Multimodal Transportation Planning Tool for Rural Areas in Georgia

Author(s):  
George D. Mazur ◽  
Wayne Sarasua ◽  
Janice Daniel

A process under development at the Georgia Institute of Technology to standardize, enhance, and automate planning and project evaluation for transportation projects in rural Georgia is described. The process will incorporate current statewide planning techniques in use at the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and additional sketch planning techniques that will use existing GDOT data. The purpose of this multimodal transportation planning tool (MMTPT) is to aid GDOT and local agencies in evaluating transportation requirements of rural areas and potential implementation constraints early in the planning process. The tool will include a system-level component to develop a prioritized list of projects by mode for a county and a project-level component to perform more detailed evaluations of roadway project alternatives and multimodal enhancements. The MMTPT will operate in a computerized hybrid system that uses expert system and conventional algorithmic programming techniques. Although organizational, management, and funding constraints that discourage multimodal planning are not overcome, the tool addresses the shortage of analytical planning techniques.

Author(s):  
David A. Zavattero ◽  
F. Gerald Rawling ◽  
Daniel F. Rice

The Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS), as a metropolitan planning organization, developed an approach to integrate intermodal freight transportation into regional plans and programs. This process began with the establishment of the Intermodal Advisory Task Force (IATF) in 1994 and led to a series of freight-oriented activities and products, including the identification of regionally significant facilities, analysis of improvement needs, and the intermodal component of the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) for northeastern Illinois. Task Force membership includes public- and private-sector representatives working cooperatively to develop and direct a work plan to address goods movement and inter-modal freight issues and needs. The intermodal planning process involved significant preparatory work. The IATF established four working groups that directed specific tasks, including development of a geographic information system–based intermodal facilities inventory, an outreach for industry needs, a review of proposed intermodal improvements, identification and analysis of intermodal connections to the national highway system, and analysis to estimate the economic value of the industry to the region. Ultimately, six policy statements were developed and incorporated as system-level intermodal recommendations in the RTP. The process developed by CATS through the IATF has “mainstreamed” intermodal freight issues, analysis, and policies into the transportation plans and programs of northeastern Illinois. Although the scale of the intermodal and freight industry in Chicago is enormous, the lessons learned and the technical and institutional approaches developed through the IATF offer valuable insight and direction to other regions seeking to support their intermodal freight industry through the transportation planning process.


Author(s):  
Edd Hauser ◽  
Amy R. Breese

AASHTO, in cooperation with NCHRP, has initiated a series of research studies dealing with the issue of multimodal transportation planning. This paper comments on some of the findings from the one project in this series that focuses on the dynamics of partnerships formed to carry out the planning, design, and implementation of multimodal and intermodal projects. An intensive industry scan has been completed, resulting in an interactive data base of approximately 60 multimodal projects throughout the country. From these 60 candidate projects, 12 were selected for more intensive study through a case study approach. The results of the case studies revealed a number of common, underlying themes. Included among those themes is the finding that local governments and private sector partners must be included in earlier stages of multimodal transportation planning than is currently being practiced. One of the key hypotheses tested with the data available on these partnerships was the impact of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) as a catalyst to stimulate multimodal projects and to improve the multimodal planning process. In this regard, one finding of this study is that before the 1990s, it appears that a major emphasis of partnership formation was simply to secure funding from a variety of sources for such projects. Since ISTEA was passed, however, objectives more frequently cited by partners relate to meeting societal values and traveler needs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001955612110016
Author(s):  
Anurima Mukherjee Basu ◽  
Rutool Sharma

Current urbanisation trends in India show a quantum jump in number of ‘census towns’, which are not statutorily declared as urban areas, but have acquired all characteristics of urban settlements. Sizeable number of such census towns are not located near any Class 1 city. Lack of proper and timely planning has led to unplanned growth of these settlements. This article is based on a review of planning legislations, institutional framework and planning process of four states in India. The present article analyses the scope and limitations of the planning process adopted in the rapidly urbanising rural areas of these states. The findings reveal that states are still following a conventional approach to planning that treats ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ as separate categories and highlights the need for adopting an integrated territorial approach to planning of settlements.


Author(s):  
Qutaiba I. Ali ◽  
Issam Jafar

Aims: The aim of the Green Communication Infrastructure ‎‎(GCI) project is to understand the idea of a self ‎‎"sustainably" controlled correspondence foundation ‎fitting for smart city application fields. ‎ Background: This paper shows the endeavors to understand the idea of a ‎self "sustainably" energized communication foundation ‎fitting for smart city application fields. The recommended ‎Green Communication Infrastructure (CGI) comprises ‎different kinds of remote settled (or even versatile) hubs ‎performing diverse activities as per the application ‎requests. An imperative class of these hubs is the Wireless ‎Solar Router (WSR). Objective: The work in this venture was begun in 2009 with the aim ‎of demonstrating the essential advances that must be taken to ‎accomplish such framework and to proclaim the value of ‎embracing natural vitality assets in building mission ‎basic frameworks. Alternate destinations of this venture ‎are introducing a sensibly cost, solid, verified, and simple ‎to introduce correspondence foundation.‎ Method: The arrangement to actualize the GCI was accomplished ‎subsequent to passing two structure levels: device level and ‎system level. Result: The suggested system is highly applicable and serves a wide ‎range of smart city application fields and hence many ‎people and organizations can utilize this system. ‎ Conclusion: The presence of a reliable, secured, low cost, easy to install ‎and self-powered communication infrastructure is ‎mandatory in our nowadays. The communities in ‎developing countries or in rural areas need such a system ‎highly in order to communicate with other people in the ‎world which will affect positively their social and ‎economic situation.


Author(s):  
Andrew Guthrie ◽  
Yingling Fan ◽  
Kirti Vardhan Das

Accessibility analysis can have important implications for understanding social equity in transit planning. The emergence and the increasingly broad acceptance of the general transit feed specification (GTFS) format for transit route, stop, and schedule data have revolutionized transit accessibility research by providing researchers with a convenient, publicly available source of data interoperable with common geographic information system (GIS) software. Existing approaches to GTFS-based transit analysis, however, focus on currently operating transit systems. With major transit expansions across the nation and around the world increasing in number and ambition, understanding the accessibility impacts of proposed projects in their early planning stages is crucial to achieving the greatest possible social benefit from these massive public investments. This paper describes the development of a hypothetical transit network based on current GTFS data and proposed 2040 transit improvements for the Twin Cities region of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota, as well as its use as a sketch planning tool in exploring the proposed system’s impacts on access to job vacancies from historically disadvantaged areas. This research demonstrates the importance of accessibility analysis in planning a transit system that increases opportunity for marginalized workers and concludes by calling for broader, easier access to accessibility analysis for practitioners and community groups to refine the early stages of the transit planning process and democratize an increasingly crucial transit planning tool.


Transportation planning is an area of public policy that is increasingly recognized for having a significant impact on human health and well-being. Passengers all across the world are choosing bus transit as one of the most cost-effective ways of transportation. The number of passengers who use this mode of transportation is steadily increasing. According to statistics, the bus was India's most popular mode of transportation in 2014. A bus was viewed as a mode of transportation by 66 percent of families in rural areas and 62 percent of households in urban areas. With increased demand, there is a concern about efficiently organizing this service. Because a lack of planning can generate major problems in the real world, such as traffic jams and high operating expenses, it is a source of concern for corporate and government entities who provide this service. In this paper, a review on various bus transit planning approaches and stages and methodologies used in each stage of the customized bus planning strategy is presented. This study will assist bus service organizing entities, whether private or public, in efficiently organizing bus service


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias Yaacoub ◽  
Mohamed-Slim Alouini

<p><b>In this paper, internet of things (IoT) connectivity in rural areas is investigated. Both fronthaul and backhaul considerations are studied. First, intelligent radio resource management (RRM) and network planning techniques are discussed for IoT access/fronthaul networks. The proposed RRM scheduling approach was shown to lead to good performance in scheduling IoT devices. Then, several backhauling techniques for providing connectivity to rural areas are investigated and their cost efficiency is analyzed. Techniques based on free space optics with solar powered devices are found to be a suitable backhaul solution.</b></p>


Author(s):  
Eliot Benman ◽  
David Aimen

Federal Environmental Justice directives require transportation agencies responsible for planning and programming federal funds, including state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental impacts on minority and low-income populations. Despite issuance of federal and state guidance and training programs, many MPOs nationwide continue to seek clarity on effective environmental justice (EJ) approaches and procedural considerations. The South Central Pennsylvania Unified EJ Process and Methodology study was a year-long effort undertaken by a consortium of MPOs in Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 8 to identify a unified and replicable approach to implementing EJ in transportation planning. PennDOT, Federal Highway Administration PA Division, and Federal Transit Administration Region III provided technical assistance and support to the effort. The consortium engaged a technical assistance consultant to facilitate a collaborative process to identify a process framework, a set of analytical methodologies, and effective strategies for advancing EJ in the regional transportation planning process. The study demonstrated a model for convening regional, state, and federal partners to reach consensus around an effective EJ process and methodology. This paper provides an overview of the study process, findings related to the concerns of the participating MPOs, and a brief description of the recommended analytical approaches. The paper discusses lessons learned during the course of the study and considers additional work required to further enhance the EJ process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document