foundations
KW  - Geotechnical engineering
KW  - Ground settlement
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Soil models
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Structures
KW  - Top down construction
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46227/FR-5-Finno2CM.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239147
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472530
AU  - Finno, Richard
AU  - Knai, Hilde B
AU  - Posada, Carlos Alberto Vega
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Design and Verification of Blast Densification for Highway Embankments of Liquefiable Sands
PY  - 2012/10/26/Final Report
SP  - v.p.
AB  - This document consists of 2 dissertations: "Measuring the effect of occluded gas bubbles on stress-strain response of a loose to medium sand" written by Hilde B. Knai; and "Evaluation of Liquefaction Susceptibility of Clean Sands after Blast Densification" by Carlos Alberto Vega Posada, August 2012. As part of a larger effort to investigate the effects of blast densification on the properties and behavior of compacted sand deposits, the first paper presents a procedure for replicating in the laboratory the occluded gas bubbles believed to exist in the ground after blasting, and a preliminary evaluation of the effect of these bubbles on the stress-strain response of loose to medium samples of a fine sand. In the second paper, a controlled blasting approach to minimize the effect of liquefaction during earthquakes is described. In this work, a blast densification program was implemented at the Oakridge Landfill located in Dorchester County, South Carolina, to gain information regarding the condition of a loose sand deposit during and after each blast event. In addition, an extensive laboratory testing program was conducted on reconstituted sand specimens to evaluate the mechanical behavior of saturated and gassy, medium dense sands during monotonic and cyclic loading.  The results from the field and laboratory program indicate that gas released during blasting can remain trapped in the soil mass for several years, and this gas greatly affects the mechanical behavior of the sand. Gas greatly increases the  liquefaction resistance of the soil. If the gas remains in the sand over the life of a project, then it will maintain this increased resistance to liquefaction, whether or not the penetration resistance increases with time. As part of this work, a methodology based on the critical state concepts was described to quantify the amount of densification needed at a certain project to make the soil more resistant to liquefaction and flow.
KW  - Densification
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Gases
KW  - Geotechnical engineering
KW  - Liquefaction
KW  - Sand
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Soil stabilization
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-5-Finno1BD.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46229/FR-5-Finno1BD.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239148
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01525071
TI  - Estimating the Impacts of Transit Service on Roadway Congestion
AB  - For the past several years the Urban Mobility Report, the preeminent research initiative to quantify trends in urban travel congestion, has included an analysis of the impact that the presence of public transportation has been reducing congestion relative to the levels that might exist in the absence of public transit service. This hypothetical scenario is intended to provide one measure of one of the benefits of public transportation service, i.e., reducing congestion in urban areas. The current methodology can be improved by using a more refined methodology and more specific urban area data in order to come up with a more robust method. This research will provide a refined methodology for consideration in subsequent years of assessing the impact public transportation has on congestion.  This research will be conducted in coordination with Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) faculty.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Impact studies
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1309800
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01543739
TI  - Estimating Freight Generation Using Commodity Flow Survey Microdata
AB  - The objective of the research is to estimate freight generation (FG) models using Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) microdata as a function of establishment characteristics (e.g., establishment size, economic activity performed).  The research team will consider estimating models at different levels of geography by industry segment so that models are able to capture the role of geography and economic activity in freight generation patterns.  In order to accomplish the research objective, the research team will conduct the following tasks: Task 1-- Data gathering and processing.  Researchers will process the CFS to estimate the total number, weight, and value of shipments sent at the establishment level and link the CFS microdata and the establishments file to study the linkages between freight generation and company characteristics. Task 2. Descriptive analyses. Researchers will describe and analyze the different dependent and independent variables related to FG. Task 3. Estimate freight generation models. Researchers will estimate models that express FG as a function of establishment characteristics; explore the implementation of freight trip generation (FTG) models through the application of "cross-walks" between the various employment codes and land use codes; and the estimation of models to convert FG to FTG. Task 4. Model validation. Using a sample of the CFS microdata, the researchers will conduct model validation, and include the final model(s) in the data base created in NCFRP-25. Task 5. Final report. Submit a final report that describes the research that was conducted and summarizes the key results.
KW  - Commodity Flow Survey
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Freight generation models
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Freight traffic measurement
KW  - Trip generation
UR  - http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3492
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1331846
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472562
AU  - Dowding, Charles H
AU  - Ozer, Hasan
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
TI  - Commercialization of Measurement Technologies
PY  - 2012/10/20
SP  - 40p
AB  - This document consists of a thesis titled "Wireless Sensor Networks for Crack Displacement Measurement" written by Hasan Ozer submitted in July 2005. This thesis, which describes the development of the Level-I, Autonomous Crack Monitoring (ACM) wireless sensor network, is divided into two major chapters. Chapter 2 begins with a description of wireless communication basics and introduces the components of the wireless system as well as some operational details of the system. The main thrust of the chapter is evaluation of two field installations of two versions of the system. Finally the chapter compares the wired and wireless system in terms of robustness, accuracy of the results and physical appearance. Chapter 3 presents the studies necessary to qualify the low power consumption potentiometer displacement transducer. Two different laboratory test mechanisms were  designed to determine the accuracy and robustness of the potentiometer when subjected to long term cyclically changing temperatures and impact loadings similar to those induced by vibratory crack response. The response of the potentiometer was also compared to the benchmark sensors such as linear variable differential transformers (LVDT) and eddy current sensors, which are the sensors that have been traditionally employed with ACM systems.
KW  - Autonomous crack monitoring systems
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Potentiometers
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46224/FR-5-Dowding.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239146
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516349
AU  - Lee, Ming
AU  - McHattie, Bob
AU  - Liu, Juanyu
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Inclusion of LCCA in Alaska Flexible Pavement Design Software
PY  - 2012/10/19/Final Report
SP  - 58p
AB  - Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is a key part for selecting materials and techniques that optimize the service life of a pavement in terms of cost and performance. While the Alaska Flexible Pavement Design (AKFPD) software has been in use since 2004, there is no computerized analysis tool available to assist pavement engineers in developing this cost analysis for a given project. Including LCCA in the AKFPD software would be of immense benefit to pavement designers, allowing them to routinely improve infrastructure performance while making more cost-effective use of the design effort. This study seeks to update the current AKFPD program and create a single software package capable of executing the economic cost analysis and structural analysis functions. Upon completion, the project will provide the updated software, a modified AKFPD manual, and case studies with complete analysis processes to help the new user navigate the software. In the past year, the project team developed a new layout for the program. It also added new modules, including “equivalent single axle loads calculation” and “LCCA analysis,” and designed more user-friendly interfaces for two other modules, “Mechanistic Pavement Design” and “Excess Fines Design.”
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Flexible pavements
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Pavement design
KW  - Software
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/10/Addendum-to-Alaska-Flexible-Pavement-Design-Manual-Final-Revision.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290648
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472474
AU  - Krishnaswamy, Sridhar
AU  - Achenbach, Jan
AU  - Balogun, Oluwaseyi
AU  - Kim, Jae Hong
AU  - Kuehling, Kirk
AU  - Kulkarni, Salil S
AU  - Naik, Gautam
AU  - Regez, Brad
AU  - Strom, Brandon
AU  - Thomas, Jeffrey J
AU  - Yang, Ningli
AU  - Zheng, Shijie
AU  - Zhu, Yinian
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Intelligent Structural Health Management of Civil Infrastructure
PY  - 2012/10/19/Final Technical Report
SP  - 81p
AB  - The collapse of the Interstate-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis has spawned a growing interest in the development of reliable techniques for evaluating the structural integrity of civil infrastructure. Current inspection techniques tailored to vehicular bridges in particular are widely based on short-term or intermittent monitoring schedules. While these techniques have had reasonable success in assessing the structural integrity of bridges, there are unanswered questions about their effectiveness for monitoring sudden adverse structural changes that can lead to catastrophic bridge failure. Structural health monitoring (SHM) is an alternative inspection paradigm that provides the potential for long-term monitoring of integrity of large-scale structures. The goal of this work is to develop an intelligent structural health monitoring (ISHM) scheme for the long-term assessment of the damage state of in-service vehicular bridges. The presented ISHM scheme builds upon an existing SHM scheme developed at the Center for Quality Engineering and Failure Prevention (CQEFP) at  Northwestern University for the evaluation of the structural integrity of safety critical infrastructures. The ISHM scheme consists of diagnostic optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors for acoustic emission monitoring, signal processing techniques for source localization of acoustic emission events, and model based prediction of structural damage using the measured sensor information. Acoustic emissions consist of dynamic elastic stress waves produced by the sudden release of mechanical energy in a material, and their generation is well correlated with the growth of cracks in a structure produced by stress corrosion or mechanical fatigue from cyclic loading. As such, acoustic emission events serve as warning signs for the initiation of the process of structural failure.
KW  - Acoustic emission
KW  - Acoustic signal processing
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Failure
KW  - Fiber Bragg grating sensors
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46228/FR-5-Krishnaswamy.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239157
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01543740
TI  - Making U.S. Ports Resilient as Part of Extended Intermodal Supply Chains
AB  - In 2009, 44 percent of U.S. foreign trade by value (all modes, including trade with Mexico and Canada) was moved by vessels operating into and out of U.S. seaports (MARAD, 2011). These water trades amounted to some 2 billion metric tons of freight. The economic impact of disruptions to this movement of freight have been documented to be substantial, demonstrating that the viability of the U.S. economy depends to a significant degree on the ability of its maritime system - and in particular its ports - to flow freight efficiently through into and out of the land-based domestic freight transportation system. Compounding the potential vulnerability of the nation's port system to disruptions, in 2009 the top 10 U.S. ports accounted for 60 percent of oceangoing vessel calls. And in this same year U.S. foreign trade accounted for some 16 percent of global waterborne trade, indicating the considerable potential for not only costly but also far-reaching impacts from U.S. seaport closures. For example, many firms were unprepared for the labor strike that shut down the six largest container ports on the West Coast in 2002, at an estimated cost to the U.S. economy running into the billions of dollars. And cargo concentration was again a concern. The six largest West Coast container ports were responsible for more than half of all foreign containers passing through U.S. ports, at a total worth of just over $300 billion (Farris 2008). Terrorist actions as well as natural disasters (e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis) could have similarly devastating impacts on people's lives, jobs, and the economy at large. The objective of this project is to develop a set of high level guidelines, illustrated by example studies, that will help seaport authorities as well as the state departments of transportation (DOTs) in which such ports are located to minimize lost throughput capacity resulting from a major disruption. Whether such a disruption is a natural or man-made event, the goal is to bring the seaport's freight movement system back to its prior operating level before costly and protracted delays can occur. The focus of the effort is on identifying and elaborating on the steps needed to coordinate freight movements through ports in times of severe stress on existing operating infrastructures and services - whether being stressed because of damage to port facilities, to the highway, rail and waterway routes leading into and out of the port, or because of the need to handle additional cargo volumes due to port disruptions elsewhere. The catch-all term used below for such efforts is port resilience - the ability of a seaport to withstand and bounce back from a serious threat to its ability to process freight in an efficient, cost-effective manner.
KW  - Container terminals
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight flow
KW  - Intermodal terminals
KW  - International trade
KW  - Port operations
KW  - Seaports
KW  - Supply chain management
KW  - United States-Canada Border
KW  - United States-Mexico Border
KW  - Vessel operations
UR  - http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=3493
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1331847
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01495433
AU  - Mahmassani, Hani
AU  - Mudge, Richard
AU  - Hou, Tian
AU  - Kim, Jiwon
AU  - Science Applications International Corporation
AU  - Delcan
AU  - Northwestern University, Evanston
AU  - Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Use of Mobile Data for Weather- Responsive Traffic Management Models
PY  - 2012/10/18/Final Report
SP  - 92p
AB  - The evolution of telecommunications and wireless technologies has brought in new sources of traffic data (particularly mobile data generated by vehicle probes), which could offer a breakthrough in the quality and extent of traffic data.  This study reviews the Weather-Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM) models which were developed in previous Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) funded weather-related projects and identifies the components within WRTM framework where mobile data could be incorporated, mainly, (i) supply-side model calibration; (ii) demand-side calibration; (iii) model validation; and (iv) on-line implementation.  This report summarizes the unique properties of mobile data in contrast to traditional traffic data, particularly regarding its much wider geographic coverage and travel time information.  The different types of mobile data which could be offered from major vendors are also discussed.  The study finds that vehicle trajectory data serves best for the purpose of improving WRTM models, from calibration of supply and demand side relations and model validation to the case of the on-line Traffic Estimation and Prediction System (TrEPS) implementation.  A framework for how to implement the integration of mobile data and WRTM models was also developed.  In this project the process of following the framework and incorporating mobile data into WRTM models is demonstrated by a case study.  DYNASMART (DYnamic Network Assignment-Simulation Model for Advanced Road Telematics), a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) simulation-based TrEPS, is selected for this study.  Vehicle trajectory data, collected by vehicles equipped with TomTom Global Positioning System (GPS) devices circulating in New York City area during a two-week period, are also used.
KW  - Calibration
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Dynamic traffic assignment
KW  - DYNASMART (Computer program)
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - New York (New York)
KW  - Probe vehicles
KW  - Telecommunications
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic Estimation and Prediction System (TrEPS)
KW  - Validation
KW  - Vehicle trajectories
KW  - Weather-responsive traffic management models
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47300/47329/FHWA-JPO-13-003-Final_Pkg_V1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265064
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01484409
AU  - Ivan, John N
AU  - Ravishanker, Nalini
AU  - Islam, Md Saidul
AU  - University of Connecticut, Storrs
AU  - Center for Transportation and Livable Systems
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Surrogate Measures for Pedestrian Safety in Various Road and Roadside Environments
PY  - 2012/10/18/Final Report
SP  - 52p
AB  - This report presents an investigation of pedestrian conflicts and crash count models to learn which exposure measures and roadway or roadside  characteristics significantly influence pedestrian safety at road crossings. Negative binomial models were estimated for pedestrian conflicts and  crash counts except for fatal and incapacitating crashes for which binary logistic models were estimated. Also models for predicting highest severity at a location were estimated using an ordered proportional odds (PO) technique. Pedestrian counts and conflicts data were collected  using a variation of the Swedish Traffic Conflict Technique (TCT) at 100 locations throughout Connecticut. Pedestrian crash data for the latest  available three years (2009, 2008, and 2007) were collected from the Connecticut Crash Data Repository (CTCDR). The results show that  minor and serious conflicts are marginally significant in predicting total pedestrian crashes together with crossing distance and building setback.  This suggests that these conflicts, when observed over a longer period of time, may be a good surrogate for crashes in analyzing pedestrian  safety. Greater crossing distance and small building setbacks are both found to be associated with larger numbers of pedestrian-vehicle crashes.  This latter effect is not expected, since vehicle speeds are expected to be lower in areas where the building setback is small. This factor may  account for the greater pedestrian activity and more complex interactions in such areas. Further research aimed at identifying a minimum length  of time for accurate estimation of pedestrian volume and conflicts to relate to crashes is the subject of continuing investigation by the authors.
KW  - Connecticut
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Crash severity
KW  - Crosswalks
KW  - Negative binomial models
KW  - Pedestrian safety
KW  - Pedestrian-vehicle crashes
KW  - Roadside structures
KW  - Structures
KW  - Traffic conflicts
UR  - http://www.ctls.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/11-04Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252657
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587420
TI  - Transit Service Reliability: Analyzing Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) Data For On-Time Performance and to Identify Conditions Leading to Service Degradation 
AB  - The main objective of this scope of work is to conduct research on the use of automatic vehicle location (AVL) data for improving transit service reliability. This can be achieved by using better on-time performance techniques and by identifying conditions leading to service degradation that can assist transit agencies in providing higher quality of service. This research will concentrate in two related areas for improving service reliability: 1) investigate the challenges and issues towards measuring, monitoring, and improving on-time performance and 2) identify service conditions observable in AVL data that precede service problems. Output products would include recommendations for improving on-time performance and a list of candidate factors or conditions that could lead to service degradation and how transit agencies could use this information. The results from this research may warrant the development of computerized tools as the next step. 

KW  - Automatic vehicle location
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - On time performance
KW  - Quality of service
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/transit-service-reliability-analyzing-automatic-vehicle-location-avl-data-for-on-time-performance-and-to-identify-conditions-leading-to-service-degradation-2/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396080
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587412
TI  - Development of a Training Manual for Transit Service Planning and Scheduling 
AB  - The main objective of this project is to develop a Training Manual for Transit Service Planning and Scheduling for professional staff. The manual will consist of two sections: Transit Planning and Transit Scheduling. It will cover material for performing essential transit tasks.
The intent of the manual is to be used by new transit staff as well as seasoned professionals who want to review key concepts. Although the focus will be on bus, a brief discussion on rail planning and scheduling will also be included. Using detailed descriptions of typical work tasks, the manual can assist with the intricacies of transit planning and scheduling. It is expected that, with a good understanding of transit planning and scheduling, transit staff can become more productive and effective in performing their job responsibilities.
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Manuals
KW  - Planning
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Rail transit
KW  - Scheduling
KW  - Training
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/development-of-a-training-manual-for-transit-service-planning-and-scheduling/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396055
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472552
AU  - Fine, Morris E
AU  - Vaynman, Semyon
AU  - Chung, Yip-Wah
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development and Marketing of Low-Cost, High-Performance Steels for Infrastructure Applications
PY  - 2012/10/15/Final Report
SP  - 14p
AB  - This project addressed the goal of National Strategy for Surface Transportation Research to improve highway structures by enhanced materials, in particular by design and implementation of new, drastically improved steels with respect to strength, low-temperature-fracture toughness, weldability, and weatherability. The goal of the project was to develop, standardize and commercialize a family of low-cost, high-performance steels for infrastructure applications. As a result we developed steels with yield strength of 50 to 80 ksi, with Charpy absorbed fracture energy significantly exceeding  requirements of bridge construction codes at temperatures down to -100°F, steels that are easy to  weld without pre-heat or post-heat, steels that exhibit best weathering performance among other  commercially available steels. In addition these steels are easy to produce; production does not  involve any heat treatment or thermo-mechanically controlled processing which is available only  to several United States Steel companies. The steels developed in this project were commercially produced in the form of plate and wide-flange I-beams. The steels were used for seismic retrofitting of one bridge (in 2000) and for construction of two new bridges (in 2006 and 2010).
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Costs
KW  - Design
KW  - Fracture properties
KW  - High strength steel
KW  - Marketing
KW  - Steel
KW  - Weathering steel
KW  - Weld strength
KW  - Yield strength
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46226/FR-5-Fine.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239151
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01505573
AU  - Chen, Zhaofu
AU  - Soyak, Eren
AU  - Tsaftaris, Sotirios A
AU  - Katsaggelos, Aggelos K
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Application Aware Approach to Compression and Transmission of H.264 Encoded Video for Automated and Centralized Transportation Surveillance
PY  - 2012/10/12/Final Report
SP  - 24p
AB  - This report presents a transportation video coding and wireless transmission system speciﬁcally tailored to automated vehicle tracking applications. By taking into account the video characteristics and the lossy nature of the wireless channels, the authors propose video preprocessing and error control approaches to enhance tracking performance while conserving bandwidth resources and computational power at the transmitter. Compared with the current state-of-the-art H.264-based implementations this system is shown to yield over 80% bitrate savings for comparable tracking accuracy.
KW  - Data communications
KW  - Data compression
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Transmission
KW  - Video
KW  - Video imaging detectors
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y5-02.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1285657
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01536407
TI  - Optimizing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Through the Use of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Technologies
AB  - Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations can greatly benefit from the integration of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies into the transportation system's infrastructure and the emergency vehicles themselves. From simple emergency notification systems to sophisticated dynamic routing algorithms for expedited incident response, ITS provides enormous capabilities to improve the efficiency of EMS operations and optimize the use of healthcare resources. The expected benefits from this synergy are tremendous for the healthcare sector, the transportation sector, and the public. These include better information flows between emergency response agencies, improved incident response time, enhanced efficiency and productivity of healthcare delivery, reduced congestion and environmental impacts of traffic, improved mobility and safety for all transportation users, and enhanced customer satisfaction.  This research project will investigate needs and opportunities associated with the use of ITS as a tool for improving healthcare delivery practices during routine as well as emergency operations. More specifically the study will examine in depth ITS technologies and transportation management strategies to: 1) optimize deployment of healthcare resources through optimal positioning of first responders within the transportation grid and implementation of urgency algorithms to facilitate Computer-Aided Dispatching (CAD) of ambulances; 2) mitigate non-recurrent incident induced congestion and its impacts on EMS responders and the general public. Emphasis will be placed on the use of ITS systems capable of collecting, managing, and utilizing real time data to facilitate quick and efficient incident clearance and service restoration while minimizing the risk of secondary crashes. Use of active traffic management strategies (such as temporary shoulder lanes) and traffic signal preemption to allow quick access of first responders to the emergency site and/or the treatment facility will be also considered; and 3) optimize the use of healthcare resources to improve surge capactiy under routine operations as well as manmade, natural, or public health disasters. ITS technologies can be used to communicate information about available resources at medical facilities and guide emergency vehicles through the transportation network using dynamic route planning and diversion algorithms.
KW  - Emergency medical services
KW  - Emergency response time
KW  - Emergency vehicles
KW  - Health care services
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traffic congestion
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1321508
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01530515
TI  - Digital Advertising Billboards and Driver Distractions
AB  - There is growing concern that roadside advertising presents a real risk to driving safety, with conservative estimates putting external distractions responsible for up to 10% of all traffic incidents. Studies indicate that anything that distracts the driver from the forward roadway for more than two seconds significantly increases the chances of crashes and near-crashes. Reports confirm that 23% of crashes and near-crashes that occur in metropolitan environments are attributable to eyes off the forward roadway greater than two seconds. Nearly 80% of the crashes and 65% of near-crashes were caused by distractions that made the driver look away for up to three seconds. Digital billboards are composed of bright light, vibrant color, and image changes or motion and are designed to pull viewer's attention to the advertisement displays. As such, these displays may divert drivers' attention from the safe operation of the car thereby causing crashes. Studies sponsored by billboard advertising companies state that the presence of digital billboards does not cause a change in driver behavior in terms of visual behavior, speed maintenance, or lane keeping. In the past, attempts have been made to show the driver's diminished attention could result in more crashes in the vicinity of such billboards, but because of methodological problems, these studies have never been done in a sufficiently reliable manner. Due to the growing debate on this issue, an objective evaluation is needed to determine if the presence of digital billboards really distracts drivers' attention and, if distraction occurs, then to what extent.  This project will study digital advertising billboards and driver distraction and will determine the correlation between the presence of digital billboards and traffic safety through literature review, crash data analysis, driver survey, empirical study using a driving simulator, and statistical analysis.
KW  - Attention lapses
KW  - Digital displays
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Roadside advertising
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316150
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587416
TI  - Cost-Benefit Analysis of Rural and Small Urban Transit 
AB  - The proposed objectives of this study are as follows:
1) To develop a detailed methodology for assessing economic benefits of rural transit at the local, statewide, and national levels.
2) To estimate the economic costs and benefits of rural and small urban transit.
3) To identify and describe social, environmental, and other intangible benefits of rural and small urban transit.
4) To develop concise educational material summarizing the costs, benefits, and funding of public transit operations in rural areas.

KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Economic benefits
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Financing
KW  - Operations
KW  - Rural transit
KW  - Small cities
KW  - Social benefits
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/cost-benefit-analysis-of-rural-and-small-urban-transit/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396085
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01530508
TI  - Factors Influencing Visual Search in Complex Driving Environments
AB  - Research on distracted driving has primarily focused on in-vehicle distractions including texting and cell phone use, "infotainment" navigation and audio systems, and other in-vehicle devices. Human factors engineering, which attempts to account for the capabilities and limitations of drivers, promises to provide ways to improve safety by designing more forgiving systems and environments. Successful human factors engineering requires a multi-disciplinary understanding of human perception, cognition, and the associated response factors. By understanding the driver's perception of the environment, engineers can make informed design changes to operational environments (such as temporary workzone areas and approaches) and reduce the potential for driver confusion, thus improving safety for both workers and drivers. The central focus of this research is to identify changes in the visual search patterns of drivers as environments become more complex. Specifically, the project will look to evaluate response patterns for drivers as they approach a temporary workzone area in which traffic flow has been altered from the 'normal' pattern by the use of traffic control devices. The study results will allow engineering guidelines for the use of these traffic control devices to be developed, improved and refined and thereby enhance the safe passage of vehicles through these proven dangerous locations. The overarching objective of this project is to evaluate the impact of visual scene complexity on driver behavior and to recommend improved methods to convey appropriate information to the driver. The study will initially be restricted to a simulated freeway environment focusing on interchanges and ramps with and without work zones.
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Human factors engineering
KW  - Perception
KW  - Traffic control devices
KW  - Work zones
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1316143
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01518147
TI  - A GIS-based Performance Measurement System for Assessing Transportation Sustainability and Community Livability
AB  - Sustainability and livability in transportation, as the concepts referring to the capability to maintain the well being of transportation systems, have been widely accepted as the critical principles to quality of life and health of communities. Different from the traditional objectives that look at the short-term effects of planning and operation decisions, sustainability focuses on the productiveness and efficiency of transportation systems over time, and pay special attention on the linkages of transportation to economic competitiveness, social development and environmental protection. As the recognition of this critical role, the recent years have witnessed increasing efforts in developing guidelines and principles to incorporate sustainability and livability objectives into transportation decision making. Despite these efforts, it is often found challenging to apply them to transportation practices due to the lack of appropriate assessment tools for transforming these abstract concepts to quantitative metrics. In this context, this study is intended to develop a geographic information system (GIS) based performance measurement system to evaluate the effectiveness of transportation developments in meeting sustainability and livability goals. This system will take advantage of remote sensing technologies and transportation information systems, and integrate land use, transportation and socio-economic data to form an input database. Based on it, a comprehensive list of sustainability and livability performance measures will be suggested for different types of applications. The database, the data analysis modules and the resulting performance measures will be integrated to form a GIS-based prototype performance measurement system for New York State to monitor the health of transportation systems over space and time. The project team is uniquely qualified to conduct this study because it has all the expertise, management capabilities, critical skill set, and relevant project experience to meet and exceed the expectations of the University of Transportation Research Center (UTRC) Project Panel. The team will be led by Dr. Qian Wang who has extensive experience in performance measurement, land use modeling and travel demand forecasting. She will be responsible for the development of the GIS-based system and the team management. Dr. Le Wang, an expert on advanced remote sensing technologies and GIS, has extensive experience with remote sensing, data mining and forecasting of land use and cover changes in urban areas. Dr. Le Wang will therefore co-lead the tasks related to the remote sensing data processing and the development of the assessment database. The team will be rounded out by two highly motivated graduate students.
KW  - Community livability
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - New York (State)
KW  - Operational efficiency
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Transportation systems
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/GIS-based-performance-measurement-system
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302006
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01497001
TI  - Promoting Transportation Flexibility in Extreme Events through Multi-Modal Connectivity
AB  - Extreme events of all kinds are increasing in either number or severity. Transportation provides vital support to people in such circumstances for evacuation and supplies, yet is often disabled in such disasters. Nationwide and in New York and New Jersey record-setting weather disasters have occurred: the December 2010 snowstorm disabling New York City's (NYC's) transportation systems and their emergency capability, January 2011 snowstorms, Hurricane Irene in 2011 disrupting Amtrak, and numerous flash floods bringing local and regional rail and road to a standstill. Impacts are temporary or longterm network closures. Accidents and natural hazards combined often escalate consequences. Transportation is heavily dependent on electric power with increasing dependence on information technology. When disasters affect these systems transportation effects are magnified. Disadvantaged populations are particularly vulnerable to lack of access to vehicles, travel routes, and transportation services. The concentration of infrastructure facilities and usage increases the vulnerability, taking the form of the convergence of roadways at single intersections (the Cross-Bronx Expressway - most heavily congested road segment) or the convergence of rail lines at single transfer points, such as the Long Island Railroad's Jamaica Station. When one concentrated facility is disabled an entire network can be disabled. Though dispersion is needed, it must preserve the density and overall concentration of urban areas. Transportation users need more than one route from origin to destination to reduce the vulnerability posed by concentrated infrastructure. NYC transit and the regional PATH reorganized transit after the 9/11 attacks exemplifying such flexibility. Multi-modal connections provide this flexibility in a more systematic way. Research Approach. To analyze multi-modal connectivity's role in reducing risks in extreme events, selected multi-modal facilities in the region will be identified for transit using the National Transit database and a new intermodal passenger connectivity database and for roadways using INRIX and other sources. Geographic coverage, capacity, usage, number and type of interconnections, and extreme event experience and capacity for each facility will be defined and statistical summaries provided. A case-based approach will provide analyses of types of multi-modal facilities that have been successful or unsuccessful in emergencies and cover experiences of disadvantaged populations in the University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) region. Deliverables include a report covering statistical summaries, cases, a literature review of the state of research, the utility and usage of selected databases in characterizing multi-modal facilities and their use in extreme events, and recommendations for the role of multi-modality in response and future research directions.
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Electric power
KW  - Extreme events
KW  - Flash floods
KW  - Flexibility
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - New York (New York)
KW  - Snowstorms
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/promoting-transportation-flexibility-extreme-events-through-multi-modal
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1266301
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01492471
TI  - Automating the Reporting and Progress Monitoring Process using Mobile Computers for Highway Construction Projects
AB  - Construction is an industry that generates vast amounts of data related to construction, inspection and administration processes. Current practices employed in the construction industry for collecting, processing and filing all the documents associated to a construction job can take a lot of valuable time for the engineers in a project. Currently the university is working on a mobile computing application for automating the collection process of field inspection data using iPads or Android Tablets. The application contains standard forms of the specifications that appear in the Standard Specification of Road and Bridge Construction book. With these forms the application provides a method of uniform inspection that assures the quality of highway projects. At the same time the application will be able to automatically send deficiency reports to the parts affected when a certain item does not comply with the specification. This process will make the inspection much more efficient, reducing the use of paper forms and time consumed in manipulating data, therefore providing an automated optimized application that will allow inspection and reporting in less time. This proposal presents an extension to the application in development by implementing other kinds of reports and actions that will complement the features of the application. The proposed second phase of the automation process will provide the ability to create daily reports, generate reports for the project administrator and automatically relate data from different reports to include this information in the administrator's report in order to save time and provide a higher quality assurance. At the same time, the application will allow for continuous monitoring of project performance, because a daily S curve (cost based) can be prepared based on the inspector's report of work performed by the contractor. By doing so, the inspection team can verify at any time if the project is behind or ahead of schedule, comparing the percent complete at any particular moment with the percent complete calculated from the cost loaded schedule. This could be a very useful tool to discuss the project status with the contractor at the weekly meetings.
KW  - Automation
KW  - Construction projects
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Documents
KW  - Field data
KW  - Mobile computing
KW  - Reports
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/automating-reporting-and-progress-monitoring-process-using-mobile-computers
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261691
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489160
TI  - Data Collection and Econometric Analysis of the Demand for Nonmotorized Transportation
AB  - Fostering sustainable mobility for secure and livable communities is key to address the current environmental and energy crises. There are successful examples of cities for which cycling is playing a major role in their paths toward sustainability. For example, 5.8% of commuters in Portland cycle to work. The percentage in New York City is only 0.6%, despite 345 miles of bicycle routes being added in the last decade. To encourage the use of non-motorized alternatives there is a  need to better understand the motives underlying demand. Econometric travel demand models are highly valuable for assessing the effect of policies and incentives seeking to reduce the indiscriminate use of car. In fact, forecasting demand using discrete choice models has proved to be successful in the case of modal split among motorized alternatives. However, there are several challenges in applying choice modeling to non-motorized options. Users of the transportation system may be motivated to cycle or walk not because of the tradeoff between cost and time, but because of health and environmental benefits of these alternatives. At the same time, there are several factors that may discourage the use of non-motorized transportation, such as poor accessibility, safety concerns, and unfavorable route and weather conditions. For instance, it is often argued that the North East has poor climate to encourage the use of biking. Accounting for factors beyond traditional compensatory attributes is not straightforward and requires a deep understanding of user behavior. This research project will focus on two related problems that are relevant for better informing policies targeting sustainable transportation as well as safer and more livable cities. The first research project is to derive a new latent segmentation approach to discrete demand to model non-motorized transportation choices and characterize both utilitarian and recreational cycling users. For this project, a survey instrument will be designed to collect stated-preference and attitudinal data to test new estimators. The second research project is to improve the analysis of cycling demand subject to weather conditions by building a new methodology to study and update time series of automatic cycling counts, which will be tested using case studies of 2 major cities in North America. Results of both projects are expected to contribute in the methodological and practical characterization of current and potential bicycle users, as well as to provide essential information capturing the motives and barriers associated with cycling decisions.
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Demand
KW  - Discrete choice models
KW  - Econometrics
KW  - Livable communities
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Nonmotorized transportation
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/data-collection-and-econometric-analysis
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258154
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481555
TI  - Remediating Fouled Ballast and Enhancing Rail Freight Capacity
AB  - Railways are an important component of multi-modal freight transport that present great potential for expansion. Specific problem areas include increasing railway car tonnages, speed limitations due to poor track conditions, and other freight transportation logistic bottlenecks. Ever increasing volume, tonnage, and speeds on our nation's rail system are stressing rail substructure to levels never before evaluated or considered in depth. Ballast is a crucial material for structural support of rail tracks and trains and provides fast drainage during precipitation. The structural integrity of seriously fouled ballast (i.e., containing fine particles) and problematic railway elements (i.e., bolted rail joints, intersections, bridge approaches, etc.) can be compromised leading to track instability and ultimately, train derailments. Because of this serious consequence, costly maintenance activities, such as ballast maintenance and track reconstruction, are routinely performed by railroads, especially on tracks serving the heavy axle loads. Despite numerous advancements in maintenance technology within the rail industry, railroads annually invest billions of dollars in maintenance activities. Because demand for railway freight transportation is increasing and sustainability is now entrenched in our public consciousness, new cost-effective methods must be adopted. An application of polyurethane void filling and particle bonding technology has been developed and has shown the promise to mitigate impacts of ballast fouling and to enhance rail freight capacity in new clean ballast. However, its effectiveness in remediating already fouled ballast has not been explored. Further development of this technology into already fouled ballast has significant potential to transform track-substructure maintenance activities and efficiencies.
KW  - Axle loads
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Ballast fouling (Railroads)
KW  - Bottlenecks
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Structural supports
KW  - Substructures
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-01/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250715
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481553
TI  - Anti-Icing and De-Icing Superhydrophobic Concrete to Improve the Safety on Critical Elements of Roadway Pavements and Bridges
AB  - Efficient movement of freight is a vital aspect of America's economy. Weather-related delays to trucking companies cost of 2.2 to 3.5 billion dollars annually. Weather related crashes tend to occur in adverse weather, or on slick roads or pavements. Each year, there are approximately 500 fatalities in the U.S. due to icy road conditions. The worst conditions (black ice) are primarily due to freezing rain and sleet. Existing systems for ice control by heating are relatively expensive and require a power source and the application of de-icing chemicals that lower the freezing point of water require a time lag for deployment. In this proposal, a "smart" Anti-Icing and De-Icing Superhydrophobic Concrete, is proposed to prevent the formation of ice on roadway pavements and bridges. This method involves the engineering of the hierarchical concrete fractured/wearing surface and the application of super-hydrophobic fibers with a siloxane admixture. CFIRE projects 04-09/05-10 provided strong scientific background on a new generation of superhydrophobic fiber-reinforced concrete, with enhanced durability and very large ductility, providing a sustainable material with a service life up to 120 years, which is required for critical parts of concrete infrastructure, especially the components of highway bridges. An experimental program is proposed to develop and establish the feasibility of such a system.
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Deicing
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Hydrophobic properties
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Trucking
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-03/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250713
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481550
TI  - Beneficial Use of Dredged Materials in Great Lakes Commercial Ports for Transportation Projects
AB  - Dredged material management options for Great Lakes commercial ports are diminishing. Many existing disposal facilities serving these ports are at or near capacity and high costs plus limited new site availability make prospects for new or expanded capacity increasingly unlikely. Given the declining placement capacity, use or recycling of "non-toxic" dredged materials for beneficial use emerges as the most practical approach to sustainable dredged material management in the region.  Considering the quantity of dredged materials (over 3 million cubic yards annually), beneficial use in transportation systems construction makes sense since it is one of the most material-intensive construction sectors. As a first step, identification of dredged material sources, suitable use applications in the transportation sector, and required material characteristics for suitability is needed.  This information can be used to develop a map of dredged materials sources relative to various transportation applications. This information can also be directly piggy-backed onto previous source identification/mapping efforts (e.g., Great Lakes Commission and USACE efforts) to refine that information specifically for beneficial use of dredged materials in the transportation sector. Such information will be an important resource to beneficial use interests such as material suppliers, transportation agencies, and others.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Dredged materials
KW  - Great Lakes Region
KW  - Materials management
KW  - Port operations
KW  - Recycling
KW  - Waste disposal
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-06/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250710
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481549
TI  - Network Travel Time Estimation for Freight Planning Using Entry-Exit Data
AB  - The wide use of Bluetooth technology and global positioning system (GPS) data has created a situation in which vehicles (including trucks) entry and exit information on a network is known. The challenge is how to use this limited, concise information to infer the network performance and improve commercial vehicles operations and planning. A broader impact of this study is that the methodology to be developed will show that entry/exit time stamps are sufficient to archive for network performance modeling purposes - which will greatly reduce the amount of data to track and archive. The method may be used to assess performance of networks of other modes such as subway networks, where passengers' entry and exit information is tracked at check in/out points, and networked toll road systems as in some other countries,  where entry/exit data is recorded at toll booths.
KW  - Bluetooth technology
KW  - Commercial vehicle operations
KW  - Entry-exit toll schemes
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Toll booths
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-07/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250709
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01480662
TI  - Speed and Design Consistency of Combined Horizontal and Vertical Alignments in Two-Lane Rural Roads
AB  - The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) establishes that the highway design speed should be logical with respect to the anticipated operating speed, the topography, the adjacent land use, and the functional classification. The AASHTO equation for the minimum horizontal curve radius for a given design speed depends on the combination of the superelevation rate and the side friction factor. This equation provides a balance of forces acting on a vehicle traversing on a circular path for a given speed, but does not consider the effect on the actual speed and the safety performance of an overlap between horizontal and vertical curves. The presence of the longitudinal grade in horizontal curves tends to increase the risk of crashes because it affects the driver's perception of the horizontal curvature. The objective of this investigation is to study the influence in safety and operating speeds when a horizontal curve is combined with a vertical curve. The study will identify the relationship between the combined horizontal and vertical alignment conditions, operating speeds, and safety, used in the design consistency assessment of two-lane rural highways. A sampling of two-lane rural roads will be performed to identify horizontal curves overlapped with vertical curves in Puerto Rico. Roadway geometry, free-flow speed and crash data will be collected for the selected sites. The speed data will be collected at different points along the horizontal curve with the use of portable traffic classifiers and vehicle-tracking speed guns. The radius of horizontal curves has been identified as one of the most relevant highway features in influencing operating speeds (driving behavior). Most of the earlier studies on speed prediction and design consistency focused on isolated horizontal alignment conditions. One of the expected results is a comprehensive review of recent studies that have explored the issue of combined horizontal and vertical alignment and design consistency. It is anticipated that the recent literature will demonstrate the need for a speed prediction model for different types of curves radius and vertical grades. Another anticipated result is the development and calibration of a curve speed model that considers the geometric design of combined horizontal and vertical alignments. This model could serve to update current geometric design practices and the AASHTO horizontal curve design equation. In addition, the speed and crash data could serve to update speed and crash prediction models for two-lane rural roads that could enhance the roadway assessment tools included in the Highway Safety Manual and Safety Analyst.
KW  - Crash risk forecasting
KW  - Driver perceptions
KW  - Highway alignment
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Operating speed
KW  - Topography
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/speed-and-design-consistency
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249657
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472522
AU  - Lindly, Jay K
AU  - Lou, Yingyan
AU  - Walsh, Joseph
AU  - Addy, Samuel N
AU  - Ijaz, Ahmad
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Alabama Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Revenue Enhancement Alternatives for the Alabama Department of Transportation
PY  - 2012/10/01/Final Report
SP  - 63p
AB  - This report examines several potential revenue enhancement alternatives for Alabama Department of Transportation (ALDOT).  To provide specific, useful information, it focuses on three areas: 1) A survey of Alabama citizens to determine their attitude toward several revenue enhancement alternatives, including gasoline tax, road use fees, taxing owners of hybrid vehicles, and taxing long interstate trips. 2) An evaluation of which of the alternatives are capable of producing significant revenue increases, most significantly, sales and excise taxes on fuel, tax on hybrid and electric vehicles, and road use tax. 3) Researchers ran two different models to estimate potential revenue from tolling Interstate highways in Alabama. Results from both models indicate that revenues of at least $240 million/year could be generated from implementing Interstate highway tolls.  Results from the two models’ “Most likely” scenarios generated values of $249 million/year and $390 million/year. The estimates generated for this study are for a mature toll system.  Implementing a toll system requires many one-time expenditures that may cost millions of dollars each, such as an investment-grade traffic-and-revenue study and software and equipment purchases for the Customer Service Center.  Additionally, toll road use is depressed in the first years of operation while drivers become aware and accustomed to the toll and decide whether or not it is a good value.  Estimates produced for this study do not include these one-time purchases, nor do they account for initial lower facility use after a toll has been implemented.
KW  - Alabama Department of Transportation
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Fees
KW  - Financing
KW  - Revenues
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Taxes
KW  - Tolls
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46900/46935/11403-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243276
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01493483
AU  - Huang, Yonggang
AU  - Northwestern University, Evanston
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Sustainable Piezoresistive Strain Sensors and Multiplexed Arrays for Transportation Infrastructures in Extreme Environments
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 10p
AB  - Piezoresistive strain sensors and multiplexed arrays cover a finite area of the surface of transportation infrastructures, and provide the spatial distribution of strain. These sensors and multiplexed arrays are particularly suitable for curvilinear surfaces with sharp corners, which usually have stress or strain concentrations and require accurate sensing. In addition, the gauge factor of piezoresistive strain sensors is more than two orders of magnitude higher than conventional strain sensors. They can measure much more accurately the maximum strain in the critical components (e.g., sharp corners, complex shapes) of the transportation infrastructure experiences. The author has applied the stretchable and flexible electronic technology to sensors for structural health monitoring of transportation infrastructures. The large, flexible and high-sensitivity sensor arrays enable rapid, accurate and robust measurement of strain distribution on any surface. This may lead to accurate damage assessment of transportation infrastructures (e.g., bridges, highways) and prediction of service life, which is important to the highway structures portion of National Strategy of Surface Transportation Research identified by USDOT research goals. The author has developed materials, integration strategies, mechanical models and system demonstrations of distributed networks of piezoresistive strain sensors based on ultrathin single-crystalline silicon membranes on thin plastic substrates (i.e. polyimide). Such systems offer high sensitivity (i.e. piezoresistive coefficient or gauge factor) of single-crystalline silicon while providing lightweight construction and mechanical flexibility. By using Wheatstone bridge configurations for the sensors and coupling them to multiplexing diodes, this technology can be scaled to large-area, integrated monitors with spatial mapping capabilities that also naturally provide compensation for variations in temperature. They overcome the limitations of current sensors, and thereby open up new opportunities for structural health monitoring of transportation infrastructures
KW  - Deformation curve
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Piezoresistivity
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Service life
KW  - Strain (Mechanics)
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Temperature
KW  - Transportation infrastructure
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-4-5-Huang.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261338
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487566
AU  - Coffman, Richard A
AU  - Garner, Cyrus D
AU  - Mack Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Identification of Expansive Soils Using Remote Sensing and In-situ Field Measurements – Phase I
PY  - 2012/10//Technical Report
SP  - 168p
AB  - Researchers at the University of Arkansas have conducted research on the suitability of using remote sensing techniques (radar and LIDAR) to monitor the shrink-swell behavior of an expansive clay material in a field test site as part of the Mack Blackwell Rural Transportation Center Project 3031. The field test site consisted of two 5,000 square foot compacted clay pads installed at the University of Arkansas’ Cato Springs Research Center (CSRC). In Phase I-A of the project four LIDAR scans and 335 radar scans were captured over an eight month period. The pads were constructed of eight inches of compacted clay material sourced from a local supplier overlying a two inch sand blanket. One pad was amended by the addition of three percent sodium bentonite (by dry weight) to increase the expansive behavior of the material. Radar scans were conducted on a weekly basis or after significant precipitation events. Additionally in Phase I-B, an additional three percent bentonite was added to the expansive pad and both pads were reconstructed. Results generated by this research project indicate that the LIDAR was able to detect the presence of ground movement due to expansive material. However, processing limitations severely curtailed the accuracy of this method. There were several issues encountered with the installation of the in-situ monitoring equipment in the compacted clay. Further research is required to determine the optimum method of installing TDR probes in compacted clay. TDR probes and tensiometers were used to develop the soil water characteristic curve. However, the pads did not experience a large enough change in volumetric water content to develop a large portion of the curve.
KW  - Expansive clays
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Moisture content
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Seismicity
KW  - Soil water
KW  - Swelling soils
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47700/47793/MBTC-3031_Final_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253849
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01485014
AU  - Zhang, Lei
AU  - Lu, Yijing
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Innovative Data Collection and Modeling Methods for Long-Distance Passenger Travel Demand Analysis
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 26p
AB  - After the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act was established in 1991, an increasing number of state highway agencies and federal agencies have started to develop and implement statewide or national travel demand models to meet policy and legislative development needs, and to predict the future travel demand. To date, more than 35 states have conducted modeling developments at the statewide level (Cohen, Horowitz, & Pendyala, 2008; Giaimo & Schiffer, 2005; Horowitz, 2006, 2008; Souleyrette, Hans, & Pathak, 1996). However, a lack of up-to-date multimodal and inter-regional travel survey data hinders researchers’ or analysts’ ability to quantitatively conduct reliable and effective evaluation of long-distance travel infrastructure investment and management at the statewide level. Meanwhile, in Europe travel demand modeling at the national level has received more attention in the last two decades. From the perspective of geography and population size, the European national travel demand model, to an extent, can be taken to be a statewide model in the U.S. Among the efforts involved in long-distance passenger travel modeling, the travel data collection is found to play a critical role in the success of the travel demand modeling at both the statewide and national levels. In this report, the post-processing methods (machine learning methods) to automate the trip purpose estimation are developed for long-distance travel, and available datasets including travel survey data and other supplementary data are employed to test and validate the method. This research aims to provide the support tool for long-distance travel data collection and sound methodology for post-processing the Global Positioning System (GPS)-, smartphone-, and social media-based travel survey  data in the future. Alternative trip purpose categorization schemes for long-distance travel have been  developed. Furthermore, the model performance under different purpose categorization is tested  in order to provide comprehensive information to assist the design of future long-distance travel  surveys.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Europe
KW  - Intermodal transportation
KW  - Long distance travel
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Trip purpose
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UMD-2010-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1253554
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481188
TI  - Modeling Highway Accidents Using Spatially and Temporally-Explicit Event Data: A Southeastern Pennsylvania Pilot Study
AB  - Using individual accident records provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), and covering the 2007 to 2012 period, this project will develop a series of statistical models of accident frequency on federal and state 4-lane, controlled-access roads in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The dependent variable will be the frequency of accidents per month per 1-mile or 2-mile roadway segment by time of day and accident severity. The independent variables will include: (1) car and truck traffic volumes, speeds, and congestion levels; (2) weather and visibility conditions; (3) Roadway capacity, lane counts, and geometry measures; (4) Measures of intersection frequency and type; and other measures of facility design, capacity, and use. Should the pilot study yield robust results, we would later make it statewide in scope
KW  - Crash records
KW  - Crash severity
KW  - Pennsylvania
KW  - Periods of the day
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic crashes
KW  - Traffic speed
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250258
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477172
AU  - Goodwin, Gwendolyn C
AU  - Schoby, Jamaal
AU  - Eversley, Shain
AU  - Texas Southern University, Houston
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Comparison of Crashes and Fatalities in Texas by Age Group: Selected Cities in Texas
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 48p
AB  - In recent decades, great strides have been made to lower the number of accidents that occur on  Texas roadways through graduated drivers licensing programs, messages against texting and driving, and discouraging drunk driving. Statistics show that young, novice drivers between 16 and 24 years old account for the highest rate of crashes, and senior drivers (65 and older) have the highest rate of fatalities when involved in a crash. In 2008, in Texas, 571 teens died in car crashes. From 2003 to 2008 over 2,751 seniors lost their lives in automobile accidents. Building on work done on a previous study of senior fatalities, this study will examine crash data from 2006 and 2009 from the cities of Houston, Sugar Land, and Pearland, Texas to determine if the number of crashes per age group is increasing or decreasing. This study will also determine if fatalities are increasing or decreasing between these two age groups.
KW  - Age groups
KW  - Aged drivers
KW  - Crash rates
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Houston (Texas)
KW  - Pearland (Texas)
KW  - Sugar Land (Texas)
KW  - Teenage drivers
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00052-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246730
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477144
AU  - Kaufman, Sarah M
AU  - New York University, New York
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - How Social Media Moves New York: Twitter Use by Transportation Providers in the New York Region
PY  - 2012/10
SP  - 25p
AB  - This report analyzes the use of social media tools by the New York region’s major  transportation providers. It is focused on the effectiveness of their Twitter feeds, which were  chosen for their immediacy and simplicity in messaging, and provided a common denominator  for comparison between the various transportation providers considered, both public and  private. Based on this analysis, recommendations are outlined for improving social media  outreach. Key findings include: private sector transportation providers reach far more customers, proportionately, than those in the public sector; few transportation providers maximize Twitter’s potential; a focus on non-English speakers is lacking; and public transportation providers lag far behind private providers in terms of accountability.
KW  - New York (New York)
KW  - Social media
KW  - Transportation by ownership
KW  - Twitter
UR  - http://wagner.nyu.edu/files/faculty/publications/how_social_media_moves_new_york.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246293
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473904
AU  - Chen, Yikai
AU  - Corr, David J
AU  - Durango-Cohen, Pablo L
AU  - Northwestern University, Evanston
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Data Processing and Control System to Support Remote Infrastructure Monitoring
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 11p
AB  - The Hurley Bridge (Wisconsin Structure B-26-7) carries westbound traffic on US Route 2 over the Montreal River from Ironwood, Michigan to Hurley, Wisconsin. The bridge is subject to heavy loads from daily truck traffic. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is concerned about that the observed traffic will cause premature degradation of the structure due to fatigue and overstress conditions. In cooperation with WisDOT, Northwestern University’s Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI) has installed a continuous remote structure health monitoring system on the bridge consisting of strain gauges, thermocouples, accelerometers and displacement transducers at selected locations, in conjunction with a weigh-in-motion system installed by a third-party contractor.  The main objectives of the system include: processing measurements related to structural health, traffic loads, and environmental conditions in an integrated fashion, thereby yielding comprehensive condition assessment and forecasting capabilities; providing real-time, reliable alerts when potential damage or risk of structural change in the facilities is detected; and determining the nature of the detected changes and identifying possible causes. The developed control system demonstrates its capability to: formulate statistical models to estimate and predict long-term performance conditions; construct control charts to detect, characterize, and quantify the effect of unusual changes and trigger reliable alerts when potential risks occur; identify plausible causes of the detected changes and provide valuable information for maintenance and repair.  In terms of performance conditions on the bridge, the analysis shows that: (1) seasonal effects and a linear trend, included as a supplementary predictor, account for a large percentage of the overall variation in the response measurements;  (2) small, but significant, linear trends indicate permanent displacement of the bridge; and (3) serial dependence appears to be a significant source of common-cause variation.  Further implementation of control charts detected 43 special-cause events over the experiment period of April 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011. While unusual in occurrence, none of the detected changes represent an immediate threat to the safety or serviceability of the Hurley Bridge. Instead, they demonstrate the ability of the data processing system to efficiently and reliably detect out-of-the ordinary events as well as subtle long-term changes. Future work will enable similar data processing systems to provide alerts of structural performance changes in near-real time.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Control systems
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Information processing
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-5-DurangoCohen.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46225/FR-5-DurangoCohen.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223064
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473627
AU  - Hourdos, John
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of Next Generation Simulation Models for the Twin Cities Freeway Metro-Wide Simulation Model – Phase 1
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - The collapse of the Interstate 35W Highway Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis resulted in unexpected loss of life and had serious consequences on mobility and accessibility in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. In response to the network disruption caused by the bridge collapse, a number of traffic restoration projects were proposed and implemented by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in a very short order. Selection and prioritization of these projects, however, was mainly based on engineering judgment and experience. The only decision-support tool available to traffic engineers was the regional transportation planning model, which is static in nature and decennial. Although such a model is suitable for the evaluation of long-term (in the order of 5 years or longer) transportation investments, it is not appropriate or adequate for short-term (within days or weeks) operational planning in response to a disaster or other emergencies. This was the driving force behind the creation of a comprehensive model of the Twin Cities freeway and major highway system that can support higher levels of traffic simulation resolution. Phase 1, described in this report, of the development of the Twin Cities metro-wide freeway microscopic model covered the importation of the roadway geometry into a microscopic simulator, generation of demand information for the entire model as well as for the calibration of as many as possible individual segments. In total, 1,199 directional kilometers of freeway mainline where included in the model. Including ramps and major highways, the number rises to 2,492 directional kilometers. The demand in the model is generated from 859 zones extracted from the regional planning model.
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Highway traffic
KW  - Microscopic traffic flow
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minnesota)
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2200
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223060
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473618
AU  - Feng, Yiheng
AU  - Hourdos, John
AU  - Davis, Gary
AU  - Collins, Michael
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Vehicle Probe Based Real-Time Traffic Monitoring on Urban Roadway Networks
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 85p
AB  - Travel time is a crucial variable both in traffic demand modeling and for measuring network performance. The objectives of this study focused on developing a methodology to characterize arterial travel time patterns by travel time distributions, proposing methods for estimating such distributions from static information and refining them with the use of historical global positioning system (GPS) probe information, and given such time and location-based distribution, using real- time GPS probe information to produce accurate path travel times as well as monitor arterial traffic conditions. This project set the foundations for a realistic use of GPS probe travel time information and presented the proposed methodologies through two comprehensive case studies. The first study used the Next Generation SIMulation (NGSIM) Peachtree Street dataset, and the second utilized both real GPS and simulation data of Washington Avenue, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Minneapolis (Minnesota)
KW  - Probe vehicles
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Urban highways
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2202
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223045
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472541
AU  - Ahearn, Meghan J
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Rosenbaum, Joyce E
AU  - Gerbi, Paul J
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - The Analysis of Modeling Aircraft Noise with the Nord2000 Noise Model
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 115p
AB  - This report provides comparisons between Aviation Environmental Design Tool/Integrated Noise  Model (AEDT/INM) and the Nord 2000 Noise Models for the following parameters: ground type, simple terrain (downward slope, upward slope, hill), temperature and humidity, temperature gradients (positive and negative), turbulence, mixed ground types, hill terrain with mixed ground types, hill terrain with mixed ground types and turbulence, and  hill terrain with a positive temperature gradient. The purpose of these comparisons is to highlight portions of the Nord2000 noise propagation methodology that could be considered and adapted for inclusion in AEDT development.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Mathematical prediction
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Temperature gradients
KW  - Terrain
KW  - Weather
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46271/DOT_VNTSC_FAA_12_07.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239143
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472514
AU  - Huang, Yonggang
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Piezoresistive Strain Sensors and Multiplexed Arrays for Transportation Infrastructures
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 10p
AB  - During Year 5 of Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Infrastructure Technology Institute researcher Professor Yonggang Huang collaborated with researchers at University of Illinois to engineer stretchable and flexible piezoresistive strain sensors and multiplexed arrays for advanced structure health monitoring of transportation infrastructures. The large, flexible and high-sensitivity sensor arrays enable rapid, accurate and robust measurement of strain distribution on any surface.  This may lead to accurate damage assessment of transportation infrastructures (e.g., bridges, highways) and prediction of service life, which is important to the highway structures portion of National Strategy of Surface Transportation Research identified by United States Department of Transportation research goals. The authors have developed materials, integration strategies, mechanical models and system demonstrations of distributed networks of piezoresistive strain sensors based on ultrathin single-crystalline silicon membranes on thin plastic substrates (i.e. polyimide).  Such systems offer high sensitivity (i.e. piezoresistive coefficient or gauge factor) of single-crystalline silicon while providing lightweight construction and mechanical flexibility. By using Wheatstone bridge configurations for the sensors and coupling them to multiplexing diodes, this technology can be scaled to large-area, integrated monitors with spatial mapping capabilities that also naturally provide compensation for variations in temperature.  They overcome the limitations of current sensors, and thereby opening up new opportunities for structural health monitoring of transportation infrastructures.
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Multiplexers
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Service life
KW  - Strain (Mechanics)
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46222/FR-5-Huang.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239161
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472499
AU  - Qu, Jianmin
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Accelerated Assessment of ASR Damage by Nonlinear Ultrasonic Method
PY  - 2012/10
SP  - 19p
AB  - This document presents two techniques for measuring alkali-silica reaction (ASR) damage.  The first section demonstrates the feasibility of using nonlinear ultrasonic techniques to track the progress of ASR damage in concrete. The abilities of the nonlinear ultrasonic methods to identify the different stages of ASR damage and to track the intrinsic characteristics of the ASR damage make such methods potentially useful tools for rapid screening of aggregates for ASR reactivity in the lab, and for  field assessments of ASR damage in existing concrete structures. The second section presents a new model to predict acoustic nonlinearity change during alkali-silica reaction (ASR) damage. This new model includes a chemo-mechanical model, a micromechanical model and  a fracture model. These models are tightly coupled. In the fracture model, a damage variable is introduced to simulate crack opening. The interface pressure and damage variable are then used to calculate the acoustic nonlinearity change. The results of numerical prediction and experimental measurements are in good  agreement. Although more experiments on aggregates with different activities are needed to further validate this model, the present work has shown that the proposed method has a good potential to quantitatively predict the acoustic nonlinearity variation during ASR damage and can be used to guide experimental measurements in the future.
KW  - Accelerated tests
KW  - Alkali silica reactions
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Durability
KW  - Reactive aggregates
KW  - Test procedures
KW  - Ultrasonic tests
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-5-Qu.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46230/FR-5-Qu.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239141
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472480
AU  - Zhang, Lei
AU  - Askaroff, Dilya
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integrated Urban Systems Model with Multiple Transportation Supply Agents
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 26p
AB  - This project demonstrates the feasibility of developing quantitative models that can forecast future networks under current and alternative transportation planning processes. The current  transportation planning process is modeled based on empirical information collected from interviews with key transportation agencies and planning documents published by these agencies. The investment decision-makings rules of and interaction/negotiations among state and local transportation authorities are explicitly considered in the proposed agent-based model. Results on a test network show the current transportation planning process can be improved in several different ways. Either a more  centralized or more decentralized planning process can improve investment decision-making and enhance the performance of future transportation networks.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Government agencies
KW  - Networks
KW  - Resource allocation
KW  - Transportation departments
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UMD-2007-05.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46900/46987/UMD-2007-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243634
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470567
AU  - Zuschlag, Michael K
AU  - Ranney, Joyce M
AU  - Coplen, Michael K
AU  - Harnar, Michael A
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Transformation of Safety Culture on the San Antonio Service Unit of Union Pacific Railroad
PY  - 2012/10
SP  - 211p
AB  - The Federal Railroad Administration conducted a pilot demonstration of Clear Signal for Action (CSA), a risk reduction process that combines peer-to-peer feedback, continuous improvement, and safety leadership development. An independent formative and summative evaluation of the pilot using qualitative and quantitative measures found that CSA can be implemented on the railroad despite the historical mistrust between labor and management. It is helpful if the site for CSA is open to change and local and external leadership support the process. Over two years, the site with the CSA process experienced improved labor-management relations and an approximately 80 percent decrease in at-risk behaviors. The CSA process was associated with a 79 percent decrease in engineer decertification rates, and an 81 percent decrease in the rate of derailments and other incidents. Comparison locations showed no decreases on these safety measures. Sustaining CSA at a site depends on ongoing cooperation between labor and management to effectively resolve sensitive issues related to the CSA implementation, both protecting the integrity of the worker’s process and addressing management concerns. The experience of demonstration suggests that CSA can be effective in promoting a transformation in the broader organization toward more proactive, nondisciplinary approaches to safety.
KW  - Labor relations
KW  - Leadership
KW  - Organizational effectiveness
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Risk taking
KW  - Safety programs
KW  - San Antonio (Texas)
KW  - Union Pacific Railroad
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2711
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46361/DOT-VNTSC-FRA-12-07.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238510
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469990
AU  - Shane, Jennifer S
AU  - Strong, Kelly C
AU  - Mathes, Jay
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Smart Work Zone Deployment Initiative
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integrated Risk Management for Improving Internal Traffic Control, Work-Zone Safety, and Mobility during Major Construction
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 78p
AB  - Highway construction is among the most dangerous industries in the United States. Internal traffic control design, along with how construction equipment and vehicles interact with the traveling public, have a significant effect on how safe a highway construction work zone can be. An integrated approach was taken to research work-zone safety issues and mobility, including input from many personnel, ranging from roadway designers to construction laborers and equipment operators. The research team analyzed crash data from Iowa work-zone incident reports and Occupational Safety and Health Administration data for the industry in conjunction with the results of personal interviews, a targeted work-zone ingress and egress survey, and a work-zone pilot project.
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Road construction
KW  - Work zone safety
KW  - Work zone traffic control
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/integrated_risk_mgmt_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1237201
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469986
AU  - Rahman, AJ
AU  - Parsons, Robert
AU  - Han, Jie
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Properties of Fouled Railroad Ballast (Phase 1)
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 55p
AB  - Ballasted tracks are the most common tracks used in the railroad industry and are designed to provide a stable, safe, and efficient rail foundation. A ballasted track consists of superstructure (ties, fasteners, and rails) and substructure (ballast, sub-ballast, and subgrade layers). The main functions of ballast are to support the superstructure by distributing the loads from the moving train, and to provide lateral resistance to tie movement and drainage. However, ballast deterioration and fouling are major issues in the railroad industry, and can be caused by repeated loadings, which lead to crushing ballast that is in contact with ties. Upward migration of subgrade particles into the ballast layer can increase fouling in the ballast and decrease drainage through the ballast layer. There is a need for methods to easily and inexpensively identify areas that have fouled ballast. The objective of this preliminary study was to evaluate the potential for estimating the level of fouling in a ballast layer by soil resistivity and permeability tests to be followed by a second study. A test box was designed and fabricated at the lab at the University of Kansas to perform the constant head permeability test and soil resistivity tests. Constant head tests were conducted to determine the coefficient of permeability of fouled ballast for different fouling percentages. Soil resistivity tests were also conducted using the Wenner method (4 point method) to determine the resistivity of ballast for different percentages of fouling. The tests showed a relationship between the percentage of fouling and ballast resistivity. The resistance of the ballast layer decreased as the percentage of fouling increased due to the presence of water. Fouled material retained water and filled the voids between the ballast particles, and therefore decreased resistivity in the ballast layer. The permeability (hydraulic conductivity) also decreased as the percentage of fouling increased due to the presence of fine particles between the ballast particles; therefore, permeability and resistivity were also correlated.
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Ballast fouling (Railroads)
KW  - Deterioration
KW  - Drainage
KW  - Permeability
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Resistivity method
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46679/Parsons_465_Properties_of_Railroad_Ballast_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225967
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469944
AU  - Bazant, Zdenek P
AU  - Infrastructure Technology Institute (ITI)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Rational and Safe Design of Concrete Transportation Structures for Size Effect and Multi-Decade Sustainability
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 26p
AB  - The overall goal of this project was to improve the safety and sustainability in the design of large prestressed concrete bridges and other transportation structures. The safety of large concrete structures, including bridges, has been insufficient. This is evidenced by the worldwide rate of failures of very large concrete structures which has historically been about 1 in a thousand per lifetime, although 1 in a million is the maximum tolerable. Improvement necessitates taking into account the size effect on quasibrittle failure loads, a phenomenon that has been mostly ignored by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) code committee until recently, but now is considered seriously, largely as a result of this project. The multi-decade durability has been rather poor for the segmentally erected prestressed concrete box girder bridges, many of which deflected within about 20 to 40 years several times more than expected in design. Significant improvements in multi-decade prediction of creep and shrinkage and their effects in bridges have been achieved under this funding. They aim at: design practice, computer programs for engineering practice, including commercial codes, design codes or standard design recommendations (ACI, AASHTO, RILEM, fib), interpretation of measurements on monitored structures, predictive material model formulation, material testing standards (ASTM, RILEM, fib), and design aids.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Brittleness
KW  - Computer aided design
KW  - Creep
KW  - Failure
KW  - Prestressed concrete bridges
KW  - Service life
KW  - Shrinkage
KW  - Size
UR  - http://iti.northwestern.edu/publications/utc/safetea-lu/FR-5-Bazant.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46223/FR-5-Bazant.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1236784
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01457107
AU  - Baer, Adriane
AU  - Grabill, Kyle
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pilot Car Wait Time Notification System for Work Zones Preliminary Report
PY  - 2012/10//Preliminary Report
SP  - 49p
AB  - The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) does routine roadwork (rehabilitation) on two-lane rural highways that requires traffic to be narrowed to one lane. This involves using a flagger operation to stop traffic and then having motorists wait for a pilot car to lead them through the work zone. The construction contractor doing the particular work is responsible for providing the flagger and pilot car. KDOT standards dictate that the driver’s wait time should not exceed 15 minutes. The purpose of this study was to determine the need for, and recommend, a system that would notify the driver of the expected delay time until the pilot car arrives. The idea for this project began with the Midwest Safe Work Zone Initiative (MwSWZI). In November of 2001, MwSWZI asked vendors to submit products that would address this desire for notification. Two responses were received and nothing further was done on the project. Stan Young, on behalf of KDOT, approved research to be done to investigate notification and control methods for communicating to drivers the anticipated wait time until the arrival of the pilot car. This research has been performed to provide KDOT with the necessary information concerning the need for and feasibility of driver notification, and includes specifications concerning a recommended notification method.
KW  - Driver information systems
KW  - Flaggers
KW  - Midwest Safe Work Zone Initiative
KW  - Pilot cars
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Waiting time
KW  - Work zones
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003823305
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1224264
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455846
AU  - Yu, Xun
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integrated Approach for Nonintrusive Detection of Driver Drowsiness
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - This project is the extension of Northland Advanced Transportation System Research Laboratory (NATSRL) FY 2008 and FY2009 projects titled, “Real-time Nonintrusive Detection of Driver Drowsiness,” which aimed to develop a real-time, nonintrusive driver drowsiness detection system to reduce drowsiness-caused accidents. In the previous research, nonintrusive sensors for drivers’ heart beat measurement were developed and implemented on the vehicle steering wheel. Heart rate variability (HRV) was analyzed from the heart beat pulse signals for the detection of driver drowsiness. Promising results were obtained. However, one of the major issues with the previous system was using only one parameter, Low-Frequency (LF)/High-frequency (HF) ratio of HRV, to access the driver’s status, which has high variability and changing patterns for different drivers. In this project, multiple parameters for drowsiness detection were used, including the LF/HF ratio, steering wheel motion variability, and Electroencephalography (EEG) parameters. Correlations between these parameters are analyzed.
KW  - Drowsiness
KW  - Electroencephalography
KW  - Fatigue (Physiological condition)
KW  - Heart rate
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2176
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223579
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455834
AU  - Heyliger, Paul R
AU  - Allen, Doug
AU  - Lebsack, Michael
AU  - Wilson, Thomas
AU  - Colorado State University, Fort Collins
AU  - Mountain-Plains Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Low-Impact, High Toughness Transportation Barriers
PY  - 2012/10
SP  - 37p
AB  - Alternatives to existing transportation truck escape ramps and crash barriers are examined using arrays of wood, bamboo, and fiberglass structural elements that act as energy absorbers as they deform. The behaviors of each material type are analyzed to determine if they have the necessary potential for extensive use in such applications. Calculations based upon static and dynamic testing are made to predict the type of system required to bring vehicles to a stop. The findings are discussed and guidelines for future applications are suggested.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Crash cushions
KW  - Dynamic tests
KW  - Energy absorption
KW  - Escape lanes
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Static tests
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/pubs/pdf/MPC12-249.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46728/MPC_12-249.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223445
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454881
AU  - Huang, Arthur
AU  - Levinson, David
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Accessibility, Network Structure, and Consumers' Destination Choice: A GIS Analysis of GPS Travel Data and the CLUSTER Simulation Module for Retail Location Choice
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - Anecdotal and empirical evidence has shown strong associations between the built environment and individuals’ travel decisions. Nevertheless, data about individuals’ travel behavior and the nature of the retail environment have not been linked at the fine-grained level for verifying such relationships. Global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS) have revolutionized how we measure and monitor land use and individual travel behavior, and thus have provided opportunities for filling these research gaps. Compared with traditional travel survey methods, GPS technologies provide more accurate and detailed information about individuals’ trips. Based on the GPS travel data of 141 subjects in the Twin Cities, the authors analyze the impact of individuals’ interactions with road network structure and the destinations’ accessibility on individuals’ destination choice for home-based non-work shopping trips. The results reveal that higher accessibility and diversity of services make a destination more attractive. Further, accessibility and diversity of establishments in a walking zone are often highly correlated. In terms of network structure, a destination reached via a more circuitous or discontinuous route dampens its appeal. In addition, the authors build an agent-based simulation tool to study retail location choice on a supply chain network consisting of suppliers, retailers, and consumers. The simulation software illustrates that the clustering of retailers can emerge from the balance of distance to suppliers and the distance to consumers. This tool is further applied in the Transportation Geography and Networks course (CE 5180) at the University of Minnesota. Students’ feedback reveals that it is a useful active learning tool for transportation and urban planning education. In addition to planning education, the software also has the potential of being extended and calibrated as an integrated regional transportation-land use forecasting model.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Built environment
KW  - Cluster analysis
KW  - Consumers
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Industrial location
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Shopping trips
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Twin Cities, Minnesota
KW  - Walking
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223333
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454656
AU  - Le, Minh
AU  - Turner, Shawn
AU  - Lomax, Tim
AU  - Wikander, John
AU  - Poe, Chris
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Comparing Perceptions and Measures of 
Congestion
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - People’s perception of congestion and the actual measured congestion do not always agree.  Measured congestion relates to the delay resulting from field measurements of traffic volume, speed, and travel time. People’s perception of congestion can be influenced by relative year to year growth in congestion, improved or new transportation infrastructure, and societal attitudes on transportation. IBM publishes an annual study on the attitudes of commuters from across the world on their daily travel (known as the Commuter Pain Survey). The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) publishes an annual Urban Mobility Report that measures urban mobility based on public and private traffic data for highways, streets, and transit. This research attempts to connect the relationships between perceived congestion as determined by IBM’s Commuter Pain Survey results and measured congestion from the Urban Mobility Report (UMR) in 10 cities across the United States. The raw Pain Index values (the unadjusted index values based entirely on survey responses) had higher correlation with TTI-based measures than the published Pain Index. The Raw Pain Index was found to correspond to a composite model of two of the four core UMR measures examined—the Travel Time Index and the Roadway Congestion Index. This study also examines the correlation of measured congestion between the UMR and two measures of the INRIX National Traffic Scorecard. The Travel Time Tax and the Worst Hour  were found to correspond to a model of the Travel Time Index of the UMR. The Travel Time Tax correlates especially well with the Travel Time Index.
KW  - Attitudes
KW  - Commuters
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Perception
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic measurement
KW  - Traffic speed
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Urban Mobility Study
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Le_11-00-72.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46378/Le_11-00-72.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223250
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454107
AU  - Höfs, Wolfgang
AU  - Lappin, Jane
AU  - Schagrin, Mike
AU  - Cronin, Brian
AU  - Resendes, Ray
AU  - Hess, Søren
AU  - Pincus, Marcia
AU  - Schade, Hans-Joachim
AU  - Sill, Steve
AU  - Harding, John
AU  - Benz, Thomas
AU  - Monk, Chris
AU  - Engström, Johan
AU  - Bishop, Richard
AU  - Bossom, Richard
AU  - Schulz, Matthias
AU  - Easton, Andrea Vann
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - International Deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems −
Bilateral Efforts of the European Commission and United States Department of Transportation
PY  - 2012/10
SP  - 32p
AB  - The United States and European Union (EU) share many of the same transportation research issues, challenges, and goals. They also share a belief that cooperative vehicle (also termed connected vehicle) systems, based on vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, can deliver significant societal benefits for all road users in terms of safer, more energy-efficient, less congested, and environmentally friendly transportation. Thus, in January 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) and the European Commission Directorate General for Communication Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT; formerly Information Society and Media) signed an Implementing Arrangement to develop coordinated research programs, specifically focusing on cooperative vehicle systems. Both recognized that coordinated research can preclude the development and adoption of redundant standards, provide significant cost savings, and support and accelerate the deployment and adoption of cooperative vehicle systems. An EU-U.S. Steering Group, Technical Task Force, and Working Groups, co-led and staffed by representatives of RITA, CONNECT, and appointed industry experts, are conducting the work for the EU and U.S. bilateral activities. Representatives from the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism participate in these groups as official observers.
KW  - Connected vehicle technologies
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems
KW  - European Commission
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Research management
KW  - Standards
KW  - U.S. Department of Transportation
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - http://www.its.dot.gov/connected_vehicle/pdf/Joint_EU-US_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1218389
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01453997
AU  - Grace, Nathan
AU  - Oxley, Cassandra
AU  - Sloan, Suzanne
AU  - Tallon, Anne
AU  - Thornton, Philip
AU  - Black, Tammy
AU  - Easton, Andrea Vann
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transforming Transportation through Connectivity: ITS Strategic Research Plan, 2010–2014 (Progress Update, 2012)
PY  - 2012/10//Strategic Plan
SP  - 195p
AB  - This document updates the Intelligent Transportation Systems Strategic Research Plan, 2010–2014, a focused research agenda whose goal is to deliver the foundational systems, technologies, and applications that provide transportation connectivity to the nation. This document builds on former/earlier ITS research initiatives to continue the most promising research for achieving a Connected Vehicle Environment and to deliver the next generation of ITS technologies to the marketplace. It satisfies the two-year reporting requirement to Congress by including updated materials — Snapshots of Progress — for each research program, to present research results, lessons learned, and next steps.
KW  - Connectivity
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - ITS program applications
KW  - ITS program technologies
KW  - Research
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://www.its.dot.gov/strategicplan/pdf/ITS%20Strategic%20Plan%20Update%202012.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46400/46498/ITS_Strategic_Plan_Update_2012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1218083
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449550
AU  - Givechi, Mehrdad
AU  - Sarkodee, George
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Establishment of Local Trip Generation Rates or Equations for Mixed-Use Developments in 
Kansas
PY  - 2012/10//Final Report
SP  - 259p
AB  - Currently, the trip generation rates and equations contained in the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual, 8th Edition are based on the information collected at single-use, free-standing sites and cannot be directly applied to multi-use developments. Application of this data for multi-use development sites requires use of an adjustment factor called “internal capture rate”, which is expressed as a percent reduction to the trips generated by individual land uses. These reductions are applied externally to the site at the entrances, adjacent intersections and roadways. They are distinct and separate from “pass-by” and “diverted-link” trips and are applied before “pass-by” and “diverted-link” trip reductions are applied. While the trip generation rates for individual uses on a multi-use development site may be the same or similar to what they are for free-standing sites, there is potential for interaction among those uses within the site, particularly where the trip can be made by walking. As a result, the total generation of vehicle trips entering and exiting the multi-use site may be reduced from simply a sum of the individual, discrete trips generated by each land use. Because the development of mixed-use or multi-use sites is increasingly popular, ITE wishes to increase the database on multi-use developments in order to provide internal capture data for a broader range of land uses. ITE would appreciate additional data from analyses of such developments. The goal of this research project is to establish a local trip generation rate model for multi-use developments in the state of Kansas, which can potentially be submitted to the ITE headquarter for inclusion in the national database as well. The primary objectives were to identify several appropriate multi-use development sites in the state and document vehicular trip data generated by each site in order to develop a trip  generation model that can be used to better estimate trip numbers generated by such sites. A total of three sites were selected and studied for this project including “Mission Farms” and “Park Place” developments, both in Leawood, Kansas; and “Metcalf95 Complex” in Overland Park, Kansas.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Internal capture of trips
KW  - Internal trips
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Land use
KW  - Mixed use development
KW  - Trip generation
KW  - Trip purpose
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003823096
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46126/KU117_Final.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46127/KU117_Summary.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217112
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01449513
AU  - Tittsworth, Jeffrey A
AU  - Lang, Steven R
AU  - Johnson, Edward J
AU  - Barnes, Stephen
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
TI  - Federal Aviation Administration
Wake Turbulence Program - Recent Highlights
PY  - 2012/10
SP  - 8p
AB  - Aircraft-generated wake turbulence has for years been a major factor in the air-traffic-control-imposed separations between aircraft during departure, transit and arrival operations conducted at airports and air corridors of high volume. A brief account of the current wake turbulence program activity is presented herein. A suite of wake mitigation solutions to improve both capacity and safety are being developed, and more importantly, are being implemented. This paper highlights four specific examples from the current wake turbulence program portfolio, which are Federal Aviation Administration Order 7110.308, Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departure, Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Arrival and Wake Turbulence Recategorization. All of these solutions directly support the Next Generation Air Transpiration System's objective for capacity enhancement goals. The program acknowledges all of the past research and development in the field leading to the current successes, and continues to seek constructive feedbacks from the stakeholders.
U1  - Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) Annual Conference & ExpositionNational Harbor,MD,United States StartDate:20121001 EndDate:20121003
KW  - Air traffic
KW  - Aircraft separation
KW  - Airport runways
KW  - Arrivals and departures
KW  - Aviation safety
KW  - Turbulence
KW  - Vehicle spacing
KW  - Wakes
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45900/45912/Lang__Wake_Turbulence_Program.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216249
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469941
AU  - Waldron, Christopher J
AU  - Yates, Denson
AU  - University of Alabama, Birmingham
AU  - University of Alabama at Birmingham University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Effect of Increasing Truck Weight on Bridges
PY  - 2012/09/30/Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - Legislation has been proposed that will allow a 17,000 lb increase in the maximum gross vehicle  weight on the Interstate Highway System.  This project’s main goal is quantify the effect of this  increase on the internal forces to which typical slab-on-girder bridges are subjected.  Both the  shear and moment in the girders and then in the deck slab due to the truck loadings are investigated.  To accomplish this, several configurations for these heavier trucks that have been proposed in the literature are evaluated.  The HS20-44 loading with alternate military loading, the HL-93 design loading, and Alabama legal loads are used as baselines for comparison.  The project focuses on short and medium span bridges with spans between 20 feet and 150 feet and girder spacings between 4 feet and 10 feet.  By comparing the proposed truck configurations with the baseline configurations, the adequacy or deficiency of current design specifications and existing bridges are quantified.  Recommendations for the implementation of a policy allowing specifically configured 97,000-lb, six-axle trucks are made.  The results of this research will assist Alabama and other state departments of transportation in providing a path forward for the eventuality of heavier trucks.
KW  - Axle loads
KW  - Bearing capacity
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Girder bridges
KW  - Heavy vehicles
KW  - Load factor
KW  - Medium span bridges
KW  - Shear strength
KW  - Short span bridges
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2013/01/UTCA-11202-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46700/46742/UTCA-11202-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1236955
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472556
AU  - Geunes, Joseph
AU  - Perez, Cinthia
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Management
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Impacts of Freight Mode Splitting on Congestion, Risk, and Delivery Reliability
PY  - 2012/09/26/Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - Although splitting shipments across multiple delivery or transportation modes typically increases total shipping costs as a result of diseconomies of scale, it may offer certain benefits that can more than offset these costs. These benefits include a reduction in the probability of stock-out and in the average inventory costs, as well as a concurrent reduction in transportation congestion. We consider a single-stage inventory replenishment model that includes two transportation modes: a cheaper, less reliable mode that is congested, and another, more expensive but perfectly reliable mode. The high-reliability mode is only utilized in replenishment intervals in which the lead time of the less-reliable mode exceeds a certain value. This permits substituting the high-reliability mode for safety stock, to some degree. We characterize optimal replenishment decisions with these two modes, as well as the potential benefits of simultaneously using two delivery modes.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Delivery service
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Inventory control
KW  - Modal split
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Shipments
KW  - Traffic congestion
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/geunes_cms_final_report_2011-023.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46874/geunes_cms_final_report_2011-023.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239481
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477339
AU  - Ghosal, Vivek
AU  - Georgia Institute of Technology
AU  - Georgia Transportation Institute University Transportation Center (GTI-UTC)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - High-Speed Rail Markets, Infrastructure Investments and Manufacturing Capabilities
PY  - 2012/09/21/Final Report
SP  - 217p
AB  - Driven by increasing demand for passenger transportation and congestion in key corridors in the U.S., such as in California, the Northeast, Florida and parts of the Midwest, the U.S. has embarked on various initiatives to examine alternative solutions to this important problem. One of the initiatives relates to the possibility of either introducing or considerably upgrading high-speed rail (HSR) services. In this report, the author focuses on this initiative and conducts a detailed study of  the HSR industry to provide guidance for policy. The objective here is to gain a deeper understanding of the HSR industry which is dominated by prominent global players, and one where the U.S. currently has little or no comparative advantage due to the lack of this industry in the past. To understand the core issues and potentially provide an answer to the overall HSR investment feasibility question, it is necessary to study the international trainset suppliers; examine the components’ supply-chain, the nature of contracts that have been observed in the recent past, and the types of partnerships that have formed; do case studies of the economic and business development that have occurred in other countries; and then make an assessment of potential benefits that may accrue to the U.S. As noted above, the costs are somewhat clearer. Since the benefits picture is more uncertain and complex, the author focuses primarily on making an attempt to clarify some of the complexities that lie at the heart of the potential benefits question. This deeper understanding of the HSR industry may help formulation of appropriate HSR investment policies.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - High speed rail
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Investments
KW  - Manufacturing
KW  - Markets
KW  - Passenger trains
KW  - Supply chain management
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.utc.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/projects/reports/ghosal_high_speed_rail_project_final_report_september_21_2012_1_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246699
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01538109
TI  - Bicycle Route Choice: GPS Data Collection and Travel Model Development
AB  - Bicycle use is being promoted for a variety of social benefits. Because of the benefits associated with bicycling, jurisdictions across the central Puget Sound region, and the nation, have been investing in improvements to bicycle infrastructure. Academic and professional literature provides a basis for generally understanding bicycling behavior. However, less is known about the benefits of one facility type over another, or the potential inducement of new bicycle users when a policy intervention improves bicycling conditions. This study will rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) bicycle trace data, collected by the Puget Sound Regional Council through the CycleTrack mobile application. The objectives of this study include: 1) improving the Puget Sound Regional Council's travel demand model, to include bicycle route choice and assignment, which will allow for policy analysis and an improved understanding of the tradeoffs between facilities; 2) improving the understanding of the relationship between utilitarian and recreational bicycling, and 3): providing an analysis of the utility of a number of bicycle facilities that will become operational over the course of the study.
KW  - Bicycle facilities
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Puget Sound Region
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://depts.washington.edu/pactrans/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PacTrans-19-625083-Shen-Qing-Small-Project.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1324558
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01525073
TI  - Transit Service Reliability: Analyzing Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) Data For On-Time Performance and to Identify Conditions Leading to Service Degradation
AB  - Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) systems are computer-based vehicle tracking systems that function by measuring the real-time position of each vehicle and relaying this information back to a central location. AVL systems are most frequently used for fleet management to identify the location of vehicles for a variety of purposes including: improved dispatch, operation efficiency, and faster response times to disruptions in service, such as vehicle failure or unexpected congestion; quicker responses to threats of criminal activity; and improved data for future planning purposes.  Data from an AVL system can also be used to measure, monitor, and improve service reliability, also known as on-time performance.  The main objective of this research is investigate the use of AVL data for improving transit service reliability. This can be achieved by using better on-time performance (OTP) techniques and by identifying conditions leading to service degradation that can assist transit agencies in providing higher quality of service.  As on-time performance is very important to the transit customer, OTP strategies can help improve customer satisfaction and attract new transit riders. Reliability is one of the areas that transit agencies can use to improve service at a relatively low cost. Therefore, the benefit to cost ratio of improving on-time performance is expected to be significant.   This research will concentrate in two related areas for improving service reliability: 1) investigate the challenges and issues towards measuring, monitoring, and improving on-time performance and 2) identify service conditions observable in AVL data that precede service problems. Output products include recommendations for improving on-time performance and a list of candidate factors or conditions that could lead to service degradation and how transit agencies could use this information. The results from this research may warrant the development of computerized tools as the next step.
KW  - Automatic vehicle location
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Customer satisfaction
KW  - Dispatching
KW  - Fleet management
KW  - On time performance
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Service disruption
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2012/09/transit-service-reliability-analyzing-automatic-vehicle-location-avl-data-for-on-time-performance-and-to-identify-conditions-leading-to-service-degradation/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1309802
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01492241
TI  - Energy Efficient and Environmental Friendly Cement Free Concrete (CFC) for Pavement and Bridge Deck Application
AB  - Cement manufacturing process accounts for approximately 5-7% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and has significant adverse impact on a wide range of sustainability issues including climate change, pollution and resources depletion. Increased awareness in this decade on the significance of developing sustainable and environmentally efficient infrastructure materials renewed the interest in exploring Cement Free Concrete (CFC) (also known as Alkali Activated Concrete or Geopolymer Concrete). This low energy, sustainable concretes are developed by activating fly ash or ground granulated blast furnace slag using commercially available alkali such as sodium hydroxide or sodium silicate hydrate (waterglass). However, the lack of studies and experimental data on optimum mixture proportioning of alkali activated concretes, especially for pavement application, is a serious limitation in designing and developing concretes of appropriate specifications in the field. In the proposed study, an experimental characterization to evaluate the viability of alkali activated CFC for pavement and bridge deck applications, by activating Class C fly ash or slag is recommended. The major focus of the proposed study is to identify the optimal proportion of an activator or a combination of activators that can provide adequate strength without requiring any thermal curing, making the CFCs even more energy efficient and user friendly. In addition to the optimum mixture proportion, the fresh properties (workability, setting time and heat of hydration), hardened properties (compressive, tensile, flexural strengths, modulus of elasticity and stress strain behavior), and durability performance (resistance to drying shrinkage, chloride ion penetration, alkali silica reaction) will be evaluated in comparison to the performance of a typical concrete mixture proportion that New York/New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT) use for the pavement and bridge deck construction. Intellectual Merits of the proposed study is that it will provide deeper insight into the behavior and performance of alkali activated concrete, especially for pavement and bridge deck construction applications. The experimental data obtained through this research may contribute to develop standards and guidelines that may promote the usage of this greener concrete by the DOTs, especially in Region 2.
KW  - Activators
KW  - Alkali
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Cement
KW  - Energy efficiency
KW  - Fly ash
KW  - Geopolymer concrete
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Slag
KW  - Sustainable development
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/energy-efficient-and-environmental-friendly-cement-free-concrete
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261206
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471904
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Shilling, Fraser M.
AU  - Haverkamp, Paul
AU  - Santos, Maria
AU  - Ustin, S L
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Limited Wildlife Diversity at Highway Right-of-Way Crossings
PY  - 2012/09/15/Final Report
SP  - 21p
AB  - This project included estimation of animal occurrence near and using structures (e.g., culverts, street, and RR crossing structures) to cross the Interstate-80 right-of-way in the Sierra Nevada, California. A combination of track plates near over-crossings and remote cameras at under-crossings was used to index wildlife occurrence and crossings. Diversity was relatively low in the highway right-of-way and at highway under-crossings. Across six highway under-crossings, only eight of 38 possible species were observed moving through these crossings from one side of the highway right-of-way to the other. Alpha diversity at highway crossings ranged widely for wildlife near street under and over-crossings, but was not related to nearby land development. Wildlife use of existing under-crossing structures was inversely proportional to the presence of humans and frequency of human use of the same structures. This has important implications for effectiveness of existing structures and purpose-built “wildlife crossings” to provide for wildlife movement.
KW  - Biodiversity
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Motion
KW  - Right of way (Land)
KW  - Roadside fauna
KW  - Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.)
KW  - Wildlife crossings
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1680
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217344
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476036
AU  - Biernbaum, Lee
AU  - Hagemann, Garrett
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Runway Incursion Severity Risk Analysis
PY  - 2012/09/14/Final Report
SP  - 272p
AB  - Runway incursions are defined as the unauthorized presence of a vehicle, pedestrian, or aircraft on a runway. Identifying situations or conditions in which runway incursions are more likely to be severe can suggest policy implications and areas for future safety research. Previous work in this area focused on a narrative approach. This study seeks to examine runway incursions from a statistical perspective and provide insights into the broad trends underlying severity. This report analyzes 10 years of runway incursion event information. A variety of FAA data sources were used to provide information on the event itself, airport characteristics, and airport operations at the time of the incident. Weather information was also incorporated using automated weather readings from airports. The culmination of the analysis is a series of discrete choice models focusing on different sets of incident characteristics.  As this represents the first regression-based analysis of these data, the results are suggestive rather than definitive. For example, controller incidents appear to be more severe on average.  The results also suggest some areas for further investigation: specifically a need for understanding the frequency of incursions and improvements to the severity measure.
KW  - Air traffic controllers
KW  - Aviation safety
KW  - Choice models
KW  - Discrete choice
KW  - Regression analysis
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Runway incursions
KW  - Statistical analysis
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46878/Final_Report_-_Runway_Incursion_Severity_Risk_Analysis__read-only___2_.docx
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245584
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01477129
AU  - Bras, Bert
AU  - Leigh, Nancey Green
AU  - Yang, Jiawen
AU  - Georgia Transportation Institute University Transportation Center (GTI-UTC)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Effects of Private Transportation Improvements on Economic Development
PY  - 2012/09/13/Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - In this project, the authors explored opportunities and effects of public-private or private- partnerships for mobility improvements (incl. alternative fueled shuttles and IT infrastructure) and assessed their effects on local and regional economic development (incl. low income workers/households). The major focus was on South-Atlanta and the region around the City of Hapeville where closure of the Ford Hapeville assembly plant has negatively impacted the local economy. We partnered with Ford Motor Company and Jacoby Development to study the extended benefits of Jacoby Development’s “Aerotropolis Atlanta” development planned for the site of the former Ford assembly plant in the City of Hapeville, Georgia. The project assessed the triple bottom line benefits of different mobility and transportation options for the site, surrounding neighborhoods, the adjacent Atlanta airport, and the regional transportation system, coupled with different energy generation and industrial co-location options. Increased understanding of such benefits will also impact developments at other former manufacturing sites. In recent years, transit oriented developments in previously developed urban areas have linked private investments and redevelopment activity that is residential and commercial/retail business based. The projected private investment for redevelopment explored here will help to retain and grow industrial business and job opportunities that can compensate for the loss of a major industrial employer. This, in turn, will help to reverse a trend of good jobs lost in urban areas that is gaining increasing national attention. Towards the end of this project, we expanded our research to explore the potential of implementing a broader aerotropolis concept that would encompass other communities in the airport’s sphere of influence, serving to promote a logistics-based, clean tech development strategy. This concept is seen as a promising solution to addressing the uneven development pattern of the metro area in which the southern crescent portion that encompasses the airport has not benefited from the mobility and transportation improvements and associated economic development of the northern half.
KW  - Aerotropolis
KW  - Atlanta (Georgia)
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Public private partnerships
KW  - Regional transportation
KW  - Shuttle buses
KW  - Transit oriented development
UR  - http://www.utc.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/projects/reports/yang_green_leigh_and_bras_effects_of_private_transportation_improvements_on_economic_development_aerotropolis_final_report_sept13_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246695
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489639
TI  - HSA Safety Data Community/Analysis Dashboard
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Policy
KW  - Standards
KW  - Technical assistance
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258869
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446297
AU  - Peters, Klaus-Markus
AU  - Hetzel, Brian P
AU  - Wagner, Timothy R
AU  - Zeller, Matthias
AU  - Wallace, Darrell R
AU  - Fireline TCON, Incorporated
AU  - Youngstown State University Center for Transportation and Materials Engineering
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Advanced Ceramic-Metallic Composites for Lightweight Vehicle Braking Systems
PY  - 2012/09/11/Final Report
SP  - 19p
AB  - According to the Federal Transit Administration Strategic Research Plan:  “Researching  technologies to reduce vehicle weight can also lead to important reductions in fuel  consumption and emissions. The power required to accelerate a bus and overcome rolling  resistance is directly proportional to vehicle weight. Composite materials are one example of  an FTA research area aimed at reducing vehicle weights.”  One way to reduce vehicle weight  is through the development of lightweight components for advanced braking systems.  Gray  cast iron has been the material of choice in braking systems (such as in brake rotors and  drums) because it is inexpensive and a large supply chain infrastructure is in place for  engineering and manufacturing gray cast iron components.  However, gray cast iron is a  relatively heavy material.  Utilizing lighter weight materials in braking systems would not only  achieve better fuel economy by reducing the vehicle’s static weight but, since brake rotors and  drums are rotating components, there would be a large multiplying effect on reducing the  amount of energy required to increase their rotational speed as the vehicle accelerates.   Finally, as the braking system is an unsprung weight, a lighter system would significantly  improve vehicle handling performance and safety.  In spite of obvious benefits to lightweight materials, there are significant technical and  commercial challenges to overcome.  Most lightweight materials do not have the physical,  thermal, and tribological performance characteristics required for brake applications, such as a  high strength and high thermal conductivity at elevated temperatures.  Lightweight alternatives  to cast iron that currently do exist are prohibitively expensive for general use in most vehicles.  The TCON materials produced by Fireline, Inc. are a class of interpenetrating phase  composites produced by a unique reactive metal penetration process.  TCON materials  contain continuous, microscopic networks of ceramic and metallic phases that are co-continuous and strongly bonded together.  This unique material structure is substantially  different from traditional metal matrix and ceramic matrix composites, therefore TCON  materials exhibit mechanical, physical and thermal properties that are quite distinctive.   Through process variations, the properties of TCON composites can be tailored to meet the  requirements of specific applications.  TCON materials can be net-shaped or near-net shaped  in a wide variety of useful forms and sizes, making the process relatively low cost.   In collaboration between Fireline and Youngstown State University, this project investigated  how TCON materials may be utilized in lightweight vehicle brake systems.  The project results  are very promising, showing that TCON composites exhibited friction and  thermal  management  properties  similar to or better than cast iron, but with half the weight and  less  wear.  It is expected that Fireline will continue on with the further development and evaluation  of prototype TCON  brake rotors,  possibly  leading to  the  commercialization of TCON brake  components.
KW  - Brakes
KW  - Braking performance
KW  - Cermets
KW  - Composite materials
KW  - Light vehicles
KW  - Prototypes
KW  - Vehicle weight
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45900/45928/120911_CTME_Fireline_Final_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1213857
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470844
AU  - Allwell, Cassandra
AU  - Perlman, David
AU  - Paiewonsky, Luisa
AU  - Vasconez, Kimberly C
AU  - Lane, Tim
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Senior Executive Transportation & Public Safety Summit: National Traffic Incident Management Leadership & Innovation Roadmap for Success
PY  - 2012/09/05
SP  - 45p
AB  - This report summarizes the proceedings, findings, and recommendations from a two-day Senior Executive Summit on Transportation and Public Safety, held June 26 and 27, 2012 at the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) in Washington, D.C. This forum of senior-level, multi-disciplinary executives representing the transportation, law enforcement, fire and rescue, and emergency medical services communities addressed major challenges and innovative solutions in  enhancing the state of the practice nationally in Traffic Incident Management (TIM). Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Deputy Administrator Greg Nadeau, and FHWA Executive Director Jeff Paniati provided opening remarks expressing the commitment of the entire Department to support safe, quick traffic incident response on the Nation’s roadways.  Participants at the Summit discussed innovative practices in TIM policies, legislation,  training and outreach. Summit highlights included discussions and presentations on the following issues:  Improving responder and motorist safety and consistency among jurisdictions; Supporting TIM outreach initiatives and messaging; Enhancing State and local legislation and policies that advance TIM planning and operations, including Driver Removal and Authority Removal legislation; Supporting urgent and clearly-defined research strategies, such as model Move Over and Driver Removal laws, the effects of emergency lighting, and the impact of TIM performance measures; Implementing the  National TIM Responder Training course developed through the Transportation Research Board’s Second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2); Improving the efficiency of the highway system through possible cost-recovery strategies, better investment of cost-efficient resources, and improved communication among responders about roles and responsibilities; and Developing an action-based executive group equipped to provide leadership, support, and guidance in advancing priority actions.
KW  - Communication
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Innovation
KW  - Law enforcement
KW  - Leadership
KW  - Legislation
KW  - Policy
KW  - Safety
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic incidents
KW  - Training
UR  - http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/publications/publicsafetysummit/fhwahop12051.pdf
UR  - http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/eto_tim_pse/publications/publicsafetysummit/index.htm
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46199/PublicSafetySummit_2012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238464
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01556865
TI  - State-of-Practice Approaches and Technologies for Inventory Data Collection of Mississippi's Public Road System
AB  - The Mississippi Highway System consists of about 75,000 miles of public roads and streets. Of them, about 11,000 miles are maintained by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT), and the rest are maintained by county, city, and other agencies. The total road mileage increases constantly with the addition of new subdivisons and connector roads. Also, highway improvement projects may take place on the state, regional, and local levels every year according to the maintenance needs and traffic growth needs of these transportation agencies, which will change the road inventory and condition as well as the mileages associated with the pavement conditions.  It is MDOT's responsibility to gather the latest road mileage and pavement status information of the entire public road system in Mississippi annually and report it to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). For the state maintained highway network and part of the National Highway System, the mileage, pavement type, and location information is well stored and updated in a timely manner. Therefore, this inventory data collection study is mainly focused on the remaining 64,000 miles non-state maintained public roads.  Currently, field travel is used by the Planning Division of MDOT to collect the inventory data of non-state maintained public roads. An inventory crew continuously rides every road in the state, one county at a time, and brings detailed information to update the database/global position system (GIS) maintained by the Planning Division of MDOT. It is known that the field travel approach for inventory data collection is time-consuming and costly. The Planning Division of MDOT needs a more economical and efficient way to collect location, surface type, and road length for the public road system. This research project will use an online survey distributed to all other states in the country to identify the state of the practice strategies used by other states and based on the research results make recommendations to MDOT. The research will also find a possible solution to the Mississippi problem using a pilot study.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Economic efficiency
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Mississippi
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Public roads
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Surveys
UR  - http://www.jsums.edu/imtrans/state-of-practice-approaches-and-technologies-for-inventory-data-collection-of-mississippis-public-road-system/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1346113
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01532674
TI  - Laboratory Study of High Performance Curing Compounds for Concrete Pavement - Phase II
AB  - The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the existence of bleed water on the surface of the concrete at the time of curing compound application and the concrete's resistance to scaling. This study hopes to advance the findings from the Phase I study, without repeating the Phase I tests. Out of the six treatments (five curing compounds, one wet room curing) used in Phase I, one has been dropped and five remain. The five curing treatments that will be tested are standard wet room curing, linseed oil emulsion, wax emulsion, PAMS and acrylic sealing compound. The CRE sealing compound was dropped from Phase II because the acrylic sealing compound over all mix types had superior durability performance, coupled with the fact that the VOC's released by the CRE were flammable making it impractical for most applications.
KW  - Bleeding (Pavements)
KW  - Concrete curing
KW  - Durability
KW  - Emulsions
KW  - High performance concrete
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Sealing compounds
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/08-01/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1318083
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01525070
TI  - Evaluating the State of Mobility Management and Human Service Transportation Coordination
AB  - The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has been engaged, as part of its livability goals, in helping persons with disabilities, older adults, low income persons, and other transportation disadvantaged populations be to active and engaged in their communities by having access to the mobility options that make it possible to connect to employment, community services, and activities.  The alternative is isolation or institutional care for these individuals, which drains governmental resources, thwarts individuals from contributing to their communities, and results in diminished health and unfulfilling lives for those who are not able or cannot afford to drive. To pursue this objective of community connectivity through mobility, the Secretary of Transportation chairs a Federal Interagency Council on Access and Mobility (CCAM) that strives to coordinate federal programs funding transportation to improve community mobility options for transportation disadvantaged populations.  Coordination and mobility management programs improve cost-effectiveness and quality of service. The FTA and its Council partners have worked to build a transportation coordination infrastructure that includes establishing coordinated transportation planning processes, mobility management coordination practices, one call/one click transportation management centers, and state leadership activities, including the development of state and regional transportation coordinating councils. However, a 2011 General Accounting Office (GAO) report suggests that duplication still exists and many improvements could be made to the coordination efforts. The GAO did recognize that improvements had occurred, specifically at the state and local levels, but suggested Congress may want to consider requiring federal funding programs to participate in coordinated planning. A 2012 GAO report further analyzed the issue by examining federal programs that may fund transportation services for the transportation disadvantaged, federal coordination efforts undertaken since 2003, and coordination at the state and local levels. In doing so, the GAO interviewed program officials from eight federal agencies and the National Resource Center for Human Service Transportation Coordination, state and local officials from five states, transportation researchers, and representatives from relevant industry and advocacy groups. Previous research has also examined the state human service transportation coordinating councils. While interviews of federal, state, and local officials have been conducted, less research is available regarding the impacts of these programs on end users. To that end, this study proposes to conduct a series of surveys across the country of human service transportation users. The effectiveness of these programs can ultimately be evaluated based on the economic and quality of life impacts they have on their users. This study will attempt to answer these questions and investigate quality of service and ease of access from the perspective of the user.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Aged
KW  - Low income groups
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Transportation disadvantaged persons
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1309799
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495490
TI  - Real-time Dynamic Pricing for Bicycle Sharing Programs
AB  - The objective of this exploratory research is to investigate the potential of dynamic pricing to avoid unbalanced inventory in bicycle sharing systems, and therefore the needs for manual rebalancing of bicycles by truck. The proposed idea of dynamic pricing has been not used in the current practice, and the idea's potential is unknown to the service providers. In this exploratory research, the project will investigate the idea's potential to eliminate manual rebalancing using an optimization model with demand learning process. The model will be validated with real data. This proposal addresses one of University Transportation Research Center's (UTRC's) focus areas, Focus Area 5: Promoting livable and sustainable communities through quality of life improvements and diverse transportation development, and responds to the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) goals of Livable Communities and Environmental Sustainability. Shared-mobility has attracted attentions from many researchers and policy-makers to help build livable and sustainable communities. Especially, bicycle sharing programs have been very successful in many places in the world. In the United States, there are several major cities, including Denver, Chicago, San Antonio, Houston, Minneapolis, and Washington D.C., that operate bicycle sharing programs. To the interest of the UTRC, New York City is launching a program called "City Bike" in July, 2012 with 600 stations and 10,000 bikes. This proposal will make contributions to the transportation needs in Region 2 and meet the mission of UTRC by providing knowledges for efficient and effective operations of bicycle sharing programs. Such bicycle sharing systems are growing in popularity because of their ability to decrease the number of automobile trips, reduce traffic congestion and the need for parking in crowded downtown areas, as well as providing environmental benefits and health benefits for the riders. Because these systems encourage one-way rentals, there exists the possibility that over time random fluctuations in demand will cause the bicycles to become concentrated in some areas of the system, causing shortages elsewhere. This may prevent the system from effectively meeting demand, if for example potential customers are unable to find a bicycle at the stations where they wish to start their trips. While direct intervention may be taken in such a case (e.g. by having an employee of the system operator reposition a number of bicycles with a pickup truck), it should also be possible to have the customers reposition the bicycles by providing a price incentive (discount) for trips originating at stations with a surplus of bicycles or terminating at stations with a deficit. This is conceptually similar to dynamic toll pricing to encourage motorists to take different routes or travel at different times in order to ease traffic congestion. Here an incentive is given for customers to change their routes, but both the motivation for doing so and the operational details are different. There is not an extensive literature on the rebalancing problem, but it has been studied by some authors. Uesugi et al. (2005) suggest a scheme for rebalancing cars in a car sharing system, where cars may be repositioned by having two traveling companions use separate cars, or by having people who are not together share cars. However they do not discuss how this behavior is to be induced (by an incentive, by a mandate, etc.). Benchimol et al. (2011) discuss the rebalancing-by-truck problem as a form of Traveling Salesman Problem. Lin and Yang (2011) model the design of a bicycle sharing system as a multiple-allocation hub problem, but do not consider the possibility that one-way trips may result in inefficient bicycle positioning. Some mention the possibility of using price incentives to motivate customers to reposition inventories, but there is not very much research on this question. One system employs a simple kind of price incentive: the Vélib' system gives customers a 15-minute credit for depositing bicycles at stations which are significantly uphill from the point of origin (DeMaio, 2009).
KW  - Balancing
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Dynamic pricing
KW  - Livable community
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Vehicle sharing
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/real-time-dynamic-pricing-bicycle-sharing-programs
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265238
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495326
TI  - Regional Coordination in Public Transportation: Lessons for the U.S.
AB  - Spatial expansion of metropolitan areas has extended daily travel patterns beyond administrative service areas of public transportation agencies. Coordination of transit services throughout metropolitan areas could offer seamless and convenient travel options that attract motorists who are used to connected regional roadway networks. However, transit service in US metropolitan areas remains fragmented. This study identifies lessons in regional coordination for transit from metropolitan areas in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria with over 30 years of experience of regional coordination in so-called Verkehrsverbunds (regional transit authorities). Verkehrsverbunds have increased transit ridership and financial efficiency and help account for 5 to 10 times more transit trips per capita there than in the US. Lessons from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria are meaningful, because of comparable federal structures of government, standards of living, and levels of motorization. Initially, this project highlights challenges in regional coordination of transit in the US using the regions in the middle/south Atlantic Census region (e.g. Washington (DC), Richmond, and Philadelphia regions) as case studies.  The main part of the study documents trends in ridership, financial efficiency, and administrative structures of Verkehrsverbunds in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria using case studies from large and small regions, such as Berlin, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Basel, Zurich, or Vienna. The goal is to identify successful policies and administrative structures that foster regional collaboration.
KW  - Austria
KW  - Coordination
KW  - Germany
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Policy analysis
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Regional transportation
KW  - Switzerland
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - United States
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264877
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495063
TI  - The Effects of Public-Private Partnerships on Traffic Safety: Evidence from Mexico
AB  - The United States is facing severe infrastructure financing problems. Revenues from fossil-fuel based taxes are declining as vehicles become more fuel efficient and as annual vehicle miles traveled declines. Many states and localities are increasing the role of private investors through public-private partnerships (PPP), and 31 states have now passed PPP enabling legislation. These concerns are particularly salient in the Northeastern part of the United States. Meanwhile, traffic safety, although improving, remains a critical concern in all regions. This study will combine these two areas of inquiry by examining the effects of private participation on traffic safety. The project will use a novel data set from Mexico, which has extensive PPP experience. The data set includes approximately 800 Mexican municipalities from 1997 to 2010, resulting in a panel of about 11,000 observations. The project can identify government versus PPP control over the kilometers of road within a municipality. The data allow us to control for a variety of independent variables. The project is able to include such variables as the class of accident, the condition of the driver, and the condition of the road surface, among others. There are 15 control variables overall. The expected effect of PPPs on road safety is ambiguous. PPPs may increase road safety if more resources are available for resurfacing, and if PPPs are incentivized through contracts to enhance safety. However, PPPs may reduce safety if private operators reduce road quality to increase profit maximize profits. The issue must be resolved empirically. Regarding methods, the study will begin with relatively simple statistical techniques such as ordinary least squares regression to estimate the determinants of traffic accidents and fatality rates. The project will include an indicator (dummy) variable for the type of operation: traditional or PPP. The project will include both time- and municipal-fixed effects, and will use robust standard errors. It is expected that this study will make a significant contribution to the literature on PPPs. This will be the first study to date to examine explicitly the effect of PPPs on traffic safety.
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Mexico
KW  - Ordinary least-squares
KW  - Public private partnerships
KW  - Regression analysis
KW  - Resurfacing
KW  - Road conditions
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/effects-public-private-partnerships
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264495
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494946
TI  - Use of Web-Based Rider Input for Transit Management in the New York City Region
AB  - As new communications technologies are adopted by both transit managers and riders, there is increasing potential to improve dialogue and transportation services. Transit managers across the nation are conveying service information to riders through outgoing messages yet web-based customer feedback has rarely been used to inform transit policy and influence transit service. "Crowdsourcing," a concept that refers to tapping the wisdom of large numbers of people to determine a conclusion, is particularly ripe for development in the New York City Region, which has millions of transit riders and heavy social media users. Transit crowdsourcing can take the form of non-urgent service complaints, like overflowing trashcans, and real-time discussion of conditions that could precede information through official channels. Arriving through a variety of channels, including social media, emails, phone calls and some web applications, no singular channel exists for this information, which managers could use in order to obtain a timely, consumer perspective on field conditions. This project will produce a toolkit of best practices, emerging technologies, and suggested methods of collecting and acting on crowdsourced feedback on both a real-time and near-term basis, building upon the New York City Region, but potentially applicable across the nation.
KW  - Communication systems
KW  - Crowd sourcing
KW  - Feedback
KW  - Input
KW  - Management
KW  - New York (New York)
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Transit riders
KW  - Transportation system management
KW  - Websites (Information retrieval)
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/use-web-based-rider-input-transit-management
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264261
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494817
TI  - Analysis of Environmental, Economic, and Infrastructure Impacts of Transportation Activities Associated with High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing Operations in the Marcellus Shale Formation Using the Geospatial Intermodal Freight Transport (GIFT)
AB  - The natural gas extraction method, High-Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF), has a significant transportation component that impacts transport infrastructure and rural communities in both positive and negative ways. Estimates provided by the US Energy Information Administration put natural gas reserves of the entire Marcellus Shale formation, the area of interest, at 410.3 trillion cubic feet. While economically benefiting rural areas, where the majority of the wells would be located, there are environmental and social tradeoffs to developing these resources, many of which are associated with transportation activities. Water resources needed to operate a well are typically delivered to the site by truck, as local water resources are often inadequate to provide the 1-8 million gallons needed to operate a HVHF well. Twenty-five to one hundred percent of the fluids used in HVHF operations are recovered as waste fluids and must be treated or disposed of, usually by transporting the waste materials to treatment or disposal facilities by truck, often over considerable distances. Sand, used as a proppant, is delivered to the well site, often from out of state, and this sand is transported multimodally (a combination of truck, rail, and ship). Industry estimates of sand use range from 2.5-7 million pounds per well, with an average use of 5 million pounds per well. There are upwards of 20,000 wells or approved permits in the study area. The researchers propose to analyze the environmental impacts of transporting materials to and from well sites, provide a series of assessments of truck traffic on area roads by road segment, and assess pollution impacts on communities by calculating emission loads, energy usage, and operating costs using the Geospatial Intermodal Freight Transport (GIFT) model, developed by RIT and the University of Delaware. By using the wells, resource supply areas, and waste disposal facilities as a series of origin and destination (OD) pairings, probable transportation routes will be generated and combined with estimated vehicle counts, based on the volume of materials transported and well locations. For roadways, this will help spatially determine impacts of truck traffic on specific road segments and bridges. By altering parameters within the GIFT model, simulations can explore alternative transportation strategies and to help determine the feasibility of centralized facilities or on-site waste recycling. These case studies will enable policy scientists and environmental planners to better understand the impacts associated with the movement of materials in the HVHF industry.
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Hydraulic fracturing
KW  - Intermodal transportation
KW  - Marcellus Shale
KW  - Natural gas
KW  - Resource extraction
KW  - Truck traffic
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/environmental-economic-and-infrastructure-impacts-transportation
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263983
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483214
TI  - Developing Hybrid Measures of Performance for Signalized Intersections
AB  - There are two generally accepted methods for evaluating performance of intersections in Delaware - a volume based measure using the critical movement summary method and a delay based method, most commonly done using simulation software like Synchro. Each provides unique indicators of the intersections "health", just like a patient with two vital signs. And in general, they are used separately. This research proposes to provide a new, hybrid measure of intersection performance using the two level of service (LOS) measures together.
KW  - Delaware
KW  - Hybrid simulation
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Traffic volume
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252063
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483213
TI  - Learning from Traffic Data: Evacuation Behavior
AB  - The objective of this project is to develop access to real-time collection and analysis of traffic data that can be used to inform the evacuation planning process and enhance the efficiency of operations before and after a disaster presents an interesting opportunity. This work identifies ways to use traffic data to better understand evacuation behavior and to explore ways to integrate traffic data into evacuation planning and response. Analysis of this data is performed and the usefulness of this type of data is then discussed. Hurricane Irene provides a rich source of data on actual behavior during a mandatory evacuation that has important implications for future events including developing strategies for improving situational awareness, and post incident review and planning. These issues are important as the perceived increases in frequency and intensity of weather related events mean that there are increasing pressures to address evacuation issues. The use of traffic data will ultimately allow government to better plan and execute evacuations and help make the corridors used for evacuation more resilient.
KW  - Delaware
KW  - Disaster preparedness
KW  - Disasters and emergency operations
KW  - Evacuation
KW  - Hurricane Irene, 2011
KW  - Hurricanes
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Traffic data
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252062
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483212
TI  - Implementation of Rapid Assessment Tools for Structural Parts after Extreme Events
AB  - Bridges represent crucial elements of our civil infrastructure network and owners need quantitative assessment tools to know whether they can rely on the bridges that survived an extreme event in order to plan their recovery missions. This research project presents the continuation and implementation phase of a University of Delaware University Transportation Center (UDUTC) project funded last year that is developing a methodology for a rapid assessment tool for structural steel parts after severe events. The objective of this project is to evaluate the developed methods on more realistic structural steel connection details in the laboratory as well as in the field.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Delaware
KW  - Emergency management
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Extreme events
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Structural connection
KW  - Structural steel
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252061
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481786
TI  - Transport of Fraccing Sand - Impact of Increasing Freight Loads on Rail Infrastructure
AB  - The impact of increasing freight loads on the life cycle of a railway track is unknown without proper investigation, characterization, and modeling of rail substructure, primarily railway ballast. Because demand for railway freight transportation is increasing - especially for rail infrastructure associated with the mining, processing, and transport of fraccing sand - the challenge to all research and maintenance entities is to test and develop new cost-effective methods for railway maintenance and upgrade. With these needs in mind, the GeoEngineering program at the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison has invested dedicated researchers to railway industry research, developed laboratory testing equipment specifically designed for railway ballast, developed a rail maintenance model titled WiscRail™ for rail substructure design and maintenance, and established a foundation for contributing to the contemporary and future railway industry knowledge base. This proposal specifically seeks to apply these developed technologies to the rail engineering and maintenance profession through assessment of the capacity of existing rail infrastructure in Wisconsin to handle fraccing sands and other heavy loads by use of the WiscRail™ maintenance model.
KW  - Fracture properties
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Maintenance of way
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Sand
KW  - Substructures
KW  - Traffic loads
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-10/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250967
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481551
TI  - A Product Specific Cold Chain Analysis for Regional Freight Integration into the Circle City and Beyond
AB  - This research will utilize commodity profiles, transportation data, and business profiles for the Driftless Region of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and northwestern Illinois to understand the crops and livestock products most impacted by the need for refrigerated equipment from field to freight. Meeting the objectives described above will enhance economic development in the region by increasing employment, reducing systemic inefficiencies resulting from lack of coordination between production and distribution infrastructure, and making Driftless Region cold chain products more competitive vis-à-vis similar commodities produced elsewhere.
KW  - Commodities
KW  - Crops
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Livestock
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Refrigerated cargo
KW  - Supply chain management
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-05/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250711
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01479090
TI  - Guidelines for Site-Specific Seismic Studies on Rhode Island Bridge Projects
AB  - The objective of this project is to develop a guidelines document that Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) personnel can utilize in future seismic evaluation studies on Rhode Island bridge projects. It is well known that there is no one standard approach to performing a site response analysis particularly in the determination of the input ground motions. Since the methods employed tend to be a matter of the consultant's preference, it is difficult for RIDOT personnel to evaluate their consultant's work without a baseline reference. The project will include a literature review to identify and document the various methods used to perform site-specific seismic studies. Site response analyses will also be performed at two existing bridge sites to compare the results obtained using synthetic ground motions versus recorded ground motions. The literature review and analyses will be compiled to develop a comprehensive and practical guidelines manual.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Guidelines
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Manuals
KW  - Rhode Island
KW  - Seismicity
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1248100
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472291
TI  - Assessment of Splash and Spray Potential of Experimental Quiet Pavement Surfaces
AB  - Splash and spray potential is one of the less studied pavement functional characteristics, although it can have significant impact on travel safety and comfort.  Research suggests that it contributes to a small, but measurable, proportion of road traffic accidents, provides considerable nuisance to motorists, and can generate negative environmental impact to the vegetation adjacent the roadside.  This project will:  (1) develop splash and spray measurement equipment, and (2) test innovative "quiet pavements" to determine if they also provide additional benefits with regards to this new emerging functional pavement performance parameter.  The project is leveraged by the significant data being collected for the Virginia Quiet Pavement Initiative.  The project will develop capabilities for testing splash and spray in the state and compare the splash and spray potential of Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) traditional and innovative pavement surfaces.  The innovative aspects of the project include: (1) it allows for the incorporation of an additional functional performance measurement into the asset management process, (2) it will help design pavements that provide safer and more comfortable ride to the citizens of the state, and (3) it will contribute to consolidating VDOT's and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute's (VTTI's) leadership in the area of pavement surface characteristics.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Pavement design
KW  - Quiet pavements
KW  - Ride quality
KW  - Splash and spray
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243663
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472290
TI  - Development of Bayesian Multi-State Travel Time Reliability Models
AB  - The objective of this project is to develop a Bayesian multi-state travel time reliability approach for modeling travel time uncertainty under various traffic conditions. The reliability of travel time is a key performance index of transportation system and has been a major transportation research area.  Reliability is one of the four key focus areas of the Strategic Highway Research Plan (SHRP2).   Travel time is affected by multiple factors such as traffic condition, weather, incidents etc.  Many of these factors are random in nature and stochastic modes should be used in modeling the uncertainty associated with travel time.  Traditionally, uni-mode distributions have been adopted for travel time reliability modeling and the log-normal distribution has been the most popular model.  In recent years, the multi-state travel time reliability model has been proven to be a superior alternative by providing substantial improved data fitting, scientifically sound interpretation, as well as close relationship with the underline traffic flow characteristics. Majority of the current stochastic models, however, focus primarily on provide the best fitting for the travel time data. Limited researches have been conducted to link travel time uncertainty with traffic conditions and other external factors. Part of the reason is that traditionally used uni-mode distributions lack the flexibility to accommodate variation in travel time, let alone the complex interaction with external factors.  On contrast, the multi-state model used a two-level structure to represent 1) the probability of encountering a traffic delay, and 2) the distribution characteristics of travel time in both delay or non-delay conditions. Previous studies have shown that the parameters of the multi-state model are directly related to the time of day. The results fit the intuition that the probability of encountering traffic delay is much higher during peak hours. However, previous studies are exploratory in nature and had not quantitatively evaluated the relationship between traffic conditions and parameters of the multi-state models.  To establish quantitative relationship between traffic condition and the key parameters of mult-state models, i.e., the probability of encountering delay and the distribution parameters for each travel time state, will significantly increase our understanding of the relationship between traffic condition and travel time.  Due to the complexity of the problem, traditional Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm for model fitting is not computationally attractive.  A full Bayesian approach will be more appealing for both research and practical purposes. The results of this study will benefit congestion management for traffic management authorities as well travel time prediction for individual travelers.
KW  - Bayesian approach
KW  - Congestion management systems
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Travel time
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243662
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472289
TI  - Alternative Intersections Comparative Analysis
AB  - The purpose of this project is to develop a guidebook for the analysis of alternative intersection designs, to be used by consulting engineers performing comparative analysis, during the preliminary engineering phase of a project.  Intersection designs supported by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to be included in the proposed guidebook include the displaced left-turn intersection, the median u-turn intersection, the restricted crossing u-turn intersection, the quadrant roadway intersection, the jughandle intersection, and the modern roundabout.  The proposed guidebook will be divided into three sections: an overview of the various design alternatives, including literature review and documentation of where and how they have been implemented; a synthesis of analysis guidelines for these designs, specifically examining Federal recommendations and any existing State recommendations; and a proscribed analysis methodology for conducting comparative analysis of these design alternatives in preliminary engineering.  The primary artifact generated by this research will be a guidebook for consultant use in the preliminary design and analysis of alternative intersections.  Secondary artifacts will be conference and journal papers documenting the research findings that result from generating the guidebook.  Outreach activities are consistent with the overall goal of increasing implementation of alternative intersection designs, and will take the form of general-interest presentations on the topic as available.
KW  - Comparative analysis
KW  - Design
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Jughandle intersections
KW  - Left turns
KW  - Roundabouts
KW  - U turns
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243661
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472288
TI  - Effects of Major Transportation Incidents and Disruptive Events
AB  - During the last five years, the Northern Virginia transportation system has experienced several major incidents and disruptive events including a Metrorail train collision, an earthquake, and a collapsed crane.  The magnitudes and sources of these incidents are different from the more common vehicle collisions.  This study will compare and contrast the impacts of the three major events with the more common vehicle collisions in terms of demand changes, network performance, and the applicability of congestion mitigation strategies.  The overall goal of this project is to better understand the similarities and differences between extraordinary disruptive events and more common incidents and the traffic mitigation strategies that are effective in these situations.  The associated objectives include (1) identifying similarities and difference among the major incidents and major and more common incidents; (2) determining the network performance under major incident and disruptive event conditions; (3) determining the network performance under more common incident conditions; and (4) identifying and evaluating traffic mitigation strategies for applicability to the different event conditions. The study's outcomes will help the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and other departments of transportation plan for unusual events of different types and evaluate the benefits of implementing traffic mitigation strategies in the different scenarios.
KW  - Congestion management systems
KW  - Earthquakes
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Service disruption
KW  - Traffic mitigation
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243660
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472287
TI  - Investigate Attractiveness of Toll Roads
AB  - With the increasing congestion and pollution problems, tolling is becoming an intermediate reasonable solution to shift demands and divert traffic when building extra roads is not a viable alternative.  There are multiple tolling strategies: fixed toll, toll rate by travel mileage, variable toll, high-occupancy-toll (charging solo drivers when they use a high occupancy vehicle [HOV] lane), etc.  It is important to compare these different tolling plans beforehand, such that planning agencies will have an accurate prediction of traffic volumes, revenue, and cost of each individual tolling plan to make knowledgeable decisions on different alternatives.  The factors that will have an impact on traffic volume diversion should be studied and the correlation among these factors need be modeled.  The goal of this research is to develop a model to predict the percentage of traffic volume selecting toll roads over free roads in response to tolls to avoid congestion.   The results of this research can be used to estimate the revenue and the resulting changes of traffic volumes on affected roads.  At this stage, an initial literature review has been conducted to investigate the status of road pricing research.  Current popular practice of tolling is to convert the HOV lanes to managed lanes where the HOV2+ or HOV3+ can use the lane for free while the other drivers need to pay.  Due to the fact that different management agencies adopt different toll plans, the diversion traffic vary from one site to another.  At sites where the HOV3+ vehicles are required to register their vehicles together with the information of carpooling persons, a decrease of HOV3+ usage of the managed lane was observed.  The variation of practice policies adds complications to the study of diversion of traffic and requires a specific definition of the infrastructure of the manage lanes.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - High occupancy vehicle lanes
KW  - Managed lanes
KW  - Revenues
KW  - Road pricing
KW  - Toll roads
KW  - Traffic volume
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243659
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472286
TI  - Developing a Real-Time Energy and Environmental Monitoring System
AB  - This study will develop a real-time monitoring system that can continuously evaluate energy and environmental impacts on transportation facilities using real-time traffic data. It is anticipated that the proposed development will have many practical and methodological implications to local transportation planners and traffic engineers.   The research effort makes the following contributions. First, the proposed system can locate spatial and temporal energy and emission hot spots on monitoring areas or facilities. The hotspot results can be utilized to identify and improve regional air quality impacts. Second, the system can find adverse impacts of specific facilities on energy and emissions. Third, the system can help developing time-series energy and emission databases on transportation facilities. The database can be utilized as a decision-making tool for long-term transportation investment.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Traffic data
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243658
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01472285
TI  - Winter Weather Demand Considerations
AB  - In 2011, the "perfect [snow] storm" hit the Washington, DC commuting area during the evening peak period causing some drivers to spend 13 hours on the road.  While it is widely acknowledged that severe weather reduces speeds and capacities, their importance cannot be determined without knowing how many drivers will be affected.  Predicting the winter weather demand involves understanding the complexities associated with the decision to travel at a particular time.  In particular, school closures, work place policies, storm characteristics, and road conditions influence driver's trip decisions in winter events.  This study explores these influences and complexities.  The goal is to examine winter weather effects on demand and estimate demand models.  Toward this goal, this study involves collecting original data on citizens' travel decisions during snow storms and the dependence of these decisions on the above influential factors; identifying school and employer policies with respect to early closures during snow events; and developing snow storm related demand models.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Peak periods
KW  - Snowstorms
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Weather conditions
KW  - Winter
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1243657
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01466655
TI  - A Multi-Modal Freight Safety, Security and Environmental Routing Tool
AB  - The research will produce a geographic information system (GIS) framework to identify and categorize safety, security, and environmental risk along multimodal transportation networks. The categories will be useful for situational awareness analysis and risk assessment. The project will develop GIS routing algorithms with enhanced capability to minimize risks associated with freight transport while taking efficiency and cost into consideration. This area represents a significant contribution to both the state-of-the-art and industry practice, and serves as a foundation for future comprehensive transportation planning.
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Routing
KW  - Safety
KW  - Security
KW  - State of the art
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/ri-01/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1234890
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01466648
TI  - Estimating the Effects of Extreme Weather on Transportation Infrastructure
AB  - The proposed research will develop a method for evaluating and prioritizing those elements of the highway infrastructure deemed critical by taking into consideration the risks associated with future flooding events. This method will be applied in a real-world setting to evaluate its utility in supporting climate-related highway infrastructure adaptation decisions. The research results hold promise for potential transferability to the assessment of highway infrastructure in other geographical settings and for other modes of transport.
KW  - Extreme events
KW  - Floods
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Risk analysis
KW  - Transportation modes
KW  - Weather conditions
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/ri-05/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1234883
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01466621
TI  - Leveraging Brightness from Transportation Lighting Systems through Light Source Color: Implications for Energy Use and Safety for Traffic and Pedestrians
AB  - The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute proposes to conduct a study, with support from the University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) and with cofunding from the Louisiana Research Council's (LRC's) Transportation Lighting Alliance (TLA) industry partnership program, of brightness perception from transportation lighting systems used on vehicles, and along roadways and other facilities. The immediate objective is to elucidate the visual mechanisms underlying brightness perception under nighttime lighting conditions. This will be accomplished through a series of scale-model human factors experiments comparing the perception of brightness under lighting conditions differing in color. The second objective is to develop preliminary guidance for transportation agencies in U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Region 2 that can benefit from these findings by utilizing light sources that optimize the visual benefits of lighting against the initial and operating costs of lighting (equipment, energy and maintenance). This will be accomplished through technical analyses comparing spectral properties of light sources for transportation systems, along with their luminous efficacy to provide recommendations for tailoring light source spectra that meet driver and pedestrian needs while maximizing energy efficiency.
KW  - Brightness
KW  - Color
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Lighting
KW  - Luminous intensity
KW  - Perception
KW  - Spectrum analysis
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/leveraging-brightness-transportation-lighting-systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1234856
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01554353
JO  - Transportation Trends in Focus
PB  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Chambers, Matthew
TI  - Containerships Carry Inventory for U.S. Retailers
PY  - 2012/09
SP  - 3p
AB  - U.S. retailers depend on the U.S. transportation system and supply-chain infrastructure to stock up and replenish depleted inventories. In particular, they utilize containerships to move intermodal shipping containers filled with goods worth billions of dollars, often from foreign manufacturers, through the global supply-chain from foreign seaports to domestic seaports onto their final destination. This interdependence may continue to grow as U.S. retailers streamline by adopting just-in-time (JIT) or similar inventory management approaches. Such processes allow retailers to maintain the optimal balance between inventory and sales. This trends report examines the underlying trend and seasonal patterns in U.S. imports by containership. Further, it explores the interrelationship between U.S. container vessel imports, U.S. retailer inventories, and U.S. retailer sales.
KW  - Containerships
KW  - Imports
KW  - Inventory
KW  - Retail trade
KW  - Sales
KW  - Trend (Statistics)
KW  - United States
UR  - http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/entire.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1341980
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01541523
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Eco-Logical Successes
PY  - 2012/09//Third
SP  - 6p
AB  - Eco-Logical: An Ecosystem Approach to Developing Infrastructure Projects outlines an ecosystem-scale approach to prioritizing, developing, and delivering infrastructure projects. Eco-Logical emphasizes interagency collaboration in order to create infrastructure projects in ways that are more sensitive to  terrestrial and aquatic habitats. The eight Eco-Logical signatory agencies are: Bureau of Land Management, Federal Highway Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  National Marine Fisheries Service, National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Eco-Logical Successes highlights signatory agencies’ strategic environmental programs, projects, and efforts that share the vision set forth in Eco-Logical. This edition of Eco-Logical  Successes focuses on two agency programs: the U.S. Forest Service’s Open Space Conservation Strategy and the National Park Service’s (NPS) Inventory and Monitoring Program.
KW  - Conservation
KW  - Environmental policy
KW  - Federal government agencies
KW  - Habitat (Ecology)
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - National Park Service
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - U.S. Forest Service
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/48000/48300/48341/EcoLogical_Successes_III.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1327139
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01537416
AU  - Myers, John J
AU  - Volz, Jeffery S
AU  - Sells, Eric
AU  - Porterfield, Krista
AU  - Looney, Trevor J
AU  - Tucker, Brian
AU  - Holman, Kyle
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Self‐Consolidating Concrete (SCC) for Infrastructure Elements
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 958p
AB  - Because of its unique nature, self-consolidating concrete (SCC) has the potential to significantly reduce costs associated with transportation-related infrastructure, benefiting both the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) and the residents of Missouri. SCC is a highly flowable, nonsegregating concrete that can be placed without any mechanical consolidation, and thus has the following advantages over conventional concrete: decreased labor and equipment costs during concrete placement, decreased potential for and costs to repair honeycombing and voids, increased production rates of precast and cast-in-place elements, and improved finish and appearance of cast and free concrete surfaces. However, concerns exist over the structural implications of SCC in cast-in-place and precast elements. Specifically, higher paste contents, higher fines contents, and the use of smaller, rounded aggregates may significantly alter the creep, shrinkage, bond, and shear strength of SCC mixes as compared to traditional concrete mixes with the same compressive strength. These concerns increase for mixtures that use untested aggregate types and various supplementary cementitious materials. Consequently, to achieve the benefits and potential savings with SCC, guidelines are needed for its proper application in bridges, roadways, culverts, retaining walls, and other transportation-related infrastructure components.
KW  - Bond strength (Materials)
KW  - Cast in place concrete
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Missouri
KW  - Precast concrete
KW  - Self compacting concrete
KW  - Shear strength
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/R265%20Final%20Report%20-%20for%20web.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1322153
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01522359
AU  - Ohman, Jon M
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
TI  - FMCSA Safety Program Effectiveness Measurement: Compliance Review Effectiveness Model Results for Carriers with Compliance Reviews in FY 2008
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 36p
AB  - In fiscal year (FY) 2008, Federal and State enforcement personnel conducted 14,906 compliance reviews (CRs) on individual motor carriers. It is intended that through education, heightened safety regulation awareness, and the enforcement effects of the CR, carriers will improve the safety of their commercial vehicle operations and, ultimately, reduce the number and severity of crashes in which they are involved. The CR Effectiveness Model measures the direct impact of compliance reviews on carriers that received CRs but not the “deterrent” effects (i.e., the “threat” of having a CR) on carriers that did not actually receive CRs. The model is based on the individual and cumulative “before and after” changes in the safety performance of carriers that received CRs in a given year. The model compares a motor carrier’s crash rate in the 12 months following an onsite compliance review to its crash rate in the 12 months prior to that review. The model uses crash data reported by the States and power unit data reported by carriers or obtained during CRs to calculate both the before-CR and after-CR crash rates. This report documents the benefits derived from performing CRs on motor carriers in terms of crashes avoided, as well as lives saved and injuries prevented.
KW  - Before and after studies
KW  - Commercial vehicles
KW  - Compliance
KW  - Crash rates
KW  - Motor carriers
KW  - Safety programs
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51200/51282/CREM_FY_2008.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1306385
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01494500
AU  - Baldwin, J David
AU  - Ramseyer, Christopher
AU  - Runolfsson, Thordur
AU  - Kroll, Adam
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Interstate-35 Bridge Instrumentation Renaissance
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 39p
AB  - An updated, accelerometer-based, sensor and data acquisition system was installed and verified on the I-35 Walnut Creek Bridge in Purcell, Oklahoma. The data collection system also includes a microwave communication system to move sensor and video data off the bridge, through the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) proprietary network, to a server on the University of Oklahoma (OU) Norman campus. A new approach to structural health monitoring is proposed based on a reliability definition of structural health. Within that framework, the structure’s probability of failure is estimated using data from the sensor network, the output of a moving mass analysis to simulate the traverse of a heavy vehicle across the bridge, and a probabilistic metal fatigue analysis incorporating a Markov state transition analysis to map the transition of the structure from the undamaged to failed states.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Failure analysis
KW  - Fatigue (Mechanics)
KW  - Microwave communication systems
KW  - Purcell (Oklahoma)
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS9.1-34-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262832
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01491400
AU  - Bae, Han-Ug
AU  - Oliva, Michael G
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Bridge Analysis and Evaluation of Effects Under Overload Vehicles (Phase 2)
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 80p
AB  - The use of special purpose highway vehicles, over the legal limit in size and in weight, is increasing as industry grows and large items must be shipped over highways. Overload vehicle crossing of a bridge, even if it is a single crossing, may affect not only the short term behavior of the bridge  but also the long term performance and life cycle cost of the bridge. There may be minor cracking or deterioration in the components of the bridge which are not critical in the short term period but can result in special maintenance, rehabilitation or reduced life span in the long term. It may be  reasonable for the permit applicant to be responsible for the reduced life of the bridge. The work completed in this project aims to help agencies in evaluating the long term impact of the vehicles on bridges and in assigning the resulting cost to the permit applicants as an extension of the first phase of  the project. Long term behavior of concrete decks and steel girder bridges was investigated and a means to assign cost to the overloads was developed. Miner’s damage accumulation rule and life cycle cost analysis of bridges were used to develop the means. Examples of assigning cost per crossing bridges with overloads is provided for practical application of the developed means. The first set of examples were performed for two pilot concrete decks and the second set of examples were performed for two pilot steel girder bridges.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Costs
KW  - Girder bridges
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Overweight loads
KW  - Permits
KW  - Steel bridges
KW  - Structural analysis
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0203ph2.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257325
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01487938
AU  - Hallmark, Shauna L
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Relationship between Speed and Lateral Position on Curves
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - Excessive speed is often cited as a primary driver factor in crashes, particularly rural two-lane crashes. It has also been suggested that speed plays a significant role in crashes on curves. However, the relationship between speed and crashes on curves is not well documented because it is difficult to determine driver speed after the fact when investigating a crash. One method to begin documenting this relationship is to explore the relationship between lateral position and speed as a crash surrogate. For this study, the researchers collected speed and lateral position data for three rural two-lane curves. The relationship between lateral position and speed was assessed by comparing the odds of a near-lane crossing for vehicles traveling 5 or more mph over the advisory speed to those for vehicles traveling below that threshold.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Lateral placement
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Speed
KW  - Two lane highways
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/speed_lateral_position_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256469
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486651
AU  - Karner, Alex
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Planning and Regional Equity: History, Policy and Practice
PY  - 2012/09
SP  - 219p
AB  - This dissertation investigates regional transportation planning in California from 1967 through the contemporary era, identifying advocates for regional equity as important actors for achieving desired planning outcomes including climate change mitigation. It begins with the creation of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Replacing its predecessor organization in 1973, the creation of Caltrans was thought to signal the beginning of multimodalism in state transportation policy. Opposition from the public and the legislature to this new direction led to the establishment of regional transportation planning organizations that actually located authority at the local (city and county) level. California’s transportation policy goals embodied in the contemporary Senate Bill (SB) 375 are similar to those of the 1970s – reducing vehicle-miles traveled through the promotion of compact urban forms – but the institutional arrangements established in the 1970s make progress difficult to achieve. Regional equity advocates are emerging as an important constituency in this fraught planning landscape. Buoyed by foundation funding and federal legislation enacted beginning with Title VI of 1964’s Civil Rights Act, these advocates are seeking to ensure that agencies meet planning goals where the law is insufficiently prescriptive. A key method by which advocates access the planning process is through the “equity analysis” of regional transportation plans. A critical review of equity analysis practice reveals standard methods that are not responsive to public input and do not take advantage of recent developments in activity based travel demand modeling. Improved methods are proposed that are developed in collaboration with equity advocates. Although these improvements will not ensure equitable outcomes, they are more likely to highlight existing inequities, more accurately reflect the concerns of advocates, and could be deployed nationwide.
KW  - California
KW  - California Department of Transportation
KW  - Equity (Justice)
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Public participation
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Sensitivity analysis
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1733
UR  - https://merritt.cdlib.org/d/ark%3a%2f13030%2fm53x89mf/1/2012_UCD-ITS-RR-12-29.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225416
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486642
AU  - Xiao, Feng
AU  - Tang, Shikai
AU  - Zhang, Michael
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Credit-based Pricing for Multi-user Class Transportation Facilities
PY  - 2012/09//Research Report
SP  - 20p
AB  - This paper proposes an innovative arc-based credit (ABC) congestion pricing scheme to improve the system performance in a transportation network. By associating each arc with a positive or negative credit rate, the strategy can accomplish multiple planning goals, such as efficiency, fairness, and public acceptance simultaneously. We first demonstrate that on a one-origin or one-destination network, a pareto-improving, system-optimal and revenue- neutral credit scheme always exists and can be obtained by solving a set of linear equations. Recognizing that such a credit scheme may not exist in a multi-origin network, we then define the maximum-revenue problem with pareto-improving constrains (MRPI): find the maximum possible revenue collected by the credit scheme with optimal arc flows and non-increasing origin-destination (OD) travel costs. We discover that the dual of MRPI is equivalent to a typical Transportation Problem which, therefore, provides a simple way to calculate the revenue by just examining the dual problem. At the end of the paper, a numerical example with a small synthetic network is provided for the comparison of the credit scheme with other existing toll schemes in terms of OD travel disutilities.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Congestion pricing
KW  - Credit
KW  - Network analysis (Planning)
KW  - Origin and destination
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Subsidies
UR  - http://pubs.its.ucdavis.edu/download_pdf.php?id=1724
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247842
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481194
TI  - Open Source Vehicle Tracking System
AB  - The goal of this effort is to develop software that could be used to automate the tedious task of analyzing video data to produce traffic counts. Existing commercial systems like Miovision offer solutions but they are expensive and can be somewhat cumbersome. The aim is to develop software that would be freely available to practitioners to reduce the cost of deploying video based traffic analysis systems.
KW  - Open source software
KW  - Software
KW  - Tracking systems
KW  - Traffic counts
KW  - Video cameras
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250264
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481193
TI  - Pedestrian Collision Warning for Buses
AB  - Fatal bus and pedestrian collisions have increased dramatically recently due to the distractions from various portable electronic devices. The goal of this project is to investigate various sensors for collision detection and propose efficient warning approaches for bus operators and pedestrians. Current solutions use repeating audio warning to alert pedestrians and bus operators. They measure steering column for turning detection, which requires extra devices installed on the vehicle steering system and broadcast message alerts with no consideration of the actual situations. Global positioning system (GPS) signal and onboard IMU (Gyroscope and Accelerometer) will be integrated to analyze the bus motion during turning. These sensors together with the computation component require no change on the basic vehicle structure and present actual motion information for crisis prediction. Various sensor technologies, such as laser detector, sound detector and regular cameras, will be evaluated to provide better detection and distance estimation of pedestrians.
KW  - Bus crashes
KW  - Collision warning systems
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Pedestrian-vehicle crashes
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Turning traffic
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250263
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476003
AU  - Chandra, Divya C
AU  - Grayhem, Rebecca
AU  - Butchibabu, Abhizna
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Area Navigation and Required Navigation Performance Procedures and Depictions
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - Area navigation (RNAV) and required navigation performance (RNP) procedures are fundamental to the implementation of a performance based navigation (PBN) system, which is a key enabling technology for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). As new RNAV and RNP procedures are developed, they are published as charts for use by appropriately qualified pilots. These charts and procedures describe paths that must be flown precisely for improved use of airspace and safety. In this document, the authors consider how charts for both conventional and PBN procedures are designed from a human factors perspective. First, they document current charting challenges and mitigation strategies. Next, they describe a review of procedures that was done to discover which features were related to difficulty of use or visual complexity. The more difficult instrument approach charts depict procedures with more flight paths, path segments, and radius-to-fix legs. Standard instrument departure procedures that are more difficult show more flight paths. Standard terminal arrival route procedures that are more difficult have more total altitude constraints and path segments. Finally, the authors  describe the process for designing and implementing new instrument procedures, which involves significant coordination both inside and outside the government.
KW  - Aeronautical charts
KW  - Aircraft pilotage
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Instrument flying
KW  - Next Generation Air Transportation System
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Procedures
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47000/47072/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-10.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245582
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01472487
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Property Management Tools and Techniques: Models for the Effective Management of Real Property Assets at State Departments of Transportation
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 35p
AB  - The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Office of Real Estate Services (HEPR) sponsored the research reported on here to review tools and techniques that State Departments of Transportation (SDOTs) are using to manage, or inventory, their real property assets.  The report is based on information collected from SDOTs during three separate one-day meetings convened in February and March 2012 in Austin, Texas, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Sacramento, California. This report synthesizes the content of the meetings’ discussions in order to ultimately convey the components of an ideal property management system.
KW  - Administration
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Inventory
KW  - Property management
KW  - State departments of transportation
UR  - http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/real_estate/publications/property_management_tools/property_management_report.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46660/property_management_report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239011
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01472088
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Lee, Jason
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An Economic Analysis of the Good Road Movements
PY  - 2012/09//Research Report
SP  - 168p
AB  - The purpose of this study is to measure the economic impact of rural road improvement in the early 20th century. Estimates of output elasticity with respect to road input are calculated utilizing a translog production function for 1904-1921. The results suggest that investment in road spending is most effective in regions with a paucity of good roads. By 1920, total expenditures on roads and bridges were on par with total spending on public education. The presence of farmers led to a significant reduction in the amount of local road expenditure and that opposition may explain a significant amount of the observed variation in local road expenditures across counties. For the period 1900-1920, roads had a modest effect on school attendance rates but a significant effect on the average number of days attended per pupil and teacher quality. There was thus a significant social externality associated with investments in road capital in the early U.S. in the form of better educational outcomes. Examining the economic effects of road improvements sheds light on the relationship between infrastructure improvements and economic development which may be applied in developing countries.
KW  - Economic analysis
KW  - Economic growth
KW  - Education
KW  - History
KW  - Road construction
KW  - Rural areas
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1676
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217347
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471902
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Yueyue, Fan
AU  - Huang, Yongxi
AU  - Chen, Chien-Wei
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Multistage Infrastructure System Design: An Integrated Biofuel Supply Chain against Feedstock Seasonality and Uncertainty
PY  - 2012/09
SP  - 26p
AB  - A biofuel supply chain consists of various interdependent components from feedstock resources all the way to energy demand sites. This study focuses on the design of an efficient biofuel supply chain system against seasonal variations and uncertainties of feedstock supply in an integrative manner. An effective design strategy for biofuel supply chain that is economically viable and hedges well against a wide range of future uncertainties is sought by integrating planning and operational decisions in a stochastic programming framework. A California case study is implemented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed methods in evaluating the economic potential, the infrastructure needs, and the risk of wastes-based bioethanol production.
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - California
KW  - Economic analysis
KW  - Economic efficiency
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Life cycle analysis
KW  - Stochastic programming
KW  - System design
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1706
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217343
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471898
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Vergis, Sydney
AU  - Niemeier, Deb
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Understanding How Public Perceptions of Road Diets Are Formed
PY  - 2012/09
SP  - 51p
AB  - The success or failure of road diets, where a multi-lane road is altered to better accommodate pedestrians and bicyclists in addition to motor vehicles, is often tied to public opinion. A survey was conducted in Davis, California, prior to capacity reallocation being implemented on a major arterial. Results show that support and opposition are correlated with perceived safety and comfort; bike usage; and expectations regarding traffic congestion on side streets. This research provides a starting point for communities planning outreach and evaluation of similar projects.
KW  - Davis (California)
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Perception
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Socioeconomic factors
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1705
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217334
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471897
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Rapson, D
AU  - Schiraldi, Pasquale
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - London School of Economics
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Internet and the Efficiency of Decentralized Markets: Evidence from Automobiles
PY  - 2012/09//Research Report
SP  - 30p
AB  - The causal effect of Internet on volume of trade in a major distributed marketplace is estimated. From 1997 to 2007, a period during which residential Internet use tripled, Internet increased the volume of used cars traded in California by 7.2 percent. This implies a substantial welfare gain due to reductions in market frictions of approximately $43 million per year relative to 1997 Internet penetration levels. These gains are likely attributable to search and matching cost reductions and increased symmetry of information availability across buyers and sellers. Intriguingly, the effect is stronger in thick markets and urban areas, implying that Internet may help to diminish choice overload. Results suggest that policies promoting broadband Internet deployment may enhance efficiency.
KW  - California
KW  - Economic analysis
KW  - Economic efficiency
KW  - Internet
KW  - Markets
KW  - Used vehicle industry
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1670
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217345
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458051
AU  - Figliozzi, Miguel
AU  - Bigazzi, Alex
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Value of Travel-Time Reliability Part II: A Study of Tradeoffs Between Travel Reliability, Congestion-Mitigation Strategies and Emissions
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 72p
AB  - Capacity, demand, and vehicle based emissions reduction strategies are compared for several pollutants employing aggregate United States congestion and vehicle fleet condition data. The authors find that congestion mitigation does not inevitably lead to reduced emissions; the net effect of mitigation depends on the balance of induced travel demand and increased vehicle efficiency that in turn depend on the pollutant, congestion level, and fleet composition. In the long run, capacity-based congestion improvements within certain speed intervals can reasonably be expected to increase emissions of greenhouse gases (CO2e), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) through increased vehicle travel volume. Better opportunities for emissions reductions exist for hydrocarbons (HC) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions, and on more heavily congested arterials. Advanced-efficiency vehicles with emissions rates that are less sensitive to congestion than conventional vehicles generate less emissions co-benefits from congestion mitigation.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Congestion management systems
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic mitigation
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1205
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225668
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458028
AU  - Gao, Jian
AU  - Gkritza, Konstantina
AU  - Smadi, Omar
AU  - Hawkins, Neal R
AU  - Bektas, Basak Aldemir
AU  - Nlenanya, Inya
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Asset Management and Safety: A Performance Perspective
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 114p
AB  - Incorporating safety performance measures into asset management can assist transportation agencies in managing their aging assets efficiently and improve system-wide safety. Past research has revealed the relationship between individual asset performance and safety, but the relationship between combined measures of operational asset condition and safety performance has not been explored. This project investigates the effect of pavement marking retroreflectivity and pavement condition on safety in a multi-objective manner. Data on one-mile segments for all Iowa primary roads from 2004 through 2009 were collected from the Iowa Department of Transportation and integrated using linear referencing. An asset condition index (ACI) was estimated for the road segments by scoring and weighting individual components. Statistical models were then developed to estimate the relationship between ACI and expected number of crashes, while accounting for exposure (average daily traffic). Finally, the researchers evaluated alternative treatment strategies for pavements and pavement markings using benefit-cost ratio analysis, taking into account corresponding treatment costs and safety benefits in terms of crash reduction (number of crashes proportionate to crash severity).
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Condition surveys
KW  - Economic analysis
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Retroreflectivity
KW  - Road markings
KW  - Statistical analysis
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/AM_and_safety_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225381
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01457368
AU  - Linkenbach, Jeff W
AU  - Keller, Sarah
AU  - Otto, Jay
AU  - Swinford, Steven
AU  - Ward, Nic
AU  - Western Transportation Institute
AU  - Idaho Transportation Department
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Media Messages and Tools to Reduce Serious Single Vehicle Run-Off-the-Road Crashes Resulting from Impaired Driving
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 118p
AB  - The Center for Health and Safety Culture conducted research for the Idaho Transportation Department to develop media messages and tools to reduce fatalities and serious injuries related to Run-Off-the-Road, single-vehicle crashes in Idaho using the Positive Community Norms framework. After a review of Idaho’s Crash Database and a sample of police reports, the research team proposed to focus on impaired driving, a major risk factor for these crashes, by increasing bystander engagement. The theory of planned behavior was the theoretical basis for a survey of Idaho adults implemented by the  University of Idaho’s Social Science Research Unit. The survey results informed key media messages to increase the likelihood adults would engage in preventing others from impaired driving. Recommendations for communications, implementation and evaluation are provided.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Bystanders
KW  - Idaho
KW  - Impaired drivers
KW  - Mass media
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Social values
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46351/Final_RP209.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46363/Final_RP209.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225454
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455853
AU  - Schooley, Benjamin
AU  - Horan, Thomas A
AU  - Abed, Yousef
AU  - Murad, Abdullah
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Claremont Graduate University
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - ITS and Transportation Safety: EMS System Data Integration to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment – Phases IV and V
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 29p
AB  - Researchers developed a software system called “CrashHelp” to improve the information exchange from emergency medical services (EMS) practitioners to emergency room/trauma center providers. The system combines mobile smartphone, multimedia, Web server, and location-based technologies for paramedics to send key information to hospital providers in a more data-rich manner than is currently available. This study outlines the development of a second version of CrashHelp and summarizes the results of an initial pilot testing in the Boise, Idaho, region. In addition, the study contains an analysis of the data system standards for EMS and intelligent transportation systems to understand how they should be applied to the CrashHelp system. Finally, the study investigates the potential sustainability of the CrashHelp system in several respects, including deployment in regions with little prior infrastructure, as well as in more urban and developed areas. This included investigating business models and deployment models for delivering CrashHelp as a product or service in the future.
KW  - Boise (Idaho)
KW  - Emergency medical services
KW  - Hospital emergency rooms
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Real time data processing
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2178
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223581
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455847
AU  - Yang, Jiann-Shiou
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Estimation of Vehicle's Lateral Position via the Lucas-Kanade Optical Flow Method
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 45p
AB  - The use of rumble strips on roads has proven to be an effective means of providing drivers lane departure warning (LDW). However, rumble strips require an infrastructure and do not exist on a majority of roadways. Furthermore, rumble strips present a difficult issue of where to establish the rumble-strip distance threshold. To develop an effective virtual rumble-strip LDW system where the rumble-strip threshold is allowed to vary according to the risk of the vehicle departing the road, it is essential to know the vehicle’s lateral characteristics; in particular, the vehicle’s lateral position and speed. In this report, we use image processing via an in-vehicle camera to estimate the vehicle’s lateral position and speed. The lateral position is estimated by determining the vehicle’s heading angle via a homography and the Lucas-Kanade optical flow techniques; while the lateral speed is determined via the heading angle and the vehicle’s On Board Diagnostic (OBD)-II forward speed data access. The detail of the approach is presented in this report together with the findings. This approach will only need the minimal set of information to characterize the vehicle lateral characteristics, and therefore, makes it more feasible in a vehicle application.
KW  - Image processing
KW  - Lateral placement
KW  - Optical flow patterns
KW  - Rumble strips
KW  - Speed data
KW  - Vehicle electronics
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2174
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223580
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455297
AU  - Yang, Jiann-Shiou
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Estimation of Vehicle’s Lateral Position via the Lucas-Kanade Optical Flow Method
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 45p
AB  - The use of rumble strips on roads has proven to be an effective means of providing drivers lane departure warning (LDW). However, rumble strips require an infrastructure and do not exist on a majority of roadways. Furthermore, rumble strips present a difficult issue of where to establish the rumble-strip distance threshold. To develop an effective virtual rumble-strip LDW system where the rumble-strip threshold is allowed to vary according to the risk of the vehicle departing the road, it is essential to know the vehicle’s lateral characteristics; in particular, the vehicle’s lateral position and speed. In this report, the author uses image processing via an in-vehicle camera to estimate the vehicle’s lateral position and speed. The lateral position is estimated by determining the vehicle’s heading angle via a homography and the Lucas-Kanade optical flow techniques; while the lateral speed is determined via the heading angle and the vehicle’s On Board Diagnostic (OBD)-II forward speed data access. The detail of the author's approach is presented in this report together with the author's findings. The approach will only need the minimal set of information to characterize the vehicle lateral characteristics, and therefore, makes it more feasible in a vehicle application.
KW  - Detection and identification
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Lane departures
KW  - Lateral placement
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Speed
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2174
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2190
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223370
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455276
AU  - Hans, Zachary
AU  - Souleyrette, Reginald
AU  - Bogenreif, Corey
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Horizontal Curve Identification and Evaluation
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - Horizontal curves are over-represented, high-frequency, high-severity crash locations. Significant opportunities exist to mitigate these crashes through relatively low-cost safety improvements such as paved shoulders, rumble strips/stripes, and improved signing and delineation. However, the presence of horizontal curvature is not captured as part of the Iowa crash report and the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT)-maintained database of public roadways does not identify the locations of horizontal curvature. Therefore, it is currently difficult to identify the locations of curves systematically, and particularly high-crash curves and the characteristics of these curves. The goal of this project was to expand the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) effort to systematically identify high-crash and potentially-problematic horizontal curves. The primary objective of this project was to refine the previously-developed, preliminary, horizontal-curve database, allowing specific curve parameters to be extracted and evaluated system wide. This refinement facilitates identification of not only high-crash locations but candidate sites for low-cost safety improvements. Secondary objectives include updating the high-crash curve list, evaluating the accuracy of the geometric parameter estimates and testing the sensitivity of safety performance to errors in curve parameters.
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Horizontal curvature
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Location
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/horizontal_curves_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222617
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454129
AU  - Hallmark, Shauna L
AU  - Boyle, Linda Ng
AU  - Qiu, Yu
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Strategic Highway Research Program 2
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Relationship between 
Lane Departure Events and 
Roadway Characteristics
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 25p
AB  - This study will provide better information about the effectiveness of rural roadway safety countermeasures with a focus on lane departures. The main emphasis of the research is to conduct a crash surrogate analysis for common road departure events and develop a model that can be used to predict and mitigate road departures. The purpose of the study covered in this report was to explore use of naturalistic driving study (NDS) data to assess the relationship between roadway and other characteristics and lane departures on rural two-lane roads. Road departure events from an NDS dataset from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) were used to  predict the likelihood of a lane departure as influenced by driver, roadway, and environmental factors.
KW  - Crash analysis
KW  - Crash surrogates
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Lane departures
KW  - Naturalistic driving data
KW  - Ran off road crashes
KW  - Road characteristics
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Two lane highways
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/lane_depart_event_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1218390
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449704
AU  - Liu, Wenjie
AU  - Zhou, Eric
AU  - Wang, Youqi
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Response of No-Name Creek FRP Bridge to Local Weather
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 86p
AB  - Since 1996, over 30 Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composite bridges have been installed in the United States. Bridge locations are in Kansas, Missouri, New York, Iowa, Colorado, West Virginia, Ohio, California, Idaho, Washington, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, North Carolina and South Carolina. Compared to traditional steel and concrete bridge structures, the FRP panel shows several significant advantages: reduced weight, higher strength, better corrosion resistance and quicker installation. However, FRP materials exhibit different physical properties. As such, a composite bridge would demonstrate different deformation and failure patterns than a traditional bridge. During the past years, much experimental research has been conducted to investigate FRP bridge deck performance. Most experiments divide into two types: 1) static and fatigue tests in the laboratory and 2) real traffic load tests in the field. These experimental results, as well as finite element method (FEM) analytical results, have served as baseline data for FRP bridge deck design.  A long-term remote monitoring system was designed to investigate the response of the No-Name Creek composite bridge to the local weather. The characteristics of the bridge temperatures, the temperature differences of the two panel surfaces and the relationship between the temperature difference and the deflection were investigated with respect to the different weather patterns.  Twelve thermal sensors were embedded into the FRP bridge panels. In addition, 3 laser sensors were installed to measure bridge thermal deflection. Between October 2004 and September 2005, bridge temperature and deflection were measured at 20 minute intervals. Relations between weather condition, temperature distribution and bridge thermal deflection for that bridge were analyzed.  From the analysis of the experimental and FEM, the responses of the composite bridge to weather are summarized as follows:  (1) The temperatures of the upper and bottom panel surfaces and their differences greatly change with time of day and season. The extreme temperature usually appears in the early afternoon and the minimum temp usually appears in the early morning or in the night. The bottom surface temperature is near the climatic temperature. (2) The bridge deflections are approximately proportional to the temperature differences. (3) The bridge had a significant upward deflection on a sunny day during the summer with the maximum often occurring between 3:00-5:00 PM. The bridge has a downward deflection during the night with it being the most severe in the winter. (4) Comparing climate induced deflection to traffic load induced deflection, the climate induced deflection is at least on the same order of deflection as allowable traffic load. Therefore, it should be considered in the FRP bridge design process. (5) Thermal load and deflection usually are larger on clear days than on unclear, rainy, and snowy days. (6) Distributions of thermal load in the panel can form a larger amount of deflection in the hot season than in the cold season.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Composite bridges
KW  - Deflection
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - No-Name Creek Bridge
KW  - Temperature measurement
KW  - Thermal loads
KW  - Weather
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46155/FHWAKS126_Final.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46197/FHWAKS126_Final.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46198/FHWAKS126_Summary.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217351
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449699
AU  - Jeihani, Mansoureh
AU  - Ardeshiri, Anam
AU  - Naeeni, Amir
AU  - Morgan State University
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluating the Effectiveness of Dynamic Speed 
Display Signs
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - This study investigates the impact of dynamic speed display signs (DSDSs) on drivers’ speed-related  behavior. A survey questionnaire regarding attitudes and reactions to DSDSs on different road  classes was distributed to Maryland drivers of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. In  addition, the research team collected vehicle speed data upstream and downstream of the DSDS  location on different corridors. The data was collected with a portable Trax Flex High Speed  Counter, which records vehicles’ length, speed, and number of axels as they pass over the device’s  tubes on the road. The speed data was collected on three roads with different speed limits: 25 mph,  35 mph, and 45 mph. Conventional statistical analysis, Bayesian network, and planned behavior  theory were applied to assess the DSDS’ effectiveness with reducing speed. To investigate the shortterm and long-term effects of the DSDS, the research team collected the data in different periods  (few days to few months) after the installation. Furthermore, the effective distance for the DSDS was  investigated. Two different sizes of the DSDS were used to find the impact of size on drivers’ compliance.
KW  - Bayesian networks
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Dynamic speed signs
KW  - Maryland
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Speed data
KW  - Speed limits
KW  - Statistical analysis
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46154/Evaluating_Jeihani_1112.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217350
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449584
AU  - Yu, Xun
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Intelligent Pavement for Traffic Flow Detection - Phase II
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - This project is the extension of a Northland Advanced Transportation System Research Laboratory (NATSRL) FY09 project, titled “Intelligent Pavement for Traffic Flow Detection”, which aims to explore a new approach in detecting vehicles on a roadway by making a roadway section a traffic flow detector. Sections of a given roadway are paved with carbon-nanotube (CNT) enhanced pavement; the piezoresitive property of carbon nanotubes enables the pavement to detect the traffic flow. Meanwhile, CNTs can also work as reinforcement elements to improve the strength and toughness of the concrete pavement. The proposed sensor is expected to have a long service life with little maintenance and wide-area detection capability. In the FY09 project, lab tests demonstrated that CNT based cement composite can detect the mechanical stress levels for both static and dynamic loads. In the FY10 project, the research was extended to cement mortar, which has much higher mechanical strength and is more useful in real applications. The effects of water level and CNT doping levels on the piezoresistivity of the composites were also studied. Preliminary road tests were performed for the evaluation of this new traffic sensor.
KW  - Composite pavements
KW  - Laboratory tests
KW  - Nanotubes
KW  - Piezoresistivity
KW  - Resistivity method
KW  - Road tests
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Vehicle detectors
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2148
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217090
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449564
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Senzig, David A
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Analysis of Aerobatic Aircraft Noise Using the FAA’s Integrated Noise Model
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 117p
AB  - This project has three main objectives. The first objective is to model noise from complete aerobatic routines for a range of aircraft. The second is to compare modeled and previously measured aircraft noise from complete aerobatic routines for a range of aircraft. The third is to model the noise from up to 50 daily aerobatic routines for a range of aircraft. The end result of this analysis is a matrix of modeled noise results for a range of aircraft performing a variety of aerobatic routines. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can now utilize these results to help set the technical threshold for approving National Environmental Policy Act analyses for aircraft performing aerobatic routine represented within the matrix.
KW  - Aerodynamics
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
KW  - Propeller driven aircraft
KW  - Sound transmission
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45900/45934/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-12-06.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216158
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449518
AU  - Yu, Xun
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - University of Minnesota, Duluth
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Intelligent Pavement for Traffic Flow Detection - Phase I
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 27p
AB  - This project explored a new approach in detecting vehicles on a roadway by making a roadway section itself a traffic flow detector. Sections of a given roadway are paved with carbon-nanotube (CNT)/cement composites; the piezoresitive property of carbon nanotubes enables the composite to detect the traffic flow. Meanwhile, CNTs can also work as the reinforcement elements to improve the strength and toughness of the concrete pavement. In contrast to current traffic flow detection technologies that require separate devices to be installed either in the pavement or over the road, the proposed sensing approach enables the pavement itself to detect traffic flow parameters. Therefore, the proposed sensor is expected to have a long service life with little maintenance and wide-area detection capability.
KW  - Composite pavements
KW  - Nanotubes
KW  - Piezoresistivity
KW  - Resistivity method
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Vehicle detectors
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2150
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217087
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449080
AU  - Lee, Joyoung
AU  - Strack, Eric
AU  - Park, Byungkyu
AU  - University of Virginia, Charlottesville
AU  - Virginia Transportation Research Council
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Virginia Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development and Evaluation of Lane-by-Lane Gap-out Based Actuated Traffic Signal Control
PY  - 2012/09//Final Report
SP  - 18p
AB  - Actuated traffic signal controls at isolated intersections largely benefit from gap-out and phase skip features as they allow unused green times to be re-allocated to those movements that need them. A few studies indicated that lane-by-lane gap-out should be implemented for multi-lane approaches instead of traditional combined single channel gap-out. While the lane-by-lane gap-out is logically better than the combined channel gap-out, no studies have shown the delay benefits under the optimized green splits and gap-out times. This research developed a lane-by-lane gap-out-based actuated signal control optimization method and evaluated its performance using four demand cases covering volume-to-capacity ratios between 0.4 and 1.3. A simulation-based study indicated that the lane-by-lane gap-out outperformed the combined single channel gap-out for all these cases. It was found that over 12% total delay savings were observed for high volume-to-capacity ratio cases.
KW  - Actuated traffic signal controllers
KW  - Gap-out (Traffic signal timing)
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Traffic signal timing
KW  - Traffic signals
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UVA-2008-02.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46326/UVA-2008-02_Development_and_evaluation_of_lane-by-land_gap-out.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216330
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01457378
AU  - Gong, Hongmian
AU  - Chen, Cynthia
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Hunter College of the City University of New York
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Automating Web Collection and Validation of GPS Data for Longitudinal Urban Travel Studies
PY  - 2012/08/31/Final Report
SP  - 23p
AB  - Traditional paper and phone travel surveys are expensive, time consuming, and have problems of missing trips, illogical trip sequences, and  imprecise travel time.  Global Positioning Systems (GPS)-based travel surveys can avoid many of these problems and are becoming increasingly popular in major cities worldwide.  However, methodologies have not been developed to catch up with the enormous amount of data generated by the GPS.  This project established a Web-based geographic information systems (GIS) prototype to speculate travel modes and trip purposes from GPS data and to validate the results from the survey participants.  The prototype has the functions to collect GPS data from participants through the Web, run algorithms to speculate travel  modes and trip purposes from the GPS data and other transportation and land use data, send back the results to participants for verification or modification, and finally update the data.  While reducing the burdens on participants by using GPS, this Web-based GIS prototype has the potential to provide accurate and validated travel information for transportation modeling and planning.
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Longitudinal studies
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Trip purpose
KW  - Urban travel
KW  - Web applications
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/FinalReportGPSData.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46340/FinalReportGPSData.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225456
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483018
TI  - t-HUB: The Public Transport Data Center of Connecticut
AB  - The total quantity of global digital data is expected to reach 7.9 zettabytes (1 trillion gigabytes) by 2015.  The McKinsey Global Institute estimates there will be a Big Data talent gap of 140,000 - 190,000 people globally, a gap between the supply and demand for people with the skills to properly analyze and interpret Big Data. Big Data and its inherent challenges and opportunities for improved public transportation operations and research in Connecticut has been a focus of the Public Transportation Systems research group at the University of Connecticut over the past year.  An outgrowth of these efforts is t-HUB, and initiative designed to serve big data needs for the public transportation community. t-HUB is a central data storage point, access point, management point and analysis point for transit operators and planners, hosted at the University of Connecticut. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. Section 2000d) states that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."   Chapter V of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Circular 4702.1A details the data collection and monitoring requirements of recipients and subrecipients of FTA funds.  In particular, requirements are given for collecting demographic data, setting system-wide service standards and policies, evaluating service and fare changes, monitoring transit service, and developing a Title VI evaluation plan. These federal requirements present several challenges to the state of Connecticut, as there are 14 Regional/Metropolitan Planning organizations in Connecticut, along with 15 transit operators in the state impacted by the Connecticut Department of Transportation's Title VI reporting and monitoring requirements.  In particular, there are challenges regarding: data collection and management; survey development, implementation and analysis; and, statewide adoption and implementation consistency.  The University of Connecticut (UConn) possesses significant expertise in data collection, data mining, survey development and distribution, and houses the resources for centralizing large-scale data initiatives.  In the public transportation realm, these expertise and resources are being consolidated in t-HUB, a statewide data resource for public transportation systems.   The benefits of t-HUB are: (1) streamline data management processes saving time and resources; (2) avoid duplicative efforts by the 30+ transit operators and planning agencies in CT; (3) best practices in data collection and management more easily spread throughout the state; (4) centralize burden of data storage and management; (5) leverage the infrastructure and flexibility of UConn's computational resources; (6) leverage UConn research expertise in data mining and analysis; (7) educate students - creating talent to manage Big Data; (8) build a single, centralized access point for data needs - such as Title VI requirements; and (9) improve connection between transit practitioners, UConn researchers and students. The vision for t-HUB is bold and large in scale.  Multiple phases will be necessary to realize the vision.  This project concentrates on developing a prototype analysis tool and outlining the needs of a fully-deployed system.
KW  - Connecticut
KW  - Data storage
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Digital communication systems
KW  - Discrimination
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Financial analysis
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251763
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481626
AU  - Medina, Juan C
AU  - Benekohal, Rahim (Ray) F
AU  - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
AU  - NEXTRANS
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Agent-based Traffic Management and Reinforcement Learning in Congested Intersection Network
PY  - 2012/08/23/Final Report
SP  - 152p
AB  - This study evaluates the performance of traffic control systems based on reinforcement learning (RL),  also called approximate dynamic programming (ADP). Two algorithms have been selected for testing: 1) Q-learning and 2) approximate dynamic programming (ADP) with a post-decision state variable. The  algorithms were tested in increasingly complex scenarios, from an oversaturated isolated intersection,  to an arterial in undersaturated conditions, to a 2x5 network in both undersaturation and oversaturation, and finally to a 4x5 network in oversaturation with even and uneven directional  demands. Potential benefits of these algorithms include signal systems that not only quickly respond to  the actual conditions found in the field, but also learn about them and truly adapt through flexible cycle-free strategies. Moreover, these signal systems are decentralized, providing greater scalability and lower vulnerability at the network level. Results showed that agents with RL algorithms (ADP and Q-learning) were able to manage the traffic signals efficiently in both undersaturation and oversaturation.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Dynamic programming
KW  - Learning (Artificial intelligence)
KW  - Oversaturation (Traffic flow)
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic signal control systems
KW  - Undersaturated conditions (Traffic)
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/assets/pdfs/Final%20Report%20072IY03.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250502
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01554359
AU  - Balducci, Patrick
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Integrated Corridor Management Initiative: Demonstration Phase Evaluation – San Diego Benefit-Cost Analysis Test Plan
PY  - 2012/08/21/Final Report
SP  - 52p
AB  - This report presents the test plan for conducting the Benefit-Cost Analysis (BCA) for the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) evaluation of the San Diego Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Initiative Demonstration. The ICM projects being deployed in San Diego include a suite of strategies aimed at balancing corridor transportation supply and demand to promote overall corridor efficiency and safety. Operational strategies to be deployed in the San Diego I-15 highway corridor include: simulations to predict travel conditions for improved incident response, interdependent response plans among agencies, traffic diversion to strategic arterials, traveler mode shift to the bus rapid transit (BRT) system during major freeway incidents, and comparative travel time information to the public and operating agencies for freeway, High-Occupancy Tolling (HOT) lanes, arterial streets, and BRT. Technologies that will be used to carry out these strategies include a Decision Support System, a 511 traveler information system (telephone and website), a regional center-to-center information exchange network, dynamic message signs, adaptive ramp metering, and responsive traffic signals. This BCA Data Test Plan is based on the ICM Initiative Demonstration National Evaluation Framework. This test plan provides an overview of the BCA framework and describes the specific qualitative and quantitative data that will be collected to support the analysis. Data analysis methodologies as well as risks and mitigations associated with this evaluation analysis are also discussed in this test plan.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - San Diego (California)
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54300/54351/icm_san_diego_benefit_cost_testplan__FHWA-JPO-13-042_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1342215
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01554210
AU  - Lee, Ming-Shiun
AU  - Krile, Bob
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Integrated Corridor Management Initiative: Demonstration Phase Evaluation – San Diego Corridor Performance Analysis Test Plan
PY  - 2012/08/21/Final Report
SP  - 80p
AB  - This report presents the test plan for conducting the Corridor Performance Analysis for the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) evaluation of the San Diego Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Initiative Demonstration. The ICM projects being deployed in San Diego include a suite of strategies aimed at balancing corridor transportation supply and demand to promote overall corridor efficiency and safety. Operational strategies to be deployed in the San Diego I-15 highway corridor include: simulations to predict travel conditions for improved incident response, interdependent response plans among agencies, traffic diversion to strategic arterials, traveler mode shift to the bus rapid transit (BRT) system during major freeway incidents, and comparative travel time information to the public and operating agencies for freeway, High-Occupancy Tolling (HOT) lanes, arterial streets, and BRT. Technologies that will be used to carry out these strategies include a Decision Support System, a 511 traveler information system (telephone and website), a regional center-to-center information exchange network, dynamic message signs, adaptive ramp metering, and responsive traffic signals. This Corridor Performance Analysis Test Plan is based on the ICM Initiative Demonstration National Evaluation Framework. This test plan provides an overview of the Corridor Performance Analysis and describes the specific qualitative and quantitative data that will be collected to support the analysis. Data analysis methodologies as well as risks and mitigations associated with this evaluation analysis are also discussed in this test plan
KW  - Analysis
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - San Diego (California)
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54300/54352/icm_san_diego_corridor_perform_testplan__FHWA-JPO-13-043_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1342216
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449557
AU  - Sweda, Timothy M
AU  - Klabjan, Diego
AU  - Northwestern University, Evanston
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An Agent-Based Information System for Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Deployment
PY  - 2012/08/18/Final Report
SP  - 20p
AB  - The current scarcity of public charging infrastructure is one of the major barriers to mass household adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). Although most PEV drivers can recharge their vehicles at home, the limited driving range of the vehicles restricts their usefulness for long-distance travel. In this paper, an agent-based information system is presented for identifying patterns in residential PEV ownership and driving activities to enable strategic deployment of new charging infrastructure. Driver agents consider their own driving activities within the simulated environment, in addition to the presence of charging stations and the vehicle ownership of others in their social network, when purchasing a new vehicle. Aside from conventional vehicles, drivers may select among multiple electric alternatives, including two PEV options. The Chicagoland area is used as a case study to demonstrate the model, and several different deployment scenarios are analyzed.
KW  - Agent based models
KW  - Automobile ownership
KW  - Driving patterns
KW  - Electric power transmission facilities
KW  - Electric vehicle charging
KW  - Electric vehicles
KW  - Energy infrastructure
KW  - Social factors
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y401.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46129/CCITT_Final_Report_Y401.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217074
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01554410
AU  - Lee, Ming-Shiun
AU  - Krile, Bob
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Integrated Corridor Management Initiative: Demonstration Phase Evaluation – Dallas Corridor Performance Analysis Test Plan
PY  - 2012/08/17/Final Report
SP  - 78p
AB  - This report presents the test plan for conducting the Corridor Performance Analysis for the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) evaluation of the Dallas U.S. 75 Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Initiative Demonstration. The ICM projects being deployed in Dallas include a suite of strategies aimed at balancing U.S. 75 corridor transportation supply and demand to promote overall corridor efficiency and safety. Operational strategies to be deployed in the Dallas U.S. 75 highway corridor include: simulations to predict travel conditions for improved incident response, interdependent response plans among agencies, traffic diversion to frontage roads and strategic arterials, traveler mode shift to the light rail system during major freeway incidents, and comparative travel time information to the public and operating agencies for freeway, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, frontage roads, arterial streets, and light-rail transit lane. Technologies that will be used to carry out these strategies include a Decision Support System, a 511 traveler information system (telephone and website), a regional center-to-center information exchange network, dynamic message signs, parking management systems, transit signal priority and responsive traffic signals. This Corridor Performance Test Plan is based on the ICM Initiative Demonstration National Evaluation Framework. This test plan provides an overview of the Corridor Performance Analysis and describes the specific qualitative and quantitative data that will be collected to support the analysis. Data analysis methodologies as well as risks and mitigations associated with this evaluation analysis are also discussed in this test plan.
KW  - Analysis
KW  - Dallas (Texas)
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54300/54347/icm_dallas_corridor_perform_testplan_final__FHWA-JPO-13-037_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1342213
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01554340
AU  - Lee, Matt
AU  - Pack, Michael
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Integrated Corridor Management Initiative: Demonstration Phase Evaluation – Dallas Decision Support System Analysis Test Plan
PY  - 2012/08/17/Final Report
SP  - 54p
AB  - This report presents the test plan for conducting the Decision Support System (DSS) Analysis for the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) evaluation of the Dallas U.S. 75 Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Initiative Demonstration. The ICM projects being deployed in Dallas include a suite of strategies aimed at balancing U.S. 75 corridor transportation supply and demand to promote overall corridor efficiency and safety. Operational strategies to be deployed in the Dallas U.S. 75 highway corridor include: simulations to predict travel conditions for improved incident response, interdependent response plans among agencies, traffic diversion to frontage roads and strategic arterials, traveler mode shift to the light rail system during major freeway incidents, and comparative travel time information to the public and operating agencies for freeway, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, frontage roads, arterial streets, and light-rail transit lane. Technologies that will be used to carry out these strategies include a Decision Support System, a 511 traveler information system (telephone and website), a regional center-to-center information exchange network, dynamic message signs, parking management systems, transit signal priority and responsive traffic signals. This DSS Analysis Test Plan is based on the ICM Initiative Demonstration National Evaluation Framework. This test plan provides an overview of the DSS Analysis and describes the specific qualitative and quantitative data that will be collected to support the analysis. Data analysis methodologies as well as risks and mitigations associated with this evaluation analysis are also discussed in this test plan.
KW  - Analysis
KW  - Dallas (Texas)
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54300/54348/icm_dallas_decision_support_testplan_final__FHWA-JPO-13-039_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1342211
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01554239
AU  - Lee, Matthew
AU  - Battelle
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Federal Transit Administration
TI  - Integrated Corridor Management Initiative: Demonstration Phase Evaluation – Dallas Technical Capability Analysis Test Plan
PY  - 2012/08/17/Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - This report presents the test plan for conducting the Technical Capability Analysis for the United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) evaluation of the Dallas U.S. 75 Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) Initiative Demonstration. The ICM projects being deployed in Dallas include a suite of strategies aimed at balancing U.S. 75 corridor transportation supply and demand to promote overall corridor efficiency and safety. Operational strategies to be deployed in the Dallas U.S. 75 highway corridor include: simulations to predict travel conditions for improved incident response, interdependent response plans among agencies, traffic diversion to frontage roads and strategic arterials, traveler mode shift to the light rail system during major freeway incidents, and comparative travel time information to the public and operating agencies for freeway, High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, frontage roads, arterial streets, and light-rail transit lane. Technologies that will be used to carry out these strategies include a Decision Support System, a 511 traveler information system (telephone and website), a regional center-to-center information exchange network, dynamic message signs, parking management systems, transit signal priority and responsive traffic signals. This Technical Capability Test Plan is based on the ICM Initiative Demonstration National Evaluation Framework. This test plan provides an overview of the Technical Capability Analysis and describes the specific qualitative and quantitative data that will be collected to support the analysis. Data analysis methodologies as well as risks and mitigations associated with this evaluation analysis are also discussed in this test plan.
KW  - Analysis
KW  - Dallas (Texas)
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Incident management
KW  - Integrated corridor management
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Modal shift
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/54000/54300/54349/icm_dallas_tech_capab_testplan_final__FHWA-JPO-13-040_.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1342214
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01490776
TI  - Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Study for "Demonstration of a Low-cost Vehicle Monitoring System for Tractor Trailers"
AB  - Interagency Agreement with the Volpe National Transportation Research Center for project administration services in support of Phase II of the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program,  focused on the topic "Demonstration of a Low-cost Vehicle Monitoring System for Tractor Trailers."
KW  - Automatic vehicle monitoring
KW  - Small business
KW  - Tractor trailer combinations
KW  - Trucking safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1260546
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447239
AU  - Neher, Deborah A
AU  - Asmussen, David
AU  - Williams, Kristin
AU  - University of Vermont
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Spatial Extent of the Impact of Transported Road 
Materials on the Ecological Function of Forested 
Landscapes
PY  - 2012/08/17
SP  - 32p
AB  - While there have been studies investigating different aspects of the roadside  environment, there is a need for research in forest ecosystems and for  development of methods to predict roadside environmental conditions with  distance and road use intensity.  This study determines how roads within a  northern hardwood forest change the native plant and soil conditions at  various distances from the road. It also provides a method to predict plant  and soil conditions based on traffic volume. Specifically, the objective of this study was to determine  the spatial extent of the effects of the road and these transported materials  on forest plant communities, soil chemistry, and soil nematode communities  immediately surrounding roadways broadly classified as ‘highways,’ ‘twolane paved,’ and ‘gravel’ which correspond roughly with the Federal Highway  Administration’s classification of arterial, collector and local. The study was conducted in Chittenden County, Vermont, in the  Northeastern U.S., where deicing salts are spread regularly on roads during  winter months. Land cover in the state of Vermont is dominated by forest  (approximately 75%), and many of the forested areas are directly connected  with the roadways.
KW  - Chittenden County (Vermont)
KW  - Deicing chemicals
KW  - Ecology
KW  - Ecosystems
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Forests
KW  - Landscape ecology
KW  - Plants
KW  - Road materials
KW  - Roadside flora
KW  - Soil chemistry
KW  - Soils
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-12-012.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46023/UVM-TRC-12-012.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214563
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01575934
TI  - Oil Extraction from Oilseeds for Renewable Aviation Fuel Production
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Aviation fuels
KW  - Oils
KW  - Production
KW  - Renewable energy sources
KW  - Resource extraction
KW  - Seeds
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1368942
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494911
TI  - Large-Area Road-Surface Quality and Land-Cover Classification Using Very-High Spatial Resolution Aerial and Satellite Data
AB  - The objective is to prove the application of recently developed remote sensing image analysis techniques for the purposes of road surface monitoring provides a unique opportunity to improve operational procedures for transportation organizations.
KW  - Aerial surveying
KW  - Artificial satellites
KW  - Image analysis
KW  - Land use
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Roads
KW  - Surface course (Pavements)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264145
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494661
TI  - An Automated System for Rail Transit Infrastructure Inspection
AB  - This project applies commercial remote sensing and spatial information (CRS&amp;SI) technologies to the public transportation focus area of the Research and Innovative Technology (RITA CRS&amp;SI) program. It integrates Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), laser, Geographic Information Sysems (GIS), and Gllobal Posiitioning Systems (GPS), to automatically collect and georeference surface and/or subsurface data for rail, concrete ties, fastening systems, and ballast. A WebGIS-based decision support system will be developed to help rail transit employees with no GPR and laser background to utilize the collected data.
KW  - Automatic data collection systems
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Ground penetrating radar
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Rail transit
KW  - Remote sensing
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263876
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494656
TI  - Using Social Networks and Commercial Remote Sensing to Assess Impacts of Natural Events on Transportation Infrastructure
AB  - This project develops a new capability to use social networks for cueing commercial remote sensing of transportation infrastructure conditions, in response to natural events. To meet these challenges, this project will develop and deliver a capability to access real-time social networks and then convert information into interoperable geospatial services. These services can be used to 'scan' for geosocial inputs to natural event impacts on transportation infrastructure, and improve the speed and accuracy of commercial imagery satellite collection of transportation infrastructure impacts. Once cueing data is available, commercial high-resolution imaging satellites will use the information to task collection over potentially affected transportation infrastructure.
KW  - Imagery
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Interoperability
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Social networking
KW  - Transportation infrastructure
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263871
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483118
TI  - Quadcopter with Heterogeneous Sensors for Autonomous Bridge Inspection
AB  - Continuously monitoring a bridge's health by sensor technologies has been widely used to maintain the operation of a roadwork while protecting public users' safety. However, monitoring and inspecting numerous bridges in a state is a labor-intense and costly task. A recent survey (Gastineau et al. 2009) shows that among 25 sensors used in 38 companies, there is no autonomous system capable of inspecting bridges. The project will advance the bridge monitoring technology a step further by developing a quadcopter with heterogeneous sensors, which aims to enable the autonomous bridge inspection.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Intelligent agents
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=436
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251894
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447237
AU  - Watts, Richard A
AU  - Maddison, Jonathan
AU  - Macias, Thomas
AU  - Witham, Aaron
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Social Construction and Framing of Tailpipe Emissions in the Media
PY  - 2012/08/15
SP  - 20p
AB  - The reduction of tailpipe emissions is a critical issue in the U.S. Vehicle emissions containing  carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides degrade the quality of air and  damage lung and heart function. Urban areas in the northeast and California suffer from  severe air quality issues caused by tailpipe emissions.  Mass communication through the media can help communicate the risks of tailpipe emissions and help set the political agenda. This study examines media coverage of tailpipe emissions in the Associated Press State and Local Wire from 2000 to 2008. Using a framing analysis approach, the researchers focused on the policy actors and issue frames in media coverage relating to tailpipe emissions. Frames define problems, provide causal analysis,  moral judgment, and remedy promotion.
KW  - Environmental policy
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Framework
KW  - Mass communication
KW  - Mass media
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Press coverage
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Social factors
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-12-010.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46021/UVM-TRC-12-010.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214565
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449576
AU  - Borraz-Sánchez, Conrado
AU  - Klabjan, Diego
AU  - Northwestern University, Evanston
AU  - Center for the Commercialization of Innovative Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Strategic Gang Scheduling for Railroad 
Maintenance
PY  - 2012/08/14
SP  - 20p
AB  - This report addresses the railway track maintenance scheduling problem. The problem stems from the signiﬁcant percentage of the annual budget invested by the railway industry for maintaining its railway tracks. The process requires consideration of human resource allocations (gangs), as well as eﬀective logistics for equipment movement and routing around the rail network under time window constraints. The authors propose an eﬃcient solution approach to minimize total costs incurred by the maintenance projects or jobs within a given planning horizon. This is accomplished by designing a job-time network model to capture feasible schedules under the constraints of job precedence and developing a mathematical programming heuristic to solve the underlying model. The key ingredient is an iterative process that extracts and then re-inserts jobs based on an integer programming model. Computational experiments show the capability of the proposed heuristic to schedule more than 1,000 jobs and more than 30 gangs.
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Heuristic methods
KW  - Maintenance
KW  - Maintenance personnel
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Scheduling
KW  - Time constraints
UR  - http://www.ccitt.northwestern.edu/documents/CCITT_Final_Report_Y201.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46128/CCITT_Final_Report_Y201.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217073
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01547573
TI  - Development of a Prototype Evidence-Based Database and Planning Tool: Applying Performance Management Principles in Asset Management Program Development
AB  - The purpose of this research is to develop an evidence-based planning tool and database that will help agencies to strategically plan the development of their asset management programs using accumulated experience to achieve higher-performance output. Specifically, the research will: (1) Conduct a literature review to determine best practices in evidence-based design, planning and programming that can be applied to Transportation. It will also draw from existing key literature on performance management; (2) Work with American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), Transportation Research Board (TRB) and other relevant professional organizations to determine and refine key performance indicators for tracking asset management program performance; (3) Design and conduct multiple case studies to collect best practices and lessons learned in asset management program development (both network-level and project-level asset management); (4) Develop procedures to evaluate program maturity levels against performance as indicated by key performance indicators; and (5) Develop prototype evidence-based database and planning tool for performance -based planning of asset management program development.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1335010
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446260
AU  - Selvam, R Panneer
AU  - Hall, Kevin
AU  - Bhadra, Sayantan
AU  - Mack Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Nanotechnology-Based Performance Improvements For Portland Cement Concrete – Phase I
PY  - 2012/08/12/Technical Report
SP  - 25p
AB  - A fundamental understanding of the nano-structure of Portland cement concrete (PCC) is the key to realizing significant breakthroughs regarding high performance and sustainability. MBTC-sponsored research (MBTC 2095/3004) using molecular dynamics (MD) provided new understanding of Calcium Silicate Hydrate (CSH) structure (the main component giving strength and durability to PCC); however, the study was limited, particularly regarding nano-level mechanical properties in the PCC due to number of atoms that could be considered in the MD approach. In this work discrete element method (DEM) for considering the CSH gel structure is proposed. The progress made in phase I out of three phases is reported. The review of DEM application in engineering and specifically for CSH study is reported. Existing free ware and commercial code available for DEM study is presented. An in house DEM code is developed to apply an indentor type load to a cohesive material. Sample model calculation reasonably illustrated the development and application of the DEM code.
KW  - Calcium silicate
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Discrete element method
KW  - Hydrates
KW  - Nanostructured materials
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Portland cement concrete
UR  - http://www.arkansastrc.com/MBTC%20REPORTS/MBTC%203022.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45881/MBTC_DOT_3022.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212535
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01380305
AU  - Hudson, Joan G
AU  - Duthie, Jennifer C
AU  - Rathod, Yatinkumar K
AU  - Larsen, Katie A
AU  - Meyer, Joel L
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Using Smartphones to Collect Bicycle Travel Data in Texas
PY  - 2012/08/08/Final Report
SP  - 84p
AB  - Researchers believed that if smartphones could prove to be an effective tool for collecting bicycle travel data, the information could be used for aiding decision making as to what types of facilities users prefer and guiding decisions about future facilities. If adequate facilities were provided, the mode share of bicyclists would increase and lead to a reduction in congestion. Thus, researchers used an existing smartphone application, CycleTracks, developed by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, to develop this study. Austin-area bicyclists were targeted to test the application. Austin’s strong cycling culture, its known bicycle friendliness, and the presence of several universities including the University of Texas made it an ideal test environment. Bicycle route data was collected between May 1 and October 31, 2011 during which time over 3,600 routes were recorded. About 300 bicyclists provided their age, gender, bicycling frequency, home zip code, work zip code, and school zip code. Eighty-three percent of these participants indicated that they bicycle daily or several times per week. Most participants live and work in the central area of Austin. Seventy percent of the participants were male and 30 percent female. There were slightly more participants in the 20-29 age range than the 30-39 and 40-49 age ranges. Many defined the purpose of the bicycle trip: 85 percent of the trips were for the purpose of transportation vs. recreation. Using algorithms within ArcGIS, researchers were able to match almost 90 percent of the bicycle routes. The collected dataset provided a rich set of bicyclist and route attributes useful for identifying route choice decisions. Despite the manageable challenges of the data cleaning, network completion, and map-matching process, the amount of information provided by the use of CycleTracks far exceeds what would be available using other data collection methods.
KW  - Austin (Texas)
KW  - Bicycle travel
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Route choice
KW  - Smartphones
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Hudson_11-35-69.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45731/Hudson_11-35-69.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1148103
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01431192
AU  - Geunes, Joseph
AU  - Konur, Dincer
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Impacts of Efficient Transportation Capacity Utilization via Multi-Product Consolidation on Transportation Network Usage and Congestion
PY  - 2012/08/06/Final Report
SP  - 42p
AB  - Multi-item inventory problems that explicitly account for realistic transportation cost structures and constraints, including a per-truck capacity and per-truck cost are studied.  The authors analyze shipment consolidation and coordination policies under these conditions. A set partitioning problem is formulated to determine the best consolidation policy. The authors first use a branch-and-price method to solve the resulting set partitioning problem. Since the pricing problem for the general case is NP-hard, two heuristic methods are proposed to generate new columns. The authors also show that the pricing problem can be solved in polynomial time for a practical special case. Furthermore, they develop two heuristic methods as alternatives to the branch-and-price method. Numerical studies are conducted to demonstrate the efficiency of the heuristic column generators, heuristic methods to the set partitioning problem, and how the modeling approach helps mitigate truck density on transportation networks while resulting in higher truck utilization and lower total costs.
KW  - Branch and price algorithms
KW  - Freight consolidation
KW  - Heuristic methods
KW  - Inventory
KW  - Pricing
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/geunes_cms_%202010-018_final.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45655/geunes_cms__2010-018_final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1197318
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587419
TI  - Evaluating the State of Mobility Management and Human Service Transportation Coordination 
AB  - The proposed objectives of the study are as follows:
1)      Synthesize previous research on the effectiveness of mobility management and coordination programs.
2)      Develop an onboard survey instrument that could be used in different locations and across time to evaluate the impacts of mobility management and coordination programs on end users.
3)      Determine the impacts of mobility management and coordination programs in meeting the goals of efficiency, ease of access, and quality of service.
4)      Assess the effectiveness of mobility management and coordination programs in meeting the needs of transportation disadvantaged populations from the perspective of the end users.
5)      Develop and test an evaluation model that could be applied to other communities across the country. 


KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Quality of service
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transportation disadvantaged persons
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/evaluating-the-state-of-mobility-management-and-human-service-transportation-coordination/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396082
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587414
TI  - Estimating Demand for Intercity Bus Services: A Network Approach 
AB  - A significant need exists for creating a model to estimate demand for intercity bus services, especially in rural areas. Many states and rural operators are unsure about the potential demand for rural intercity bus service, and many of the existing models are unreliable due to poor data (Fravel et al. 2011). To address this need, a Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) project by Fravel et al. (2011) developed a sketch-planning guide that could be used by state transportation department program managers and both public and private rural intercity bus service providers to forecast demand for rural intercity bus services. The route-level modeling techniques used in this TCRP report provide a useful tool for estimating ridership on rural intercity routes, but it has some limitations. It does not account for through passengers that are using the service simply because it connects to others routes and it is not sensitive to changes in fares or frequency. The model proposed for this study will attempt to address these issues through the use of a regional network model. The intent of the Fravel et al. (2011) study was to develop a tool to help determine ridership on proposed feeder routes, rather than to construct a network model. A network model, however, would be a useful tool that would account for through passengers while estimating route-level demand and would show impacts of service changes and demand changes on the entire network. 
KW  - Demand
KW  - Estimating
KW  - Intercity bus lines
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Ridership
KW  - Rural transit
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/estimating-demand-for-intercity-bus-services-a-network-approach/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396078
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01565917
TI  - Integrated Land-Use, Transportation and Environmental Modeling: Complex Systems Approaches and Advanced Policy Applications, Phase 4
AB  - This project develops, evaluates, calibrates, and validates combinations of integrated frameworks for agent-based land use and transportation models using Chittenden County as a test-bed. The project proposes to implement UrbanSim with TRANSIMS for Chittenden County and to integrate the two models together with an activity model developed by partners at RSG Incorporated. Future conditions shall be simulated based on alternative scenarios generated in stakeholder meetings and ranging from changed land use policy constraints to construction of new infrastructure. The impacts of the transportation sector on mobile source air pollution will be conducted using data from Vermont University Transportation Center (UTC) Signature Project #2. Researchers in other projects will be providing new model output metrics to consider land cover and carbon; storm water; impacts on plants and soils; network robustness; and commodity transportation. The researchers will develop code for processes to integrate these new output metrics into the combined model in a format that services the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) context and models. The most important aspect of project 1B is evaluating which of the combined model architecture components are necessary for which set of regional planning and policy questions.
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Integrated systems
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Simulation
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/trc/university-transportation-center/utc-current-project-list/integrated-land-use-transportation-and-environmental-modeling/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1356556
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494912
TI  - Multi Level Adaptive Remote Sensing Package for Bridge Scour Health Management (MARSS)
AB  - The MARSS framework will be developed and will integrate remote sensing and wireless technology for scour monitoring, adaptive information process, prognosis and decision support systems to provide valuable scour data, manage scour state and mode and estimate remaining useful time.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Decision support systems
KW  - Information processing
KW  - Remote sensing
KW  - Scour
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264146
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01494551
TI  - National Transit Safety Research and Assistance Center
AB  - The National Center for Transit Research will establish a National Transit Safety Research and Assistance Center.  The Center will employ a number of methods to successfully provide resources to public transportation providers, local and state governments, the private sector, and other transit stakeholders to improve public transportation safety in the United States.  This Center will be a resource for public transportation agencies from the smallest to the largest, in operating environments from the most rural to those operating in our nation's largest cities.  The focus areas will include, but not be limited to operational and vehicle related safety topics, human factors, and substance abuse management.  Technical assistance and training aspects will be structured to provide ample support to transit agencies that are improving or modifying their safety programs to comply with the transit safety regulations included in Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21).
KW  - Federal assistance programs
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Human factors engineering
KW  - Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act
KW  - Safety
KW  - Substance abuse
KW  - Technical assistance
KW  - Transit operating agencies
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1263720
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483236
TI  - Analysis of Driver Merging
AB  - No summary provided.
KW  - Analysis
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Merging area
KW  - Merging traffic
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=443
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252085
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481547
TI  - Advancing Asphalt Mixture Design through Application of Planar Imaging Techniques and Asphalt Lubricity Testing to Improve Understanding of Effects of WMA on Mixture Workability
AB  - The introduction of modified binders, recycled materials, warm mix asphatl (WMA), and other technologies has resulted in a substantial increase in the complexity of hot mix asphalt placed in the field relative to conventional products due to interactions between the modifiers and other mix components and extension in the range of production temperatures used in the field.  As a result, use of conventional viscosity based methods to select mixing and compaction temperatures and evaluation of mix designs based solely on volumetrics is insufficient.
KW  - Asphalt mixtures
KW  - Compaction
KW  - Lubricants
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Viscosity
KW  - Warm mix paving mixtures
KW  - Workability
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/07-09/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250707
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471042
TI  - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Carsharing: Understanding Early Market Dynamics and Social and Environmental Impacts
AB  - As traditional carsharing has become an integral part of urban transportation systems across North America, new and advanced approaches to carsharing have begun to emerge. One such advance is peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing, in which intelligent transportation system (ITS) technology opens personally-owned vehicles to carsharing. This project would study early P2P carsharing members through focus groups, stakeholder interviews, and an online survey. Focus groups would probe the experiences of members that contribute and rent vehicles to understand the obstacles faced in sharing P2P vehicles. The focus groups would also inform the design of an online survey of members across P2P organizations in North America. Questions would explore how P2P carsharing has altered member walking, bicycling, public transportation, personal driving, and ridesharing. Researchers would identify benefits/positive experiences and challenges/frustrations faced by P2P users/vehicle renters to inform the P2P industry of early adopter considerations. Finally, stakeholder interviews with operators and key supporters (e.g., legislators) would gain perspective on industry challenges and opportunities from a policy perspective. The results would be used to advance knowledge of P2P carsharing and aid organizations in expanding their vehicle networks through a better understanding of the fundamental needs and characteristics of their membership base as related to the broader population.
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Focus groups
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Peer-to-peer communication
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Vehicle sharing
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239214
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471040
TI  - Davis Shopping Study: Factors Influencing Impacts of Big-Box Retail on Shopping Travel
AB  - Shopping travel constitutes a significant share of all daily travel in the U.S. This travel has significant environmental impacts with respect to energy consumption, air quality, water quality, and climate change. Understanding the factors that influence choices about shopping provides a basis for the development of policies that help ensure that consumer needs are met while the environmental costs of shopping travel are minimized. The purpose of this study is to examine shopping behavior of residents of Davis, California before and after the opening of a Target store in Davis in 2009. The opening of the store presented a unique opportunity to study the causal effects on shopping behavior of a significant change in the retail landscape. A survey was completed of Davis residents as to their shopping travel just before the opening of the store and one year after the store opening. Using data from this survey, it was estimated that there was a significant reduction in vehicle miles of travel for shopping purposes for Davis residents. These results are relevant to current policy debates in California over the role of "smart growth" planning policies in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a way to meet Senate Bill 375 requirements.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Davis (California)
KW  - Energy consumption
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Greenhouse gases
KW  - Shopping trips
KW  - Smart growth
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239212
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471039
TI  - From Development to Implementation of Social Equity Metrics and Scenarios for Sustainable Communities Strategies in the San Joaquin Valley
AB  - The proposed project seeks to: (1) refine for use in the San Joaquin Valley a set of existing social equity analysis tools applicable to sustainable regional development policy and planning that have been developed in the Bay Area and Sacramento regions; (2) apply these tools to inform social equity and health scenario development for use in regional planning related to SB 375 (Sustainable Communities Strategies/Metropolitan Transportation Plans) by Councils of Governments (COGs) and community advocates in the San Joaquin Valley; and (3) conduct a formative assessment of the scenario development and tool application process. These tools, including a Social Vulnerability Index, an Opportunity Index, a Jobs-Housing fit analysis, a Cumulative Environmental Hazard Index and a Transportation Equity Index, have been developed and applied in SB 375-related planning in the Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area regions. Equity advocates in the San Joaquin Valley have requested assistance from University of California, Davis to work collaboratively with them and with the COGs in the region to apply these tools and develop equity scenarios for the region's Sustainable Communities Strategies/Metropolitan Transportation Plans.
KW  - California
KW  - Equity (Justice)
KW  - Health
KW  - Policy
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Sacramento Area Council of Governments
KW  - Sustainable development
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239211
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01471036
TI  - Capacity Reallocation Projects and Their Perceived Effects on Local Economics, Sustainability, Livability
AB  - With increasing federal and state policies and funding support mechanisms for non-motorized transportation, an important opportunity exist to further the understanding around design and implementation issues associated with these projects. Many communities are exploring capacity reallocation projects, which generally take the form of reducing an existing multi-lane road (usually four-lanes) to two vehicle-lanes, and adding a center left hand turn lane and dedicated bike and pedestrian paths in both directions. Although capacity reallocation projects are becoming a more widely applied mode shift strategy, there is very little research on the impact of these types of projects on non-safety factors. This research will contribute by expanding the understanding of how residents and businesses judge the economic and livability impacts of road diets and how previously surveyed respondents and their initial project opinions may be modified by personal experience with a reallocation project. The proposed project builds on a prior University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) supported effort that focused on a pre-implementation data collection and analysis for a capacity reallocation project within the City of Davis. The project was referred to as the 5th Street Redesign. The current UCTC support focused on capturing attitudes and perceptions as well as characterizing existing operating conditions as the 5th Street Redesign went from the public participation stage through final design. Here, the project proposes to focus on community perceptions, attitudes and personal usage after implementation, which is scheduled for Sept 2012. As far as it is known, this project will serve, in total, as the first rigorous pre- and post-evaluation of capacity reallocation project.
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Davis (California)
KW  - Design
KW  - Highway capacity
KW  - Nonmotorized transportation
KW  - Public participation
KW  - Walkways
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1239208
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01470589
TI  - Improving Track Substructure Designs and Settlement due to Complex Dynamic Loads from High-Speed Passenger and Freight Trains
AB  - Railroad track substructures that have traditionally supported heavy freight trains are undergoing rehabilitation as they are developed into shared corridors capable of supporting higher-speed passenger service, generating more complex dynamic loading. These substructures consist of mostly ballasted track, which must be durable, stable, and able to withstand repetitive dynamic loading without excessive deformation or ride quality degradation. There is an increasing need to (i) better understand effects of different qualities of aggregate types, degradation trends and maintenance alternatives as well as effects of moisture on subgrade and ballast layer performance under such demanding dynamic loading scenarios anticipated in joint passenger and freight corridors and (ii) develop engineered/optimized ballast specifications and subgrade preparation guidelines for improved track performance and hence increased network safety and reliability. This project aims to improve track substructure designs by properly evaluating effects of mixed-traffic on track performance. A discretely supported tie, ballast and subgrade track model will be used to study complex dynamic loading patterns from high speed passenger and freight trains. Associated track settlement, vibration and deterioration trends due to these moving wheel loads will be realistically evaluated using the field-validated ballast numerical model developed at UIUC based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) utilizing an imaging based ballast aggregate particle size/shape characterization. The results from the dynamic, repeated train loading DEM simulations are expected to improve ballasted track substructure designs including railway transitions which often experience differential movement due to differences in track system stiffness, foundation type, ballast settlement from fouling and/or degradation, as well as subgrade settlement. This project will produce research findings in coordination with and significantly contributing to other NURail project emphases in vehicle dynamics (Shabana), track structure (Edwards and Andrawes) and track substructure and vibrations (Foster and Issa).
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Degradation failures
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Freight trains
KW  - High speed rail
KW  - Passenger transportation
KW  - Railroad tracks
KW  - Subgrade materials
KW  - Substructures
UR  - http://www.nurailcenter.org/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238736
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470000
AU  - McGurrin, Michael
AU  - Noblis
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Vehicle Information Exchange Needs for Mobility Applications Exchange: Version 2.0
PY  - 2012/08/01/Revised Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - Connected Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) safety applications heavily rely on the Basic Safety Message (BSM), which is one of the messages defined in the Society of Automotive standard J2735, Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) Message Set Dictionary, November 2009.  The BSM is broadcast from vehicles over the 5.9 GHz DSRC band.  Transmission range is on the order of 1 kilometer.  The BSM consists of two parts: BSM Part 1: Contains core data elements, including vehicle position, heading, speed, acceleration, steering wheel angle, and vehicle size; it is transmitted at an adjustable rate of about 10 times per second. BSM Part 2: Contains a variable set of data elements drawn from an extensive list of optional elements.  They are selected based on event triggers, e.g., Anti-lock braking system activated. They are added to Part 1 and sent as part of the BSM message, but are transmitted less frequently in order to conserve bandwidth. The BSM message includes only current snapshots (with the exception of path data which is itself limited to a few second’s worth of past history data).  A preliminary assessment of the information that needs to flow to and from vehicles in order to support thirty high priority applications identified by the Dynamic Mobility Applications (DMA)  and connected vehicle road weather programs was conducted to determine the extent to which the BSM can support those needs. The primary findings of the analysis are: (1) The BSM, with Part 1 transmitted approximately 10 times per second over DSRC, is useful for a limited subset of mobility applications, but is not solely sufficient for most applications, especially since complete roadway coverage using DSRC has never been envisioned as a feasible option. (2) A subset of the BSM Part 1 and Part 2 data, if cached, bundled, and sent in another manner (e.g., periodic transmission of both current and history data over cellular networks), adequately provides the vehicle-based information needed for most mobility applications.  The major exception is crash-related data to support the Advanced Automatic Crash Notification Relay (AACNRELAY) application.
KW  - Data communications
KW  - Dedicated short range communications
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
KW  - Weather
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46089/Final_PKG_FHWA-JPO-12-021_508_PDF.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1226259
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01537442
AU  - Elmore, Cecilia
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Women in Science & Engineering Scholarships and Summer Camp Outreach Programs: Year 6
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 5p
AB  - Support will make scholarships available to minority and women students interested in engineering and science and will increase significantly the number of minority and female students that the Missouri University of Science and Technology can recruit to its science and engineering programs. Recipients of scholarships will also be exposed to career opportunities in transportation.
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Engineering
KW  - Females
KW  - Financial aid
KW  - Minorities
KW  - Missouri University of Science and Technology
KW  - Outreach
KW  - Scholarships
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/ETT279%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1322144
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01537422
AU  - Perkins, William
AU  - Center for Transportation Infrastructure and Safety/NUTC program
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Minority Engineering Scholarships Renewal 2011
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 5p
AB  - Scholarships for Minority Students Studying Engineering and Science: Support will make scholarships available to minority students interested in engineering and science and will increase significantly the number of minority students that the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) can recruit to its science and engineering programs. Recipients of scholarships will also be exposed to career opportunities in transportation. Minority Engineering and Science Program ( MEP) scholarships provide critical financial support for under-represented students majoring in engineering and science programs at Missouri S&T. MEP scholarship students receive professional and academic support through the close-knit MEP network of friends, mentors, and Missouri S&T staff. MEP has a rich 30 year tradition of sponsoring events, activities and organizations that ensure its students are prepared for personal and professional success.
KW  - Engineering
KW  - Financial aid
KW  - Minorities
KW  - Missouri University of Science and Technology
KW  - Scholarships
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://transportation.mst.edu/media/research/transportation/documents/Ett280%20Final%20Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1322143
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01516379
AU  - Zhang, Xiong
AU  - Presler, Wendy
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Use of H2Ri Wicking Fabric to Prevent Frost Boils in the Dalton Highway Beaver Slide Area, Alaska
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 111p
AB  - Many roads in Alaska, such as the Dalton Highway, experience degradation during spring thaw due to the downslope running of shallow groundwater. The water flows down the slope and pools up in the road embankments, where it freezes, causing frost boils and subsequent road damage. One good example of this damage occurred at Beaver Slide, near mile 110.5 of the Dalton Highway. The frost boils have resulted in extremely unsafe driving conditions and frequent accidents. Past repair efforts indicate conventional road construction methods do not work. The Mirafi Nylon Wicking Fabric, developed by Tencate Geosynthetics (North America), offers a potential solution. Featuring high specific surface area and high permeability, preliminary laboratory tests of MNWF indicate that it has great promise as a cost-effective means to  solve the frost boil problems on northern road systems. This proposed project aims to verify the theory, testing MNWF at Beaver Slide using moisture and temperature sensors to gather measurements for one year. Upon evaluation, researchers expect improved performance of pavement at installation sites. Data will be gathered regarding soil properties at the site; observed thermal and moisture changes and pavement performance over a one-year period; analysis of frost boil mechanisms; and evaluation of MNWF effectiveness to mitigate frost boil problems. Research results may lead to incorporation of MNWF in the geotechnical engineering curriculum at University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Further, recommendations developed from the research will be useful in ensuring a reliable and economic design of roads in arctic environments.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Dalton Highway
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Freeze thaw durability
KW  - Frost heaving
KW  - Geosynthetics
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Moisture content
KW  - Sensors
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/10/Final-Report_Beaver-Slide.10.13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1290646
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01494506
AU  - Zaman, Musharraf
AU  - Gransberg, Douglas
AU  - Riemer, Caleb
AU  - Pittenger, Dominique
AU  - Aktas, Bekir
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Quantifying the Costs and Benefits of Pavement Retexturing as a Pavement Preservation Tool – Phases 1 & 2
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 168p
AB  - The objective of the study is to build on the research done overseas and conduct a comparative field evaluation of various methods used to restore pavement skid resistance by retexturing the existing surface with either a surface  treatment, chemical treatment or a mechanical process. In Phase 1, 16 field test sections were constructed on  State Highway 77 between Oklahoma City and Norman. Monthly microtexture and macrotexture measurements were taken over a period of 22 months. The field data were reduced to create deterioration models based on loss of both micro and macrotexture over time. The models were then used to calculate effective service lives for each treatment which was then used as input for a life cycle cost analysis.  A new life cycle cost analysis model for pavement preservation treatments based on equivalent uniform annual cost rather than net present value was developed and is used to process the pavement texture change data. This will allow pavement managers to have the required information to be able to make rational engineering design  decisions based on both physical and financial data for a suite of potential pavement preservation tools. Each treatment alternative has been evaluated under the same conditions over the same period of time by an impartial research team. The project continued for a third year under the Phase 2 OTCREOS9.1-21 contract. A pavement  preservation treatment toolbox for a total of 23 different treatments was developed and furnished to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) for use by its division maintenance engineers in the statewide pavement preservation program.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Life cycle costing
KW  - Macrotexture
KW  - Microtexture
KW  - Oklahoma
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement preservation
KW  - Service life
KW  - Skid resistance
KW  - Surface treating
KW  - Texture
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS9.1-21-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262829
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489741
AU  - Adams, Teresa M
AU  - Janowiak, Scott
AU  - Bittner, Jason
AU  - Sperry, Benjamin R
AU  - Warner, Jeffery E
AU  - Borowiec, Jeffrey D
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Wisconsin Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Air Cargo in the Mid-America Freight Coalition Region
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 128p
AB  - This report contains a contextual review of air cargo transportation in the 10-state Mid-America Freight Coalition (MAFC) region including the industry’s recent history, security implications, and integration within the greater MAFC economy. The report contains an inventory of air cargo facilities throughout the 10-states, including airports, air cargo screening facilities, and foreign trade zones. The researchers analyzed air cargo activity by weight at the region-wide, state, and individual airport levels. An analysis of air cargo movement patterns by tonnage is also provided. Similarly the report contains analyses of MAFC air cargo movements by value and commodity. In the MAFC region, major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, IL; Minneapolis, MN; Detroit, MI; Indianapolis, IN; and Louisville, KY form the core markets for the air cargo industry. An important component of this study focuses on the improved or expanded role smaller general aviation (GA) airports can play to enhance air cargo opportunities for themselves and their community. The report contains insights into how general aviation airports can play a role within the MAFC air cargo industry. The study contains case studies  of exceptional air cargo stories including the experience of airports in St. Louis, MI and Fort Wayne, IN; the role of air cargo in supporting auto manufacturing, regional contexts and considerations, and multi-airport “twinning” arrangements. Recommendations and conclusions are intended to be suggestive considerations for integration into the greater decision-making process.
KW  - Air cargo
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Commodities
KW  - Freight security
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - General aviation airports
KW  - Metropolitan areas
KW  - Mid-America Freight Coalition
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_CFIRE0411.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258469
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01489533
AU  - Titi, Hani
AU  - Tabatabai, Habib
AU  - Sobolev, Konstantin
AU  - Crovetti, James
AU  - Foley, Christopher
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Feasibility Study for a Freeway Corridor Infrastructure Health Monitoring Instrumentation Testbed
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 256p
AB  - With current and near-term construction activities within the freeway system of Southeast Wisconsin, there is a unique opportunity to develop a detailed understanding of their in-service performance by implementing a health monitoring network that can serve as a living laboratory for the State of Wisconsin. Data from this health monitoring network can be used to develop and guide maintenance and inspection operations for these and other critical infrastructure components across the State. This monitoring network can also become a model for the nation, illustrating the benefits and cost savings from an integrated, proactive maintenance program
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Instrumentation
KW  - Maintenance management
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transportation corridors
KW  - Wisconsin
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0408.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258462
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01488183
AU  - Chase, Steven B
AU  - Feeley, Katherine E
AU  - University of Virginia, Charlottesville
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Virginia Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Integration of Structural Health Monitoring with Asset Management
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 98p
AB  - The Virginia Center for Innovation and Transportation Research and Virginia Tech installed a structural health monitoring (SHM)system on a Virginia bridge.Using data from this SHM system as input, a procedure was developed to provide information on the lane occupancy, speed, classification and gross vehicle weight of heavy trucks. The resulting information is very useful for bridge management. The data also augments existing bridge weigh in motion (WIM) data collection sites in Virginia. The procedure could add functionality to other bridge SHM systems in Virginia. The system provides useful information on truck loading at low cost.
KW  - Asset management
KW  - Bridge management systems
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Gross vehicle weight
KW  - Lane occupancy
KW  - Structural health monitoring
KW  - Traffic loads
KW  - Traffic speed
KW  - Trucks
KW  - Vehicle classification
KW  - Virginia
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/MAUTC-2009-01%20UVA.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1257073
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478581
AU  - Shaulov, Mark
AU  - Green, Kevin
AU  - Harrington, Ryan
AU  - Mergel, Joe
AU  - Pickrell, Don
AU  - Keefe, Ryan
AU  - Van Schalkwyk, John
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
TI  - 2017 – 2025 Corporate Average Fuel Economy Compliance and Effects Modeling System Documentation
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 134p
AB  - The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) of the United States Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration has developed a modeling system to assist the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the evaluation of potential new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Given externally-developed inputs, the modeling system estimates how manufacturers could apply additional fuel-saving technologies in response to new CAFE standards, and estimates how doing so would increase vehicle costs, reduce national fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and result in other effects and benefits to society. The modeling system can also be used to estimate the stringency at which an attribute-based CAFE standard satisfies various criteria. For example, the system can estimate the stringency that produces a specified average required fuel economy level, or that maximizes net benefits to society.
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  - Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)
KW  - Costs
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Standards
KW  - Technological innovations
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47000/47027/CAFE_HS_811_670.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247584
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476970
AU  - Floyd, Royce
AU  - Hale, W Micah
AU  - Mack-Blackwell Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Performance of Prestressed Girders Cast with LWSCC
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 506p
AB  - Bond of prestressing steel has been a much debated topic since the 1950s. Limited data are available on the transfer and development length of strands cast in self consolidating concrete (SCC) and even less for strands cast in light weight, self-consolidating concrete (LWSCC). The differences in material properties resulting from the lightweight coarse aggregate and mix proportioning used for LWSCC have potential to lead to longer transfer and development lengths than those for conventional  concrete, which can be detrimental to shear and flexural performance. The transfer and development length equations provided in the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Bridge Design specifications are based on studies performed using conventional concrete. This research project examined the transfer and development length of LWSCC specimens using 0.6 in. (15.2 mm) Grade 270 prestressing strand. The bond performance of LWSCC with a release strength of 6000 psi (41 MPa) was very similar to normal weight SCC, the transfer lengths for both strength levels were accurately predicted by the code equations, and the measured development lengths were significantly less than those predicted.
KW  - Bond strength (Materials)
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Girders
KW  - Lightweight concrete
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Self compacting concrete
UR  - http://www.arkansastrc.com/MBTC%20REPORTS/MBTC%203021.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47100/47180/Final_Report_-_MBTC_3021.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246283
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01476968
AU  - Bymaster, Jared C
AU  - Hale, W Micah
AU  - Mack-Blackwell Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Performance of Prestressed Girders Cast with LWSCC – Phase II
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 86p
AB  - While much research has been performed on lightweight concrete and self-consolidating concrete (SCC), the knowledge of prestress losses in lightweight self-consolidating concrete (LWSCC) is still limited. LWSCC has the benefits of increased flowability, reduced placement labor, and decreased shipping cost compared to conventional concrete. This research program included the study of 14 SCC beams cast with expanded clay, expanded shale, and limestone aggregates. Strains in the beams were measured with vibrating-wire strain gages, and the measured prestress losses were compared with current American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) methods for calculating prestress losses. The AASHTO approximate method better predicted actual losses than did the AASHTO refined method. In addition, the AASHTO approximate method gave more accurate results for the LWSCC beams than it did for the normal weight SCC beams. This research showed that the AASHTO refined method is overly sensitive to the  concrete compressive strength and modulus of elasticity at release.
KW  - Beams
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Girders
KW  - Lightweight concrete
KW  - Prestress losses
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Self compacting concrete
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47200/47222/MBTC3030Final_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1246284
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475809
AU  - Morse, Lindsey
AU  - Frazier, Jonathan
AU  - Sylvester, Kathleen
AU  - Fisher, Frances
AU  - Fine, Alisa
AU  - Kay, Michael
AU  - Duffy, Catherine
AU  - Holder, Kirsten
AU  - Bartinique, Ingrid
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Assateague Island National Seashore: Alternative Transportation Systems Planning Study and Business Plan for Alternative Transportation
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 220p
AB  - The purpose of this study was to (1) study the potential expansion of existing alternative transportation systems (bicycle facilities) and development of new alternative transportation systems in and around the Maryland District of Assateague Island National Seashore and (2) develop a business plan for implementation of a new alternative transportation system (transit). The park experiences congestion and parking capacity issues from its beach visitation, as well as challenges around signage, over-sand vehicle zone access, and bicycle and pedestrian access. Assateague Island also faces challenges as a barrier island and is likely to experience an increasingly dynamic land base on the island as a result of storms, natural shoreline processes, and sea level rise and other climate change effects. These changes raise questions about cost, sustainability, and access. The study consists of an assessment of current and future conditions and needs as they relate to transportation within and to the Maryland District of Assateague Island National Seashore. A transit feasibility assessment is also included.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Assateague Island National Seashore
KW  - Bicycle facilities
KW  - Islands
KW  - Maryland
KW  - National parks
KW  - Parking facilities
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46047/DOT-VNTSC-NPS-12-11.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244575
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475421
AU  - Goodnight, Jason
AU  - Feng, Yuhao
AU  - Kowalsky, Mervyn
AU  - Nau, James
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Effect of Load History on Reinforced Concrete Bridge Column Behavior
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 367p
AB  - To satisfy the aims of performance based design, levels of damage which interrupt the serviceability of the structure or require more invasive repair techniques must be related to engineering criteria. In this report, the influence of displacement history on performance limit states, the relationship between strain and displacement, and the spread of plasticity in reinforced concrete structures is explored. An experimental study is underway to assess the performance of thirty circular, well-confined, bridge columns with varying lateral displacement history, transverse reinforcement detailing, axial load, aspect ratio, and longitudinal steel content. Eight of these columns, with similar geometry and detailing, were subjected to various unidirectional displacement histories including standardized laboratory cyclic loading and recreations of the displacement responses obtained from non-linear time history analysis of multiple earthquakes with distinct characteristics. Longitudinal reinforcing bars were instrumented to obtain strain hysteresis, vertical strain profiles, cross section curvatures, curvature distributions, and fixed-end rotations attributable to strain penetration. Results indicate that bar buckling was influenced by load history, but the relationship between strain and displacement along the envelope curve was not. The main impact of load history on bar buckling is its influence on accumulated strains within the longitudinal reinforcement and transverse steel.
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Columns
KW  - Concrete structures
KW  - Dynamic structural analysis
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Repeated loads
KW  - Strain gages
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2013/03/410002.Kowlasky.DraftFinal.8.20121.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1245586
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471903
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Stillwater, Tai
AU  - Kurani, Kenneth S
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Preliminary Results from a Field Experiment of Three Fuel Economy Feedback Designs
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 14p
AB  - Energy feedback to drivers is one method to engage drivers in energy saving driving styles. In contrast to the occasional broadcasting of general driving tips, in-vehicle energy feedback gives drivers access to accurate information about their specific driving situation on an ongoing basis. The increasing prevalence of such feedback in new vehicles suggests a belief that ongoing, in-vehicle feedback is better. However, there is little reliable evidence of the effectiveness of energy feedback in real-word driving in passenger vehicles. This study begins to fill this gap. Participants are given a commercially available fuel consumption display and recording device to use in their personal vehicle for two months. For the first month the display is blank as the device records a baseline of driving and fuel consumption. For the second month the display is switched on to show drivers one of three feedback designs. This paper presents preliminary results (N=36) of a larger study that will include 150 drivers along the California-Nevada Interstate-80 corridor. Using a mixed-effects linear model, an average decrease of 13 between 2% and 8% in fuel consumption (gallons/100 miles) between the without- and with-feedback months, depending on the feedback designs, is found. Categorizing trips into types based on distance and multiple speed characteristics, there are differences in the apparent effectiveness of feedback across trip types. Most trips average approximately 5% reduction in fuel consumption. The long distance highway trip type showed only a 1% decrease in fuel consumption between the two study periods.
KW  - Design
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Energy conservation
KW  - Feedback control
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Sustainable transportation
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1658
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217328
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471901
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Stillwater, Tai
AU  - Kurani, Kenneth S
AU  - Mokhtarian, Patricia L
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Cognitive Mechanisms of Behavior Change in the Case of In-Vehicle Fuel Economy Feedback
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 14p
AB  - General ecodriving behaviors are moderating acceleration, top speed, and braking. This study examines both precursor cognitive factors and driver behavior changes with the introduction of energy feedback, using a framework hypothesizing that attitudes, social norms, perceived control, and goals influence behavior and behavior change. The study finds that the introduction of a feedback interface can both activate these cognitive factors and result in behavior change.
KW  - Behavior modification
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Ecodriving
KW  - Feedback control
KW  - Fuel conservation
KW  - Sustainable transportation
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1659
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217331
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01471900
JO  - University of California, Davis. Institute of Transportation Studies. Research report
PB  - University of California, Davis
AU  - Stillwater, Tai
AU  - Kurani, Kenneth S
AU  - University of California, Davis
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Goal Setting, Framing, and Anchoring Responses to Ecodriving Feedback
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 17p
AB  - Ecodriving, the adoption of energy efficient driving styles and practices, may save from less than 5% to as much as 20% of fuel. An interactive energy feedback interface was deployed in a field test with real-world drivers to investigate the effects on ecodriving of the interaction between drivers and in-vehicle energy use. Forty-six plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) drivers were given the ecodriving feedback interface for a multi-week trial including an interface off (baseline) and on (treatment) condition. This paper relies specifically on self-reports of driver motivations and behaviors to better understand what types of information motivated new ecodriving behavior. Interviews at the conclusion of the study revealed that the introduction of feedback led three fourths of drivers to change driving styles to maximize on-road efficiency, at least in the short term. The context of the feedback information, provided by a built-in goal or other contextualizing information such as a comparison value, is important for both comprehension and motivation. Personalization of the information allowed different drivers to access pertinent information, increasing the motivational value of the information.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Ecodriving
KW  - Feedback control
KW  - Psychological aspects
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Sustainable transportation
UR  - http://www.its.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/download_pdf.php?id=1660
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217330
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470002
AU  - Fitzsimmons, Eric J
AU  - Schrock, Steven
AU  - Lindheimer, Tomás E
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Large Truck Crashes at Horizontal Curves on Two-Lane Rural Highways in Kansas
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 33p
AB  - The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between roadway and environment-related factors and truck crash severity at horizontal curves located on rural, two-lane state highways in Kansas. Single vehicle truck crashes and multi-vehicle crashes involving at least one truck were extracted from the Kansas Department of Transportation’s crash and roadway databases for the years 2006-2010, resulting in 452 crash records. Descriptive statistics and 95% confidence intervals were constructed for an odds ratio analysis comparing single-vehicle truck crashes to multi-vehicle crashes involving at least one truck for the variables that were included in both databases. Overall, the odds ratio analysis indicated that single vehicle truck crashes were less likely to occur on wet pavement with shoulder rumble strips present and during non-adverse weather conditions compared to multi-vehicle crashes involving at least one truck. Single-vehicle truck crashes were also more likely to result in an injury crash compared to multi-vehicle crashes involving at least one truck. The latter were more likely to result in a fatality or property damage only crash.
KW  - Crash analysis
KW  - Crash severity
KW  - Heavy duty trucks
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Multiple vehicle crashes
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Single vehicle crashes
KW  - Truck crashes
KW  - Two lane highways
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46670/Schrock_463_COMBINED_FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225859
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469932
AU  - Sharma, Anuj
AU  - Velipasalar, Senem
AU  - Singh, Sanjay
AU  - Engel, Dave
AU  - Gyawali, Sunil
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Effect of Freeway Level of Service and Driver Education on Truck Driver Stress – Phase 1
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 85p
AB  - This research primarily deals with truck driver stress and its nature, stressors, and their mutual relationship. During the study, different demands of driving related to roads, vehicle, traffic conditions, driver predisposition to stress, and the surrounding environmental conditions were explored. Two distinct clusters of "Low Stress Level" and "High Stress Level" were identified in the stress distribution. Binary logistic regression was used to relate these two conditions of stress with a wide range of stressors. The results found that truck driver training was a statistically significant factor in predicting low stress level. Other statistically significant factors increasing the likelihood of high stress levels were right turning maneuvers, passive overtaking, and traffic control related factors, such as, the presence of a STOP sign as a control of the intersection. The drivers own disposition to stress highly correlated with stress levels. Driving duration and vehicle parameters, like lateral velocity and co-axial acceleration, were also significant variables in explaining stress levels. The study clearly identified that driver training could lower driving stress level. Additionally, the significance of surrogate factors for level of service, like passive overtaking, controls, acceleration and turn maneuvers, also implied that the improvement of Level of Services of Freeway segments and intersections would play an important role in reducing driver stress.
KW  - Driver education
KW  - Driver training
KW  - Freeways
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Logistic regression analysis
KW  - Stress (Psychology)
KW  - Truck drivers
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46664/Sharma_325_Effect_of_Freeway_Level_Service_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225857
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469922
AU  - Ratner, Albert
AU  - Zhang, Yan
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving Freight Fire Safety: Experiment Testing and Computer Modeling to Further Development of Mist-Controlling Additives for Fire Mitigation
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - With the purpose to minimize or prevent crash-induced fires in road and rail transportation, the current interest in bio-derived and blended transportation fuels is increasing. Based on two years of preliminary testing and analysis, it appears to be clear that polymeric additives may be added to diesel fuel to mitigate the formation of fine mists while allow regular flow through the fuel system. In this work, computer modeling was adapted as a fast and cost-effective methodology to identify the target range where polymeric additives could impact the shear-thickening effect on fuels. The Volume of Fraction (VOF) method was used within the commercial software Fluent to compute droplet behavior. Two new computational models, the combined static contact angle-dynamic contact angle (SCA-DCA) model with Jiang’s correlation and the SCA-DCA model with exponential fitting, were proposed and imposed as the boundary conditions, showing a best-fit behavior with the experiment results.
KW  - Combustion
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Diesel fuels
KW  - Fire retardants
KW  - Fuel additives
KW  - Fuel composition
KW  - Fuel mixtures
KW  - Polymers
KW  - Shear stress
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46674/Ratner_372_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225949
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458043
AU  - Audino, Michael J
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of the Status and Impacts of NCTR Reports
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 66p
AB  - The National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) at the University of South Florida (USF) assessed the implementation status and identified the outcomes and impacts of the results of 30 Florida Department of Transportation-sponsored NCTR research projects that concluded in fiscal years 2008--2010. The study attempted to address three primary research questions. 1. How well do research results reach the customer;  2. How are recipients of the research findings putting the research into practice; 3. If research is put into practice what impacts are realized.  The report includes a brief summary of each of 30 NCTR-funded research projects, a summary of the research findings, a status update, and, where possible, a discussion of the impacts of each project. The report concludes with a discussion of process improvements that might be implemented to ensure future research projects produce the desired impacts.
KW  - National Center for Transit Research
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Research projects
KW  - Utilization
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_OP/FDOT_BDK85_977-30_rpt.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225380
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455334
AU  - Bullough, John D
AU  - Skinner, Nicholas P
AU  - Brons, Jennifer A
AU  - Rea, Mark S
AU  - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
AU  - New York State Department of Transportation
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Using Lighting and Visual Information to Alter Driver Behavior
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 61p
AB  - Inappropriate traffic speeds are a major cause of traffic fatalities. Since driving is a task with a substantial contribution from vision, the use of lighting and visual information such as signage could assist in providing appropriate cues to encourage appropriate driving speeds. At locations such as sharp roadway curves, an overall reduction in driving speed might be desirable to prevent rollover crashes. At other locations, such as those prone to chronic congestion (exit/entrance ramps, work zones and where posted speed limits change), uniformity of vehicle speeds might be desirable in order to optimize safety and traffic flow. For roadway curves, a method of modifying the size and spacing of traditional chevron signs along a curve was used to convey the perception of increased curvature sharpness. This treatment was field tested in a controlled driving experiment, and then tested in a real-world installation along two highway curves in New York State. Based on the real-world test results, when the perception of curvature sharpness was increased, vehicle speeds were reduced enough to show a statistically significant change. To address the issue of reducing speed variance at congested locations, conditional speed display messages were displayed on a changeable message board based on the speed of oncoming traffic. Under a controlled field experiment, it was found to have the desired impact in terms of driving speed. In a real-world test installation, drivers modified their speeds which reduced speed variance in response to a similar conditional speed display sign. The results of the research project suggest that chevron size and spacing modifications can be readily implemented. Additional limited trials at different types of congested locations should be performed to better understand the impact of conditional speed displays; however, the present results of this research project are promising.
KW  - Bottlenecks
KW  - Chevron markings
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Human factors engineering
KW  - New York (State)
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Speed display signs
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Variable message signs
KW  - Visual perception
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/sites/default/files/pubs/C-06-36-FinalReport_0.pdf
UR  - https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/technical-services/trans-r-and-d-repository/C-06-36-FinalReport.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46300/46342/C-06-36-FinalReport_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223363
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455285
AU  - Azimi, Mehdi
AU  - Hawkins, H Gene
AU  - Texas Transportation Institute
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Automating the Process for Locating No-Passing Zones Using Georeferencing Data
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 123p
AB  - This research created a method of using global positioning system (GPS) coordinates to identify the location of no-passing zones in two-lane highways. Analytical algorithms were developed for analyzing the availability of sight distance along the alignments of two-lane highways. The main algorithm was incorporated into a computer model that uses GPS data as the input and produces a method for locating no-passing zones. The resulting automated system processes GPS coordinates and converts them into easting and northing values, smoothes GPS data, and evaluates roadway alignment for possible sight restrictions that indicate where no-passing zones should be located.
KW  - Alignment
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - No passing zones
KW  - Passing sight distance
KW  - Sight distance
KW  - Two lane highways
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/161102-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222615
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01455263
AU  - Souleyrette, Reginald
AU  - Hochstein, Josh
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of a Conflict Analysis Methodology Using SSAM
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 66p
AB  - The ultimate goal of this research was to provide improved design guidance for J-turn intersections by learning more about the safety and operational consequences of including or excluding certain geometric design features under various traffic volume conditions. The proposed methodology to accomplish this research objective was to use the VisSim micro-simulation software package in conjunction with Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Surrogate Safety Assessment Model (SSAM). Three alternative high-speed rural expressway intersection designs were modeled previously in VisSim and used to accomplish this analysis. This report examines the use of SSAM for performing a conflict analysis, comparing the safety consequences of alternative designs, and developing conflict and/or crash modification factors. A conflict analysis methodology using the SSAM software was developed and refined. The refined conflict analysis methodology is included in this report.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Geometric design
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Intersections
KW  - J turns
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Surrogate Safety Assessment Model
KW  - Traffic conflicts
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - VISSIM (Computer model)
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/conflict_analysis_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222756
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01455172
JO  - Research Results
PB  - Federal Railroad Administration
AU  - Ranney, Joyce
AU  - Raslear, Thomas
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Senior Cross-Functional Support - Essential for Implementing Corrective Actions at C³RS Sites
PY  - 2012/08
IS  - RR 12-09
SP  - 4p
AB  - The Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Office of Railroad Policy and Development believes that, in addition to process and technology innovations, human factors-based solutions can make a significant contribution to improving safety in the railroad industry. This led FRA to implement the Confidential Close-Call Reporting System (C³RS), which includes voluntary confidential reporting of near-miss events and root-cause-analysis problem solving by a team composed of labor, management, and FRA; implementation of corrective actions; tracking the results of change; and reporting of the results of change to employees. FRA is also sponsoring a rigorous evaluation of three important aspects of C³RS functioning: (1) What conditions are necessary to implement C³RS  successfully? (2) What is the impact of C³RS on safety and safety culture? (3) What factors help to sustain C³RS over time? This report is part of a series of Research Results published to provide the public with the evaluation’s findings. Two sets of findings are presented. The first set, the baseline of C³RS at one demonstration site, was obtained using two data sources: worker, manager, and other stakeholder interviews; and railroad newsletters. The second set of findings uses interviews  conducted at the first three demonstration sites.
KW  - Close calls
KW  - Confidential incident reporting
KW  - Employee participation
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Human factors
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Interviews
KW  - Near miss collisions (Ground transportation)
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Root cause analysis
KW  - Senior managers
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/595
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223448
ER  - 

TY  - SER
AN  - 01455168
JO  - Research Results
PB  - Federal Railroad Administration
AU  - daSilva, Marco
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - 2012 ROW Fatality & Trespass Prevention Workshop
PY  - 2012/08
IS  - RR 12-14
SP  - 4p
AB  - Trespassing along railroad and transit rights-of-way (ROW) is the leading cause of rail-related deaths in America.  Nationally, more than 550 trespass fatalities and nearly as many injuries occur each year.  The vast majority of these incidents are preventable. In general, most  trespassers are pedestrians who use railroad tracks as a shortcut. The goal of this workshop was to share existing industry leading practices and explore new strategies that the rail industry could pursue to reduce the number of ROW trespasser incidents and fatalities. The Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Transit  Administration anticipate that the results of this workshop will be used by U.S. Department of Transportation modal administrations and their stakeholders to enhance safety on the nation’s rail transportation network.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Prevention
KW  - Railroad crashes
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Railroads
KW  - Right of way (Land)
KW  - Trespassers
KW  - Workshops
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2204
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223447
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454666
AU  - Prozzi, Jorge
AU  - Banerjee, Ambarish
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Quantification of the Effect of Maintenance Activities on 
Texas Road Network
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 54p
AB  - Pavement structures are designed for a finite life, usually referred to as performance period. This  performance period is typically between 20 to 25 years for flexible pavements and between 25 and 40  years for rigid pavements. After this period, the pavement is predicted to reach a terminal level in  terms of several preset criteria. This performance period can be reached by designing a structure that  will withstand the effects of traffic and the environment through the design period or by planning a  series of maintenance and rehabilitation activities that will keep the structure above the present  terminal levels until the end of the design life is reached. The objective of this study is to gather data on pavement performance from the Federal Highway Administration's Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) study. The sections will be selected such that they provide enough time-series information to obtain reliable pavement performance trends. Once the data are collected, the various pavement sections will be modeled using mechanistic-empirical principles and the performance will be predicted. The Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) will be used for this purpose. In addition, empirical performance models will be developed to capture the performance (and in particular the differential performance) of the various sections. Once these two types of performance models are available, the authors will compare the effectiveness of the three types of sections.
KW  - Long-Term Pavement Performance Program
KW  - Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Performance models
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Service life
KW  - Texas
KW  - Time series
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/161125-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223260
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454665
AU  - Godazi, Khosro
AU  - Goodwin, Ronald E
AU  - Miller, Alexandra
AU  - Texas Southern University
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Security Institute: Recruiting Next Generation Professionals
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 34p
AB  - The Center for Transportation Training and Research (CTTR), as part of Texas Southern University (TSU), served as host for the 2012 Transportation Security Institute (TSI) in Houston and surrounding area. The 2012 Houston TSI focuses on the mission and objectives of transportation security professionals and introduces a preselected group of high school students to the various career opportunities within the profession. TSI provides a curriculum framework that exposes high school students to the transportation security industry via hands-on technical activities, field trips to transportation facilities, lectures by transportation professionals, and on-site seminars. Furthermore, the primary goal of TSI is to introduce exemplary secondary school students to various career opportunities in transportation security. Secondly, industry professionals will reinforce the  importance of mathematics, science, and technology skills in the twenty-first century. Lastly, students will observe how public/private partnerships work to strengthen the link between today’s students and future transportation security professionals.
KW  - Education and training
KW  - High school students
KW  - Lectures
KW  - Public private partnerships
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/161240-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223264
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454659
AU  - Prozzi, Jorge
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Calibration of HERS-ST for Estimating Traffic Impact on Pavement Deterioration in Texas
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 65p
AB  - The Highway Economic Requirements System-State Version (or the HERS-ST) is a software package  which was developed by the Federal Highway Administration as a tool for evaluating the performance  of state highway systems.  HERS-ST has the capabilities of estimating highway system performance  and system needs.  It also has the capability of providing investment strategies required to attain a  certain level of system performance.  Some states such as Indiana, North Dakota, New Mexico and  Oregon have been able to make extensive use of the software.  New Mexico, for example has used the software to provide an assessment for the state’s long term highway needs by running and evaluating various investment scenarios.  The state of Indiana has used the software package in their Long Range Transportation Plan for assessing future system needs and budget planning.  Texas has expressed interest in the HERS-ST software package, but it has been pointed out that the pavement deterioration model used by the HERS-ST software package to estimate pavement wear is inaccurate.  This study focused on disaggregating the pavement deterioration model used by the HERS-ST to better  understand its process with particular emphasis on traffic characteristics.  This report presents a  methodology that can be used to calibrate the model for state specific conditions.
KW  - Calibration
KW  - Computer models
KW  - Highway Economic Requirements System
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Software
KW  - State highways
KW  - Texas
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/169205-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223261
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454657
AU  - Lewis, Carol Abel
AU  - Land, Sara
AU  - Afefayane, Bethelhem
AU  - Texas Southern University, Houston
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Moving the Concept of Megaregions into Transportation Planning: Workshop Proceedings
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 63p
AB  - An area of growing dialog among transportation professionals is about megaregions and the affect the  concept may have on long range travel demand and the movement of goods and people throughout a state or region.  Megaregion connotes that an individual urban area does not operate singly, but in concert with other urban and rural areas as a comprehensive unit providing and attracting goods and services for the world.  As these complex mobility arrangements occur, planning entities are continuing to conduct more localized scaled activities for their independent urban and rural areas.  Key questions should be asked about whether another planning layer should be added that examines the megaregions and investigates the interrelationships to determine if advantages or efficiencies might be available by considering operation of the complex whole as one unit. Clearly, such an assessment would not negate the smaller, local level planning activities, but may offer the potential to more competitively posture a megaregion in line with the other 40 or so world megaregions.  This work convened a workshop addressing that planning concept.  Workshop participants agreed that planning for the megaregions should be added to the elements included in long range plan development.
KW  - Long range planning
KW  - Megaregions
KW  - Regional planning
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Workshops
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00051-1.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46400/46426/476660-00051-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223278
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454654
AU  - Yu, Yao
AU  - Machemehl, Randy
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Using Real Time Traveler Demand Data to Optimize Commuter Rail Feeder Systems
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 111p
AB  - This report focuses on real time optimization of the Commuter Rail Circulator Route Network Design  Problem (CRCNDP). The route configuration of the circulator system, where to stop and the route among the stops, is determined on a real-time basis by employing adaptive Tabu Search to timely solve a Mixed Integer Program (MIP) problem with an objective to minimize total cost incurred to both transit users and transit operators. Numerical experiments are executed to find the threshold for the minimum fraction of travelers that would need to report their destinations via smart phone to guarantee the practical value of optimization based on real-time collected demand against a base case defined as the average performance of all possible routes. The adaptive Tabu Search Algorithm is also applied to three real-size networks abstracted from the Martin Luther King (MLK) station of the new MetroRail system in Austin, Texas.
KW  - Austin (Texas)
KW  - Cost control
KW  - Demand
KW  - Feeder routes
KW  - Mixed integer programming
KW  - Railroad commuter service
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Routes
KW  - Tabu search
KW  - Transit operators
KW  - Transit riders
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00078-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223259
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454651
AU  - Lewis, Carol Abel
AU  - Onyejekwe, Sandra
AU  - Collins, Darlene
AU  - McGaughay, Kenneth
AU  - Texas Southern University, Houston
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transit Agency Strategies that Encourage Mixed Uses around
Stations
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 46p
AB  - Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to  maximize access to public transportation that often incorporates features to encourage transit  ridership.  Varied interests must be represented to implement TOD.  Developers present concepts  and financial backing, governments create guidelines or zoning that facilitates TOD, community  stakeholders voice desires about their neighborhoods and transit agencies implement the transit  improvement that serves as the initial catalyst.  This research focuses specifically on the role of the  transit agency in encouraging development proximate to transit and investigates selected transit  authorities within the United States to determine what strategies and steps they are taking to  facilitate proximate desirable development around their stations.
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Mixed use development
KW  - Rail transit stations
KW  - Strategic planning
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - Transit oriented development
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00054-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223262
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454649
AU  - Kortum, Katherine
AU  - Machemehl, Randy
AU  - University of Texas, Austin
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Free-Floating Carsharing Systems: Innovations in Membership Prediction, Mode Share, and Vehicle Allocation Optimization Methodologies
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 123p
AB  - Free-floating carsharing systems are among the newest types of carsharing programs. They allow one-way rentals and have no set “homes” or docks for the carsharing vehicles; instead, users are permitted to drive the vehicles anywhere within the operating zone and leave the vehicle in a legal parking space. Compared to traditional carsharing operations, free-floating carsharing allows much greater spontaneity and flexibility for the user. However, it leads to additional operational challenges for the program. This report provides methodologies for some of these challenges facing both free-floating and traditional carsharing programs. First, it analyzes cities with carsharing to determine what characteristics increase the likelihood of the city supporting a successful carsharing program; high overall population, small household sizes, high transit use, and high levels of government employment all make the city a likely carsharing contender. Second, in terms of membership prediction, several modeling alternatives exist. All of the options find that the operating area is of key importance, with other factors (including household size, household densities, and proportion of the population  between ages 20 and 39) of varying importance depending on the modeling technique. Third, carsharing trip frequencies and mode share are of value to both carsharing and metropolitan planning organizations, and this report provides innovative techniques to determine the number of trips taken and the share of total travel completed with carsharing (both free-floating and traditional). Fourth and finally, an original methodology for optimizing the vehicle allocation issue for free-floating carsharing organizations is provided. The methodology takes a user input for the total number of vehicles and returns the allocations across multiple demand periods that will maximize revenue, taking into  account the cost of reallocating vehicles between demand periods.
KW  - Automobile travel
KW  - Demand
KW  - Membership
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Modal split
KW  - Optimization
KW  - Rental cars
KW  - Trip frequencies
KW  - Vehicle allocation (Car sharing)
KW  - Vehicle sharing
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00079-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223263
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454386
AU  - Horton, Suzanne M
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Use of Traffic Channelization Devices at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 27p
AB  - Traffic channelization devices have found new application at highway-rail grade crossings with active warning devices. Numerous studies conducted at locations where they have been installed show positive changes in unsafe driver behavior as a result of the treatments. When meeting certain requirements, traffic channelization devices and median barriers are an approved supplemental safety measure for the establishment of quiet zones. Traffic channelization devices are low cost and this makes them an attractive option for improving safety at highway-rail grade crossings.
KW  - Design
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Median barriers
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Traffic channelization
KW  - Traffic control devices
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2186
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46030/TR_UseofTrafficChannelizationDevicesatHighwayRailGradeCrossings080712_FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222983
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454077
AU  - Turner, Daniel S
AU  - Jones, Steven
AU  - Lou, Yingyan
AU  - Brown, David B
AU  - Smith, Randy K
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
AU  - Alabama Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Implementation of the AASHTO Highway Safety Manual
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 68p
AB  - This report summarizes the current status of ongoing research conducted for the Alabama  Department of Transportation (ALDOT) to customize the implementation of the Highway Safety  Manual (HSM) published in July 2010 by the American Association of State Highway and  Transportation Officials (AASHTO). There are three major components to this report: (1) A description of the Highway Safety Manual; its embedded definitions, methodologies, and procedures; and supporting software, publications, organizations, and assistance networks. (2)  An overview of the Scoping Study conducted by The University of Alabama to identify the most efficient and cost-effective way to implement the HSM in Alabama and to customize the HSM for Alabama’s state and local governments. (3) A review of a plan proposing key implementation strategies and a general implementation configuration based on key findings of the scoping study, the results of implementation in other states (e.g., Lead State project), and additional information that has become available since the HSM was published two years ago. This report includes separate parts for each of the three major topics introduced in the preceding paragraphs, plus appendices containing key documents produced during the scoping study, ongoing and planned research that supports HSM implementation and ALDOT safety programs, and similar relevant documents.
KW  - Alabama
KW  - American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Highway Safety Manual
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Project scoping
KW  - Software
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2012/11/10404-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46291/10404-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1220237
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01453951
AU  - Hosteng, Travis
AU  - Wipf, Terry J
AU  - Wood, Douglas L
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of a Bridge Safety Information System for the Saylorville Reservoir Bridge
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 27p
AB  - In 2006, a bridge safety issue was brought to the attention of the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding the response of the Saylorville Reservoir Bridge during a high wind event. Although stop-gap measures were put into place, the current knowledge of the performance of the bridge during high wind events was incomplete. Therefore, it was determined that the Saylorville Reservoir Bridge near Polk City, Iowa could further benefit from an information management system to investigate the structural performance of the structure and the potential for safety risks. The monitoring system that was in place at the Saylorville Reservoir Bridge monitors wind data and strain data separately and, through a wireless data connection, uploads this information to a webserver and a website created for the bridge. In addition, the system is programmed to send alert messages to safety personnel when wind speeds reach the predetermined threshold of 50 mph or greater. Once an alert is received, safety personnel determine if it necessary to close the bridge until wind speeds diminish. However, there was no input from the structural monitoring side of the system into the alert to provide safety personnel or engineers with information pertaining to the response of the bridge to the high winds. Therefore, development of an autonomous bridge safety monitoring and alert system for the Saylorville Reservoir Bridge would 1) provide quantitative information regarding any correlation between high wind events and excessive bridge movement, 2) result in considerable savings in manpower and cost by eliminating the need for local authorities to physically close the bridge, 3) eliminate the exposure of local authorities to potential unsafe conditions to close the bridge, and 4) allow for the safe and efficient closing of the bridge to facilitate safer driving conditions on the bridge for motorists.
KW  - Bridge superstructures
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Motion
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Safety management
KW  - Strain measurement
KW  - Wind
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/mtc_saylorville_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222403
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01453941
AU  - Godazi, Khosro
AU  - Miller, Alexandra
AU  - Goodwin, Ronald E
AU  - Texas Southern University, Houston
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Feasibility of Solar Powered Traffic Signs in Houston – A Step toward Sustainable Control Devices
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 37p
AB  - With the economy fluctuating all the time, the federal and some city governments at times spend more money than they take in from taxes. It is important for these governments to find ways to reduce spending while still providing sufficient operations for their constituency. As the national focus turns to finding alternative energy rather than the reliance of fossil fuels, it is not hard to find ways in which the city can save money. One of these ways is taking advantage of the sun’s energy to power traffic signals as well as switching the traditional incandescent bulbs to LED. Since the city’s origin, Houston, Texas has been a continuous success in population growth, land expansion, job opportunities, and a leader of industry. The city did not get to be where it is by not staying ahead of the curve. With its 2,450 signalized traffic intersections and a wide range in the number of signals at each one, the city has an opportunity to be a leader in large scale retrofitting in the United States. By retrofitting the signals to solar energy and switching to LED the city will see major energy and cost savings, as well as a significant decrease in maintenance cost and time due to the longer lifespan of the LEDs and solar panels.
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Energy conservation
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Houston (Texas)
KW  - Incandescent lamps
KW  - Light emitting diodes
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Solar energy
KW  - Traffic control devices
KW  - Traffic signals
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00053-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1222401
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01450873
AU  - Darrow, Margaret M
AU  - Alaska University Transportation Center
AU  - Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Measurement of Temperature and Soil Properties for Finite Element Model Verification
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 295p
AB  - In recent years, Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities personnel have used TEMP/W, a commercially available two-dimensional finite element program, to conduct thermal modeling of various embankment configurations in an effort to reduce the thawing of ice-rich permafrost through thermally stable embankment designs. This modeling was done with historic air temperature data and input parameters derived from the literature, since site-specific data is typically not available. The overall goal of this study was to verify the thermal modeling results produced by TEMP/W. Temperatures and soil properties were measured at two different sites underlain by permafrost in Interior and Southcentral Alaska. A sensitivity analysis of certain input parameters was conducted on models of each site. Analysis indicates that the most critical input parameter is air temperature. While historic air temperature data provided an approximation of the regional climate, this data produced model results that were too cold by several degrees. Using air temperatures measured at each site resulted in models that closely matched the measured soil temperatures, and either matched or overestimated active layer depths. Using the overestimated active layer depth for design purposes would result in a more conservative embankment construction, which is a favorable approach  if a warming climate is considered.
KW  - Alaska
KW  - Climate change
KW  - Data verification
KW  - Embankments
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Frozen soils
KW  - Permafrost
KW  - Sensitivity analysis
KW  - Soil properties
KW  - Temperature measurement
KW  - Thermal properties
UR  - http://ine.uaf.edu/autc/files/2012/02/RR08.11.Darrow_FINAL_TEMPW_report_7_28_2010.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46192/RR08.11.Darrow_FINAL_TEMPW_report_7_28_2010.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46694/RR08.11.Darrow_FINAL_TEMPW_report_7_28_2010.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1218222
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449590
AU  - Davis, Brian
AU  - Donath, Max
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Aggregating VMT within Predefined Geographic Zones by Cellular Assignment: A Non-GPS-Based Approach to Mileage-Based Road Use Charging
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 63p
AB  - Currently, most of the costs associated with operating and maintaining the roadway infrastructure are paid for by revenue collected from the motor fuel use tax. As fuel efficiency and the use of alternative fuel vehicles increases, alternatives to this funding method must be considered. One such alternative is to assess mileage based user fees (MBUF) based on the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) aggregated within the predetermined geographic areas, or travel zones, in which the VMT is generated. Most of the systems capable of this use Global Positioning Systems (GPS). However, GPS has issues with public perception, commonly associated with unwanted monitoring or tracking and is thus considered an invasion of privacy. The method proposed here utilizes cellular assignment, which is capable of determining a vehicle’s current travel zone, but is incapable of determining a vehicle’s precise location, thus better preserving user privacy. This is accomplished with a k-nearest neighbors (KNN) machine learning algorithm focused on the boundary of such travel zones. The work described here focuses on the design and evaluation of algorithms and methods that when combined, would enable such a system. The primary experiment performed evaluates the accuracy of the algorithm at sample boundaries in and around the commercial business district of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The results show that with the training data available, the algorithm can correctly detect when a vehicle crosses a boundary to within ±2 city blocks, or roughly ±200 meters, and is thus capable of assigning the VMT to the appropriate zone. The findings imply that a cellular-based VMT system may successfully aggregate VMT by predetermined geographic travel zones without infringing on the drivers’ privacy.
KW  - Cellular communications
KW  - Cellular location tracking
KW  - Geographic boundaries
KW  - K-Nearest Neighbor Models
KW  - Mileage-based user fees
KW  - Minneapolis (Minnesota)
KW  - Privacy
KW  - Travel zones
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2174
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2124
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216803
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01449553
AU  - Rochat, Judith L
AU  - Lodico, Dana
AU  - Donavan, Paul
AU  - Rasmussen, Robert O
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Lodico Acoustics LLC
AU  - Illingworth & Rodkin, Incorporated
AU  - Transtec Group, Incorporated
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Overview and application of the Continuous-Flow Traffic Time-Integrated Method (CTIM) for determining the influence of road surfaces on traffic noise
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 10p
AB  - The U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration is sponsoring a Technical Working Group (TWG) to develop guidance for measuring the influence of road surfaces on tire-pavement noise, vehicle noise, and traffic noise in the U.S. This paper reviews provisional specification AASHTO TP 99-11, “Determining the Influence of Road Surfaces on Traffic Noise Using the Continuous-Flow Traffic Time-Integrated Method (CTIM)” and example applications. CTIM is a wayside measurement method which is applied to roadways where measuring single vehicle pass-by events would be difficult due to continuously flowing, relatively dense traffic. At a specified distance from the nearest travel lane, measurements capture sound from existing traffic for all vehicles on all roadway lanes (equivalent sound levels with a maximum sampling period of 15 minutes). A traffic noise prediction model is used to normalize sound levels in terms of traffic variation in order to compare data taken at different times. The method currently allows for comparison of varying or aging pavement surfaces on a single roadway; extension of the normalization process to include site variations to allow for site-to-site comparisons is being examined.
U1  - InterNoise 2012New York,NY,United States StartDate:20120819 EndDate:20120822
KW  - Measuring methods
KW  - Rolling contact
KW  - Surface course (Pavements)
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
KW  - Traffic noise
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45894/Rochat_CTIM.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216262
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01449547
AU  - Zevitas, Christopher D
AU  - Cybulski, Jonathan D
AU  - McNeely, Eileen
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Harvard School of Public Health
TI  - Evaluating the health benefits of natural sounds: an approach for assessing the environmental impacts of transportation noise
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 11p
AB  - Excessive anthropogenic noise has been associated with annoyance, disruption of sleep and cognitive processes, hearing impairment, and adverse impacts on cardiovascular and endocrine systems. Although transportation is a major source of noise, national policy in the U.S. has de-emphasized noise control efforts at the federal level and as a result, research and regulation of noise sources has lagged compared to that of other important environmental pollutants. But as global population and urbanization continue to grow at unprecedented rates, noise control and research will warrant increased attention if development is to proceed in concert with sustainable development principles. Adding to the development challenge are the limitations of current noise impact assessment practice, wherein the incremental effects of anthropogenic noise insults are often studied in isolation and are based on subjective measures, which introduces difficulty in teasing out individual or cumulative impacts. To address these problems, a new research approach is proposed, which seeks instead to characterize the underlying value of the acoustical environment being intruded upon by exploring the health benefits of natural sounds through a comprehensive program based on objective, physiological outcomes. Rooted in well-established methodology common to environmental health and clinical research, a proposed study methodology is outlined within the context of addressing noise impacts from commercial air tours over national parks, but may have broader applicability to clinical, occupational, and other environmental health analysis research areas.
U1  - InterNoise 2012New York,NY,United States StartDate:20120819 EndDate:20120822
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Health benefits
KW  - National parks
KW  - Natural sounds
KW  - Noise
KW  - Public health
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Traffic noise
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45892/Zevitas_NaturalSounds.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216267
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01449540
AU  - Rochat, Judith L
AU  - Donavan, Paul
AU  - Seybert, Andrew
AU  - Dare, Tyler
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Illingworth & Rodkin, Incorporated
AU  - University of Kentucky, Lexington
AU  - Purdue University
TI  - Pavement sound absorption measurements in the U.S.
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 15p
AB  - In the U.S., the topic of pavement sound absorption in regard to tire-pavement noise has shown increased interest and research over the last several years. Four types of pavement sound absorption measurements with various applications are discussed: 1) in-situ measurement of effective flow resistivity (EFR), applying a modified version of ANSI S1.18-1999, obtaining EFR values for pavements allows for direct input to the Federal Highway Administration Traffic Noise Model to more precisely represent pavement sound absorption in the propagation algorithms; 2) laboratory measurement of near-grazing incidence sound propagation properties over porous pavement, as compared to a perfectly reflecting surface, the results provide a descriptor of sound propagation at shallow angles of incidence, which cannot be predicted from absorption data alone; 3) developing a method to simulate the propagation of tire noise over pavement surfaces, the average sound intensity for a compact loudspeaker is measured along with resultant sound pressure levels at two distances, and the difference in levels is reported; 4) in-situ measurement of pavement sound absorption using an impedance tube mounted on pavement, part of ISO 13472-2, method is used in the qualification of pass-by test tracks mandated by ISO 10844 and can be used in other applications where sound absorption is less than ~15%.
U1  - InterNoise 2012New York,NY,United States StartDate:20120819 EndDate:20120822
KW  - Measuring methods
KW  - Rolling contact
KW  - Sound absorption
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Tire/pavement noise
KW  - Traffic Noise Model
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45893/Rochat_PavementSound.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216265
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01449536
AU  - Roof, Christopher
AU  - Ahearn, Meghan
AU  - Koopmann, Jonathan
AU  - Cointin, Rebecca
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Advanced Aviation Environmental Modeling Tools to Inform
Policymakers
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 8p
AB  - Aviation environmental models which conform to international guidance have advanced over the past several decades. Enhancements to algorithms and databases have increasingly shown these models to compare well with gold standard measured data. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) brings these enhancements into a new capability to investigate interdependencies within a single modeling environment. It provides an interactive environment to iterate noise modeling results relative to contributing aircraft events, as well as understand the fuel burn and emissions consequences of model scenarios. This paper presents an overview of the tool, including its capabilities to analyze the implications of technology and operational improvements planned for the next generation airspace system. An example is provided that illustrates how the tool may better inform aviation policymakers as they prepare for the significant growth expected in the aviation industry.
U1  - InterNoise 2012New York,NY,United States StartDate:20120819 EndDate:20120822
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Environmental models
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Technological innovations
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45896/Roof_AdvancedAviation.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216269
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449521
AU  - Liu, Henry X
AU  - Wu, Xinkai
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Estimating and Measuring Arterial Travel Time and Delay
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - To estimate arterial travel time/delay, the key element is to estimate intersection queue length, since travel time, delay, and level of services can be easily derived from queue length information. In this study, the authors developed a new traffic flow model, named shockwave profile model (SPM), to describe queuing dynamics for congested arterial networks. Taking advantage of the fact that traffic states within a congested link can be simplified as free-flow, saturated, and jammed conditions, the SPM simulates traffic dynamics by analytically deriving the trajectories of four major shockwaves. This model is particularly suitable for simulating congested traffic especially with queue spillover. In the SPM, a novel approach is proposed as part of the SPM, in which queue spillover is treated as either extending a red phase or creating new cycles. Since only the essential features, i.e. queue build-up and dissipation, are considered, the SPM significantly reduces the computational load and improves the numerical efficiency. The authors further validated the SPM using real-world traffic signal data collected from a major arterial in the Twin Cities. The results clearly demonstrate its effectiveness and accuracy. This model can be applied to estimate arterial travel time and delay and optimize signal timing in real time.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Cell transmission model
KW  - Queuing
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic delays
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Traffic signal timing
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Twin Cities, Minnesota
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=2094
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217086
ER  - 

TY  - CONF
AN  - 01449519
AU  - Boeker, Eric
AU  - Rosenbaum, Joyce
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
TI  - Intelligent switching between different noise propagation
algorithms: analysis and sensitivity
PY  - 2012/08
SP  - 12p
AB  - When modeling aircraft noise on a large scale (such as an analysis of annual aircraft operations at an airport), it is important that the noise propagation model used for the analysis be both efficient and accurate. In this analysis, three different propagation methods are compared over a range of different environmental conditions (uneven terrain, terrain blockage, refractive atmosphere, and ground type transitions) and geometric orientations. These results are then used to inform a scheme of “intelligent switching” between different noise propagation methods as an approach to address the long computational run times without sacrificing accuracy in a noise model. The feasibility of this strategy is discussed and potential implementation hurdles are identified.
U1  - InterNoise 2012New York,NY,United States StartDate:20120819 EndDate:20120822
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Computation time
KW  - Hybrid Propagation Model
KW  - Noise models
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Terrain
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45895/Boeker_IntelligentSwitching.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216261
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449074
AU  - Al-Rub, Rashid K Abu
AU  - Texas A&M  University
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Nanotechnology-Based System for Damage-Resistant Concrete Pavements
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 124p
AB  - The focus of this study was to explore the use of nanotechnology-based nanofilaments, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nanofibers (CNFs), as reinforcement for improving the mechanical properties of Portland cement paste and creating multifunctional and sensing concrete. Due to their ultra-high strength and very high aspect ratios, CNTs and CNFs have been excellent reinforcements for enhancing the physical and mechanical properties of polymer, metallic, and ceramic composites. Very little attention has been devoted to exploring the use of nanofilaments in the transportation industry, however. Therefore, this study aimed to bridge the gap between nanofilaments and transportation materials. This was achieved by testing the integration of CNTs and CNFs in ordinary Portland cement paste through state-of-the-art techniques. Different mixes in fixed proportions (e.g., water-to-cement ratio, air content, admixtures) along with varying concentrations of CNTs or CNFs were prepared. Different techniques commonly used for other materials (like polymers) were used in achieving uniform dispersion of nanofilaments in the cement paste matrix and strong nanofilament/cement bonding. Small-scale specimens were prepared for mechanical testing in order to measure the modified mechanical properties as a function of nanofilament concentration, type, and distribution. With 0.1% CNFs, the ultimate strain capacity increased by 142%, the flexural strength increased by 79%, and the fracture toughness increased by 242%. A scanning electron microscope was used to discern the difference between crack bridging and fiber pullout. Test results showed that the strength, ductility, and fracture toughness can be improved with the addition of low concentrations of either CNTs or CNFs.
KW  - Carbon
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Filaments
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Nanostructured materials
KW  - Nanotubes
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Portland cement
KW  - Portland cement concrete
KW  - Strength of materials
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00017-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216375
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447428
AU  - Liao, Chen-Fu
AU  - Davis, Gary A
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Traffic Data Quality Verification and Sensor Calibration for Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) Systems
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 123p
AB  - Many state departments of transportation have been collecting various traffic data through the Automatic Traffic Recorder (ATR) and Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) systems as outlined in the Traffic Monitoring Guide (TMG) published by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). A pooled fund study led by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) was conducted in 2002 to determine traffic data editing procedures. It is challenging to identify potential problems associated with the collected data and ensure data quality. The WIM system itself presents difficulty in obtaining accurate data due to sensor characteristics, complex vehicle dynamics, and the pavement changes surrounding the sensor over time. To overcome these limitations, calibration procedures and other monitoring activities are essential to data reliability and accuracy. Current practice of WIM calibration procedures varies from organization to organization. This project aims to understand the characteristics of WIM measurements, identify different WIM operational modes, and develop mixture models for each operation period. Several statistical data analysis methodologies were explored to detect measurement drifts and support sensor calibration. A mixture modeling technique using Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm and cumulative sum (CUSUM) methodologies were explored for data quality assurance. An adjusting CUSUM methodology was used to detect data anomaly. The results indicated that the adjusting CUSUM methodology was able to detect the sensor drifts. The CUSUM curves can trigger a potential drifting alert to the WIM manager. Further investigation was performed to compare the CUSUM deviation and the calibration adjustment. However, the analysis results did not indicate any relationship between the computed CUSUM deviation and the calibration adjustment.
KW  - Calibration
KW  - Cumulative sum
KW  - Data quality
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Standard deviation
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Weigh in motion
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=1944
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214052
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446925
AU  - Liao, Chen-Fu
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Using a Smartphone App to Assist the
Visually Impaired at Signalized Intersections
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 102p
AB  - The blind and visually impaired (VI) rely heavily on walking and public transit for their transportation needs. A major challenge for this population is safe crossing of intersections. As a result of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), Accessible Pedestrian Signal (APS) systems at signalized intersections have improved significantly since 2000. However, these systems still have shortcomings for both users and municipalities, and new approaches are needed to adequately serve pedestrians with low vision. As part of our ongoing effort to develop a prototype Mobile Accessible Pedestrian Signal (MAPS) application for the blind and VI, we interviewed ten blind and low vision people to better understand what types of information they use at intersection crossings and to identify information types that could assist them. With these survey results, a MAPS prototype was developed that provides signal and intersection geometry information to Smartphone users at signalized intersections. User interaction is via simple tactile input (single or double-tap) and Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology. A MAPS prototype was developed and tested to evaluate the functionalities of providing signal and orientation information to the visually impaired travelers at signalized intersections. This proposal will build upon the developed MAPS and investigate how blind and low-vision individuals gain their spatial knowledge surrounding an intersection and how the MAPS can be used to support their decision-making strategy at intersection crossings.
KW  - Accessible pedestrian signals
KW  - Blind persons
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Interviews
KW  - Pedestrian movement
KW  - Prototypes
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Smartphones
KW  - Visually impaired persons
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=1790
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214374
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446300
AU  - Soerens, Thomas S
AU  - Parker, Solomon W
AU  - Mack Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Biodiesel Waste Products as Soil Amendments - Field Study and Runoff Impacts
PY  - 2012/08//Technical Report
SP  - 45p
AB  - For every ten kilograms of biodiesel that is produced, approximately 1 kilogram of glycerol is created as a byproduct. Glycerol, also known as glycerin or glycyl alcohol is a chemical used in all manner of common goods including but not limited to makeup, health products, foods, shampoos, and moisture absorbents. However, the crude glycerol created as a byproduct of biodiesel production is tainted with potassium hydroxide and methanol and this makes it unsuitable for commercial use without expensive refinement. Current common methods for disposing of glycerol include incineration which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A more carbon neutral option is land application where glycerol can increase soil organic matter and may sequester carbon. Possible problems involved with land application include its effects on plants, microbes, and larger biological systems. The objectives of this research project were to evaluate the effects of crude glycerol on plant and microbial systems in relation to soils and the potential for runoff contamination. Three tests were used: Concentration comparison in soil with respirometry, plant germination and growth, and runoff testing by test plot application. This project is a continuation of project MBTC 3025 and some of the results included in this report were previously reported in the previous report. The results of the respirometer test show that microbial inhibition is limited and temporary at certain concentrations and not at all inhibitory at other concentrations. Microbial activity was observed in a variety of concentrations of glycerol applied to soil in laboratory tests. In plant tests, low concentrations showed greater growth over control samples and high concentrations showed inhibitory effects on both germination and growth. In land application runoff studies, runoff from glycerol treated plots showed total organic carbon (TOC) concentrations similar to controls and less than plots treated with fertilizer.
KW  - Biodiesel fuels
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Field studies
KW  - Glycerol
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Soil amendments
KW  - Toxicity
KW  - Waste management
KW  - Waste products
UR  - http://www.arkansastrc.com/MBTC%20REPORTS/MBTC%203034.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45883/MBTC_DOT_3034.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1213820
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446294
AU  - Poole, Harrison Walker
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Lateral Load Distribution for
Steel Beams Supporting an FRP
Panel
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 122p
AB  - Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is a relatively new material used in the field of civil engineering. FRP is composed of fibers, usually carbon or glass, bonded together using a polymer adhesive and formed into the desired structural shape. Recently, FRP deck panels have been viewed as an attractive alternative to concrete decks when replacing deteriorated bridges. The main advantages of an FRP deck are its weight (roughly 75% lighter than concrete), its high strength-to-weight ratio, and its resistance to deterioration. In bridge design, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) provides load distributions to be used when determining how much load a longitudinal beam supporting a bridge deck should be designed to hold. Depending on the deck material along with other variables, a different design distribution will be used. Since FRP is a relatively new material used for bridge design, there are no provisions in the AASHTO code that provides a load distribution when designing beams supporting an FRP deck. FRP deck panels, measuring 6 ft x 8.5 ft, were loaded and analyzed at Kansas State University (KSU) over the past 4 years. The research conducted provides insight towards a conservative load distribution to assist engineers in future bridge designs with FRP decks. Two FRP panels were tested using two different support configurations. The continuous panel test was completed throughout the year of 2007 while the simple span and cantilever tests were completed November, 2010 through January, 2011. Load increments of 5 kips from 0 to 20 kips were analyzed in this report. From strain results, load ratios for beams were developed and a distribution ratio for each tests setup was determined. Additional testing was completed on the simple span in order to determine the moment curve for a beam with different loading scenarios. These moment curves provided the researchers with insight that would determine an effective load distribution length of the panel bearing on the supporting beam.
KW  - Beams
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Deck panels
KW  - Fiber reinforced polymers
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Load transfer
KW  - Strength-to-weight ratio
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003822553
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1213862
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446051
AU  - Audino, Michael J
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analysis of the Status and Impacts of
NCTR Projects
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 66p
AB  - The National Center for Transit Research (NCTR) at the University of South Florida (USF) assessed the implementation status and identified the outcomes and impacts of the results of 30 Florida Department of Transportation-sponsored NCTR research projects that concluded in fiscal years 2008--2010. The study attempted to address three primary research questions: how well do research results reach the customer; how are recipients of the research findings putting the research into practice; if research is put into practice what impacts are realized. The report includes a brief summary of each of 30 NCTR-funded research projects, a summary of the research findings, a status update, and, where possible, a discussion of the impacts of each project. The report concludes with a discussion of process improvements that might be implemented to ensure future research projects produce the desired impacts.
KW  - Florida Department of Transportation
KW  - Impacts
KW  - National Center for Transit Research
KW  - Recommendations
KW  - Research projects
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45878/77934.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45878/FDOT_BDK85_977-30_rpt.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212645
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446018
AU  - Rosenbaum, Joyce E
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Buer, Alexandre
AU  - Gerbi, Paul J
AU  - Lee, Cynthia S Y
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Fleming, Gregg G
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Assessment of the Hybrid Propagation Model, Volume 2: Comparison with the Integrated Noise Model
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 17p
AB  - This is the second of two volumes of the report on the Hybrid Propagation Model (HPM), an advanced prediction model for aviation noise propagation. This volume presents comparisons of the HPM and the Integrated Noise Model (INM) for conditions of uneven terrain. The cases explored in this volume correspond to flat, hill, upward sloping, and downward sloping terrain presented in Volume 1 (Cases 1, 5, 6, and 7, respectively) to test the capabilities of the HPM. The results are analyzed in detail and comparisons are made between the HPM and INM results for the uneven terrain conditions. The goal of this research is to enhance the modeling capabilities of the Aviation Environmental Design Tool/INM, particularly in complicated environments such as National Parks.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Hybrid Propagation Model
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - National parks
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Terrain
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45705/Hybrid_Propagation_Model_Vol2.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212603
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01445984
AU  - Rosenbaum, Joyce E
AU  - Boeker, Eric R
AU  - Buer, Alexandre
AU  - Gerbi, Paul J
AU  - Lee, Cynthia S Y
AU  - Roof, Christopher J
AU  - Fleming, Gregg G
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Assessment of the Hybrid Propagation Model, Volume 1: Analysis of Noise Propagation Effects
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - This is the first of two volumes of a report on the Hybrid Propagation Model (HPM), an advanced prediction model for aviation noise propagation. This volume presents the noise level predictions for eleven different sets of propagation conditions, run by the HPM. The conditions include effects of uneven terrain, refractive atmosphere, and ground type transitions. The results are analyzed in detail and comparisons are made across four different source altitudes and between the different component models of the HPM. In addition, a scheme of “intelligent switching” between the HPM’s component models is posed as an approach to address the long runtimes of the HPM. The feasibility of this strategy is discussed and some points of caution regarding its implementation are identified. HPM results are compared to the Integrated Noise Model (INM) under uneven terrain conditions in Volume 2 of this report. The goal of this research is to enhance the modeling capabilities of the Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) and INM, particularly in complicated environments such as National Parks.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Atmosphere
KW  - Aviation Environmental Design Tool
KW  - Hybrid Propagation Model
KW  - National parks
KW  - Sound transmission
KW  - Terrain
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45704/Hybrid_Propagation_Model_Vol1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212602
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01444976
AU  - Barker, Nina
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - LEGO Robot Vehicle Lesson Plans for Secondary Education - A Recruitment Tool
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 293p
AB  - Robotics is a great way to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics.  It is also highly effective in stimulating development of teamwork and self-confidence.  This project provides transportation-related lesson plans for middle school-aged students utilizing LEGO® Mindstorms NXT robots to foster interest in the transportation engineering profession as a career choice.  A series of lesson plans for fifth through eighth graders was developed.  The objective is how an intelligent vehicle can help mitigate congestion through the use of sensors and computer programming.  During these lessons, students will learn some fundamentals of transportation engineering and how the use of advanced technology is integral to solving current and future transportation problems.  They will also learn how much transportation affects the quality of life in our society.  In the piloting of the lesson plans, the course goal and objectives were met.  Based on assessments at the end of each lesson and pre and post course questionnaires, students generally understood basic definitions and concepts presented.  In general, students found learning about transportation interesting and would like to take another LEGO® robotics course.
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Middle school students
KW  - Robotics
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic mitigation
KW  - Transportation careers
KW  - Transportation engineering
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/barker_lwashburn_2011-001_final.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46800/46870/barker_lwashburn_2011-001_final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212618
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01444857
AU  - Ndubisi, Forster
AU  - Joh, Kenneth
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - An eCertificate Program in Transportation Planning
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 34p
AB  - In this project, researchers developed a proposal to extend the delivery of the recently developed Graduate Certificate in Transportation Planning at Texas A&M University (TAMU) to a wider audience via distance education (online or eCertificate). While the need for an interdisciplinary approach to transportation is widely recognized by the professional community, there are few educational programs that address the field of transportation in a truly comprehensive, interdisciplinary manner. The TAMU university-wide graduate Certificate in Transportation Planning was established in August 2008 to address this need. The certificate provides an interdisciplinary perspective on how economics, public policy, finance, and urban design influence the effectiveness of transportation systems. This certificate has proved to be very successful. However, a limitation has been its availability to graduate students only at TAMU in College Station. This project sought to convert four courses in the existing certificate into online courses, to develop a proposal for delivering the courses via distance education, and to move the proposal through the TAMU approval processes. The eCertificate will increase access to transportation courses and Texas A&M’s transportation curriculum substantially, and it will strengthen Texas A&M as a national and global leader in the education of transportation professionals.
KW  - Certification
KW  - Continuing education
KW  - Curricula
KW  - Distance learning
KW  - Economics
KW  - Finance
KW  - Graduate study
KW  - Interdisciplinary studies
KW  - Professional personnel
KW  - Public policy
KW  - Texas
KW  - Texas A&M University
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Urban design
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Ndubisi_11-13-72.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45763/Ndubisi_11-13-72.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212427
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01444836
AU  - Rhys, Margaret J
AU  - Karkle, Daniel E
AU  - Russell, Eugene R
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Study of KDOT Policy on Lane and Shoulder Minimum Width for Application of Centerline Rumble Strips
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 136p
AB  - The objectives of this research were: a) to obtain updated information on DOTs' policies and guidelines for installation of centerline rumble strips (CLRS) in the United States in order to identify current practices; b) to verify the before-and-after safety effectiveness of CLRS currently installed in Kansas; c) to determine if CLRS cause levels of exterior noise that can disturb nearby residents and propose a minimum distance from houses for installation of CLRS in Kansas; d) to estimate the effects of CLRS on vehicles’ operational speed and lateral position and to verify if it is safe to install CLRS on sections of highways with narrow shoulders; and e) provide recommendations of when it is beneficial to install rumble strips, given known values of traffic volume, shoulder width, and the presence of other types of rumble strips. The methodologies that were applied in this research include: a) an email survey that was sent to all state DOTs to verify their current guidelines for installation of CLRS; b) application of Bayesian before-and-after methods to investigate the safety effectiveness of CLRS in Kansas; c) field data collection according to standard procedures to verify if CLRS produce exterior noise levels that can disturb residents that live nearby to treated highways, d) standard field data collection methods to investigate how CLRS impact vehicular lateral position and operational speed; and e) modeling and interpretation of regression equations to predict number of crashes. Based on the analysis of safety performance function (SPF) models for total correctable crashes, on roadways with narrow shoulders, SRS only is recommended for all annual average daily traffic levels (AADTs) considered in this study. For AADTs lower than 5,750 vehicles per day, CLRS are recommended. For AADTs greater than 3,000 vehicles per day, the both configuration is also recommended. The study of SPFs was limited by the fact that only 29 sections of highway were used to build the models. Overall, both patterns currently installed in Kansas have provided crash reductions and are recommended. Shoulder width and traffic volume should be considered as crash predictors for enhancement of the benefits.
KW  - Center lines
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Road shoulders
KW  - Rumble strips
KW  - Traffic lanes
KW  - Width
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003821547
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45752/KSU107_Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212331
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01444336
AU  - Turnbull, Katherine F
AU  - Griffin, Greg P
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation and Tourism
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - This project explored the link between transportation and tourism in Texas. A session on transit and tourism was organized and conducted as part of the 2012 Texas Transit Conference. Speakers at the session described public transit services oriented toward tourists in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, and South Padre Island. Session participants discussed additional research needs, outreach activities, and possible demonstration projects. A meeting was also held with representatives from the Texas Department of Transportation and BikeTexas to discuss current bicycle and walking programs oriented toward tourists in the state and areas for additional research, pilot testing, and technology transfer.
KW  - Bicycling
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Texas
KW  - Tourism
KW  - Tourists
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Turnbull_11-45-79.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45733/Turnbull_11-45-79.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1211642
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01360395
AU  - Lindly, Jay
AU  - University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
AU  - University Transportation Center for Alabama
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Driver Reaction at Railroad Crossings
PY  - 2012/08//Final Report
SP  - 29p
AB  - The Alabama Department of Transportation desires to make highway/rail crossings in Alabama as safe as practicable. Accordingly, it initiated Federal Aid Project HPPF-AL49(900) to determine whether DOT crossing number 728478C where US 231 crosses the Gulf & Ohio Railways track in Troy, Alabama would be safer and if driver behavior would be modified when a StopGate™ stop arm developed by Quixote Transportation Safety was installed at the crossing. Personnel from the University Transportation Center for Alabama (UTCA) were employed to help in two areas of the project: to analyze driver behavior characteristics based on digital images provided by Quixote and to document crashes and/or near misses at the crossing from data provided by the Gulf & Ohio railroad. Unfortunately, the digital images of driver reactions at the crossing supplied by a third party vendor were unusable for the analysis. Additionally, the Gulf & Ohio does not keep near miss records for the Shortline Railroad that includes this crossing. Without useful data, UTCA could not reach statistically verifiable conclusions. A limited amount of observations after the gates installation led to the following observation. The only violations that were observed occurred after flashing lights began but before full deployment of the gates; no vehicles drove around the gates, and there were no violations after the gates were locked in place. Rather than to attempt to draw firm conclusions from inadequate data, the UTCA team recommended instead to use the lessons learned from this installation to better prepare for future projects.
KW  - Behavior
KW  - Drivers
KW  - Gates
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Traffic violations
KW  - Troy (Alabama)
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/files/2011/11/08401-Final-Report.pdf
UR  - http://utca.eng.ua.edu/research/projects/?id=08401
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/44000/44600/44647/HPPF-AL49__900__UTCA_08401_Final_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1125926
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01485440
TI  - Evaluation of Geometric Design Needs of Freeway Systems Based on Archived ITS and Safety Data
AB  - Geometric design of the freeways fundamentally influences the safety and mobility that the systems can provide.There are just a few studies regarding the impact of freeway geometric design on safety. This study deals with the specific geometric design of freeways in Las Vegas, Nevada: ramp spacing, number of lanes, the lengths of acceleration and decoration lanes, weaving section length, etc.  and will identify the safety problems associated with geometric design. These problems will be corrected in a timely manner, which eventually would improve safety and reduce congestion.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Geometric design
KW  - Highway design
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Las Vegas (Nevada)
KW  - Ramps (Interchanges)
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Weaving sections
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254158
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01444853
AU  - Kommalapati, Raghava
AU  - Ramalingam, Radhakrishnan
AU  - Stockton, William
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Workforce Development: Sustaining and Expanding High School Outreach Programs and Multi-agency Partnerships
PY  - 2012/07/31/Final Report
SP  - 82p
AB  - This project supported a multi-university/agency partnership between Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), and Texas A&M University (TAMU) that focuses on producing high-quality transportation professionals from underrepresented groups. This project redesigned and expanded the Summer Transportation Institute (STI) Scholars program created with previous funding from this sponsor; its goal is to motivate students to take an interest in civil engineering and transportation careers. The STI Scholars program curriculum was redesigned to enhance the stimulating environment that would attract, inspire, and encourage students from various high schools within Texas and beyond to participate in the STI and STI Scholars program for the two summers before they pursued higher education. The STI Scholars program’s internet presence was enhanced with updates and improvements to the STI webpage and Facebook page. To promote long-term sustainability, the project produced a network of (a) former students, (b) educational professionals (counselors and teachers), and (c) public and private agencies including academia. The program was able to track former graduates as part of its goal to monitor their education and careers beyond the program and found that 100 percent of the STI Scholars program graduates that could be tracked (seven out of eight) are pursuing higher education and more than 70 percent are pursuing higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related fields. The success of this project is having a positive impact on the civil engineering programs at PVAMU and TAMU and can serve as a model for similar outreach programs at other locations across the nation.
KW  - Civil engineering
KW  - Curricula
KW  - Education and training
KW  - High school students
KW  - Outreach
KW  - Summer Transportation Institute
KW  - Texas
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Kommalapati_11-00-63.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45762/Kommalapati_11-00-63.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45900/45927/Kommalapati_11-00-63.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212430
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01481637
AU  - Ramezani, Hani
AU  - Benekohal, Rahim (Ray) F
AU  - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
AU  - NEXTRANS
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Computing Moving and Intermittent Queue Propagation in Highway Work Zones
PY  - 2012/07/29/Final Report
SP  - 88p
AB  - Drivers may experience intermittent congestion and moving queue conditions in work zones due to several reasons such as presence of lane closure, roadway geometric changes, higher demand, lower speed, and reduced capacity. The congestion and queue have spatial and temporal effects and knowing their extent is needed to find users’ cost, and to select traffic management strategies to reduce congestion in work zones. The first objective of this study was to develop a computer program, called IntQ, to estimate delay and queue length for intermittent queues in work zones. The IntQ models intermittent arrival pattern for groups of vehicles and generates the group characteristics, such as inter-group gap and group size, from statistical distributions developed from field data for work zones. Then the groups are moved along the network under certain rules. Also the effects of  traffic volume on the distributions are discussed. The second objective was to develop a computer program called MovQ to study moving queues in work zones. Inputs to MovQ are geometric, construction and demand data, and output is queue length, delay, and state of traffic. The MovQ establishes speed-flow curves for each section of a work zone and uses shockwave theory to keep track of interactions between traffic waves. The report includes discussions about computational issues, input/output data, and example problems that are solved using the programs.
KW  - Computer programs
KW  - Simulation
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic flow rate
KW  - Traffic queuing
KW  - Work zone traffic control
KW  - Work zones
UR  - http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/assets/pdfs/Final%20Report%20071IY03%20Computing%20Moving%20and%20Intermittent%20Queue%20Propagation%20in%20Highway%20Work%20Zones.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250501
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486729
AU  - Ioannou, Petros
AU  - Wang, Yun
AU  - Abadi, Afshin
AU  - Butakov, Vadim
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Dynamic Variable Speed Limit Control: Design, Analysis and Benefits
PY  - 2012/07/28/Final Report
SP  - 91p
AB  - In this study, the problems of the design, analysis and evaluation of dynamic variable speed limit (VSL) controllers are addressed. The control strategies are designed based on simpliﬁed validated macroscopic traﬃc ﬂow models but applied and tested on validated microscopic traﬃc models under diﬀerent traﬃc conditions. Three dynamic VSL control designs are presented and tested using both macroscopic and microscopic simulation models.  Examining the performance measurements summarized from several hundreds simulations runs, the simple PI type controller with less computational burden is not inferior to the more complicated nonlinear MPC which also needs predicted demand and accident information as inputs. Although macroscopic simulations demonstrates that both simple controller and model predictive controller could reduce Total Time Spent (TTS) for about 20%, VISSIM microscopic simulations show that Total Travel Time (TTT) could not be improved by variable speed limit controllers due to the vehicle level transient responses and the second rate shock wave generated by slowing down traﬃc in advance both of which are not captured in macroscopic models. Safety beneﬁts of VSL controllers such as reducing number of stops and reducing number of lane changes are demonstrated through VISSIM simulations. To obtain environmental benefits, VSL should be implemented in a way to force smoother speed proﬁles of individual vehicles. Simulation results also show that the eﬀectiveness of VSL controllers are dependent on the traﬃc demand level and the congestion level. VSL controllers are more eﬀective when traﬃc density is close to the critical density.
KW  - Control systems
KW  - Design
KW  - Macroscopic traffic flow
KW  - Microscopic traffic flow
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Variable speed limits
KW  - VISSIM (Computer model)
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/sites/default/files/research-project/11-14_Ioannou_final_0_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247844
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446295
AU  - Coifman, Benjamin
AU  - Lee, Ho
AU  - NEXTRANS
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Innovative Vehicle Classification Strategies: Using LIDAR to do More
for Less
PY  - 2012/07/23/Final Report
SP  - 60p
AB  - This study examines light detection and ranging (LIDAR) based vehicle classification and classification performance monitoring. The portable LIDAR based classification system was developed with the sensors mounted in a side-fire configuration next to the road. Several measurements are taken from each non-occluded cluster to classify vehicles into one of six classes: motorcycle, passenger vehicle, passenger vehicle pulling a trailer, single-unit truck, single-unit truck pulling a trailer, and multi-unit truck. The algorithm was evaluated at six different locations under various traffic conditions.  By measuring height, shape and length, the LIDAR based system was able to distinguish between vehicle classes that challenge other classification technologies. Compared to concurrent video ground truth data for over 27,000 vehicles on a per-vehicle basis, 11% of the vehicles are suspected of being partially occluded. The algorithm correctly classified over 99.5% of the remaining, non-occluded vehicles. This research also uncovered emerging challenges that likely apply to most classification systems, e.g., differentiating commuter cars from motorcycles.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Automatic vehicle classification
KW  - Automatic vehicle detection and identification systems
KW  - Highway traffic
KW  - Laser radar
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Vehicle detectors
UR  - https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/nextrans/assets/pdfs/Year%202%20Final%20Reports/Final%20Report%20033.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1213821
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01456747
AU  - Heidemann, John
AU  - Zhang, Chengjie
AU  - Park, Unkyu
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - SRVC: Sensornets for Remote Vehicle Classification
PY  - 2012/07/19/Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - Automated vehicle classification systems based on networks of small, battery-powered and wireless, intelligent sensors should be easily deployed with brief setup time (tens of minutes), with accurate vehicle information (as good as or better than human observers), and communicate this information to a central monitoring site. Current approaches are not rapidly deployable, accurate enough, and lack the ability to relay data in real-time to central site. This report summarizes the results of a two-year research effort on sensornets for vehicle traffic classification. The communications requirements for traffic monitoring systems (both short-range wireless inside a traffic sensornet, and wide-area to a central Traffic Management System), are investigated, self-configuring traffic monitoring systems are developed, and prior work is integrated with these new results. The key outcomes are to understand communications in a classification system, to carefully evaluate the effects of signature matching, and to further develop self-configuration. The new approaches are tested through a second major data collection exercise at the University of Southern California.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Automatic data collection systems
KW  - Automatic vehicle classification
KW  - Data fusion
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Remote sensing
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/research/07-04-sensornets-remote-vehicle-classification-srvc
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223090
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489640
TI  - Data Analysis Tools Development (Integration and Implementation)
AB  - This project supports the development of HSM Performance Measures through the Lead State Initiative and the facilitation of internal multidisciplinary HSM team efforts to integrate HSM into project delivery processes and programs.
KW  - Data analysis
KW  - Data files
KW  - Integrated systems
KW  - Performance measurement
KW  - Programming (Planning)
KW  - Software
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258870
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489636
TI  - SI-09-40 - Deploying New Generation of Hwy Safety
AB  - This project supports continued work on the Strategic Initiative.
KW  - Deployment
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Strategic planning
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258866
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01383431
AU  - Watts, Richard
AU  - Witham, Aaron
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Social Network Analysis of Sustainable Transportation Organizations
PY  - 2012/07/15/Final Report
SP  - 30p
AB  - This study examines the communication networks of 121 organizations promoting sustainable transportation policy in northern New England. “Sustainable transportation” is defined here as ameliorating transportation’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, ground based air pollution, pollution in waters and streams, and human health issues such as obesity and lung disease. In a broad sense, it meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Organizations promoting this goal include government agencies, planning commissions, nonprofits, transit providers and businesses. Communication patterns consist of the sending and receiving of information, which may be reflective of collaboration, sharing resources, and other relationships that influence an organization’s power to affect the policy process. Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont are the focus of this study because of their geographical proximity and their similarities in terms of population densities and demographics, climates, and transportation challenges.
KW  - Communications
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Interorganizational relations
KW  - Maine
KW  - New England
KW  - New Hampshire
KW  - Organizations
KW  - Social networking
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Sustainable transportation
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - Vermont
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-12-008.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1148119
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01569280
TI  - Empirically-Based Performance Assessment & Simulation of Pedestrian Behavior at
Unsignalized Crossings
AB  - The Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE) Regional University Transportation Center at the University of Florida has identified three major research areas critical to the needs of Region 4, which also satisfy federal objectives: safety, livable communities, and economic competitiveness. This proposal addresses the issues of livability and safety by developing new and improved algorithms for describing pedestrian and vehicle interaction at unsignalized crossings and by implementing them in a traffic simulation environment. The research will be based on field data collection in three states in the southeastern United States. The project is a collaborative effort by North Carolina State University, the University of Florida, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham - an interdisciplinary team of university researchers with significant combined expertise in the field of pedestrian safety and operations. The project will develop microscopic algorithms describing pedestrian and driver behavior at unsignalized crossings. These algorithms will be developed from field data collected at modern roundabouts, all-way and two-way stop-controlled intersections, channelized turn lanes, and midblock pedestrian crossings. The research plan emphasizes the consideration of special pedestrian populations more prevalent in the southeast, including students and elderly pedestrians. The research product will result in an improved understanding of pedestrian-vehicle interaction at these crossing locations, which is expected to have a significant impact on engineering. With a substantial technology transfer component, this project will implement select algorithms in the CORSIM microsimulation model, and will further develop educational modules for dissemination of the research results to students and professionals in the southeast and nationwide. Specific outcomes for this research will include: (a) a standalone model of pedestrian yield and gap acceptance behavior at unsignalized crossings, (b) a driver yielding behavioral model and (c) prototype algorithms to be incorporated and tested in the CORSIM traffic microsimulation model. Key deliverables include the prototype algorithms implemented in CORSIM, a final report summarizing the research and findings, and educational modules on the research results that can be incorporated into university curricula, or serve as material for standalone professional development courses.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - CORSIM (Traffic simulation model)
KW  - Economic development
KW  - Livable communities
KW  - Nonmotorized transportation
KW  - Pedestrian movement
KW  - Pedestrian traffic
KW  - Roundabouts
KW  - Safety
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Unsignalized intersections
UR  - http://stride.ce.ufl.edu/uploads/docs/Schroeder_STRIDE_2012-016S_Final_Report.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1360254
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553077
TI  - Signalized Intersection Simulation Program for Education
AB  - In the "Introduction to Transportation Engineering" class, two of the most difficult topics for students to learn are often queuing theory and signal operation and analysis. The large majority of today's students are 'visual' learners and 'active learning' is proving to be a more effective teaching method than the traditional lecture. This learning paradigm for students lends itself well to the use of computer software, particularly traffic simulation programs, to significantly enhance student education in transportation engineering. However, nearly all traffic simulation software packages are designed for application (i.e., intended to be used by practitioners or researchers for specific applications), rather than illustrating the concepts and principles that lead to the outputs/results that are normally the primary interest of users of a software program. The objective of this project is to develop a signalized intersection microscopic simulation program that will lead to more effective and efficient learning of queuing theory and signalized intersection operation and analysis concepts.
KW  - Queuing theory
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic queuing
KW  - Traffic signal timing
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Transportation engineering
UR  - http://stride.ce.ufl.edu/washburn-abstract
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343150
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553070
TI  - Consequence Based Route Selection for Hazardous Material Cargo: GIS-Based Time Progression of Environmental Impact Radius of Accidental Spills
AB  - Hazardous material spills during transportation often have significant consequences because of the environmental vulnerability of the spill locations and proximity to communities where the environmental impacts affect human health and safety and economic viability directly or indirectly. The objectives of this research are: (1) Assess hazardous material cargo routing options using multi-objective criteria to reduce potential risks due to spills. (2) Develop a time progression model to predict the impact radius of spills from hazardous material cargo on well-being of neighboring communities. (3) Develop an interactive geographic information system (GIS) based tool to demonstrate the potential risks based on characteristics of the hazardous cargo and transportation routes for two case studies. (4) Demonstrate time progression of impact radius, quantification of risks, and affected population based on route choices. The results of this research can be used for developing strategies to minimize risks of transportation accidents which impact human health and safety as well as environmental quality.
KW  - Cargo handling
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Spills (Pollution)
UR  - http://stride.ce.ufl.edu/tansel-abstract
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343143
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01553066
TI  - Towards a Holistic Understanding of Quality of Life: An Analysis of Activity-Travel Patterns on Non- Mid-week Days
AB  - The practice of travel-demand forecasting continues to place substantial (if not all) emphasis on travel during a typical "mid-week" (Tuesday - Thursday) day. While this is adequate from the stand point of understanding congestion due to commute, such an approach does not paint a complete picture of the overall travel patterns of people. The intent of this study is to examine the activity-travel patterns for non mid-week days (Friday through Monday) that are typically ignored by the state-of-practice planning methods. The focus is on modeling the maintenance- and discretionary- activity decisions (duration and time of day) as such episodes are not undertaken on a daily basis and are likely to be undertaken on non-working days. Data from two national-level surveys from multiple years will be used to examine differences in activity participation over the days of the week and the changes in these weekly patterns over the last decade. The study also examines whether analysis from the two different surveys (trip-based and time-use surveys) yield the same patterns. It is believed that the empirical findings will help to identify what aspects of travel patterns might be missed/under-emphasized by the state-of-the-practice focus on mid-week periods. Further, knowing which market segments have pronounced differences across the days of the week would be valuable in any local agency assessing their own need for weekend/shoulder-period travel-demand models (depending on the demographic composition of their own region). Preliminary insights can also be gained on how the structure of a demand-model system for non-mid-week days might be different from those of mid-week days.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Nonwork activity patterns
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Travel patterns
KW  - Travel surveys
UR  - http://stride.ce.ufl.edu/srinivasan-abstract
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1343139
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01431183
AU  - Pardalos, Panos M
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Novel Approaches for Road Congestion Mitigation
PY  - 2012/07/02/Final Report
SP  - 20p
AB  - Transportation planning is usually aiming to solve two problems: the traffic assignment and the toll pricing problems. The latter one utilizes information from the first one, in order to find the optimal set of tolls that is the set of tolls that leads to a user equilibrium solution and that would benefit all travelers-users. This problem is particularly hard, so an evolutionary algorithm is proposed based on the work by Buriol et al. (2005) and Ericsson et al. (2002). Computational results are given to depict the success of this approach.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Congestion pricing
KW  - Evolutionary algorithms
KW  - Tolls
KW  - Traffic assignment
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - User equilibrium
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/pardalos_cms_2010-001_final.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45650/pardalos_cms_2010-001_final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1193237
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587415
TI  - Improving Veteran Mobility in Small Urban & Rural Areas
AB  - The objective of this research is to identify veterans with mobility needs currently living in rural North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.  The cost of providing different transportation options will be quantified in relation to meeting their medical needs as well as other life essential activities.
KW  - Costs
KW  - Medical trips
KW  - Military personnel
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Needs assessment
KW  - North Dakota
KW  - Retirement
KW  - Rural areas
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/improving-veteran-mobility-in-small-urban-rural-areas-2/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396083
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01587413
TI  - Rural Transit Fact Book (2014)
AB  - Public transportation plays a fundamental role in the livability of all communities. Information on transit service availability and cost is necessary to efficiently and effectively meet rural community mobility needs. Financial and operating statistics can be used by agency managers, local decision makers, state directors, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and lawmakers to assist in policy making, planning, managing operations, and evaluating performance. The Rural Transit Fact Book was initiated by the Small Urban & Rural Transit Center in 2011 to provide information to assist the transit industry in the United States provide efficient and effective service to rural communities.  While significant data exist in urban areas, data for rural transit has been lacking.
The intent of the Rural Transit Fact Book is to serve as a national resource for statistics and information on rural transit in America. The publication includes rural demographic and travel behavior data as well as financial and operating statistics for agencies receiving section 5311 funding. In addition to national level data, statistics are presented by state, FTA region, tribe, and mode, as well as other agency characteristics. The rural transit data presented are obtained from the Rural National Transit Database (NTD).
As new and better data become available, it is useful to continually update this publication. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to produce a 2014 edition of the Fact Book with new and updated data. A SAS program will also be developed to more efficiently analyze the data contained in the NTD data files.

KW  - Data collection
KW  - Demographics
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Rural transit
KW  - Statistics
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://www.nctr.usf.edu/2014/05/rural-transit-fact-book-2014/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1396056
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01566191
TI  - Longitudinal Study of Overnight Travel
AB  - This project is a portion of the Vermont University Transportation Center (UTC) signature focus on tourism travel. More specifically,  this project will collect a longitudinal study of overnight travel. The overall objective of this project is to: (1) define the boundaries of the temporal and geographic extent of overnight travel; and (2) determine patterns of overnight travel activity planning including flexibility. Within the limits of the small sample size, the project will assess whether overnight travel and overnight travel planning differ between regions. This pilot study will use on-line twice monthly surveys for one year to measure the planning time horizon/flexibility and geographic/temporal extent of overnight travel (including completed and canceled trips) of 1 to 2 person-households with no at-home children and at least one full-time worker in 3 states.
KW  - Activity choices
KW  - Overnight (Midnight to 6 AM)
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Temporal analysis
KW  - Tourism
KW  - Travel
KW  - Travel patterns
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/trc/university-transportation-center/utc-current-project-list/longitudinal-study-of-overnight-travel/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1357362
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01565923
TI  - Social Ties and Transportation: A Community-level basis for Reducing Vehicle Tailpipe Emissions
AB  - Researchers propose a national study based on previously existing data sets: the 2010 General Social Survey, the 2009 Civic Engagement Supplement of the Current Population Survey, and the 2009 National Household Transportation Survey. The objective of this study is to capture the relational and community social capital context of informed decision-making with regard to low emissions alternatives to single occupancy vehicle use. Work on this project is motivated by a central question: Do people's social connections to others, at home, at the workplace and in their local community affect their disposition towards reducing transportation emissions? This work builds on previous University Transportation Center (UTC) funded research that included a three-state survey, media analysis and a series of focus groups all centered on understanding connections between attitudes and behavior related to individual transportation choices and vehicle tailpipe emissions.
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Single occupant vehicles
KW  - Social factors
KW  - Travel surveys
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/trc/university-transportation-center/utc-current-project-list/bicycles-transportation-sustainability-and-quality-of-life/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1356562
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01547572
TI  - Freight Movement and Economic Competitiveness from the Megaregion Perspective
AB  - This study will focus on the regional and national impacts of port-related freight movement,  to lay the groundwork for regional planning activities at the mega-region scale that accommodate increased port-related freight. With most of the focus on the impact of the Panama Canal expansion centered on the upgrade of specific port facilities, there is a need for further research on the impact of increased port traffic on the mega-regional transportation system. Planning on a regional scale will be critical for effectively and efficiently capturing the economic benefits that the expansion will generate. This is not only important for the economic competitiveness of each port's region, but for the entire nation, which depends on the goods delivered at each port. Furthermore, if not properly anticipated, increased demand for freight movement on the highway system will result in added congestion and shortages in truck parking locations. This not only impacts the "state of good repair" of the highway system, but also could negatively impact highway safety.
KW  - Competition
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - National Highway System
KW  - Ports
KW  - Regional planning
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1335009
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01538110
TI  - Developing a Robust Survey Methodology for Collecting Information on the Port Truck Drayage Industry
AB  - Efficient freight transportation is critical to the regional economic competitiveness and environmental health of the Pacific Northwest. Increasing pressure on the roadway infrastructure and concern about air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, heighten the state's interest in supporting solutions that might move cargo off roads. Unfortunately, existing tools used to compare investments --- especially across modes (e.g., in rail and road infrastructure) --- are not sufficient to truly measure their economic and environmental impact or accurately evaluate tradeoffs between modes. This leaves transportation agencies with little foundation to support decision-making, and limits the state's ability to identify innovative solutions that benefit the state, such as public-private partnerships that might increase the attractiveness of rail or barge transport. This project will address state department of transportation (DOT) needs for comparable multimodal, multi-objective analysis by: 1) carefully evaluating the most commonly used approaches by state DOTs, as well as approaches suggested by academic studies; 2) identifying the specific challenges to multimodal comparisons, and the areas where comparisons can be made; 3) performing a gap analysis.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Drayage
KW  - Methodology
KW  - Multimodal transportation
KW  - Pacific Northwest
KW  - Ports
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Trucking
UR  - http://depts.washington.edu/pactrans/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PacTrans-17-624908-Goodchild-Anne-Small-Project.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1324559
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01521839
TI  - Sustainable Asphalt Pavements Using Bio-Binders from Bio-Fuel Waste (KSU)
AB  - Asphaltic binders that are used for asphalt pavements have been traditionally obtained either from fossil fuels or from natural sources. However, due to growing interest in sustainability, search has been initiated for a non-petroleum binder that could be used for asphalt pavements. The objective of this study is to develop a modified asphalt binder from bio-refinery by-products and wastes that can be used as a replacement of bituminous adhesives/binders derived from fossil fuels for asphalt pavements. The internal chemical structures of the residue from fossil fuel processing and biofuel processing are similar. Thus, necessary chemical changes would be minimal to produce the appropriate viscosity and aging index for use in asphalt mixtures.  The bio binder properties will be modified using bio-polymers resulting in a better binder that will have enhanced wetability and coating (adhesion) and resistance to aging (loss of volatiles) properties.
KW  - Asphalt mixtures
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Binders
KW  - Bio-binders
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Fossil fuels
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Viscosity
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1305391
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495774
TI  - Statewide Heavy Truck Crash Assessment
AB  - In 2009, heavy trucks represented approximately 15% of the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in Iowa, compared to 10% at the national level . Between 2006 and 2010 in Iowa, heavy trucks were involved in crashes resulting in, on average, 74 fatalities annually. Fifteen percent of these fatalities were large truck occupants. In other words, the vast majority of the resulting fatalities were non-large truck occupants, demonstrating the serious nature of these crashes when involving the general traveling public. While several national studies have investigated heavy truck crashes, e.g. "Large Truck Crash Causation Study", no rigorous analyses have been conducted in Iowa. The objective of this project is to investigate the causes, locations, and other factors related to heavy truck crashes in Iowa. Through efforts related to this study, the research team will provide results that may be used by decision makers and law enforcement, particularly Iowa Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Enforcement (MVE), in establishing priorities and allocating limited resources to promote safety and reduce crashes.
KW  - Crash causes
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Trucks
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=412
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265566
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495773
TI  - Sustainable Asphalt Pavements Using Bio-Binders from Bio-Fuel Waste
AB  - The vast majority of asphalt materials used in highway construction are currently derived from the distillation of crude petroleum. The increasing demand for products derived from crude petroleum, coupled with constrained supply, has led to substantial price increases in crude petroleum products including asphalt. To further meet the increased demand for transportation fuels, many refineries have installed coking facilities that remove asphalt from the marketplace, further impacting the pricing of asphalt. The evolution of the biorefineries producing transportation fuels, specialty chemical products and food products has created opportunities for using derived co-products in the asphalt industry. These co-products may be used to either partially or fully replace crude petroleum-derived asphalt, or be used as beneficial additives for mitigating moisture damage as an example. Assessment and characterization of these materials, including chemical compatibility, rheological testing and formulation for use in asphalt paving, is needed. This project is a collaborative one combining Kansas State University's expertise in analytical chemistry and asphalt mixture characterization with Iowa State University's expertise in using bio-based materials in asphalt materials and rheological characterization. This project addresses the United States Department of Transportation's strategic goals associated with state of good repair, sustainability, and economic competitiveness.
KW  - Additives
KW  - Asphalt pavements
KW  - Biomass fuels
KW  - Biorefineries
KW  - Crude petroleum
KW  - Moisture damage
KW  - Rheological properties
KW  - Waste products
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=415
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265565
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495772
TI  - Methods for Removing Concrete Decks from Bridge Girders
AB  - With ever tightening budgets, states are looking for cost-effective methods of extending the duration from initial bridge construction to complete replacement.  One common technique that serves this purpose is to replace the deck after the end of its useful service life has been reached while keeping the original superstructure and substructure.  That is, assuming that the superstructure and substructure still have adequate strength and remaining life.  For this approach to be successfully accomplished, it is critical that the deck is removed without damaging the superstructure elements.  Moreover, as the deck is often removed in large pieces, it is important to prevent concrete from falling below the bridge, especially where a roadway passes beneath.  The objective of the work is to determine the most, and/or develop new, cost-effective and efficient deck removal techniques for steel and concrete superstructure bridges.  The following criteria will be considered as part of the evaluation: Impact on the future performance of the superstructure, cost, time, safety, and noise.  Further, the work will include guidance on assessing and repairing girders that are damaged during removal of a deck.
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Replacement (Structural components)
KW  - Service life
KW  - Substructures
KW  - Superstructures
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=407
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265564
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495771
TI  - Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather - Phase 3
AB  - Highway agencies spend millions of dollars to ensure safe and efficient winter travel. However, the effectiveness of winter weather maintenance practices on safety and mobility are somewhat difficult to quantify. Safety and Mobility Impacts of Winter Weather - Phase 1 investigated opportunities for improving traffic safety on state-maintained roads in Iowa during winter weather conditions. The primary objective was to develop several preliminary means for the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) to identify locations of possible interest systematically with respect to winter weather-related safety performance based on crash history. Specifically, four metrics were developed to assist in identifying possible habitual, winter weather-related crash sites on state-maintained rural highways in Iowa. In addition, the current state of practice, for both domestic and international highway agency practices, regarding integration of traffic safety- and mobility-related data in winter maintenance activities and performance measures were investigated. This investigation also included previous research efforts. In Phase 2, a combination of the Phase 1 results, and Iowa DOT Maintenance Field staff input, were then employed to evaluate three Iowa DOT high priority sites. Winter weather crash mitigation analysis procedures were developed and applied for these three sites. Realistic maintenance and operations mitigation strategies were also identified. The primary objectives of Phase 3 of this project are to: 1) develop a systematic site prioritization protocol, 2) analyze winter weather and crash history at the prioritized sites, 3) identify possible mitigation strategies, and 4) develop a prediction model of crash risk as a function of winter weather-related variables and traffic-related variables.
KW  - Crash prediction models
KW  - Crash risk forecasting
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Mobility
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=413
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265563
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495770
TI  - Validation of Traffic Simulation Model Output for Work Zone and Mobile Source Emissions Modeling and Integration with Human-in-the-Loop Driving Simulators
AB  - Collection of project level work zone performance measures, (i.e. queue length, travel speed) in the field is difficult because setting up data collection equipment within the work zone can be disruptive and the lack of right-of-way can force data collectors to be situated in unsafe locations. Additionally, the most recent emission model, the Environmental Protection Agency's Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) requires second-by-second vehicle activity which may require methods such as instrumented vehicles. Consequently, data needs for both types of analyses are resource intensive. The objective of the research is to demonstrate the utility of linking micro- simulation output with work zone and emission models. The project will collect data for several work zone and operational scenarios and develop models with the micro- simulation model, VISSIM. Work zone model scenario output (i.e. queue length, travel speed) will be compared to field data and drawbacks in use for analysis of work zone performance measures identified. The utility of using micro-simulation model output for work zone analysis will be documented. VISSIM output from operational scenarios (speed/acceleration) will be compared to field data to assess the accuracy of micro-simulation models in providing realistic estimates of vehicle activity as input to MOVES. Results will be summarized to demonstrate the applicability of linking micro-simulated vehicle activity data with emissions models to better estimate the emission impacts of different transportation strategies.  The team will also work with researchers at the University of Iowa (UI) to take the analysis one step further and integrate micro-simulation model output with driving simulators. UI is preparing a separate proposal for their portion of the work. Completion of most project objectives for this research, however, can be completed independently if the UI proposal is not funded.  The requested Mid-Atlantic Transportation Center (MATC) funds will be matched to a project which will be funded by a SWZDI, "Work zone Traffic Performance Measures."
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Queuing
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - VISSIM (Computer model)
KW  - Work zones
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=414
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1265562
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01495072
TI  - Road Weather Information System (RWIS) Statewide Implementation Plan
AB  - The road weather information system (RWIS) network is a collection of environmental sensor stations (ESS), which gives state departments of transportation (DOTs) unprecedented access to detailed, accurate, timely, and roadway-relevant weather information to effectively and efficiently promote safety, mobility and productivity in the face of weather-related challenges. ESSs currently installed across the United States are providing valuable road weather data to the DOTs, which have been integrated into winter maintenance decision support systems (MDSS) to assist maintenance managers about road treatments, such as salting, plowing, or a combination of approaches. The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) has a very limited network of RWIS stations in various states of disrepair. A comprehensive plan is needed to upgrade (if appropriate) and expand the existing network to better serve current operational needs and support a future MDSS. The objective of this project is to develop a detailed plan for deploying a statewide RWIS to support both current NYSDOT operations and future use MDSS applications. To develop the RWIS implementation plan, various information and data sources shall be visited, including the current condition of NYSDOT's RWIS network, potential RWIS station sites, data needed for supporting statewide MDSS applications, and NYS meteorological zones. A GIS-based model shall be developed to optimize the RWIS network, considering contiguous segments having similar maintenance requirements by associating them with features that can affect the degree of required road maintenance (e.g. topography, meteorology, traffic, etc.). Optimally, the RWIS network shall allow winter road maintenance agencies to make decisions based on accurate and timely weather information, which ultimately leads to a higher level of service and reduced weather-related congestion delay and accidents, reduced cost, redundancy and environmental/ecological impacts, more efficient use of manpower, contractor services, fleet, and asset management, and increased accountability resulting in more prudent and efficient spending. It is expected that the efficient and effective RWIS network used in conjunction with a future NYSDOT MDSS model will achieve significant operational savings while maintaining acceptable levels of service, particularly in the winter months.
KW  - Environmental sensor stations
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
KW  - Road weather information systems
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/road-weather-information-system
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264504
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01492485
TI  - Characterization of Fatigue Properties of Binders and Mastics at Intermediate Temperatures using Dynamic Shear Rheometer
AB  - Fatigue in flexible pavements is one of the most complex and least understood phenomenon. This is because the fatigue behavior of hot mix asphalt is influenced by several factors, such as strain intensity, frequency of loading, oxidative aging, and rest period (Johnson et al, 2007). The strain amplitude and the rest period play a significant role, because some binders have an ability to heal during the time when there is no loading. Overall, binders appear to dictate the performance of hot mix asphalt because of two reasons: (1) The strains within the binder is approximately 90 times the average strain experienced within the hot mix asphalt (Johnson et al. 2007, Masad et al. 2001); (2) The phenomenon of healing and hardening that influence fatigue properties primarily occur within the binder.
KW  - Binders
KW  - Fatigue (Mechanics)
KW  - Flexible pavements
KW  - Hot mix asphalt
KW  - Mastic asphalt
KW  - Strain (Mechanics)
UR  - http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/characterization-fatigue-properties-binders-and-mastics-intermediate-temperatures
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1261705
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01486571
TI  - Rapid Determination of Unsaturated Moisture Diffusivity for Soils During the Frost Heave
AB  - Frost heave and thaw weakening are typical problems in northern regions. It is well known that frost heave is caused by water flow through capillary zone to a freezing front where it forms ice lenses. Investigation of soil behavior in the capillary zone is in the range of unsaturated soil mechanics and the unsaturated transmission of water is the key to understand the frost heave problem. The magnitude and rate of transient moisture flow in an unsaturated soil in response to suction changes is controlled by the unsaturated moisture diffusion coefficient. It is well-known that unsaturated soil properties such as moisture diffusivity are significantly different from those when the soil is fully saturated with positive pore water pressure. Although significant progress has been made in unsaturated soil mechanics in the past two decades, not enough advancements have been made to apply this new field to practical, yet very important, problems such as the frost heave and thaw weakening problems. As part of an Oklahoma Transportation Center (OkTC, one of the ten National University Transportation Centers) sponsored research project, Mabirizi and Bulut (2010) developed a unified, simple, and practical testing equipment and method to measure both the drying and wetting unsaturated soil moisture diffusivity coefficients in laboratory. Compared with the existing methods, the method significantly reduces the time and efforts for measuring the drying and wetting unsaturated soil moisture parameters by exposing the cylindrical soil specimens to drying and wetting cycles, respectively. The same concept can be applied to measuring the unsaturated diffusivity of soils during one dimensional frost heave in Alaska. The objective of this research is to implement the most recent advances made in unsaturated soil mechanics to investigate the frost heave problem. The objective will be achieved through equipment development, laboratory testing, model development, and numerical simulation.
KW  - Blowup (Pavements)
KW  - Flow capacity (Water flow)
KW  - Frost heaving soils
KW  - Pore water pressures
KW  - Soil mechanics
KW  - Soil moisture diffusion
KW  - Unsaturated soils
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1256241
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01485573
TI  - Nondestructive Evaluation of Mechanically Stabilized Earth Walls with Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FM-CW) Radar
AB  - Effective techniques for a nondestructive evaluation of mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls during normal operation or immediately after an earthquake event are yet to be developed. The main objectives of this project are a) to quantify the laboratory performance and ability of an existing wide-band portable frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FM-CW) radar system for detection of defects behind MSE walls, and b) demonstrate the field applicability and performance of the existing radar system in MSE wall inspections. FM-CW radars offer a significant amount of information about the presence of void location and size behind an MSE wall and other anomalies such as excess moisture and its location.
KW  - Continuous wave radar
KW  - Earthquake resistant design
KW  - Embankments and retaining walls
KW  - Frequency modulation
KW  - Mechanically stabilized earth
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Seismicity
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=432
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1254337
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483289
TI  - Investigation of Interactions between Traffic Law Enforcement and Driving Behavior on Rural Highways in Colorado
AB  - Highways witness thousands of traffic crashes, injury and fatalities every day around the country. Traffic accidents, despite common, are actually very complex in nature, which are influenced by driving behavior and driving conditions. Although a lot of efforts have been put forward on investigating the traffic safety in various driving conditions, the studies related to the driving behavior, especially considering the influence from the effective policing efforts was very rare. It is known that traffic law enforcement, if well designed, can considerably influence unsafe driving habits of drivers and in turn reduce the number of crashes and also the injury severities. To effective mitigate the traffic crashes and injuries, to understand the complex mechanisms between the traffic law enforcement and driving behavior becomes critical. The objective of this study would be to characterize the basic interactions between the traffic law enforcement and driving behavior on rural highways in Colorado. Colorado is well known for its complex terrain and adverse driving conditions. In the present study, the focus would be on evaluating how the driving behavior would be affected by different law enforcement solutions under different driving conditions. In order to do that, firstly, the study will conduct the survey/interview to narrow down interested law enforcement solutions as well as unsafe driving behavior which are particularly significant in Colorado. Secondly, the historical accident data would be analyzed to identify those critical driving environments which could affect the model to be developed. Finally, the advanced data analysis will be conducted to establish the understanding of how traffic law enforcement affect the driving behavior which is specific to Colorado, but also helpful for other similar states. Given the significance of trucks getting involved into the accidents in Colorado, heavy and commercial trucks will be paid special attention.
KW  - Colorado
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Driving conditions
KW  - Driving habits
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://www.mountain-plains.org/research/projects/downloads/2012_mpc_380.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1252138
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483153
TI  - Study of a Distributed Wireless Multi-Sensory Train Approach Detection and Warning System for Improving the Safety of Railroad Workers
AB  - The Federal Railroad Administration strongly promotes safer railroad operations throughout the nation's railroad industry. One area of concern is the safety of railroad workers who are often required to work on active mainline tracks or in their close proximity. To prevent accidents, workers have to be aware of approaching trains with enough time to move equipment and personnel to a safe distance from the track. Currently, railroads require their workers to act as lookouts for oncoming trains. This tedious task is prone to failure, due to human nature and our tendency to relax attention. Consequently, the number of fatalities among track workers is on the rise. Some devices attempt to address this concern, but, based on feedback from Union Pacific Railroads, none of these are acceptable in terms of sensitivity, warning time, and fail-safe operations. To address this vital need, Union Pacific and the Advanced Telecommunications Engineering Laboratory have teamed up to investigate a solution. Currently, no commercially available system can detect trains reliably in all environments, including hills, tunnels, etc. Existing solutions use only single sensors, such as track circuit detectors, vibration, etc. An integrated system utilizing multiple techniques jointly to offset individual shortcomings may provide the detection accuracy and reliability needed. Therefore, this project will research key aspects of a vital multi-sensory train detection approach--a distributed system that collaboratively processes data and shares its findings to accommodate detection on all tracks in the area for all environments. The researchers envision a system that is rechargeable, communicates wirelessly, and will be able to interface with the Positive Train Control infrastructure for future-proof operation and integration with other safety aspects like in-cab alerting. Union Pacific is committed to providing $300,000 support through railroad equipment access, track and yard availability for field data collection, analysis, and testing.
KW  - Detection and identification technologies
KW  - Occupational safety
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Railroad traffic
KW  - Union Pacific Railroad
KW  - Warning systems
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=447
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251929
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483152
TI  - Optimizing Concrete Deck Removal in Concrete I-Girder Bridges
AB  - Current concrete bridge I-girders, such as NU girders, have unique characteristics compared to the standard AASHTO I-girders. These girders have a wide and thin top flange to improve lateral stability of long span girders during erection, provide adequate platform for workers, shorten deck span, and reduce girder weight. However, these features made the top flange more susceptible to damage during deck removal operations, which will be inevitably encountered soon as several bridges will require re-decking for structural and functional reasons in the near future. Therefore, there is an urgent need nationwide to determine the optimal deck removal method(s), with respect to their impact on girder top flange and shear connectors. These methods also need to be evaluated considering cost, time, noise, safety, and environmental criteria to ensure rapid construction, sustainability, optimal use of federal funds, and safety of workers and traveling public. The main objective of this project is to identify the deck removal method that is optimal for use in precast/prestressed concrete I-girder bridges, which represent over 50% of the bridges constructed in the last few decades. These methods include, but are not limited to: saw cutting, jackhammering, hydro-blasting, and combinations. The Eastbound of Camp Creek Bridge in Lancaster County, Nebraska, is scheduled for demolition in Fall 2012. The planned deck removal methods will be applied to this bridge. After deck removal, several girders will be inspected for damage, repaired, re-decked, and tested at the structural laboratory to evaluate their residual flexural and shear capacities.
KW  - Bridge construction
KW  - Bridge decks
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Construction management
KW  - Girders
KW  - I-girders
KW  - Prestressed concrete bridges
KW  - Removal (Structures)
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=408
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251928
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483151
TI  - Development of a Guide for Prioritization of Railway Bridges for Repair and Replacement
AB  - The objective of this study is to develop a guide for evaluation and prioritization of repair, rehabilitation and replacement for existing railway bridges. The research project will involve review and analysis of the major factors that influence structural performance, e.g., degree of corrosion, loss of material (section loss, holes), cracking and spalling of concrete, bearing problems, loose connections, traffic volume (number of cars/trains and tonnage), and bridge importance for the railroad network.  However, these factors are random in nature; therefore, it is convenient to consider reliability as a measure of performance. The relationship between various conditions and ability to perform the required function (i.e., carry the freight trains) will be established in form of limit state function(s). The statistical parameters will be determined for each factor using the available data, by Monte Carlo simulations and, if needed, also by the so-called Delphi process. The reliability as a measure of structural performance will be expressed in terms of a reliability index. Reliability indices will be calculated for selected representative railway bridges, and based on the results, a target reliability index will be selected. The sensitivity analysis will be performed to establish the relationship between the load and resistance factors and reliability, to be presented in the form of graphs and tables. The results will serve as a basis for the development of a decision-making spreadsheet. The final report will document research and provide a tool for bridge owners for prioritization of structures for repair/rehabilitation or replacement.
KW  - Bridge repair
KW  - Bridge replacement
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Railroad bridges
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Structural analysis
KW  - Structural performance
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=448
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251927
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483150
TI  - Distracted Highway Users at Highway-rail Grade Crossings
AB  - The objective of this research is to assess the incidences of distracted drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists at highway-rail grade crossings, using data collected in the field and provide guidance on countermeasure strategies. Distractions for highway users have increased over the past decade, due to the widespread availability of electronic gadgets that allow owners to listen to music, talk, text, and use the Internet while on the road. Significant research emphasis has been on distracted drivers; however, pedestrians and bicyclists are also susceptible, especially at highway-rail grade crossings where mistakes could easily result in fatalities. A total of 2,397 highway-rail grade crossing collisions were reported in 2008, resulting in 286 deaths and more than 900 injuries. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) statistics show that in 78 of these vehicle-train collisions, the cause was listed as "highway user inattentiveness," resulting in 14 deaths and 117 injuries. Other FRA statistics show that in 488 grade crossing crashes, vehicles ran into trains already present at the crossings. Of those crashes, more than 60% were at crossings equipped with either gates or flashing lights, while just over 33% occurred at crossings with either stop or crossbuck signs. Although these crashes may have multiple causes, distracted driving appears to be a contributing factor. A highway-rail crossing located in Fremont, NE will be studied for distracted drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists by using observers in the field and a video recording system. Additional data will be gathered by surveying a sample of the grade crossing users. This location already has the needed electric power, while a new camera and digital video recorder will be installed. Collected data will be analyzed for instances of distracted usage of the crossing by drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The results will provide information for the development of an informed strategy on reducing distracted usage of grade crossings.
KW  - Crash analysis
KW  - Cyclists
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Distracted drivers
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Portable electronic devices
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Travelers
KW  - Vehicle-train accidents
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=417
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251926
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483149
TI  - Alternative Funding Mechanisms for State Transportation Systems in Predominantly Rural States
AB  - The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies has identified a number of research needs related to alternative transportation finance systems. Alternatives are needed because motor fuels taxes are proving to be insufficient to fund operation and maintenance costs of the transportation system. The long-term trend is likely to be continuing use of motor fuel taxes, supplemented by, or transitioning to, use-based fees. Current research in progress in this area is focused on designing variable fees that will internalize congestion externalities in urban areas. These approaches are particularly well suited to highly urbanized areas, but other approaches may be required for predominantly rural states. One possible approach is to implement an optimal two-part tariff, which incorporates a flat fee with a variable charge. Such a two-part tariff is an efficient solution in markets with increasing returns to scale and falling long-run average cost curves. Efficiency requires pricing at the marginal cost of travel, and given low marginal costs in rural areas (with limited congestion), a flat fee is needed in combination with the variable charge, in order to make the financing mechanism sustainable. The current transportation funding system already includes flat fees (licensing and registration fees) and variable fees (gasoline and diesel taxes). The researchers' approach is to consider alternative configurations of these two existing mechanisms, which in combination may be capable of mimicking an optimal two-part tariff. The research will be carried out utilizing data from the state of Nebraska on licensing and registration fees and taxes by type of vehicle, motor fuels tax revenues by source, and data on average annual daily travel (AADT), as well as engineering estimates of road maintenance costs associated with automobile and truck travel.
KW  - Alternative financing
KW  - Fees
KW  - Financing
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Tariffs
KW  - Transportation system management
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=419
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251925
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483148
TI  - Dilemma Zone Protection on High-Speed Arterials
AB  - Driver behavior within the dilemma zone can be a major safety concern at high-speed signalized intersections, especially for heavy trucks.  The Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) has developed and implemented an actuated advance warning dilemma zone protection system.  The system continually monitors traffic at an upstream detector as well as at stop line detectors to predict the onset of the yellow indication and provides information to drivers (via flashing signal heads and a warning sign) regarding whether they should be prepared to stop as they approach a traffic signal. The system has been documented as being effective at improving traffic safety at isolated signalized intersections where the controller operates in the fully actuated mode. NDOR is currently considering the feasibility of deploying these devices on its coordinated arterials.  One objective of this research is to develop a traffic microsimulation procedure for testing the feasibility of deploying the NDOR actuated advance warning system on coordinated arterials.  The calibrated traffic microsimulation model will be used to test potential locations of the upstream detector, durations of the lead flash (amount of advance warning time provided to drivers before the green ends), and the maximum allowable headway at the upstream detector location.  This will help establish the sets of design parameters for which the system will be beneficial on coordinated arterials.  The findings will be used to develop guidelines for the application of the actuated advance warning system so that NDOR can make more informed decisions about where to deploy the system.
KW  - Arterial highways
KW  - Dilemma zone
KW  - High speed intersections
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=421
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251924
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483147
TI  - Safety Performance Evaluation of Posts for Use in a New Short Radius Guardrail for Intersecting Roadways
AB  - Guardrail systems used along roadways are intended to redirect impacting vehicle or in the case of short-radius guardrail, capture the vehicle at certain impact points. Kinetic energy is dissipated during any impact event through the deformation of the rail and posts and post rotation through the soil. This dissipated energy reduces the risk of injury to the vehicle's occupants. Previous development of a short radius system has shown significant improvement over the existing NCHRP 230-compliant system. Unfortunately, the system length and backside space requirements made the system impractical to use in most real-world applications. In addition, any necessary improvements to help the system meet the current safety performance criteria would only further increase the system length. Therefore, a need exists to develop a new barrier system that can be used near intersecting roadways, driveways, and streets that would meet the MASH TL-3 safety performance criteria. The current project of developing an impact attenuation system (short radius system) for intersection roadways has funding to conduct background research on previous short-radius designs and for concept development. However, further research is needed to evaluate different post sizes and types that could potentially be utilized during concept development. Therefore, this project seeks to supplement the concept development of a new short-radius system for intersecting roadways.
KW  - Barriers (Roads)
KW  - Guardrails
KW  - Impact tests
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Posts
KW  - Radius
KW  - Safety performance
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=426
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251923
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483146
TI  - Investigation, Dynamic Testing, and Evaluation of Guardrail Posts for Use in Transitions between Temporary Concrete Barrier and Guardrail
AB  - Temporary concrete barriers (TCBs) are connected and transitioned to many types of barriers. Unfortunately, the only transitions previously developed have been between TCBs and safety shaped concrete barriers and TCBs and permanent concrete median barriers. Transitions between TCBs and other common barrier types, such as guardrail, have typically not been full-scale crash tested and may pose a serious hazard to motorists during an impact. The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) has an existing project that consists of developing a transition between TCBs and the Midwest Guardrail System (MGS).  That project has funding to identify and quantify the most pressing TCB to guardrail transition needs and for concept development with LS-DYNA computer simulation. However, further research is needed to evaluate the performance of typical post types and sizes that could potentially be utilized during the concept development. Therefore, this project seeks to supplement the concept development and simulation of transitions between TCBs and the MGS through dynamic post testing.
KW  - Concrete barriers
KW  - Guardrail transition sections
KW  - Guardrails
KW  - Impact tests
KW  - LS-DYNA (Computer program)
KW  - Median barriers
KW  - Midwest Guardrail System
KW  - Posts
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=429
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251922
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483145
TI  - Development of Shaker Test as a Standardized Test Protocol for Deicing Chemicals Evaluation
AB  - During a research project previously funded by Mid-America Transportation Center ( MATC), a simple and economical test using a martini shaker for ice melting capacity evaluation showed good potential in becoming a standardized test.  The development of the shaker test was prompted by the inconsistent results from the SHRP ice melting capacity test.  Further, there is a general interest within the winter maintenance community (e.g., Clear Roads and TRB Committee AHD65) to further develop the shaker test into a deicing chemicals test protocol.  A number of parameters of the testing procedure need to be precisely specified to ensure repeatability and consistency, and then expanded to cover common weather and roadway conditions.  The automated vehicle location (AVL) and the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) systems installed on some of the plow trucks by the Nebraska Department of Roads (NDOR) worked very well the first time in winter 2010 at recording vehicle locations and weather data.  However, some essential data regarding the deicer type, application rate of deicer, and dispensing equipment used during an event were incomplete.  The MDSS information and field data are crucial for correlation analyses with shaker test data.  The information gathered from winters 2010 through 2012 from this project will provide an adequate database with statistical significance for correlation studies. The findings will be used to develop guidelines for efficient winter roadways maintenance operations involving the use of deicing chemicals.  Guidelines for best practices under various weather and roadway conditions will improve snow removal operations and to provide adequate level of service and safety to the general public on the U.S. surface transportation system.
KW  - Automatic vehicle location
KW  - Deicing chemicals
KW  - Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
KW  - Nebraska
KW  - Snow removal
KW  - Weather conditions
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=435
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251921
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483144
TI  - Development of a Vacuum-Filtration-Based Method for Rapid Measurement of Total Suspended Solids in Stormwater Runoff from Construction and Development Sites
AB  - Stormwater discharges from construction and dewatering sites can carry large sediment loads resulting in highly turbid water. The Environmental Protection Agency established a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for construction-related runoff (i.e., turbidity < 280 NTU) in 2009. However, this limit has subsequently been removed pending further review. On the other hand, many states have issued NPDES permits with total suspended solids (TSS) limits (e.g., Nebraska requires TSS &amp;#8804; 90 mg/L). Since standard TSS measurement requires a time-consuming laboratory procedure, it is imperative to develop a method for rapid, cost-effective, and reliable measurement of TSS in the field. The goal of this research is to develop a vacuum-filtration based method for rapid measurement of TSS in stormwater runoff from construction and dewatering sites. The specific objectives (&amp; tasks) are to:  (1) Make a vacuum-filtration system for rapid TSS measurement. The system will consist of: (a.) a pipette tip filled with a layer of glass fiber to retain suspended solids (particles > 2 &amp;#956;m) but allow dissolved solids (particles < 2 &amp;#956;m) and water to pass through. (b,) An electronic repeating pipette. It can produce a repeatable vacuum so that the sample volume passing through the glass filter will only depend on the properties of the sample (e.g., TSS). (2) Test the system for artificial and real stormwater runoff to establish the method. Artificial runoff will be made up of silt, clays, and sand of different combinations. Real stormwater will be sampled from several construction sites. The project will establish calibration curves of TSS vs. the passed water for different runoff mixtures. The performance, statistics, and cost effectiveness of the method will be evaluated. The research is a significant, initial step in tracking TSS in the field.  The method should be rapid, cost-effective, reliable and easily commercialized.
KW  - Construction sites
KW  - Cost effectiveness
KW  - Filtration
KW  - Measurement
KW  - National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
KW  - Runoff
KW  - Total suspended solids
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=430
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251920
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483143
TI  - Smart City Lincoln: Safe Intersections and Intelligent Enforcement
AB  - Red light running and resulting crashes levies a significant cost on the general public. In 2006, there were 171,000 crashes, 144,000 injuries and 887 fatalities attributed to red light running in the United States (Source: the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). The total social cost of these crashes exceeds $ 14 billion per year. "Research suggests that intentional red&amp;#8208;light runners, who account for a significant percentage of red&amp;#8208;light runners, are most affected by enforcement countermeasures" (Source: FHWA Intersection Safety Issue Briefs, 2004). Currently crash data and public complaints are used to select the enforcement locations. These approaches are very simplistic and lack enough resolution to identify the target location along with the time of deployment. This research will develop a systematic approach using the available data resources, like crash history and complaint logs, which can be augmented with the data obtained from existing video based stop bar sensors at several city intersections. Based on a discussions with the Lincoln Public Works Department (Scott Opfer, Virendra Singh) and the Lincoln Police Department (Capt. Joy Cita), such an approach will be very useful in maximizing the societal benefits achieved under constrained enforcement resources. This research will also study the impact of one other counter measure like confirmation light on a few selected intersections. This project is part of a collaborative effort from multiple universities and a unified final report will be submitted at the end of this project.
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Crashes
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Lincoln (Nebraska)
KW  - Red light running
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
KW  - Traffic safety
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=434
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251919
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483142
TI  - Integration of Human-in-the-Loop Driving Simulator with Microscopic Traffic Simulation
AB  - Driving simulator and microscopic traffic simulation are two important tools in transportation research. The former is used to study individual driver behaviors by placing human subjects in a realistic driving environment. The latter is used for traffic analysis by modeling individual vehicles and their interaction. Micro-simulation models provide realistic traffic patterns in terms of density and headway, which is something that the driving simulator lacks in its virtual environment. At the same time, micro-simulation models lack the human-in-the-loop aspect which a driving simulator could provide. This project will integrate the widely used VISSIM micro-simulation software into the equally popular NADS MiniSim™ driving simulator to create a human-in-the-loop driving environment with realistic traffic patterns. The two systems are intrinsically compatible since both use agent-based modeling to simulate individual vehicles. This project will be carried out in coordination with Iowa State University, whose study on work zone and vehicle emission modeling will use the integrated MiniSim-VISSIM system, and who will provide design input from the aspect of expert users of microscopic traffic simulation models. The output of this research will be improved traffic scenarios in the MiniSim software which will benefit all users of this system, including Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) members University of Iowa and Iowa State University. Future applications of this capability include conducting human factors studies on impact of fuel economy displays on throttle usage and then using that behavioral data to conduct micro-simulations in VISSIM to assess impacts on vehicle emission and air quality.
KW  - Air quality
KW  - Driving simulators
KW  - Headways
KW  - Human in the loop simulation
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Traffic density
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - VISSIM (Computer model)
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=400
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251918
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483141
TI  - Towards Autonomous Vehicles
AB  - From the self-driving Google car to plain old cruise control, automation in vehicles is an important issue.  The aim of this project is to document the state-of-the-art autonomous vehicles for use in the United States transportation sector, specifically on U.S. roads and highways. A literature survey will be conducted that spans several intersecting fields, including artificial intelligence, robotics, mechatronics, military unmanned vehicles, intelligent transportation systems, and human factors. Many factors influence the adoption of autonomous transportation systems, including the pace of evolving technology, trust in automation, infrastructure demands, and the regulatory landscape.  These themes will be woven into the report as they are critical pieces of the story of automation. Of particular interest is the cycle of innovation, development, government/military deployment, technology transfer, commercialization, and regulation that iteratively advance the state of the art in a field such as automation. One such example of a cycle of automation advancement started with a call for innovation from DARPA in the form of a Grand Challenge, and later an Urban Grand Challenge for the development of unmanned autonomous ground vehicles.  This resulted in a flurry of innovation and technology for the military.  It has also borne technology transfer fruit leading directly to the development of the Google car.  This cycle is continuing with the creation of a new office in the United States Department of Transportation on automation and cybersecurity that may result in regulations for autonomous vehicles even as it spawns new topics of research.  The researchers plan to lay out the trajectories of component technologies and other contributing factors in the development and adoption of automated transportation systems. A desired outcome of this research is that the final report may be used as a guide to select future research topics in the short-, mid-, and long-term on this important topic.
KW  - Artificial intelligence
KW  - Automation
KW  - Autonomous land vehicles
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - State of the art
KW  - Technology transfer
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=405
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251917
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483140
TI  - Developing and Refining Sustainability Tools for Winter Maintenance Operations
AB  - Sustainability in transportation requires that the three "pillars" of societal needs, environmental protection and economic costs and benefits, should be balanced. Yet, the tools currently available deal only peripherally with transportation operations and maintenance, and with winter maintenance in particular. It is planned to further develop a checklist tool that exists in preliminary form by working with winter maintenance professionals from states, cities and counties to determine how best to refine the existing tool in a variety of areas. The deliverables of this project will be a refined winter maintenance sustainability checklist tool, and the final report detailing the findings of the study.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Checklists
KW  - Environmental protection
KW  - Maintenance practices
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Winter maintenance
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=422
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251916
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483139
TI  - Mobility and Accessibility of Hispanics in Small Town and Rural Areas
AB  - The Hispanic population is rapidly increasing in the U.S., particularly in non-metropolitan counties in the Midwest and South, including Iowa. The status of non-metropolitan Hispanics raises concerns about their accessibility because of the low-density built environment and socioeconomic factors that may reduce their mobility. Hispanic people in rural areas generally have lower income than non-Hispanic whites, and they also face language barriers in receiving public assistance. This project examines mobility and accessibility difficulties that Hispanic population in small town and rural area are facing, using several manufacturing areas in Iowa as examples. Specifically, the researcher will conduct mail-in surveys and telephone follow-up interviews on Hispanic population around four towns in Iowa: Marshalltown, Columbus Junction, West Liberty, and Carroll. The survey will examine who in the Hispanic community suffers from mobility limitation and how much informal mobility support is provided within the community. The survey will also investigate barriers the Hispanic population faces in using public transit service or public fund for transportation. After the survey, the principal investigator will follow up with telephone interviews to identify more detailed travel diary data to specify the needs for transportation services. All of the processes will be planned and conducted with a Spanish-speaking research assistant hired using grant funds. From literature and preliminary interviews, it is expected that Hispanic families have difficulty in getting access to goods and services for their daily needs. Since the proportion of senior citizens is small in these Hispanic communities, the main source of troubles would likely be scheduling vehicle usage between commuting and discretionary trips, particularly related to children. The final product of this project will be a quantitative analysis of the survey result to illustrate mobility and accessibility of rural Hispanics, and a qualitative analysis of their barriers in using public transportation services.
KW  - Accessibility
KW  - Hispanics
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Mobility
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Rural areas
KW  - Socioeconomic factors
KW  - Surveys
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=423
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251915
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483138
TI  - Investigation of Synergistic Effects of Warm Mix Asphalt and High Fractionated Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement for Safe, Environmentally Sustainable Highway
AB  - Increasingly, warm mix asphalt (WMA) pavements are being constructed with reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) contents. Currently, 10-20% of RAP materials are commonly used for WMA.  In the future, it is anticipated that more highway pavements will be constructed using WMA with high fractionated reclaimed asphalt pavement contents (WMA-HiFrap).  However, there is no comprehensive research done to identify the synergistic effects between WMA and high fractionated RAP;  therefore, it is critical to determine the relationships between the fundamental characteristics of WMA-HiFrap materials as a function of the increasing FRAP content up to 100%.  In the project, WMA with varying HiFrap contents will be evaluated with respect to their fractionation methods, WMA-HiFrap mix design procedures, dynamic moduli and flow number and rutting characteristics. As a result of this research, the synergistic effects between WMA and RAP will be identified to help pavement engineers build a safe and environmentally sustainable U.S. surface transportation system with an improved state of good repair.
KW  - Dynamic modulus of elasticity
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Reclaimed asphalt pavements
KW  - Rutting
KW  - Warm mix paving mixtures
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=433
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251914
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483135
TI  - Improving Fire Safety: Modifying Droplet Behavior to Minimize Ignition
AB  - Recent analysis of Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) truck crash data shows that fatalities are ten times more likely to occur during a crash if there is a fire present.  This highlights the need for technology that can mitigate or eliminate these crash fires.  One such methodology is to add a polymer additive to the fuel to modify its splashing and misting characteristics.  Reduction of fuel splashing and misting greatly reduces the likelihood of a fire.  Three years of Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) and DOT support has led to the development of a computer modeling method that can predict droplet splashing and mist formation.  The goal of this project would bring that work to fruition by computationally testing all of the crash conditions of interest and then transferring the results to industry and academia where the appropriate polymers could be developed. One of the recent issues for the state of Iowa is the increased number of pure ethanol shipments between producers and blending facilities, greatly increasing the accident risk and precipitating a warning from the US DOT on vehicle-related ethanol fires. The methods planned for this project would reduce this risk.
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Fires
KW  - Fuel additives
KW  - Polymers
KW  - Splashing
KW  - Truck crashes
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=395
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251911
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483126
TI  - Evaluation of Bonding Agent Application on Concrete Patch Performance
AB  - Concrete patching is a commonly used infrastructure preservation and repair technique. Patches are used frequently in the U.S. Midwest to repair areas of concrete freezing and thawing joint distress. The repair patches usually fail first at the interface between old and new concrete. Bonding agents such as cementitious grout or epoxy are often specified to enhance the bond.  There is concern that these bonding agents may be more sensitive to environmental and construction practices than previously thought and that these bonding agents may actually give poor performance in the field. This project will establish the sensitivity of bonding agent performance to environmental and construction practices, and provides recommendations for achieving optimum performance. This will be accomplished by testing the repair bond to concrete for cementitious and epoxy bonding agents subject to different drying times.  The repair will be also cycled through five temperature cycles before testing the bond using the guillotine test. Field trials will also be used to confirm the material sensitivity determined through the laboratory testing.
KW  - Bonding
KW  - Concrete
KW  - Construction management
KW  - Epoxides
KW  - Freeze thaw durability
KW  - Patching
KW  - Repairing
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=428
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251902
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01483120
TI  - Splice Performance Evaluation of Enamel-Coated Rebar for Structural Safety
AB  - This project is aimed at further understanding of the splice mechanism and capacity of enamel-coated rebar in concrete beams. The objective is achieved by further analyzing the test data collected under the recently-completed MTI/MoDOT Collaborative Structures Research Program and testing additional 12 reinforced concrete beams for comparison. Additional documentation on the splice performance of enamel-coated rebar from this study will allow the principal investigator to make a strong case for potential deployment of the enamel coating technology in various state departments of transportation.
KW  - Beams
KW  - Coatings
KW  - Enamels
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Reinforcing bars
KW  - Splice plates
KW  - Structural analysis
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/research/research_projects.php?researchID=431
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251896
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481777
TI  - Improving Freight Fire Safety: Modifying Droplet Behavior to Minimize Ignition
AB  - Recent Analysis of Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) truck crash data shows that fatalities are 10 times more likely to occur during a crash if there is a fire present.  This highlights the need for technology that can mitigate or eliminate these crash fires.  One such methodology is to add a polymer additive to the fuel to modify its splashing and misting characteristics.  Reduction of fuel splashing and misting greatly reduces the likelihood of a fire.  Three years of Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC)-DOT support has led to the development of a computer modeling method that can predict droplet splashing and mist formation.  The goal of this project would bring that work to fruition by computationally testing all of the crash conditions of interest and then transferring the results to industry and academia where the appropriate polymers could be developed. One of the recent issues for the state of Iowa is the increased number of pure Ethanol shipments between producers and blending facilities, greatly increasing the accident risk and precipitating a warning from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) on vehicle-related ethanol fires. The methods proposed here would reduce this risk.
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Ethanol
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Fire resistant coatings
KW  - Fuel additives
KW  - Fuel droplets
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Truck crashes
KW  - Vehicle fires
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250958
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481677
TI  - Evaluation of Thermal Integrity Profiling for Deep Foundations
AB  - Assessing the structural integrity of bridge foundations is critical to ensuring the safety of the traveling public. However, nondestructive methods currently used in practice to determine the quality of drilled shaft foundations are severely limited by their inability to provide full coverage of the foundation cross-section, particularly in the critically important region outside of the rebar cage. The goal of the project is to evaluate the accuracy of a new Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) technique for quality assurance of deep foundations. The TIP method utilizes infrared thermal probes lowered into access pipes, which are cast into the foundation to measure the heat of hydration of curing concrete. Previous studies demonstrated that the technique can detect loss of concrete cover outside the rebar cage, as well as internal flaws such as cracking or voids. However, the studies did not assess the accuracy of the technique for indicating the specific location and extent of flaws. The research project is a collaborative effort between Iowa State University (ISU) and the Iowa Department of Transportation to evaluate the accuracy of the TIP method. A full-scale test shaft will be constructed with voids at predetermined locations. Measurements of shaft integrity will be compared for the new TIP method and the cross-hole sonic logging (CSL) method, which is currently the most commonly used quality assurance tool for drilled shafts. The ability and accuracy of the two techniques to detect the specific locations, size, and general shape of the known shaft defects will then be assessed. It is anticipated that the thermal integrity profiling will provide cost savings to state Departments of Transportation as a more economical alternative to CSL testing, or as a screening tool to identify which shafts should be further analyzed by CSL specialists.
KW  - Bridge foundations
KW  - Cracking
KW  - Crosshole sonic logging
KW  - Deep foundations
KW  - Heat of hydration
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Probes (Measuring devices)
KW  - Quality assurance
KW  - Structural integrity
KW  - Thermal integrity profiling
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250790
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01470216
TI  - Enhancing NDOT's Traffic Safety Programs - Developing Nevada Specific Safety Performance Functions, Crash Reduction Factors, and Before-After Study Procedures
AB  - The release of the first-edition Highway Safety Manual (HSM) includes comprehensive and well-established procedures for conducting various traffic safety analyses. Incorporating these procedures into the Nevada Department of Transportation's (NDOT's) traffic safety program is essential for making cost-effective recommendations on safety improvement projects.  Several critical issues have been identified within NDOT's current safety programs: (1) most HSM procedures are new to NDOT's safety engineers, thus timely staff training is necessary; (2) the HSM does not provide Nevada-specific Safety Performance Functions (SPF) and Crash Modification Factors (CMF); (3) the HSM procedures are data-extensive, and identification of the data needs in Nevada is critical; (4) there are multiple procedures that can be applied to a study; however, a clear recommendation on which procedure should be used is not defined in the HSM to meet NDOT's needs; (5) most procedures deal with large amount of data, and in most cases the analyses can only be carried out by using software tools.        The objective of this research is to identify areas of critical needs for incorporating the HSM procedures into NDOT's traffic safety programs. These critical needs include development of Nevada-specific SPFs, CMFs, and before-after study procedures.
KW  - Crash data
KW  - Crash modification factors
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Nevada
KW  - Safety Performance Functions
KW  - Traffic safety
KW  - Training
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1238382
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01466650
TI  - Making Freight-Centric Communities More Livable: Measuring the Impact of Advanced Technologies
AB  - Communities that attract or retain industrial viability are considered less livable, but reducing, limiting, or mitigating freight operations have direct, measurable economic impacts. This research will measure benefits of advanced technologies and practices to safely blend freight with passenger, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic including Safe Routes to School.  These technologies could mitigate a community's safety, noise, and environmental concerns and accelerate implementation of improved practices. This research involves scenario-based analyses to evaluate quantifiable livability benefits of adopting these technologies. Advanced technologies such as intelligent transportation system ( ITS), intersection management, dynamic mobility, dynamic route guidance, and optimization will be reviewed for application suitability. As a case study, a selected subset of advanced ITS technologies will be applied in the Memphis area and evaluated for their sustainability, cost effectiveness, transferability to other regions, and safety impacts. National Center for Freight &amp; Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE) partner institutions bring different research experiences and strengths that coalesce in the proposed research including cutting-edge modeling approaches in simulating the behavior of many elements of the freight transportation system, designing ITS travel information systems, and using geographic information systems (GIS) and related information technologies. Additionally, the Federal Highway Administration has shown a strong interest in using Memphis as a test bed for evaluating the application of advanced technologies to improve the efficiency of freight movement in an urban environment.
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Geographic information systems
KW  - Livable communities
KW  - Memphis (Tennessee)
KW  - Mode choice
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traveler information and communication systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1234885
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01466649
TI  - Mining Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) Data for Improved Vessel Trip Analysis Capabilities
AB  - The objective of this project is to develop a means to archive, analyze, and disseminate automatic identification system (AIS) data. There are two components of the research: an inland rivers component (Paducah, KY and Reserve, LA) and a Great Lakes component. Researchers at Vanderbilt University, the University of Toledo and the University of Wisconsin-Superior are collaborating to find the best practices of using similar freight global positioning system (GPS) data, detect vessel events (arrivals, departures, lockages, etc.), archive the data for subsequent ad-hoc access, perform statistical performance analysis, relate the data to other publicly available data sets, and other tasks.
KW  - Automatic identification systems
KW  - Best practices
KW  - Global Positioning System
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Inland waterways
KW  - Locks (Waterways)
KW  - Statistical analysis
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/research/projects/ri-04/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1234884
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449534
AU  - Spiller, David
AU  - Mejias, Luis
AU  - Duffy, Catherine
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - National Park Service
TI  - Weir Farm National Historic Site: Alternative Transportation Feasibility Study
PY  - 2012/07/01/Final Report
SP  - 88p
AB  - This report provides an assessment of the feasibility of alternative transportation options to accommodate visitation at Weir Farm National Historic Site in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Weir Farm, the historic home of artist J. Alden Weir, faces numerous challenges, particularly parking constraints in a residential neighborhood. Accommodating more visitors in private cars will come at a high cost with regard to the landscape and its viewshed, in addition to the strain on narrow, local roads. This feasibility study considers alternatives to parking expansion, namely a parking reservation system and transit. Transit emerges as the transportation alternative most suitable at Weir Farm.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - National parks
KW  - Parking facilities
KW  - Parking reservation systems
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Residential areas
KW  - Transportation planning
KW  - Weir Farm National Historic Site
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45900/45932/DOT-VNTSC-NPS-12-10.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216161
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446004
AU  - Deutschman, Harold
AU  - New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark
AU  - University Transportation Research Center
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Value Pricing and Traffic Reduction Incentives
PY  - 2012/07/01/Final Report
SP  - 24p
AB  - As traffic congestion grows in cities and suburban areas throughout the United States, the cost of traveling is directly affected and increased. A new concept for combating congestion is the idea of Value Pricing, also known as congestion pricing. The Value Pricing theory involves altering the pricing of transportation facilities, so that it can lead to improved service for transportation users, leading to a more productive use of existing transportation capacities. The problem often faced in value pricing experiments is an increase in congestion on the remaining “slow lanes”. Monetary traffic reduction incentives will solve this problem. A portion of the money generated by value lane users will be used to fund an off-peak incentive program. Daily drivers of the slow lanes will be offered a monthly reward to ensure that their daily commute occurs before or after peak hours. If administrated properly, peak hour volume will decrease in the slow lanes to a manageable size, and highway efficiency will increase as user costs accumulated by lost time are reduced. This program may be monitored by EZ-Pass to ensure driver cooperation. This research examines through a hypothetical example, the effects on congestion in the slow lanes when additional toll revenues (Value Pricing) are combined with Peak Traffic Reduction (Incentives). This methodology is designed to use incentives to change the time/travel patterns of a portion of the highway users, while greatly reducing congestion.
KW  - Congestion management systems
KW  - Congestion pricing
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Incentives
KW  - Off peak periods
KW  - Peak hour traffic
KW  - Road pricing
KW  - Tolls
KW  - Traffic congestion
UR  - http://utrc2.org/research/assets/228/FinalReport-Value-Pricing1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212462
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01518997
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Aviation Administration
TI  - Tone-Corrected Metrics for Pre-2005 INM Helicopters
PY  - 2012/07
SP  - 4p
AB  - Of the 21 Helicopters represented in Integrated Noise Model (INM) 7.0b, only five include the tone-corrected metrics. The calculation of these metrics involves the analysis of 1/3 octave-band data obtained during the source data measurement process, and requires sound-pressure levels at all measured frequency bands (50-10,000 Hz) for the duration of the aircraft event. A census of data availability was undertaken for helicopters currently in the INM, to determine whether available source data were sufficient to reprocess and calculate the tone-corrected metrics.
KW  - Aircraft noise
KW  - Effective sound pressure
KW  - Helicopters
KW  - INM (Integrated Noise Model)
KW  - Metrics (Quantitative assessment)
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/51000/51000/51024/DOT-VNTSC-FAA-14-04.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1302149
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486647
AU  - Ordonez, Fernando
AU  - Dessouky, Maged M
AU  - Wang, Chen
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - New Approach for Routing Carrier Delivery Services with Urgent Demand
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 81p
AB  - Courier delivery services deal with the problem of routing a fleet of vehicles from a depot to service a set of customers that are geographically dispersed. In many cases, in addition to a regular uncertain demand, the industry is faced with sporadic, tightly constrained, urgent requests. An example of such application is the transportation of medical specimens, where timely, efficient, and accurate delivery is crucial in providing high quality and affordable patient services. In this work we propose to develop better vehicle routing solutions that can efficiently satisfy random demand over time and rapidly adjust to satisfy these sporadic, tightly constrained, urgent requests. We formulate a multi-trip vehicle routing problem using mixed integer programming. We devise an insertion based heuristic in the first phase, and use stochastic programming with recourse for daily plans to address the uncertainty in customer occurrence. The resource action for daily plans, considers a multi-objective function that maximizes demand coverage, maximizes the quality of delivery service, and minimizes travel cost. Because of the computational difficulty for large size problems, Tabu Search has been used to find an efficient solution to the problem. Simulations have been done on randomly generated data and on a real data set provided by a leading healthcare provider in Southern California. Our approach has shown significant improvement in travel costs as well as in quality of service as measured by route similarity than existing methods.
KW  - Delivery service
KW  - Demand
KW  - Heuristic methods
KW  - Mixed integer programming
KW  - Routing
KW  - Travel costs
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/sites/default/files/research-project/11-10_Ordonez_final_0_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225412
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486645
AU  - Shehab, Tariq
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Cost Estimating Model for Sustainable Rehabilitation of Road Projects
PY  - 2012/07
SP  - 10p
AB  - There are about 3,000,000 miles and 50,000 miles of paved roads and highways  in the US, respectively. Many of these roads and highways have approached the end of their design life and are considered to be in poor conditions. To upgrade  these valuable infrastructure assets in a sustainable manner, state and federal  governments have suggested the use of the rubberized asphalt technology. The  use of this sustainable rehabilitation technique has been suggested to meet the current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own demands. This research develops a cost estimating system for the rubberized asphalt road rehabilitation projects. The proposed system uses information collected from 44 projects and applies neural networks for performing its task. It is believed to be a helpful tool that could be used in many road project  applications such as preparation of accurate budget estimates and life-cost analysis. It is also considered to be an efficient tool that could be used to manage financial resources in limited budget environments.
KW  - Asphalt rubber
KW  - Cost estimating
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Neural networks
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/sites/default/files/research-project/11-25_Shehab_final_0_0.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247843
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01486639
AU  - Psounis, Konstantinos
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - End-to-end Performance in Vehicular Networks with an Emphasis on Safety and Security Applications
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 32p
AB  - When designing wireless networks, one needs to consider the interdependence among nodes within interference range of each other. Tag spotting refers to a communication system which allows reliable control data transmission at signal-to-noise rations (SNR) values as low as 0 dB. Using real-world experiments on an OFDM system built with software radios, it is shown that data can be transmitted at the target SNR value of 0 dB with a 6% overhead. Simulations show how tag spotting can be used in implementing fair and efficient rate control and scheduling schemes in the context of wireless multi-hop networks, while pointing out that the idea of tag spotting is useful in the context of any wireless network in which control-plane information must travel beyond the communication range of a node.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Networks
KW  - Signal processing
KW  - Signal to noise ratio
KW  - Transmission errors and interference
KW  - Vehicular ad hoc networks (Computer networks)
KW  - Wireless communication systems
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/research/10-05-end-end-performance-vehicular-networks-emphasis-safety
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225415
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482791
AU  - Wheeler, Anthony R
AU  - University of Rhode Island Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Succession Planning in State Departments of Transportation
PY  - 2012/07
SP  - 27p
AB  - This project examines how state departments of transportation understand and implement the human resources management practice of succession planning. Past research examining succession planning in the public sector has identified numerous potential impediments that government agencies must overcome; however, little evidence exists documenting the degree to which these impediments impact state departments of transportation. As departments of transportation employ large numbers of in-demand engineers, some states have developed comprehensive succession plans to integrate recruitment, performance management, training, and retention practices. This project highlights two particular impediments – specific human resources management educational experiences of agency employees and the organizational culture of agencies on long-term workforce planning efforts – that agencies might consider rectifying.
KW  - Human resources management
KW  - Management and organization
KW  - Selection and appointment
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Turnover
UR  - http://www.uri.edu/library/faculty_publications/2013/lrs13.html
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251367
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01482569
AU  - Lee, Hosin
AU  - Glueckert, Thomas
AU  - Ahmed, Taha
AU  - University of Iowa, Iowa City
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Accelerated Testing of Warm Mix Asphalt for Safe and Reliable Freight Transportation
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 41p
AB  - This report presents a new organic warm mix asphalt (WMA) product that has been recently introduced to the U.S. market, which is Polyethylene (PE) Wax-based WMA additive with crystal controller to increase the low temperature cracking resistance and anti-stripping agent to enhance moisture susceptibility. The new PE Wax-based WMA mixtures with recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) materials were also tested using the Hamburg Wheel Tracking (HWT) device and the wheel passes were significantly higher with WMA mixtures with PG 64-28 binder, Minnesota aggregates and 25% RAP than the ones with 64-22 binder, Iowa aggregates and 10% RAP. The HWT test results seemed to be influenced by more on the characteristics of aggregates and RAP materials than the WMA additive. In-service roads in Iowa and Minnesota were successfully rehabilitated using the PE Wax-based WMA mixtures. The average void of 1.5-inch WMA overlay (9.0%) was higher than that of hot mix asphalt (HMA) overlay (7.0%) placed on an urban street in Iowa City. It was partly due to the asphalt temperature that was lowered to match the lower aggregate temperature. As a result, the aggregate temperature for WMA was also significantly lower than HMA. It is interesting to note, however, that the average air void of the cores obtained from the rehabilitation section of the same street using LEADCAP was 6.0%. On Minnesota’s state highway, the average air voids of four WMA and HMA cores for quality control were 5.85% and 5.29%, respectively, and those of four other WMA and HMA cores for quality assurance were 6.05% and 6.01%, respectively. The WMA pavements were easier to reach 94% density with fewer passes of a compactor than HMA. The LEADCAP WMA test section was constructed at the Accelerated Pavement Load Facility (APLF) at Ohio University. The maximum rut measurement was 0.30 and 0.34 inch under each of the loading duel tires. The most significant amount of rut developed after 5,000 repetitions.
KW  - Accelerated tests
KW  - Aggregates
KW  - Air voids
KW  - Antistrip additives
KW  - Bituminous overlays
KW  - Ethylene resins
KW  - Hamburg Wheel Tracking Device
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Reclaimed asphalt pavements
KW  - Recycled materials
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Rutting
KW  - Warm mix paving mixtures
KW  - Waxes
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1251180
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480997
AU  - Sharma, Anuj
AU  - Burnett, Nathaniel
AU  - Aria, Sepideh S
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - IntelliDrive Technology based Yellow Onset Decision Assistance System for Trucks
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 101p
AB  - Erroneous decisions by drivers to stop or go at the onset of yellow can lead to incidences of premature stopping or red light running, which in turn can cause severe rear end or right angle collisions. Because trucks or busses are relatively less maneuverable, and also have lower available acceleration rates, lower comfortable deceleration rates, and a higher line of sight than passenger vehicles, the risk of crashes is higher for trucks than other vehicles upon stop or go situations. Dilemma zone protection systems are used at high speed intersections to enhance safety; however, such systems are generally designed around the dilemma zone boundaries of cars, and are static, lacking the intelligence to adapt to existing traffic, weather, or visibility conditions. The current research examined the effect of information systems such as advance warning flashers (AWFs) on the probability of conflict at onset yellow at high-speed intersections. A probit modeling technique was used to establish dilemma zone boundaries. Based on dilemma zone boundaries, probability of perceived conflict curves were computed and compared against actual conflicts that were observed at each of the studied intersections. This information was used to generate a better understanding of the risks associated with the use of AWFs. Results demonstrated that the provision of stop/go information that was consistent with the actual duration of yellow reduced the variability of driver decision making and reduced the dilemma hazard. When no information was provided to drivers, the critical time threshold for stopping was very close to the actual duration of yellow. These findings implied that drivers were inclined to stop when the time to stop bar was greater than the duration of yellow, and were inclined to go when the time to the stop bar was less than the duration of yellow. This concept was used to develop a prototype Yellow Onset Driver Assistance (YODA) system, consisting of a pole-mounted unit (StreetWave) and an in-vehicle unit (MobiWave). The in-vehicle unit was designed to request decision assistance from the pole-mounted unit as a truck approaches an intersection; based on the time to the stop bar and the duration of yellow, the YODA system advises drivers on whether or not it is safe to proceed through the intersection.
KW  - Decision making
KW  - Dilemma zone
KW  - Driver support systems
KW  - Probits
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Stopping distances
KW  - Truck traffic
KW  - Yellow interval (Traffic signal cycle)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249575
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01480991
AU  - Sharma, Anuj
AU  - Burnett, Nathaniel P
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing the Risk of Crash for Trucks on Onset Yellow
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 69p
AB  - Each day, millions of signal changes to the yellow phase occur at isolated high speed intersections, when erroneous driver decisions to stop or go may often lead to a crash. Dilemma zone protection systems are typically used to control these intersections in order to ensure the safe and efficient movement of vehicles. However, traditional dilemma zone protection systems show deterioration in performance during medium to heavy traffic volume conditions, jeopardizing both the safety and efficiency of intersections. The performance of these control systems for heavy vehicles is even more greatly affected, as traditional dilemma zone boundaries were developed for passenger vehicles. Research conducted by the authors found that to have the same level of protection as passenger vehicles, heavy vehicles needed to be protected for twice as long. The traditional surrogate measure of safety, the dilemma zone, marks the region of risk at high speed intersections, but does not quantify the level of risk, which is essential from an economic framework. In the current study, an improved surrogate measure of safety, the dilemma hazard function, was developed by expanding the existing measure of safety, utilizing the concept of traffic conflict. The probability of traffic conflict defined the dilemma hazard function, which was used to quantify safety benefits for high speed intersections. A behavioral model was used to develop the dilemma hazard function for passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles using data collected at a typical high speed intersection site in Noblesville, Indiana. The advent of advanced wide area detector technology made it feasible to assume that the dilemma hazard function could be developed for each site, hence, barring the need for a search for a universal dilemma hazard function.
KW  - Crash risk forecasting
KW  - Dilemma zone
KW  - Heavy duty trucks
KW  - Indiana
KW  - Probability
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic conflicts
KW  - Traffic volume
KW  - Yellow interval (Traffic signal cycle)
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1249574
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01478089
AU  - Douma, Frank
AU  - Garry, Thomas
AU  - Simon, Stephen
AU  - University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - ITS Personal Data Needs: How Much Do We Really Need to Know?
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 78p
AB  - The recent spread of geolocation technology in intelligent transportation systems (ITS) raises difficult and important policy questions about locational privacy. However, much of the current public discussion on locational privacy and ITS appears at risk of becoming increasingly disconnected. In one camp are privacy advocates and others who oppose the spread of ITS locational technology on privacy grounds. In the other camp are technologists and the ITS industry who generally view privacy issues as a secondary matter. The net result is that the ITS privacy debate often involves two sides talking past each other, with too little energy spent on finding potential common ground. This disconnect in part results from a lack of basic clarity, on both sides, about just what the needs and interests of those involved in the ITS privacy issue are and how they relate to the betterment of the transportation system. This report sheds new light on the ITS privacy debate by identifying just who is involved in the ITS privacy problem and what their goals are with respect to privacy and ITS data. The analysis identifies the types of locational data and the methods for obtaining it that create privacy conflicts and, in turn, recommends general approaches for both policymakers and industry practitioners to better manage these conflicts. The report represents a first effort in mapping the interests of participants in the ITS privacy debate.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Laws
KW  - Policy making
KW  - Privacy
KW  - Regulations
KW  - Technological innovations
UR  - http://www.its.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2252
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1247236
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01475833
AU  - Rosenhand, Hadar
AU  - Roth, Emilie
AU  - Multer, Jordan
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - Cognitive and Collaborative Demands of Freight Conductor Activities: Results and Implications of a Cognitive Task Analysis
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 72p
AB  - This report presents the results of a cognitive task analysis (CTA) that examined the cognitive and collaborative demands placed on conductors, as well as the knowledge and skills that experienced conductors have developed that enable them to operate trains safely and efficiently. A secondary aim of the CTA was to understand the implications of the Rail Safety Improvement Act (RSIA) of 2008 regarding the role of the freight conductor, specifically the mandate for conductor certification and implementation of positive train control (PTC). Data were collected through a combination of field observations, phone interviews, and onsite focus group sessions with experienced conductors, locomotive engineers, trainers, and training managers. A primary finding is that conductors and locomotive engineers operate as a joint cognitive system (Woods and Hollnagel, 2006). They not only work together to monitor the operating environment outside the locomotive, they also collaborate in planning activities, problem solving, and identifying and mitigating potential risk. Although the present CTA does not directly address the issue of how new technologies, such as PTC, are likely to impact the role of conductors in the future, the CTA results do identify multiple ways in which conductors contribute to safe and efficient train operation. As new PTC technologies are introduced, it will be important to assess their impact on the various functions conductors perform in support of safe and efficient train operation, as specified in this report. The CTA also uncovered a variety of knowledge and skills that distinguish experienced conductors from less experienced ones. These findings suggest an opportunity to potentially accelerate building conductor expertise through more systematic training opportunities (both on the job and in locomotive cab simulators). The report concludes with open questions and future research needs as yet uncovered by the CTA.
KW  - Cognition
KW  - Conductors (Trains)
KW  - Cooperation
KW  - Locomotive engineers
KW  - Positive train control
KW  - Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008
KW  - Railroad safety
KW  - Train operation
KW  - Training
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46162/TR_Cognitive_Collaborative_Demands_Freight_Conductor_Activities_edited_FINAL_10_9_12.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1244518
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01473721
AU  - Wu, Xiaolong
AU  - Englert, Burkhard
AU  - California Department of Transportation
AU  - METRANS Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Multi-Layer Biometric System for the Port of Los Angeles
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 36p
AB  - The purpose of this project is to study and analyze the existing biometric technology, and propose a multi-layer biometric security system for one of the largest ports on the west coast of the United States, the port of Los Angeles in California. The multi-layer biometric security system contains a new mechanism against impersonation attack based on voice recognition, which will be protecting the port from any outside, unauthorized breach mainly that could be caused by a breach from the transportation medium personals. The multi-layer biometric security system will also create redundancy path in case of one technology is down or misused. The proposed system will mainly work on verification mode; however in case of a breach, it will automatically switch mode to identification mode to try to find a match of identity in the wanted or terrorist databases collected by the different government agencies.
KW  - Biometrics
KW  - Identification systems
KW  - Pattern recognition systems
KW  - Port of Los Angeles
KW  - Security
KW  - Terrorism
UR  - http://www.metrans.org/sites/default/files/research-project/Multimodal%20Biometric%20Models%2011-19.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223091
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01470009
AU  - Chen, Genda
AU  - Zhou, Zhi
AU  - Xiao, Hai
AU  - Huang, Ying
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pilot Study on Rugged Fiber Optic Brillouin Sensors for Large-Strain Measurements to Ensure the Safety of Transportation Structures
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 81p
AB  - Brillouin-scattering Optical Time Domain Reflectometry (BOTDR) is a viable technology for simultaneous, distributed strain and temperature measurements for miles-long transportation structures. It is a promising tool to ensure the smooth operation and safety of bridge structures that are key links in surface transportation networks or between various transportation modes, for example, from airport to train station. Currently, telecom-grade optical fibers are widely used in civil engineering for strain and temperature measurements. These fibers are very fragile and easy to break during installation and measurement. In order to understand the ultimate behavior of structures, more rugged optical fibers such as carbon/polyimide coated fibers were recently proposed. One laboratory study on two single fibers indicated that new carbon/polyimide coated fibers can sustain a maximum strain of up to 4%, which can survive any local crack in concrete members or buckling in steel members once they are installed on the structural members. This project aimed to characterize the ruggedness and signal loss of various packaged optical fibers and validate their performance as sensors. Among the tested optical fibers, bare single-mode fibers (SMF-28) with uncoated anchoring have the lowest shear strength and the lowest ultimate strain under tension, and are thus not suitable to apply in harsh environments. Polyimide-coated optical fibers have the highest shear strength and the highest ultimate strain under tension, making them the best candidate for civil infrastructure applications. Both glass fiber reinforcing polymer (GFRP) and carbon coated optical fibers are sufficiently rugged to be applied to civil infrastructure.
KW  - Bridges
KW  - Carbon fibers
KW  - Fiber optics
KW  - Glass fiber reinforced plastics
KW  - Optical fibers
KW  - Polymer fibers
KW  - Ruggedness
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Shear strength
KW  - Strain measurement
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46676/Chen_114_Pilot_Study_COMBINED_FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225947
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469992
AU  - Chen, Genda
AU  - Yan, Dongming
AU  - Wu, Chenglin
AU  - Leventis, Nicholas
AU  - Mahadik, Shruti
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Concrete Surface with Nano-Particle Additives for Improved Wearing Resistance to Increasing Truck Traffic
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 42p
AB  - This study focused on the use of nanotechnology in concrete to improve the wearing resistance of concrete. The nano materials used were polymer cross-linked aerogels, carbon nanotubes, and nano-silicon dioxide (SiO2), nano-calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and nano-aluminium oxide (Al2O3) particles. As an indirect measurement of the concrete wearing resistance, the tensile and compressive properties and the permeability of concrete were evaluated for various mix designs. The optimal amount of nano material additives were determined following the American Society of Testing Methods (ASTM) standard test methodologies. The test results from the materials were compared for their mechanical behaviors. This type of technology may potentially improve the comfort level of passengers, the safety of highway operations, and the efficiency of fuel consumptions. It may also reduce the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) associated with the poor condition of roadways.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Compression tests
KW  - Concrete pavements
KW  - Durability
KW  - Mechanical properties
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Nanostructured materials
KW  - Permeability
KW  - Tensile strength
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46677/FlippedPagesChen_441_Concrete_Surface_with_Nano_Particle_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225946
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469935
AU  - Mulinazzi, Thomas E
AU  - Schrock, Steven D
AU  - Fitzsimmons, Eric J
AU  - Rescot, Robert A
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Preliminary Appraisal of the Safety and Operational Effects on the Regional Transportation System Caused by New Rail-Truck Intermodal Facilities
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 135p
AB  - Potential for impacts to a small Kansas city were evaluated in light of a planned rail to truck intermodal facility. The city of Edgerton, Kansas, was selected for an intermodal terminal in 2006 by a Class I railroad due to its regional proximity to the Kansas City market and market conditions favorable to such a facility. Through an analysis of various reports and literature along with original traffic, railroad, and environmental data, along with citizen feedback, the framework was laid to be able to compare the impacts of the facility to a snapshot in time prior to its opening.
KW  - Edgerton (Kansas)
KW  - Environmental impact analysis
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Impact studies
KW  - Intermodal facilities
KW  - Intermodal terminals
KW  - Railroad traffic
KW  - Safety factors
KW  - Truck traffic
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46668/FlippedPagesMulinazzi_121_Combined.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225861
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469920
AU  - Nowak, Andrzej S
AU  - Rakoczy, Anna M
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Development of System Reliability Models for Railway Bridges
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 212p
AB  - Performance of the railway transportation network depends on the reliability of railway bridges, which can be affected by various forms of deterioration and extreme environmental conditions. More than half of the railway bridges in the United States were built before 1950 and many show signs of distress. There is a need for efficient methods to evaluate the safety reserve in the railway bridges by identification of the most sensitive parts of the bridge. An accurate estimation of remaining fatigue life of a structural component is very important in prioritizing bridge rehabilitation and replacement. However, existing procedures to evaluate the fatigue behavior of bridges are based on estimation rather than the exact formulas because the load and the resistance models contain many uncertainties. Therefore, probabilistic methods are the most convenient way to provide levels of safety for various design cases. The objective of this study is to develop a reliability model for railway bridges, in particular for the fatigue and strength limit states. It will be demonstrated on two through-plate girder structures. The research involved nonlinear finite element method (FEM) analysis of typical railway bridges, development of statistical parameters of live load and resistance, and calculation of a reliability index for various considered conditions. The findings of this research with final conclusions will serve as a basis for the development of more rational provisions for the design and evaluation of railway bridges.
KW  - Fatigue tests
KW  - Finite element method
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Railroad bridges
KW  - Rehabilitation (Maintenance)
KW  - Reliability
KW  - Strength of materials
KW  - Structural analysis
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46675/Nowack_426_FINAL_COMBINED_REVISITED_10-26.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225948
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01469911
AU  - Xiao, Hai
AU  - Chen, Genda
AU  - Gao, Zhan
AU  - Huang, Ying
AU  - Tang, Fujian
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Initial Study and Verification of a Distributed Fiber Optic Corrosion Monitoring System for Transportation Structures
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 62p
AB  - For this study, a novel optical fiber sensing system was developed and tested for the monitoring of corrosion in transportation systems. The optical fiber sensing system consists of a reference long period fiber gratings (LPFG) sensor for corrosive environmental monitoring and a LPFG sensor coated with a thin film of nano iron and silica particles for steel corrosion monitoring. The environmental effects (such as pH and temperature) are compensated by the use of the reference LPFG sensor. The sensor design, simulation, and experimental validation were performed in this study to investigate the feasibility of the proposed sensing system for corrosion and environment monitoring. The detailed investigations of the proposed sensing system showed that within the detection limitation of the thin coated layer, the proposed sensor could monitor both the initial and stable corrosion rate consistently. Compared to the traditional electrochemical method, the proposed optical fiber sensing system has a converter coefficient of 1 nm/day=3.746×10-3 A/cm2. Therefore, the proposed nano iron/silica particles dispersed polyurethane coated optical fiber sensor can monitor the critical corrosion information of the host members in real time and remotely. With multiple LPFGs in a single fiber, it is possible to provide a cost effective, distributed monitoring solution for corrosion monitoring of large scale transportation structures.
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Environmental monitoring
KW  - Fiber optics
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Steel structures
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46673/Xiao_345_COMBINED_FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225880
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458070
AU  - Abdel-Rahim, Ahmed
AU  - Dixon, Michael
AU  - National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Expanding the City of Moscow Field Lab Data Collection Capabilities
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 32p
AB  - The city of Moscow signal integration project, completed at the end of 2009, improved the city’s traffic signal system by connecting the city’s 17 signalized intersections with a fiber optic network, upgrading the cabinets to TS2 Type 1 cabinets and the controllers to NEMA TS2 IP-based controllers, and installing centralized control software to manage the city’s traffic signal system. As part of the project,      National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology traffic controller labs were connected to the city’s traffic signal system through a direct fiber optic link to create a field lab environment capable of collecting real-time traffic operation data. As an expansion to the project, 6 of the city’s 17 intersections are equipped with closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras connected to the state communications system. In this project, the authors expanded the city of Moscow’s field lab data collection capabilities by instrumenting the intersections in the city to record high resolution signal and detector status data.
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Data logging
KW  - Moscow (Idaho)
KW  - Real time information
KW  - Television cameras
KW  - Traffic data
KW  - Traffic signal control systems
KW  - Traffic signal controllers
UR  - http://www.webs1.uidaho.edu/niatt/research/Final_Reports/KLK723_N12-13.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46620/KLK723_N12-13.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225670
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458069
AU  - Den Braven, Karen R
AU  - Abdel-Rahim, Ahmed
AU  - Henrickson, Kristian
AU  - Battles, Amanda
AU  - National Institute for Advanced Transportation Technology
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Modeling Vehicle Fuel Consumption and Emissions at Signalized Intersection Approaches: Integrating Field-Collected Data Into Microscopic Simulation
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 59p
AB  - Microscopic models produce emissions and fuel consumption estimates with higher temporal resolution than other scales of models. Most emissions and fuel consumption models were developed with data from dynamometer testing which are sufficiently accurate for macroscopic level emissions inventories. The primary goal of this project is to improve the microscopic modeling of emission and fuel consumption by integrating detailed vehicle data into the simulation. The proposed approach combines a microscopic traffic simulation model (VISSIM) with detailed emissions and fuel consumption data that is either collected in the field or obtained from an existing emission inventory dataset. The project  also examines the possibility of using the vehicle’s on-board diagnostic board (OBD) to record real-time engine and emissions data at a high temporal resolution. The outcome of this project provides transportation operators with a model that is capable of reliably estimating the environmental impact of various traffic management policies at the microscopic modeling level and would fill a gap that currently exists in traffic modeling capabilities.
KW  - Environmental impacts
KW  - Fuel consumption
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Microsimulation
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Signalized intersections
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - VISSIM (Computer model)
UR  - http://www.webs1.uidaho.edu/niatt/research/Final_Reports/KLK721_N12-12.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46619/KLK721_N12-12.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225669
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458030
AU  - Strong, Aaron
AU  - Sikka, Nikhil
AU  - Salvatore, Lindsay
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transportation Impacts of the Chicago River Closure to Prevent an Asian Carp Infestation
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 34p
AB  - This project develops a simple linear programming model of the Upper Midwest regions rail transportation network to test whether a closure of the Chicago River to freight traffic would impact the capacity constraint of the rail system. The result suggest that the rail network in the Upper Midwest regions are nowhere near approaching capacity and that a closure would have little impact on the rail network. Two noteworthy sets of commodities may be adversely affected, cereal grains and other agricultural product and gravel and crushed stone.
KW  - Chicago River
KW  - Fishes
KW  - Impacts
KW  - Invasive species
KW  - Railroad capacity
KW  - Railroad transportation
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46641/Strong_477_Asian_Carp_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225562
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01458020
AU  - Parsons, Robert
AU  - Jowkar, Milad
AU  - Han, Jie
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - University of Kansas, Lawrence
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Performance of Geogrid Reinforced Ballast under Dynamic Loading
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 133p
AB  - Railroad ballast consists of open graded crushed stone used as a bed for railroad track to provide stability. Over time, ballast degrades and loses its strength. Fouling of ballast with fines has been a major issue of railway engineering. In this experimental study, a full-scale railroad section 5 ft in length was constructed with and without geogrid reinforcement. A full-scale trapezoidal cross-section of a railroad was built. The subgrade was covered with 2 ft of ballast 9 ft wide at the top and sloped down on both sides on a 2:1 slope. The track panel ties were embedded in the ballast to a depth of 7 in. The reinforced test section that had geogrid placed 7 in. below the tie performed better than the unreinforced test section in regards to settlement and fouling of ballast. Settlement of the reinforced test section between the ties and geogrid was reduced by 37 to 65 percent compared with the settlement of the same portion of the unreinforced test section. The percentage of rock dust and small diameter particles generated by ballast breakdown beneath the ties was less for the reinforced test section than for the unreinforced test section.
KW  - Ballast (Railroads)
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Geogrids
KW  - Performance
KW  - Reinforcing materials
KW  - Subgrade (Pavements)
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46600/46640/Parsons_363_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1225561
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01457104
AU  - Sheedy, Patrick
AU  - Peterman, Robert J
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Alleviating Concrete Placement Issues Due to Congestion of Reinforcement in Post-Tensioned Haunch-Slab Bridges
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 148p
AB  - A flowable hybrid concrete mix with a spread of 17 to 20 inches was created with a superplasticizer to be used in post-tension haunch-slab (PTHS) bridges where rebar congestion is heaviest. The mix would allow for proper concrete consolidation. A conventional concrete mix with a slump of three to four inches was also created to be placed on top of the hybrid mix. The conventional mix would be used to create a sloping surface on the top of the concrete. The two mixes could be combined in the PTHS bridge deck and act as one monolithic specimen. Standard concrete tests such as compressive strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, permeability, freeze/thaw resistance, and coefficient of thermal expansion were determined for the mixes and compared. Core blocks were cast using both mixes and composite cores were drilled. The cores were tested and their composite split-tensile strengths were compared to the split-tensile strengths of cylinders made from the respective mixes. A third concrete mix was made by increasing the superplasticizer dosage in the hybrid concrete mix to create a self-consolidating concrete (SCC) mix with a 24-inch spread. The SCC mix was created as a worst-case scenario and used in the determination of shear friction. Eighty-four push-off shear friction specimens were cast using the SCC mix. Joint conditions for the specimens included uncracked, pre-cracked, and cold-joints. Uncracked and pre-cracked specimens used both epoxy- and nonepoxy-coated shear stirrups. Cold-joint specimens used both the SCC mix and the conventional concrete mix. Joint-conditions of the cold-joint specimens included a one-hour cast time, a seven-day joint with a clean shear interface, and a seven-day joint with an oiled shear interface. The shear friction specimens were tested using a pure shear method and their results were compared to the current American Concrete Institute code equation.
KW  - Admixtures
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Compressive strength
KW  - Freeze thaw durability
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Posttensioning
KW  - Reinforcing bars
KW  - Self compacting concrete
UR  - https://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003820959
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46200/46231/KSU087_Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1224263
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454648
AU  - Lee, Doh-Won
AU  - Johnson, Jeremy
AU  - Lv, Jinpeng
AU  - Novak, Kristen
AU  - Zietsman, Josias
AU  - Southwest Region University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Comparisons Between Vehicular Emissions from Real-World In-Use Testing and EPA MOVES Estimation
PY  - 2012/07//Technical Report
SP  - 50p
AB  - This research study developed a methodology to perform mandatory dynamometer vehicular emissions tests on real roads, performed on-road emissions tests, and compared the test results to the estimates using the current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions estimation model. Currently, mandatory vehicular exhaust emission tests are performed on chassis or engine dynamometers  using the Federal Test Procedure (FTP)/Supplemental Federal Test Procedure (SFTP) drive schedules. Based on the developed real-world in-use emissions testing methodology with using a modified test vehicle, authors could follow the FTP/SFTP drive schedules while the vehicle was driven on real roads, and measure emissions during the in-use on-road FTP/SFTP emissions testing. Emissions from the vehicle during the testing were measured, analyzed, and compared to estimated emissions using the current EPA emissions estimation model, MOtor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES). The authors observed discrepancies between the measured data and the MOVES estimates, especially when associated with cold-start emissions. More detailed analysis results, along with the detailed test methodologies, are provided in this report.
KW  - Dynamometers
KW  - Emissions testing
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
KW  - On-road emissions
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Real world data
UR  - http://d2dtl5nnlpfr0r.cloudfront.net/swutc.tamu.edu/publications/technicalreports/476660-00021-1.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1223274
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454113
AU  - Salari, Ezzatollah
AU  - Chou, Eddie
AU  - Lynch, James J
AU  - University of Toledo
AU  - University of Detroit Mercy
AU  - Michigan Ohio University Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Pavement Distress Evaluation using 3D Depth Information from Stereo Vision
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 42p
AB  - During the last few decades, many efforts have been made to produce automatic inspection systems to meet the specific requirements in assessing distress on road surfaces using video cameras and image processing algorithms.  However, due to the noisy images from pavement surfaces, limited success was accomplished.  One major issue with pure video based systems is their inability to discriminate dark areas not caused by pavement distress, such as, tire marks, oil spills, shadows, and recent fillings.  To overcome the limitation of the conventional imaging based methods, a probabilistic relaxation technique based on 3-dimensional (3D) information is proposed in this report.  The primary goal of this technique is to integrate conventional image processing techniques with stereovision technology to obtain an accurate topological structure of the road defects. In addition, a road scene often contains other objects such as grass, trees and buildings which should be separated from the pavement.  Therefore the earlier algorithm has been enhanced to extract the pavement region from a road scene using a Support Vector Machine (SVM).  Various types of cracks are then obtained from the pavement surface images and classified using a feed-forward neural network. The proposed algorithms are implemented in MATLAB and the results are presented.   The second half of the document includes a report detailing the development of a software package that would allow the user to review digital photographs of pavement, evaluate that pavement by the PASER method, store the results in a database, and then make decisions based on the results of that analysis. The computer interface and analysis portion of the software was written in Microsoft Visual BASIC 2008. The long-term goals of this project include linking the evaluation results to a geographical information system database and developing various reporting strategies.
KW  - Algorithms
KW  - Digitized photography
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Image processing
KW  - PASER
KW  - Pavement cracking
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Software
KW  - Stereovision
KW  - Surface course (Pavements)
KW  - Three dimensional imaging
UR  - http://mioh-utc.udmercy.edu/research/ts-43/pdf/MIOH_UTC_TS43_2012-Final_Rpt_Pavement_Distress_Evaluation_Using_3D_Depth_etc.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46119/MIOH_UTC_TS43_2012-Final_Rpt_Pavement_Distress_Evaluation_Using_3D_Depth_etc.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1218637
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01454030
AU  - Hallmark, Shauna L
AU  - Hawkins, Neal
AU  - Smadi, Omar
AU  - Iowa State University, Ames
AU  - Midwest Transportation Consortium
AU  - Iowa Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of Low-Cost Treatments on Rural Two-Lane Curves
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - The objective of this project was to evaluate low-cost measures to reduce speeds on high-crash horizontal curves.  The researchers evaluated two low-cost treatments in Iowa to determine their effectiveness in reducing speeds on rural two-lane  roadways. This report summarizes how the research team selected sites and collected data, and the results.  The team selected six sites. Retroreflective post treatments were added to existing chevrons at four sites and on-pavement curve  markings were added at two sites.  The researchers collected speed data before and after installation of the two treatments. The study compared several speed metrics to  assess the effectiveness of the treatments. Overall, both were moderately effective in reducing speeds. The most significant impact of the  treatments was in reducing the percentage of vehicles traveling over the posted or advisory speed by 5, 10, 15, or 20 or more mph. This  result suggests that the treatments are most effective in reducing high-end speeds.
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - High risk locations
KW  - Highway curves
KW  - Iowa
KW  - Low cost
KW  - Retroreflectivity
KW  - Rural highways
KW  - Speed control
KW  - Two lane highways
UR  - http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/research/documents/research-reports/low-cost_treatments_w_cvr.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1218115
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449132
AU  - Bien-Aime, Patrick
AU  - Carroll, Anya A
AU  - daSilva, Marco
AU  - Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
AU  - Federal Railroad Administration
TI  - North Carolina “Sealed Corridor” Phase IV Assessment – Private Crossings
PY  - 2012/07//Technical Report
SP  - 49p
AB  - The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Railroad Administration tasked the USDOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration’s John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to document the success of the safety improvements at private highway-rail grade crossings along the Charlotte to Raleigh portion of the Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) Corridor. This set of safety improvements, implemented during Phase IV of North Carolina Department of Transportation’s (NCDOT) Sealed Corridor project, targeted the private crossings along that segment of the SEHSR corridor. The Sealed Corridor program aimed at improving or consolidating every highway-rail grade crossing, public and private, along the Charlotte to Raleigh rail route. The research on the Sealed Corridor private crossings, conducted from October 2008 to February 2010, assessed the progress made at the 44 crossings between Charlotte and Raleigh that have been treated with improved warning devices or closed from 1990 through 2008. Two approaches were used to describe benefits in terms of lives saved: a fatal crash analysis to derive estimated lives saved and prediction of lives saved based on the reduction of risk at the treated crossings. Both methods estimated that over 1.5 lives have been potentially saved at private crossings as a result of the 44 improvements implemented through 2008. Analysis also shows that the resulting reduction in incidents, as a result of the crossing improvements, is sustainable through 2010, when anticipated exposure and train speeds along the corridor will increase.
KW  - Grade crossing closure
KW  - Improvements
KW  - North Carolina
KW  - Private property
KW  - Railroad grade crossings
KW  - Safety
KW  - Warning devices
UR  - http://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2187
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46031/TR_NorthCarolina_SealedCorridor_PhaseIV_AssessmentPrivateCrossingsJuly2012_FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1216930
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447511
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area Transportation Feasibility Study
PY  - 2012/07
SP  - 134p
AB  - This feasibility study addresses growing concerns with traffic and parking congestion at popular recreation sites within Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area (RRCNCA), a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) natural area in Clark County, Nevada. The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center/U.S. Department of Transportation (Volpe Center) examined four transportation alternatives that combine parking, transit, and management strategies to address transportation challenges at RRCNCA. The study explores alternatives that encompass a broad range of transportation solutions including parking lot reconfigurations and expansions, voluntary transit services, and intelligent transportation systems as well as other management options for reducing congestion at parking lots. The study has several specific goals to inform alternatives evaluation: 1. Enhance visitor mobility by reducing congestion at parking lots along Scenic Drive. 2. Improve the visitor safety and especially consider the safety of non-motorized visitors. 3. Improve visitor experience. 4. Preserve the site’s unique natural and aesthetic resources. 5. Ensure that all transportation and management solutions are financially and operationally feasible. To achieve the goals of the study addressing the causes of congestion, the transportation alternatives incorporate one or more of the following strategies: 1. Reduce the number of vehicles on the site during peak visitation periods. 2. Improve transportation infrastructure to accommodate more vehicles and/or visitors. 3. Influence driver behavior to operate vehicles more efficiently.
KW  - Alternatives analysis
KW  - Congestion management systems
KW  - Feasibility analysis
KW  - Highway travel
KW  - Intelligent transportation systems
KW  - Parking
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Travel demand management
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45802/DOT-VNTSC-BLM-12-01.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214402
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446915
AU  - Fan, Yingling
AU  - Guthrie, Andrew
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing Neighborhood and Social Influences of Transit Corridors
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 206p
AB  - This research investigates neighborhood and social influences of major transit improvements in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. To delineate a comprehensive picture, this research focuses on four transit corridors, Hiawatha Light Rail Transit (LRT), NorthStar Commuter Rail, Cedar Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and Central Corridor LRT, each of which is at a different stage of planning, construction, or operation. The project undertakes a general quantification of neighborhood social change in transit served areas. For each corridor, the researchers also investigate inter-neighborhood and inter-corridor variations in social change, and examine residents' and business owners' perceptions of neighborhood social change, as well as of the specific impacts of transit corridors. A mix of quantitative analysis and survey research is used. By examining a wide range of system development stages including planning, construction, and operation, research findings will help policy makers determine at what point in the timelines of major transit capital projects policy responses are needed and likely to be most effective. By covering a variety of transit technologies including LRT, BRT and Commuter Rail, as well as a diverse range of urban and suburban neighborhoods, results from this research will help policy makers make more informed decisions about how to prevent and mitigate socially harmful neighborhood changes associated with various types of transitways. The research also presents strategies for engaging residents and businesses with negative, neutral and positive perceptions of transit projects in the transitway development process.
KW  - Benefits
KW  - Bus rapid transit
KW  - Light rail transit
KW  - Neighborhoods
KW  - Perception
KW  - Residents
KW  - Social change
KW  - Social impacts
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Transit corridors
KW  - Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Minnesota)
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=1788
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214376
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446050
AU  - Miller-Hooks, Elise
AU  - Nair, Rahul
AU  - Kumi, Jonathan
AU  - Denny, Kevin
AU  - University of Maryland, College Park
AU  - Mid-Atlantic Universities Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
TI  - Robust Dynamic Distribution of Security Assets in Transit Systems
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 28p
AB  - A robust, mixed-integer, multi-stage program is presented that seeks to effectively secure a transit system where risk is considered to be dynamic and varies over time. A time-varying risk measure reflects the unique nature of transit systems, where accumulation of passengers at transfer facilities, stations and transit vehicles is dynamic and increases the vulnerability of transit users and system to adverse events. The model is robust under uncertainty and better matches security assets at stations in the face of time-varying risk by redistributing them. The volume-dependent risk measure and subsequent deployment of security assets are developed for the transit system in Washington, D.C. demonstrating the variable nature of risk and response. The value of considering a robust solution is demonstrated by comparing the robust approach to an expected value approach. Five scenarios, designed on recent events on the system, replicate the operational conditions of the transit system for the morning rush hour period and show the effectiveness of the developed deployment strategies.
KW  - Mathematical models
KW  - Passenger security
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Risk management
KW  - Risk models
KW  - Robustness
KW  - Security
KW  - Transportation safety
KW  - Washington (District of Columbia)
UR  - http://www.mautc.psu.edu/docs/UMD-2010-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1213703
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01446048
AU  - Watkins, Bart
AU  - Irick, David
AU  - Carroll, Aaron
AU  - Nibali, Ben
AU  - Power Source Technologies, Inc.
AU  - Aptus DesignWorks Inc.
AU  - National Transportation Research Center, Incorporated
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - U35: Legacy Engine
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 41p
AB  - The Legacy engine is a new core technology that can be used with existing infrastructure providing for near term benefits while minimizing costs. Also, as a new technology, it will be optimized for many years to come providing the opportunity for continued environmental and economic benefit for the United States. Utilization of the Legacy engine will reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and our dependence on foreign oil, provide the United States a technological advantage in a critical market, and create thousands of “green” jobs. For the Legacy engine to achieve the predicted benefits, optimization of induction and exhaust in the engine is critical. The continued research and development will result in a commercially viable Legacy engine. The development of an aspiration plate with optimal port geometry is the technical challenge that is addressed in this project. This project consists of design, manufacturing, testing and evaluation of port configuration for the Legacy engine aspiration plate. The results of this research will allow for the continuing development of the Legacy engine. Both inline and counter-rotational flow concepts were investigated. Two aspiration plates were designed and evaluated. Based on the results of the tests, a third aspiration plate, with optimal port geometry was designed and evaluated.
KW  - aspiration plates
KW  - Design
KW  - Diesel engines
KW  - Evaluation
KW  - Legacy engine
KW  - Prototype tests
KW  - Rotary engines
UR  - http://www.ntrci.org/Uploads/Files/ResearchReports/U35-Legacy%20Engine.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45754/U35-Legacy_Engine.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212687
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01445980
AU  - Braham, Andrew
AU  - Hill, Robert
AU  - Jackson, Alexander
AU  - Smith, Sadie
AU  - Mack Blackwell National Rural Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Exploring Different Forms of Base Stabilization
PY  - 2012/07//Technical Report
SP  - 29p
AB  - Our nation’s roadways have experienced a growing demand over the past couple of decades. With decreasing funds and the need to provide the public with an efficient, safe, and cost effective roadway system, there has been a remarkable increase in the need to rehabilitate our existing pavements. When a flexible pavement has deteriorated to the point where rehabilitation or reconstruction is necessary, pavement engineers have traditionally used either the mill and overlay strategy or complete reconstruction. With the advances made on road construction equipment over the last two decades, there has been a growth in asphalt recycling and reclaiming as a technically and environmentally friendly way of rehabilitating the existing, failed pavements. An example of rehabilitation is base stabilization, or Full-Depth Reclamation. This research identified two mix designs for Portland cement base stabilization, three mix designs for asphalt emulsion base stabilization, and two mix designs for asphalt foam base stabilization. These mix designs are currently being synthesized to produce one final mix design for each technology. Preliminary testing indicated that the modified proctor and Superpave Gyratory Compactor can produce similar moisture density curves. In addition, increasing the water content and asphalt foam content of asphalt foam base stabilization mixture increased the compressive strength.
KW  - Asphalt emulsions
KW  - Base course (Pavements)
KW  - Base stabilization (Pavements)
KW  - Flexible pavements
KW  - Foamed asphalt
KW  - Full-depth reclamation
KW  - Mix design
KW  - Portland cement
KW  - Rehabilitation treatments (Pavements)
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45800/45882/MBTC_DOT_3033.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1213758
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01444826
AU  - Lindsey, Greg
AU  - Hoff, Kristopher
AU  - Hankey, Steve
AU  - Wang, Xize
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Understanding the Use of Non-Motorized Transportation Facilities
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 70p
AB  - Traffic counts and models for describing use of non-motorized facilities such as sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails are generally unavailable. Because transportation officials lack the data and tools needed to estimate use of facilities, their ability to make evidence-based choices among investment alternatives is limited. This report describes and assesses manual and automated methods of counting non-motorized traffic; summarizes counts of cyclists and pedestrians in Minneapolis, Minnesota; develops scaling factors to describe temporal patterns in non-motorized traffic volumes; validates models for estimating traffic using ordinary least squares and negative binomial regressions; and estimates bicycle and pedestrian traffic volumes for every street in Minneapolis. Research shows that automated counters are sufficiently accurate for most purposes. Automated counter error rates vary as a function of type of technology and traffic mode and volume. Across all locations, mean pedestrian traffic (51/hour) exceeded mean bicycle traffic (38/hour) by 35 percent. One-hour counts were highly correlated with 12-hour "daily" counts. Significant correlates of non-motorized traffic vary by mode and include weather (temperature, precipitation), neighborhood socio-demographics (household income, education), built environment characteristics (land use mix), and street (or bicycle facility) type. When controlling for these factors, bicycle traffic, but not pedestrian traffic, increased over time and was higher on streets with bicycle facilities than without (and highest on off-street facilities). These new models can be used to estimate non-motorized traffic where counts are unavailable and to estimate changes associated with infrastructure improvements.
KW  - Bicycle counts
KW  - Bicycle traffic
KW  - Bikeways
KW  - Pedestrian areas
KW  - Pedestrian counts
KW  - Pedestrian traffic
KW  - Traffic counts
KW  - Traffic models
KW  - Traffic surveillance
KW  - Traffic volume
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=1754
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1212334
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01443819
AU  - Dissanayake, Sunanda
AU  - Shaheed, Mohammad Saad
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Improving Safety of the Surface Transportation System by Addressing the Issues of Vulnerable Road Users: Case of the Motorcyclists
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 170p
AB  - Over the past few years, motorcycle fatalities have increased at an alarming rate in the United States. Motorcycle safety issues in Kansas are no different from the national scenario. Accordingly, this study examines motorcycle crashes in Kansas in order to identify and evaluate critical crash-related factors and subsequent impacts on motorcycle crash injury outcomes. State-level motorcycle rider fatality rates were investigated while considering various factors including helmet laws, using generalized least-squares regression modeling. A detailed characteristic analysis was carried out for motorcycle crashes, using Kansas crash data. Comparisons were made between several aspects of motorcycle crashes and other vehicle crashes. Logistic regression analyses were performed on Kansas motorcycle crash data to identify factors affecting fatal motorcycle crashes. In addition, a survey was administered to motorcyclists in order to gather information on rider behaviors and helmet usage patterns, as well as their perceptions regarding helmet laws in Kansas, potential problems associated with the law, crash-related factors, and the level of difficulty in executing various motorcycle maneuvers. Ordered probit modeling was used to identify factors contributing to the increased severity of injuries sustained by motorcycle riders involved in crashes. Results from state-based modeling showed statistically significant relations between motorcycle fatality rates in a given state and crash-related factors such as weather-related conditions, helmet laws, per capita income, highway mileage of rural roads, population density, education, demographic distributions, and motorcycle registrations in the state. States with mandatory helmet laws had 5.6% fewer motorcycle fatalities per 10,000 motorcycle registrations and 7.85% fewer motorcycle fatalities for every 100,000 in a given population. Characteristic analysis of motorcycle crashes in Kansas revealed that motorcycle maneuvers such as overtaking, motorcyclists being older than 40 years, not using motorcycle helmets, daytime riding, crashes occurring on roadside shoulders, and influence of alcohol among the riders during crashes increased the risk of crash fatalities. Survey results showed that 71% of motorcyclist respondents perceived drivers of other vehicles as the single biggest threat to their own safety. Moreover, 64% opposed legislation that would require motorcycle riders and passengers in Kansas to wear helmets. The ordered probit model results indicate that overturned and fixed-object motorcycle crashes, not wearing a helmet, being younger in age, speeding, good weather, as well as being under the influence of alcohol significantly contributed to increased severity of motorcyclist crash-related injuries in Kansas.
KW  - Crash analysis
KW  - Crash severity
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Logistic regression analysis
KW  - Motorcycle crashes
KW  - Motorcycle helmets
KW  - Motorcycles
KW  - Motorcyclists
KW  - Probits
KW  - Surveys
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45755/Dissanayake_253_Motorcyclists_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1211612
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01383564
AU  - Russell, Eugene R
AU  - Landman, E Dean
AU  - Kansas State University Transportation Center
AU  - Kansas Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Optimizing the Analysis of Routing
Oversize/Overweight Loads to Provide
Efficient Freight Corridors
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 100p
AB  - The subject of this report is limited specifically to Kansas’ highways. Current features of the State Highway System were looked at to determine corridors that do not limit Oversize/Overweight (OS/OW) vehicles, or that limit loads to varying degrees. Now that roundabouts are becoming more common throughout the state and the nation, many individuals, both in the public and private sectors, believe that the main concern for efficient movement of oversized loads are roundabouts that were being constructed. However, information that has been collected indicates that vertical clearance, diamond interchanges, curbs, non-removable signs, enhancements at pedestrian crosswalks all limit the ability for over-length loads to make turns to varying degrees. While it is not usually feasible to remove structures with limited vertical clearance, it is feasible to develop policies to better control OS/OW movements. There is a trade-off between what shippers might want to move and what the agencies responsible for the design of the highway/street system can provide. The use of a steerable rear axle has allowed many oversize loads to make crucial turns at intersections or at ramps of interchanges that were previously a barrier. The vertical height restriction of low clearance structures is not easily solved. Developing a freight network which includes segments where selected OS/OW vehicles can be accommodated is becoming increasingly important. There is an economic benefit to the State of Kansas to allow OS/OW loads and this should be balanced with the economic burden of providing this ever increasing demand on public roads.
KW  - Freight traffic
KW  - Height restrictions
KW  - Highway corridors
KW  - Kansas
KW  - Oversize loads
KW  - Overweight loads
KW  - Policy
KW  - Routing
KW  - Traffic loads
KW  - Truck traffic
UR  - http://idmweb.ksdot.org/PublicLib/publicDoc.asp?ID=003820460
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1148244
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01380311
AU  - Burris, Mark
AU  - Arthur, Winfred
AU  - Devarasetty, Prem Chand
AU  - McDonald, Jennifer
AU  - Munoz, Gonzalo J
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Understanding Traveler Behavior: The Psychology Behind Managed Lane Use
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 114p
AB  - Recent analysis of Katy Freeway/Managed Lane (ML) travelers and I-394 Freeway/High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane traveler data has found that many travelers pay to use these HOT lanes and MLs when adjacent toll-free lanes are operating at nearly the same speed. Assuming that drivers are indeed cognizant of the fact that HOT and ML lanes are traveling at nearly the same speed, then it would seem that travelers are paying for the use of these lanes for reasons other than travel time savings. This project investigated the role of psychological variables, such as risk aversion, that may explain why travelers choose to pay to use these lanes when the travel time is almost equal. The results indicate that some psychological variables had significant relationships with the stated preference questions, but this was very limited.
KW  - High occupancy toll lanes
KW  - Managed lanes
KW  - Psychological aspects
KW  - Traffic speed
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel time
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Burris_11-07-66.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45700/45732/Burris_11-07-66.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1148109
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01380244
AU  - Douma, Frank
AU  - Munnich, Lee
AU  - Garry, Thomas
AU  - Loveland, Joe
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute
AU  - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Identifying Issues Related to Deployment of Automated Speed Enforcement
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 44p
AB  - Automated speed enforcement (ASE) has been shown to be one of the most effective strategies for reducing speeding by vehicles and improving road safety. However, the perception that ASE is unpopular and controversial has limited its use by policymakers in the United States. This report investigates whether this perception is justified in Minnesota by conducting a public opinion survey of Minnesota residents about their views of ASE. In light of the survey results, the report then examines the legal and related political obstacles for deploying ASE in Minnesota, and outlines a strategy for moving forward with ASE in Minnesota in select areas.
KW  - Automated enforcement
KW  - Deployment
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Minnesota
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Speed limits
KW  - Speeding
KW  - Traffic law enforcement
UR  - http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/pdfdownload.pl?id=1752
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147332
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379862
AU  - Figliozzi, Miguel
AU  - Feng, Wu-chi
AU  - Laferriere, Gerardo
AU  - Feng, Wei
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Study of Headway Maintenance for Bus Routes: Causes and Effects of “Bus Bunching” in
Extensive and Congested Service Areas
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 72p
AB  - A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods to evaluate and visualize bus service reliability for transit agencies in various temporal and spatial aggregation levels; 2) identify the recurrent unreliability trends of bus routes (focusing on high-frequency service periods) and understand their characteristics, causes and effects; and 3) model service times using linear regression models. This research utilized six months of archived automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic passenger count (APC) data from a low-performance route (Route 15) of TriMet, the public transit provider in the Portland metropolitan area. Route 15 has experienced difficulties in terms of schedule adherence and headway regularity. This research developed methods to summarize causes of bus bunching. The authors first determined the frequency of each cause (expressed as percentages) meeting pre-determined thresholds. Next, they performed a sensitivity analysis to demonstrate how cause percentage results change using varying difficulty levels of bus bunching thresholds. Finally, the authors investigated how cause percentage results vary spatially along different route segments. This research also developed novel ways to summarize and visualize vast amounts of bus route operations data in an insightful and intuitive manner: 1) a route/stop level visualization performance measure framework using color contour diagrams and 2) a dynamic interactive bus monitoring visualization framework based on a Google Maps platform. Visualizations proposed in this study can aid transit agency managers and operators to identify operational problems and better understand how such problems propagate spatially and temporally across routes. Finally, regression models were estimated to understand the key factors impacting dwell and travel times.
KW  - Bunching
KW  - Bus transit operations
KW  - Dwell time
KW  - Headways
KW  - Linear regression analysis
KW  - Portland Metropolitan Area (Oregon)
KW  - Schedule maintenance
KW  - Service reliability
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon
KW  - Visualization
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1202
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45630/OTREC-RR-12-09_Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147623
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379861
AU  - Figliozzi, Miguel
AU  - Portland State University
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Analyzing and Quantifying the Impact of Congestion on LTL Industry Costs and Performance in
the Portland Metropolitan Region
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 70p
AB  - Increased congestion during peak morning and afternoon periods in urban areas is increasing logistics costs. In addition, environmental, social, and political pressures to limit the impacts associated with CO2 emissions are mounting rapidly. A key challenge for transportation agencies and businesses is to improve the efficiency of urban freight and commercial vehicle movements while ensuring environmental quality, livable communities, and economic growth. However, research and policy efforts to analyze and quantify the impacts of congestion and freight public policies on carriers' operations and CO2 emissions are hindered by the complexities of vehicle routing problems with time-dependent travel times and the lack of network-wide congestion data. This research focuses on the analysis of costs and CO2 emissions for different levels of congestion and time-definitive customer demands. Travel time data from an extensive archive of freeway sensors, time-dependent vehicle routing algorithms, and problems-instances with different types of binding constraints are used to analyze the impacts of congestion on commercial vehicle emissions.
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  - Commercial vehicle operations
KW  - Costs
KW  - Less than truckload traffic
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Peak hour traffic
KW  - Portland Metropolitan Area (Oregon)
KW  - Routing
KW  - Time dependence
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Travel time
KW  - Urban areas
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1194
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45631/OTREC-RR-12-10_Final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147625
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379860
AU  - Hillsman, Edward L
AU  - Hendricks, Sara J
AU  - Fiebe, JoAnne K
AU  - National Center for Transit Research
AU  - Florida Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - A Summary of Design, Policies and Operational Characteristics for Shared Bicycle/Bus Lanes
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 167p
AB  - This report contains the results of an investigation of the design and operation of shared bicycle/bus lanes in municipalities in the United States and other countries. These lanes are designated for use by public transit buses, bicycles, and usually also for right-turning vehicles. Some municipalities may also allow use of these lanes by taxis and delivery vehicles. The purpose of such lanes is to provide a time advantage to public transit service by taking the buses out of the general traffic flow and into a designated lane. Where constrained right-of-way prevents provision of a separate bicycle lane, the intent is to allow bicycles to use the designated bus lane. This is to provide a more direct route for bicyclists, provide greater level of service to bicyclists and provide some degree of space separation between general traffic and bicyclists for their greater safety and comfort. However, this combined use raises many issues of compatibility of bicycles and buses sharing the same road space. The limited available research on the subject of shared bicycle/bus lanes includes informative investigations from the Minneapolis Public Works Department, Minnesota; the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, Pennsylvania; the City of Ottawa, Canada; the Department for Transport of the United Kingdom; and Austroads, Sydney, Australia. Investigators compiled a list of shared bicycle/bus lanes in cities in the United States and Canada, including facility attributes that are presented in an appendix. Researchers found very few examples of state-level guidance on shared bicycle/bus lanes but more examples at the local and regional levels. These are provided in the report. Through surveys and interviews, the shared bicycle/bus lanes from four cities in the United States were selected for in-depth examination and were developed into case studies: Ocean City, Maryland; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C. As a result of this investigation, an identification and discussion of the contextual factors, design variables, and tools for planning and implementing shared bicycle/bus lanes is presented. The report provides recommendations for further needed research.
KW  - Bicycle lanes
KW  - Bicycle vehicle interface
KW  - Bicycles
KW  - Bus lanes
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Design
KW  - Guidelines
KW  - Highway operations
KW  - Level of service
KW  - Minneapolis (Minnesota)
KW  - Ocean City (Maryland)
KW  - Philadelphia (Pennsylvania)
KW  - Policy
KW  - Shared bicycle/bus lanes
KW  - State of the practice
KW  - Traffic conflicts
KW  - Transit buses
KW  - Washington (District of Columbia)
UR  - http://www.fdot.gov/research/Completed_Proj/Summary_RD/FDOT_BDK85_977-32_rpt.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45622/77937.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147607
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379859
AU  - Lehrman, Jora
AU  - Higgins, Christopher
AU  - Cox, Daniel
AU  - Oregon State University, Corvallis
AU  - Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Laboratory Performance of Highway Bridge Girder Anchorages Under Simulated Hurricane-Induced Wave Loading
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 132p
AB  - Many bridges along the Gulf Coast of the United States were damaged by recent hurricanes, and many more are susceptible to similar damage. This research examines the structural performance of common connection details used to anchor prestressed concrete girders to the substructure. Full-scale specimens were fabricated and tested under static and dynamic cyclic load histories. Dynamic load histories were developed from previously conducted hydraulic tests of a 1/5 scale model of a highway bridge under hurricane wave loads. The load effects considered included the pseudo-statically applied vertical uplift force, horizontal force, combined horizontal and vertical forces, and dynamically applied combined horizontal and vertical forces. This research describes the structural performance of the details under these loading conditions, provides improved understanding of connection performance, and enables better design details for new bridge construction and for rehabilitation of existing bridges to resist hurricane loads to produce surface transportation infrastructure that is more resilient to natural hazards.
KW  - Bridge anchorages
KW  - Bridge design
KW  - Bridge substructures
KW  - Dynamic loads
KW  - Girders
KW  - Gulf Coast (United States)
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Hurricanes
KW  - Load tests
KW  - Prestressed concrete bridges
KW  - Static loads
KW  - Structural connection
KW  - Wave loading
UR  - http://otrec.us/main/document.php?doc_id=1196
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45629/OTREC-RR-12-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147622
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379849
AU  - Cole, Richard
AU  - Dennis, David
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Transportation Economy: Just in Time
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 36p
AB  - The purpose of this project was to produce a short educational video, targeted at middle school and high school students, illustrating the critical role transportation plays in our modern economy. This report documents the production of a 6.5-minute video that provides students with a glimpse of how transportation has become an integral part of the modern economy. The video, titled "The Transportation Economy: Just in Time," is available in both streaming and downloadable formats to public and private schools online (http://transportationeconomy.tamu.edu/). The site includes a full transcript of the production and a downloadable PowerPoint® presentation. These materials are for use as supplemental material for middle school and high school economics and civics classes.
KW  - Economics
KW  - Education
KW  - High school students
KW  - Just in time production
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Middle school students
KW  - Transportation
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Cole_09-27-05.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45610/Cole_09-27-05.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147581
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379845
AU  - Ellis, David R
AU  - Glover, Brianne
AU  - Norboge, Nicolas
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Refining a Methodology for Determining the Economic Impacts of Transportation Improvements
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 48p
AB  - Estimating the economic impact of transportation improvements has previously proven to be a difficult task. After an exhaustive literature review, it was clear that the transportation profession lacked standards and methodologies for determining economic impact from transportation investments. As a result, Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) researchers sought to fulfill this need. This project examined the current and historical economic impact assessment programs utilized by four state departments of transportation. Researchers evaluated these programs based on three outcomes: increased business and industry competitiveness, strengthened long-term regional and local economies, and enhanced household well-being. Researchers found that promoting transparency and flexibility and involving as many stakeholders as possible were key elements to economic program success. Based on these successful program elements, TTI professionals developed a new economic determination method to incorporate into the existing Transportation Revenue Estimation and Needs Determination System (TRENDS). The results from this study were also used to educate the public on the impacts transportation improvements, or lack of improvements, have on communities.
KW  - Case studies
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Evaluation and assessment
KW  - Improvements
KW  - Infrastructure
KW  - Methodology
KW  - State departments of transportation
KW  - Texas Revenue Estimator and Needs Determination System (TRENDS)
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Ellis_11-00-68.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45606/Ellis_11-00-68.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147567
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379844
AU  - Kuhn, Beverly
AU  - Jasek, Debbie
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Enhancement and Outreach for the Active Management Screening Tool
PY  - 2012/07//Technical Report
SP  - 38p
AB  - Active traffic management—widely deployed for decades in Europe but in its infancy in the United States—maximizes the effectiveness and efficiency of the facility, and increases throughput and safety through integrated systems with new technology, including the automation of dynamic deployment to optimize performance quickly. In a previous UTCM project (TRID Online Accession #01364063) the principal investigator completed a beta version of an Active Management Screening Tool (AMST) for use by agencies in their congestion management process. The purpose of the AMST is to help agencies better assess the potential of active management strategies for their region. It is structured to provide beneficial information and guidance related to active management strategies in all areas and levels of transportation planning. Active management strategies included in the tool are: high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes; express toll lanes; non-tolled express lanes; exclusive/dedicated truck lanes; exclusive transitways; temporary shoulder use; speed harmonization; queue warning; dynamic rerouting and traveler information; ramp metering; dynamic merge control; and automated enforcement. This project enhanced the AMST with recent and emerging research and domestic experiences to make it a more robust product. The project also enhanced the website developed in the previous UTCM project to incorporate recent development and changes in the newly formed Active Transportation and Demand Management program within the Federal Highway Administration. Furthermore, by reaching out to practitioners across the country regarding the availability of the AMST, this project can have a positive impact on transportation networks by providing a tool to assess appropriate active management strategies for a region.
KW  - Active traffic management
KW  - Advanced traffic management systems
KW  - Congestion management systems
KW  - Highway traffic control
KW  - Screening tools
KW  - Traffic congestion
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Kuhn_11-46-71.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45607/Kuhn_11-46-71.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147570
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379843
AU  - Jasek, Debbie
AU  - Perkins, Judy
AU  - Bierling, David
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Innovative Educational Modules for the Next Generation of Transportation Professionals
PY  - 2012/07//Technical Report
SP  - 22p
AB  - Basic science and mathematics competence, including awareness of engineering careers, gained in grades K-12 forms the foundation of an educated, capable, and technical future transportation workforce.  This project developed a series of educational science, technology, and engineering, and math (STEM)-based modules for grades 6-12.  These modules engage students in real-world applications of math, deductive reasoning, and problem solving.  The modules can be incorporated in either the classroom or informal educational settings, such as after-school enrichment programs.  The modules created by this project can be found at http://www.transportationoutreach.org.
KW  - After school programs
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Engineering
KW  - High school students
KW  - Mathematics
KW  - Middle school students
KW  - Science
KW  - Technology
KW  - Transportation careers
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Jasek_11-27-70.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45609/Jasek_11-27-70.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147577
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01379842
AU  - Henk, Russell
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Activating Teens to Prevent Traffic Crashes
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 26p
AB  - Car crashes kill more young people each year than any other cause. In addition to law enforcement and driver education, efforts to improve safety for this age group over the years have included public education and outreach programs, but these programs have suffered from two notable shortcomings. First, they have tended to focus exclusively on drunk driving, largely overlooking dangers that are actually more common to teenage drivers, such as nighttime driving and distractions (mainly cell phones/texting and other teen passengers). Second, the programs have typically been developed by adults with little or no involvement by the target audience, thereby limiting their potential effectiveness. Teens in the Driver Seat® (TDS) is a growing program that addresses each of these issues by focusing on many of the common teen driver dangers and by involving teens in both the development and delivery of safety messages. This essential teen involvement takes many forms, one of the most important of which is the TDS Teen Advisory Board, a representative group of teens from across Texas who offer ongoing guidance and feedback to Texas Transportation Institute staff who are responsible for the TDS program. The activities described in this report have enhanced the substance and value of this teen feedback by bringing the board’s members together once each quarter for extensive, interactive involvement in the ongoing refinement and growth of the TDS program. Since the launch of TDS in 2003, the frequency and rate of teen drivers involved in fatal crashes has fallen faster and more steadily in Texas than in any other state, a distinction due in part to how TDS peer messaging augments and supports the state’s graduated driver license law. This increased teen involvement in TDS has helped to ensure continued success of the program.
KW  - Advisory groups
KW  - Countermeasures
KW  - Fatalities
KW  - Graduated licensing
KW  - Messages (Communications)
KW  - Peer groups
KW  - Peer-to-peer communication
KW  - Safety programs
KW  - Teenage drivers
KW  - Texas
KW  - Traffic crashes
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Henk_10-10-52.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45608/Henk_10-10-52.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1147568
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01378870
AU  - Gong, Qi
AU  - Miao, Qing
AU  - Wang, Bruce X
AU  - Adams, Teresa M
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - National Center for Freight and Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE)
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Assessing Public Benefits and Costs of Freight Transportation Projects: Measuring Shippers' Value of Delay on the Freight System
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 62p
AB  - Freight delay is detrimental to the national economy. In an effort to gauge the economic impact of freight delay due to highway congestion, this project focuses on estimating shippers’ value of delay (VOD). The authors have accomplished this through three strategies to monetize the impacts of congestion on shippers’ operations: (1) Three half-structured on-site interviews with shipping managers in different type of industries were conducted to obtain insights into their daily logistic operations and their subjective assessment of the delay impacts. In light of the interviews, a comprehensive survey of major manufacturers and wholesalers within Texas and Wisconsin was conducted. (2) The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and willingness-to-pay (WTP) method were then applied to quantify the impact of congestion on shippers. The AHP reveals that among four possible delay components, en route transportation delay is the most important, which justifies WTP evaluating the value of highway congestion delay. The authors have found a value of $56 per hour for congestion. Furthermore, a value of $0.4 per percentage delay was also calculated for transportation time reliability using individual defined travel time. (3) An analytical inventory model was used to examine the value of delay in view of mean and reliability of transit time for shipment receivers. Nine industrial groups were analyzed. For example, shippers in the chemical industry are calculated to have an additional $13.89 cost on a truckload delivery if the transit time is expected to increase by one hour. The random delay has an average of $31.04 per hour per truckload delivery.
KW  - Analytical hierarchy process
KW  - Delay costs
KW  - Delays
KW  - Economic impacts
KW  - Freight transportation
KW  - Logistics
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Willingness to pay
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Wang_11-00-65.pdf
UR  - http://www.wistrans.org/cfire/documents/FR_0414.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1146606
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01376327
AU  - Cherrington, Linda
AU  - Sandidge, Matt
AU  - Joh, Ken
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Transit Management Certificate Program
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 46p
AB  - Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) worked closely with the Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Department (LAUP) of Texas A&M University (TAMU) to develop a transit management certificate focus for the current Graduate Certificate in Transportation Planning (CTP) housed in the College of Architecture at TAMU. The purpose of the focus area is to provide graduate level curriculum to individuals interested in public transportation. The focus is multidisciplinary and open to all graduate students at Texas A&M University. This program is the first step in the development of future educational opportunities in public transportation in Texas.
KW  - Certification
KW  - Curricula
KW  - Education
KW  - Graduate study
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Texas A&M University
KW  - Transportation planning
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Cherrington_10-55-48.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1144071
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01376323
AU  - Mjelde, James W
AU  - Dudensing, Rebekka
AU  - Cherrington, Linda K
AU  - Jin, Yanhong
AU  - Israel, Alicia A
AU  - Chen, Junyi
AU  - University Transportation Center for Mobility
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The Value of Public Transportation for Improving the Quality of Life for the Rural Elderly
PY  - 2012/07//Final Report
SP  - 140p
AB  - Transportation for the rural elderly is an increasing concern as baby boomers age and young people continue to exit rural communities. As the elderly are no longer able to drive themselves, they rely on alternate forms of transportation, including public transportation systems. However, such systems are often not a good substitute for driving a private car, especially in rural areas. This study focuses on non-medical transportation; medical transportation is addressed in the literature and is more widely available to the elderly. Because expanded rural transportation systems likely will be funded by taxpayers, an understanding of their preferences and willingness-to-pay for non-medical transportation options is essential. To fulfill this objective, a choice experiment survey was administered to taxpayers in three counties (Atascosa, Polk, and Parker) in Texas and to students at Texas A&M University. Results indicate that taxpayers value transportation services for the elderly and are willing to support them. They value more flexible options over base levels of the attributes presented, but they may not always prefer the most flexible options. Respondents’ willingness to pay for attributes was similar across counties, but differences in socio-demographic coefficients suggests that transportation systems may need to be customized to meet local needs. Furthermore, the cost of improvements to the transportation systems may be more than county residents are willing to pay. Students’ willingness-to-pay was generally higher than that of county residents, and the variation in students’ willingness to pay was smaller. However, students and county residents ranked the value of transportation attributes similarly, suggesting that students may be a good convenience sample for behavioral questions but less so for policy matters.
KW  - Aged
KW  - Atascosa County (Texas)
KW  - College students
KW  - Consumer preferences
KW  - Parker County (Texas)
KW  - Polk County (Texas)
KW  - Quality of life
KW  - Rural transit
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Texas A&M University
KW  - Transportation policy
KW  - Willingness to pay
UR  - http://utcm.tamu.edu/publications/final_reports/Mjelde_11-08-74.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1144070
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01496775
AU  - Ehrenfeucht, Renia
AU  - McPherson, Justice
AU  - University of New Orleans
AU  - Gulf Coast Research Center for Evacuation and Transportation Resiliency
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Walking in the City
PY  - 2012/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 48p
AB  - Motivated by traffic congestion, excessive energy use and poor health outcomes, planning and public health researchers have developed an extensive body of research that examines walking and other active transport as well as walking for recreation. In different discussions, walking has become a newly interesting subject and method to understand urban (and non urban) life, and a growing number of researchers have sought to understand mobility, the social experience and functions of walking and its cultural meanings. These areas of research rarely overlap. The latter has the potential for enriching the research about active travel and physical activity and, through doing so, suggest more effective pathways to healthier and less energy intensive life patterns. This project first examines these divergent literatures. It then uses New Orleans to discuss both the pedestrian improvements and the vibrant public life that New Orleans sustained without the new pedestrian infrastructure. It concludes with a discussion about pedestrian oriented research agenda.
KW  - New Orleans (Louisiana)
KW  - Pedestrians
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Urban areas
KW  - Walking
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/47000/47900/47911/11-11.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1264195
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01494502
AU  - Kang, Thomas H-K
AU  - Kim, Woosuk
AU  - Lam, Kah Mun
AU  - Martin, Randy D
AU  - Kim, Kyu
AU  - Huang, Yu
AU  - Holliday, Lisa
AU  - University of Oklahoma, Norman
AU  - Oklahoma Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Relief of Reinforcing Congestion in Beams and Bent Caps of Concrete Bridges
PY  - 2012/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 159p
AB  - In order to determine how to resolve the issues involving steel congestion in reinforced concrete (RC) structures, three potential solutions to this problem were researched. In the first method, RC was mixed  with steel fibers. The use of steel fibers instead of shear reinforcement stirrups resulted in the reduction of steel  congestion in a manner which was both effective in reducing the effects of congestion and which was practical to implement. In the second method, steel congestion in RC was effectively reduced by the use of self-consolidating concrete (SCC), which does not require the use of vibrators in its casting. In the final method, steel congestion was effectively reduced by the use of headed bars instead of traditional hooked bars.  This first and third approach is emerging as a research topic of special interest in the American Concrete Institute. In evaluating these three approaches, and in combining them in this study, varied types of concrete were used. Shear testing was conducted using a lightweight concrete mix. Flexural testing of lightweight prestressed concrete  (PC) beams was conducted using SCC. Seismic testing of headed bars in RC beam-column connections was conducted using a normal weight concrete mix. These three experiments were the subject matter of this study. In these studies the experimental results were compared with the ACI 318-08 provisions and with existing modeling equations proposed by many researchers. New models were proposed which better correlated with the test results were proposed. Therefore, although other studies in the world may have dealt with the relief of steel congestion in RC and/or PC  structures, in researching these three unique methods for the relief of steel congestion it was discovered that several variations and combinations of such methods can provide effective solutions for diverse conditions. Most of all, this study should prove important in providing the basis for additional research since the guidelines and codes regarding the relief of steel congestion are shown to be based upon previously limited data.
KW  - Beams
KW  - Bents
KW  - Concrete bridges
KW  - Flexural strength
KW  - Lightweight concrete
KW  - Prestressed concrete
KW  - Reinforced concrete
KW  - Reinforcing bars
KW  - Seismic tests
KW  - Self compacting concrete
KW  - Shear tests
KW  - Steel fibers
KW  - Structural connection
UR  - http://www.oktc.org/otc/files/finalReports/OTCREOS9.1-27-F.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1262831
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449524
AU  - Matsuo, Miwa
AU  - Ishise, Hiroyuki
AU  - University of Iowa, Iowa City
AU  - Mid-America Transportation Center
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - The U.S.-Canada Border Effect: Smaller Than Previously Thought and Becoming Smaller
PY  - 2012/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 47p
AB  - The authors revisit the effect of the U.S.-Canada national border on trade, considering to what extent the border reduces trade when observable economic factors are controlled. A reexamination of the data yields estimates of the border effect that are 50% higher than previously expected (Feenstra, 2004); however, the nonlinearity of the estimation and distance measure reduce the effect by 65%. The authors therefore conclude that the border effect in 1993 had a factor of 4.10. This figure is 15% lower than the effect proposed by previous research. The authors also calculate the border effect for subsequent years and find that this effect steadily decreased to a low of 3.21 in 2007. Interestingly, a traditional linear methodology cannot be used to identify this decline clearly.
KW  - Border effect
KW  - Border regions
KW  - Canada
KW  - Gravity models
KW  - International trade
KW  - Trade
KW  - United States
KW  - United States-Canada Border
UR  - http://matc.unl.edu/assets/documents/matcfinal/Matsuo_FreightBottlenecksandtheBorderPuzzle.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46150/Matsuo_Bottlenecks_473_FINAL_COMBINED.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217072
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447541
AU  - Qi, Yan
AU  - El Gendy, Amin
AU  - Wang, Feng
AU  - Jackson State University, Jackson
AU  - Mississippi Department of Transportation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Evaluation of MDOT's Distress Thresholds for Maintained Pavement Projects
PY  - 2012/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 100p
AB  - As an alternative to traditional contracting, pavement warranty has been adopted in Mississippi since 2000, aimed to enhance pavement performance and protect the investment in pavement construction. Currently, a manual distress survey method and the associated deduct point-based pavement condition rating approach are employed to monitor the performance of warranty pavements (maintained projects). The main objective of this study is to evaluate the appropriateness of using the current deduct points and distress thresholds to monitor the performance of the maintained projects in Mississippi. In the study, a comprehensive literature review and online survey were conducted to review the recent state of practice of pavement warranty in North America. The analytical section of the study employed pavement distress and riding quality data collected from warranty pavements and the corresponding data of non-warranty pavements stored in the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) Pavement Management System (PMS) for the statistical analysis. Using raw data, converted deduct points, and composite index as performance indicators, basic statistics were developed to investigate the distribution of performance indicators at various service times and the corresponding percentiles associated with the existing threshold values. In addition, pairwise comparisons were conducted to examine the evolvement of distress over time for warranted and non-warranted pavements. Further, two sample t-tests were performed to compare the performance of warranted and non-warranted pavements at the same service time. The survey study has shown that most other pavement warranty programs in other states use direct measurements of pavement distresses or densities of pavement distresses for their distress indicators and thresholds while the pavement warranty program at MDOT employs deduct points based distress thresholds which are quantities converted from measurements of pavement distresses. The analytical results show that the performance of the warranty pavements is significantly better than that of the non-warranty pavements at the same service time level, and warranty pavements can maintain at high service levels for a longer time than non-warranty pavements. The pavement warranty program adopted by MDOT has improved pavement performance, and is effective in practice. However, the current distress thresholds adopted by MDOT are inconsistent with regard to the various corresponding percentile levels for different distress types at a same service time, and the different increase rates of the percentile level for different distress types over service time. It is suggested that direct measurements of pavement distresses or distress densities be used as distress thresholds, and consistent threshold levels be implemented for all distress types.
KW  - Literature reviews
KW  - Mississippi
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Pavement maintenance
KW  - Pavement management systems
KW  - Pavement performance
KW  - Service time
KW  - Surveys
KW  - Warranty
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46040/State_Study_221_-_Evaluation_of_MDOT_s_Distress_Thresholds_for_Maintained_Pavement_Projects.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46100/46122/State_Study_221_-_Evaluation_of_MDOT_s_Distress_Thresholds_for_Maintained_Pavement_Projects.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214781
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447240
AU  - Macias, Thomas
AU  - Nelson, Elysia
AU  - Watts, Richard
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Environmental Concern, Social Capital and the Social Context of Tailpipe Emissions-Related Knowledge in Northern Climates
PY  - 2012/06/30
SP  - 36p
AB  - Approximately a quarter of all greenhouse gases originate from motor vehicle tailpipe  emissions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007).  Along with reducing  household energy usage, changes in transportation behavior would have the most direct  impact on lowering consumer output of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide. Despite  increased levels of awareness surrounding global warming and interest in reducing  greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, there is little evidence that people have been willing to  make changes in their lives to attain this collective goal. That technological improvements alone have not been able to reduce overall CO2 emissions draws attention to the motivations  people have, if any, to reduce vehicle emissions as a matter of daily practice.  This project has thus been motivated by three central questions: What do people know about  vehicle tailpipe emissions? How does social context inform this knowledge and concern about  environmental impacts, more generally?; and How do knowledge of vehicle tailpipe emissions and environmental concern grounded in social context affect individual transportation  behavior?
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Public opinion
KW  - Social factors
KW  - Travel behavior
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-12-011.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214564
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01447238
AU  - McRae, Glenn
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
AU  - Federal Highway Administration
AU  - University of Vermont, Burlington
TI  - Transportation Education 
Demonstration Pilot Program
UVM Transportation 
Research Center
PY  - 2012/06/30/Final Report
SP  - 16p
AB  - The Transportation Education Development Pilot Program develops  innovative workforce development programs to attract and retain skilled workers in the  transportation sector of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and encourages statewide  economic development by cultivating a well-trained workforce.  The U.S. Department of  Transportation awarded $979,829 to the University of Vermont's Transportation  Research Center as part of a $1.01 million workforce development project to help  develop four innovative programs. Three programs, Transportation Systems Institute, Transportation Systems Academy, and Second Careers in Transportation, are aimed at attracting and retaining skilled workers. Non-traditional labor sectors (e.g. young adults, retirees, veterans) are provided with transportation career awareness and skill building. One program, Community College, has assessed the capacity of community colleges nationwide to participate in transportation workforce development.
KW  - Community colleges
KW  - Education and training
KW  - Maine
KW  - New Hampshire
KW  - Personnel development
KW  - Personnel retention
KW  - Recruiting
KW  - Transportation
KW  - Transportation careers
KW  - Vermont
UR  - http://www.uvm.edu/~transctr/research/trc_reports/UVM-TRC-12-013.pdf
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/46000/46000/46024/UVM-TRC-12-013.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1214562
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01431181
AU  - Srinivasan, Sivaramakrishnan
AU  - Nowrouzian, Roosbeh
AU  - University of Florida, Gainesville
AU  - Center for Multimodal Solutions for Congestion Mitigation
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Tour Generation Models for Florida
PY  - 2012/06/25/Final Report
SP  - 39p
AB  - Household travel surveys from three regions of Florida (Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami areas) were examined to understand patterns in travel behavior. Tours were constructed and characterized in terms of purpose, travel party composition, complexity, and flexibility. The empirical findings underscore the need for travel-demand models that incorporate trip-chaining and intra-household interactions. A framework for modeling tour generation was also developed. This comprises a suite of four models applied sequentially. These models were estimated for each of the three regions (a total of 12 multinomial logit models in all). This study also examined the transferability of tour-generation models among three metropolitan regions in Florida. Naïve transfer methods are examined to assess the performance of the transferred models (from two other regions) to that of the locally-estimated model. Transferability is evaluated using multiple measures such as aggregate and disaggregate predictive ability and the aggregate elasticities to specific socio-economic factors. Overall, while it might be acceptable to use a similar modeling framework, caution must be exercised in borrowing parameters from one area for use in another region. The current study can be significantly extended using the recent Florida add-on samples to the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) to guide the efforts to build a standardized activity-based modeling system for Florida.
KW  - Activity-based models
KW  - Florida
KW  - Households
KW  - Jacksonville (Florida)
KW  - Miami (Florida)
KW  - Multinomial logits
KW  - National Household Travel Survey
KW  - Tampa (Florida)
KW  - Transferability of models
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel demand
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Trip generation
UR  - http://cms.ce.ufl.edu/research/srinivasan_CMS_2009-008_final.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1189076
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01520423
TI  - Investigation of Corrosion and other Deterioration Effects in Highway Bridge Components using Non-destructive Testing Technology of Acoustic Emission
AB  - The degradation of civil infrastructure is an ongoing problem in terms of not only structural engineering but in maintenance planning as well. The major dilemma for bridge owners is detecting the degradation of the structure, and effective planning with regards to maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, or replacement. This difficulty increases when the structure becomes difficult to inspect due to access restrictions or discontinuities that cannot be seen visually. Despite these challenges, it has been shown that nondestructive tests and monitoring can help assess the condition of the bridge so that informed decisions regarding maintenance can be made. The rising demand for ensuring the integrity and performance of our nation's bridges that are usually subjected to severe environmental effects require inspection for evaluation of their structural conditions. A combination of load and corrosion loss is the main cause of deterioration in both concrete and steel bridges. For concrete bridges in long-term service, the degradation caused by corrosion of reinforcement due to chloride ingress and concrete cracking is the major problem. The rate of deterioration is unpredictable in both materials. Thus, the danger to motorists and the economic consequences that the failure of a bridge would create is self evident. Improvement in safety of the nation's transportation network is The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT's) stated priority. Highways are vital components of the transportation infrastructure. Thus safety of highway bridges is crucial for improving the safety of the nation's transportation network. In a technologically advanced nation like ours, it is imperative to conduct research and utilize technologies that enhance highway bridge safety for achievement of such goals. Research on and utilization of non-destructive test and monitoring technologies is one of the focus areas in ESITAC's strategic planning. It is thus proposed to utilize non-destructive testing technology (NDT), in collaboration with VDOT's District Structure and Bridge Engineering Department and its research arm the Virginia Center of Transportation Innovation and Research (VCTIR), for accurate, reliable and durable methods to investigate degradation mechanisms of highway bridges and to help take remedial measures to prevent spread of degradation.  There are concrete beam and steel girder bridges in the state of Virginia. There is an inherent need and interest by researchers to have a better understanding regarding the failure process for this type of bridge, and subsequently, the desire to improve and enhance the ability to inspect these types of bridge structures. Thus the purpose of this proposal is to illustrate how the use of acoustic emission (AE) monitoring can provide real-time information regarding the structural integrity of the girders and pillars on the bridge while in use. Previous AE studies on bridges such as the one on Coastguard Blvd. in Portsmouth, VA and the ongoing investigations on the bridge at Denbigh Boulevard have provided a comfortable basis on the utility of AE technology for real time investigations without the affecting the traffic flow. In the proposed studies, this project focuses specifically on corrosion aspects of the degradation even as we continue to establish the role of freight traffic movement under a bridge on bridge structural components. Accordingly, for the period of 2012 - 2013, a potential test bridge like Virginia Structure No. 2222, Federal Structure ID 20727 in Newport News, Virginia will be studied in consultations and discussions with Virginia Council for Transportation Innovation and Research (VCTIR) and VDOT's District Structure and Bridge Engineering Department.
KW  - Corrosion
KW  - Degradation failures
KW  - Highway bridges
KW  - Inspection
KW  - Live loads
KW  - Nondestructive tests
KW  - Structural health monitoring
UR  - http://biz.hamptonu.edu/esitac/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1303805
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01501467
TI  - A Research Framework for Studying Transit Bus Driver Distraction
AB  - Hampton University's Eastern Seaboard Intermodal Transportation Applications Center (ESITAC) conducted an exploratory study on bus driver distraction at Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) to identify sources of driver distraction and the risks associated while engaging in potential distracting tasks. Analysis of accidents has found driver distraction to be a significant cause of accidents on the highways. Hence, studying the causes of driver distraction that impact its risk level is needed for an overall understanding of accident occurrences. There is general scarcity of research in this field; therefore, no established research framework to study transit driver distractions is available. However, to conduct and implement a driver distraction study in other bus transit agencies, it would be helpful to develop a standard framework for data collection, analysis, and prediction of driver distraction under various conditions. The proposed framework would provide guidelines for distraction studies for wide range of cost and time intervals such as a quick, low cost study like analysis of existing accident databases to relatively higher cost, longer duration study like field data collection and statistical modeling and analysis. The framework would also include statistical and simulation tools to assess and validate the historical or empirical results. This ESITAC project proposes to formulate a research framework for data collection, analysis, modeling and predicting driver distraction that could be used by other transit agencies. The framework will be based on the careful modifications and revisions of the research work conducted at HRT. Data from other transit agencies in the Commonwealth of Virginia is anticipated and would possibly be utilized in development of this framework. The framework will include procedures for studying driver distraction at transit agencies, a standard taxonomy of distracting activities and their classification, modeling of high risk distracting activities to analyze driver characteristics and external factors, and tools for validating and predicting distraction levels. The major deliverable from the proposed research will include a research framework consisting of the following modules for studying driver distraction at any transit agency: (1) standardized data collection processes; (2) list of possible sources of distraction; (3) method of classifying risk activities; (4) techniques to model and analyze risky activities; (5) methods to validate the model results; (6) guidelines to use results for development of policy and procedures; and (7) guidelines to select an appropriate distraction study method.
KW  - Bus drivers
KW  - Bus transit
KW  - Crash risk forecasting
KW  - Data collection
KW  - Distraction
KW  - Hampton Roads (Virginia)
KW  - Risk assessment
KW  - Training
UR  - http://biz.hamptonu.edu/esitac/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1280980
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01501466
TI  - Investigation of Fine Particulate Matter, NOx and Tropospheric Ozone Transport Around a Major Roadway
AB  - In a collaborative effort sponsored by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), regulators, researchers, and consultants identified and prioritized the research needs for the transportation community.  With respect to particulate matter (PM), monitoring near highways was identified as of the highest basic research priority, and evaluating hot-spot models for PM was identified as of the highest 'applied research' priority.  These recommendations are parallel to the proposals by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which may require metropolitan planning organizations (MPO's) and departments of transportation (DOT's) to estimate the impacts of transportation projects near roadways.  However, available modeling tools have not been evaluated with the PM monitoring data, since such data to perform hot-spot modeling are not available.  Therefore, near-roadway monitoring of PM is essential for spatial hot-spot modeling to aid the state DOT's and MPO's in their estimations of the impact of transportation projects.  This activity will also contribute to the improvement of the hot-spot models. Through their reactions in the atmosphere, nitrogen oxides from vehicular emissions lead to the production of a complex mixture of chemicals, which can further transform into secondary aerosols that increase the particulate matter (PM) content of the ambient air.  PM is a complex mixture of organic and inorganic matter that is present in the atmosphere as liquid droplets and solid particles. About 15% of particulate matter is produced by transportation activity and about 24 % of the total PM10 emitted by all sources in US is PM2.5. Seventy two per cent of the transportation-related PM2.5 emissions are due to diesel vehicles. Ten per cent of the nonroad emissions are due to marine mobile sources and 7 % is attributed to each of railroads and aircraft.  The National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM2.5 are set at 15.0 &amp;#956;g/m3 as the annual standard and 35 &amp;#956;g/m3 as the 24-hour standard; and for PM10, 150 &amp;#956;g/m3 as the 24-hour standard.   EPA finalized guidance on PM hotspot modeling on December 20, 2010, and initiated a two-year grace period before these new requirements become mandatory. Therefore, in this project, it is proposed to do simultaneous NOx, O3, and PM measurements during this cycle.  These simultaneous measurements will enable better prediction of the pollutant concentrations by existing models; and will facilitate the validation of the interactive chemistry between those compounds cited in literature.  Thus, this project will address two research priorities identified for the transportation community, namely, pollutant monitoring near roadways and evaluation of the hot-spot dispersion models.  Thus, it will help Virginia Department of Transportation (and ultimately, the US Department of Transportation) to develop on-road estimates for state implementation plans (SIPs) and regional and project-level transportation conformity analysis.  To address these issues, this research project, is specifically proposing the following four tasks: (1) to install the TEOM 1405-DF inside the all weather enclosure; (2) to install the enclosure and the TEOM on a hand cart; (3) to obtain coordinated measurements of NO, NOx, ozone, and PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations and meteorological conditions at varying distances from the I-64 section adjacent to the Hampton University property, together with the traffic data, taking into account the experience gained during the research performed in the last three years; and (4) to use CALINE4 to estimate the NO2 and PM concentrations at receptors located at the measurement points. The emission factors will be evaluated using MOVES.
KW  - Air quality management
KW  - Exhaust gases
KW  - Hot spot identification
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Ozone
KW  - Particulates
KW  - Pollutants
KW  - Troposphere
UR  - http://biz.hamptonu.edu/esitac/
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1280979
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01539930
TI  - Title An innovative survey design to understand sustainable travel behaviors  -potential of a rolling sample survey to replace traditional household travel surveys
AB  - This project  proposes an innovative survey with rolling samples to address a major fiscal challenge faced by many metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs). Faced with a small, but continuous budget, MPOs are increasingly unable to continue the current survey practice: conducting a large survey every 10 years. A rolling sample design also has other benefits over the current practice. Yet, for its implementation in household travel surveys, many questions exist. Some are technical issues while others are cost and procedural-related. The primary purpose of this project is to understand these issues and provide recommendations for a future household travel survey with rolling samples. It is also expected that a rolling sample design can help us understand travel behavior better for the purpose of vehicle miles of travel (VMT) reduction. By sampling participants living in very different neighborhoods, it can help us devise better VMT reduction strategies. The second purpose of this project is to assess the potential of a rolling sample design in addressing the potential of land use and infrastructure related strategies for VMT reduction. The project proposes to take a three-pronged approach: an extensive review of the relevant issues, a pilot data collection effort with a survey with rolling enrollment, and the analysis of the survey administration process as well as the data collected. The research will help transportation planners and analysts to proactively reposition their service in light of the changing budgetary environment by developing a new approach to travel surveys based on small samples but continuous enrollment. This new approach is also more consistent with the recent changes in data collection methods used by the US Census Bureau. The proposed research will also enable researchers to gain a much better understanding of the potential of designing a new methodology for empirical examinations of the effects of built environments on transportation outcomes based on data collected from continuous enrollment.
KW  - Land use planning
KW  - Metropolitan planning organizations
KW  - Sustainable development
KW  - Travel behavior
KW  - Travel surveys
KW  - Vehicle miles of travel
UR  - http://depts.washington.edu/pactrans/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PacTrans-3-624881-Chen-Cynthia-Multi-Project.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1326363
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489637
TI  - SHSP Resource Needs Assessment
AB  - This project supports an inventory and assessment of existing Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) resources. It will also investigate outreach needs for internal and external customers and develop a gap analysis and scoping for a SHSP toolbox.
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Information management
KW  - Needs assessment
KW  - Strategic Highway Safety Plan
KW  - Strategic planning
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258867
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01466555
TI  - Highway Traffic Noise Prediction and Analysis Fiscal Year 2012 through Fiscal Year 2015 Federal Aid to Highway Tasks
AB  - The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Traffic Noise Model (TMN)  was developed by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) for the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA's) Office of Natural Environment to aid in compliance with environmental regulations. The Volpe Center will provide continuing support to this effort by: (1) Completing development and distribution of TMN Version 3.0; (2) Supporting special project analysis and other technical support; and (3) Project management.
KW  - Environmental policy
KW  - Project management
KW  - Regulations
KW  - Technical assistance
KW  - Traffic noise
KW  - Traffic Noise Model
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1234790
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481204
TI  - V2V for Safe Intersections
AB  - Increasing the use of information technology (IT) in future vehicles can solve or mitigate many of the fundamental problems that are faced today in transportation such as energy efficiency, reduced carbon footprint for cars, greener environment, and several others. Specifically, the focus of the proposed work is on making vehicles more intelligent for increasing safety at intersections, mitigating congestion, reducing the commute time of urban workers, increasing productivity of the USA (as well as other countries), increasing the energy efficiency of cars, reducing the carbon footprint of cars, and supporting a greener environment. In particular, the project propose a new technology which migrate infrastructure-based traffic lights to in-car traffic. Using the emerging vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications capability of modern cars through the dedicated short range communications (DSRC) standard at 5.9 GHz, it has been shown that this technology can make traffic control ubiquitous at every intersection in urban areas. Through V2V communications, the vehicles at different legs (or approaches) of an intersection can elect a leader which can manage the traffic flow at that intersection, thus acting as a "Virtual Traffic Light". The results of our investigation in the last three years have shown that this technology can reduce the commute time of urban workers between 40-60% during rush hours which seems pretty significant in terms of reducing accidents at intersections, mitigating congestion, increasing productivity, reducing carbon footprint of cars, increasing the energy-efficiency of transportation, and supporting a greener environment.
KW  - Dedicated short range communications
KW  - Energy efficiency
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Intersections
KW  - Traffic flow
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250274
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481203
TI  - Smart Parking
AB  - Several cities are undertaking expensive parking management and pricing programs. For example, San Francisco has recently deployed a $20 million parking information and pricing program called SFPark. The goal of this proposal is to develop an inexpensive parking information and management system by leveraging Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications. The project's approach to leveraging V2V and V2I to develop a parking management system extends previous work in parking management systems. The project has developed a novel parking prediction scheme. The project proposes using data from V2V and/or V2I to infer the three key inputs used in our previous research. Each driver looking for parking has a belief about the current availability of parking. When the driver comes into contact with other drivers, updates his belief about the current availability of parking.
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Parking facilities
KW  - Parking management
KW  - Smart parking
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250273
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481202
TI  - Continuous Road Surface Distress Detection
AB  - Maintenance departments need to regularly assess the quality of the roads in order to properly maintain them. Currently, this is done by yearly inspections or in response to reports from the general public. It would be advantageous to continuously monitor the road surface so that damages like rutting and potholes can be detected as soon as they occur. Furthermore, detection of precursor signs like cracks will allow the maintenance crews to address problem areas before they develop into serious problems. This project will use a structured light sensor to collect the high quality data.
KW  - Highway maintenance
KW  - Pavement distress
KW  - Pavement monitoring
KW  - Potholes (Pavements)
KW  - Ride quality
KW  - Rutting
UR  - http://utc.ices.cmu.edu/utc/Mertz%20project%20description.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250272
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481200
TI  - Modeling, Verification and Validation of Transportation Safety
AB  - Smart transportation solutions require computer control that supposedly achieves this smart functionality actually is reliably smart. For example, a "smart" vehicular safety controller that tries to prevent rear-ending the car ahead by changing lanes into an open spot in the middle lane would just cause a crash if all other cars also decided to avoid collisions by moving to the middle lane. In such situations, a car control strategy that looks smart locally turns out to be fatal globally. Thus, there is a need to find good ways of ensuring that bugs in smart car control solutions will never cause serious problems. For connected cars or infrastructure broadcasts, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication has an influence on the car. Phenomena of local information versus global impact also need to be taken into account. Validation for complex systems has primarily been limited to simulation, which can only cover a minuscule fraction of the relevant state space. For answering crucial safety and correctness questions about smart transportation systems more thoroughly, the project proposes to extend and develop verification techniques based on logic. The approach manages system complexity by successively reducing complex physical systems in a modular way to simpler elements. The approach is unique in that it provides proofs as evidence for correctness, useful for certification purposes.
KW  - Automated vehicle control
KW  - Crash avoidance systems
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250270
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01481199
TI  - Distributed Transit Rider Messaging
AB  - Uncertainty, lack of transit system awareness, and feelings of isolation have negative impact on all riders, regardless of abilities, thereby reducing community livability and transit demand. Lower transit demand, in turn, decreases economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. The goal of this project is to facilitate information sharing as a means of improving the transit experience of all riders, especially for those who cannot drive. The system, Tiramisu ("pick me up" in Italian), is a social-mobile computing system intended to connect riders and transit service providers using universal design. Tiramisu's development has been funded by the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transit and the Traffic21 program. It has been deployed since the summer of 2011 through a spinout company Tiramisu Transit, LLC and is available to the public at www.tiramisutransit.com. Tiramisu is currently advancing by implementing a rider-to-rider and rider-to-agency messaging system to help improve rider and agency awareness of current transit system state. We will adapt this system to support safety-related messaging and information sharing with other Carnegie Mellon University-Pennsylvania State University Transportation Centers (CMU-Penn UTC) systems. The system will allow riders to report situations observed and for the transit agency to push out critical news to riders who may be impacted by an unfolding situation.
KW  - Awareness
KW  - Information dissemination
KW  - Information technology
KW  - Messages (Communications)
KW  - Public transit
KW  - Transit operating agencies
KW  - Transit riders
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1250269
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01464950
TI  - Automatic Recognition and Understanding the Driving Environment for Driver Feedback
AB  - The long-term goal of this project is to develop techniques for building internal models of the vehicle's static environment (objects, features, terrain) and of the vehicle's dynamic environment (people and vehicle moving in the vehicle's environment) from sensor data, which can operate online and can be used to provide the information necessary to make recommendations, to generate alarms, or to take emergency action.
KW  - Automotive computers
KW  - Driver feedback
KW  - Driving environments
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Terrain
KW  - Vehicle dynamics
KW  - Warning systems
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1233183
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01464949
TI  - Sensory Augmentation for Increased Awareness of Driving Environment
AB  - The goals of this project are to extend the state of the art of vehicle perception systems for use in roadway traffic and develop systems that can model and predict the actions of multiple simultaneous road users in order to identify potentially hazardous situations before they turn into accidents. The project proposes augmenting vehicles with sensors and processing capabilities to perceive obstacles (both static and dynamic), predict how those obstacles might move over time, identify locations where unseen hazards might appear, and continually evaluate these values to determine the possibility that an unsafe condition might occur in the immediate future. While the Urban Challenge focused on fully autonomous vehicles, similar perception systems could also be deployed in manually-driven cars that could alert the human driver if an unsafe road condition is approaching. The project uses behavioral models of traffic to identify the perceived intent of nearby vehicles, use those intent models to predict the most likely future positions of those vehicles and determine whether a potentially unsafe condition may arise in the near future.
KW  - Augmentation systems
KW  - Autonomous land vehicles
KW  - Driving environments
KW  - Obstructions (Navigation)
KW  - Perception
KW  - Sensors
KW  - Vehicle dynamics
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1233182
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01464942
TI  - Assessment of Information & Communication Technologies in Transportation
AB  - Introduction of advanced control and communication technologies on US roadways and vehicles is likely to have a variety of impacts to be considered. Congestion, emissions, and accident rates could all be affected. Any reduced congestion in the system will alter travel demand decisions, often reducing the net effect of the new technologies. Moreover, combinations of new technologies may have synergies that affect assessments. The project will estimate the collective impact of different technologies in a traffic simulation model to help the design and implementation of the new technologies. Improving the design and implementation of the new advanced control and communication technologies will improve their safety and efficiency impacts. The project will review and assess the costs and benefits, including accident costs, congestion and environmental costs and benefits (measured by air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions) of a range of new information and communications technologies, using a consistent set of emission factors and analysis boundaries. We will identify potential technologies and combinations of technologies, and develop a region-specific tool to aid local decision-makers in assessing benefits and costs and in choosing between and designing technologies. The tools will be available for widespread use, and will contribute to the growing interest in 'smart growth' guidelines and standards.
KW  - Benefit cost analysis
KW  - Information and communication technologies
KW  - Smart growth
KW  - Technological innovations
KW  - Traffic congestion
KW  - Traffic simulation
KW  - Travel demand
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1233175
ER  - 

TY  - ABST
AN  - 01489638
TI  - Implementation of the Focused Approach
AB  - This project is an annual monitoring of safety-related activities and state touches
KW  - Highway safety
KW  - Monitoring
KW  - Project management
KW  - States
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1258868
ER  - 

TY  - RPRT
AN  - 01449703
AU  - Waite, Andrea
AU  - Walsh, Richard
AU  - Garcia, Dominie
AU  - Booz Allen Hamilton
AU  - Research and Innovative Technology Administration
TI  - Enabling a Secure Environment for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) Transactions: April 2012 Public Workshop Proceedings
PY  - 2012/06/08
SP  - 28p
AB  - This report provides a summary and overview of the Public Workshop entitled, “Enabling a Secure Environment for Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Transactions”, presented by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The workshop took place on April 19-20, 2012 at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. and was intended to bring together various public and private stakeholders interested in the connected vehicle program to provide updates on the program's progress and related policy work. The workshop included discussion of the communications security architecture and design under development, and provided an opportunity for solicitation of input related to additional critical areas of analysis. Multiple breakout sessions were held to discuss business model  frameworks, and operational and implementation considerations. Key take away points from those sessions and plenary sessions are included in this proceedings document.
KW  - Business models
KW  - Connected vehicle technologies
KW  - Implementation
KW  - Intelligent vehicles
KW  - Security
KW  - Vehicle to infrastructure communications
KW  - Vehicle to vehicle communications
KW  - Workshops
UR  - http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45621/FHWA-JPO-12-072_508_CME_Workshop_Proceedings_Report_FINAL.pdf
UR  - https://trid.trb.org/view/1217363
ER  -