Environment

Genearating Probabilistic Capacity Profiles from weather forecast: A design-of-experiment approach

Buxi, Gurkaran
Hansen, Mark
2011

It is common understanding that weather plays an important role in determining the capacity of an airport. Severe weather causes capacity reductions, creating a capacity demand imbalance, leading to delays. The role of air traffic flow management (ATFM) measures is to reduce these delay costs by aligning the demand with the capacity. Ground delay program (GDP) is one such measure. Though the GDP is initiated in poor weather conditions, and weather forecasts are subject to errors, present GDP planning procedures are essentially deterministic in nature. Forecast weather is translated into...

Generating day-of-operation probabilistic capacity scenarios from weather forecasts

Buxi, Gurkaran
Hansen, Mark
2013

This paper develops methodologies for generating probabilistic capacity scenarios from two terminal weather forecasts: The Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) and the San Francisco Marine Initiative (STRATUS) forecast. The scenarios are assessed by using them as inputs to a static stochastic Ground Delay Program (GDP) model to determine efficient Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) strategies, and determining the effectiveness of the strategies in reducing the realized cost of delay. We use San Francisco International airport as a case study to quantify the benefit of using weather forecasts...

Interaction of Air and High-Speed Rail in Japan

Clever, Reinhard
Hansen, Mark M.
2008

There has been a unique convergence of factors that have contributed to Japan's outstanding public transportation system. The paper focuses on two modes of transportation: air and high-speed rail (HSR). These two modes do not complement each other as in Europe, but compete head-on in Japan. Moreover, Japan does not have to contend with market-distorting public subsidies, because both companies operating HSR in the corridor of interest are highly profitable, primarily because of their HSR service. The Japanese transportation system therefore provides an excellent environment in which to...

Unintended Environmental Impacts of Nighttime Freight Logistics Activities

Sathaye, Nakul
Harley, Robert
Madanat, Samer
2009

In recent years, the reduction of freight vehicle trips during peak hours has been a common policy goal. To this end, policies have been implemented to shift logistics operations to nighttime hours. The purpose of such policies has generally been to mitigate congestion and environmental impacts. However, the atmospheric boundary layer is generally more stable during the night than the day. Consequently, shifting logistics operations to the night may increase 24‐hour average concentrations of diesel exhaust pollutants in many locations. This paper presents realistic scenarios for two...

Predicting Aircraft Trajectory Choice – A Nominal Route Approach

Liu, Yulin
Hansen, Mark
Lovell, David J
Ball, Michael O
2018

In this work, we propose a novel approach to predict aircraft trajectory choice. A trajectory clustering technique is used to consolidate historical flight tracks into a small set, and the cluster assignment results are then used as the ground truth of the route choice. Three types of features are used to predict the trajectory choice: convective weather, wind, and Miles-In-Trail (MIT) restrictions. Dimension of the features is greatly reduced by matching them with the representative trajectories of different clusters, which we call Nominal Routes. Four popular machine learning models are...

A Comparative Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Strategies for the Maritime Shipping and Aviation Sectors

Hansen, Mark
Smirti, Megan
Zou, Bo
2008

The transportation sector is one of the largest sectors contributing to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, the gases which cause anthropogenic climate change. The aviation and maritime shipping sectors are growing segments of transportation GHG emissions, yet mitigation strategies have largely avoided these sectors. There is a need for clearly defined strategies which can reduce GHG emissions of maritime and aviation operations and for an understanding of the potential magnitude and barriers to reduction. This research presents a framework for GHG emission reduction strategies and evaluates...

Development of Comprehensive Roadmap and Resource Guide Towards Congestion Reduction

Lin, Pei-Sung
Hansen, Mark
Wang, Zhenyu
Keita, Yaye
Bialkowska-Jelinska, Elizabeth
Shindgikar, Shubhankar
Khoshnevis, Nikou
University of South Florida. National Institute for Congestion Reduction
2025

Traffic congestion has become an increasingly critical issue across the United States, disrupting transportation networks and impacting society in ways that extend beyond mobility. Congestion contributes to declining public health, reduced quality of life, and environmental concerns such as pollution, noise, and stress (Meyer, 1997). Nationally, travel delays rose from 5.1 billion hours in 2000 to 8.7 billion hours in 2019, while fuel waste increased from 2.4 billion gallons to 3.5 billion gallons over the same period. Similarly, excess greenhouse gas emissions escalated from 25 million...

Quantification of Weather Influences on Freeway Bottlenecks

Seeherman, Joshua
Skabardonis, Alexander
Transportation Research Board
2013

Weather is a major source of non-recurring delay on freeways within the United States. How weather affects areas of daily recurring delay, particularly freeway bottlenecks, has not been thoroughly researched. A type of freeway bottleneck in the form of a lane drop was studied across two winters at a site of daily recurring congestion. This bottleneck was located in Pittsburg, California. Queue discharge flow was compared between rainy days and clear days either one week before or after the rainy event. Discharge flows during rainy events dropped by an average of 11% and this difference was...

Prediction of Vehicle Activity for Emissions Estimation Under Oversaturated Conditions Along Signalized Arterials

Skabardonis, Alexander
Geroliminis, Nikolas
Christofa, Eleni
2013

The traditional methodology for estimating vehicle emissions based on vehicle miles traveled and average speed is not reliable because it does not consider the effects of congestion, control devices, and driving mode (cruise, acceleration, deceleration, and idle). The authors developed an analytical model to predict vehicle activity on signalized arterials with emphasis on oversaturated traffic conditions. The model depends only on loop detector data and signal settings as inputs and provides estimates of the time spent in each driving mode, which consequently leads to more accurate...

Observed and simulated traffic impacts from the 2013 Bay Area Rapid Transit strike

Moylan, Emily
Foti, Fletcher
Skabardonis, Alexander
2016

Despite high costs, many cities build public transit to address regional equity, environmental and economic goals. Although public transit accounts for a minority of trips (∼5%), the impact is widely felt when service is suspended during a strike through excess road demand and slower journeys. In 2013, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers participated in two brief strikes, and the resulting traffic conditions illustrate the value of transit to drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area region. This paper tests the impact of rail transit service interruption on freeway traffic conditions using...