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Detailed, accurate data about pedestrian spaces, travel environments, and travel services are crucial for trip planners, trip concierges, wayfinding applications, and exploratory mobile applications—particularly those that serve the needs of people with disabilities, older adults, veterans, and suburban and rural populations. This project will develop a national pipeline of sidewalk data intended to help all people navigate more easily. The project will also help extend the national data standards for on-demand transit services (GTFS-Flex), which are used extensively by people with disabilities, and for the mapping of multi-level transit stations (GTFS-Pathways). The project will demonstrate the use of those data and standards in three applications: a multi-modal, accessible travel planner (an extension of Access Map), an expansion of Microsoft’s Soundscape application, which helps blind and low-vision people navigate the environment, and a simulation tool to be built by Unity Technologies that allows travelers to navigate transit stations. The project will be deployed in six counties: two each in Maryland, Oregon, and Washington state.  This first year of the project will consist of finalizing the detailed plans required to build the necessary data infrastructure and to develop or improve the software needed for the mobility applications. In years 2 and 3, the researchers will generate the necessary data, extend the data standards, and build/extend the applications. Field tests will be conducted in years 4 and 5. This contribution to a “new mobility ecosystem” will allow more people to access more destinations with transit than ever before.

Transportation Data Equity Initiative website

Principal Investigators:
Anat Caspi, Computer Science and Engineering, UW
Mark E. Hallenbeck, Washington State Transportation Center, UW

Sponsor: USDOT

Team members:
Cambridge Systematics
City of Bellevue
Studio Pacifica
Unity Technologies

Participating organizations:
Washington State Department of Transportation
Oregon Department of Transportation
Maryland Department of Transportation
Several corporate partners will also contribute data to the data pipelines

Year 1 scheduled completion: January 2022

Continued growth in plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) registrations in Washington state will require continued growth in EV charging infrastructure. Washington is anticipating considerable investment in direct current fast charging (DCFC) stations over the next several years. Given that funding is finite and DCFC stations are expensive, public investments must be made where they can generate the biggest impact on EV adoption and travel. To help WSDOT determine where it should invest in highway corridor DC fast charging, researchers developed a decision support system (ChargEVal) in which planners can specify the locations and characteristics of charging stations along Washington’s highway network (such as number of plugs and charging power). The system then calculates key performance indicators for the resulting charging network. ChargEVal can be used for any geography, small or big, and will be released as an open-source system, so various public and private agencies can benefit from its use. This project will make ChargEVal available to WSDOT staff and contractors as a Web tool to support analysis of potential additions to the charging network.

Principal Investigator: Don MacKenzie, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor:  Tonia Buell
WSDOT Project Manager: Doug Brodin
Scheduled completion: June 2021

This project will identify potential changes to WSDOT’s design processes that will more effectively support agency staff in making performance-based decisions about the design and installation of multimodal improvements. For this study, the concept of multimodal will include active transportation (pedestrians, bicycles), freight, and transit, as well as single occupancy vehicles. Looking at previous projects, the researchers will systematically evaluate the extent to which project engineers have been able to define project goals that encompass multimodal transportation objectives. They will then evaluate the extent to which projects with multimodal objectives have employed performance indicators in the project justification; whether multimodal features have been incorporated into the projects considered; and whether, how, and what kind of performance measures have played a role in design decisions. On the basis of this information and a literature review of best practices, the researchers will develop updated or new guidance for WSDOT planners and designers on increasing the use of multimodal performance indicators in their decision-making processes.

Principal Investigator: Don MacKenzie, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Pamela Vasudeva
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled completion: March 2022

Primary goals of Sound Transit, King County Metro, and their Puget Sound partner agencies are to plan, implement, and operate an integrated, cost-effective, socially responsible, multimodal transportation system. Previous research has demonstrated that processed data from regional ORCA transit fare cards provide considerable insight into current and historical use of the transit system. To help the public transportation services agencies meet their goals, those ORCA data need to be made readily available. For that reason, this project is building a pilot version of a business intelligence system that will provide multi-agency access to ORCA transaction data on a routine, continuing basis. The project will develop an initial level of analytical capability that will be expandable and adaptable. It will also create an annual update process that relies on extraction of ORCA transaction data from the ORCA Data Warehouse and vehicle location records from transit operators. The system will include an effective user interface and reporting capability as well as required data access protocols and privacy controls.

Principal Investigator: Mark E. Hallenbeck, Washington State Transportation Center, UW

Sponsors:
Sound Transit
King County Metro
Mobility Innovations Center, UW
Amazon
Microsoft
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Challenge Seattle

Sound Transit Technical Monitor: Brian Brooke
Scheduled completion: February 2021

West Seattle is on a peninsula, separated from downtown Seattle by the Duwamish Waterway. In March 2020 the West Seattle High Bridge (WSHB), the main bridge connecting West Seattle with the rest of the city, was closed to traffic because of structural deterioration, and it will remain closed indefinitely. A second, smaller bridge was also restricted, prioritized for heavy freight, public transit, and emergency vehicles. The unexpected closure of the WSHB disrupted passenger and freight mobility to/from West Seattle, increasing travel times and generating bottlenecks on the remaining bridges. This has negatively affected the livability of the peninsula, as well as its economy and the environment. The situation could further deteriorate as traffic demand to/from West Seattle increases again during recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is monitoring changes in travel behavior to/from West Seattle, and it has engaged the UW Supply Chain Transportation and Logistics Center to conduct exploratory research. This study will support SDOT in understanding current freight movements and freight demand in West Seattle; develop a data-driven strategy to mitigate travel delay and minimize the disruption of the delivery of goods and services to West Seattle; and theoretically assess the effectiveness of an implemented strategy.

Principal Investigator: Anne V. Goodchild, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UW
Sponsor: Seattle Department of Transportation
Scheduled completion: March 2022

Expansion joints are connections in bridges that allow the structure to expand and contract with changing conditions such as temperature, lake level, wind/wave conditions, and traffic loads. These expansions and contractions prevent the bridge from becoming overstressed and being damaged. Modular expansion joints are typically used when six inches or more of expansion/contraction are required at a joint. More than 50 WSDOT bridges statewide have modular expansion joints, including the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (SR 520), which has sixteen center beam expansion joints on the east and west ends. The noise created when vehicles drive over modular expansion joints is a nuisance to nearby residents, and WSDOT receives numerous noise complaints associated with modular bridge expansion joints throughout the state. This study aims to develop a noise mitigation method that reduces environmental noise levels. Phase 1 of this study examined the noise generation mechanism and its radiation from expansion joints. This phase 2 study will develop ways to mitigate the noise, as no commercially available noise abatement exists that is cost effective, safe, and durable. The project will include both laboratory and field studies of potential sound mitigation systems to determine their effectiveness, viability, durability, and safety. The results will be applicable to all existing and future bridges with these types of expansion joints and will help improve the quality of life for residents living near these bridges.

Principal Investigators:
Per Reinhall, Mechanical Engineering, UW
Jeff Lipton, Mechanical Engineering, UW

Sponsor: WSDOT
WSDOT Technical Monitor: Mark Gaines
WSDOT Project Manager: Jon Peterson
Scheduled completion: December 2022

Many highway maintenance districts would like to add pre-wetting to their toolbox of winter maintenance operations or improve their current practices.  Pre-wetting refers to the application of liquid products, such as brines, to solid de-icing material (such as salt, abrasives, or a combination) at the maintenance truck just before the de-icing material hits the road. Pre-wetting, in combination with optimal vehicle speeds, reduces the bounce and scatter that causes dry material to disperse beyond its desired location. Pre-wetting can also help activate the ice melting, penetration, and undercutting mechanisms that help break up snowpack for subsequent mechanical removal. The goal of this research is to compile a summary of pre-wetting practices—including equipment, materials, methods, and application rates—and to identify the history of successes and failures that have contributed to current practices. To achieve this goal, this research will gather existing information in the published domain, conduct practitioner surveys and interviews, reach out to manufacturers, and analyze and synthesize the information, with a focus on the most effective materials, equipment, and methods for pre-wetting based on current knowledge.

Principal Investigator: Xianming Shi, Civil and Environmental Engineering, WSU

Sponsors:
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Clear Roads Pooled Fund

Scheduled completion: June 2021