NITC Dissertations Explore Perceived Safety, Machine Learning and Crash Data

Sep 23, 2024

Three dissertations supported by funding from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) take on different transportation challenges, exploring ways to improve safety and connectivity in communities. Farzin Maniei, Adrian Cottam, and Kyu Ri Kim all completed their doctoral research with support from the NITC program. Read on to learn more about each of their projects.

Adrian Cottam, University of Arizona

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

"If you boil it down, the whole purpose of my dissertation is to take existing resources that DOTs have, and try and make better use of them. For example, the Arizona Department of Transportation has loop detectors, but only in the Phoenix region. So it's a very small area out of the total...

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University of Texas at Arlington's ITE Student Chapter Selected as Finalists in Transportation Technology Tournament

Sep 17, 2024

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) attended the national ITE conference in Philadelphia this past July. Six UTA students—Peirong Wang, Swastik Khadka, Mino Aji, Md Ashraful Imran, Sijan Shrestha and Andrew Mares—were able to showcase their talents on the national stage under the guidance of UTA faculty member Taylor Li.

Along with a fellow UTA student group, the Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) student chapter, the students were also selected as finalists in the highly competitive transportation technology tournament, hosted by National Operations Center of Excellence and USDOT Research and Technology.

Swastik Khadka, who serves as President of the ITE student chapter, presented research on "Automated Traffic Signal Performance Measures (ATSPMs) in the Loop Simulation: A Digital Twin Approach" at the conference and was nominated for the best paper award.

Finally, the ITE student chapter received a nomination for the student chapter momentum award by TexITE, the Texas District of ITE, highlighting the dedication and impact of UTA's transportation student leaders.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is proud to celebrate the recognition and success of these outstanding transportation students.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of seven U.S. Department of Transportation national university...

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A New Travel Diary App Could Open Doors to Transportation Equity

Jun 20, 2024

You probably don’t live, work, socialize, go to school, and receive health care all in the same place. To get where you need to go in your day-to-day life, you need some form of transportation to get there. But what if that transportation is unavailable? It stands to reason that not being able to get where you need to go would have detrimental effects on your well-being.

To identify transportation disadvantages in their respective cities, professors from the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Arizona, and the University of Tennessee teamed up to design and test a travel diary app called MyAmble. Travel diaries are built for recording trips taken, but they often lack the ability to capture travel disadvantage or latent travel demand. In this context, travel disadvantage refers to essential trips that people plan to take but are unable to complete for some reason, e.g., their car breaks down or they don’t have gas money. Latent travel demand refers to trips that people would take but don’t bother to plan due to transportation barriers or safety concerns. The aim of MyAmble...

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What Drives Housing Choices of Refugees and Immigrants?

Jan 26, 2024

When you think of your dream home, what do you think of? Perhaps you envision a house with enough space for your whole family to be comfortable. Maybe you’ll be close to your extended family…or maybe you won’t, depending on your personal family dynamic. It will be in a safe neighborhood, perhaps with access to amenities that promote a healthier lifestyle, like green spaces and walking trails. School, work, grocery stores, and the doctor’s office will be easy to access. The home won’t cause you financial stress. It will feel like yours.

You may not be surprised to hear that many people look for these qualities when considering a place to live. With the study “Housing Choice, Transportation Equity, and Access to Opportunities in Refugee and Immigrant Communities,” professors at the University of Texas at Arlington sought to collect qualitative data about factors and values that caused refugee and immigrant populations in Dallas County, Texas to want to move. This demographic makes up a significant part of Dallas County’s population; almost one fourth of people who live there were born outside the United States. By better understanding the needs of this population, policies could be set in place that address inequity and make the community a more welcoming, accessible place for all. The paper focuses on the roles that primary and secondary mobility play in the housing choices of immigrants and...

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The NITC Guide to the 2024 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting

Dec 20, 2023

The 103rd annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) will be held January 7–11, 2024 in Washington, D.C., and NITC transportation faculty and researchers will be sharing their expertise at the world's largest transportation conference. The TRB annual meeting attracts thousands of transportation professionals from around the globe to address transportation policy, practice, and plans for the future.

Below are a few highlights of research being presented by transportation experts from our participating NITC-funded campuses: Portland State University (PSU), University of Oregon (UO), University of Utah (UU), University of Arizona (UA), and University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Check out our full NITC guide for all of the sessions:

VIEW THE ONLINE GUIDE TO NITC AT TRB 2024

*Due to the evolving status of speaker attendance and TRB programming, please check your TRB schedule for the most current information in the event of changes.*

NITC Research Highlights at TRB 2024

University of Texas at Arlington

Monday, January 8 - Older Adults, Travel Options, and Barriers to Accessibility

In this lectern session, Juana Perez, Mohammad Rashidi, Jobaidul Boni and Kate Hyun of the University of Texas, Arlington...

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Eisenhower Fellowships Awarded to Eleven NITC Transportation Students

Dec 20, 2023

Eleven students attending partner universities of the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) are receiving Eisenhower Fellowships presented by the U.S. Department of Transportation at this year's annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB). Meet this year's NITC Eisenhower Fellows:

Ashley (Ash) Avila, University of Arizona

Ash Avila is a graduate student in the Accelerated Master’s Program in Urban Planning at the University of Arizona with a focus on transportation and environmental planning. She is currently a graduate research assistant studying the effects of heat and other weather patterns on travel behavior as part of a larger ... Read more

New Publication Evaluates the Potential of Crowdsourced Data to Estimate Network-Wide Bicycle Volumes

Jul 31, 2023

How can emerging data sources most effectively be integrated with traditional sources? A new article in the July 2023 issue of Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board reports that rather than replacing conventional bike data sources and count programs, old “small” data sources will likely be very important for big data sources like Strava and StreetLight to achieve their potential for predicting annual average daily bicycle traffic (AADBT).

The article, "Evaluating the Potential of Crowdsourced Data to Estimate Network-Wide Bicycle Volumes," was authored by TREC researchers Joe Broach, Sirisha Kothuri and Nathan McNeil of Portland State University along with Md Mintu Miah, Kate Hyun and Stephen Mattingly of the University of Texas at Arlington, Krista Nordback of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and Frank Proulx of Frank Proulx Consulting, LLC.

Transportation agencies have invested heavily in count infrastructure and models to estimate motor vehicle volumes through networks. Efforts to develop network wide bicycle volume estimates have been hampered by lack of bicycle counters and limited other data sources from which to draw volume estimates. Until recently, most data on bicycle activity came from national or regional household travel surveys, along with observed counts of cyclists—...

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How Older Vietnamese Immigrants Get Around Town: Research Addresses Transportation Struggles

Jun 06, 2023

How do you get from point A to point B? Maybe you bike or take public transit to get to work or school. Perhaps you drive to places that may be farther away, like medical appointments or friends’ houses. Imagine that you didn’t have access to many transportation options—maybe you were unable to drive a car, or the nearest bus stop was several miles away. This is the reality for many folks as they grow older, and their loved ones must then help them get where they need to go.

Older immigrants often live in low-density urban environments, or places where they need to use an automobile of some sort and have limited access to public transportation (like the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex). This could potentially add stress to both the older folks and the private ride providers who help with transportation. The providers may be at risk for the burden and stress of caregiving, and the older immigrants may lack transportation to important social or health opportunities if the providers they rely on are not available.

Researchers at the University of Texas, Arlington and the University of Connecticut teamed up to fill a gap in the knowledge of the elderly Vietnamese immigrant population in DFW. They sought to learn about the transportation behaviors not only of the Vietnamese adults but also of their ride providers. By increasing knowledge of the transportation...

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Identifying Barriers Between Homeless Populations, Homeless Services Providers, and Transportation Providers

May 15, 2023

No matter where you live, but especially if you live in a big city, you have likely seen people experiencing homelessness (PEH) using public transportation services. PEH use public transportation not only to get from place to place but also as shelter. Unfortunately, the relationship between the homeless populations, homeless services providers, and transportation providers is not well understood, making it difficult to pinpoint the best ways to accommodate those experiencing homelessness.

Conducted by a research team at the University of Texas, Arlington, the latest National Institute for Transporation and Communities (NITC) project served to determine the needs of people experiencing homelessness in order to advise transportation providers on how to best support this population.

THE RESEARCH

The research team asked four main questions:

  1. How does Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) meet the daily needs of PEH?
  2. What are the nationwide services provider practices for providing mobility for PEH?
  3. Why do PEH not use public transit?
  4. What are the reactions of PEH and homeless services providers to potential transit agency interventions identified in earlier research?

To answer these questions, the research team conducted in-person interviews with willing PEH at a Dallas County homeless services provider. They also gathered data with a quantitative survey...

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Student Spotlight: Peirong (Slade) Wang, University of Texas at Arlington

Mar 06, 2023

Peirong (Slade) Wang is a PhD student in transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He currently works as a graduate research assistant in UTA's ACTION (Advanced Computing in Transportation, Information, Operations and Networks) lab and serves as president of UTA's ITE student chapter. He earned a master's of science from Mississippi State University, where he also worked as a research assistant, and a bachelor's of science from China Agricultural University.

Connect on LinkedIn

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Peirong (Slade) Wang, and I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. Prior to joining UTA, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in both Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering and completed a master’s degree in Civil Engineering. At present, I am working as a graduate research assistant at the ACTION (Advanced Computing in Transportation, Information, Operations and Networks) lab, where I am engaged in cutting-edge research topics related to transportation. Additionally, I have the privilege of serving as the President of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) student chapter at UTA.

What (or who) has influenced your career path in transportation?

My father, who is a traffic...

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