The development and deployment of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) helps reducing energy use, achieve greater energy security, decrease emissions, and provide operating cost stability. To help consumers overcome the higher initial purchase costs of PEVs, and to help promote PEV adoption, government agencies and electric utilities have offered incentives of various design.
Historically, transportation agencies’ main priority has been to fund, build and expand highways to safely meet the growing demand for vehicle travel. Their project prioritization processes, therefore, have focused primarily on improving capacity along the most congested major routes. Many of these agencies, however, have experienced a shift in priorities toward the maintenance of existing infrastructure, the facilitation of multi-modal transportation, and the operations and management of existing infrastructure—applications that can be more challenging to fund.
The Madison, WI region is adding more jobs than workers and currently faces a labor shortage. To address this challenge, in 2018, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development launched the Commute to Careers program (CtC) to reduce transportation barriers for unemployed, low and moderate-income workers.
Rebounding from Disruptive Events: Optimization of Post-Disaster Reconstruction Activities for Critical and Interdependent Infrastructure Networks
Project ID: CTEDD 019-17
Author(s): Sharareh Kermanshachi, University of Texas at Arlington
Co-Author(s): Kelly Bergstrand, University of Texas at Arlington; Yi Leaf Zhang, University of Texas at Arlington; Jiwon Suh, University of Texas at Arlington
The aim of this project is to collect data on the recovery processes due to natural disasters to develop time and cost estimation models for post-disaster recovery activities, identify tipping points to timely post-disaster recovery processes, and determine effective policies and educational programs which prevent substantial delays in the restoration period. Due to increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards occurrence, most recovery activities take longer duration than the initial anticipated plan created immediately after the disaster happen.
Food and Flora Waste to Fleet Fuel: Development and Application of the F4 Framework
Project ID: CTEDD 019-16
Author(s): Melanie Sattler, University of Texas at Arlington
Co-Author(s): Kate Hyun, University of Texas at Arlington; Arpita Bhatt, University of Texas at Arlington; Victoria Chen, University of Texas at Arlington; Caroline Krejci, University of Texas at Arlington; Ardeshir Anjomani, University of Texas at Arlington;
As cities strive for more sustainable transportation systems, many are considering renewable fuels for fleets. Biogas has several advantages as an alternative fuel. Composed primarily of methane, it can be cleaned for use in natural gas vehicles, or burned in a turbine/engine to generate electricity for electric vehicles. Biogas can reduce air pollutant emissions from fleet vehicles; in addition, if wastes are used to produce the biogas in digesters, the problem of urban wastes is reduced.
One of the main challenges of cancer patients is making decisions simultaneously about their cancer treatments and careers because of many factors, including side-effects and the cost of treatments. For example, the most common side-effect of cancer treatments is dizziness, which reduces the ability of patients in driving. This minor side effect might completely change cancer patients’ lives if their only mode of transportation is driving.
Transportation Communication Tower Inspection Using Novel UAV Technologies
Project ID: CTEDD 019-14
Author(s): Anand J. Puppala, University of Texas at Arlington
Co-Author(s): Shima Hamidi, University of Texas at Arlington; Anurag Pande, California Polytechnic State University; Surya Sarat Chandra Congress, University of Texas at Arlington; Hani Alzralee, California Polytechnic State University
Transportation communication towers facilitate telecommunications that are essential for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) applications in advancing transportation safety and mobility operations. State DOTs and other agencies spend considerable amount of dollars annually to maintain towers as they are an integral part of their assets.
Roadway lighting is a basic roadway infrastructure to ensure nighttime safety and security for all road users (motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, and transit passengers). To cost-effectively maintain a roadway lighting system, key tasks in infrastructure management include periodically measuring roadway lighting levels, diagnosing lighting performance based on collected data, and providing decision-making support for maintenance and improvement.
Despite disparity in methods and efforts, many Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) are seeking to incorporate equity in their planning and project prioritization processes. Yet MPOs often focus on avoiding adverse and disproportionate impacts of projects on traditionally underserved communities, without an equal focus on developing projects that advance the needs of these communities.
Over the past decade, the rapid development and adoption of mobile computing and telecommunications technology has begun to disrupt established business models based on providing mobility services that were previously available primarily through the public sector (particularly public transit agencies) or that were privately provided through households’ and firms’ directly-owned and operated vehicles.