A systematic assessment of road pavement sustainability through a review of rating tools

Pavements are engineered systems present in every modern society, and they have significant environmental, economic and social impacts. In an effort to promote more sustainable decisions regarding pavement design, construction and management, several pavement sustainability assessment tools have been developed. This research reviewed some of these tools and found that many of them do not treat the pavement as a system; instead, they seek to optimize individual aspects of the pavement in an effort to increase its sustainability. Therefore, a framework for analytically assessing the system outcomes towards sustainable objectives is presented and applied for modern pavement sustainability assessment. The results suggest that this framework provides a way to systematically include data in the evaluation of the outcomes of pavement management decisions towards achieving sustainable objectives

Incorporating accessibility into environmental justice assessments: applications in the Atlanta metropolitan region

Local agencies must comply with environmental justice regulation and as such, it is important that they possess practical tools to identify target populations and assess impacts of projects, programs, and policies on these populations. These tools are not readily available or fully developed to evaluate impacts on a regional level, especially when the impacts are benefits rather than burdens. This issue comes into play when accessibility is assessed. This analysis measures accessibility for an environmental justice evaluation using spatial statistical clusters and cumulative opportunity. It shows that the majority of schools, libraries and local transit lines are within areas with high concentrations of target populations, however, park space is limited in these areas. Alternative approaches for environmental justice assessments of regional outcomes such as accessibility provide opportunities for MPOs to gain a greater understanding of the regional impacts of transportation improvements as well as more accurately comply with the spirit of environmental justice regulations.MSCommittee Chair: Amekudzi, Adjo; Committee Co-Chair: Ross, Catherine; Committee Member: Meyer, Michae

Equity considerations for long-range transportation planning and program development

Transportation planning has become increasingly more performance-based over the past several decades. In part due the mandate from the 2012 Federal Surface Transportation Program authorization, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), agencies are adopting performance-based policies and programmatic frameworks to integrate the attainment of national goals into the transportation planning and decision making process. As agencies implement performance-driven decision making as a means to achieve national goals, local goals will become subject to the same framework. Although equity is not a national goal, transportation agencies continue to recognize it within their vision and planning goals. However, it is difficult to determine what constitutes equity, and to quantify and measure it. To plan for equitable outcomes in transportation therefore, it is necessary to develop evaluation methods that support the integration of equity in planning processes. The objectives of this research are to develop recommendations for procedures to formally incorporate equity considerations in transportation planning and program evaluation and to propose methodological revisions to existing analytical processes to enable evaluation of cumulative accessibility outcomes. A literature review -- drawing from the theories of equity, Federal regulations for addressing equity in transportation, performance management, and transportation and sustainability -- and practitioner interviews were used to gather information on the common and effective practices for addressing equity in transportation planning at the regional level. This information was an input in the development of a quantitative research approach to explore methodological limitations and planning gaps related to transportation planning for equitable outcomes. These results informed the development of a comprehensive approach to analyze and characterize cumulative impacts (i.e. accessibility) regionally. The approach is used to develop recommendations for regional transportation planning to influence equitable transportation outcomes for the full range of demographic groups over time. The research contributes to the knowledge base and professional practice of transportation planning by putting forward a construction for approaching equity in transportation planning and decision making based on equity theory, developing analytical methods to evaluate transportation investments for equitable outcomes, and offering a set of recommendations for moving transportation planning practices towards transportation planning for equitable outcomes.Ph.D

Ashram Road Corridor Plan

The following report was completed by at Georgia Institute of Technology in Spring 2012. This studio was a collaborative international exchange between Georgia Tech and Center for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) in Ahmedabad India. Eleven students travelled to India in December 2011 to establish a problem statement, learn about the planning process and policy in India, and collect data necessary to proceed through the Spring 2012 semester.Ashram Road is a major regional connection and the principal commercial thoroughfare along the western bank of the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad. The Ashram Road Corridor Study examines the stretch of Ashram Road from the Gandhi Ashram, north of Rishi Dadhichi Bridge, to Ellis Bridge. This heavily traversed corridor carries approximately 12,000 to 15,000 passenger cars during peak rush hours from its intersection with Nava Vadaj Road around Rishi Dadhichi Bridge to its intersection with Netaji and Bhagtacharya Roads around Sardar Bridge (City Development Plan). Commercial land uses south of the Nehru Bridge encourage a high level of activity in this area. Uses at the northern extent are influenced by the Gandhi Ashram and are more residential with some emerging commercial industries. Once a walled city on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati River, Ahmedabad now stands astride the intermittent water body. Recently, the Khari cut canal system was used to dam the river, artificially rendering the river a perennial water body. The Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation was established and tasked with the reinvention and reuse of the land area along the river. The redevelopment of the Sabarmati Riverfront is intended to further increase the activity along this corridor. There have been various plans drafted that involve or relate to the Sabarmati Riverfront, Ashram Road, and the Gandhi Ashram itself. Each of these plans has influenced the direction of the Ashram Road Corridor Study. The plans include: The City Development Plan (CDP) – A comprehensive city plan providing the vision for the City of Ahmedabad; The Riverfront Development Plan – A document detailing the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Riverfront and the direction for future development along the river; The Bus Rapid Transit Plan – A proposal for increasing public transit in the City of Ahmedabad through the bus rapid transit system; The Ashram Redevelopment Plan – A vision for the future development of Gandhi Ashram and the property surrounding the ashram grounds; The Metro Rapid Transit Plan – A proposal for heavy rail metro transit services in the City of Ahmedabad. These plans will be discussed in further detail in following sections. The Ashram Road Corridor Study was defined through careful consideration of these plans and an understanding of the problems resulting from conflicting interests in the project area.Michael Dobbin

A sustainability performance-based assessment too for ecodesign of roads and railways

SETAC Europe 28th Annual Meeting, ROME, ITALIE, 13-/05/2018 - 17/05/2018Addressing the sustainability of transport infrastructures requires exploring the environmental, social, and economic impacts of technological options while balancing the often conflicting priorities of different stakeholders, at an early design phase of the infrastructure delivery process. That is a typical multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem, in which the decision-makers need to measure the sustainability through a set of meaningful, representative and quantifiable criteria, balance the relative importance of those criteria and determine the sustainability sequence of multiple alternative technologies for fostering transportation sustainability. This paper describes a tool and a methodology developed in the framework of Super&ITN project

Northside Drive as a Multimodal Developmental Corridor: Transformation from Utilitarian Auto Route to Grand Transit Boulevard

A Studio Project of the Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning - Fall, 2012.Executive Summary -- Final DraftThe studio explored ways to transform Northside Drive from a dismal, disorganized underperforming corridor that frames the west side of the Atlanta core into a grand transit boulevard. Picture a tree-lined, well-lit boulevard, wide and grand, with medians, and ample accommodation of all travel modes, lined with mid-rise mixed income residential buildings with as much retail and other ground floor activities as the market will support. With the proper transportation and zoning design, over time this now dismal traffic corridor will transform all the way from I-75 to West End. Increasing mixed use development densities will support a growing share of transit, pedestrian and bicycle uses as distances shorten between residential and jobs concentrations. Planned and developed properly, the transformation will break down Northside’s historic race and class divide to become a great urban street whose assets and attractions provide a common ground for sharing the strengths of diverse populations.Michael Dobbin