Application of Data-Driven Safety Analysis to Support Port Authority Investment Decisions for Converting Conventional Toll Plazas to Open-Road Tolling

Author(s):  
Frank Gross ◽  
Scott Himes ◽  
Rizwan Baig ◽  
Benjamin Szeto

Capital improvement projects have the potential to enhance safety, mobility, and environmental quality, but these projects can include considerable costs. When making investment decisions, it is important for agencies to understand the costs in relation to the potential benefits. For several years, transportation agencies have analyzed and quantified the operational and environmental impacts of proposed projects. More recently, the first edition of the Highway Safety Manual and related resources have provided agencies with the tools needed to quantify the safety impacts of proposed projects. This paper describes the use of data-driven safety analysis methods by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to quantify the direct and indirect safety benefits of the proposed conversion of conventional toll plazas to open-road tolling. The analysis estimated the direct safety benefits (i.e., change in the number of crashes) and indirect safety benefits (i.e., change in travel time, fuel costs, and emissions resulting from crashes). These changes were converted to dollars, providing an estimate of the present value benefits based on the expected service life of the enhanced toll systems. The analysis indicated the conversions could reduce crashes by more than 900 annually, including the prevention of nearly 30 injury crashes annually. Indirect safety benefits included more than 200,000 h in reduced travel time, 335,000 gal of fuel saved, and nearly 3,000 metric tons of CO2 reduced annually. Over the 15-year life cycle, this would provide an estimated benefit of more than $200 million from crashes directly and $367 million in indirect benefits.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1310
Author(s):  
Pablo Torres ◽  
Soledad Le Clainche ◽  
Ricardo Vinuesa

Understanding the flow in urban environments is an increasingly relevant problem due to its significant impact on air quality and thermal effects in cities worldwide. In this review we provide an overview of efforts based on experiments and simulations to gain insight into this complex physical phenomenon. We highlight the relevance of coherent structures in urban flows, which are responsible for the pollutant-dispersion and thermal fields in the city. We also suggest a more widespread use of data-driven methods to characterize flow structures as a way to further understand the dynamics of urban flows, with the aim of tackling the important sustainability challenges associated with them. Artificial intelligence and urban flows should be combined into a new research line, where classical data-driven tools and machine-learning algorithms can shed light on the physical mechanisms associated with urban pollution.


2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-Ping Liu ◽  
Gin-Shuh Liang ◽  
Yuhling Su ◽  
Ching-Wu Chu

Many researchers have studied vessel systems to enhance navigation safety at sea, or analysed the statistics of marine casualties of different flagged vessels as well as the fatalities and injuries in ferry accidents. However, little research has been devoted to port safety and especially navigation safety within Taiwanese territorial waters where over a 10-year period there have been 3428 marine accidents with 548 deaths and 524 vessels sunk. In this paper, we use the Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) to analyse the marine accident records of each of Taiwan's commercial ports from 1992–2003. Then, after interviewing the port authority managers and marine specialists, we discover the concerns felt by these professionals about Taiwanese commercial ports. We provide suggestions to strengthen port navigation safety.


Author(s):  
Alec Christian ◽  
Shang Jia ◽  
Patricia Zhang ◽  
Arismel Tena Meza ◽  
Matthew S. Sigman ◽  
...  

We report a data-driven, physical organic approach to the development of new methionine-selective bioconjugation reagents with tunable adduct stabilities. Statistical modeling of structural features described by intrinsic physical organic parameters was applied to the development of a predictive model and to gain insight into features driving stability of adducts formed from the chemoselective coupling of oxaziridine and methionine thioether partners through Redox Activated Chemical Tagging (ReACT). From these analyses, a correlation between sulfimide stabilities and sulfimide  (C=O) stretching frequencies was revealed. We ex-ploited the rational gains in adduct stability exposed by this analysis to achieve the design and synthesis of a bis-oxaziridine reagent for peptide stapling. Indeed, we observed that a macrocyclic peptide formed by ReACT stapling at methionine exhibited improved uptake into live cells compared to an unstapled congener, highlighting the potential utility of this unique chemical tool for thioether modification. This work provides a template for the broader use of data-driven approaches to bioconjugation chemistry and other chemical biology applications.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document