Access to Destinations researchers highlight policy implications at annual research conference

“Why are we here?” is more than just an existential question for David Levinson and Kevin Krizek, researchers whose work probes the complex interconnections between transportation and land use.

Addressing the opening plenary session of the 20th Annual CTS Transportation Research Conference, Levinson pointed out that the audience of researchers, policymakers, and others had braved the morning rush hour in order to come together in a kind of “temporary city” because the conference offered access to a broad spectrum of transportation professionals. The concept of accessibility, he said, is key to understanding travel behavior and location decisions.

Streaming video of the session is now available via the University of Minnesota’s Mediasite service (Microsoft Silverlight browser plugin required).

Levinson, the Richard P. Braun/CTS Chair in Transportation Studies and director of the Nexus transportation research group at the University of Minnesota, serves as research co-leader of the Access to Destinations Study. For the past four years, the study’s multidisciplinary research team has investigated the evolution of transportation networks and land use patterns across the Twin Cities region. CTS provides coordination and support for the study, which is sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Hennepin County, the Metropolitan Council, and the McKnight Foundation.

Studies of transportation networks have traditionally focused on mobility—essentially, measuring travel speeds. But Access to Destinations argues for a different and more nuanced view of transportation—one that takes into account the destinations that travelers can reach in order to meet their daily needs.

“The issue is what you can reach, not how fast you can go,” Levinson said. “Speed is a means, not an end.”

Creating access, Levinson explained, induces people to travel and participate in the economy. This activity leads to higher land values, which encourage developers to build housing and commercial properties, creating new destinations and higher levels of accessibility. As the cycle continues, greater numbers of travelers using the transport infrastructure are likely to produce congestion and increase the cost of travel—but revenue systems based on the amount of travel (such as gas taxes or road user fees) can take advantage of this situation to fund new infrastructure.

Capturing value and using it to build new infrastructure that improves access is critical, Levinson said—if this is not done, the entire system begins to break down. Cities exist as long as they provide access to the things people care about. If people cannot access jobs, shops, and amenities—or if their preferences change over time—history shows that cities can stagnate or even disappear entirely.

All this attention to access begs the question of whether accessibility is increasing or decreasing in the Twin Cities region. The answer, according to Levinson, is “yes.” Urban growth has brought some areas greatly increased accessibility to destination types such as employment and shopping, while other areas have seemingly fallen behind, with their residents experiencing little improvement or even declining accessibility levels.

Study co-leader Krizek of the University of Colorado (formerly with the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs) discussed the importance of these modes and the innovative techniques being used to analyze non-automotive travel. Krizek highlighted changes in accessibility for cyclists and transit users in the suburban communities of Bloomington and St. Louis Park, as well as along the Hiawatha Corridor connecting Minneapolis to the southern suburbs; he also discussed pedestrian accessibility in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul.

Following the presentations by Levinson and Krizek, a panel of transportation leaders discussed the implications of the Access to Destinations study and how its findings can be used in understanding and planning transportation and land use systems.

Tim Henkel, division director of modal planning and program management at Mn/DOT, placed the study in the context of state planning. Curt Johnson, president of Citistates Group, said the Access study represents “a major potential reversal of a longstanding American habit of asking the wrong question.” Mariia Zimmerman, vice president for policy with Reconnecting America, said the Access study “has done a good job probing us to ask the fundamental questions” in anticipation of the federal surface transportation authorization bill.

Full coverage of the panel discussion is available online in the CTS Report.

"Truckers and Turnover" research studies freight industry employment

The Truckers & Turnover Project is a multi-year study in the field of "behavioral personnel economics" conducted by a team of University of Minnesota, Morris faculty and students, and faculty at other institutions, in cooperation with a large motor carrier.

The cooperating firm operates in the "truckload" (TL) segment of the trucking industry. Long haul TL trucking is a high-turnover occupation, and thousands of people train for this job every year, try it out, and leave, while relatively few stay on.

Project researchers are working with the cooperating trucking company using its data along with new data collected by the project to identify the factors that predict productivity, retention, and other on-the-job outcomes for truckers.

More information on the project is available on the University of Minnesota–Morris Web site.

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Correction: Vehicle detectors

The article “Beyond the loop: Researchers develop the next generation of vehicle detectors” in the May 2009 e-mail version of the Research E-News contained several inaccuracies that have been corrected in the online version.

Transit, Bicycling, and Walking

TCRP research publications available online

The federal Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP), 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.

Recent TCRP publications include:

• Controlling System Costs: Basic and Advanced Scheduling Manuals and Contemporary Issues in Transit Scheduling (TCRP Report 135)
• A Guidebook for the Evaluation of Project Delivery Methods (TCRP Report 131)
• Literature Review for Providing Access to Public Transportation Stations (TCRP Web-Only Document 44)
• Track Maintenance Costs on Rail Transit Properties (TCRP Web-Only Document 43)
• Evaluation of Project Delivery Methods (TCRP Web-Only Document 41)

Transportation Infrastructure

Bridge health highlighted at CTS Research Conference

New approaches to monitoring and maintaining of bridges made for a popular double breakout session at the 2009 CTS Transportation Research Conference. Numerous presenters from the University of Minnesota discussed a wide range of topics, including detecting scour around bridge pilings, fatigue modeling, and new technologies for monitoring structures.

Catherine French (civil engineering) described the variety of sensor technologies incorporated into the I-35W St. Anthony Falls bridge over the Mississippi River. The new bridge, replacing the structure that collapsed in August 2007, has been described as one of the world’s “smartest” bridges.

John Evans, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Duluth), described current research that aims to improve the detection of water and ice on bridge structures using time domain reflectometry and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy.

Arturo Schultz of the Department of Civil Engineering spoke about the results of recent research on concrete deck and crack sealants. The project was featured in the May 2009 issue of the Research E-News.

Civil engineering graduate student Andrew Gastineau gave a presentation on another research project led by Schultz that surveyed currently available bridge monitoring technologies. With more than 70 systems currently available, Gastineau and Schultz are developing guidelines that will help engineers select appropriate technologies for different conditions.

Jeff Marr of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory presented his work developing decision making tools for selecting fixed scour monitoring technologies. He noted that more bridge collapses are caused by scour—the erosion of material around bridge footings—than by overloading, and gave an overview of available detection techniques. Most scour events are associated with flooding, which can be predicted, Marr said; however, predicting scour itself remains challenging, even with powerful numerical models.

Transportation and the Environment

On-road evaluation of 2010 compliant diesel emission control system

Professor David Kittelson, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Diesel Research and the Power and Propulsion Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his research team are conducting an on-road evaluation of Johnson Matthey’s four-way SCRT® exhaust emissions control system. This system is a combination of a previously evaluated Continuously Regenerating Trap (CRT®) that reduces particulate matter (PM) and a selective catalytic regeneration (SCR) catalyst that reduces oxides of nitrogen emissions (NOx). The SCRT was developed to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2010 heavy-duty truck emission standards and diesel fleet standards.

In 2002, the University of Minnesota began an on-road research program focusing on the effects of sulfur in fuel and lubrication oil on particle emissions. The researchers are particularly interested in nanoparticle emissions—particles less than 50 millionths of a meter in size. Within the health community, there is concern over the environmental impact and toxicity of these tiny particles.

The SCRT retrofit system was installed on the Mobile Emissions Laboratory, a specially equipped Volvo tractor powered by an emissions-year 2000, six cylinder, 12 liter engine rated at 287 kW. Samples are collected by continuously collecting exhaust gas directly from the exhaust stack, and alternating between sampling from a probe mounted above the tractor cab and a second probe mounted at the rear of the laboratory. By alternating between the front and rear probes that collect on-road, background, and diluted exhaust, respectively, and continuously collecting exhaust samples from the exhaust stack, the real-world dilution ratio and particle concentrations are determined.  Typical dilution ratios range from 150:1 to 400:1 while the mobile lab is traveling at 105 km/hr. The evaluation is being conducted using diesel fuel purchased at the pump that contains five percent biodiesel. 

The SCRT system consists of an oxidation catalyst, a diesel particulate wall flow filter, urea injection system, an SCR catalyst, another oxidation catalyst and a urea tank. The system is mounted behind the tractor cab. Urea is used to reduce NOx emissions. The exhaust first flows through the CRT to reduce carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and PM. A controlled amount of urea is injected before the exhaust enters the SCR catalyst where it is converted to ammonia which acts as a reducing agent to remove NOx. A second catalyst is used to remove any excess ammonia. Urea is relatively non-toxic and is widely used as fertilizer. For the SCRT system to be widely used in the U.S., a distribution network for urea will be required. Normally, the urea tank would require filling about as often as the fuel tanks.

Preliminary results obtained from over 8,000 km of on-road evaluation suggest that the SCRT system reduces PM emissions by more than 95 pct and NOx emissions between 50 and 60 pct. The system has not caused any interface problems with the Volvo tractor. Testing will be completed in the fall of 2009. Further information on the on-road test procedure and past results is available at http://www.me.umn.edu/centers/cdr/cdr_crt.html.

Safety

CERS research explores path to improving rural safety

Most fatal crashes on rural roads have at least one contributing factor related to human behavior or choices, according to a report published by the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS). But the report's authors suggest that it may be possible to modify these behaviors to improve rural road safety. Keith Knapp, CERS director of transportation safety engineering, led the research project, which investigated how the impact of changing roadway safety-related policies might be measured. Kelcie Young and Brad Utecht, graduate research assistants with the State and Local Policy Program at the University of Minnesota's Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, worked with Knapp on the research.

The report, titled Feasibility of a Quantitative Rural Safety Policy Improvement Index (RSPII): Phase I, suggests that hazardous behaviors could be modified through the enactment and enforcement of legislatively based safety-improvement measures, or LSIMs. Examples include primary seat-belt laws, graduated driver-licensing programs, and automated speed enforcement.

The researchers examined recently completed LSIM summaries that categorized the direct safety impacts of 23 behavioral highway safety countermeasures as "proven" with "high-quality" research. Each of these 23 countermeasures was examined for its potential to improve rural roadway safety.

The researchers concluded that an RSPII was feasible and selected six LSIMs for consideration with an RSPII framework. The LSIMs selected include comprehensive graduated driver licensing programs, primary seat belt laws, motorcycle-helmet-use laws, sobriety checkpoints, ignition-interlock implementation, and automated speed enforcement.

The report documents a six-step RSPII framework and a pilot application of the RSPII framework that quantified the rural roadway safety impact of implementing a primary seat-belt law. In the pilot application, researchers found that an estimated 488 rural fatalities, or the death of 248 unbelted front-seat passenger-vehicle occupants 13 years old or older, could have been avoided. Researchers also concluded from the pilot application that the identification of the safety impacts and target groups for each countermeasure is critical to the application of the proposed RSPII framework and its results.

All six of the LSIMs selected will be applied within the RSPII framework during Phase II of this project.

Related resources:

• Feasibility of a Quantitative Rural Safety Policy Improvement Index (RSPII): Phase I
• Effectiveness of Behavioral Highway Safety Countermeasures (NCHRP Report 622)
• CERS and affiliated research projects

Enhanced version of SafeRoadMaps.org identifies national fatality 'hot zones'

Just prior to Independence Day, which is often the most dangerous travel day of the year, researchers at the Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS) launched an enhanced version of SafeRoadMaps.org to help drivers identify the most dangerous portions of upcoming trips. The day of the launch, SafeRoadMaps.org received 250,000 hits and approximately 50 media outlets featured news about the site.

The online service flags the nation’s Top 100 “Hot Zones,” the rural areas that have experienced the most fatalities over the past five years. The hot zones are presented in a visually arresting Google Maps-based format, where viewers can zoom from a national map showing all 100 zones down to a photo of each individual section of the road.

The safety advisory zones include 100 from rural areas. While 29 states have rural areas in the Top 100, the 10 states with the most “hot zones” are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia (in alphabetical order). A searchable map showing all of the hot zones is available at SafeRoadMaps.org.

“Drivers often think of rural safety as an issue only for the least populous states,” said Tom Horan, CERS research director. “But this analysis shows that drivers need to be extra alert in rural regions of the more populous states as well.”

SafeRoadMaps.org, unveiled in July 2008, is a powerful and visually innovative crash-mapping tool that maps out every roadway fatality in the nation to the local level. Site visitors need only enter a zip code, municipality name, or street address to immediately see a map or satellite image of all the road fatalities that have occurred in the chosen area over the past five years. Details about each crash are also available, such as whether the driver was wearing a seat belt, drinking, or speeding. In addition, the tool notes which life-saving public policies, such as strong seat belt laws, are being employed in the chosen area.

The SafeRoadMaps.org tool, created by Horan, fellow researcher Brian Hilton, and several colleagues, is being used in a variety of ways to educate the public about road fatalities. For instance, driver’s education leaders have advocated use of the tool as a means to teach new drivers the importance of following the rules of the road. Drivers are exploring their most common routes and being educated about the need to take sensible precautions. Finally, road safety officials are using the tool to better pinpoint where policy, structural, and traffic management adjustments are most needed.

"SafeRoadMaps is not about casting blame,” said Lee Munnich, CERS director. “This is about making sure drivers are informed and safe, and policymakers have a user-friendly tool to guide their safety related decisions.”

CERS was created in 2005 through the leadership of Minnesota Congressman James L. Oberstar, chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Oberstar has encouraged CERS to make rural safety more visual, localized, and personal to the nation’s drivers and leaders.

While U.S. Census figures show that about one out of five (21 percent) Americans live in rural areas, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has found that about six out of 10 (57 percent) highway deaths occur on roads that it considers rural.

“Whether you’re a driver, policymaker or a road engineer, this is an eye opener,” Oberstar said of the new SafeRoadMaps.org tools. “Crash data used to be stored in huge dusty stacks of paper in Washington, D.C. We’ve made sure the information is instantly available on millions of screens, and it is available in a dramatically visual and customized format. This is as important to better highway safety as the interstate map was to achieving national mobility.”

Upcoming Events

August 23-27
National Rural ITS Conference, Seaside, OR.

August 30-September 2
ASCE 14th Conference on Cold Regions Engineering, Duluth, MN.

September 13-17
International Conference on Ecology & Transportation, Duluth, MN.

September 21-23
Minnesota/Wisconsin Public Transit Conference, Duluth Entertainment Convention Center Holiday Inn Downtown; Duluth, MN.

September 21-25
16th ITS World Congress, Stockholm, Sweden.

September 28-29
AirTAP Fall Forum, Mankato, MN.