A framework for guiding transportation improvements to support desired land use

There is a growing recognition that transportation and land use policies cannot succeed independently of one another. The interactions between them must be understood, analyzed, and accounted for in order for land use and transportation plans and policies to be effective and successful. A methodological framework is presented that can help urban planners determine what outcomes can be expected in terms of change in land use patterns within the targeted communities and within the county should a transportation project be undertaken. The framework is based on an interaction between travel demand model TRANSIMS and land use model TELUM that enables complete regional transportation and land use analysis. The framework is applied on a real world case study in New Jersey. The study evaluates the value and impact of the transportation improvement project and ascertains if it brings a desired impact on land use and transportation infrastructure. This integrated model provides an understanding of the future network conditions which will consequently lead to a better assessment of transportation improvement alternatives and land use planning. The framework provides answers to research questions in terms of what changes in land use patterns within the targeted communities and within the county can be expected if an improvement project of a transportation facility is undertaken. The framework also identifies changes in roadway network performance (travel time, speed, volume, delay) as well. The framework fully captures and incorporates induced travel demand into a regional transportation and land use analysis. This dissertation describes in detail how MPOs, state DOTs, and other planning agencies can create an integrated transportation-land use model from the ground up or create it as an extension to their existing analytical tools to bridge the gap between the two models. The dissertation identifies shortcomings of current methodology used by MPO in analyzing the impacts of a reconstruction project. It provides guidelines which enable MPOs to achieve compliance with federal mandates. It also provides step-by-step guidance of how to develop a framework which integrates transportation system and land use. The results show that the interactions between the transportation system and land use are complex and highlight the fact that the interrelationship between the two systems changes constantly and continues to evolve over time. The dissertation also explains how the integration between the two systems can be achieved through the use of multiple regression models which are built upon regional socioeconomic factors. The contributions of this dissertation to the field of transportation policy and planning are as follows: A framework allows planning agencies to utilize transportation improvement projects to guide future development patterns, densities and intensities of land use as well as encourage infill developments in an area of particular interest. A framework allows planning agencies to trace anomalies in land use patterns and identify crucial factors influencing such developments. It provides guidelines which enable planning agencies to achieve compliance with federal mandates. This dissertation discusses in detail how to create an integrated transportation-land use model from data that is readily available to planning agencies. It provides technical information in regards to TRANSIMS model development, the feedback process, and the convergence statistics. The developed model can assist urban planners to identify which transportation improvement projects should be undertaken, and at what location, in order to bring about desired outcomes. The dissertation concludes with a methodology used to calculate the economic viability of a transportation improvement project. The methodology compares the costs of construction to the estimated benefits (or savings) in various user cost categories, including travel time, fuel consumption, and vehicle emissions

Effects of Emergency Vehicle Warning Lighting System Characteristics on Driver Perception and Behavior

Secondary crashes, including struck-by incidents are a leading cause of line-of-duty deaths among emergency responders, such as firefighters, law enforcement officers, and emergency medical service providers. The introduction of light emitting diode (LED) sources and advanced lighting control systems, provides a wide range of options for emergency lighting configurations. This study investigated the impact of lighting color, intensity, modulation, and flash rate on driver behavior while traversing a traffic incident scene at night. The impact of retroreflective chevron markings in combination with lighting configurations, as well as the measurement of “moth-to-flame” effects of emergency lighting on drivers was also investigated. The results indicate that higher intensity lights were judged consistently as more glaring, but were only rated as marginally more visible. This finding may suggest that dimming emergency lights at night could results in near equal visibility, but with significantly less glare. The rated visibility of the lights appears to be related to the perceived saturation of the color, while discomfort glare is related to the amount of short-wavelength spectral content. This suggest colors at the extreme ends of the light spectrum (red and blue) are more visible. However, the results indicate that blue lights, with their shorter wavelength are more glaring than red lights. Therefore, red may be a better choice for emergency vehicle lighting at night. The results also suggest that the presence of very highly reflective markings may decrease drivers’ ability to see first responders working adjacent to their vehicles. This is likely because the retro-reflective sheeting is compounding the emergency lighting visible to the drivers as well as the reflection of the driver’s headlights against the sheeting. Taking the study in its totality, it is likely that national standards are needed which specify the maximum intensities for emergency vehicle lighting at night. Further research is needed to identify these levels and likewise investigate the maximum luminance for retro-reflective sheeting

Coordinated Transit Response Planning and Operations Support Tools for Mitigating Impacts of All-Hazard Emergency Events

This report summarizes current computer simulation capabilities and the availability of near-real-time data sources allowing for a novel approach of analyzing and determining optimized responses during disruptions of complex multi-agency transit system. The authors integrated a number of technologies and data sources to detect disruptive transit system performance issues, analyze the impact on overall system-wide performance, and statistically apply the likely traveler choices and responses. The analysis of unaffected transit resources and the provision of temporary resources are then analyzed and optimized to minimize overall impact of the initiating event

Models and Solution Algorithms for Asymmetric Traffic and Transit Assignment Problems

Modeling the transportation system is important because it provides a “common ground” for discussing policy and examining the future transportation plan required in practices. Generally, modeling is a simplified representation of the real world; however, this research added value to the modeling practice by investigating the asymmetric interactions observed in the real world in order to explore potential improvements of the transportation modeling. The Asymmetric Transportation Equilibrium Problem (ATEP) is designed to precisely model actual transportation systems by considering asymmetric interactions of flows. The enhanced representation of the transportation system by the ATEP is promising because there are various asymmetric interactions in real transportation such as intersections, highway ramps, and toll roads and in the structure of the transit fares. This dissertation characterizes the ATEP with an appropriate solution algorithm and its applications. First, the research investigates the factors affecting the convergence of the ATEP. The double projection method is applied to various asymmetric types and complexities in the different sizes of networks in order to identify the influential factors including demand intensities, network configuration, route composition between modes, and sensitivity of the cost function. Secondly, the research develops an enhancement strategy for improvement in computational speed for the double projection method. The structural characteristics of the ATEP are used to develop the convergence enhancement strategy that significantly reduces the computational burdens. For the application side, instances of asymmetric interactions observed in in-vehicle crowding and the transit fare structure are modeled to provide a suggestion on policy approach for a transit agency. The direct application of the crowding model into the real network indicates that crowd modeling with multi user classes could influence the public transportation system planning and the revenue achievement of transit agencies. Moreover, addition of the disutility factor, crowding, not always causes the increase of disutility from the transit uses. The application of the non-additive fare structure in the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) network addresses the potential of the distance-based fare structure should the UTA make a transition to this fare structure from their current fare model. The analysis finds that the zero base fare has the highest potential for increasing the transit demand. However, collecting less than $0.50 with a certain buffer distance for the first boarding has potential for attracting the users to UTA\u27s transit market upon the fare structure change

Effectiveness of Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) in Small and Rural Communities

Ensuring the safety of pedestrians and cyclists in rural and small communities is becoming increasingly important as planners seek to encourage active travel and eliminate traffic-related injuries and fatalities, consistent with Vision Zero. One area of focus is the protection of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, who face a significant risk of injury or death in a traffic collision. The risks to pedestrians are particularly high when crossing roadways in high-risk areas such as high-speed and low pedestrian-volume rural roads and between intersections where drivers may not expect them. One concern in rural communities is that pedestrians may face a heightened risk in rural transition zones as they approach the boundary of a city, town, or village from a higher-speed rural highway. In these settings drivers’ perceptions may lag behind their changing surroundings, and their awareness of reduced speed limits and the presence of pedestrians may be diminished. This report addresses the need to evaluate the effectiveness of RRFBs in rural and small communities. We first review prior literature on RRFB effectiveness to synthesize research insights that provide contextspecific guidance for their use as well as gaps in this literature. To supplement this body of research, we use a rigorous observational research design to evaluate the effectiveness of RRFBs within the unique context of small and rural communities in Vermont. Our results are used to provide recommendations for updating Vermont\u27s RRFB guidelines