An exploration of contemporary issues in highway safety, evolving transportation alternatives, and activity and travel behavior modeling
Several critical issues have emerged in recent years in the fields of highway safety, alternative transportation modes, and activity and travel behavior modeling. Regarding highway safety, there is currently an ongoing methodological debate about the use of data-driven methods (machine learning, etc.), conventional statistics, statistical models that address unobserved heterogeneity, and causality models. The research team will provide an extensive review and assessment of these methodological alternatives and their potential application to highway safety. Next, there have been several recent studies that indicate that driver behavior is changing continuously over time in response changing vehicle technologies, changing behavior and utilization of social media and texting as well as other temporally shifting factors (Mannering, 2018). This has profound implications for highway safety and the development of safety policies and countermeasures. The intent of the safety portion of this study is to explore the temporal instability of driver behavior from various perspectives including the possible temporally shifting effects of aggressive driving and cellphone usage, two elements of driver behavior that are believed to be highly unstable over time. Statistical evidence of possible changes in the effects of these elements over time can help guide public policy and effect mitigation. The study will also consider the effect of emerging transportation alternatives with regard to the following four options: 1) the market potential for shared autonomous vehicles, 2) the use of bike sharing as a potential auto-trip substitute, 3) the potential for peer-to-peer carsharing, 4) the role that socio-demographics and health-related factors play in ride sourcing behavior, and 5) the potential of subsidizing free electric vehicle charging infrastructure for household vehicle ownership. The first three of these options are part of the growing "sharing" economy concept, where limited resources are used more efficiently by sharing. While this seems to go against the grain of what has become standard American consumer behavior, there is evidence among the young that sharing may have potential to mitigate the adverse environmental effects of traditional transportation modes. Third sharing option, the renting of personal vehicles for monetary compensation (peer-to-peer car sharing) has become increasingly popular in the U.S., but yet surprisingly little is known about the attitudes, perceptions and decision process through which individuals decide to offer their car for rent in such peer-to-peer carsharing. The fourth option seeks to understand the recent growth in the popularity of mobility-on-demand (ride sourcing such as Uber and Lyft) which has already substantially disrupted the transportation market by providing a variety of new transportation options. The fifth options seeks to understand establish an early estimate of the value of free charging in the United States to aid in understanding potential for accelerating electric vehicle adoption in the United States.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Completed
- Funding: $291,742
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Contract Numbers:
69A3551747116
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks (TOMNET)
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ United States 85287 -
Performing Organizations:
University of South Florida, Tampa
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
4202 E. Flowler Avenue, ENB 118
Tampa, FL United States 33620-5350 -
Principal Investigators:
Maness, Michael
Mannering, Fred
- Start Date: 20191001
- Expected Completion Date: 20211001
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Aggression; Autonomous vehicles; Bicycles; Cellular telephones; Demographics; Drivers; Electric vehicle charging; Highway safety; Mode choice; Ridesourcing; Subsidies; Travel behavior; Vehicle sharing
- Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01754995
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks (TOMNET)
- Contract Numbers: 69A3551747116
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Oct 20 2020 7:50PM