Research Projects | Transportation Research and Education Center

A Study of Headway Maintenance for Bus Routes: Causes and Effects of "Bus Bunching" in Extensive and Congested Service Areas

Principal Investigator: Miguel Andres Figliozzi

Co-Investigators: Gerardo Lafferriere , Wu-chi Feng

A healthy and efficient public transit system is indispensable to reduce congestion, emissions, energy consumption, and car dependency in urban areas. The objective of this research is to 1) develop methods to evaluate and visualize bus service relia ... Read More

Seismic Hazard Assessment of Oregon Highways

Principal Investigator: Peter Dusicka

Co-Investigator: John Gliebe

This research project developed a seismic risk assessment model along the major truck routes in Oregon. The study had adopted federally developed software tools called Risk for Earthquake Damage to Roadway Systems (REDARS2) and HAZUS-MH. The model wa ... Read More

Exploratory Methods for Truck Re-identification in a Statewide Network Based on Axle Weight and Axle Spacing Data to Enhance Freight Metrics: Phase 2

Principal Investigator: Christopher Monsere

Co-Investigators: Mecit Cetin , Andrew Nichols

Vehicle re-identification methods can be used to anonymously match vehicles crossing two different locations based on vehicle attribute data. This research builds upon a previous study and investigates different methods for solving the re-identificat ... Read More

Tools for Gusset Plate Evaluation

Principal Investigator: Christopher Higgins

Co-Investigators: Peter Dusicka , Michael Scott

The collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota has raised questions regarding the performance and possibly safety of steel truss bridges. The failure investigation indicated that the collapse was due to a design error in the gusset plates ... Read More

Analyzing and Quantifying the Impact of Congestion on LTL Industry Costs and Performance in the Portland Metropolitan Region

Principal Investigator: Miguel Andres Figliozzi

Co-Investigator: Christopher Monsere

Increased congestion during peak morning and afternoon periods in urban areas is increasing logistics costs. In addition, environmental, social, and political pressures to limit the impacts associated with CO2 emissions are mounting rapidly. A key ch ... Read More

Development of a Model to Predict and Mitigate Environmental and Public Health Impacts of Traffic Flows and Traffic Management Policies in Urban Transportation Microenvironments

Principal Investigator: Linda George

Co-Investigators: Christopher Monsere , Miguel Andres Figliozzi

It is well established that vehicles powered by carbon-based fuels (e.g. gasoline, diesel) have a negative impact on air quality, especially in urban centers. Traditionally, air quality conformity studies analyze the macroenvironmental impact of tran ... Read More

Enhancing the Seismic Vulnerability Model for Oregon Highway Bridges

Principal Investigator: Peter Dusicka

The Oregon Department of Transportation and Portland State University evaluated the seismic vulnerability of state highway bridges in western Oregon. The study used a computer program called REDARS2 that simulated the damage to bridges within a trans ... Read More

Calibrating the HSM Predictive Methods for Oregon Highways

Principal Investigator: Karen Dixon

Co-Investigator: Christopher Monsere

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) was published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in the spring of 2010. Volume 2 (Part C) of the HSM includes safety predictive methods which can be used to quantitativel ... Read More

Evaluation of Bike Boxes at Signalized Intersections

Principal Investigator: Jennifer Dill

Co-Investigator: Christopher Monsere

This report presents a before-after study of bike boxes at 10 signalized intersections in Portland, Oregon. The bike boxes, also known as advanced stop lines or advanced stop boxes, were installed to increase visibility of cyclists and reduce conflic ... Read More

Using Archived ITS Data to Measure the Operational Benefits of a System-wide Adaptive Ramp Metering System

Principal Investigator: Robert Bertini

Co-Investigator: Christopher Monsere

A System-Wide Adaptive Ramp Metering (SWARM) system has been implemented in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, replacing the previous pre-timed ramp-metering system that had been in operation since 1981. SWARM has been deployed on six major corr ... Read More

Seismic Damage State Models for Oregon Bridges

Principal Investigator: Peter Dusicka

The U.S. highway transportation network relies on the health and integrity of major infrastructure elements such as bridges. Frequently traveled parts of Oregon are within the seismically active Pacific Northwest, and many of the bridges were designe ... Read More