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Current Issue | Previous Issues | Subscribe October 2004 - Vol. 2 No. 9

Policy & Planning

Global and local factors affect airport expansion

Always contentious and sometimes controversial, airport expansion is one of the most difficult transportation issues facing communities in and around metropolitan areas. As demand for global passenger and freight service grows, and residential areas continue to expand, it is an issue that more communities will face in the future. Researcher Julie Cidell of the Department of Geography has taken an in-depth look at three major airports facing pressure to expand, searching for patterns that could help policymakers find the best options for their communities.

A report authored by Cidell, Scales of Airport Expansion: Globalization, Regionalization, and Local Land Use, presents case studies of Chicago's O'Hare, Minneapolis-St. Paul International, and Boston's Logan airports, including extensive discussion of related issues such as regional economic development, local land use, and public participation in the planning process.

Based on the results of her case studies, Cidell believes that allowing more public participation in expansion planning can actually speed up the process. Faster expansion may, in turn, benefit municipalities near airports by removing long-term uncertainties that interfere with local land-use planning.

Each of Cidell's case studies highlights a different issue connected to airport expansion. In Chicago, she focuses on local land use surrounding the airport, including the multiple factors that contribute to land use decisions; the Minneapolis case study deals with the effect of the airport on economic development in surrounding areas; Boston's case study analyzes the city's effort to accommodate demand by encouraging travelers to use nearby regional airports.

By connecting global, regional, and local economic and policy factors, this report offers a unique perspective on issues surrounding airport expansion. It should be of interest to decision makers and policy researchers dealing with transportation planning. The report is available online at www.cts.umn.edu/pdf/CTS-04-01.pdf.

Intelligent Transportation Systems

A new view of visibility on the highway

When fog or blowing snow reduces visibility on a busy highway, a single collision can escalate quickly into a deadly multiple-vehicle pile-up. Notifying motorists of low-visibility conditions in advance, so they can reduce speed and proceed safely, is key to preventing such crashes, but continuously monitoring visibility along hundreds of miles of road has seemed like an impossible task.

At the University of Minnesota's Duluth campus, where blustery winter weather is commonplace, professor Taek Kwon of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has taken on the challenge of developing an automated system to monitor visibility along highways.

The problem of developing an automated system to monitor visibility is a difficult one because visibility itself is a complex function of many atmospheric variables. The amount of light available and the size and density of airborne particles, as well as reflectivity, light absorption, and the size, shape, and color of visible objects—all these factors affect visibility. Measuring all the variables, and using them to compute a value corresponding to human perception, would be incredibly difficult and prone to errors; most visibility meters measure at most one or two atmospheric parameters and generate an index of visibility based on those.

Instead of measuring the atmospheric variables directly, Kwon's solution to this problem was to measure the visual properties of video images, which are roughly analogous to the images received by the human eye. Using image-processing software, a computer analyzes individual video frames to derive a measure of how much information is lost, based on comparison to an image of the same scene taken under ideal conditions. This measurement is known as relative visibility or RV.

Kwon created an experimental system using a video camera and several targets mounted at fixed distances along a highway near Duluth, where he was also able to carry out initial tests of a similar approach to nighttime visibility measurement, using near-infrared cameras rather than visible-light cameras.

Atmospheric Visibility Measurements Using Video Cameras: Relative Visibility is available from the CTS Web site at www.cts.umn.edu/pdf/CTS-04-03.pdf.

Visualization tools make sense of traffic data

Four thousand vehicle detectors embedded in the pavement of the Twin Cities freeway system record traffic volumes, generating reams of data every day. In order to make sense of this ever-growing mountain of data, researchers need to create interactive graphical visualizations that allow them to see complex changes in traffic patterns. But with so much data to process, it can take days to create a visualization using traditional techniques.

To address the need for better, faster visualizations, Shashi Shekhar of the University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering worked with engineers at Mn/DOT's Regional Traffic Management Center (RTMC) to develop new high-performance techniques for visualizing traffic data. Shekhar is an expert in the area of spatial databases—databases designed to store spatially related information, such as that produced by the city-wide freeway sensor network.

With research assistants Chang-Tien Lu and Alan Liu, Shekhar analyzed the existing RTMC database and implemented advanced storage techniques to create a data warehouse. The warehouse aggregates certain types of data to facilitate visualization, and organizes information in a way that makes common queries more efficient.

The researchers also developed algorithms to discover which detectors are functioning abnormally. This is important from an operational perspective because it gives users the ability to identify sensors that may require repair or replacement, as well as exclude unreliable data when creating new traffic pattern visualizations.

One of the most strikingly useful visualization tools now available to RTMC engineers is the ability to create an animated map of traffic volume system-wide or on any freeway section at any time. Additional charting tools allow users to visualize and compare specific attributes of traffic flow.

The report authored by Shekhar and his research assistants, High-Performance Spatial Visualization of Traffic Data, is available from the CTS Web site at www.cts.umn.edu/pdf/CTS-04-04.pdf.

Transit & Alternative Modes

TCRP research publications available online

The federal Transit Cooperative Research Program, administered by the Transportation Research Board, provides practical transit research to address technical and operational issues. TCRP emphasizes putting research results into the hands of organizations and individuals that can use them to solve problems. TRCP publications may be viewed at www4.trb.org/trb/onlinepubs.nsf/web/crp.

Here are recent TCRP publications, with associated reference information from the TRB Web site:

• Public Transportation Board Effectiveness: A Self-Assessment Handbook (TCRP Report 104)
• Concept for an e-Transit Reference Enterprise Architecture (TCRP Report 84; volume 5)
• Maintenance Productivity Practices (TCRP Synthesis 54)
• Synthesis of Information Related to Transit Problems (TCRP Research Results Digest 67)
• Transit Design, Construction, and Operations in the Mediterranean Region (TCRP Research Results Digest 66)

Journal of Public Transportation

The Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2004, published by the National Center for Transit Research at the University of South Florida, includes these articles, available at www.nctr.usf.edu:

• HOT Lanes in Houston­—Six Years of Experience
• Tackling Crime and Fear of Crime While Waiting at Britain’s Railway Stations
• Overcoming Financial and Institutional Barriers to TOD: Lindbergh Station Case Study
• Impacts of Various Traffic Parameters on Transit Signal Priority Effectiveness
• The Crisis of Public Transport in India: Overwhelming Needs but Limited Resources

Bus Signage for Persons with Visual Impairments, new from FTA

The Federal Transit Administration has posted a study on the readability of LED bus destination signs for persons with visual impairments. It found that while the signs meet ADA requirements, they may still be hard to read. The full study is available at www.transitweb.its.dot.gov/bussignage/main.asp.

Safety

Flashing beacons can help drivers avoid deer

Many of us know this scene: you round a curve on a rural road and suddenly see several deer crossing ahead of you. In 2002, five people were killed in deer-vehicle crashes in Minnesota, and more than 5,500 hits were reported. A new research report just published by Mn/DOT describes a promising new approach that one day could help reduce these numbers.

Deer Avoidance: The Assessment of Real World Enhanced Deer Signage in a Virtual Environment explains the results of a study completed by Curtis Hammond and Michael Wade of the Division of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.

The researchers set out to evaluate the performance of a new type of warning sign for deer crossing areas that uses flashing lights triggered by motion detectors to warn motorists when deer are present. A prototype system was field tested by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2001, but it was not possible to gather detailed information on driver response in the field.

Hammond and Wade used a driving simulator to duplicate a stretch of Highway 23 near Marshall, Minnesota, the actual location of the new motion-detection technology. The study explored three types of signage designed to reduce the number of deer-vehicle crashes: standard signage, new prototype signage with a beacon that flashes when deer are present, and the new signage without the beacon flashing.

The researchers found that the prototype flashing sign did appear to reduce driver speed. They also noted that drivers reduced their speed more consistently at each successive flashing sign than they did when approaching standard signs or prototype signs with the flashing beacons switched off.

Bob Weinholzer, state programs administrator for Mn/DOT, says the report seems to confirm the feeling of many transportation workers in the field: standard deer signage is ineffective. Perhaps drivers get accustomed to the signs, or maybe too many are posted—for whatever reasons, the signs just don't seem to work. Another recently completed study shows the same thing, he said. This project, by the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning, analyzed data from 1998–2000 in one rural county and found no benefit from standard deer signage.

Weinholzer is hopeful for the future of the flashing-beacon technology. At the Marshall test site, 21 beacons were installed along a mile-long section where about 50 deer were killed every year. The signs were powered by batteries that were supposed to last two to three weeks, but with the tremendous number of deer crossings they only lasted two to three days, Weinholzer said.

Hammond and Wade's report is available on the Mn/DOT Web site at www.lrrb.gen.mn.us/pdf/200413.pdf.