Evaluating Metrics and Performance to Advance Transportation Equity

This Technical Summary pertains to Report 2023-14, \u201cQualitative and Quantitative Analysis to Advance Transportation Equity,\u201d published March 2023. More information is available at mdl.mndot.gov.MnDOT operates under an Equity Lens Framework, which, in addition to supporting the core agency values of accountability as well as diversity and inclusion, emphasizes underrepresented groups to achieve equitable outcomes. Measures and methods to evaluate transportation program equity impacts, however, have generally been lacking. To assess both systemwide and population-specific strategies for ensuring equitable access to transportation programs and resources, MnDOT wanted a greater understanding of how to develop soun

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis to Advance Transportation

(c) 1036219Measuring equity in transportation is vitally important to ensure that the transportation network serves the entire community without introducing barriers to access. However, not all methods for assessing transportation equity produce the same results or are appropriate for all scenarios\u2014the analysis methods used should be selected to produce the highest likelihood of determining the most equitable outcomes. This research project synthesizes previous research investigating equity assessments by MnDOT, academia, and industry and leverages these findings in concert with directly collected community experience and staff expertise to achieve the following objectives: (1) establish a detailed understanding of current challenges and needs related to equity assessment in Minnesota; (2) identify or develop assessment methods and equity-focused strategic actions that will improve the likelihood that transportation equity in Minnesota is assessed in a manner that achieves context-sensitive outcomes representative of the communities served; and (3) facilitate the adoption of identified or developed equity assessment methods and complementary strategic actions, including information detailing appropriate use cases, data requirements, and considerations through a bespoke training program

Public Private Partnerships in California: Phase II Report: Section V: Institutional Capacity

This report summarizes the literature on the scope and outcomes of P3 projects in the US. It is intended to provide a summary of the state of knowledge of P3s, and serve as a basis for further research. The report discusses motivations for using P3s in transportation infrastructure investment and their advantages and disadvantages. A set of case studies show that most of the advantages identified are evident in project outcomes, while most disadvantages are not. Toll roads are discussed in more detail, and factors that are associated with toll road implementation and outcomes are identified. The report ends with a series of conclusions and their implications for California

Curb Management Practices and Effectiveness in Improving Safety

69A3551747115/ Project 05-096Curbside access has been a growing concern in cities over the last decade as on-demand passenger or goods transportation services have proliferated. Increased activity at key loading and unloading points may increase the risk of crashes and collisions between vehicles or with nearby active travelers as vehicles maneuver to access curbside spaces and others maneuver around them. This research project investigated linkages between curb management practices and safety among travelers as vehicles navigate to and from designated curb zones within a multimodal urban environment. The project analyzed the effectiveness of curb management practices in improving safety through reduced collisions between vehicles and other travelers. The project also investigated existing curb management practices across the United States to understand safety considerations and related perspectives of cities, community stakeholders, and industry organizations. The team collected video data of curbside zone utilization in Roanoke, Virginia, and synthesized observed interactions for analysis of a small city curbside zone site. The results include interview and focus group discussions on curb management and safety considerations as well as discussion of the approach and method for primary data collection in measuring curbside safety

Extracting patterns from Twitter to promote biking

Emphasis on non-motorized travel modes (for example, biking) reduces motorized trips and provides positive effects on the environment and the quality of human life. Understanding factors that influence people to biking or bike commuting can help decision makers, transportation planners, and bike commuting networks. Historically, conventional methods like surveys and crash data analyses were conducted to understand relevant factors. Survey and crash data analysis are difficult to perform in broad scale due to data availability and efforts. An innovative approach to determining these factors is to conduct social media mining to understand sentiments or motivations of bike commuters. People use terms (with hashtag at the beginning of the term) in Twitter, a popular social media network, to express their thoughts, activities or information. This study developed a framework for using Twitter data in understating the sentiments of the bikers with minimal effort. In this study, Twitter data associated with bike commuting hashtags were obtained for eight years (2009–2016). This study provided a framework of data collection and application of various natural language processing (NLP) tools (for example, text mining, sentiment analysis) to extract knowledge from the unstructured text data. Findings show that biking is associated with weather and seasonal patterns. The general sentiment towards biking is positive. However, negative sentiments are associated with bad weather, crime, and other challenges. The polarity scores indicate somewhat positiveness in the recent few years. The developed framework and the findings of this study will help planners and decision makers to promote biking on a broader scale. Keywords: Bike commuting, Text mining, Sentiment analysis, Polarity, Twitter, Social medi

Congenital idiopathic atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini

Idiopathic atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini is a disorder of dermal atrophy. There is a female predominance and almost never does the condition present at birth. Histopathological examination reveals attenuated dermis. We report a case of a healthy male born with a plaque of idiopathic atrophoderma of Pasini and Pierini

0-6891: Using Public Transportation to Facilitate Last Mile Package Delivery [Project Summary]

0-6891Commerce and quality of life in Texas depend on the daily delivery of millions of tons of goods shipped efficiently and affordably over Texas\u2019 multimodal freight transportation system. Continued growth of business to consumer e-commerce has increased demand for package shipping services, and rural areas face a particular challenge in finding efficient last-mile delivery of goods (from freight drop to final destination). The network of rural transit agencies and intercity bus carriers may effectively bridge the last-mile gap in package shipping from the freight drop point to the final destination by providing last-mile package delivery services in exchange for a service fee

Decision-Making Toolbox to Plan and Manage Park-and-Ride Facilities for Public Transportation: Guidebook on Planning and Managing Park-and-Ride

The objective of TCRP Project H-52, Decision-Making Toolbox to Plan and Manage Park-and-Ride Facilities for Public Transportation, was to develop a guidebook to better plan and manage park-and-ride facilities for public transportation. The guidebook builds on relevant completed research to address both of these important concerns. TCRP Report TBD: A Guidebook on Planning and Managing Park-and-Ride provides transit agencies with guidance to develop park-and-ride facilities from concept through operation. The guidebook presents information about best practices and lessons learned gathered via a literature review, an industry scan, and detailed case study research with transit agencies in the United States and Canada. The guidebook is a resource for transit staff seeking to better plan and manage park-and-ride facilities for public transportation by incorporating improved strategies and best practices