The transportation system is an interplay between infrastructure, vehicles,
and policy. During the past century, the rapid expansion of the road network,
blended with increasing vehicle production and mobility demands, has been
stressing the system's capacity and resulting in a shocking amount of annual
costs. To alleviate these costs while providing passengers with safe and
efficient travel experiences, we need to better design and plan our
transportation system. To start with, not only the design of our road network
is topologically flawed but also our infrastructure likely facilitates
inequality: roads and bridges are found to better connect affluent sectors
while excluding the poor. While technological advancements such as connected
and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) and novel operation modes such as shared economy
have offered new opportunities, questions remain. First, what is the
relationship between the road network, community development, demographics, and
mobility behaviors? Second, by leveraging the insights from studying the first
question, can we better plan, coordinate, and optimize vehicles in different
modalities such as human-driven and autonomous to construct safe, efficient,
and resilient traffic flows? Third, how can we build an intelligent
transportation system to promote equity and fairness in our community
development? This proposal is the first step toward answering these questions