As sustainability increasingly becomes a concern to society, it is in state transportation agencies' best interests to embrace and adopt initiatives that will both educate their employees and the communities they serve on how transportation systems and system operations can be viewed within such a context. One of the strategies some state departments of transportation (SDOTs) have adopted for providing a more sustainable approach to highway design is a "green streets and highways rating system." Adopting a strategy such as the one proposed in this thesis for the Georgia Department of Transportation will enable an agency to compare projects based on sustainability goals and outcomes. Such a rating system can provide several benefits to a state department of transportation. As a public relations tool, publishing the sustainability rating results of completed projects can promote an "environmentally friendly" image of the agency. In some cases, this could be used to garner increased support for an agency's program. Comparing the ratings of proposed projects during the early programming process may also help in the selection of more sustainably effective and efficient projects. Additionally, a project in the project planning phase could use the green rating criteria to identify those areas where changes in design could result in more environmentally sensitive designs. A green streets and highways rating tool is an important means of fostering an environmental ethic in a transportation agency, one that could become more important in years to come.

Although not often discussed in planning curriculum across the United States, airports are a very significant part of the country’s transportation infrastructure. With so much emphasis placed on ground transportation modes such as light rail, bus, and bike, the impact of aviation on the transportation world gets lost in translation. This study seeks to bring airport planning back into the conversation by analyzing population projections, income, and industry and their affect on airport preparedness to meet increasing population demands. By using population projections through 2035 for the State of Texas, gross population and population growth rates were used to select counties within Texas that may be most in need of airport planning considerations. Counties along the Texas-Mexico border were analyzed in further detail for planning considerations and preparedness based on their population growth rates. Hidalgo County’s McAllen-Miller International Airport (MFE) was found to be proactively seeking changes to their airfield that matched recommendations based on their population increase. However, the level of coordination with city or county level authorities is lacking. / text

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. / Description based on contents viewed July 9, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-63).

<p>The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the transportation infrastructure based on performance measures. In doing so, the abstract presents a transportation network as a system of nodes and links. It is important to identify critical components in transportation networks. In identifying critical components of the network, performance measures such as nodal degree, nodal closeness, nodal eigen vector, nodal betweenness, which are the most widely used were explored in the analysis of the network. These measures account for the vulnerability of a node to failure in the transportation network.</p> <p>In our daily use of transportation networks, we are faced with disruptions that engender change in the transportation network. Disruptions tend to be commonplace in transportation systems. These include manmade disruptions such as accidents to natural disasters such as floods due to rainfall and hurricanes, seismic activities among others which are unprecedented. These incidents change how road users interact with the transportation system due to the disruptions that occur. The disruptions cause increased travel time, delays and even loss of property. These disruptions lead to direct, indirect and induced impacts.</p> <p>This study provides a firsthand diagnosis of the vulnerability of the transportation network to flood by ranking the nodes using performance measures and multicriteria evaluation. The paper found out that various performance measures may produce different critical nodes but with the employment of sensitivity analysis and veto rule, the most critical node can be established The paper found out that node 80 is the most critical and essential node of the entire network after the impact of flood. </p>

Evaluating the resilience of transportation infrastructures, including bridges, roads, and tunnels, is a critical aspect of ensuring the ongoing functionality and reliability of urban or regional areas in the face of various disruptive events. Such infrastructures are susceptible to a range of disruptions which can have significant impacts on their ability to function effectively. Resilience refers to the capacity of an infrastructure or a system to withstand and recover from these disruptions. This research presents a framework to evaluate the resilience surface for assessing the resilience of various transportation infrastructure components. This comprehensive approach involves several steps. First, the framework identifies unique damage configurations by performing a fragility analysis. This analysis allows for a better understanding of how susceptible the infrastructure is to different hazards. Next, the framework focuses on the restoration of the affected infrastructure by developing recovery curves for each identified damage configuration. This is done by taking into account relevant restoration data and considering the specific characteristics of each configuration. Additionally, the framework acknowledges the inherent uncertainty that exists within various aspects of infrastructure resilience assessment. These uncertainties include hazard intensity, modeling uncertainty, and the restoration process itself. By incorporating these uncertainties into the framework, a more accurate and reliable assessment can be achieved. The utility of this framework is demonstrated through its application to a real-world case study involving a highway bridge located in Canada. The goal of this research is to offer decision-makers a valuable tool for evaluating the resilience of transportation infrastructure. This can contribute to more robust and reliable transportation infrastructures, capable of withstanding and recovering from a wide range of disruptive events. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / Resilience quantification of infrastructures is the assessment and measurement of their ability to withstand and recover from disruptive events. However, there is a significant research gap in this field, with limited studies and standardized methodologies available. This research presented a framework to quantify the hazard resiliency of infrastructures through development of resilience surface. The framework and the procedure were then numerically tested on a real bridge in Canada as a case study.

Este trabalho analisa os impactos da implementação de projetos de infraestrutura de transporte sobre o crescimento econômico nacional e regional e a contribuição deles para diminuição das disparidades, quando melhoria na acessibilidade é implementada. O arcabouço metodológico consiste da integração de um modelo de transporte ao modelo MIBRA, um modelo aplicado de equilíbrio geral inter-regional para a economia brasileira. Enquanto o modelo de transporte dá a interação espacial entre as regiões, o modelo de equilíbrio geral especifica o comportamento da oferta e demanda de produtores, família e governo em uma economia real, determinando preços e quantidades simultaneamente. Neste trabalho o modelo de transporte é reconhecido como um índice de acessibilidade. A hipótese assumida é que quando a condição da rodovia é melhorada a acessibilidade entre as regiões torna-se maior e os usuários podem consumir menos serviços de margens de transporte. O ano de referência do modelo é 1999. O modelo comporta seis regiões: Norte, Nordeste, Centro-Oeste, São Paulo, Resto do Sudeste e Sul e, tem detalhes para 29 setores. Foram avaliados os impactos sobre a economia nacional e regional da duplicação parcial das rodovias federais BR-116 e BR-153. Em ambas as simulações, os resultados foram condizentes com os esperados. A menor necessidade de demanda por margem de transporte, devido à melhoria da acessibilidade entre as regiões, faz reduzir o nível de atividade do setor de transporte rodoviário. Com isto, fatores primários são liberados para os demais setores da economia implicando, num primeiro momento, em menor nível de preços e, conseqüentemente em maior nível de produção em resposta à maior demanda. Os resultados para a BR-116, uma das mais importantes ligações rodoviárias entre as regiões Nordeste, Sudeste e Sul do país, apontam para difícil situação da região Nordeste em relação às demais regiões brasileiras. Os resultados de longo prazo mostram uma perda relativa do Nordeste em relação às regiões mais dinâmicas do país, quando se considera a variação do PIB. Ou seja, a melhoria da infraestrutura num contexto inter-regional, implica que regiões mais dinâmicas atraiam para si os benefícios de um melhor fluxo de comércio. Neste sentido, a dependência do Nordeste com respeito ao comércio intraregional é exacerbada com a melhoria da acessibilidade entre as regiões. Os resultados para a BR-153 reforçam de alguma forma os encontrados para a BR-116. Apesar da BR-153 integrar também uma região pobre (Norte) às regiões mais dinâmicas, em termos regionais, os resultados da duplicação parcial desta rodovia são mais favoráveis do que os da BR-116. Isto pode ser explicado pelo fato de que boa parte dos trechos duplicados na simulação com a BR-153 estarem localizados nas regiões mais desenvolvidas do país. Os resultados indicam que a decisão quanto aos investimentos deve levar em consideração os efeitos sobre a economia nacional mas, principalmente os efeitos regionais, uma vez que tal decisão tomada isoladamente pode contribuir para ampliar as disparidades regionais. / over the regional and national economic growth and its contribution to the decrease of the regional disparities in Brazil, as far as accessibility is concerned. The methodological framework consists on the integration of a transportation model with the MIBRA model, an interregional applied general equilibrium model of the Brazilian economy. While the transportation model gives the spatial interaction among regions, the general equilibrium model specifies the behavior of supply and demand of producers, household, and government in a real economy, determining prices and quantities simultaneously. In this work, the transportation model is recognized as an accessibility index. The hypothesis assumed is that when the condition of the road is improved the accessibility among regions becomes higher and the users can consume less transportation margin services. The benchmark year is 1999. The model was constructed for six Brazilian regions, North, Northeast, Center-West, São Paulo, Rest of Southeast, and South and has details for twenty nine industries. The simulations are conducted to access the impacts on the national and regional economies due to the duplication of the federal highways BR-116 and BR-153. In both simulations, the results were as expected; the decrease in the demand for transportation margin due to the improvement of the accessibility among regions causes a reduction in the level of activity in the transportation road sector. With this, at first, there is a decrease in the price level and, consequently an increase in the level of production. The results for the BR-116, one of the most important transportation networks between the regions Northeast, Southeastern and South of the country, point to the difficult situation of the Northeast region in relation to the rest of the Brazilian regions. The results in the long run show a relative loss of the Northeast region in relation to the most dynamic regions of the country, considering the changes in the regional GDP. Otherwise, the improvement of the infrastructure in an interregional context implies that more dynamic regions attract for themselves the benefits of a better trade flow. In this sense, the Northeast dependence to the intraregional trade is exacerbated with the improvement of the accessibility among the regions. The results for the BR-153 strengthen in some way, the results found for the BR-116. Despite that the BR-153 also links a poor region (North) to the most dynamic regions, in regional terms, the results of the partial duplication of this highway are more favorable than for the BR-116. This can be explained by the fact that most of the duplicated stretches in the simulation with the BR-153 are located in the most developed regions of the country. The results indicate that the decision about to the investments must take into account not only the effect on the national economy but mainly on the regional impacts, because decisions taken only at the national level may contribute to an increase to the regional disparities.

The 711-acre Mueller development is located just three miles northeast of downtown on the former site of the Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. Planned as one of Austin’s major transit-oriented New Urbanist developments, Mueller contains a pattern of pedestrian and bike friendly streets to encourage a range of transportation options for residents and visitors. Mueller is 30% complete and provides housing and jobs to over 3000 residents and 3000 employees. This MDS seeks to understand how current residents, employees, and visitors use the bike lanes, sidewalks, and roads in the Mueller community. To evaluate the transportation infrastructure, the author designed and coded a custom Google Maps survey that asked residents to draw common routes, points of interest, and points of concern related to their transportation choices. The results of this study then influenced a future urban design of the undeveloped portion of Mueller. / text

Performance goals for a highway system are an indication of the desired system condition, and the level of service to be provided to its users. Setting the appropriate performance goals has a significant impact on the way highway agencies conduct business. With growing needs and limited resources, the consequences of setting different levels of performance goals should be examined and compared to optimize the highway infrastructure needs at the network level. Three interacting sets of costs are typically considered for a complete economic appraisal of highway projects: construction, maintenance and road use costs. Due to the shift in focus from design-and-build mode to the repair-and-maintain mode, this study focuses on maintenance related costs and the road user cost aspects only. Maintenance and rehabilitation activities on pavement infrastructure are ongoing processes that are required for the entire road network. This suggests that for long planning horizons and geographically extensive networks, their application usually results in significant financial needs. Typically, highway agencies have based their policy decisions such as the target condition levels for the system on the budget needs for maintenance and rehabilitation actions. Since in most cases, the funding needs exceed the available budget, the required preventive and routine maintenance activities suffer or are overlooked completely. Failure to timely apply these maintenance actions cause the pavements to deteriorate more rapidly into condition states that require for more expensive rehabilitation actions during the life cycle of the pavement. Over time, a vicious cycle is instigated in which the maintenance and rehabilitation needs of the network keep increasing each year. Although most highway administrators acknowledge the fact that pavement preservation is perhaps the most effective way of using the limited budgets available, the costs associated with deferring maintenance actions is oftentimes overlooked when establishing performance goals for the system. Road user costs in the form of costs for vehicle operation have been recognized as another large component of the total transportation related costs. These costs are then arguably the most important to consider for a complete economic appraisal. Ironically, they are also often disregarded while making important policy decisions. Other road user costs such as those related to the impact of traffic congestion and detours caused by construction and maintenance activities are difficult to quantify and were not accounted for in this study. Although it is widely accepted that establishing suitable performance goal is critical for system maintenance and preservation, a framework that considers the inter-relationship between conflicting objectives of minimum maintenance and rehabilitation costs, deferred maintenance costs, and vehicle operating costs to the users does not exist. This thesis proposes a methodological framework that is aimed at assisting highway agencies with the problem of objectively analyzing policy decisions in terms of the performance goals for their highway networks that would minimize the total transport costs to the society. In a case study of the proposed framework, the highway network managed by the Texas Department of Transportation was examined for different performance goals. The results from the case study indicate that setting lower performance goals lead to savings in the M&R needs, but at the same time, they also significantly increase the exogenous costs such as deferred maintenance costs and the vehicle operating costs. / text

Positioning itself as an investigation into the affective capacity of transport, this thesis argues that the potential of a city is both composed and revealed through its systems of movement, contending that the sensorial and expressive qualities of a city’s transit govern how its citizens perceive and access the scope of experiences available to them. Essays on movement and identity, the limits of the city, immobility, adaptation, and eccentricities, move in parallel with meditations on departures, arrivals, and the time of transit toward a mandate for an amplification of motion and energy. The thesis traces a route from Ontario through London, Rome, and northern Europe before returning to Toronto only to founder in the region’s gridlock. To free the city’s constricted potential, a new passenger rail line running from Pearson Airport, through Toronto on the Canadian Pacific Rail corridor north of Dupont Road, to the site of Pickering’s future international airport is proposed. The key interchange of the new line, Lake Iroquois Station, is developed in detail, feeding on an intense overlap of historic and contemporary infrastructures. Located just south of the historic First Nations trading trail of Davenport Road at Dupont and Spadina, the station gathers the primary midtown electrical corridor, extensions of the Bathurst and Spadina streetcar lines, the existing University/Spadina subway, and expansions of the city’s cycling network, knotting them together with regional passenger rail in order to transport the city and its imagination.

Thesis (MComm)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.