Roads deteriorate at different rates from weathering and use. Hence, transportation agencies must assess the ride quality of a facility regularly to determine its maintenance needs. Existing models to characterize ride quality produce the International Roughness Index (IRI), the prevailing summary of roughness. Nearly all state agencies use Inertial Profilers to produce the IRI. Such heavily instrumented vehicles require trained personnel for their operation and data interpretation. Resource constraints prevent the scaling of these existing methods beyond 4% of the network. This dissertation developed an alternative method to characterize ride quality that uses regular passenger vehicles. Smartphones or connected vehicles provide the onboard sensor data needed to enable the new technique. The new method provides a single index summary of ride quality for all paved and unpaved roads. The new index is directly proportional to the IRI. A new transform integrates sensor data streams from connected vehicles to produce a linear energy density representation of roughness. The ensemble average of indices from different speed ranges converges to a repeatable characterization of roughness. The currently used IRI is undefined at speeds other than 80 km/h. This constraint mischaracterizes roughness experienced at other speeds. The newly proposed transform integrates the average roughness indices from all speed ranges to produce a speed-independent characterization of ride quality. This property avoids spatial wavelength bias, which is a critical deficiency of the IRI. The new method leverages the emergence of connected vehicles to provide continuous characterizations of ride quality for the entire roadway network. This dissertation derived precision bounds of deterioration forecasting for models that could utilize the new index. The results demonstrated continuous performance improvements with additional vehicle participation. With practical traversal volumes, the achievable precision of forecast is within a few days. This work also quantified capabilities of the new transform to localize roadway anomalies that could pose travel hazards. The methods included derivations of the best sensor settings to achieve the desired performances. Several case studies validated the findings. These new techniques have the potential to save agencies millions of dollars annually by enabling predictive maintenance practices for all roadways, worldwide. / Mountain Plains Consortium (MPC)

No description available.

This thesis contributes to theorizing governance and state restructuring and assesses the effectiveness of the strategic transport governance arrangements in Scotland during the period 2006-2007/08.  The context is the seven Regional Transport Partnerships (RTPs) that were established to tackle cross-boundary and regional issues.  The ontology is broadly critical realist and the methodological approach is qualitative utilising a modified grounded theory approach.  Fifty-four interviews were carried out and three RTPs used as case studies over the period 2005/06-2007/08. There are two conclusions.  First, progress in governing the development of strategic transport issues hinges on closer integration of spatial planning and transport planning strategy processes. Distinct professional spheres need to work more collaboratively.  Second, the concepts of ‘hollowing-out’ and ‘filling-in’ from governance literature need to be enhanced to reflect the nuances found in this empirical research. Drawing on a New State Spaces framework, the concepts of centrally-orchestrated regionalism/regionally-orchestrated centralism, and the process-oriented work on collaborative governance reveals a Collaborative Inertia in the current RTP structure that is founded on uncertainty.  It is proposed that two new processes have been identified: ‘over-stuffing’ as a useful perspective in explaining the structure and relations evident in Scottish transport governance and that there has been a process of ‘locally-orchestrated regionalism’ in the formation of voluntary RTPs, which has paradoxically led to a weak statutory regionalism. However, the regional dimension remains important and suggestions are made regarding strengthening integration between sectors at the same time as reducing the organisational complexity of governance.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 284-292). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 284-292). Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-141).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1988. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-213). Also available online.