Project Description

Global warming and climate change are reshaping our world in many ways. One of their most obvious evidences is sea level rise due to melting of polar glaciers and arctic ice. It is estimated that global sea level rise is at an alarming rate of 0.18cm/yr during 1961-2003, it is even higher at 0.3cm/yr during 1993-2003, and research estimates that sea level could range from 0.8 to 2 m by 2100 under glaciological conditions.

New York City’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability issued an updated version of PlaNYC, the city’s comprehensive long range plan to improve the environment and quality of life for future New Yorkers, in April 2011. Among many goals stated in the plan, the city aims to divert 75 percent of solid waste from landfills by 2030.1 A primary initiative identified to achieve this goal is to increase material reuse in the city.

The goal of this study is to identify transportation planning strategies that will lead to envisioned smart growth patterns. In pursuit of this goal, the study aims at achieving two objectives: (1) understand the dynamic working process of planning strategies and (2) design efficient transportation policies and investment plans that will result in optimal agglomeration patterns. Most urban areas today are either experiencing notable deagglomeration or agglomeration.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) annually present official figures of the number of natural disasters and their impacts. Statistics from recent years show that the number of disasters has been increasing significantly. These events, and their devastating consequences, have highlighted the need for an efficient and responsive humanitarian supply chain that relieves the adverse impacts of disasters.

It has been observed from recent studies that vehicular impacts to highway bridges are the 3rd leading cause of collapse of highway bridges. Recent data from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and other studies show that the bridge overload and lateral impact from trucks, ships and train constitute 20% of the total bridge failures. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that annually 1000 buses or trucks (10,000 pounds gross weight or greater) collide with bridge structures.

The location of Variable Message Signs (VMS) has not been adequately addressed by the research community yet it is a standard practice among state and local transportation agencies. The past few years have witnessed a new trend - mainly in Asian countries (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore) – in the use of VMSs to provide traffic flow information in full/partial LED displays.

The Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) has had a delay-based level of service methodology for signalized intersections since 1985. The upcoming edition of the HCM (2010) will revise that method. This is happening concurrent with such jurisdictions as NYC reviewing the use of the HCM method in their environmental impact regulations (e.g. CEQR process), and concurrent with a dialog in the profession on when it is appropriate to use simulation models in lieu of HCM methods.

Research of urban parking policies has tended to center on the impact of policy interventions in central business districts and commercial areas, overlooking parking policies that affect a resident’s home, where most journeys begin. In particular, research has overlooked the relationships between residential parking policies, development and travel behavior. This research proposes to study the impact of residential parking policies, and explores developer behavior with respect to parking requirements and residence-based auto ownership and travel behavior in New York City.