Research Projects | National Institute for Transportation and Communities

Exploring Bike Bus Programs in the United States

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Co-Investigator: Nathan McNeil

The trip to and from school is made by nearly every child in Oregon every school day. Bike and walk buses, or organized groups of school children, parents, and ride/walk leaders, seek to encourage biking and walking to school. Aside from mitigating s ... Read More

Mobility and Accessibility Resilience of Transportation Infrastructures

Principal Investigator: David Yang

The objective is to address practical challenges related to mobility and accessibility following natural disasters. The anticipated outcome of this project will be to provide actionable insights and solutions that can be implemented in real-world tra ... Read More

Examining the Geotechnical Earthquake Hazard to Transportation Assets in Oregon and Washington: Characterizing Earthquake-Induced Deformations of Silt Soils

Principal Investigator: Diane Moug

Critical transportation infrastructure in Washington and Oregon is vulnerable to damage during strong earthquake shaking, including the anticipated magnitude 9 Cascadia Subduction Zone event. A major hazard to transportation infrastructure is the fai ... Read More

Understanding Human-centered AI through Data Integration and Analytics

Principal Investigator: David Yang

Human Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) is an approach to developing and implementing Artificial Intelligence technology applications that focuses on the needs of individuals and communities who utilize these applications. This project intends ... Read More

Working Towards Operationalizing Equity into the Research Process

Principal Investigator: Aaron Golub

While our researchers are experts in various aspects of transportation research, not all researchers have the tools to address equity topics in their research or conduct their work following good equity practices, ranging from data collection and ana ... Read More

Improving Accuracy and Precision of Bicycle Volume Estimates Using Advanced Machine Learning Approaches

Principal Investigator: Sirisha Kothuri

Co-Investigator: Banafsheh Rekabdar

This study seeks to improve modeling methods for estimating bicycle volumes. Better estimates of bicycle activity on local road and trail networks can help agencies prioritize projects, plan and design new bicycle infrastructure, and conduct safety a ... Read More

Deploy LiDAR systems at intersections to improve equitable mobility

Principal Investigator: Taylor Li

Co-Investigator: Stephen Mattingly

In this project, the researchers will develop a series of technology transfer materials and plan to facilitate to deploy the research findings out of a NITC-funded project titled “Pedestrian Behavior Study to Advance Pedestrian Safety in Smart Tran ... Read More

Expanding Transmobilities: An Art-Informed Methodology For Genderdiverse Travel Behavior

Principal Investigator: Nicholas Puczkowskyj

There is a significant gendered travel behavior research gap in the transportation literature. A plethora of transportation literature identifying and contrasting cisgender disparities exists, but more inclusive approaches to genderdiverse identities ... Read More

Exploring the Use of Crowdsourced Data Sources for Pedestrian Count Estimations

Principal Investigator: Sirisha Kothuri

Co-Investigators: Nathan McNeil , Kate Hyun , Stephen Mattingly

Counts provide the foundation for measuring nonmotorized travel along a link or a network and are also useful for monitoring trends, planning new infrastructure, and for conducting safety, health, and economic analyses. For safety analysis, they are ... Read More

Tools and resources for gateway communities

Principal Investigator: Danya Rumore

Co-Investigator: Philip Stoker

For the last five years, our team has been studying the planning and development challenges of small towns and cities near national parks, public lands, and other natural amenities. Our prior and ongoing NITC funded research shows that these “gatew ... Read More

Machine Learning and Big Data-Based Approaches for Quality Freeway Volumes

Principal Investigator: Adrian Cottam

Traffic volumes are essential for the operation of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and for use in performance metrics for Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO). Maintaining high quality freeway volumes is paramount to ensur ... Read More

Job-Worker Balance & Polycentric Transit-Oriented Development: Toward Indices and Spatio-temporal Trends

Principal Investigator: Robert Hibberd

This dissertation will further NITC goals to increase access to employment opportunities and provide better models for an increasingly complex transportation system. It will consider the effectiveness of transit-oriented development (TOD) at addressi ... Read More