Institute of Transportation Studies 50th Anniversary

This report follows a series of seven first-level Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) testing reports, two laboratory reports on shear and fatigue testing, a forensic investigation report, and a report on the backcalculation of deflection measurements, all of which document an investigation undertaken to validate Caltrans overlay strategies for the rehabilitation of cracked asphalt concrete. It presents the findings from a

Abstract: This report is the second in a series of first-level analysis reports that describe the results of HVS testing on a fullscale experiment being performed at the Richmond Field Station (RFS) to validate Caltrans overlay strategies for the rehabilitation of cracked ...

Smart parking management technologies may provide a cost-effective tool to address near-term parking constraints at transit stations. Smart parking management systems have been implemented in numerous European, British, and Japanese cities to more efficiently use parking capacity at transit stations by providing real-time information via variable message signs to motorists about available parking spaces in park-and-ride lots. This paper describes the results of initial focus groups and surveys of participants in a smart parking field operational test, which was launched at a San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District station in Oakland, California on December 8, 2004. Insights into the project's travel effects are gained from an analysis of participant travel behavior before they started using the service. The results indicate that the project is attracting new (14 percent) and infrequent BART commuters (25 percent). While some participants may drive further (two miles...

Excessive speed is considered to be a major contributing factor to motor vehicle crashes and is thus an important focus of highway enforcement efforts. Automated speed enforcement programs have been widely applied outside the U.S. to address speeding-related safety problems. This literature review explores the potential benefits and barriers to implementing automated speed enforcement programs in the U.S. by examining the large body of literature on automated enforcement programs, including red-light and speed programs.

From: A Short History of Carsharing in the 90's. Journal of World Transport Policy & Practice 5 (3), 18 - 40 The vast majority of automobile trips in U.S. metropolitan regions are drive-alone car trips. In 1990, approximately 90 percent of work trips and 58 percent of nonwork trips in the United States were made by vehicles with only one occupant (United States Department of Transportation, 1995). Vehicles are unused an average of 23 hours per day. This form of transportation is expensive and consumes large amounts of land. Private vehicles are attractive. Their universal appeal is demonstrated by rapid motorization rates, even in countries with high fuel prices, good transit systems, and relatively compact land development. But the environmental, resource, and social costs of widespread car use are also high. One strategy for retaining the benefits of car use while limiting costs is to create institutions for sharing vehicles. The principle of carsharing is simple: Individuals ...

Interest in telecommuting is growing among workers, employers, transportation planners, communities, the telecommunications industry, and others. But actual levels of telecommuting appear to be increasing slowly, although there is little reliable data on trends. The future of telecommuting depends on whether employers provide the opportunity to telecommute and whether workers take advantage of this opportunity; government policies can encourage both. This article addresses that future by outlining and evaluating important trends in a variety of factors and explores the need for further research on telecommuting trends and impacts. For the most part the future of telecommuting looks promising, but many questions remain about how telecommuting will evolve over time.

In the past five years, commercial vehicle travel has increased 60 percent on California's highways, without a corresponding increase in compliance inspection station capacity or enforcement officers. Commercial vehicles that do not comply with regulations impose significant public costs including, for example, pavement and structure damage to roads and catastrophic crashes. In response to these problems, the California Department of Transportation is investigating the potential application of detection and communication technology in virtual compliance stations (VCS) to cost-effectively improve enforcement of commercial vehicle regulations. This study begins with a description of the fledgling VCS research programs in the U.S. as well more advanced international VCS programs. Next, the results of expert interview with key officials involved in the early deployment stages of VCS programs in Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, and Saskatchewan are reported. This is followed by an analysi...

qt6p3305b0 repo A Short History of Carsharing in the 90's short history of carsharing in the 90s 1999 1999 1999 1999-09-01 2010-01-22 19990901 shaheen ss::Shaheen, Susan A. ss::Sperling, Daniel ww::Wagner, Conrad Shaheen, Susan A. Sperling, Daniel Wagner, Conrad ...

Quality of life in California depends in many ways on the freedom of people and goods to move safely from place to place when they want to do so, in a timely manner, at reasonable cost, and with reasonable choices among modes and routes of travel. However, our desire for mobility must be tempered by due concern for the natural and built environment, and like all aspects of public policy, the provision of mobility must be framed by realistic consideration of available financial resources. This report examines the system by which California raises money for transportation and assesses its adequacy and appropriateness for current and future needs.

Using data collected from 164 French employees of a transportation institute and 1904 residents of the US San Francisco Bay Area, we operationalize a segmentation of mobility patterns based on objective, subjective, and desired amounts of mobility by various modes and overall. We define a multimodality index from basic concepts of information theory, and we especially focus on the degree of multimodality in an individual's current modal mix and desired changes to that mix. The clusters that result showed some ...

Many studies have already addressed the tradeoffs between the various hydrogen refueling stations, but few studies have worked on how a station should be managed on a day by day basis, in a market driven situation. No data are already available since the existing H2 stations are still in the permitting phase, and there are no big fleets refueling now. But parameters such as vehicle daily load profile, seasonality in demand, station electricity load, could have an influence on station design. Especially in the case where the hydrogen is produced locally at the station and stored as a gas, these problems could be a major hurdle if not considered prior to building the station: the combination of the storage, reformer compressor and dispenser must be sized for the most demanding day we can expect: but many station have a seasonality and a vehicle profile that will vary depending on the day of the week. There is also a tradeoff between the reformer size and the storage size: the bigger t...

A comprehensive study on full-depth reclamation (FDR) of pavements with foamed asphalt has been completed for the California Department of Transportation by the University of California Pavement Research Center. A literature review revealed that very little research had been carried out on the reclamation of thick asphalt pavements (multiple overlays over a relatively weak base or subgrade). A mechanistic sensitivity analysis was carried out to identify key variables in the design of recycled pavements consisting primarily of recycled asphalt pavement. The findings of this analysis and the literature review were used to formulate a work plan for laboratory and field studies to address issues specific to recycling these thick asphalt pavements. A number of FDR projects were observed during the course of the study. Material was collected for a comprehensive laboratory investigation, which identified a number of key issues pertaining to mix design, including appropriate test methods fo...

Working at home is widely viewed as a useful travel-reduction strategy, and partly for that reason, considerable research related to telecommuting and home-based work has been conducted in the last two decades. The contribution of this study is to examine the effect of residential neighborhood built environment (BE) factors on working at home. Using data from a survey of eight neighborhoods in Northern California, we develop a multinomial logit (MNL) model of work-at-home (WAH) frequency. Potential explanatory variables include sociodemo­graphic traits, neighborhood preferences and perceptions, objective neighborhood characteristics, and travel attitudes and behavior. The results clearly demonstrate the contribution of built environment variables to WAH choices, in addition to previously-identified influences such as sociodemo­graphic predictors and commute time. The findings suggest that land use and transportation strategies that are desirable from some perspectives will tend to w...

Suburban sprawl has been widely criticized for its contribution to auto dependence. Numerous studies have found that residents in suburban neighborhoods drive more and walk less than their counterparts in traditional environments. However, most studies confirm only an association between the built environment and travel behavior, and have yet to establish the predominant underlying causal link: whether neighborhood design independently influences travel behavior or whether preferences for travel options affect residential choice. That is, residential self-selection may be at work. A few studies have recently addressed the influence of self-selection. However, our understanding of the causality issue is still immature. To address this issue, this study took into account individuals’ self-selection by employing a quasi-longitudinal design and by controlling for residential preferences and travel attitudes. In particular, using data collected from 547 movers currently living in four tr...

This report presents the results of a two-part study that compared the lifecycle costs of two long-life pavement (LLP) rehabilitation options and several conventional rehabilitation strategies for existing asphalt and concrete pavements, considering both agency costs and road user cost associated with traffic delay caused by construction. In the first part of the research, data from a 1996 study was

This report follows a series of seven first-level Heavy Vehicle Simulator (HVS) testing reports, two laboratory reports on shear and fatigue testing, a forensic investigation report, and a report on the backcalculation of deflection measurements, all of which document an investigation undertaken to validate Caltrans overlay strategies for the rehabilitation of cracked asphalt concrete. It presents the findings from a