* A Simulation Study of the Performance of Collaborative Delivery Robots in Dense Indoor Environments. Jul. 2021-current.
Funding agency: Industry. PI: Matthew Roorda
This project will investigate various operating parameters deemed essential for the safe and efficient deployment of follow-me collaborative delivery robots in indoor environments with high pedestrian density.
* Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Commercial Travel Survey (Project Manager) - CLUE - City Logistics for the Urban Environment (CAD11M). Jul. 2021 - Aug. 2022.
Funding agencies: City of Toronto; Region of York; Region of Peel. PI: Matthew Roorda
- Provide shipment, trip and tour generation data for GTHA. - Provide information describing the behavioral and economic processes that lead to the shipment of goods and services, ultimately resulting in the movement of commercial vehicles. - Be of sufficient scale to provide enough observations for the estimation of a microsimulation model of the urban freight system for a study area within the GTHA. - Provide data that are comparable with an international study on freight generation and other studies.
* City Logistics Pilot Studies - CLUE - City Logistics for the Urban Environment (CAD11M). Jul. 2021-Aug. 2022.
Funding agency: multiple partners. PI: Matthew Roorda
Increased road congestion, lack of suitable parking, inadequate loading facilities noise and vehicle restriction by-laws pose delivery operations challenges in last-mile logistics in the GTHA and increase vehicle emissions. A set of pilot studies demonstrate the feasibility and assess the efficacy of city logistics solutions, including a large-scale, off-peak delivery program, a cargo tricycle pilot, an autonomous vehicle delivery pilot, and an assessment of technology-enhanced curbside loading zones. These projects serve as demonstrations that could enable scale-up across the GTHA and Canada.
COMPLETED-PROJECTS (selected) (Click on the project's title or its picture to access the online report - if available)
Funding agency: Capital Corridor Joint Powers Authority/California Department of Transportation. Funding amount: USD250k.
- Analyzed available data; Assessed current travel demand forecasting tools, other available models, and ability evaluate travel demand patterns of interest for the study for current and future scenarios. - Conducted 26 expert interviews and built rationale to inform the selection of the modeling solutions. - Proposed a list of critical, important, and optional features for developing a new travel demand model that meets goals and objectives of the Link21 program. - Identified the sources of uncertainties that can affect future travel patterns, expected impacts of new technologies, and strategies to cope with these uncertainties and improve travel demand forecasts.
Funding agency: Indiana Department of Transportation. Funding amount: USD164k.
- Investigated the traffic safety performance of the RTL in Indiana based on multiple sources, including official crash reports, official databases, and field studies. Used data fusion techniques to combine Google Maps data and INDOT geodatabase. - Introduced a random effect negative binomial model and log-linear model to estimate the impact of influencing factors on the crash frequency and severity, and we adopted the robustness test to verify the reliability of estimations. - Proposed the compound factors among the RTL geometrics and intersection characteristics to address the endogeneity issues, which is rarely addressed in accident-related research literature. - Developed a case study with the help of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT). - Indicated that RTL crash frequency and severity are mainly influenced by turn radius, traffic control, and other intersection-related factors such as right-turn type and speed limit, channelized type and AADT, and acceleration lane and AADT. The effects of these factors were different among counties and right-turn lane roadway types.
* Hardwood logistics strategies. Identification of current challenges to growth in the industry, domestically and internationally, related to transportation. Aug. 2017 – Jan. 2018.
Funding agency: Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).
- Improvement of the key bottleneck interstates and local roads is needed. - Consider constructing an intermodal terminal within a 50-75 miles radius of Indianapolis. - Increase in weight limits on Indiana roadways should be considered. - An integrated database of structurally deficient bridges and bridge clearances is needed. - Various incentive programs including better salaries should be developed for attracting truck drivers. - Relaxing age restriction policy should be considered. - Commodity flow data of the hardwood industry should be integrated from various sources.
Funding agency: Indiana Department of Transportation. Funding amount: USD240k.
- Developed a model that captures the relationship between time-of-day toll and route choice. - Developed a time-of-day analysis software (the TOD Tolling Analysis Pack) that quickly evaluates the impacts of various time-of-day tolling scenarios. - Enables visualization of traffic flows on roadways for the various tolling scenarios. In addition, the TOD Tolling Analysis Pack displays the most impacted roads under any tolling scenario. - Has the capability to generate intuitive plots of revenue, monetary savings, travel times, speeds, VHT, VMT, and welfare from the results. - Incorporates a TOD Tolling Analysis Pack that can be used to compute the impacts of fixed toll rate scenarios by setting fixed values for all times of day. This information can help policymakers and transportation officials determine which scenario to implement and which roads to give management priority (e.g., capacity expansion).