Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-50).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-50). Also available in print.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / The city of Tucson is well known for its cycling culture and year-round moderate climate. It is a ‘Gold’ level cycling community according to the League of American Bicyclists. Less known about Tucson is that it can be a dangerous place to ride a bicycle. In an attempt to improve overall cyclist safety, the idea of implementing protected bike infrastructure is explored. With a focus on using protected bike lanes to create a low-stress network for bike movement, this project creates a rubric, and calibrates it against case-studies in New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C., to analyze the potential streets in Tucson possess to host protected bike lanes.

Traffic congestion is a serious problem in the United States and is likely to get worse. A number of strategies encompassing increasing supply and managing demand have been suggested to mitigate the problem of traffic congestion. These strategies seek to reduce travel time and/or make travel time more reliable. The use of managed lanes is one such strategy. Faced with successful implementation of a managed lane strategy, it is important to understand potential public perception of the managed lane as well as estimate the number of travelers willing to use managed lanes. Such an estimate would help estimate the toll rates for optimal usage of managed lanes by carpoolers and toll paying travelers. An online survey augmented by paper and laptop survey was conducted in Houston and Dallas to collect information about travelers’ travel behavior, socio-economic characteristics, managed lane perception, and potential use of managed lanes. A comparison of interest in using managed lanes revealed that in majority of cases there was no difference in interest in using managed lanes across user groups. Travel time reliability and ability to travel faster were indicated as top two reasons for interest in managed lanes. This was true for all travelers regardless of mode. Mode choice model using multinomial logit modeling were estimated for Houston and Dallas. Simulation studies were conducted using these mode choice models to estimate the percentage of Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) travelers on managed lane (ML), High Occupancy Vehicle with two travelers (HOV2) on ML, High Occupancy Vehicle with three or more travelers (HOV3+) on ML, SOV travelers on general purpose lane (GPL), HOV2 travelers on GPL, and HOV3+ travelers on GPL. These scenarios compared the managed lane usage for different speeds on GPL (25 miles per hour, 30 miles per hour, and 35 miles per hour). For the case when general purpose lane speed is 25 miles per hour, an increase of $11.75 in SOV tolls ($18 from $6.25) decreases the modal share of SOV travelers on Houston ML from 23.3 percent to 16.9 percent. A similar increase in Dallas tolls decreases the modal share of SOV ML travelers from 22.0 percent to 16.3 percent.

Traffic congestion is a serious problem in the United States and is likely to get worse. A number of strategies encompassing increasing supply and managing demand have been suggested to mitigate the problem of traffic congestion. These strategies seek to reduce travel time and/or make travel time more reliable. The use of managed lanes is one such strategy. Faced with successful implementation of a managed lane strategy, it is important to understand potential public perception of the managed lane as well as estimate the number of travelers willing to use managed lanes. Such an estimate would help estimate the toll rates for optimal usage of managed lanes by carpoolers and toll paying travelers. An online survey augmented by paper and laptop survey was conducted in Houston and Dallas to collect information about travelers’ travel behavior, socio-economic characteristics, managed lane perception, and potential use of managed lanes. A comparison of interest in using managed lanes revealed that in majority of cases there was no difference in interest in using managed lanes across user groups. Travel time reliability and ability to travel faster were indicated as top two reasons for interest in managed lanes. This was true for all travelers regardless of mode. Mode choice model using multinomial logit modeling were estimated for Houston and Dallas. Simulation studies were conducted using these mode choice models to estimate the percentage of Single Occupant Vehicle (SOV) travelers on managed lane (ML), High Occupancy Vehicle with two travelers (HOV2) on ML, High Occupancy Vehicle with three or more travelers (HOV3+) on ML, SOV travelers on general purpose lane (GPL), HOV2 travelers on GPL, and HOV3+ travelers on GPL. These scenarios compared the managed lane usage for different speeds on GPL (25 miles per hour, 30 miles per hour, and 35 miles per hour). For the case when general purpose lane speed is 25 miles per hour, an increase of $11.75 in SOV tolls ($18 from $6.25) decreases the modal share of SOV travelers on Houston ML from 23.3 percent to 16.9 percent. A similar increase in Dallas tolls decreases the modal share of SOV ML travelers from 22.0 percent to 16.3 percent.

In the last thirty years, determined travelers have developed a new method of travel that allows them to receive the benefits of traveling on the HOV lane without forming traditional carpools. This new mode is known as casual carpooling (also known as ??slugging??). Casual carpools are impromptu carpools formed among strangers in order to meet the occupancy requirements of HOV lanes. In this research, survey respondent data from Houston, Texas were used to evaluate the behavior of casual carpool passengers. At the time of this research, there were approximately 500 casual carpool passengers in Houston each day during the morning peak period. These passengers gained time savings of up to 13 minutes over the alternative of driving alone on the main lanes. Statistical models were used to evaluate the factors that influence travelers to choose casual carpooling. The results of the analyses indicated that travelers on commute trips were more likely to casual carpool. The results also indicated that casual carpoolers in Houston made more trips per week, were between the ages of 25 and 34, and hadoccupations that were either professional/managerial or administrative/clerical. Additionally, Houston travelers that had incomes between $25,000 and $35,000 and were between the ages of 55 and 64 were significantly less likely to casual carpool. The research results provided insight into some of the factors that influenced the decision to casual carpool. It is important to understand the types of travelers that casual carpooled, and the information learned in these analyses can be used to better evaluate HOV and HOT lane use and performance. Casual carpool passengers can comprise a significant portion of HOV/HOT lane person movement and should be considered when considering HOV or HOT lane implementation. However, further research in this area is necessary to better understand these travelers.

Thesis (MS)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2002. / Title from title page screen (viewed Sept. 27, 2002). Thesis advisor: Arun Chatterjee. Document formatted into pages (x, 88 p. : ill.(some col.), maps). Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-82).

Project and Report (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. M.S. 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 77). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ahmed Al-Kaisy. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-85).

Value pricing strategies are beginning to be considered for future improvements in suburban areas that currently do not experience significant congestion but are expected to become congested in the future. This is a significant departure from implementing these strategies in congested urban areas as is commonly done now. Therefore, traveler reaction in these suburban areas is unknown. To plan and design value pricing projects most effectively, it will be necessary to gain an understanding of suburban travelers' potential reaction to value pricing. Responses to a survey of travelers using the eastern and western segments of Interstate 10 (I-10) outside of San Antonio were used to study differences in response to value pricing by suburban population groups. These surveys collected information on travelers' socioeconomic and trip characteristics as well as their attitudes towards value pricing in the form of potential Express Toll Lanes (ETLS). Stated preference scenarios presented to survey respondents were used to develop mode choice models. These models were used to determine characteristics that may impact the decision to choose to travel on the general purpose lanes (GPLs) or the ETLs. This research suggests that the implementation of value pricing strategies on suburban corridors may pose a challenge from a policy standpoint. The populations using these corridors appear to be more varied in their responses toward value pricing than populations using congested urban corridors. Overall, it was found that the majority of travelers on I-10E and I-10W are not favorable to the implementation of value pricing for the future expansion of these corridors. However, I-10W travelers seem to be more willing to pay for travel time savings. This is likely due to the fact that travelers on I-10W earn higher average incomes, are more likely to use I-10W on a regular basis for commute purposes, and are more often exposed to some traffic congestion. Conversely, travelers on I-10E are more likely to use I-10E less frequently for non-commute trips, travel longer distances, and probably do not have an intuitive sense of the value they would place on travel time savings since they do not regularly experience congestion.