RESEARCH Highlights UFTI researchers are working on a wide variety of cutting-edge research topics, funded by private and public entities. Below are examples of on-going research during 2014-2015.
Modeling and Analysis of Advanced Parking Management for Traffic Congestion Mitigation National Science Foundation
PI: Dr. Yafeng Yin, Ph.D., Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering/ESSIE Parking is a growing problem in dense urban areas. To many, finding a parking space in these areas is an unpleasant experience of uncertainty and frustration. Cruising for parking makes traffic on alreadycongested urban streets even worse and leads to significant waste in time and fuel. In transportation, smartphone-based parking management applications have emerged. These applications help drivers find parking spaces by allowing them to use smartphones to view real-time availability and prices of parking spaces and guide them to open parking spaces, reserved or otherwise. This project develops theoretical foundations and methodologies for analyzing these emerging parking management services. Results from this research provide a better understanding of the impacts of advanced parking management services on parking competition and travel patterns. The research develops policies to reduce traffic congestion and emissions in dense urban areas. This project generates a set of analytical tools that explain the underlying working mechanisms of advanced 4 | UFTI Annual Report 2014-2015
parking management services and gauge their potential for reducing traffic congestion.
Improved Analysis of Two-Lane Highway Capacity and Operational Performance NCHRP 17-65
PI: Dr. Scott Washburn, Ph.D., PE, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering/ESSIE Two-lane highways account for a very significant portion of the national highway system and serve an essential function for the movement of people and goods. As urban areas continue to see growth further away from the central cities, two-lane highways in previously less developed areas are experiencing increases in traffic demand. Additionally, as urban area congestion continues to build, shipping companies are more frequently considering less congested twolane highways in their routing decisions. The presence of commercial trucks on two-lane highways poses additional challenges for maintaining acceptable levels of operational performance due to more variance in the geometric design of these facilities and less favorable passing opportunities. Having good and accurate analysis methods for two-lane highways may allow roadway design and traffic engineers to identify ways to make significant improvements to the operational performance of a two-lane highway without resorting to a full multilane configuration. The objectives of this research are to (1) identify appropriate performance measures for operational and capacity analyses of twolane highways and develop models to produce these performance measures in an Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) context, and (2) develop or modify simulationbased analysis method for two-lane highways and offer guidance for when to apply simulation versus HCM
