Remediation Ranking of High Crash Fatality Locations Involving Older Drivers in Florida's Rural Counties

Raj Bridgelall is the program director for the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI) Center for Surface Mobility Applications & Real-time Simulation environments (SMARTSeSM).In 2019, Florida's aging road users (65 years or older) accounted for 20% of the population but 37% of all crashes. Florida Department of Transportation has identified aging road users as one of the areas that requires attention in achieving Vision Zero--a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. Research has documented that fatality rates in motor vehicle crashes are higher in rural than urban areas. Drivers in rural areas may be more vulnerable because they rely more on driving and consequently are reluctant to stop. This study identifies factors contributing to fatalities among aging drivers in 14 rural Florida counties experiencing high crash rates. The methodology used a multicriteria decision-making model, namely the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), to identify and categorize the causes of fatal crashes among drivers aged 65+, and to rank their 14 rural counties for remediation measures. FAHP methodology calculates crash factor weights and ranks the counties using pairwise comparisons of those factors to compare and quantify them. Results revealed that the top contributing factors to fatal crashes among drivers 65+ were cloudy, foggy, or rainy weather and when roadways were sandy or wet. Driving in the dark and at dawn also increased the risk of fatal crashes within this specified age group. These findings could help policy makers in each location focus on remediation measures such as older driver education and infrastructural improvements to address the most critical factors in fatal accidents.https://www.ugpti.org/about/staff/viewbio.php?id=7

Optimizing the Total Production and Maintenance Cost of an Integrated Multi-Product Process and Maintenance Planning (IPPMP) Model

Today, a competitive manufacturing environment imposes further production cost reduction on modern companies. Seeking proper recommendations in production and maintenance planning are the two essential cornerstones of effective production organizations. In the current research, we have considered the problem of integrated multi-product process and maintenance planning on a capacitated machine that is susceptible to random breakdown. Maintenance processes comprise general perfect repair (non-cyclical) as preventive maintenance (PM) in the early stages and minimal repair as corrective maintenance for the occurrence of machine breakdown. Furthermore, a rational presumption is reflected in the problem statement in which the time and cost of PM are pertinent to the interval between the prior perfect repair and current PM. The purpose served by this paper is to minimize the cost of production accompanying PM, and the expected corrective repair, consequently, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model has been constructed to pave the way. The model investigated under two circumstances of the machine age effect and its absence. The outcome depicted that the presence of the machine age effect led to an accurate and lessen total cost calculation.Comment: This paper has been accepted by IEEE ISSE2020 6th IEEE International Symposium on Systems Engineerin

Effects of Bicycle Facility Characteristics and the Built Environment on Bicycle Use: Case Study of Fargo-Moorhead

This study developed a level of traffic stress (LTS) map for Fargo-Moorhead and used crowdsourced bicycle use data from Strava to show relationships between the built environment and bicycle use. The LTS map is useful for showing how friendly and encouraging areas are toward bicycle use, as well as for showing the connectivity of low-stress pathways, and the bicycle ridership model shows how the development of bicycle facilities and other changes to the built environment are associated with bicycle use, as measured using Strava count data. The results of the bicycle use model show that the existence of bicycle facilities is positively associated with bicycle use. This suggests that bicyclists are using the roadway design features that are meant to accommodate them, including shared-use paths, bike lanes, buffered lanes, shared-lane markings, signed-only routes, and shoulders. Other significant predictors of bicycle use included industrial employment density, which was negative, proximity to downtown or to water, low-stress connectivity, traffic volume and speed, which had unexpected positive effects, and median age

Comparing Public Transportation Services for Rural States in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains Region

The objective of this research is to compare the level of public transportation services provided in North Dakota to those of surrounding states. The study focuses on North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska (excluding the Omaha metro area), and Minnesota (excluding the Twin Cities metro area). This involves an analysis of the level of service provided, measured in terms of geographic coverage, service availability, number of vehicles in use, and vehicle hours and miles of service; the amount of service consumed, measured in terms of ridership; the level of investment from different sources; and measures that evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of service. The analysis also considers the varying levels of need throughout the region. The scope of the project includes all rural transit agencies receiving Section 5311 funding and small urban systems receiving Section 5307 funds. Overall, North Dakota performs well by some measures and not as well by others, but the level of service in the state is generally comparable to what is found in surrounding states. Statewide averages show how the states compare to each other, but there are significant variations within states regarding the level of service provided, for both rural and urban transit

Effects of Bicycle Facility Characteristics and the Built Environment on Bicycle Use: Case Study of Fargo-Moorhead \u2014 Executive Summary

This study developed a level of traffic stress (LTS) map for Fargo-Moorhead (ND-MN) and used crowdsourced bicycle use data from Strava to show relationships between the built environment and bicycle use. The LTS map is useful for showing how friendly and encouraging areas are toward bicycle use, as well as for showing the connectivity of low-stress pathways. The bicycle ridership model shows how the development of bicycle facilities and other changes to the built environment are associated with bicycle use, as measured using Strava count data. The results of the bicycle use model show that the existence of bicycle facilities is positively associated with bicycle use

Optimal Placement of Battery Electric Bus Charging Stations Considering Energy Storage Technology: Queuing Modeling Approach

In recent years, there has been growing attention on the electrification of the public transit network. Battery electric buses (BEBs) are among the promising alternatives to replace diesel-powered buses. However, the possible driving range from a full charge has proved a matter of concern, as has the waiting times of BEBs returning to terminal stops after completing their journeys. This study aimed to design an efficient electric transit network considering waiting times at terminal stops and two configurations of charger to avoid BEBs running out of charge: a fast charger with energy storage (ES) technology and one without. A queuing-based mathematical model was proposed. To validate the proposed model, we tested it on two sizes of network: the Mumford0 (small) and the Mumford2 (large). By conducting a sensitivity analysis, certain model parameters, including the power of fast chargers, duration of service interval, BEB energy consumption, and maximum allowable waiting time were found to have substantial impacts on the electric public transit network. ES chargers were found to have the potential to save 15.35% of total costs. Other analyses confirmed that altering the capacity of fast- and ES chargers could affect the number of chargers required in the transit network and the total cost. Policies are suggested for transit agencies to plan to optimize their electric transit networks

Extending Micromobility Deployments: A Concept and Local Case Study

Raj Bridgelall is the program director for the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI) Center for Surface Mobility Applications & Real-time Simulation environments (SMARTSeSM).Micromobility is a recent phenomenon that refers to the use of small human- or electric-powered vehicles such as scooters and bikes to travel short distances, and sometimes to connect with other modes of transportation such as bus, train, or car. Deployments in major cities of the world have been both successful and challenging. This paper reviews the evolution of micromobility services from shared bicycles, dockless systems, and shared electric scooters. The authors evaluated benefits, deficiencies, and factors in adoption to inform more rigorous and extensive geospatial analysis that will examine intersections with land-use, public transit, socio-economic demographics, road networks, and traffic. This work conducted exploratory spatial data analysis and correlation of publicly available datasets on land use, trip production, traffic, and travel behavior. Data from Washington D.C. served as a case study of best practices for scaling deployments to meet the social, economic, and mobility needs of the city.https://www.ugpti.org/about/staff/viewbio.php?id=7

Literature Review of Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of High-Speed Rail in the World

Raj Bridgelall is the program director for the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI) Center for Surface Mobility Applications & Real-time Simulation environments (SMARTSeSM).Countries considering high-speed rail (HSR) developments face enormous challenges because of their high deployment cost, environmental obstacles, political opposition, and their potentially adverse effects on society. Nevertheless, HSR services are importantly sustainable that can have positive and transformative effects on the economic growth of a nation. This paper systematically reviews and classifies impact areas of HSR deployments around the world as well as the analytical methods used to evaluate those impacts. We have utilized the scholarly scientific database to find articles in HSR systems. By defining some rules, we select 116 articles between 1997 and March 2020. The approach revealed interesting patterns and trends in space, time, and sentiment of the analyzed impacts on society, the economy, and the environment. The findings can inform decision-making about HSR developments and deployments, and the gaps identified in the literature can propose new research opportunities for future studies.https://www.ugpti.org/about/staff/viewbio.php?id=7