Research Projects | National Institute for Transportation and Communities

Is There a "Buy Local" Case for Lower Travel Speeds? Testing Differences in Driver Recognition of Local Versus National Retail at Different Travel Speeds

Principal Investigator: Jonathan Bean

Co-Investigators: Arlie Adkins , Tara Goddard

City officials and business leaders looking to increase economic performance and attract new residents recognize the benefits of having a strong local retail environment. Money spent at a local retail is more likely to stay in the community (Civic Ec ... 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

Promoting Environmental Justice Populations’ Access to Opportunities within Suburban Boomtowns: An Interdisciplinary, Mixed-Methods Approach to Addressing Infrastructure Needs

Principal Investigator: Jandel Crutchfield

Co-Investigators: Courtney Cronley , Kate Hyun

In the last twenty years, the population increased over 100% in Collin County, Texas. The county is projected to have over 2.4 million residents by 2050 -- more than three times its population in 2010. When enough people flock to an area to call it a ... Read More

Visual Exploration of Utah Trajectory Data and their Applications in Transportation

Principal Investigator: Nikola Markovic

The University of Utah has a new data visualization service to offer to state DOTs and other agencies. Using Small Starts funding from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), researcher Nikola Markovic and his team have deve ... Read More

A Comprehensive Examination of Electronic Wayfinding Technology for Visually Impaired Travelers in an Urban Environment

Principal Investigator: Martin Swobodzinski

Co-Investigator: Amy Parker

Human wayfinding and navigation are key organizing activities that allow human beings to acquire knowledge about the environment and develop cognitive representations in support of such essential tasks as route planning and travel. These activities a ... Read More

How Will Autonomous Vehicles Change Local Government Budgeting and Finance? A Case Study of Solid Waste, Drop-off/Pick-up Zones, and Parking

Principal Investigator: Benjamin Clark

This project specifically seeks to study the secondary effects of AVs (not the innovation themselves but how innovations impact our lives), with a specific focus on local government fiscal impacts. The breadth of impacts are wide ranging and were out ... Read More

How Can Interdisciplinary Teams Leverage Emerging Technologies to Respond to Transportation Infrastructure Needs? A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Civil Engineers, Urban Planning, and Social Workers’ Perspectives

Principal Investigator: Noelle Fields

Co-Investigators: Courtney Cronley , Kate Hyun , Stephen Mattingly

This study explores strengthening collaboration between disciplines, to build a transportation system that better serves everyone. Transportation planners and engineers often struggle to serve at-risk communities and environmental justice (EJ) pop ... Read More

A Decentralized Network Consensus Control Approach for Urban Traffic Signal Optimization

Principal Investigator: Gerardo Lafferriere

The main contribution of this project is the simulation platform that allows for comparison between the proposed consensus approach and a standard traffic signal control protocol. The main features of the mathematical model and the simulation tools a ... Read More

Vehicle Sensor Data (VSD) Based Traffic Control in Connected Automated Vehicle (CAV) Environment

Principal Investigator: Xianfeng (Terry) Yang

It can be expected that automated vehicles and human-driven vehicles will coexist in the transportation network for quite some time. In order to support various traffic control tasks it is critical to develop a reliable model to understand the real-t ... Read More

9 Results