Reprinted from CTS News; March 5, 2024
—Pam Snopl, CTS senior editor
The fuel tax is the backbone of our roadway funding system, but its ability to generate revenue is under pressure: more vehicles are using less fuel—or no fuel at all. In response, many states are turning to alternative revenue mechanisms to help bridge the funding gap.
Continue reading States Explore Fee Alternatives to Fund Roadway InfrastructureReprinted from CTS News, December 7, 2023
—Sophie Koch, contributing writer
Reliable transportation has a huge impact on quality of life. Many Americans, however, are unable to travel where and when they need to go, and policymakers lack tools to measure the extent of the problem.
Continue reading ‘Transportation Insecurity’: A New Metric to Evaluate Programs and Guide Decision MakingReprinted from CTS News, October 9, 2023
Patterns of movement in cities, especially office job commutes, were substantially altered in 2021 by telework, economic change, and other responses to COVID-19, according to new research from the Accessibility Observatory at the University of Minnesota. While the immediate effects of these behavioral changes, such as reduced congestion and lower transit ridership, have been well documented, new data reveals deeper impacts that differ by the three modes studied: auto, transit, and biking.
Continue reading COVID-19 pandemic substantially changed commuting patterns, job accessThe goods that continuously move through Minnesota by road, rail, air, water, and pipelines drive the state’s economy, making efficient freight transit—and excellent freight infrastructure—a high priority for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT).
Continue reading Researchers Identify Freight Data Sources, Create Guidance to Aid Infrastructure PlanningAn influx of electric trucks is expected on our highways, but where will they charge? Few public stations today can serve large freight vehicles. The challenge? Fast chargers are expensive, and new ones need to be placed strategically to keep pace with growing demand.
Continue reading Model Helps Identify Strategic Sites for Truck Charging StationsReprinted from Catalyst, May 12, 2023.
Eliminating intersection bottlenecks is one of the most persistent and difficult challenges for traffic engineers. A new mathematical theory called “max-pressure signal control” has been proven to achieve maximum throughput for entire city road networks, but it has not yet been used in practice. In a new study, U of M researchers brought the theory several steps closer to real-world use and found that it could offer many benefits to Minnesota road users.
“For most intersections and demand periods, we found that max-pressure control offered significant improvement over current signal timings,” says Michael Levin, an assistant professor with the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering. “Large reductions in delay—sometimes over 50 percent—suggest that this new method of signal timing could achieve higher throughput during peak demand and be more responsive to queues.”
To achieve these findings, researchers began by addressing some aspects of max-pressure signal timing that would make it difficult to implement in a real-world setting. First, researchers addressed its assumption that all roadways had separate turning lanes by adapting the mathematical model to accommodate mixed travel lanes.
Another drawback of the original formula is that the signal control doesn’t operate on a cycle; this could cause long wait times when demand is uneven and make the signal cycle unpredictable for both drivers and pedestrians.
“To solve this issue, we modified the formula to include a maximum waiting time and require that the phase selection follows a cycle,” Levin says. “This allows traffic engineers to create an ordered set of phases for each intersection.”
Once the updated version of max-pressure control was developed, researchers tested it in simulations of two corridors in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The simulations revealed numerous potential benefits including reduced environmental impacts and reduced road user costs resulting from travel time savings and lower fuel costs.
“The findings show that our new max-pressure control formula will reduce the average queue length during peak hours and that vehicles will not wait as long at intersections,” Levin says. “We can also predict higher throughput and faster vehicle speeds, all of which will mitigate congestion and improve quality of life.”
In addition, a cost-benefit analysis shows that the total value of travel time savings is considerably larger than the cost to implement max-pressure control.
The project’s success led researchers to explore the possibility of a real-world pilot project with available traffic signal hardware. They found that the traffic signal technology currently used in Hennepin County could be upgraded to support a pilot study, laying the groundwork for a future real-world test of this promising new signal timing method.
The project was funded by the Minnesota Local Road Research Board (LRRB). Phase two of the work, also funded by the LRRB, is underway.
Writer: Megan Tsai
First published in Catalyst, May 22, 2023.
Transportation agencies revegetate roadsides after construction projects to provide road stability, stormwater filtration, and visual appeal. Revegetation is also a good opportunity to create pollinator-friendly habitat. However, planting and maintaining ditches can be expensive, funds for such projects are usually limited, and there isn’t much data on which methods actually work.
Continue reading Strategies improve pollinator roadside habitat, reduce costsReprinted from Catalyst, May 9, 2023
When a person wants to take a trip across the country, they can choose from a variety of travel planning apps to help make that happen. But what if the trip they want to take is from Mankato to New Ulm, or within their own community, using non-personal transportation?
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has launched a pilot project to bring trip planning and payment technology for daily trips to areas less dense than urban settings.
Residents and visitors in southern and western Minnesota now have the ability to plan for and, in some cases, pay for public transit and intercity bus trips using the Transit app. Travel and route information for these agencies went live within Transit on March 1.
Transit, a free app available for download in Google Play or the Apple App Store, is used in more than 300 cities around the world. It allows users to see route and travel options for public transit and connecting services. Select agencies also have in-app ticketing, allowing riders to pay for fares electronically and then show their device to transit drivers to ride.
“This pilot with the Transit app focuses on rural areas because this technology has not yet been made available outside of Minnesota’s big cities,” says Elliott McFadden, MnDOT’s Greater Minnesota Shared Mobility Program coordinator. “The project will be the first to bring the latest technology to make it easier to plan and take trips in many communities in Greater Minnesota.”
The pilot will run through April 2024 and is funded by two innovation grants from the Federal Transit Administration at a cost of $1.9 million.
U of M researchers led by Alireza Khani will evaluate the project to help determine whether this technology should be scaled to the rest of the state. Focusing on southern Minnesota, the research team will work closely with MnDOT’s project management team and the platform development team to study these questions:
“Our goal is to provide the data and analysis policymakers need to make the most effective transit investments,” says Khani, an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering.
(Adapted from a MnDOT press release, March 1, 2023.)
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m. Central
April 26, 2023
The Future of Mobility series collects the perspectives of top U researchers and other national experts. In 17 articles, the authors scan the horizon and reflect on critical transportation topics. Each article recommends action steps for public officials and policymakers.
Continue reading Future of Mobility: Decarbonized transportation
Crossroads 