The proliferation of the automobile as a personal environment and the construction of freeways in the North American urban landscape during the mid to late 20th century are often blamed for noise and air pollution, the sprawling homogeneous metropolis, the erosion of the neighbourhoods, streets and communities, and a generally destructive quality of life. The construction of Seattle’s I-5 freeway during the 1950s was successful in creating and expanding commuter accessibility for Seattle’s drivers. But in the process it created a border, severing urban communities from one another at a localized level. OnRamp, seeks to reconnect the communities of Capitol Hill and Eastlake through an urban trail design. The intention is to incorporate this trail design into Seattle’s existing historic City Parks system to create a continuous chain of navigable open space in which to wander. The importance of urban freeways in our contemporary cities are often overshadowed by the physical and cultural separations they have created in the urban landscape. When considering freeways, we should resist the impulse to associate them with the ills of society. They are a product of a cultural fascination with prosperity, mobility, privacy and the pastoral. They represent a collective will to create a more satisfactory way of life. They are relics of the past; sculptural artefacts that inform us of where we have been and where we are going. The purpose of OnRamp is to demonstrate how the distinct ecologies of urban freeways and the residual space surrounding them can be creatively entwined with the structure of the city. / October 2007

The proliferation of the automobile as a personal environment and the construction of freeways in the North American urban landscape during the mid to late 20th century are often blamed for noise and air pollution, the sprawling homogeneous metropolis, the erosion of the neighbourhoods, streets and communities, and a generally destructive quality of life. The construction of Seattle’s I-5 freeway during the 1950s was successful in creating and expanding commuter accessibility for Seattle’s drivers. But in the process it created a border, severing urban communities from one another at a localized level. OnRamp, seeks to reconnect the communities of Capitol Hill and Eastlake through an urban trail design. The intention is to incorporate this trail design into Seattle’s existing historic City Parks system to create a continuous chain of navigable open space in which to wander. The importance of urban freeways in our contemporary cities are often overshadowed by the physical and cultural separations they have created in the urban landscape. When considering freeways, we should resist the impulse to associate them with the ills of society. They are a product of a cultural fascination with prosperity, mobility, privacy and the pastoral. They represent a collective will to create a more satisfactory way of life. They are relics of the past; sculptural artefacts that inform us of where we have been and where we are going. The purpose of OnRamp is to demonstrate how the distinct ecologies of urban freeways and the residual space surrounding them can be creatively entwined with the structure of the city.

The proliferation of the automobile as a personal environment and the construction of freeways in the North American urban landscape during the mid to late 20th century are often blamed for noise and air pollution, the sprawling homogeneous metropolis, the erosion of the neighbourhoods, streets and communities, and a generally destructive quality of life. The construction of Seattle’s I-5 freeway during the 1950s was successful in creating and expanding commuter accessibility for Seattle’s drivers. But in the process it created a border, severing urban communities from one another at a localized level. OnRamp, seeks to reconnect the communities of Capitol Hill and Eastlake through an urban trail design. The intention is to incorporate this trail design into Seattle’s existing historic City Parks system to create a continuous chain of navigable open space in which to wander. The importance of urban freeways in our contemporary cities are often overshadowed by the physical and cultural separations they have created in the urban landscape. When considering freeways, we should resist the impulse to associate them with the ills of society. They are a product of a cultural fascination with prosperity, mobility, privacy and the pastoral. They represent a collective will to create a more satisfactory way of life. They are relics of the past; sculptural artefacts that inform us of where we have been and where we are going. The purpose of OnRamp is to demonstrate how the distinct ecologies of urban freeways and the residual space surrounding them can be creatively entwined with the structure of the city.

Transportation is the movement of people and goods to achieve the social and economic goals of society. It has long been accepted that there is a relationship between land-use and transportation. Transportation facilities influence the location and intensity of land-use activities while these activities generate the need for transportation. The thesis assumes that in general such a relationship exists and, in particular, becomes apparent when freeways and interchanges are introduced into urban areas. There is at present controversy as to whether freeways should be built in urban areas. It is alleged that freeways disrupt urban land-uses, are costly and are, in the long term, ineffective in meeting the demand for urban transportation. In order to provide more information on freeways in urban areas it is proposes to study the relationship from the particular aspect of freeway interchanges in relation to urban land-uses. In this way the extent of the study is limited and concentrated to a field where the land-use/transportation relationship could be expected to be most intense.

Near-road air quality studies have indicated the presence of high levels of pollutants. In this study, a three dimensional Eulerian model is developed which can be used to study the air quality near freeways. A vehicle-induced turbulence parameterization is included in the model to estimate better the turbulent diffusion of pollutants. The near-road air quality model is used to study two different cases. In the first case, the model is validated using the data from General Motor's SF6 dispersion experiment, conducted at Michigan in 1976. Sensitivity of the model to meteorology and traffic-related parameters are studied in detail. In the second case, the spatial distribution of ozone, carbon monoxide, NOx and 1,3-Butadiene near a simulated 8-lane freeway was studied. Model simulation for the first case yielded better results than US EPA's CALINE models which were previously used for regulatory purposes. Model performance when analyzed at different wind directions shows an overall good performance. The results also show that the model performs well at surface but slightly over predicts pollutant concentration at higher elevations. The simulation results for second case at different directions of wind and at different boundary conditions for model species, places emphasis on the importance of the inclusion of the chemical mechanism in the study of near-road air quality.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Civil Engineering / Sunanda Dissanayake / Setting an appropriate speed limit is necessary to provide safe and efficient traffic operation for all road users. It must also be acceptable to the public and enforceable by police. Lower-than-required speed limits may make the majority of drivers non-compliant, whereas higher speed limits may increase the number of crashes together with related injuries and fatalities. In 2011, the speed limit on a number of freeway segments in the state of Kansas increased from 70 to 75 miles per hour. The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety effects of freeway sections affected by speed limit change in Kansas. Sections where the speed limit changed from 70 mph to 75 mph and other comparable sections where the speed limit remained at 70 mph without any change, were identified. Details of the crashes by severity level for three years before (2008-2010) and three years after (2012-2014) the speed limit change were collected using the state crash database. In order to get a general understanding, characteristics of crashes such as night time versus daytime, number of trucks involved, weather conditions, driver’s gender, and such were considered. Furthermore, several crash contributory causes were also investigated before and after the speed limit changes. In order to evaluate the safety situation, three methods were utilized: 1) Empirical Bayes (EB) observational before-and-after studies, 2) before-and-after method with comparison group, and 3) cross-sectional method using the Negative Binomial (NB) regression model. The evaluation was conducted to see if the speed limit change has caused an increase in total crashes or fatal and injury crashes. In regard to speed analysis, the t-test was applied to see whether significant increases in the 85th percentile speed were observed between before-and-after conditions. Since the sample size was large, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test was also conducted to see if there was any difference between two sets of speed data distributions in the before period compared to the after period. By performing the EB before-and-after study, it was seen that total crashes increased by 16 percent, while using the before-and-after method with the comparison group showed around 27 percent increase in total crashes. Total crash increases were statistically significant according to the EB method, and the before-and-after method with the comparison group. On the other hand, fatal and injury crashes increased by 35 percent based on the before-and-after with the comparison group after the speed limit change. This increase was statistically significant, but the EB method results indicated no increase for fatal and injury crashes when the speed limit was raised to 75 mph. Further, cross-sectional study results showed the speed limit increase had a greatly significant effect on total crashes, an increase of 25 percent; and it was also significant for fatal and injury crashes with those increasing by 62 percent, which is the highest amount of increase compared to the EB method and the before-and-after method with the comparison group. The t-test results showed a five mph increase in the speed limit caused statistically significant increase in 85th percentile speed for the sections affected by speed limit change. However, there was also an increase for the sections without a speed limit change, but this was due to large sample sizes of speed data in the before-and-after period. The K-S test results also depicted the speed distribution of treated sites during the after period was different than the before period. Considering night time crashes versus daytime crashes also showed that there was 1 percent statistically significant increase in the night time crashes compared to daytime crashes after the speed limit increase. There were also more trucks involved in crashes after the speed limit increase. Further, the percentage of adverse weather crashes also decreased by 6 percent for treated sites and 18 percent for non-treated sites. Overall, understanding these results will help with future speed limit adjustments on freeways.

Mass transit in the form of light rail is, in many ways, a new and revolutionary idea for the Greater Los Angeles Area. Although mass light rail transit did exist in Los Angeles in the form of the Pacific Electric Railways red car system, an extensive network of metro rail lines has never existed in Los Angeles County since Pacific Electric was dismantled and shut down in 1950. Because of this, the popular mode of transport in LA County has traditionally been cars, and public transport has consisted mostly of bus routes. This has all changed in the last few decades. Since the 1980s, LA County has conducted several studies and, as a result of those studies, has proposed to build an extensive network of light rail lines to connect the county. In more recent years, many of these project plans have been approved, and the MTA has overseen the construction and functioning of new railway lines that are connecting far-flung regions of LA County with Union Station in downtown LA. Currently, the MTA operates 5 light rail lines within LA county-the Blue Line, the Red Line, the Purple Line, the Green Line and the Gold Line-that extend north, south and east of downtown LA. Each of these lines has been functional for a varying amount of time, but current weekday ridership on this system of lines has crossed the 280,000 mark as off September 2009.

This study evaluated the feasibility of adding rumble strips to the left side of rural freeways in New Brunswick. A review of 940 collisions that occurred on Route 2 and Route 95 was supplemented with an analysis of 547 incidents that occurred on the Brun-Way owned and operated sections of Route 2 and Route 95. The study revealed that despite significantly more traffic travelling in the right lane, a larger number of ROR crashes occurred to the left side. Four Crash Modification Factors (CMF’s) ranging from 0.87 to 0.96 were developed in order to estimate the potential benefit of left side rumble strip installation. A left side specific CMF of 0.95 was developed for all crashes and a CMF of 0.93 was developed for Fatal and Injury (FI) crashes. A benefit-cost analysis revealed that the B/C ratio of the installation of left side rumble strips ranged from 7.9 to 9.4.

Abstract This paper begins by introducing the concepts of urban anthropology and poststructuralism that lay a basis for my project and referencing some of the themes that will be explored in further chapters. Chapter I analyzes conceptualizations of Los Angeles in terms of center and edge, and discusses the ways in which Greater Los Angeles can be an interesting site in terms of queer possibilities of built spaces. In Chapter II the focus shifts to Los Angeles freeways, distinguishing them as in-between spaces of the built landscape and examining how they have been conceptualized by prominent scholars and artists. Chapter III then moves to disciplines of philosophy and queer studies in order to “queer” the freeways. It addresses postmodern and poststructuralist discourses surrounding built spaces and the ways they are experienced, and extends discussions of public space versus private space and the ways bodies interact with built spaces. It also introduces the concept of disorientation and how it can be applied to the experience of the freeway. In the conclusion I tie together these theories of space and apply them to my own Fall project, and propose directions for my project in the Spring semester.

Master of Science / Department of Civil Engineering / Eric J. Fitzsimmons / Transportation officials continuously seek to prevent and reduce wrong-way crashes on interstate highways in the United States. These crashes typically have a high probability of head-on vehicle crashes, resulting in fatalities or serious injuries due to excessive vehicle speeds, and decreased room to maneuver because of fixed barriers or rough shoulders. This research project studied wrong-way crashes on interstate highways in Kansas in order to determine what, if any, statistically significant variables contribute to wrong-way driving crashes. Although these crashes represented only 0.05 percent of all vehicle crashes in Kansas in 2015, wrong-way crashes were found to have a higher rate of fatalities and injuries. In Kansas, 22.6 percent of all crashes and 56 percent of all wrong-way crashes resulted in fatalities and injuries, even though typical vehicle crashes in Kansas occur at non-intersection locations in daylight or in the presence of streetlights without negative factors of adverse weather conditions or drivers influenced by alcohol or drugs. Using crash data provided by the Kansas Department of Transportation from the years 2005 to 2015, the research team examined 372 wrong-way crashes. A cumulative logit statistical model was developed to identify significant characteristics of variables associated with each wrong-way crash. Results showed that driver not under the influence of alcohol or drugs was a significant characteristic in fatal and injury wrong-way crashes. Additionally, certain days of the week were associated with decreased vehicle crash rates when compared to the reference category.