Transportation Equity for RITI Communities in Autonomous and Connected Vehicle Environment: Opportunities and Barriers

This report summarizes the results of a study conducted to document the safety and mobility needs of Rural, Isolated, Tribal, or Indigenous (RITI) communities and to identify autonomous and connected vehicle technology that have the potential of addressing these needs. A review of the administrative structure for the five Native American Tribes in Idaho revealed that none of the tribes has a department dedicated to transportation services. Two of the five tribes, however, have a department dedicated to Information Technology (IT) services. Based on the results of focus group discussions and the follow up in-depth interviews, some of the major transportation safety and mobility problems and need areas for RITI communities include: safety of school-age children walking to school, lack of safety pedestrians facilities (sidewalks) in the community, inefficient emergency response services, issues with paratransit scheduling and reliability of service, roadway maintenance issues, aggressive driving in community roadways, struggle of low-income families with no car ownership, snow removal and clean up especially for local roads, and not having enough driver education programs available for the community. In terms of major barriers to Autonomous and Connected Vehicle implementation in RITI communities, the interviewed citizens believe that lack of communication infrastructures, cost of smart phone use, difficulties to use internet and/or smart phones, lack of electrical power coverage in some roadway areas, privacy and safety issues in car sharing operations, cost of expanding communication and power networks, and the lack of human resources in the community to support these technologies are some of the major barriers to the wide-spread implementation of such advanced technology

DOCUMENTING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TRAFFIC CRASHES FOR RITI COMMUNITIES IN IDAHO

This project documents the characteristics of traffic crashes in rural, isolated, tribal, and indigenous (RITI) communities in Idaho and establishes an in-depth understanding of the baseline traffic safety conditions in RITI communities. Different sources of crash data for RITI communities in Idaho was used to conduct an in-depth ten-year crash analysis (2007-2016) to document the characteristics of traffic crashes in rural roads that serve RITI communities in Idaho. The results of analysis of fatal and severe injury crashes on unpaved roads clearly shows that ATVs and pickup trucks and the two most common vehicle types involved in crashes in these roads. The results also showed that the majority of fatal and severe injury crashes on unpaved roads involved male drivers and occupants 24 years or younger with considerable number involving occupants younger than 14 years old. A comparative safety analysis was conducted to identify and document the differences in characteristics between crashes that occurred on unpaved and paved rural roads in Idaho. The results of the analysis show that the percent of fatal and severe injury crashes where no restraining device was used is much higher in unpaved roads (50.4% and 38.3% in unpaved roads compared to 37.9 and 22.8 on paved roads). The same trend also exists in helmet use which shows the critical need for a much more aggressive seat belt and helmet use enforcement among communities who use rural unpaved roads in Idaho. The results also show a substantial difference in ATV crashes on unpaved versus paved. Teenagers or children that are 14 years or younger are more susceptible to fatal and severe injuries on unpaved roads compared to paved roads. Crash injuries for age groups from 15 to 44 are also higher on unpaved roadways. The results also clearly highlight the fact that unpaved roads have higher percentages of crashes where alcohol impairment was a major contributing circumstance. The same is true for speeding and inattention related crashes. A proportion statistical test results show that many of these results have a calculated p-value less than 0.05, indicating that these results are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level

Improving Safety for RITI Communities in Idaho: Documenting Crash Rates and Possible Intervention Measures

This report describes a new set of Geographic Information System (GIS) tools that we created to conduct safety analyses. These new GIS tools can be used by state DOTs and transportation agencies to document crash rates and prioritize safety improvement projects. The tools perform Network Segment Screening, the first step in the Roadway Safety Management Process (RSMP) outlined in the Highway Safety Manual (HSM). After developing these new tools, we conducted two case studies to demonstrate how they can be used. The first case study was for screening intersections. Our analysis included all intersections on the Idaho State Highway System. In practice, the analysis would likely be done only for a subset of intersections, such as only for signalized intersections on urban arterials. We chose all intersections for illustration purposes. The result was a ranking of intersections that would most likely benefit from safety improvement efforts. We applied three performance measures to rank the intersections: Crash Frequency, Crash Rate, and Equivalent Cost. The second case study was for screening roadway segments. Again, the entire Idaho State Highway System was included for illustration. The HSM describes two key methods for screening roadway segments: Simple Ranking and Sliding Window. Both methods are available in the new tools. This case study demonstrates the advantage of the Sliding Window, which would be impractical to accomplish on a large scale without the assistance of our new GIS tools. The final part of the work presented in this report is a synthesis to identify and document possible measures to reduce crashes for RITI communities in Idaho and throughout the northwest region

An experimental study of the carbonation of serpentinite and partially serpentinised peridotites

In situ sequestration of CO2 in mantle peridotites has been proposed as a method to alleviate the amount of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere. This study presents the results of 8-month long laboratory fluid-rock experiments on representative mantle rocks from the Oman-United Arab Emirates ophiolite to investigate this process. Small core samples (3 cm long) were reacted in wet supercritical CO2 and CO2-saturated brine at 100 bar and 70◦C. The extent of carbonate formation, and hence the degree of carbon sequestration, varied greatly depending on rock type, with serpentinite (lizardite-dominated) exhibiting the highest capacity, manifested by the precipitation of magnesite MgCO3 and ferroan magnesite (Mg,Fe)CO3. The carbonate precipitation occurred predominantly on the surface of the core and subordinately within cross-cutting fractures. The extent of the CO2 reactions appeared to be principally controlled by the chemical and mineralogical composition of the rock, as well as the rock texture, with all these factors influencing the extent and rate of mineral dissolution and release of Mg and Fe for subsequent reaction with the CO2. It was calculated that ≈0.7 g of CO2 was captured by reacting ≈23 g of serpentinite, determined by the mass of magnesite formed. This equates to ≈30 kg CO2 per ton of host rock, equivalent to ≈3% carbonation in half a year. However, recycling of carbonate present in veins within the original rock sample could mean that the overall amount is around 2%. The increased reactivity of serpentinite was associated with preferential dissolution of more reactive types of serpentine minerals and brucite that were mainly present in the cross-cutting veins. The bulk of the serpentinite rock was little affected. This study, using relatively short term experiments, suggests that serpentinite might be a good host rock for CO2 sequestration, although long term experiments might prove that dunite and harzburgite could be as effective in an engineered system of CCSM. Wet scCO2 proved to be chemically more aggressive than CO2-saturated brine and its ingress along fractures and grain boundaries resulted in greater host rock dissolution and subsequent carbonate precipitation

Strontium as a tracer of weathering processes in a silicate catchment polluted by acid atmospheric inputs, Strengbach, France

This paper determines the weathering and atmospheric contributions of Ca in surface water from a small spruce forested silicate catchment (N–E France) receiving acid atmospheric inputs. The bedrock is a granite with K-feldspar and albite as dominant phases. The calcium content in plagioclase is low and the Ca/Na ratio in surface water is high, reflecting other sources of calcium from those expected from the weathering of major mineral phases. The biotite content is low. Only traces of apatite were detected while no calcite was found in spite of a major hydrothermal event having affected the granite. The strontium isotopic ratio 87Sr/86Sr and Sr content was used as a tracer of weathering and was determined in minerals and bulk bedrock, open field precipitation, throughfall, soil solution, spring and stream water. The Sr isotopic ratio of the reacting weathering end-member was predicted by simulating the alteration of the granite minerals by incorporating strontium into the water–rock interaction kinetic code KINDIS. In the early stages of water–rock interaction, K-feldspar and biotite strongly influence the isotopic composition of the weathering solution whereas, the Na-rich plagioclase appears to be the main long-term reactive weathering end-member. Approximately 50% of dissolved Sr in streamwater are atmospherically derived. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios of exchangeable Sr in the fine fraction at 1-m depth from a soil profile indicate that the amount of exchangeable Sr seems essentially controlled by atmospheric inputs. The exception is the deep saprolite where weathering processes could supply the Sr (and Ca). Na-Plagioclase weathering obviously control the chemistry and the isotopic composition of surface waters. The weathering of trace mineral plays a secondary role, the exception is for apatite when plagioclase is absent. Our hydrochemical, mineralogical and isotopic investigations show that a major part of the strong Ca losses detected in catchment hydrochemical budgets that result from the neutralization of acid precipitation has an atmospheric origin. Consequently, in the long term, in such areas, the availability of such an exchangeable base cation might be strongly limited and surface waters consequently acidified

Spatial Clustering of Fatal and Severe Automobile Crashes in Idaho and Analysis of Emergency Medical Service Response Times

Automobile crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States. The timely response of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to these events is critical for the survival of crash victims. Drawing upon fatal and severe crash data in Idaho, this research aims to measure the Accessibility of EMS to fatal and severe crashes using actual and predicted temporal response intervals. Geographical approaches are utilized to identify statistically significant differences among these intervals between Urban, Rural, and Roadway classifications and identify areas that could benefit from a more rapid EMS response in Idaho. This study investigates the spatial clustering of Fatal and Severe crashes in Idaho over a 6-year period and analyzes the Emergency Medical Service Response times for those crashes. Results demonstrate that while the number of crashes (49.7% and 50.3%) and the number of injuries (48.6% and 51.4%) were distributed relatively evenly between rural and urban areas, most fatalities occurred on rural roadways (76.0% and 24.0%). Both the Response Interval and Critical Interval in rural areas were more than double those in urban areas, with 72% of crashes on urban roadways in Idaho having a Critical Interval less than or equal to 8 minutes. In contrast, only 24% of crashes on rural roadways had a Critical Interval within this threshold. The results also show that the EMS response Interval is consistently underpredicted within the potential accessibility framework by 3.3 minutes in rural areas and 1.6 minutes in urban areas. Underprediction appears to be concentrated in areas adjacent to urban metropolitan regions.masters, M.S., Geography -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0