This page contains a sample of projects conducted by TRAM group members
Detailed listing of all projects can be found here
Title: Accessibility: A performance measure for land use and transportation planning in the Montréal Metropolitan region
Funding Agency: Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ)
Funding Period: 2008 - 2009
Principal Investigator: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy
Abstract:Transportation systems are designed to help people participate in activities distributed over space and time. Accessibility indicates the collective performance of land use and transportation systems and determines how well that complex system serves its residents. Mapping accessibility over time can be used as a key performance indicator in land use and transportation planning in any region around the World. Also generating estimates of future levels of accessibility is helpful in evaluating land use and transportation plans and investments. In this research project we propose to generate various accessibility measures for the Montreal metropolitan region, with the goal of generating a reliable land use and transportation performance measure to be used in the future by the Ministry of Transport in Quebec and other Canadian agencies. Currently accessibility is gaining a great attention in the transportation planning field as a more comprehensive performance measure compared to mobility, which mainly concentrates on generating measures of congestion and delay. This project will enable measuring the effects of various land use and transportation projects and policies being conducted, or under their way in the Montreal region (for example the Highway 25 project). The research project will utilize the Origin Destination survey to generate accurate distance decay functions and historical ones. Having historical Origin and Destination survey data will enable the generation of accessibility measures over time that will enable the production of prediction models. Accessibility will be mainly measured to jobs and residents. Yet other destinations will be tested as well. The main modes of concentration in this research study are auto and transit. The goal of this project is to highlight accessibility as a measure for land use and transportation performance in the Montreal region and show how it can be used in evaluating various transportation plans and policies. This goal is achievable through the generation of various accessibility measures and organizing workshops and seminars to introduce these measures.
Title: Optimizing bus service in the Montréal region
Funding Agency: Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) and National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) CRD program
Funding Period: 2008 - 2009
Principal Investigator: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy
Abstract: In this research project we investigate in detail two of the elements leading to an increase in service reliability, transit signal priority and modification of route design. This investigation is done through utilization of archived Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) data obtained from STM, the local transit authority in the Montreal region. The study is divided in two sections. The first involves modification in the route design by introducing express bus service along one of the high frequency bus lines in the Montreal region. The archived AVL data is used to generate various scenarios and in selecting the stops to be served by the new express route. This will be followed up by an implementation phase by STM to the output of the research. After implementing the limited service along the studied route another detailed analysis will be introduced to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed methodology and the accuracy of the predictions being made. The second section of the project investigates in detail several methodological approaches for evaluating effectiveness of transit signal priority as a method for increasing service reliability in the overall system.
Title: Hazardous materials transportation in urban areas: Risk assessment and regulation
Funding Agency: Société de Transport de Montréal (STM) and National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) CRD program
Funding Period: 2009 - 2011
Principal Investigator: Vedat Verter
Abstract: Hazardous materials (hazmats), such as gasses, flammables, explosives and radioactive materials are an integral part of our industrial lifestyle. In most cases, the points of production and consumption for these materials are different and hence they need to be transported in significant volumes. For example, oil extracted from oil fields is sent to refineries, which ship their products (such as heating oil and gasoline) to storage tanks at different locations within a country. As another example, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are collected at many industrial installations, such as old power generation and transfer stations and shipped to special waste management facilities for incineration. Accidental release of hazmats during transportation can be harmful to people, property and the environment. Despite deregulation of transportation industry around the globe, governments at federal, provincial and municipal levels remain involved in assessing and mitigating the public and environmental risks of dangerous goods shipments. During the period of this grant, we will focus on developing methodologies for designing policies to regulate the transportation of hazmats in urban centers. The policy tools that are available to a government agency in this domain include restrictions on the use of road segments by hazmat carriers, establishment of inspection stations and emergency response centers, and insurance requirements. Although these policy alternatives have recently attracted some attention in the research community, none of the published work incorporates the distinguishing characteristics of urban areas. Past research on hazmat logistics, including our own, have focused on highway transportation rather than shipments through congested city streets. In an effort to close this important gap, we will develop analytical models that incorporate (i) the existing traffic on the streets and (ii) the dynamic patterns of population distribution within urban centers. In addition, we plan to study alternative strategies regarding the construction of multimodal transport yards, which are becoming increasingly common for dangerous goods shipments. Many of these yards are being built near (or within) urban centers and, given their significant impact on the spatial distribution of transport risk, these fixed facilities will be a significant element of our research program. From a methodology perspective, our basic modeling infrastructure will be electronic maps of major Canadian cities that are now available via geographical information systems (GIS). We will embed the GIS-based representation of traffic flow and population data in a risk assessment model, which in turn will be incorporated in an optimization model to assess alternative policy options. We will work with provincial and city officials to ensure the relevance of the regulatory schemes to be studied.
Title: Accessibilité, comparaison des temps de parcours en transport collectif et en automobile et accès au transport en commun par la marche dans la région métropolitaine de Montréal
Funding Agency: Agence métropolitaine de transport (AMT)
Funding Period: 2009
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (PI)
Abstract: Accessibility measures, comparison of travel times between different transportation modes, and designation of service areas are three important tools to evaluate transportation networks in terms of performance, efficiency, and equity. This report uses those three tools to analyze the transit situation in the Montréal Metropolitan Region, in particular with data from the 2003 AMT origin-destination survey, and with geographic information systems.
Many explanatory maps as well as tables of regression results present the analysis. Conclusions include the fact that the central region of the Island of Montréal enjoys a higher level of accessibility than the regional average thanks to major transit infrastructures, namely the metro and commuter trains. In addition, accessibility by public transit is better in the north-south axis than in the east-west axis. Also, when comparing travel times by public transit and by car, public transit appears to be competitive with the car nearly everywhere when downtown is the trip destination. However, it is necessary to draw attention to the important employment sector of Saint-Laurent, where, even in adjacent zones, the automobile outperforms transit in terms of efficiency. Finally, the analysis of variable service areas according to household, neighbourhood, route, and type of transit characteristics for transit stops and stations yields a more precise evaluation of transit service coverage. It is thus possible to identify gaps or redundancies in the service, and to optimize the location of stops or stations.
Title: Implementation of the Montréal transportation Plan: A study of the impacts on the organization and development of the region (in French: Mise en œuvre du plan de transport de Montréal étude des impacts sur l'aménagement et le développement du territoire) with Raphael Fischler and Nik Luka
Funding Agency: City of Montreal
Funding Period: 2008
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (PI)
Abstract: The 2008 Montréal Transportation Plan aims at reinventing the city through its overarching goal: increasing mobility while making Montréal a good place to live and a prosperous and sustainable economic centre. The plan contains 21 strategic projects, including several initiatives favouring transit and active transportation over auto usage. This research examines the potential impacts of the Transportation Plan on urban development to ascertain how the City of Montréal can maximise positive effects and minimise negative ones, based on the idea that transport and land-use planning must go hand in hand. Transportation decisions should also be concerned with land use and the spatial distribution of destinations, and not only transport modes and the design of routes and lines. Furthermore, the performance of a transportation system cannot be evaluated solely in terms of mobility (travel speed) and must include accessibility (possible destinations). We classify the strategic projects contained in the Transportation Plan into eleven categories and review the research conducted on the experience of other cities worldwide in implementing these types of projects. Three major projects – the airport rail-link to the CBD, the extension of the metro Blue line and of the commuter rail towards the east- are then examined in more detail in order to evaluate their potential to generate real estate development and restructure the urban landscape.
Title: Estimating Running Time and Demand for a Bus Rapid Transit Corridor with John Hourdos
Funding Agency: Hennepin County
Funding Period: 2006 - 2009
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (Co-PI)
Abstract: The goal of this research is to estimate running time and potential passenger demand for a proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor. The proposed BRT service will serve the area around Highway 81 in the Twin Cities region. Since no service exists along the study corridor, except for a small portion (route 14), running time will be estimated based existing transit service running along a similar corridors in the region (Highway 47 where routes 10 and 854 are already in service) and through utilization of probe vehicles running along both corridors. Having probe vehicles running along both corridors will help in introducing a benchmark for comparison between the two corridors. Meanwhile demand will be predicted based on frequency and reliability of service and socio-demographic characteristics of the region around the corridor. Running time and demand models produced from the study can be integrated with other cost benefit software that evaluates the effects of intelligent transportation systems technologies on BRT running time (IBAT). Finally sensitivity analysis will be developed to evaluate different scenarios of changes to service specification that can help improving running time and increasing passenger demand.
Title: Using Archived ITS Data To Improve Transit Performance and Management with Kevin Krizek
Funding Agency: Minnesota Department of Transportation
Funding Period: 2006 - 2007
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (PI)
Abstract:In the past, in order to measure transit performance, it was very difficult and costly to collect the necessary data. From the service planning perspective, a large number of employees were initially needed to obtain a small amount of data. Agencies often had to make strategic decisions regarding the amount of spending for data collection to support internal decision making Many agencies used to direct their funds towards other issues, such as providing more service, rather than data collection. Recently, the implementation of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and especially advanced public transit system (APTS) data collection is no longer an issue. There is a concern relating to how we can meaningfully analyze this data, creating information relevant for service planning and control. Metro Transit the local transit authority in the Twin Cities, Minnesota has recently implemented an APTS, which they have been testing since 1999. Metro Transit utilizes the data obtained from the APTS for live transit operations through its transit management center to identify early and delayed buses and apply some strategic decisions in the field to address such problems. Metro transit also archives this information for future research that can help in improving its operations and planning process. This research proposes to utilize this abundance of archived ITS data to introduce and explore various research methodologies that can help Metro Transit in improving service reliability, schedule adherence, and on time performance. The methodology includes introducing performance measures and indicators that can help the agency improve its performance through better utilization of the available dataset. Visualizations of such abundance of data is part of the methodology to help in easily visualizing and identifying current problems and issues and showing an innovative way in exploring such dataset. In addition statistical analysis are conducted at the bus route level of analysis to display ways of identifying major problems, causes of such problems and ways of solving them.
Title: Access to Destinations: Monitoring land use activity changes in the Twin Cities Metropolitan region with David Levinson
Funding Agency: Minnesota Department of Transportation and Hennepin County
Funding Period: 2006 - 2007
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (Co-PI)
Abstract: Any accessibility measure has two main components. First is land use activity or attraction, while the second is transportation system including network impedance. This research concentrates on changes in land use activity over time in the Twin Cities metropolitan region as a part of the Access to Destinations research program being developed at the Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota. In a typical land use and transportation cycle, any change in land use is expected to lead to changes in the transportation characteristics. Meanwhile the change in transportation infrastructure and/or characteristics is expected to lead to changes in land use and so on. Accordingly it is essential for any accessibility project to have a full understanding of the consequences of changes. This research propose to develop a land use change prediction model that can be integrated with network growth models to help in developing measure of accessibility over time. This model will assist in understanding the consequences of changes in land use activity in the Twin Cities metro region while accounting for changes and effects of the transportation system.
Title: Parcel Level Land Use Data Acquisition & Analysis for Measuring Non-Auto Accessibility with Kevin Krizek
Funding Agency: Minnesota Department of Transportation and Hennepin County
Funding Period: 2006 - 2007
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (Co-PI)
Abstract: There are generally three components to calculating accessibility indices: knowing travel times, knowing the types of activities to which people travel (e.g., land uses), and knowing how much "closer" land uses should be valued over "further away" land uses (e.g., decay functions). All are important; some are more "advanced" for various modes. This research develops a set of geographic information system (GIS) layers (across the entire Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan region) that can reliably represent the types of land use activity to which people travel at the neighborhood and regional levels of analysis. This work integrates various GIS datasets with other secondary data sources to generate the desired GIS layers. Detailed data will be generated to adequately capture the small-scale types of land use that would likely be more influenced by transit, cycling, or especially walking. The core of this project is to obtain (from secondary sources), manage, clean, tailor, and in some cases collect parcel-level land use data for the seven-county metropolitan area. Where parcel-level land uses would not be appropriate or applicable (e.g., for mixed-use parcels), it may be necessary to rely on a higher level of aggregation. The findings of this analysis will be integrated as part of the Access to Destinations study to generate accessibility measures for various destinations in the region using various travel modes.
Title: How Close is Close Enough? Estimating Accurate Distance Decay Functions for Different Purposes and Multiple Modes with Kevin Krizek
Funding Agency: Minnesota Department of Transportation
Funding Period: 2006 - 2007
Member Involved: Ahmed M. El-Geneidy (Co-PI)
Abstract: Existing urban and suburban development patterns and the subsequent automobile dependence are leading to increased traffic congestion and air pollution. In response to the growing ills caused by urban sprawl, there has been an increased interest in creating more "livable" communities in which walking is a attractive mode of transport [2,6]. A key component of livable communities is that they are designed for pedestrians; they allow residents to meet many of their everyday needs by walking. While several reports suggest best practices for the planning pedestrian environments, little research has focused on examining the relationships between actual behavior and aspects of community design. How far will pedestrians travel to access different types of destinations and what is the role of facilities and destinations. To examine these questions, this research uses the 2001 Travel Behavior Inventory (TBI) Home Interview Survey which was completed by the Metropolitan Council and the Minnesota Department of Transportation. For the first time, the TBI survey recorded pedestrian trips to better determine current pedestrian movement patterns [4]. The results indicate that approximately 5% of all trips were on foot. Using the 2000 TBI data—in concert with detailed urban form measures—this project evaluates pedestrian movement patterns, specifically addressing how far Minnesotans in the seven county metropolitan area are willing to walk. A primary outcome of this research is to examine the "one quarter mile assumption" of pedestrian travel and to comment on its applicability for: (a) different types of travel, and (b) applicability in Minnesota. Novel approaches for calculating impedance functions for pedestrian travel will be developed.