The Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive: A Case Study in Archiving

This paper summarizes research on standards for archiving travel survey data. It then describes some of the efforts at organizing data and developing metadata. The development of metadata standards used for documenting datasets using DDI (Data Documentation Initiative) for DTD (Document Type Definitions) is described. A case, applying these approaches to a US Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive is presented. The Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive, housed at the University of Minnesota, now contains over 60 surveys from almost 30 metropolitan areas. The paper concludes with some recommendations for archiving data.Travel Surveys, Activity Surveys, Archiving

Geogrid Reinforcement of Asphalt Pavements

Geogrid materials applied within asphalt layers defer or prevent the occurrence of reflective cracking. The contribution of this work significantly adds to extending pavement serviceability and improving benefit/cost analysis. Since 1970s many studies have demonstrated the benefits of geogrid reinforcement in asphalt pavements, but this knowledge did not translate to their extensive usage in the actual construction practice. Among potential reasons are higher initial costs, lack of in-depth understanding of working mechanism within adjacent asphalt layers and lack of commonly standard design procedures. This paper presents a recent study, which investigated the effect of geogrid reinforcement on asphalt mixture specimens. Two types of laboratory experiments were conducted, namely monotonic (strength and fracture) testing and cyclic (fatigue and modulus) testing. The results demonstrated a significant strengthening contribution of geogrid, which was observed regarding fracture energy results and terminal deflections in the fatigue testing. This paper also presents a short example connecting pavement deflections with the allowable axle loading (also known as fatigue life) to demonstrate the practical implications of geogrid reinforcement. The undertaken analysis shows the reduction of pavement deflections due to the geogrid application, which potentially leads to a significant extension of pavement fatigue life. Paper concludes with several recommendations for further work in the area of geogrid reinforcement

Tools and guidance to help National Road Administrations address climate change

National Road Administrations (NRAs) are confronted by a number of challenges in their efforts to maintain the resilience of their road network in the face of increasing climate change impacts and reduce the carbon emissions associated with the maintenance and operation of their network. This paper describes the development of tools and guidance designed to help NRAs address two of these challenges; making the business case for climate change adaptation and embedding consideration of climate change in their operations and procurement processes. The work is being carried out as part of the DeTECToR (Decision-support Tools for Embedding Climate Change Thinking on Roads) project, commissioned through the Conference of European Directors of Roads (CEDR) Transnational Research Programme. The paper presents the work undertaken in the first half of the project, focusing on the approach to developing the tools and describing the next steps which includes working with selected NRAs to trial the tools and guidance in a series of pilot studies

Cooperation across transport modes to develop common research objectives for the reduction of energy consumption and carbon emissions

Greater cooperation across transport modes in research and development activities has the potential to develop systems thinking, optimise use of resources and improve services for customers. This paper presents the findings of a Horizon 2020 project called Users, Safety, Security and Energy in Transport Infrastructure (USE-iT) which aimed to encourage greater cross-modal collaboration, through the identification of common challenges and development of a cross-modal research roadmap to address these. USE-iT and its sister project FOX identified more than 300 technologies, processes and systems that could benefit from a cross-modal approach. The involvement of industry was an integral part of this process, and a key objective of the project was to bring together stakeholders from all modes to facilitate knowledge transfer and develop a network for future cooperation. The paper focuses on research supporting the reduction of energy consumption and carbon emissions across transport modes, which was one of four topic areas addressed by USE-iT

A New Approach to Integrated Cross-Modal Transport – the FOX and USE-iT Experience

The objective of this paper is to present a new interdisciplinary approach to integrated transport which considers all modes of transport including road, rail, water and air. Integrated and cross-modal transport is presented from the user perspective and in consideration with the infrastructure changes and adaptations necessary for implementing current and future technologies. Cross modal transport research gaps and experience gained from participating in two Coordination and Support Actions (CSAs) – FOX (Forever Open Infrastructure across (X) all transport modes) and USE-iT (Users, Safety, security and Energy in Transport Infrastructure) – funded under the H2020 framework constitute the core of the paper. A comprehensive research roadmap was produced as a result of these projects which highlighted the key research areas that cross-modal transport should focus on. The paper concludes with a discussion on the role of research and innovation in meeting cross-modal and integrated transport’s challenges and the role of the projects in breaking down the silo thinking of transport

Catalogue of connected and automated driving test sites : Deliverable No2.1

The overall aim of STAPLE is to provide a comprehensive review of technological and non-technological aspects of the most relevant connected and automated test sites and test beds across Europe and beyond, in order to understand the impact of these sites on the NRAs’ core business and functions. The project will provide road administrations with the necessary know-how on connected and automated driving test sites, with the aim of supporting their core activities, such as road safety, traffic efficiency, customer service, maintenance and construction. This deliverable presents the approach taken in STAPLE for identifying a wide range of connected and automated driving test sites and test beds across Europe and beyond, as well as a detailed Catalogue of 37 test sites/beds. A first assessment and pre-selection of the test sites/beds was performed, to evaluate their feasibility for further investigation in the next activities of the project. The qualitative assessment took into account criteria such as location, availability of data, longevity of the site/bed, purpose, confidentiality. The pre-selection yielded the following test sites/beds (in no particular order).STAPLE - SiTeAutomation Practical Learnin

Asphalt wearing course optimization for road traffic noise reduction

Nowadays traffic noise and air pollution are as important as durability parameters, what leads to the need of more comprehensive approach when planning, designing, constructing and maintaining road pavements. Having in mind country differences in traffic volumes, climate conditions and financial capabilities it is not easy to transfer various solutions from country to country. Due to such peculiarities, large research study was initiated in Lithuania seeking to develop efficient and effective low noise pavement solution for specific regional climate conditions. This paper presents research of commonly used asphalt concrete (AC), stone mastic asphalt (SMA), porous asphalt (PA) and a concept of noise reducing asphalt mixtures. As part of this study large scale laboratory testing of acoustical and mechanical performance, durability and resilience to climate were performed. The paper also presents analysis of laboratory testing results which were positive and followed with the pilot implementation of developed asphalt mixtures for further research activities under real traffic and climate conditions

Recommendations for future test sites : Deliverable No 5.1

Over 70 test sites in Europe and elsewhere were identified through personal contacts and knowledge of the project team, web searches and discussion with the CEDR CAD group and industry contacts. The output of this work was a catalogue of connected and automated driving test sites, identifying and categorising 37 test sites in Europe (Deliverable 2.1). The sites are also presented in a Google map page which gives the locations of the test tracks and approximate extent of road-based test sites. A preselection of 16 test sites for further investigation was made by the project team and discussions with the CEDR CAD team at a workshop in Tallinn. These sites were prioritised based on factors including; provision of information to the team in the first phase, the type of track or roads involved (excluding low speed pods in campus environments for example) and sites or projects that would be operational beyond the lifetime of the project. Final agreement was made, and visits made to the following sites by members of the project team, CEDR project officers and representatives of NRAs: Horiba MIRA, Midlands, UK, Alp.Lab, Graz, Austria, TRANSPOLIS, Lyon, France. Discussion were also held with the Midlands Future Mobility test road to learn about the plans for this 20-year project. The findings are presented in Deliverable 3.1. Following this work, the project team took the learnings from the test sites initially categorising the test sites by road / track type, for example urban, interurban, simulations, detailing the practical implications for each and noting test sites in each category and occasions where NRAs were directly involved. The sites where priority areas for NRAs (safety, traffic efficiency, customer service, maintenance and construction and data / C-ITS) were discussed and implications for NRAs presented. In the absence of data provided directly provided by test sites, the impacts of CAVs, CVs and AVs for these priority areas were detailed in relation to potential impacts, benefits, or infrastructure requirements for NRAs in the future. This was supplemented by four cases with more in-depth analysis to provide a concrete overview of activities at specific sites or projects addressing aspects that align with the work of NRAs. These were: Highways England: Construction and maintenance vehicles, work zone safety, TRANSPOLIS test site: cyber security and data case study and self-driving vehicle cyber security testing capabilities, ENSEMBLE truck platooning project, and ZENZIC: CAVs cyber security testing capabilities From the work undertaken, a series of findings were made, which are presented joint Deliverable 4.1 and 4.2. A From the findings developed, a series of recommendations were made. The original plan was that these would be discussed with the CEDR CAD group at the TRA conference in Helsinki and/or a CEDR group meeting in Bern, however the outbreak of COVID19 prevented this from happening. Instead, three online workshops were held with representatives of the CEDR CAD group, project officers, research institutes and interested experts and a fourth workshop with the CEDR CAD group only. Following an overview of the work undertaken on the project, the MURAL whiteboard tool was used to present the recommendations, clarify or add new one, vote on those of highest interest, and finally to discuss and categorise the difficulty of implementation of the recommendations. In the areas investigated, there are a variety of simulation, visualisation, test tracks and test beds that address NRA needs across Europe. One area that is possibly lacking is road trials that traverse international boundaries and work on this should be undertaken to ensure interoperability of systems across Europe. Depending on specific NRAs needs there is a variety of testing scenarios available. NRAs can become mutual partners and participate in consortia together with the OEMs and other relevant data and service providers to be able to obtain and exchange data and best practices. Since the test site performance and safety information resulted from specific tests and trials undertaken by each site is typically confidential it is proposed that NRAs join such initiatives or join ventures and become a mutual partner. More open communication from all parties could lead to the development of projects that address common areas of interest such as safety, traffic efficiency and customer service, and help accelerate the deployment of connected and autonomous vehicles

Overview of connected and automated driving test sites

Connected and automated vehicles potentially offer solutions to some key challenges for National Road Administrations (NRAs), such as reduction of accidents, increasing network capacity etc. As a result of this potential, both industry and certain national governments are undertaking trials that are mainly focused on technological challenges such as the ability of vehicles to drive safely in “random” situations etc. Far less attention has been paid to questions around the implications for NRAs. The overall aim of the STAPLE project is to provide a comprehensive review of technological and non-technological aspects of the most relevant connected and automated driving test sites in order to understand the impact of these sites on the NRAs’ core business and functions