Research Projects | National Institute for Transportation and Communities

Street Portals: Urban User Interface 'Test Bed' Prototype for Bike Shares

Principal Investigator: Jason Germany

Co-Investigator: Philip Speranza

The objective of this research project is to develop a user interface “test bed” to measure the role of touchscreen kiosks with community connectivity. This interface test bed will apply the knowledge of interface design to the domain of public t ... Read More

Thinking Outside the (Half-Mile) Circle: Using the Real Estate Market to Establish Variations in Light Rail Station Catchment Areas

Principal Investigator: Susan Petheram

Dissertation Summary:This research empirically evaluates the extent of catchment zones for transit-oriented development (TOD) around light rail station areas using hedonic and spatial modeling techniques. Using a longitudinal approach, an asse ... Read More

Understanding Market Segments for Current and Future Residential Location and Travel Choices

Principal Investigator: Kelly Clifton

Co-Investigators: Jenny Liu , Roger Chen

This project aims to examine the connections between residential location choices and travel at the household level with an emphasis on identifying current residents' preferences for their future housing, neighborhood and transportation choices (coll ... Read More

Incorporating Pedestrian Considerations into Signal Timing

Principal Investigator: Sirisha Kothuri

The role of walking in the development of healthy, livable communities is being increasingly recognized. In urban areas, intersections represent locations where different modes converge, and are often viewed as deterrents to walking. This is due to t ... Read More

Travel Mode Choice Framework Incorporating Realistic Bike and Walk Routes

Principal Investigator: Joseph Broach

For a number of reasons (congestion, public health, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, demographic shifts, and community livability to name a few), the importance of walking and bicycling as transportation options will likely continue to increase. ... Read More

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Connectivity in the High-Speed Rail Alternatives Analysis

Principal Investigator: Jonathan Mueller

The United States needs to make wise investment choices to ensure the transportation needs of its population are met with the limited funding available. High-speed rail (HSR) is cited as a modern transportation alternative because it has several bene ... Read More

Relating Changes in Body Mass Index (BMI) to Changes in Neighborhood Environments for Relocating Young Adults: Analysis of 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Data

Principal Investigator: Gail Meakins

This research looks at census tract level characteristics of the built environment in relation to Body Mass Index (BMI) of neighborhood residents in both a cross sectional and longitudinal analyses, specifically asking how do the development density, ... Read More

Activity Spaces, Trajectories, and Agents: Assessing the Built Environment Effects on Walking Routes

Principal Investigator: Calvin Tribby

Dissertation Summary:Understanding the role of the built environment on active transportation is essential for encouraging healthy and active lifestyles and effectively guiding street rehabilitation and other environmental interventions. This ... Read More

Encouraging Active School Travel by Making it "Cool" A quasi-experimental study using Boltage, Phase II

Principal Investigator: Yizhao Yang

Co-Investigators: William Harbaugh , Noreen McDonald

The research on children’s school travel has studied the impacts of the built environment on children walking or biking to school. This three-year research project contributes to current literature by investigating the role played by socio-psychol ... Read More

Evaluation of Bicyclists Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution along Distinct Facility Types

Principal Investigator: Miguel Andres Figliozzi

Co-Investigator: James Pankow

While bicyclists and other active travelers obtain health benefits from increased physical activity, they also risk an uptake of traffic-related air pollution. But pollution uptake by urban bicyclists is not well understood due to a lack of direct me ... Read More

Application of Interactive Video Sensing and Management for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Studies

Principal Investigator: Wu-chi Feng

Co-Investigators: Christopher Monsere , Miguel Andres Figliozzi

As video data collection and storage technologies become ubiquitous and inexpensive, transportation agencies struggle to process and extract "intelligence"Ã‚Â or useful information from growing libraries of archived video data. In some cases us ... Read More

Modeling and Analyzing the Impact of Advanced Technologies on Livability and Multimodal Transportation Performance Measures in Arterial Corridors

Principal Investigator: Miguel Andres Figliozzi

Co-Investigator: Christopher Monsere

Transit service reliability is important to both passengers and transit agencies. Slow and unreliable transit service may increase transit user costs in the short term and reduce transit mode share and ridership in the long term, which in turn may le ... Read More