Environment

Transportation Modeling For The Environment

Barth, Matthew J.
Norbeck, Joseph M.
1994

In this report, the authors describe preliminary research dealing with vehicle emissions associated directly with 1) Automated Highway Systems ( AHS) and 2) ramp metering. In performing this analysis, a power-demand modal emissions model has been integrated with several transportation simulation models in order to quantitatively determine the effects of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technology on vehicle emissions. For AHS, a steady-state speed/emissions comparison has been conducted between vehicles that are platooned and non-platooned. A comparison has been made between a...

The Built Environment and Health: Impacts of Pedestrian-Friendly Designs on Air Pollution Exposure

Nazelle, A De
Rodriguez, DA
Crawford-Brown, D
2009

In the wake of the growing popularity of pedestrian-oriented community designs, it is timely to assess potential risk trade-offs of such urban planning strategies. Pedestrian-friendly designs are currently being called for and implemented in the US to tackle in particular problems associated with insufficient physical activity in the population. Unintended consequences may emerge, however, especially due to potential increases in the inhalation of pollutants as the population walking or cycling in polluted environments increases. A risk assessment of such built environment...

Tradeoffs in Incremental Changes Towards Pedestrian-Friendly Environments: Physical Activity and Pollution Exposure

Nazelle, A De
Rodriguez, DA
2009

A microsimulation of individuals’ activities is used in the context of a risk analysis framework to assess the impacts of hypothesized changes to the built environment on personal energy expenditure and on inhalation of air pollutants. Uncertainty is assessed using Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analyzes. We find both simulated individuals that augment and others that reduce their energy expenditure and inhalation dose of pollutants, with median increases displaying larger magnitudes than the decreases. Up to 75% of the population has significant increases in energy...

Advanced Modeling System for Forecasting Regional Development, Travel Behavior, and Spatial Pattern of Emissions

Rodriguez, DA
Song, Y
Morton, B
Rouphail, N
Frey, C
Khattak, A
2010

Can regional development patterns, over 50 years, influence quantity and spatial pattern of emissions from transportation in the Charlotte (NC) area?

Engaging the International Community: Research on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Applications to Improve Environmental Performance

Shladover, Steven
Barth, Matthew J
Zhang, Wei-Bin
2011

This project was proposed to build on the exposure that the authors of this report have had during the past two years to the thinking of the Japanese and European thought leaders about how Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) can contribute toward meeting environmental goals, especially for reducing CO2.

The ISTEA/ITS Connection In California: The State Of The Relationship And Opportunities For Productive And Beneficial Linkages

Miller, Mark
Jia, Wenyu
1998

This report describes research which had three objectives: 1) investigate the current state of California's implementation of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) with respect to Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), 2) assess the extent to which ITS has been integrated within the State's transportation planning process, and 3) recommend opportunities for linkages between ISTEA and ITS that have not yet been recognized. A literature search was first conduced which studied the key features of ISTEA, specific ITS-related issues, the institutional environment, and...

The Access Control Problem on Capacitated FIFO Networks with Unique O-D Paths is Hard

Erera, Alan L.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
Lovell, David J.
1999

This paper is concerned with the performance of multi-commodity capacitated networks with continuous flows in a deterministic but time-dependent environment. For a given time-dependent origin-destination (O-D) table, it asks if it is easy to find a way of regulating the input flows into the network so as to avoid queues from growing in it. It is shown that even if the network structure is very simple (unique O-D paths) finding a feasible regulation scheme is a `hard' problem. More specifically, it is shown that even if all input functions are smooth, there are instances of the problem with...

Integrated Roadway / Adaptive Cruise Control System: Safety, Performance, Environmental and Near Term Deployment Considerations

Zhang, Jianlong
Ioannou, Petros
2004

In this project, we design two new Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems based on driver comfort, safety, vehicle following performance, environmental and traffic flow characteristics considerations. A new variable time headway rule is proposed and used to meet these considerations. Analysis and simulations are used to evaluate and compare the two designs. The first ACC system (referred to as ACC01) incorporates two controllers: one for speed tracking and one for vehicle following. The second ACC system (referred to as ACC02) treats the vehicle following task as a special speed tracking...

Longitudinal Model Development For Automated Roadway Vehicles

Mcmahon, Donn H.
Hedrick, J. K.
1990

In today’s society minimizing the use of the roadways is becoming an issue of increasing concern.Many major cities in the US are plagued with such problems as traftic congestion, poor air quality, andsafety problems. To solve these problems research throughout the world is being conducted on the use ofautomated roadways.Currently in the state of California research is being conducted involving several major institutionsas to the feasibility of the automated roadway. The Program on Advanced Technology for the Highway,PATH, aims to increase the capacity of the most used highways, to decrease...

Potential for Increasing Health-Beneficial Participation in Cycling for Transportation: A “Stages of Change” Perspective on Barcelona’s Bike Sharing Program

Nazelle, A De
Curto, A
Donaire-Gonzalez, D
Mendez, MA
2013
The multiple benefits of active transportation, from non-communicable disease prevention to climate change mitigation, have led to increasing interests in developing multi-disciplinary health impact assessments (HIA) of walking and cycling strategies. However a fundamental uncertainty regarding the effectiveness of policies to change travel and physical activity behaviour remains. Our study aimed to assess the ability of bike sharing programs to facilitate contemplation and change in individuals to begin cycling for travel purposes. Methods: Participants living and working or attending school...