Sustainable Transportation and Transit Workforce Development Strategies: Education and Technology Transfer (Prototyping and Testing Phase)

Improving the development of sustainable transportation and public transit systems requires a well-trained and well-staffed workforce who is skilled in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and data science and has a deep understanding of pressing societal issues like climate change and social equity. To support workforce development in sustainable transportation and public transit, there must be continued efforts to recruit, retain, and educate current and future workers in these fields. These efforts should target both students at various levels and transportation professionals who are working in related domains. This three-year effort proposes a comprehensive approach to enhance the workforce development in sustainable transportation and public transit. By focusing on education and technology transfer, we aim to equip transportation professionals with the skills needed to address emerging challenges such as climate change and social equity. The three-year effort consists of three inter-connected thrusts: 1. Leveraging research findings from CETOC to refine the public transit curriculum at partnering institutions; 2. Organizing a “leadership in sustainable transportation and public transit” lecture series, including both in-person seminars and online webinars; and 3. Developing a platform that tracks and monitors the operational performance and service reliability of selected transit systems (e.g., Gainesville Regional Transit System), which can facilitate the implementation of CETOC research to inform public transit planning and operational decisions. Through a phased approach involving planning, prototyping and testing, and evaluation and refinement, the research team proposes to accomplish this three-year effort by initiating the prototyping and testing phase based on the results and findings from the planning phase. This year’s project includes four key tasks,1) public transit curriculum development and publication, 2) lecture series organization, 3) prototyping of the real-time transit management platform and seeking feedback from local stakeholders, and 4) support for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Florida (UF) to present CETOC research in the 2025 TRB Annual Meeting. These tasks seek to provide training, resources, and opportunities for the transportation workforce while also offering practical tools and technologies for public transit planning, operations, and decision-making. Overall, this project represents a targeted effort to promote workforce development and advance the sustainability and efficiency of next-generation public transit systems in the U.S. Outputs will include 1) Public transit curriculum and course material publication on CETOC website 2) Recordings of the lecture series (to be shared on CETOC YouTube Channel) 3) A prototype of the real-time transit management platform by using Gainesville Regional Transit System as a case study 4) A white paper and tutorial for the real-time transit management platform 5) Multiple TRB presentations and publications led by UF students 6) Quarterly reports and a final report.

• Record URL:
  https://www.uno.edu/cetoc/
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Funding: $70,000 USDOT + $35,000 Matching = $105,000 Total

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $105000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348337

• 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 Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities (CETOC)

  University of New Orleans
  New Orleans, LA  United States 
• Project Managers:

  Kline, Robin

  Danton, Bob

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Florida

  207 Grinter Hall
  PO Box 115500
  Gainesville, Florida  United States  32611
• Principal Investigators:

  Zhao, Xilei

  Yan, Xiang

• Start Date: 20241001
• Expected Completion Date: 20250930
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Artificial intelligence; Education; Planning; Public transit; Workforce development
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Education and Training; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01928840
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities (CETOC)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348337
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 26 2024 3:02PM