Environment

Lateral Guidance System Requirements Definition

Parsons, Robert E.
Zhang, Wei-Bin
1988

The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) is assisting the California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) to establish and conduct a program of advanced highway technology R&D to obtain better productivity from the States’ most used highway segments. The Program on Advanced Technology for the High-way, PATH, centers on advanced technology opportunities that may contribute to the relief of traffic congestion, with related problems of air pollution and parking; and on energy for transportation, in particular continued use of petroleum based fuels.

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.

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...

Control of Heavy-Duty Trucks: Environmental and Fuel Economy Considerations

Zhang, Jianlong
Ioannou, Petros
2004

In this project we investigate the effect of heavy-duty trucks, equipped with different Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) systems, on the environment and traffic flow characteristics. The sluggish dynamics of trucks whether manual or ACC that is due to their limited acceleration capabilities filter speed disturbances caused by leading vehicles and lead to beneficial effects on the environment and traffic flow characteristics. This response however may lead to higher travel times in certain situations as well as invite cut-ins from neighboring lanes causing additional disturbances. A new ACC...

Physical Disorders and Poor Self-Rated Health in Adults Living in Four Latin American Cities: A Multilevel Approach

Vaz, C
Andrade, A
Silva, U
Rodriguez, D
Wang, X
Moore, K
Friche, A
Roux, AV Diez
Caiaffa, WT
2020
Considering that urban environments may affect self-rated health through behavioral and psychosocial mechanisms, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and perceived urban environment characteristics among adults living in four Latin American cities. Data is from a population-based survey by Development Bank of Latin America, encompassing adults between 20 and 60 years old in Buenos Aires, Lima, Mexico City, and Panama City. Self-rated health was measured using a single question and the response options were categorized as poor and good. The...

Greenness and Excess Deaths from Heat in 323 Latin American Cities: Do Associations Vary According to Climate Zone or Green Space Configuration?

Schinasi, LH
Bakhtsiyarava, M
Sánchez, BN
Kephart, JL
Ju, Y
Arunachalam, S
Gouveia, N
Caiaffa, WT
O'Neill, MS
Dronova, I
Roux, AV Diez
Rodriguez, D
2023
Green vegetation may protect against heat-related death by improving thermal comfort. Few studies have investigated associations of green vegetation with heat-related mortality in Latin America or whether associations are modified by the spatial configuration of green vegetation. We used data from 323 Latin American cities and meta-regression models to estimate associations between city-level greenness, quantified using population-weighted normalized difference vegetation index values and modeled as three-level categorical terms, and excess deaths from heat (heat excess death fractions [heat...

Smartpath Regulation Layer Implementation: A User's Guide

Carbaugh, Jason
Alvarez, Luis
Chen, Pin-yen
Horowitz, Roberto
1997

This report describes the implementation of the regulation layer maneuvers for the hierarchical architecture in SmartPath. The report contains information regarding the simulation of automated vehicle control laws in the SmartPath environment. It also provides an overview of the set of maneuvers currently implemented.

Alternative Traffic Signal Illumination

Cohn, Theodore E.
Greenhouse, Daniel
Knowles, Richard
1998

New technologies have enabled the production of traffic signals that have significant advantages over standard incandescent signals, including greater energy efficiency and lower maintenance costs. Before the new signals are installed in the field, it is important to assure that they as visible as the older signals. We have developed a quality index we term the usability factor (UF) which can be used to evaluate the visibility of a new device relative to that of a standard reference lamp. We have measured UF's of a variety of new types of lamps by means of heterochromatic flicker...

Development and Performance Evaluation of AVCSS Deployment Sequences to Advance from Today's Driving Environment to Full Automation

Shladover, Steven
VanderWerf, Joel
Miller, Mark A.
Kourjanskaia, Natalia
Krishnan, Hariharan
2001

This report presents the findings of its investigation into deployment sequences to better understand the paths that could be taken from today's driving environment to vehicle-highway automation. One of the most vexing problems has always been that of determining how to advance from the present-day manually-controlled vehicles to the future fully automated vehicles. Considerable research attention has been devoted to defining the architecture and operating protocols, as well as the technology, of automated highway systems. Rather less attention has been devoted to defining the steps by...

PEDAMACS: Power Efficient and Delay Aware Medium Access Protocol for Sensor Networks

Coleri, Sinem
Varaiya, Pravin
2004

We consider a class of sensor networks with two special characteristics. First, the nodes periodically generate data for transfer to a distinguished node called the access point. Second, the nodes are (transmit) power and energy limited, but the access point, which communicates with the ‘outside world’, is not so limited. Such networks might be used for instance when a geographically distributed physical process, such as traffic on a freeway or at an urban street intersection, is periodically sensed for purposes of process control. We propose a medium access control scheme, called PEDAMACS...