Due to the degree of complexity related to measuring the advantage of establishing Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems, literature generally stops short of modeling an all-inclusive set of benefits of the system. In this research, a model that incorporates the impact on both the users and the society as a whole and evaluates the financial benefits over the lifespan of the ETC investment is developed. Most of the values for the parameters used for calculating the benefits are taken from Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and from similar studies conducted by transportation agencies, which is the setting that has motivated the current research. These parameters are national averages and not region specific. The model will serve as a decision making tool to determine the number of ETC lanes over the manual and automatic lanes. The model has been used for toll plazas with different number of lanes to study the financial value of the benefits due to the ETC deployment. It is also used to study the effect of the traffic flow on the total benefits and recommendation has been made with respect to the time for the ETC deployment.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2009 Jun 15

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 71 pages. / Thesis (M.S.I.E.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Due to the degree of complexity related to measuring the advantage of establishing Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems, literature generally stops short of modeling an all-inclusive set of benefits of the system. In this research, a model that incorporates the impact on both the users and the society as a whole and evaluates the financial benefits over the lifespan of the ETC investment is developed. Most of the values for the parameters used for calculating the benefits are taken from Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and from similar studies conducted by transportation agencies, which is the setting that has motivated the current research. These parameters are national averages and not region specific. The model will serve as a decision making tool to determine the number of ETC lanes over the manual and automatic lanes. / ABSTRACT: The model has been used for toll plazas with different number of lanes to study the financial value of the benefits due to the ETC deployment. It is also used to study the effect of the traffic flow on the total benefits and recommendation has been made with respect to the time for the ETC deployment. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Faced with population increases but stagnant capital improvements and impacts from global warming, cities around the world are experimenting with smaller-scale and cheaper strategies in order to accommodate the new influx of residents. New York City has led the way in converting low-efficiency intersection space into public plazas with a limited range of permanently installed elements and San Francisco has pioneered the concept of the parklet, which converts two to four street parking spaces into a modular and flexible pedestrian space. I seek to answer two questions about these spaces: What are common factors influencing the viability and successful implementation of parklets and public plaza? And what are the social and environmental outcomes of constructing parklets and public plazas at a site-specific level and across larger urban scales? Previous research has examined the dynamics and components of public spaces in cities. This research builds upon previous research efforts. By answering these questions, cities and communities seeking to create more pedestrian-friendly and human-oriented space have insights into the components that make parklets and public plazas work and what impacts these developments can have throughout their built environment. I conducted theoretical research of scholarly works concerning urban ecology, resilience, and the social components of cities, and conducted structured observations of plazas and parklets and appropriate control sites in New York City and San Francisco. At a site-specific scale, these developments promote a diverse range of uses and can serve as localized nodes. Across larger scales, these developments can use design considerations to change the perception of an area or neighborhood and have the potential to create a linked system that provides widespread circulatory and ecological improvements. Creating programs that facilitate parklet installations and plaza conversions give cities and communities the most bang for their buck because they provide flexible spaces that do not involve major and expensive capital improvements. Parklets and public plazas are viable projects for providing green space and promoting pedestrian circulation within neighborhoods and communities.

Over the past two decades, an increasing amount of research has been directed toward climatic influences on behavior and the built environment. The evidence from this research has lead to the development of recommended site interventions to improve energy performance in individual buildings and to mitigate extreme climate conditions in exterior public spaces in order to make these environments more comfortable."Comfort", as a measure of performance, is usually based upon one of the many indices of thermal comfort. These indices, however, have been developed specifically for use in indoor environments and were later readapted for exterior environments. Previous research has begun to show that standards designed for and developed in interior settings, are not necessarily applicable for use in exterior environments where climate is only partially controllable and behavior is less defined. Early preliminary studies have shown that considerable activity will occur outside of the boundaries formally established as “comfortable” by any particular thermal index. In contradiction to the traditional thermal performance measures that determine specific climatological conditions to support a particular behavior, this research uses two bio-comfort charts and a thermal indexing equation to establish what specific behaviors will occur under particular climate profiles. This study takes an annual record of regional and site specific climate data and applies it to existing comfort prediction models to ascertain if such applications are legitimate and if these applications are capable of predicting the frequency and duration of observed social behavior in an outdoor urban setting. / Master of Landscape Architecture

This project can be described in terms of the three main elements it explores: the relationship between the building and its context, the use of the structural system as an integral part of the architectural language and finally, the degree to which a building can be both specific and flexible programmatically. The boundaries between the urban design and architecture are blurred. The design of the larger urban environment preceded the design of the building. The building itself functions as a progression of public spaces decreasing in scale, as we move inwardly from the atrium. The structure plays a critical role in the project, not just because it helps organize the building; but also because it becomes a major thematic element. This is particularly evident in the atrium, where the architecture adopts a sculptural tone. Flexibility to accommodate change has become a fundamental programmatic requirement of contemporary institutions. The design of the buildings that houses them struggles to accommodate this need while at the same time developing an identity. The project attempts to reconcile this apparent contradiction. / Master of Architecture

Master of Architecture

To establish the in-between is to reconcile conflicting polarities. Provide the place where they can interchange and you re-establish the original twin phenomena. Aldo Van Eyck The thesis of this project focuses on the transition between a town and campus. The proposal is made for a shared urban room or plaza space that demarks the meeting place of the inherently different orders of the town and campus. Here a tower is proposed to better define the existing plaza space between four academic buildings. Finally, a wall reaching towards the town from the plaza space is proposed as an element of connection that defines a unique place between the town and campus. / Master of Architecture

No processo histórico de urbanização de Campo Grande, MS e dos seus espaços livres públicos de recreação e conservação, alguns aspectos como a pequena receptividade da população e um uso incipiente desses espaços públicos, contribuíram para desencadear um questionamento sobre os procedimentos adotados e a atuação profissional no campo do planejamento, na elaboração de projetos e sobre o processo de construção desses espaços livres urbanos. A partir da identificação de que falta uma interpretação integrada para uma adequada compreensão da cidade, a tese se desenvolve com uma visão sistêmica como princípio de análise, considerando a cidade como um conjunto de elementos físicos e imateriais que interagem no espaço. Há em geral um jogo de forças, interesses, que promovem as mudanças na paisagem e na realidade urbana. O objetivo da tese é avaliar as ações desenvolvidas na atividade de planejamento, projeto e gestão do sistema de espaços livres públicos em Campo Grande, MS que proporcionam a adequada preservação da natureza e a realização das atividades recreativas, esportivas, culturais, propiciando o encontro e o relacionamento social. O método baseia-se na análise de fontes documentais primárias (mapas, dados cartográficos, acervos de projetos, registros fotográficos, originais de leis) e secundárias (revisão bibliográfica e entrevistas com técnicos e administradores) sobre o último século. A avaliação geral sobre o sistema de espaços livres públicos de recreação e de conservação de Campo Grande mostra que ele possui alguns aspectos dominantes e que o caracteriza: observa-se que a população mais abastada busca suprir a recreação individualmente, nos lotes e por isso, não demanda esse tipo de soluções nas praças, onde predominam as ajardinadas. A contradição aparece na região ocupada pela população mais carente habitante de lotes menores e que, portanto, demanda mais infra-estrutura de recreação. Entretanto, as áreas públicas nessa região caracterizam-se pelo uso indevido e a implantação de equipamentos nos lotes vagos. Apesar disso, a aplicação da legislação urbana associada à ação de algumas administrações municipais favoreceu a constituição de um sistema rico e demarcado pela construção de lugares públicos singulares, que servem de referencial para as cidades médias brasileiras. / In the historic urbanization process of recreational and conservational open spaces in Campo Grande, MS some issues as the low acceptance by its inhabitants and lack of use of these spaces, contributed to develop a questioning process about the procedures adopted and the professional acting on planning, design process and on construction process of these urban open spaces. This study began when it was identified a lack of an integrated interpretation of the city to get a adequate comprehension about its relationships. So, the thesis is developed with a systemic view as an analysis principle, considering the city as a group of joined-up elements, those are physical and immaterial and they interact in various types of relationships. There are tendencies and interests that promote the changes in the landscape and in the urban reality. This work aims to evaluate the actions developed in planning, design and management activities of public open spaces in Campo Grande, MS that provide an adequate environmental preservation and the implementation of recreational, sportive, cultural activities, creating opportunities to meeting and social relationships. The method is based on the primary sources documents analysis (maps, cartographic data, projects archive, photographic archive, original laws) and secondary sources (bibliography review and interviews with administrators and technicians) about the last century. The evaluation of Campo Grandes recreational and conservational public open spaces system shows that it has some dominant aspects: the richer population solves the necessity of recreation individually in their private areas and because of that, do not demand this type of solutions in near local urban plazas, where the predominant type is the plaza with gardens. The contradiction is in more poor areas, where the population lives in small areas and demand more recreational infrastructure. But, the public spaces in this region frequently are used in a bad way and the equipments are built in private but non occupied areas. Despite these issues, the application of urban legislation associated to some municipalities actions made possible the constitution of a rich system characterized by the construction of unique public places that are references to medium Brazilian cities.

In the Lake Titicaca Basin, the sunken court complex has long been considered the archetypal public space. It is generally assumed that courts served as the major setting for ritual performance during the Formative period and possibly during the subsequent Middle Horizon; however, sunken courts are only one of several types of public architecture in use during these time periods. A diachronic study of public spaces within the ceremonial district at Pukara, specifically focused on the Qalasaya complex and central pampa areas, is directed at addressing the relationship between ritual architecture and early leadership during the Late Formative period (500 BC-AD400). Based on excavation data from the investigations of Alfred Kidder II in 1939, the Plan COPESCO excavations of the Qalasaya in the 1970s, and recent excavations on the central pampa in 2001, it is possible to develop a framework for characterizing temporal and functional changes in Pukara’s public spaces. Changes in the location, layout, and use of these spaces by both hosts and intended audiences are used as indicators of a shift from inclusive to exclusive leadership strategies at Pukara during the Late Formative period. / En la cuenca del lago Titicaca, el Complejo Patio Hundido ha sido considerado por largo tiempo como el arquetipo del espacio público. Por lo general, se asume que los patios sirvieron como el escenario principal para la escenificación ritual durante el Periodo Formativo y, posiblemente, durante el subsiguiente Horizonte Medio. Sin embargo, los patios hundidos son solo uno de los muchos tipos de arquitectura pública en uso durante estos periodos. Un estudio diacrónico de los espacios públicos dentro del área ceremonial del sitio de Pukara, centrado específicamente en las áreas del complejo Qalasaya y la "pampa" central, aborda la relación entre la arquitectura ritual y el liderazgo temprano durante el Periodo Formativo Tardío (500 a.C.-400 d.C.). Sobre la base de los datos de excavaciones como resultado de las investigaciones de Alfred Kidder II en 1939, las excavaciones del Plan COPESCO en el Qalasaya en la década de los setenta y excavaciones recientes en la pampa central en 2001 se plantea la posibilidad de desarrollar un marco para caracterizar los cambios temporales y funcionales en los espacios públicos de Pukara. Los cambios en la ubicación, trazado y uso de estos espacios tanto por los anfitriones como por las audiencias proyectadas son utilizados como indicadores de un cambio en las estrategias de liderazgo, las que pasan de tener un carácter inclusivo a uno de tipo excluyente en Pukara durante el Periodo Formativo Tardío.