During the past 50 years, air pollution has become a growing problem throughout the Intermountain West because of increases in personal vehicle ownership and usage. Scientists continue to design interventions to improve air quality by encouraging people to reduce their personal vehicle miles of travel (VMT). However, results of these interventions have only seen modest reductions in VMT because of some methodological and measurement issues. To address these limitations, a 14-week driving reduction intervention was conducted in Cache County, Utah. This intervention employed a prizebased contingency management system within a single-subject, A-B-A withdrawal research design that rewarded participants with prizes if they were able to reduce their VMT below their baseline mean. The VMT was measured each day with an in-car GPS electronic tracking device. Results of this intervention indicate both short- and long-term reductions in VMT as a result of the treatment. Specifically, 6 of the 10 participants showed a statistically significant reduction from the baseline to the intervention stage and maintenance of this reduction during the return-to-baseline stage. The other four participants exhibited a similar pattern but their change in vehicle miles of travel was not statistically significant. Interaction effects were not found between the quo;Choose Clean Airquo; social marketing campaign, gas prices, temperature, and PM 2.5 levels. Despite some problems with the transmission and recording of VMT data, this intervention provides further evidence for the application of prize-based contingency management systems to the reduction of a problematic behavior or encouragement of proenvironmental or pro-social behaviors. The in-car GPS devices improved VMT data collection and quality of the data but hardware and software improvements are still needed to prevent data loss. Further replication is necessary to determine the efficacy of driving reduction intervention that employs prize-based contingency management systems at the community or group level. Future research should also test the possible demographic differences between those that respond favorably to this type of intervention and those that do not, and the differences between prize delivery systems (immediate versus delayed) and prize magnitude (low- versus high-dollar amounts) on driving behaviors.

A drawbar pull (DP) test procedure was developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) for testing and developing designs for off-road vehicles. The motivation was to develop a procedure that would produce repeatable results and could be replicated by other researchers. While developing the test methodology, it became apparent that there was a certain degree of scatter in the results among identical tests. In order to characterize the disparities, an experimental study was conducted consisting of systematically varying specific test parameters. The selected performance metric was the DP-TR (travel reduction) relation. The selected parameters were: 1) the starting terrain condition, 2) the distance traveled by the vehicle under an applied, constant DP force, and 3) the density of the prepared terrain. Respectively, these parameters were selected to observe: 1) how differences in the starting area, or "launch pad," would affect the resulting performance of a test, 2) if a steady-state region of performance exists and how does performance change with the distance traveled, and 3) the relationship between prepared terrain density and performance. These experiments were conducted in a dry, granular, cohesionless, silica based soil called the GRC-1 Lunar Soil Simulant. The results of these studies were that the variations in both the starting terrain condition and the distance traveled did not significantly affect performance. The relationship between performance and terrain density was that only in a region of low density was the TR constant; subsequently, the TR decreased steadily with increasing density. / Master of Science

I det hållbara planeringsidealet anses cykeln vara en viktig del av en fungerande trafiklösning, trots detta tenderar många städer ha problem att uppnå deras egna mål för ökad cykeltrafik. Studien analyserar Malmös och Köpenhamns cykelplanering och cykelvägsstruktur utifrån aktuell cykeltrafikforskning, i syfte att undersöka vilka strategier och förutsättningar som städerna har gemensamt, och vad som skiljer dem åt. Målet för studien är att få svar på hur, och i vilken mån Malmös cykeltrafikandel kan öka utifrån Köpenhamns exempel, och att få en vidare förståelse för de utmaningar som den framtida cykelplaneringen står inför. Studiens metod tar ansats ur fältstudier av fyra cykelfrämjande städer i Europa. Sammanställningen av fältstudierna resulterar i att tre cykelstrategier identifieras som gemensamma för de fyra cykelfrämjande städerna. Därefter analyseras Köpenhamns och Malmös cykelprogram utifrån de tidigare nämnda cykelstrategierna. Analysen fastslår att Köpenhamn borde ses som en framstående cykelstad och möjliggör för en jämförande analys mellan Köpenhamns och Malmös cykelsatsningar. Den jämförande analysen mellan Köpenhamns och Malmös cykelsatsningar avslutas med en redovisning och tolkning av resultaten från analysen.För att kunna förstå cykelprogrammens spatiala relation till städerna de är tänkta att implementeras i används en space syntax-analys. Genom att undersöka satsningarnas rumsliga kontext i förhållande till det befintliga cykelvägsystemet kan en djupare förståelse för cykelsatsningarnas omfattning och orsak uppnås.Studiens resultat identifierar tre strategier som är direkt kopplade till andelen cykeltrafik i städer. Den fastställer även att trots cykelsatsningarnas övergripande likheter, skiljer implementeringen och omfattningen av dessa satsningar sig åt mellan Köpenhamn och Malmö. Infrastrukturens stora påverkan på cykelutvecklingen i stort framgår även det i studiens resultat. Studien visar även på hur de båda städernas cykelprogram förhåller sig till cykelns socialt utjämnande egenskaper. Resultatet visar att det finns indikationer från båda städernas framtida cykelplanering på att dessa utjämnande egenskaper har fått en lägre prioritering allt efter cykeltrafiken anpassas till starkare samhällsgrupper. / In the sustainable planning paradigm, the bicycle is seen as playing an important role of combining effective, environmentally friendly, and space conserving transport to the compact city. Despite its overall positive effect on city life, many cities seem to struggle to achieve the goal of increased bicycle traffic. This study studies the similar strategies and efforts used by bicycle friendly European cities through current research literature, in order to analyze Malmö’s and Copenhagen’s efforts to increase their bicycle traffic. The goal of the study is to examine Malmö’s potential for increased bicycle traffic through Copenhagen’s bicycle planning strategies, and to get a deeper understanding of the challenge’s that may face the future field of bicycle planning. The study’s method starts in field studies of four bicycle friendly European cities. The compilation of the field studies identifies three bicycle planning strategies as mutual for all four cities. The mutual bicycle strategies are then used as a tool and benchmark for the analysis of Copenhagen´s and Malmoe´s municipal bicycle program. To understand the spatial relation between the cities bicycle strategies and the street network that they are supposed to be implemented in, a space syntax-analysis is performed. The results from the comparative analysis of the cities bicycle programs and the space syntax-analysis is then summarized and discussed. The result of the study identifies three crucial criteria’s that according to the study has a high possibility of affecting a city’s bicycle share. It also points to the importance of a well-developed bicycle infrastructure to achieve a higher level of competitiveness for the bicycle as a mode of transport. The study also highlights the socially balancing properties of the bicycle as a mode of transport, and the concern of losing these properties due to bicycle planning strategies that is starting to be adapted in order to attract people from more affluent social groups.