Pooled Fund 2018: Exploring Data Fusion Techniques to Derive Bicycle Volumes on a Network

NITC is soliciting proposals for the pooled fund project:

Exploring Data Fusion Techniques to Derive Bicycle Volumes on a Network

Proposals are due by 5 PM (PDT) on October 01, 2018: Download RFP here (PDF)

September 6: Join us for an info session to learn more

Our Pooled Fund program offers a process by which cities, counties, MPOs and other regional or local agencies can pool relatively small pots of research dollars to then leverage NITC matched funds for a single, collaborative project. Research statements were solicited from partner agencies in Spring 2018, and the project outlined below was selected by the NITC Executive Committee to move forward for funding.

ELIGIBILITY

Faculty members and research faculty eligible to serve as Principal Investigators (PIs) at Portland State University, Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Utah, or University of Texas at Arlington may submit proposals. 

GRANT TIMELINE

  • Aug 2, 2018 RFP released
  • Oct 1, 2018 @ 5pm PDT Proposals due (revised)
  • Oct - Dec 2018 Review of proposals, project selection, task order(s) issued
  • Dec 15, 2018 Project begins

SCOPE OF PROJECT

Active transport modes such as bicycling are associated with many advantages including lower congestion and emission levels and improvement in personal health. Many cities are interested in increasing bicycle activity to take advantage of these benefits.

To understand if their municipal efforts are successful in increasing bicycle activity, cities require accurate accounting of bicycle traffic. Since directly observing counts are expensive, these data continue to be limited to a few points on a network. As a result, data fusion from various sources, such as manual counts, short duration counts, continuous counts, crowdsourced data (e.g., strava, ride report), bike share flows, surveys, and models, has to occur to achieve network coverage for bicycle counts. 

Current work on data fusion techniques is limited and additional research is needed to fully understand the choice of weighing techniques, inclusion of spatial vs. temporal variation in the in the weighting scheme and exploring other model forms. This research indents to fill this gap by: 

1) Exploring data fusion techniques to determine bicycle volumes on a network using a variety of data sources

2) Exploring which data sources lead to the best results, and

3) Determining the accuracy of the various techniques.

NITC and our partners are issuing a Request for Proposals for qualified research teams to respond to this need. The project budget is $200,000 with research to be completed within a time period of 18 months.

PROJECT PARTNERS

This national study brings together cities and local jurisdictions in providing financial support for the project. These include:

  • Oregon DOT
  • Virginia DOT
  • Colorado DOT
  • Washington D.C. DOT
  • Utah DOT
  • Central Lane MPO
  • City of Portland, OR
  • City of Bend, OR

A subset of these partners will serve on the project Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC will provide project insight and feedback and will be responsible for reviewing any products, deliverables, and reports produced during the project.

AWARD EXPECTATIONS

Matching funds are provided by the project partners. Should the budget exceed $200,000, the proposer will be expected to find additional cash match for funds requested from NITC. 

PROPOSAL EVALUATION CRITERIA

All proposals will be reviewed by the TAC. The TAC will evaluate and rank the proposals using the criteria below and will convene to discuss the merits of each proposal:  

(1) the proposer’s demonstrated understanding of the problem;

(2) the merit of the proposed research approach and methodology; and

(3) experience and qualifications of the proposers.

FORMS AND DOCUMENTS 

HOW TO APPLY

Complete the proposal form and the Data Management Plan as a PDF, and the budget form as an Excel spreadsheet (typcally 10 - 12 pages in length). Submit your materials online here: http://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/ (closes at 5 PM PDT on October 1, 2018). Please select grant cycle "NITC Pooled Fund Round 3."

This NITC grant is part of the University Transportation Center program, funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, and is a partnership between Portland State University (PSU), the Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech), University of Arizona (UA), University of Oregon (UO), University of Utah (UU), and University of Texas at Arlington (UTA).