Given the available information currently accessible to UTRC, we have estimated that there is the likelihood of an $8 billion shortfall in the revenue available to fund the 5 year NYSDOT Capital Plan presented for 2010-2014 equating to an approximate shortfall of $1.7 billion annually. NYRIC has requested UTRC analyze a variety of possible funding sources which could provide revenue support to NYSDOT’s capital plan. We have presented potential alternative funding sources as individual mechanisms.

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are considered to have potential for chemical sensing application because of their high surface to volume ratio and unique size tunable properties like photoluminescence (PL).

Protecting the safety of construction and maintenance field crews and motorists on roadways is the top priority of the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).  More than 40,000 people are injured each year as a result of motor vehicle crashes in work zones.  In addition, fatalities from work zone crashes have increased more than 50 percent in the last 5 years.

This work aims to develop statistical models for ultrafine/fine particle number emission rates from a diesel bus, to evaluate the explanatory power of engine operating variables. Emissions were recorded by using on-board instrumentation in two types of real-world driving conditions: a freeway commuting route and a within-city-limits bus route, with stop and go due to intersections and bus stops. To reduce the risk of drawing spurious conclusions, three replications of the experiment were performed and linear models were estimated using the robust-to-outliers quantile regression method.

This report presents the findings of the simulation model for a self-organized transport system where traffic lights communicate with neighboring traffic lights and make decisions locally to adapt to traffic conditions in real time. The model is inspired by the behavior of social insects which exhibit sophisticated collective behavior despite having limited individual abilities. The initial results show an improvement in average vehicle delay for the self-organized traffic system compared to some of the other basic traffic control schemes.

Power outages affect traffic signalized intersections, leading to potentially serious problems. Current practices of responding to power failures are very basic, ranging from ‘do nothing’ to installing portable generators. The purpose of this research project was to provide the NYSDOT with a better understand the practices of other agencies in dealing with dark traffic signals and to develop guidelines for instrumenting uninterrupted backup power at intersections across the state.

In “The Retrofit Puzzle: Optimal Fleet Owner Behavior in the Context of Diesel Retrofit Incentive Programs” (1) an integer program was developed to model profit-maximizing diesel fleet owner behavior when selecting pollution reduction retrofits. Fleet owners acted in the context of potential government programs including various mandates and financial incentives. Fleet size and the miles remaining for each vehicle were treated as fixed and known at the time retrofits are made. Retrofits were assumed to take place in the present, but benefits and costs are distributed over time.

Public transit system has become one of the targets of terrorist attacks using explosives, examples of which include the 1995 attack on Paris subway and the 2004 attack on Moscow subway.  Under the present context of intense threats of terrorist attacks on subway systems in metropolitan areas around the world, explicit three-dimensional Finite Element method was used to investigate the dynamic response and damage of subway structures under internal blast loading.  The study was motivated by the fact that explosion in subway structure may not only cause direct life loss, but also d

The publication “Strengthening Interjurisdictional Coordination on Transportation and Related Land Use – A Guidebook for Practitioners” is intended to facilitate better integration of land use and transportation planning. The guidebook is drawn from research on the jurisdictional barriers that have had an impact on greater integration of land use and transportation planning in a variety of recent planning studies. It provides training matrices, including on key success factors for interjurisdictional coordination.