Local Transportation Agencies Research Articles

Evaluating Environmental Impact Statements as Communicative Action

An environmental impact statement (EIS) is supposed to ensure that a government agency thoroughly evaluates a project's impacts, studies feasible alternatives, and gives all stakeholders an active role in project-related decisions. Previous rhetorical studies of the EIS describe a failed or subversive genre routinely used to advance the strategic aims of an agency seeking to implement a project despite significant opposition. This article contends that an EIS motivated by a genuinely persuasive purpose can serve as the discursive focus of democratic decision making about major projects and substantially achieve Habermas's norms of communicative action. This may happen, for example, when a local transportation agency develops an EIS for a federal transportation agency. To illustrate this possibility, two EISs involving distinct federal-local relationships in Puerto Rico are evaluated using criteria proposed by John Forester for investigating the degree to which public decision-making processes fulfill Habermas's norms of communicative action.

Asset management: remedy for addressing the fiscal challenges facing highway infrastructure

Abstract In recent years, increasing claims have been advanced for asset management as a promising new approach to infrastructure management. If these claims are seen in the light of past management fads, such as zero-based-budgeting (ZBB), management-by-objectives (MBO), total quality management (TQM), and business process reengineering (BPR), asset management may be considered the latest in a long line of management fads being marketed by consultants to transportation agency managers. However, asset management can be an effective response to the fiscal challenges confronting the United States' highway infrastructure. This paper explores asset management in light of recent developments in the funding, condition, documentation, and management of the US highway infrastructure. The paper begins with a discussion of capital biases associated with traditional US federal highway funding programs. It then describes the advent of innovative financing approaches that have evolved in response to the inability of the Federal Highway Trust Fund to meet burgeoning highway renewal and replacement needs, caused in part by widespread deferred maintenance of the highway system. The paper suggests that public sources of funding for the highway system will not be adequate to renovate or replace current highways and build new capacity. Closing the expected shortfall in public highway funding will require sustained infusions of private sector funding. However, the financing of highways through public–private partnerships will require state and local transportation agencies to radically change the ways in which the highway infrastructure is managed. Within the context of gradual changes in highway management and financing, the paper suggests a critical role for asset management – in demonstrating prudent stewardship of highway infrastructure and facilitating private sector confidence in highway investments. The paper examines the implications for innovative highway financing resulting from recent developments in asset management: • further devolution of highway program and funding responsibilities to state and local levels of government; • developments in asset management processes and practices; and • the infrastructure reporting requirements recently developed by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). The infrastructure reporting requirements of GASB's Statement No. 34 are intended to increase accountability for publicly owned infrastructure and promote improved management of long-lasting capital assets. GASB 34 also provides a basis for enabling public agencies to finance implementation of asset management techniques and renewal of infrastructure assets through securitization. Covenants associated with securitized highway bonds would provide the fiscal discipline needed to ensure that responsible agencies abide by the terms of the bond agreements – thereby assuring preventive asset maintenance and freeing up resources for debt service payments. Shadow tolling provides a useful mechanism for generating a positive revenue stream to support securitized highway bonds. The paper concludes that asset management is a proven and essential process for helping the US rebuild and expand its highway infrastructure.

Operational Effects of U-Turns as Alternatives to Direct Left Turns from Driveways

Recently, many state and local transportation agencies have begun considering using U-turns as alternatives to direct left turns (DLT) from driveways through installing nontraversable medians on multi-lane highways. Some of the concerns are that this proposed change may transfer operational problems to the downstream median opening and increase delay or travel time of vehicles making a left-turn egress from driveways. However, the effect of this treatment on roadway operations is not clear. A comprehensive study of operational effects of this treatment would be beneficial, both in setting design policy and in project-level design. Field studies were conducted to obtain the data necessary to quantify operational effects of this treatment at eight sites in the Tampa and Clearwater areas of Florida. About 300 h of field data were collected, including delay, travel time, traffic volume, speed, traffic control, and geometric data. An operational effects database was developed to perform statistical analyses. Delay and travel-time models of DLT and right turn plus U-turn (RTUT) were developed as a function of major and minor road-traffic-flow rates. The curves developed based on delay and travel-time models present a clear picture of the operational effects of the two types of movement. Moreover, a ratio model was developed to estimate how many drivers would prefer to make a RTUT rather than a DLT under certain traffic-flow conditions. Finally, the operations models were used to measure system performance of a full median opening versus a directional median opening from the standpoint of weighted-average total delay.

Fatal Occupational Injuries—United States, 1980-1997

Data from the annual Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), provide information on fatal occupational injuries that occur in the United States. CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) uses CFOI data to support research and evaluation activities related to the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA), a partnership between the public and private sectors to encourage workplace safety and health research. Since 1992, when BLS first introduced CFOI, BLS has annually reported data on fatal occupational injuries from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. For 2005, BLS reported a total of 5,702 work-related fatal injuries and a rate of 4.0 deaths per 100,000 workers; compared with 1992, this represents an 8% decline in the number of deaths (from 6,217 in 1992) and a 23% decline in the fatality rate (from 5.2 in 1992). This report summarizes the 2005 data, which indicated that the highest percentages of fatal workplace injuries were attributed to highway incidents, followed by falls, being struck by an object, and homicides. Since 1992, the number of deaths resulting from highway incidents, falls, and being struck by an object has increased, and the number of homicides has decreased. To reduce the number of workplace deaths, transportation measures targeting workers (e.g., truck safety and highway work-zone safety) should be enhanced by state and local transportation agencies and coordinated with highway-safety measures for the general public.

Prioritizing Proposed Transportation Improvements: Methods, Evaluation, and Research Needs

Since the costs of proposed transportation projects typically exceed available funding, the process by which projects are selected and prioritized for development is scrutinized by a wide variety of stakeholders. The U.S. Congress and state legislatures are increasingly involved in selecting projects, and thus some projects do not evolve from the transportation planning process. Oversight panels, special interest groups, and the public are applying pressure to clarify the process by which proposed projects are prioritized and to minimize the impact of politics. A rational tool that lays out a clear procedure can assist decision makers in selecting and prioritizing potential improvements, make the process more transparent, and strengthen the link between planning and programming. Several such tools have been proposed, and many state and local transportation agencies are using some of them. These instruments vary widely in objectivity, the factors considered in evaluating potential transportation improvements, and output formats. The role they play in programming decisions also varies, but their use makes available more information to interested parties, including those vested with the authority to make decisions about transportation programming.

Does Public Transit Counteract the Segregation of Carless Households? Measuring Spatial Patterns of Accessibility

Although local transit agencies struggle to keep pace with low-density urban development, most people who depend on transit continue to live in concentrated clusters at the core of metropolitan regions, becoming more distant to the variety of places they need to access. Standard transit performance measures fail to help local transportation agencies adapt their services to changes in demographics and urban form. Geographic information systems (GIS) provide a method for measuring transit service at the neighborhood scale while accounting for land-use changes. The first aim was development of a GIS-based accessibility indicator that is straightforward to calculate, easy to interpret, and flexible enough to use for employment and nonwork travel alike. The second objective was to introduce recent advances in spatial statistics to transportation planners to help them quantitatively assess changes in accessibility patterns over time. A case study is examined of accessibility to supermarkets in Syracuse, New York. The analysis finds that over 7,500 households, representing 12 percent of the city’s households, do not have reasonable access to supermarkets. Furthermore, using visual assessment of maps, aspatial database operations, and spatial statistical tests, the study provides statistically significant evidence that poor accessibility is associated both with low-income neighborhoods and with neighborhoods with disproportionately high populations of African Americans.

Road evaluation with ground penetrating radar

This paper provides a status report of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) highway applications based on studies conducted in both Scandinavia and the USA. After several years of research local transportation agencies are now beginning to implement GPR technology for both network and project level surveys. This paper summarizes the principles of operation of both ground-coupled and air-launched GPR systems together with a discussion of both signal processing and data interpretation techniques. In the area of subgrade soil evaluation GPR techniques have been used to nondestructively identify soil type, to estimate the thickness of overburden and to evaluate the compressibility and frost susceptibility of subgrade soil. In road structure surveys, GPR has been used to measure layer thickness, to detect subsurface defects and to evaluate base course quality. In quality control surveys, GPR techniques have been used for thickness measurements, to estimate air void content of asphalt surfaces and to detect mix segregation. Future developments are described where the technique has great potential in assisting pavement engineers with their new pavement designs and in determining the optimal repair strategies for deteriorated roadways.

Remote Simulation to Evaluate Real-Time Traffic Control Strategies

Simulation is a valuable tool for evaluating the effects of various changes in a transportation system. This is especially true in the case of real-time traffic-adaptive control systems, which must undergo extensive testing in a laboratory setting before being implemented in a field environment. Various types of simulation environments are available, from software-only to hardware-in-the-loop simulations, each of which has a role to play in the implementation of a traffic control system. The RHODES (real-time hierarchical optimized distributed effective system) real-time traffic-adaptive control system was followed as it progressed from a laboratory project toward actual field implementation. The traditional software-only simulation environment and extensions to a hardware-in-the-loop simulation are presented in describing the migration of RHODES onto the traffic controller hardware itself. In addition, a new enhancement to the standard software-only simulation that allows remote access is described. The enhancement removes the requirement that both the simulation and the traffic control scheme reside locally. This architecture is capable of supporting any traffic simulation package that satisfies specific input-output data requirements. This remote simulation environment was tested with several different types of networks and was found to perform in the same manner as its local counterpart. Remote simulation has all of the advantages of its local counterpart, such as control and flexibility, with the added benefit of distribution. This remote environment could be used in many different ways and by different groups or individuals, including state or local transportation agencies interested in performing their own evaluations of alternative traffic control systems.

Advanced Traveler Information System Users' Needs in I-95 Northeast Corridor

The I-95 Corridor Coalition, comprising 28 transportation agencies and state and local departments of transportation and supported by a number of federal and quasipublic organizations, has embarked on an aggressive program to study and implement intelligent transportation system services along this priority corridor from Maine to Virginia. A key element to the success of this effort is that the travel information needs and desires of the 1-95 travelers be satisfied. A comprehensive multimodal study was initiated by the 1-95 Corridor Coalition to assess the advanced traveler information system needs of 1-95 corridor users and to determine the market potential for such information. The stakeholders include user groups, providers, and producers. The target groups include local and long-distance (business and recreation) automobile travelers, transit users, intercity air travelers, and intercity rail travelers. The provider groups include state, regional, and local transportation agencies, whereas the produce...

Advanced Traveler Information System Users' Needs in I-95 Northeast Corridor

The I-95 Corridor Coalition, comprising 28 transportation agencies and state and local departments of transportation and supported by a number of federal and quasipublic organizations, has embarked on an aggressive program to study and implement intelligent transportation system services along this priority corridor from Maine to Virginia. A key element to the success of this effort is that the travel information needs and desires of the I-95 travelers be satisfied. A comprehensive multimodal study was initiated by the I-95 Corridor Coalition to assess the advanced traveler information system needs of I-95 corridor users and to determine the market potential for such information. The stakeholders include user groups, providers, and producers. The target groups include local and long-distance (business and recreation) automobile travelers, transit users, intercity air travelers, and intercity rail travelers. The provider groups include state, regional, and local transportation agencies, whereas the producer groups include telecommunications companies, automobile manufacturers, and traveler information service providers. Several survey mechanisms were used to assess the user and provider information needs and will be used to assess the market potential. These include focus groups, telephone surveys, on-site surveys, and individual interviews. Thus far in the study users have ranked roadway safety, personal security, and traffic information high in importance. Users have also indicated a willingness to pay for multimodal traveler information services both for their pretrip planning and while en route.

IVHS ARCHITECTURE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION PROCESS

Intelligent vehicle-highway systems (IVHS) have the potential to manage non-recurring congestion due to incidents and recurring congestion due to capacity shortfall more effectively than current operational systems. IVHS will provide information to the traveler, both in the vehicle and at home, business, and at commercial and recreational facilities, to help in the selection of more optimal travel modes and routes. The collected data can also be used to build a historical base and support required statistical reporting to appropriate agencies. The process of designing and evaluating an architecture that supports IVHS begins by obtaining and understanding requirements. These are usually obtained from the customer (who can be a local, state, or federal transportation agency or a private sector company or individual), or from a combination of customers, users, service providers, and others who are affected in a major way by the architecture. Scenarios, defining the conditions and constraints under which the IVHS architecture operates, are used with models to assess the benefits of candidate solutions for performance and life-cycle cost. Some measures of merit (MoMs), such as “average time to clear an incident” or “average vehicle speed at rush hour,” are selected to provide quantitative measures and comparisons of the benefits from alternative architectures. Others, such as evaluation of institutional, political, and risk issues, are qualitative in nature. MoMs should encompass the entire spectrum of requirements and major characteristics desired of the architecture. Additional factors used to help assess architecture performance and eventual acceptability are the results of demonstration programs that evaluate specific components of an architecture. The approach with the greatest benefit-to-cost ratio that does not conflict with the constraints derived from the qualitative assessment factors is generally selected for implementation.

The utilization of real-time traffic information by the trucking industry

TRANSCOM (Transportation Operations Coordinating Committee) is a coalition of the 14 transportation and traffic enforcement agencies in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. One of TRANSCOM's main responsibilities is to serve as coordinator of real-time traffic information among its member agencies as well as some 30 to 40 other local and county police and transportation agencies. The author discusses how the availability of real-time traffic information could aid the trucking industry by increasing the fleet productivity, improving customer service, improving the environment for their drivers, and reducing their costs, and ultimately affecting their bottom line. An American Trucking Associations (ATA) Foundation demonstration being carried out by TRANSCOM to quantify these improvements is described.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An integer goal programming model for solving the capital allocation problem of metropolitan mass transportation agencies

In order to maintain an efficient public mass transportation system in an urban area large capital expenditures are generally required. However, due to changing attitudes and priorities on the part of local, state and federal governments, funding for such public transportation systems is being curtailed. As such, it is imperative that the funding that local transportation agencies do receive be allocated for capital expenditure items in the most efficient and satisfactory manner possible. In this paper, integer goal programming is demonstrated via a case example as a means for achieving a satisfactory allocation of funds for capital expenditures.

Use of energy analysis for assessing environmental impacts due to transportation

This paper reports on a study to develop an energy analysis applications manual for environmental benefit/cost analysis of transportation actions. The manual is intended for state and local transportation agency analysts. The analysis procedure evaluates environmental impacts in energy terms. With energy as a common denominator of impact costs or benefits, the severities of different kinds of impacts are compared and the aggregate severity of a group of impacts is evaluated. A technique for evaluating the economic effects of environmental impacts is also suggested. The energy analysis procedure is briefly illustrated by means of a case study. The research findings indicate that the energy analysis procedure may supplement traditional methods of environmental impact assessment by providing: (i) comprehensive quantifications of individual kinds of impacts or the aggregate environmental impact of a transportation action: (ii) quantitative comparisons of the significance of different kinds of environmental impacts, even enabling comparison of government-regulated impacts with non-regulated ones and of any one category of impact with the aggregate environmental impact; and (iii) a basis for determining dollar values of environmental impacts.