The transportation system is an important network established to ensure the mobility of people and goods between destinations. In addition, it also serves a vital role in responding to disasters, and therefore deserves special attention when those disasters threaten to decrease its support capability. The importance of maintaining this capability is highlighted by the inclusion of transportation system security as a separate planning factor in the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users legislation. Incorporating security into the transportation planning process should be an ongoing effort of the state department of transportation (DOT), requiring modification as feedback of implementation methods is received. It does not mean transforming this transportation agency into a security agency, but rather incorporating a security perspective into the analysis of the system. This first involves establishing a more solid role as a coordinator in order to solidify vital linkages between agencies relevant to security planning. This interaction should reveal standardization issues the DOT can address in order to ensure effective collaboration, communication and coordination. Funding security measures may be difficult; but by incorporating security measures into initial analysis and planning processes, they can be brought into the broader concept of the system rather than simply added as additional funding needs. Nine roles are identified in this research for state DOTs to overcome these and other challenges faced in the process of incorporating security into the transportation planning process. Through these roles, state DOTs can ensure that security efforts reach the parts of the system that require them and begin to build a more secure system.
Projects
Transportation System Security and State Transportation Agencies
Maximizing Port and Transportation System Productivity by Exploring Alternative Port Operation Strategies
The ultimate objective of this project is to explore solutions for maximizing both port and freight industry productivity with better visibility, understanding, and measure of their operations and interactions. These interactions will include the gate queue behavior and communication (e.g. container arrival time) between the port and the freight industry. A video-based sensing system will be developed to provide better visibility of gate operations and activities (e.g. truck waiting time and characteristics of the queued trucks). By collaborating with the port and freight industry's decision-makers about their processes and operations (e.g. freight dispatching and management), we will have a better understanding of all port operations. A stochastic simulation model of the interaction between the port and freight industry to provide better visibility and understanding on their interactions will be developed. The research team will work with the port and the freight industry, including Home Depot, to study port operations and freight management performance measures and decision-making processes. Through the study, we hope to identify new processes and an information sharing platform between the freight industry and the port of Savannah that can lead to more productive truck arrivals.
Airport Costs and Metropolitan Economic Development
In a recent study for the FAA on the economic development benefits from airport runway expansions (with a focus on Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport), covering a panel of 35 large and medium hub airports over a 12 year period (1996-2007), a translog model of airport short run operating costs was developed and estimated. The purpose of this proposal is to extend this analysis in five specific directions. First, data will be updated to 2008 and, if possible, 2009. Second, in order to isolate as much as possible the effects of airports and landing capacity on economic development, the sample for the original study only included MSAs with one commmercial airport. Although not excluding Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, this did eliminate many of the largest MSAs and airports (e.g. Los Angeles, Chicago, New York). The proposed study will include these airports and explore how, if at all, this alters the economic development benefits of additional runway capacity. Second, the proposed study will develop and estimate a two output cost model, freight shipped and passengers served, which will provide additional insights on airport production technology (e.g. economies of scope), and on the impact that air freight has on economic development. Third, the original analysis included number of runways as a quasi-fixed factor of production to the exclusion of airport operating characteristics (e.g. retail and repair services, elevation, runway characteristics) that affect airport costs. By collecting these data (which are available) and including operating characteristics in the model, it will be possible to obtain better estimates of the underlying technology and of the impact that additional runway capacity has upon airport operating costs and, ultimately, upon economic development. Fourth, based upon the more general model, the proposed study will identify the link between airport operations and economic development and will expand the set of economic development indicators analyzed in the original study.
Examination of Sustainability Concepts and Implications to State Departments of Transportation
The major objective of this research project is to identify the key dimensions of sustainable mobility as it is evolving in the United States and in several other countries. The project will critically assess these dimensions from the perspective of how they might relate to a state department of transportation (DOT). This research is really at the front edge of a perspective on transportation that is gaining strength in the United States, and thus can provide an important foundation for potential future directions of state DOTs.
Real Time Estimation of Arterial Travel Time and Operational Measures through Integration of Real Time Fixed Sensor Data and Simulation
The specific objectives of this research are to determine the feasibility of integrating real-time data and simulation and to conduct a field test of the proposed methodology on a target corridor. Additionally, as part of the real-time simulation calibration and prediction effort the benefit of real time probe vehicle data will be explored (e.g. GPS instrumented vehicles, cellular probe data, etc.). The ability to include probe vehicle data in the field test will be subject to probe vehicle data availability.
Best Practices in Selecting Performance Measures and Standards for Effective Asset Management
An important gap that has been identified in research on asset management has been identifying how agencies should go about setting performance standards for performance measures used in highway investment decision making, and what performance measures are best in making investment decisions for roadway assets. The objectives of this research are to provide guidance on the:
- Relative effectiveness of various performance measurement systems for transportation asset management decision making
- Impacts of setting alternative standards on system productivity both in highway and multimodal systems.
Better measures and improved targets can increase customer satisfaction and result in cost savings for the transportation agency.
- What are appropriate performance targets in each performance category?
- How would system benefits change if the performance targets were reduced slightly? What would be the associated cost reductions?
- How are these changes likely to affect customer satisfaction?
- What matrix of targets (for the different performance categories) is likely to result in increased customer satisfaction with relatively changes in costs?
- What are the risks of setting performance standards based on historical practice without any cogent analysis?
Value Pricing Data Analysis of HOV Lane Conversion
The goal of the data preparation element of the project will be to summarize the second-by-second Commute Atlanta instrumented vehicle data and create data subsets that can be used in various research activities. However, the data must be processed in such a manner that ensures the confidentiality of the data will not be breached. A data set will be compiled from approximately 100 households for which complete household and vehicle level data are available over the study period. These data will be processed for use in household-level travel behavior analysis. In the household-level data set, detailed travel summaries will be retained (trip time, date, distance, duration, origin zone, destination zone, trip purpose, etc.), and these data will be linked to household demographic characteristics. A second data set will be prepared for corridor-level data analysis. This data set will be comprised of segments of second-by-second data taken from approximately 300 vehicles, where the data are directly linked to specific travel corridors of interest (freeways and major arterials).
Work Zone Technology Test Bed
The Georgia Tech team will adapt the communications technology test bed established for a National Science Foundation (NSF) distributed simulation project to evaluate the performance and suitability of construction work zone technologies. Such technologies would include various vehicle speed and presence detectors, flashing warning lights, etc. The current test bed, located between 10th Street to North Avenue, and Spring Street and the GT campus, will be adapted to provide data connectivity points that allow deployed technologies at pre-set locations to communicate with the GT server systems. Because the NSF test bed already has video monitoring systems in place, these corridors can be used to evaluate the accuracy, precision, and impact of these technologies. Once the test bed is operational, GDOT will be able to provide new technologies to the testing team, who will set up field experiments in the test bed to evaluate performance and verify manufacturer claims. The GT team will assess the suitability of the technologies for establishing benchmark and work zone performance metrics and evaluate communications demands. As technologies are verified, GT will work with the state DOT to undertake a construction zone deployment for final testing.
Effects of Private Transportation Improvements on Economic Development
The primary objective of the study is to investigate whether state-of-the-art mobility hubs can be created that include multiple modes of transportation and integration of novel information technologies that provide "mobility on demand." Of immediate concern are the best choices of vehicles and fuels (including electric vehicles) for shuttling passengers to the new international terminal, and how the service can be extended to surrounding neighborhoods for increased access to transportation and employment. Of broader and long-term concern is realizing the potential of airport- and transit-adjacent development to accommodate new growth without worsening traffic congestion and air quality.
Impact of Regional Special Purpose Sales Taxes on Local Government's Infrastructure
One of the popular funding strategies being considered in several states including Georgia is to allow local governments, especially counties, to create a transportation regional sales tax. This project would look at the implications of such a regional sales tax on the ability of counties to provide county-specific sales tax initiatives for transportation and other public services (e.g., schools).