The goal of the data preparation element of the project will be to summarize the second-by-second Commute Atlanta instrumented vehicle data and create data subsets that can be used in various research activities. However, the data must be processed in such a manner that ensures the confidentiality of the data will not be breached.  A data set will be compiled from approximately 100 households for which complete household and vehicle level data are available over the study period. These data will be processed for use in household-level travel behavior analysis. In the household-level data set, detailed travel summaries will be retained (trip time, date, distance, duration, origin zone, destination zone, trip purpose, etc.), and these data will be linked to household demographic characteristics. A second data set will be prepared for corridor-level data analysis. This data set will be comprised of segments of second-by-second data taken from approximately 300 vehicles, where the data are directly linked to specific travel corridors of interest (freeways and major arterials).

The ultimate objective of this project is to explore solutions for maximizing both port and freight industry productivity with better visibility, understanding, and measure of their operations and interactions. These interactions will include the gate queue behavior and communication (e.g. container arrival time) between the port and the freight industry. A video-based sensing system will be developed to provide better visibility of gate operations and activities (e.g. truck waiting time and characteristics of the queued trucks). By collaborating with the port and freight industry’s decision-makers about their processes and operations (e.g. freight dispatching and management), we will have a better understanding of all port operations. A stochastic simulation model of the interaction between the port and freight industry to provide better visibility and understanding on their interactions will be developed. The research team will work with the port and the freight industry, including Home Depot, to study port operations and freight management performance measures and decision-making processes. Through the study, we hope to identify new processes and an information sharing platform between the freight industry and the port of Savannah that can lead to more productive truck arrivals.

An important gap that has been identified in research on asset management has been identifying how agencies should go about setting performance standards for performance measures used in highway investment decision making, and what performance measures are best in making investment decisions for roadway assets. The objectives of this research are to provide guidance on the 1) relative effectiveness of various performance measurement systems for transportation asset management decision making and (2) impacts of setting alternative standards on system productivity both in highway and multimodal systems. Better measures and improved targets can increase customer satisfaction and result in cost savings for the transportation agency.

Benefits to decision makers of providing information on such issues include the answers to the following questions: 1) What are appropriate performance targets in each performance category? 2) How would system benefits change if the performance targets were reduced slightly? What would be the associated cost reductions? 3) How are these changes likely to affect customer satisfaction? 4) What matrix of targets (for the different performance categories) is likely to result in increased customer satisfaction with relatively changes in costs? and 5) What are the risks of setting performance standards based on historical practice without any cogent analysis? This research addresses questions such as these related to performance targets, that, when answered, can improve the cost effectiveness of investments in highway and other modal systems and increase user satisfaction.

The specific objectives of this research are to determine the feasibility of integrating real-time data and simulation and to conduct a field test of the proposed methodology on a target corridor. Additionally, as part of the real-time simulation calibration and prediction effort the benefit of real time probe vehicle data will be explored (e.g. GPS instrumented vehicles, cellular probe data, etc.). The ability to include probe vehicle data in the field test will be subject to probe vehicle data availability.

The major objective of this research project is to identify the key dimensions of sustainable mobility as it is evolving in the United States and in several other countries. The project will critically assess these dimensions from the perspective of how they might relate to a state department of transportation (DOT). This research is really at the front edge of a perspective on transportation that is gaining strength in the United States, and thus can provide an important foundation for potential future directions of state DOTs.