Seminars

The METRANS seminars feature timely and important transportation-related research. These monthly seminars take place at the University of Southern California's Lewis Hall, and are broadcast live for viewing at CSU Long Beach and also recorded online. For additional information on seminars, call METRANS at (213) 821-1025 or email Brett MacNaughton.

Abstract: Infrastructure policy in the United States appears to be at an impasse. On the one hand, most experts agree that we need to invest more in highways and other forms of infrastructure. On the other hand, the public has been reluctant to increase gas taxes, tolls or otherwise increase infrastructure funding. Some have argued that private provision of highways can help break the impasse by tapping private financing or providing the political cover to raise tolls or taxes. But these are not very compelling reasons to have private highways. The more compelling reason is if the private operation can reduce real costs or provide a better quality of service.

Abstract: It’s a simple bungalow built around 1920. A nicely formed one-story square with a pediment marking the door, one window on each side. The house was small, but entirely sufficient for the wealthy Fissel family who used it as a rental unit. The clapboard has since been resided and the front door isn’t original. But the families and the students who lived there probably didn’t mind much: a 3 block walk to the downtown or to the university was ideal.

Housing and transportation form the backbone of our communities. Our housing, in both form and function, serves as a way of identifying who we are and what we care about. Transportation allows us to access jobs, social networks, and recreation. But what happens when consumption of these goods exceeds sustainable levels, when we have to rethink both the form and function of not just our homes, but also our communities. Can we change? What are the magnitudes of the change that we have to consider? How do we prioritize competing interests?

In this talk, we’ll explore how local planning processes for the Fissel house retrofit, as envisioned by Maria (a local architect who thinks everyone will embrace an elegant and environmentally sustainable modern design), may have big implications for our ability to address climate change.

Abstract: The operational strategies designed to improve traffic conditions on congested travel corridors (freeways and surrounding arterials) are demand management, which focuses on reducing excessive demand; incident management, which targets resources to alleviate accident hot spots; traveler information, which potentially reduces traveler buffer time; traffic control, which implements aggressive ramp metering at locations where significant reductions in congestion are likely to occur.

Aurora Road Network Modeler is a tool set that provides quick quantitative assessment of operational strategies. It is based on the Aurora object-oriented framework, designed to model flows in networks. Its basic objects, nodes and links, allow the user to construct heterogeneous road networks. Various event classes make it possible to generate
simulation scenarios. The monitor objects can keep track of the state at selected nodes and links, coordinate control actions at nodes, or generate events at nodes or links when the monitored states reach certain thresholds. Aurora RNM uses macroscopic Cell Transmission Model that represents traffic as a compressible fluid in terms of flow, density and speed.

The talk will present Aurora RNM and show how it can be used in corridor management.

Aurora RNM website: http://code.google.com/p/aurorarnm

Abstract: On Monday, the Obama administration responded to repeated calls from California’s governor and the head of its Air Resources Board to allow the state a waiver to enforce its greenhouse gas emissions controls, sparking off a controversy. This discussion will provide an overview of the policy tools available to the state of California and the Obama Administration as it tries to lower the emissions from the US transport sector. Quite a bit of research has gone into trying to figure what’s ‘fair’. This talk will provide an overview of what this research has found, and what it has overlooked.

Abstract: Inland-ports have been mentioned as key elements of logistic hubs for integration into a more efficient regional intermodal goods movement system. This presentation introduces several existing inland port developments in different US urban networks. We then identify and analyze site location methods for inland ports in five counties surrounding the Los Angeles County, and their potential for integration into a regional intermodal goods movement system served by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The analysis includes a single facility location model to define the location of a theoretical inland port to minimize the total truck-miles traveled. Then, we extended this model to a series of location-allocation models with up to six inland port locations included. A significant truck VMT reduction is achieved with this new concept, which follows the notion of a “satellite inland port” system. Congestion and air pollution could potentially be reduced in proportion to the VMT reductions. Implementation challenges and future research needs will be discussed.

Abstract: Dams, levels and bridges are major infrastructures that are critical to the existence and functioning of metropolitan areas. These are typically large projects that involve government and local communities as well as the designers and builders. This seminar will present case studies of several major projects, focusing on their planning, design, construction and outcomes. The case studies will illustrate the challenges of large projects and the role of politics. The seminar will close with a discussion of current infrastructure problems, including the lack of public will to address preventable infrastructure failures.