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Faculty Activities
Wehbe Appointed as Chair of ACI-ASCE Joint Committee 441
Nadim Wehbe, MPC program director at South Dakota State University, accepted the invitation by the Technical Activities Committee (TAC) of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) to chair ACI-ASCE Joint Committee 441: Reinforced Concrete Columns. Wehbe will serve as the committee chair for a two-year term starting in April 2008. The two-year term is renewable twice for a maximum of six years.
Paper Accepted for Publication
"SCOOT and Coordinated Actuated Traffic Control Evaluated through Microsimulation" was recommended for publication in Transportation Research Record, Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Authors are Aleksandar Stevanovic and Peter Martin of the Utah Traffic Lab. The paper has been designated as number 08-1479. The paper presents the construction of a comparison between the best offline tools and Adaptive Signal Control.
MPC is Active at Annual TRB Meeting
Several researchers from the Mountain-Plains Consortium participated in the Transportation Research Board's (TRB) 87th Annual Meeting Jan. 13-17 in Washington, D.C.
The TRB Annual Meeting brings together more than 10,000 policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions for a comprehensive look at all modes of transportation. The meeting offered more than 3,000 presentations in nearly 600 sessions. The TRB is a part of the National Academies of Science.
Colorado State University
MPC faculty member Suren Chen was an author of "Control of Long-Span Bridge and Moving Trucks Under Wind Using Tuned Mass Dampers." The paper outlines research designed to better take into account the dynamic impacts of moving vehicles and wind on long-span bridges. Jun Wu of CSU was also an author.
North Dakota State University
Kimberly Vachal presided over a panel discussion addressing concerns about transportation and energy. Specifically, the panel discussed the implications of bio-energy in transportation and the demand for ethanol. Vachal also chaired a meeting of the Agricultural Transportation Committee. The meeting featured a presentation on the importance of a reliable waterway system to agriculture, and committee members worked through logistics of the Food Aid Workshop, participated in a roundtable discussion, and generated research topics among other items on the agenda.
Jill Hough gave a presentation on exploring travel behavior of elderly women in rural and small urban North Dakota using an ecological modeling approach. Her presentation was part of a panel discussion on the reality of travel behavior implications for an aging population.
Dave Ripplinger facilitated a panel discussion titled "New Approaches to Improving Paratransit Services." Panel topics addressed transit schedules, demand-response and fixed-route transit, agency-dedicated vehicle transportation, and coordinated transportation.
Subhro Mitra presented the paper, "Development of Statewide Freight Transportation Model to Assess Impact of Highway Spring Load Restrictions." The paper details his development of a model to estimate freight transportation cost savings that would be realized by removing spring load restrictions from North Dakota roads.
University of Utah
Ivana Vladisavljevic presented "High-Occupancy-Toll Lane Experiment on I-15 in Salt Lake City Metropolitan Region: Traffic Flow Evaluation." The paper details a two-year experiment that is an assessment of the traffic impacts of expanding the scope of the HOV lanes on the corridor. Additional authors were Peter T. Martin, Dejan Jovanovic, and Aleksandar Stevanovic.
Aleksandar Stevanovic presented "SCOOT and Coordinated Actuated Traffic Control Evaluated Through Microsimulation." This paper presents a construction of a comparison between the best offline tools and adaptive signal control. Peter T. Martin was also an author.
Ivana Vladisavljevic also presented "Drivers' Lane-Changing Behavior While Conversing on Cell Phone in Variable-Density Simulated Highway Environment." This research examined the effect of naturalistic, hands-free, cell phone conversation on driver's lane-changing behavior. Additional authors were Joel M. Cooper, David L. Strayer, and Peter T. Martin.
South Dakota State University
Nadim Wehbe, MPC program director at SDSU presented "Laboratory Evaluation of Self-Consolidating Concrete Mixtures for Highway Structures in South Dakota." The paper details part of a comprehensive study to evaluate the feasibility and performance of self-consolidating concrete (SCC) made with South Dakota local aggregates, and to develop SCC draft specifications, acceptance criteria, mix qualifications, and guidelines that the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) can use for the construction of precast and cast-in-place non-prestressed structural applications. Additional authors are Arden Sigl, Amanda Boushek (former research assistant), and Zachary Gutzmer (research assistant).
Ali Selim presided at a session showcasing the best papers from TRB 9th International Conference on Low-Volume Roads.
Hesham Mahgoub was an author of "Commercial Vehicle Remotely Operated Compliance Stations in Florida." The paper reported on research aimed at design and deployment of the first Florida Remotely Operated Compliance Station (aka Virtual Weigh Station). The paper describes the design and installation of the Sneads ROCSTM in July 2006, and the software for capture and display, which has been developed by the researchers. Additional authors included Amr Oloufa, University of Central Florida, and Sami Spahi, University of Central Florida.
University of Wyoming
Rhonda Young was an author of "Relating Vehicle-Wildlife Crashes to Road Reconstruction." The research focused on determining the effect of road reconstruction on the number of reported wild animal crashes using changes in the animal-vehicle crash rates along those segments of roadway. Christopher Vokurka, Drexel, Barrell & Co., was also an author. Young also moderated a session on innovations in statewide planning.
