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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <title>SPR-4162: Incorporating Economic Resilience into INDOT's Transportation Decision-making</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1467480</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The objectives of this project are to develop a resilience index to better inform stakeholders of the comparative economic resilience of regions in Indiana with respect to planning the implementation of potential transportation projects and develop a spreadsheet tool for INDOT's Asset Planning & Management Division for assessing regional economic resilience and vulnerability.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 18 May 2017 16:44:22 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1467480</guid>
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      <title>Towards Inferring Welfare Changes from Changes in Curbside Parking Occupancy Rates: A Theoretical Analysis Motivated by SFpark and LA Express Park</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441934</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The structural model has three components. The first relates welfare to the mean number of curbside parking spaces searched, for multiple cruising-for-parking strategies. Using traffic microsimulation on an idealized network, the second relates the mean number of curbside parking spaces searched to the occupancy rate, again for multiple cruising strategies. The third aims to statistically infer cruising strategy by comparing how local meter rate changes affect global occupancy rates in the data versus from simulations for different cruising strategies.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:57:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441934</guid>
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      <title>Accessibility and Economic Development: How the Transportation Network Affects the Economic Performance of Regions</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441881</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This Task was performed to “measure how congestion affects economic performance over space in metropolitan areas.”  The research focused on two industries, the entertainment industry and the information technology industry in the Los Angeles area and Bay Area to determine how congestion affects their own and the regional economic performance.  The principal investigator gave a final presentation on the project at California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Headquarters on 03/16/2016.  The presentation was advertised as a Webinar titled “Congested Development?  Rethinking the Causes and Consequences of Metropolitan Traffic Delays.” The 2-hour Webinar was broadcast to all of Caltrans HQ divisions and districts.  A copy of the presentation can be found at the link below.  http://ucconnect.berkeley.edu/workforce-development/ucconnect-transportation-planning-workshops/congested-development-rethinking  Research findings and project deliverables are described in the final report.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2017 10:55:36 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1441881</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Understanding the Relationship between Aviation Economics and the Broader Economy</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1363290</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Project 31 analyzed the effects of a potential introduction of a cap-and-trade policy in the aviation industry. Analyses were conducted through the joint application of the Aviation Environmental Portfolio Management Tool, in particular the APMT Economics module, and a global model of economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model. Where the EPPA model's outputs provide information on the world economy, changes of greenhouse gas emissions and the expected cost of carbon, APMT Economics focused on the airline industry, and provided outputs such as operating costs of airlines, demand, or airline fleets. While the project focused initially on the implications of a cap-and-trade policy, the tools enabled the study of a variety of other mitigation options -- for example, the extent to which mandates for renewable fuels in one sector can influence price and availability in other sectors, or the relative economic efficiency of sector-based regulations and standards versus broader economy-wide measures.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2015 01:01:04 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1363290</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Elements and Ramifications of Varying Financing Scenarios on the Overall Cost of Transportation Capital Programs</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1359747</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project explores the economic forces that are in play in transportation capital programs. The goal is to inform decision makers so that they can better determine the most efficient means of increasing funding for transportation capital programs without unduly affecting costs. Two factors have been widely discussed in the transportation sector over the last year. First, as we delay maintenance due to limited resources, the unit cost of fixing our infrastructure increases rapidly. That is, delayed maintenance leads to more costly repairs. Second, based on asset management principles, the costs to maintain our infrastructure at the desired level now exceeds our revenue sources for transportation. This project aims to develop a model to show the optimal rate of increase in transportation expenditures over time to most efficiently and cost effectively meet the infrastructure needs. The underlying assumption is that a tripling of the capital program in one year will not result in a tripling of the projects delivered and will, in fact, negatively affect project cost.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2015 01:01:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1359747</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Why TNCs Will Be Regulated Like Taxis–Historically Speaking</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1350301</link>
      <description><![CDATA[With the advent of transportation network companies, or TNCs, as they are labeled by the state of California, there has been considerable discussion, legislative action, and lawsuits regarding their attempts to operate without being subject to local taxi, sedan, limousine, or private-for-hire regulations. Indeed, across almost every continent, Uber has attempted to simply disregard local city and airport rules and regulations established for all commercial ground passenger transportation carriers. Uber argues that it is not a transportation company but rather a technology company, and so by definition it is not subject to commercial vehicle regulations. As a result, fierce and expensive legal and legislative battles have been bitterly fought. However, these legal proceedings rarely address just why there are regulations for commercial vehicles and their drivers.

It is therefore incumbent upon public officials to learn from this phenomenon and design a taxi system that provides drivers a fair income opportunity and maximum utilization from vehicles, to offer and maintain a high level of service at reasonable rates to residents and visitors alike. A best guess is that the industry will experience a form of hybrid taxi/TNC type transportation firm that offers both services in competition with national TNC brands for a while, but that ultimately there will be re-regulation and TNCs will be included within the local regulatory framework. There may be an opportunity for statewide or even national taxi/TNC regulations, but as in the past, drivers will be vetted, entry will be restricted, and public safety in the form of commercial liability insurance for all drivers will be standard requirements.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 14 Apr 2015 01:00:35 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1350301</guid>
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      <title>Research for the AASHTO Standing Committee on Planning</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1346856</link>
      <description><![CDATA[State departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have increased responsibilities regarding their stewardship for planning, programming, and integrating transportation systems. The demands for technical and policy tools to support their planning and decision making have increased as well. This has resulted in a need for accelerating the development of new technical tools, methods, and procedures designed to accurately assess the implications and impacts of a variety of transportation options. Often these improvements are required in a relatively short time frame in response to the expanding scope and coverage of state and metropolitan transportation plans and programs, changes in regulatory requirements, or changes required as a result of legal challenges. It is expected that these requirements will continue after reauthorization of any new surface transportation legislation, and new requirements related to performance-based planning, climate change, sustainability, and livability are anticipated. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official's (AASHTO's) member departments and its Standing Committee on Planning (SCOP) will continue to need a quick-response research and development capability to address near-term improvements in statewide and metropolitan transportation planning and project development processes. The AASHTO Standing Committee on Research established National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 8-36 in 1999 and has allocated funds on an annual basis to support quick-response research for the SCOP. NCHRP Project 8-36 was funded at $500,000 annually for the first 3 years and at $600,000 annually for subsequent years. Task-order contracts were established with multiple research agencies to carry out most of this research. For each task, the amount allocated and an estimated time frame were determined by the NCHRP 8-36 panel based on funding available for NCHRP Project 8-36. Individual tasks typically are in the range of $100,000 to $125,000 and between 6 and 12 months in duration. A request for qualifications was used to select three contractors to compete for individual studies selected annually over the next 3 years (renewable for 3 additional years) in four primary research subject areas: (1) transportation planning, programming, and project development (including methods, models, data, and analytic tools to support metropolitan and statewide practitioners); (2) economics, finance, performance-based planning, and institutional issues related to transportation; (3) operations and safety; and (4) livability, sustainability, climate change, and environmental factors that affect planning. For the individual tasks selected by the NCHRP Project 8-36 panel and approved by SCOP, the selected task-order contractors will be asked to propose a short research plan, a staffing plan, and a budget to carry out each study. These proposals will be evaluated to determine which team will be awarded the study under its task-order contract.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 19 Mar 2015 01:00:22 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1346856</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>The Economics of Speed - Assessing the Performance of High Speed Rail in Intermodal Transportation</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1231940</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The purpose of the proposed research is to understand how the operating speed of a high-speed system influences its performance within the context of the inter-modal transportation system. It aims to clarify how performance enhancement resulting from a marginal increase in line-haul speed varies depending on the structure of the intermodal network. The research focuses initially on the supply side with the specification and estimation of rail cost functions in which speed is included explicitly. These can then be integrated into origin-destination performance measures at the intermodal level. Additional work can follow to look at the demand side. There are many fairly good models of demand that relate performance to market share and other related indicators, although speed is often embedded in these models and is not easily parsed out as a decision variable. But there is a real dearth of cost models, especially ones where speed is an explicit exogenous variable. This research aims to fill this gap. It will add to current University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) funded work on intermodal measures of performance by integrating speed into the performance assessment of intermodal systems. The ultimate purpose is to inform policy regarding the choice of technology and configuration for high-speed rail systems.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:28:58 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1231940</guid>
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