Research Projects | National Institute for Transportation and Communities

The Impact of Ride Hail Services on the Accessibility of Nonprofit Services

Principal Investigator: Dyana Mason

Ride hailing services (such as Lyft and Uber) are frequently pointed to as a means of filling mobility gaps in a transportation system, especially in areas that are not well-served by transit. How might nonprofit organizations address the mobility ne ... Read More

Maternal Mental Health and Keetoowah Women: Past, Present, and Future

Principal Investigator: December Maxwell

American Indian/Native American (AI/NA) women experience postpartum depression (PPD) at a disproportionate rate. Poor transportation services and systems increase the risk of PPD prevalence in AI/NA populations, particularly since those in more rural ... Read More

Bi-objective Optimization for Battery Electric Bus Deployment Considering Cost and Environmental Equity

Principal Investigator: Xiaoyue Cathy Liu

Co-Investigators: Aaron Golub , Ran Wei

Led by Xiaoyue Cathy Liu of the University of Utah, researchers have created a web-based modeling tool that enables U.S. transit providers to explore the impacts of changing over their systems to battery electric buses, or BEBs. The researchers ran ... Read More

Methodologies to Quantify Transit Performance Metrics at the System-Level

Principal Investigator: Travis Glick

Performance metrics have typically focused at two main scales: a microscopic scale that focuses on specific locations, time-periods, and trips; and, a macroscopic scale that averages metrics over longer times, entire routes, and networks. When applie ... Read More

National Scan of Bike Share Equity Programs

Principal Investigator: John MacArthur

Co-Investigators: Nathan McNeil , Joe Broach

As bike share systems around the United States have grown in number and size in recent years, there has been an increasing effort to ensure that those systems are accessible to all residents, particularly those who have the fewest resources or have b ... Read More

Transit Impacts on Jobs, People and Real Estate

Principal Investigator: Arthur C. Nelson

Co-Investigators: Kristina Currans , Nicole Iroz-Elardo

Transit Impacts on Jobs, People and Real Estate, from the University of Arizona, represents the culmination of nearly a decade of research into the economic effects of transit. To unpack the dense and substantial findings from 17 LRT, 14 BRT, 9 SCT, ... Read More

Suburban Black Poverty in East Portland: The Role of Transportation in Making Ends Meet

Principal Investigator: Steven Howland

Portland has faced a mass displacement of Black households from the historically segregated area of Albina through various phases of urban renewal, urban deterioration, and gentrification. A substantial number of them have moved to East Portland, a s ... Read More

Land Use and Transportation Policies for a Sustainable Future with Autonomous Vehicles: Scenario Analysis with Simulations

Principal Investigator: Liming Wang

Co-Investigator: Yao-Jan Wu

Even though there are tremendous uncertainties in the timing and evolution path of the Autonomous Vehicles (AV) technology, it may become a likely reality within most MPOs' long-range regional transportation plan horizon of twenty years. Yet a recent ... Read More

The Role of Bus Stop Features in Facilitating Accessibility

Principal Investigator: Keith Bartholomew

Co-Investigator: Arlie Adkins

A bus stop can be anything from a simple signpost stuck in the grass, to a comfortable shelter with seating and paved access to the sidewalk. For many U.S. transit agencies across the country, improving facilities at bus stops is a priority. But how ... Read More

Investigating Effects of TNCs on Parking Demand and Revenues

Principal Investigator: Benjamin Clark

Co-Investigator: Anne Brown

For the past century, mobility in the United States has been dictated by cars. Furthermore, cars—and even more so, the storage of cars—have dictated urban form. With cities dedicating more space to parking than even streets and roads, parking has ... Read More

Urban Transportation System Flood Vulnerability Assessment with Special Reference to Low Income and Minority Neighborhoods

Principal Investigator: Courtney Crosson

Short-term flooding from extreme storm events poses a serious transportation challenge in U.S. cities. This problem—which is anticipated to grow over the next century with our global climate crisis—is often hardest on vulnerable populations, incl ... Read More

Reducing VMT, Encouraging Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficient Trip Chains through Polycentric Development

Principal Investigator: Reid Ewing

A "polycentric" region is a network of compact developments (centers) that are connected with each other through high-quality transportation options. As the antidote to sprawling suburbs, compact centers can encourage all the things that sprawl disco ... Read More

401 Results