This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the negative impacts that the proliferation of Transportation Network Companies (“TNCs”) have had on people with disabilities, underserved communities, the environment, social responsibility, and the sharing economy.

According to the EPA, 28% of all 2011 GHGs for the US are from transportation related sources.1 These are the second largest sources of GHGs in the US after electricity. The US is also the second highest CO2 emitter after China.2 These emissions are primarily from burning fossil fuels for transportation usage. While vehicles have become more environmentally friendly with lower emissions, there has still been a steady rise in GHGs from these modes of transportation. The EPA estimates that there has been an increase of 18 percent GHG, which is most likely due to more vehicles on the road.

Due to stochastic traffic conditions and fluctuated demand, transit passengers often suffer from unreliable services. Especially for buses, keeping on-time schedules is challenging as they share the right of way with non-transit traffic. With the advance of real-time interaction between passengers and operators, bus transit can be operated in a more flexible way, thereby resulting in an energy-efficient, eco-friendly, and cost-effective urban transportation mode.

Currently dozens of U.S. cities are in the midst of planning and building modern streetcar systems. Though seemingly mobility investments, the intended impacts of these streetcar projects reach beyond transportation and represent a strong turn toward strategic spatial planning through transportation infrastructure. Proponents of modern streetcars argue that they are tools of place making as much as if not more than improvements for transit services.

The Strategic Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Deployment Plan for New York City was last updated in 2005 by Polytechnic University of New York. The New York City region has invested significant resources on ITS deployment in the past decades. It has involved the deployment of an advanced controller (the ASTC), a wireless communication infrastructure (NYCWiN), detectors, and the overall data management system to process information and to communicate the control settings.

The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive framework with a set of models to improve multi-modal traffic signal control, by incorporating advanced floating sensor data (e.g. GPS data, etc.) and traditional fixed sensor data (e.g. loop detectors, etc.). In order to accomplish this goal, we completed five tasks. First, we conduct a comprehensive survey of transportation professionals, who can bring up existing state-of-practice, open issues and future challenges in multi-modal traffic signal control.

This research work examines the relationships among: (i) Sense of Place (SOP); (ii) non-motorized sustainable travel choices and accessibility; and (iii) adoption and use of information and communication technologies (ICT). A guiding principle in designing the built environment for sustainability and livability is the latent construct of Sense of Place (SOP) which leads visitors to perceive and associate a strong identity or character with a particular location.

New technologies such as global positioning system, smartphone, and social media are changing the way we move around. Traditional transportation research has overwhelmingly emphasized the collection of quantitative data for modeling, without much collection of qualitative data to understand the processes of why and how individuals make their travel choices. We developed a prototype in this project to use realtime GIS and social media (Twitter) to collect, analyze, and display qualitative travel information from individuals. There are two goals in this research project.