Category: poster-mobility

POSTER OT-06: FOSTERING SMART AND SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL THROUGH ENGAGED COMMUNITIES USING INTEGRATED MULTIDIMENSIONAL INFORMATION-BASED SOLUTIONS

FOSTERING SMART AND SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL THROUGH ENGAGED COMMUNITIES USING INTEGRATED MULTIDIMENSIONAL INFORMATION-BASED SOLUTIONS

PI: Srinivas Peeta

Co-PI(s): OT-06

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

This project will develop systematic deployment tools that smart and connected communities (SCCs) can use to achieve their sustainable travel goals in a quantifiable manner by leveraging advances in information, communication, and sensor technologies. While the deployment of advanced technological solutions offers great promise for communities to improve residents’ quality of life, they encounter challenges in realizing these aspirations due to the diversity in technological and travel needs and barriers faced by the residents. Solutions to achieve sustainability objectives related to enhancing travel mobility, safety, equity, access, active lifestyle, and health will be developed using an immersive living lab (City of Peachtree Corners, GA). They include building novel partnerships involving emerging micromobility services in the private sector and the well-established public transit modes, personalized behavioral interventions to nudge and incentivize personal auto users to consider sustainable alternatives, and community level public policy interventions to enable flexible and novel travel alternatives. For underserved residents, the solutions include strategies to overcome information deserts in lower-income neighborhoods, age-related technology savviness issues for senior residents, and reduced access to smartphones and transportation options. These solutions will be developed using data collected from residents and other sources, and will be deployed using an information design system that provides targeted information to the various community stakeholders using multiple delivery mechanisms. This project seeks to foster deployment paradigms associated with holistic, community-level decision-making to achieve sustainable travel goals while meeting the needs of different stakeholders. It draws on methods from multi-objective optimization, multi-agent simulation, machine learning, behavioral economics, and data and policy analytics, to generate relevant multidimensional solutions. Further, it will lead to novel paradigms and algorithms for the solution options themselves, and for the development of generalizable principles related to practical deployment frameworks in the inherently complex SCCs.

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POSTER OT-05: ENHANCING URBAN FREIGHT EFFICIENCY THROUGH SIMULATION-GUIDED INITIATIVES

ENHANCING URBAN FREIGHT EFFICIENCY THROUGH SIMULATION-GUIDED INITIATIVES

PI: Sofia Perez-Guzman

Co-PI(s): OT-05

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

Current freight demand patterns pose challenges to energy efficiency and counteract supply-side progress. Urbanization and logistic sprawl exacerbate the complexities of supplying urban cores, giving rise to issues like pollution, congestion, and noise. Understanding the impact of urban freight and land-use decisions on energy efficiency, congestion, and emissions is paramount. A Behavioral Microsimulation Software (BMS) was devised to investigate this. The BMS simulates freight vehicle tours in a study area, offering insights into freight activity and policy impacts. At the general level, the BMS provides aggregate metrics; at the detailed level, it outputs tour details. It leverages freight trip generation estimates, and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis Input-Output Accounts for trade analysis. This versatile BMS evaluates a spectrum of supply chain activities?transportation supply to land use interventions. The study scrutinized three policies: (1) logistical development, (2) off-hour deliveries (OHD), and (3) demand management on e-commerce, all applied to a metropolitan and a specific region in New York State. The logistical development analysis showed that new facility development leads to smaller increases in freight (business-to-business) Vehicles-Miles Traveled (VMT) when located closer to the city?s center than toward the area’s outskirts. Moving closer to the city?s center reduces VMT when relocating an existing facility. These results underscore supply-side initiatives’ role in efficiency. The OHD investigation highlighted how higher penetration of OHD leads to lower freight (business-to-business) VMT, emissions, and fuel consumption, enhancing efficiency and reducing costs due to more compact and efficient tours. These findings emphasize the potency of demand-side strategies in fostering efficient urban freight systems. The demand management on e-commerce case showed that various forms of consumer adoption of household delivery consolidation could lead to notable reductions in the total number of deliveries, tours, and stops, resulting in cost savings, reduced fuel consumption, and decreased environmental emissions from business-to-customers freight activity. The findings serve as a practical illustration of the potential benefits that demand management strategies can bring to e-commerce deliveries. Reduced VMT yields cost savings, lower energy consumption, and decreased emissions, yielding substantial societal benefits. For policymakers and practitioners, these insights are invaluable for shaping effective urban freight policies. Efficient urban freight systems harmonize with sustainability goals, cost savings, and reduced environmental impact, driving positive outcomes for communities and economies.

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POSTER OT-02: RECRUITMENT METHOD IMPACTS ON MANAGED LANE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY RESPONSE RATES AND RESPONSE DIFFERENCES ACROSS RECRUITMENT WAVES

RECRUITMENT METHOD IMPACTS ON MANAGED LANE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY RESPONSE RATES AND RESPONSE DIFFERENCES ACROSS RECRUITMENT WAVES

PI: Randall Guensler

Co-PI(s): OT-02

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

The Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) conducts regular customer satisfaction surveys of Express Lane facility users to assess customer experience and obtain customer input to help improve facility management. The 2021 SRTA Customer Satisfaction Survey was conducted in four waves, between August 2021 and November 2021 (1). A total of 6,012 SRTA customers took the survey, which represents a survey response rate of about 8.3%. The first three waves of survey invitations were distributed directly to SRTA customers via pre-formatted e-mail invitations, using the agency e-mail contact list. The traditional first two waves, an invitation and follow-up e-mail reminder, generated significant customer response (41% of the total responses). However, Wave 3 was a targeted invitation, designed to appeal to specific users that regularly travel on specific corridors. This invitation let each individual user know that SRTA was looking for information from customers who reside in their county that used their specific Express Lane. This third wave significantly increased customer response, providing almost 27% of total responses. The open invitation used in the fourth wave (in which customer identity cannot be tracked) yielded almost 32% of the total survey response; however, 99% of these responses came from open SRTA newsletter invitations (less than 1% came from social media). The demographics and use characteristics were somewhat different across these waves. In the anonymous response survey, the distribution of ages was slightly skewed towards greater proportions of older individuals. Customer satisfaction with Peach Pass customer service centers was generally lower in the anonymous wave, providing information that would not have been captured without this wave. Given that the customer satisfaction rates for some service elements differ across the direct survey invitation responses and the anonymous survey invitation responses, for other agencies looking to assess customer satisfaction, it is worth considering the use of direct survey invitations as well as an anonymous survey response option.

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POSTER OT-01: FOSTERING SMART AND SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL THROUGH ENGAGED COMMUNITIES USING INTEGRATED MULTIDIMENSIONAL INFORMATION-BASED SOLUTIONS

FOSTERING SMART AND SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL THROUGH ENGAGED COMMUNITIES USING INTEGRATED MULTIDIMENSIONAL INFORMATION-BASED SOLUTIONS

PI: Srinivas Peeta

Co-PI(s): Omar Asensio

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

This project will develop systematic deployment tools that smart and connected communities (SCCs) can use to achieve their sustainable travel goals in a quantifiable manner by leveraging advances in information, communication, and sensor technologies. While the deployment of advanced technological solutions offers great promise for communities to improve residents’ quality of life, they encounter challenges in realizing these aspirations due to the diversity in technological and travel needs and barriers faced by the residents. Solutions to achieve sustainability objectives related to enhancing travel mobility, safety, equity, access, active lifestyle, and health will be developed using an immersive living lab (City of Peachtree Corners, GA). They include building novel partnerships involving emerging micromobility services in the private sector and the well-established public transit modes, personalized behavioral interventions to nudge and incentivize personal auto users to consider sustainable alternatives, and community level public policy interventions to enable flexible and novel travel alternatives. For underserved residents, the solutions include strategies to overcome information deserts in lower-income neighborhoods, age-related technology savviness issues for senior residents, and reduced access to smartphones and transportation options. These solutions will be developed using data collected from residents and other sources, and will be deployed using an information design system that provides targeted information to the various community stakeholders using multiple delivery mechanisms. This project seeks to foster deployment paradigms associated with holistic, community-level decision-making to achieve sustainable travel goals while meeting the needs of different stakeholders. It draws on methods from multi-objective optimization, multi-agent simulation, machine learning, behavioral economics, and data and policy analytics, to generate relevant multidimensional solutions. Further, it will lead to novel paradigms and algorithms for the solution options themselves, and for the development of generalizable principles related to practical deployment frameworks in the inherently complex SCCs.

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POSTER 23-20: INVESTIGATION OF HEAVIER-THAN-EXPECTED VEHICLE WEIGHTS AT NON-INTERSTATE WIM SITE IN GEORGIA

INVESTIGATION OF HEAVIER-THAN-EXPECTED VEHICLE WEIGHTS AT NON-INTERSTATE WIM SITE IN GEORGIA

PI: Sung-Hee Sonny Kim

Co-PI(s): Mi Geum Chorzepa

Institution(s): University of Georgia

Abstract

With increased container capacity at the Port of Savannah, it is critically important to build reliable transportation infrastructure and provide superior road connections to interstates. The main goals of this project are to conduct field investigations of pavement and bridge structures in the vicinity of the Savannah Port area, including routes connecting the Garden city and Ocean terminals with interstates, evaluate their reliability using the latest Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) data, and identify maintenance needs and future design requirements that may be affected by traffic changes, including vehicle counts, classification, and weight changes derived as a result of the Savannah Port Deepening project and terminal expansions. Additionally, safety and potential distress evaluation and monitoring of pavement and bridge structures is a crucial task for responsible transportation agencies. The Federal Government allows up to 100,000 lbs for containerized freight trucks traveling to and from ports with certain restrictions. The Georgia General Assembly has allowed increases to single and tandem axle weights as well as overall gross vehicle weights on trucks operating off of the interstate. These increases are more than 25% of the federally allowed weights. The impact of these heavier vehicles and the repeated load cycles on Georgia?s bridges and roads need to be investigated.

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POSTER 22-21: PHASE III – INVESTIGATION AND GUIDELINES FOR BEST PRACTICES OF MASS CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

PHASE III – INVESTIGATION AND GUIDELINES FOR BEST PRACTICES OF MASS CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT

PI: Yong K. Cho

Co-PI(s): Kimberly Kurtis, and Russell Gentry

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) defines mass concrete as “any large volume of cast-in-place concrete with dimensions large enough to require that measures be taken to cope with the generation of heat and attendant volume change to minimize cracking?. If mass concrete overheats due to the exotherm, the concrete may self-destruct due to delayed ettringite formation (DEF) in the worst case or may experience early-age cracking due to thermal differentials, which is not a fatal problem, but such cracking could lead to long-term durability problems. Thus, a false choice of temperature reduction methods utilized by contractors would decrease the quality of the concrete or structure, which could be costly for GDOT to maintain the possibly resulting defects. This research aims to expand the applicability of decision-making tools to various concrete mixes, including accommodating temperature differential and cost implications while exploring emerging cement and SCM combinations. The research team will also identify a time-cost tradeoff among different thermal control methods to increase the net benefit of a mass concrete construction project. The specific scope of the work to be completed within this research project includes, 1) investigation of emerging cement and SCM combinations through simulation and lab tests, 2) validation, extension, and refinement of the nomograms developed from Phase II, 3) identification of time-cost tradeoff among thermal control methods, and 4) investigation of� alternative methods to avoid active cooling.

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POSTER 22-04: WHAT IS THE NEW NORMAL? AN ANALYSIS OF POST-COVID-19 COMMUTE AND WORK PATTERNS

WHAT IS THE NEW NORMAL? AN ANALYSIS OF POST-COVID-19 COMMUTE AND WORK PATTERNS

PI: Patricia Mokhtarian

Co-PI(s): Giovanni Circella

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

This study aims to understand the post-COVID work and commute patterns of Georgia (adult) workers and investigates how the patterns are related to the workers’ characteristics relevant to travel behavior and demand. The research team designed an online survey to gather information on attitudes on various topics, job characteristics, work and commute patterns, vehicle ownership status, residential location, and sociodemographic traits. The survey was distributed to (1) an online opinion panel (OP) managed by Qualtrics and (2) the Georgia respondents who consented to be contacted again for a future survey when they participated in the 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and/or the survey administered for GDOT Research Project (RP) 16-31. (Trimmed) sample weights were developed and applied to the working data (N = 1931) to make the sample as representative of Georgia workers as feasible with respect to key sociodemographic traits, employment status, working-from-home engagement, and residential location region. Key findings were obtained from the trimmed-weighted sample: (1) detailed work and commute patterns of Georgia workers and (2) comparisons among region and worker types with respect to many variables collected (e.g., attitudes, sociodemographic traits, commute distance/mode, vehicle ownership, residential location). This study concludes with potential uses of the collected data and policy implications.

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POSTER 21-05: EVALUATION AND PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT OF GROUND PENETRATING RADAR (GPR) FOR BRIDGE DECK ASSESSMENT

EVALUATION AND PRACTICAL ASSESSMENT OF GROUND PENETRATING RADAR (GPR) FOR BRIDGE DECK ASSESSMENT

PI: Hossein Taheri

Co-PI(s): Saman Hedjazi

Institution(s): Georgia Southern University

Abstract

The maintenance of transportation infrastructure relies on dependable testing methods for the evaluation of materials and components to ensure proper repair can be done where needed. Particularly, non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques are desirable in many cases to avoid destructive testing procedures, which damage the tested area. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is widely used NDT technique that operates based on electromagnetic energy principles. This project studies the possibilities and limitations of GPR for evaluating a bridge deck by assessing the following: determining slab depth, locating rebar, and finding areas of rebar corrosion and possible delamination. After evaluating the GPR scans for these parameters, cores were taken for visual inspections.

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POSTER 21-04: PRAGMATIC PRECAST/PRESTRESSEDGIRDER ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

PRAGMATIC PRECAST/PRESTRESSEDGIRDER ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

PI: Lauren Stewart

Co-PI(s): Lawrence Kahn, and Giovanni Loreto

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

This research proposes to combine academic literature as well as unpublished research, computational models, GDOT personnel and repair contractor interviews, plus experimental investigations to recommend a tiered acceptance system with specific limits that can be used by GDOT and industry to determine the appropriate path for girders with the most relevant non-conformance issues.

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POSTER 20-19: DURABLE NEXT-GENERATION CONCRETE SPECIFICATIONS

DURABLE NEXT-GENERATION CONCRETE SPECIFICATIONS

PI: Kimberly Kurtis

Co-PI(s): Samuel Paredes, and Devon Golden

Institution(s): Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

This poster goes over suggested performance metrics for GDOT in order to bring durability to the forefront of priorities alongside strength. The purpose of recommending the switch from prescriptive-based to performance-based specifications would be to decrease maintenance costs over time, as well as grant longer life spans. This poster also touches on how the suggested performance metrics and alterations to current limitations does not significantly lower strength characteristics or current durability metrics.

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