As we begin the 21st Century, New York State faces a pressing need to modernize and expand its transportation infrastructure in order to sustain its global economic leadership. The ever-growing need for personal mobility, the need to move increasingly greater amounts of freight, and the pressures of 21st Century economic competition all call for new and different types of capacity on our roads, our public transit systems, our rails, at our ports and the intermodal connections that link these together.

A Virtual Container Yard (VCY) is a mean of developing a shared resource information system to match empty equipment needs through the adoption of next generation internet and new technology information platforms. The project examines the feasibility of developing and operating a Virtual Container Yard to serve the freight and maritime community in the NY-NJ region. Definition of user requirements and potential business and institutional impediments in successfully establishing the system are identified.

This Phase 1 and 2 report documents the development of nanoparticle based chemical sensors for the sensitive, selective and field portable analyses of soil samples for petroleum spill indicating hydrocarbons (such as benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzenes, xylenes, PCBs, trichloroethylene). The broader impacts of the hydrocarbon sensor research program lies in the future target applications of nanoparticle based chemical sensors.

In an on-going research project with the NJDOT, we have instrumented an integral bridge and have been gathering data every two hours for the past two years. We found that there is a significant pressure built-up in the soil behind the abutment. We have reported the built-up to the NJDOT, however our project does not allow for an in-depth analysis of the mechanics that are responsible for the development of the high pressures.

The anticipatory route guidance problem (ARG), an extension of the dynamic traffic user-equilibrium problem, consists of providing messages, based on forecasts of traffic conditions, to assist drivers in their path choice decisions. Guidance becomes inconsistent when the forecasts on which it is based are in- validated by drivers' reactions to the provided messages. In this paper, we consider the problem of generating consistent anticipatory guidance that ensures that the messages based on dynamic shortest path criteria do not become self-defeating prophecies.

We investigate the role of the built environment in mode choice decisions for home-based work tours in the New York Metropolitan Region. The analysis is conducted using a multinomial logit model. There are two main results of this study. First, the built environment influences people’s mode choice decisions, even after controlling cost variables. Population and employment densities have explanatory power, so do the variables measuring the access distance between the nearest mass transportation facility and a stop in the tour. Second, tour characteristics do affect mode choices.

New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) are planning an effort for 2005/2006 to collect data in order to update the Best Practice Model (BPM) and Regional Transportation Forecast Model (RTFM). This research project will assist NYMTC?s Technical Survey Unit by documenting issues incurred in the planning and process of the Regional Travel Household Interview Survey 1996/1997 (RT-HIS) and the Comprehensive Travel Telephone Survey 1989 (CTTS ).