THE UNIVERSITY TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH CENTER (UTRC) PUBLISHES THE FINAL REPORTS:
ENHANCING RESOURCE COORDINATION FOR MULTI‐MODAL EVACUATION PLANNING
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Enhancing Resource Coordination for Multi-Modal Evacuation Planning”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA/USDOT). The principal investigator was Dr. Daniel B. Hess, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.
This research project seeks to increase knowledge about coordinating effective multi-modal evacuation for disasters. It does so by identifying, evaluating, and assessing current transportation management approaches for multi-modal evacuation planning. The research increases equity by identifying strategies for evacuation of all residents, including carless residents during a disaster. The research also seeks to address the challenges of effectively incorporating multi-modalism into local emergency plans by enhancing transportation resource coordination through exploration of the feasibility of a new concept - a Transportation Reserve Corps (TRC). A TRC seeks to integrate planning for households without automobiles, multi-modal evacuation, and coordinated volunteerism with disaster preparedness, response and recovery.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website: http://www.utrc2.org/publications/multi-modal-evacuation-planning-final
EARLY AGE RUTTING POTENTIAL OF WARM MIX ASPHALT
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Early Age Rutting Potential of Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA)”, funded by the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). The principal investigator was Dr. Thomas Bennert, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rutgers University.
This research project shows various plant produced Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA) mixtures and how they were evaluated and compared to identical plant produced Hot Mix Asphalt to assess their early life rutting potential. Along with the laboratory permanent deformation testing, fatigue and moisture damage were also included. The test resultsindicated that the performance of the WMA was very similar to that of the companion HMA with differences in performance a function of mix type, RAP content, and production temperature. To help address New York State’s concerns with the implementations of WMA, fourteen (14) sets of WMA and companion HMA plant produced mixtures were evaluated in the laboratory for their respective rutting, fatigue cracking, and moisture damage resistance.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website: http://www.utrc2.org/publications/warm-mix-asphalt-final
VEHICLE CLASSIFICATION USING MOBILE SENSORS
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Vehicle Classification Using Mobile Sensors”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA/USDOT). The principal investigator was Dr. Xuegang (Jeff) Ban, an assistant professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In this research, the feasibility of using mobile traffic sensors for binary vehicle classification on arterial roads is investigated. Features (e.g. speed related, acceleration/deceleration related, etc.) are extracted from vehicle traces (passenger cars, trucks) collected from real world arterial roads. Machine learning techniques such as support vector machines (SVM) are developed to distinguish passenger cars from trucks using these features.
Despite many issues and future research questions remaining unsolved in this project, the proposed research does show the feasibility and potential of using mobile data for vehicle classification. It reveals that acceleration/deceleration related features are the most critical for vehicle classification using mobile data. Such acceleration/deceleration based vehicle classification methods using advanced machine learning techniques have the potential to help build a low-cost, wide-area vehicle classification system.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website: http://www.utrc2.org/publications/vehicle-classification-final
PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT OF THE OPEN MODE INTEGRATED TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM (OMITS)
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Prototype Development of the Open Mode Integrated Transportation System (OMITS)”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA/USDOT). The principal investigator was Dr. Huiming Yin, an assistant professor at Columbia University.
This report presents an overview of the Open Mode Integrated Transportation System (OMITS), introduces its key components and algorithms in the recent development and implementation, and demonstrates the working mechanism of dynamic transit service. The OMITS has been designed to integrate the availability of multiple transit modes into the ridesharing service to provide riders and drivers flexible, efficient, and reliable transportation services, through dynamic matching and routing algorithms and emerging information communication and data mining and fusion technologies. The OMITS App, which is run on a smart phone (iPhone or Android), has been developed for customers to communicate with the OMITS server, detect roadway traffic conditions, and receive driving directions.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website:
http://www.utrc2.org/publications/integrated-transportation-system-final
A SIMULATION-BASED ASSESSMENT APPROACH TO INCREASE SAFETY AMONG SENIOR DRIVERS
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “A Simulation-based Assessment Approach to Increase Safety among Senior Drivers”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA/USDOT). The principal investigator was Kevin Hulme, a senior research associate at the New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation (NYSCEDII) at the University at Buffalo/SUNY.
Statistics show that in the U.S., there are about 38 million licensed drivers over age 65; about 1/8 of our population. By 2024, this figure will DOUBLE to 25%. The current research is intended to address the driving capabilities of our older population, as accident and injury risk has been statistically shown to increase - normalized per mile driven - with advanced age. Our primary objective is to perform a preliminary Pilot Study (N=10) that allows our team to analyze the impact of supplementing traditional driver evaluation for senior persons with cognitive impairment using state-of-the-art driving simulation technologies.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website: http://www.utrc2.org/publications/safety-among-senior-drivers-final
INNOVATIVE ROADWAY LIGHT SOURCE AND DYE COMBINATIONS TO IMPROVE VISIBILITY AND REDUCE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Innovative Roadway Light Source and Dye Combinations to Improve Visibility and Reduce Environmental Impacts”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA/USDOT). The principal investigator was Dr. John Bullough, a senior research scientist at the Lighting Research Center (LRC), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In this report, the authors investigated the feasibility of a system consisting of a specialized LED streetlight and a dye based roadway surface coating that would reduce sky glow, but still provide adequate illumination of objects in the road. As envisioned, the streetlight would produce white light with narrow-band LEDs of red, green, and blue wavelengths. The roadway surface coating would use three dyes that would selectively absorb the specific wavelengths produced by the streetlight. This investigation examined the optical properties of green and blue absorbing dyes. The dyes, when in their liquid states, did selectively absorb light at the expected wavelengths. However, the dyes did not selectively absorb light when applied as a surface coating, so appropriate encapsulants would need to be developed for subsequent implementation.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website: http://www.utrc2.org/publications/innovative-roadway-Final
MODERN LOW COST MAINTENANCE OF CONCRETE BRIDGES USING EFFECTIVE NDT TEST DATA
UTRC has released a final report for the research titled: “Modern Low Cost Maintenance of Concrete Bridges Using Effective NDT Test Data”, funded by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA/USDOT). The principal investigator was Dr. Riyad Aboutaha, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University.
This report presents smart use of NDT data to assess the near future service life of concrete bridge components, and its utilization for cost effective maintenance policy, in a limited financial resources environment. The impact of this study enhances the followings: (1) development of better rational for setting maintenance frequency based on condition, (2) development of low-cost preventive maintenance measures for better control of deterioration rate, (3) understanding of financial consequences of delayed maintenance, and (4) reduction of the number of structurally deficient bridges. The study concludes that the most economical way to maintain existing concrete bridges is by adopting an active preventive maintenance approach, which costs just fraction of the current passive approach.
The full report is available for a free download at the UTRC website: http://www.utrc2.org/publications/concrete-bridges-final