Current Projects
Role/Responsibilities - Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator
Modeling Transportation Systems in the Information Era
Sponsor Agency: New England University Transportation Center
Duration: August, 2012 – December, 2013
Overview: In the transportation arena, technology today has afforded individuals with freely available up to date information about opportunities and network conditions. The prevalence of information has changed how people plan and execute their activity-travel agendas. In particular, the advent of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has altered how people navigate networks and pursue activities. Most ITS applications provide corridor level information and there is a move to provide system wide information. The implementation of a system wide traveler information services requires a comprehensive modeling analysis quantifying the impacts of such services. However, there are very limited modeling tools that accurately capture the cascading impacts of information services on individual activity-travel agendas without compromising on individual behaviors. In the implementations that capture the cascading impacts, scheduling heuristics are implemented to satisfy consistency constraints and do not reflect true rescheduling behaviors. The research proposed in this effort is aimed at exploring travel survey data to characterize dimensions of rescheduling behavior and identify schedule adjustment heuristics. Additionally, the observed behaviors will be implemented in a software prototype of a transportation system modeling tool and applied to the Hartford metropolitan region as a case study.
Duration: August, 2012 – December, 2013
Overview: In the transportation arena, technology today has afforded individuals with freely available up to date information about opportunities and network conditions. The prevalence of information has changed how people plan and execute their activity-travel agendas. In particular, the advent of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has altered how people navigate networks and pursue activities. Most ITS applications provide corridor level information and there is a move to provide system wide information. The implementation of a system wide traveler information services requires a comprehensive modeling analysis quantifying the impacts of such services. However, there are very limited modeling tools that accurately capture the cascading impacts of information services on individual activity-travel agendas without compromising on individual behaviors. In the implementations that capture the cascading impacts, scheduling heuristics are implemented to satisfy consistency constraints and do not reflect true rescheduling behaviors. The research proposed in this effort is aimed at exploring travel survey data to characterize dimensions of rescheduling behavior and identify schedule adjustment heuristics. Additionally, the observed behaviors will be implemented in a software prototype of a transportation system modeling tool and applied to the Hartford metropolitan region as a case study.
Economic Impact of Transportation Projects: Assessing Economic Development Value as a Result of Transportation Projects and Systems
Sponsor Agency: Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering
Duration: September, 2012 – June, 2013
Overview: Study objectives include:
Duration: September, 2012 – June, 2013
Overview: Study objectives include:
- Identify tools/models used to assess the economic value/benefits of transportation projects and systems or for other purposes that can be adapted/applied for use on transportation projects
- Assess the value of model implementation through review of example analyses
- Provide an assessment tools/models identified through the study process for ConnDOT’s use. A focus of the assessment will be to identify how well suited the tools/models are for evaluating the economic growth benefits from transportation projects.
Past Projects
Role/Responsibilities - Postdoctoral Research Associate, Graduate Research Associate
Modeling the Urban Continuum in an Integrated Framework: Location Choice, Activity-Travel Behavior and Dynamic Traffic Patterns
Overview: The project is aimed at developing methodologies, feedback mechanisms, data structures, and computational and analytical tools that allow the integration of three key dimensions of urban systems modeling namely – Land Use, Activity-Travel Demand, and Traffic Microsimulation. (2008 – present)
Links:
Links:
Baltimore Metropolitan Council Regional Travel Demand Model Update: Development of A Synthetic Population Generator
Overview: As part of this research effort, PopGen – a synthetic population generator (see PopGen under Transportation Planning Software for additional information) was modified and customized to be integrated with the current four-step travel demand model environment (supported by Citilabs Cube software platform). In addition, a prototype of population evolution model was designed, developed and implemented. The population evolution model mimics various household- and person-level socio-economic and demographic life-cycle processes that individuals experience from one year to the next. The resulting synthetic population can then be used to run microsimulation models of land use and transportation for a forecast year. (2010 – 2011)
Activity-based Travel Demand Model Development for the Southern California Association of Governments
Overview: The project is aimed at implementing a state-of-art activity-based travel demand model system for Los Angeles and surrounding counties. (2009-present)
Activity-based Travel Demand Model Development for the Maricopa Association of Governments
Overview: The main goal of the project is to implement an activity-based travel demand model system using the CT-RAMP (Coordinated Travel Regional Activity-Based Modeling Platform) framework. A number of enhancements were also envisioned to improve the behavioral realism and policy sensitivity of the travel demand model. One of the enhancements was to better represent and locate the student population of Arizona State University (ASU) – the largest university within the model region. (2010 - present)
Analysis of Travel Demand and Mode Use Patterns for Arizona State University
Overview: The project was aimed at understanding the travel demand and mode use patterns at Arizona State University and to estimate ridership on the planned light rail that can be attributed to individuals affiliated with the university. (2007 – 2008)