The events of September 11,2001 followed by the oil price hike and the economic crisis of 2008, have lead to a drop in the demand for air travel. Airlines have attempted to return to profitability by cutting service in certain unattractive routes and airports. Simultaneously, delays and excess demand at a few major hubs have lead to airline introducing service at reliever airports. This dissertation attempts to capture the changes in the airline network by utilizing a supply-demand framework. / Ph. D.

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This thesis explores the framing of graphical qualities of the passenger train and the city of Roanoke, Virginia. A passenger train station frames these icons and brings people directly to the train. This framing creates a new icon for the city. An area on the train tracks is revitalized and creates a permeable threshold into and out of the city. / Master of Architecture

This thesis describes the work done in the second stage of the implementation of the Automatic Passenger Counter (APC) system at the Roanoke Valley - Metro Transit Company. This second stage deals with the preparation of a few reports and plots that would help the transit managers in efficiently managing the transit system. The reports and plots give an evaluation of the system and service operations by which the decision makers can support their decisions. For an efficient management of the transit system, data on ridership activity, running times schedule information, and fare revenue is required. From this data it is possible to produce management information reports and summary statistics. The present data collection program at Roanoke Valley Metro is carried by using checkers and supervisors to collect ridership and schedule adherence information using manual methods. The information needed for efficient management of transit operations is both difficult and expensive to obtain. The new APC system offers the management with a new and powerful tool that will enhance their capability to make better decisions when allocating the service needs. The data from the APC are essential for the transit properties' ongoing planning and scheduling activities. The management could easily quantify the service demands on a route or for the whole system as desired by the user. / Master of Science

Historically, rear seat occupants have been at a lower risk of serious injury and fatality in motor vehicle crashes than their front seat counterparts. However, many passive safety advancements that have occurred over the past few decades such as advanced airbag and seatbelt technology primarily benefit occupants of the front seat. Indeed, safety for front seat occupants has improved drastically in the 21st century, but has it improved so much that the front seat is now safer than the rear? Today, rear-seated occupants account for 10% of all passenger vehicle fatalities. In this era focused on achieving zero traffic deaths, the safety of rear-seated occupants must be further addressed. This dissertation analyzed U.S. national crash data to quantify the risk of injury and fatality to rear-seated passenger vehicle occupants while accounting for the influence of associated crash, vehicle, and occupant characteristics such as crash severity, vehicle model year, and occupant age/sex. In rear impacts, the risk of moderate-to-fatal injury was greater for rear-seated occupants than their front-seated counterparts. In high-severity rear impact crashes, catastrophic occupant compartment collapse can occur and carries with it a great fatality risk. In frontal impacts, there is evidence that the rear versus front seat relative risk of fatality has been increasing in vehicle model years 2007 and newer. Rear-seated occupants often sustained serious thoracic, abdomen, and/or head injuries that are generally related to seatbelt use. Seatbelt pretensioners and load limiters – commonplace technology in the front seating positions – aim to mitigate these types of injuries but are rarely provided as standard safety equipment in the rear seats of vehicles today. Finally, in side impacts, injury and fatality risks to rear- and front-seated occupants are more similar than in the other crash modes studied, though disparities in protection remain, especially in near-side vehicle-to-vehicle crashes. Finally, this work projects great injury reduction benefits if a rear seat belt reminder system were to be widely implemented in the U.S. vehicle fleet. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation of the factors that contribute to rear-seated occupant injury and/or fatality through retrospective studies on rear, front, and side impacts. The overall goal of this dissertation is to better quantify the current risk of injury to rear-seated occupants under a variety of crash conditions, compare this to the current risk to front-seated occupants, and, when possible, identify how exactly injuries are occurring and ways in which they may be prevented in the future. The findings can benefit automakers who seek to improve the effectiveness of rear seat safety systems as well as regulatory agencies seeking to improve was vehicle tests targeting rear seat passenger vehicle safety. / Doctor of Philosophy / Historically, if a passenger vehicle such as a sedan or SUV is in a crash, occupants who are rear-seated were less likely to be hurt than someone who was front-seated. In other words, rear-seated occupants have been at a lower risk of injury than front-seated occupants. Indeed, safety for front seat occupants has improved drastically in the 21st century due to advancements in airbag and seatbelt technologies, among others, but has it improved so much that the front seat is now safer than the rear? Today, of all vehicle occupants who are killed in crashes on U.S. roadways, 10% are rear-seated. During this time when conversations surrounding vehicle safety are focused on achieving zero traffic deaths, the safety of rear-seated occupants must be further studied. This dissertation looked at national databases of all police-reported crashes that occur each year in the United States. The risk of injury to rear-seated passenger vehicle occupants was quantified and compared to that of front-seated occupants. Factors that may increase or decrease this risk of injury and fatality such as crash type, vehicle type, and occupant demographics were further explored and reported. In vehicles that were rear-ended, the risk of injury was greater for rear-seated occupants than their front-seated counterparts. When a vehicle crashes into something front-first (the most common type of impact in a vehicle crash), evidence is presented that the risk of fatality is greater in the rear seats than the front seats in model year 2007 and newer vehicles which generally are equipped with the most recent airbag and seatbelt technology. When a vehicle is hit on either of its sides, the risk of injury is closer between rear- and front-seated occupants than it was in the rear-end or frontal crashes previously studied. That said, differences in occupant protection were still observed between the rear and front seats, especially when the occupants studied were seated on the closest side of impact, or the near-side, and the vehicle was struck by another vehicle rather than sliding into an object such as a pole. Finally, this work projects great injury reduction benefits if a rear seat belt reminder system were to be widely implemented in the U.S. vehicle fleet. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation of the factors that contribute to rear-seated occupant injury and/or fatality through retrospective studies on rear, front, and side impacts. The overall goal of this dissertation is to better quantify the current risk of injury to rear-seated occupants under a variety of crash conditions, compare this to the current risk to front-seated occupants, and, when possible, identify how exactly injuries are occurring and ways in which they may be prevented in the future. The findings can benefit automakers who seek to improve the effectiveness of rear seat safety systems as well as regulatory agencies seeking to improve was vehicle tests targeting rear seat passenger vehicle safety.

Passenger car equivalents (PCEs) are used in highway capacity analysis to convert a mixed vehicle flow into an equivalent passenger car flow. This calculation is relevant to capacity and level of service determination, lane requirements, and determining the effect of traffic on highway operations. The most recent Highway Capacity Manual 2000 reports PCEs for basic freeway segments according to percent and length of grade and proportion of heavy vehicles. Heavy vehicles are considered to be either of two categories: trucks and buses or RVs. For trucks and buses, PCEs are reported for a typical truck with a weight to power ratio between 76.1 and 90.4 kg/kW (125 and 150 lb/hp). The weight to power ratio is an indicator of vehicle performance. Recent development of vehicle dynamics models make it possible to define PCEs for trucks with a wider variety of weight to power ratios. PCEs were calculated from the relative impact of trucks on traffic density using the simulation model INTEGRATION. The scope of this research was to evaluate PCEs for basic freeway segments for trucks with a broader range of weight to power ratios. Such results should make freeway capacity analysis more accurate for mixed vehicle flow with a non-typical truck population. In addition, the effect of high proportion of trucks, pavement type and condition, truck aerodynamic treatment, number of freeway lanes, truck speed limit, and level of congestion was considered. The calculation of PCEs for multiple truck weight to power ratio populations was not found to be different from single truck weight to power ratio populations. The PCE values were tabulated in a compatible format to that used in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000. / Master of Science

No / Passenger rail overcrowding is fast becoming a problem in major cities worldwide. This problem therefore calls for efficient, cheap and prompt solutions and policies, which would in turn require accurate modelling tools to effectively forecast the impact of transit demand management policies. To do this, we developed an agent-based model of a particular passenger rail system using an activity based simulation approach to predict the impact of public transport demand management pricing strategies. Our agent population was created using a customer/passenger mobility survey dataset. We modelled the temporal flexibility of passengers, based on patterns observed in the departure and arrival behavior of real travelers. Our model was validated using real life passenger count data from the passenger rail transit company, after which we evaluated the use of peak demand management instruments such as ticketing fares strategies, to influence peak demand of a passenger rail transport system. Our results suggest that agent-based simulation is effective in predicting passenger behavior for a transportation system, and can be used in predicting the impact of demand management policies.

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka de regelverk som berör svenskflaggade passagerarfartyg i internationell trafik gällande berusade passagerare och hur regelverken implementerats i fartygens säkerhetsorganisationer. Syftet har också varit att lyfta fram hur säkerhetsorganisationerna ombord arbetar med att ta hand om berusade passagerare. En kvalitativ ansats har använts för att analysera relevanta regelverk. Den analysen har sedan legat till grund för intervjuer som har genomförts med säkerhetsansvariga på rederier och ombord på fartyg. En person som representerar Polismyndigheten har också intervjuats. Resultatet visar att en del lagstiftningar upplevs som föråldrade. Alkohollagen upplevs ha brister då den inte täcker in svenskflaggade fartyg i internationell trafik. Resultaten visar också att säkerhetsorganisationerna ombord ser olika ut på olika fartyg. Det kan konstateras att säkerheten för berusade passagerare varierar beroende på vilket fartyg de är ombord på.

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