Big data may lead to safer roadways, lower emissions

Teresa Donnellan — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 16:26:19 +0000

Big data may lead to safer roadways, lower emissions Teresa Donnellan Mon, 10/23/2023 - 12:26

In This Story

Once, transportation officials made decisions based on household surveys performed roughly once per decade, which asked selected households to record their travel behavior on a given day. With the advent of smartphones, similar data became available roughly every few minutes. Now, with an increasing number of connected vehicles on the road, that data is available in nearly real time. CEIE professor Shanjiang Zhu is embracing this shift, exploring the capabilities of researchers with this massive amount of data.

With funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Zhu and his research team, Anand N. Vidyashankar from the department of statistics and Chenfeng Xiong from the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Villanova University, will reconcile the travel data from three different sources—surveys, smartphones, and connected vehicles—into invaluable travel information.

"In the past, we tried to understand travel behavior, which is critical for future investment decisions and also transportation policy, based on survey data,” Zhu explained. “Based on that, you understand, on average, where people have traveled, in what mode, with whom, and spent how much time there, uh what is the purpose for the trip, etc. Using that information, you can develop a model that basically can predict future scenario, like how congested the network could be in 2040; and that drives all the investment decisions and policy debates.” This method introduces problems of timeliness, as it can skip major events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and human error, as people would not necessarily remember every detail of their travel on a given day.

The introduction of widespread smartphone use about ten years ago made the available data much denser, said Zhu, resulting in about one data point every three to five minutes. Each time a person’s smartphone app calls for location service, their location is automatically registered. Nevertheless, this method introduced a bias problem, as not everyone owns a smartphone and not everyone uses them often.

About a year ago, Zhu’s team won a competition hosted by VDOT to make the best possible use of connected vehicle data, basically newer vehicles like those with an “SOS” button installed. One drawback to the data currently is connected vehicles currently make up a relatively small share of vehicles on the road.

“But we have ways to make corrections from a statistical perspective, and then this gives you a much more accurate picture of traffic on the road,” said Zhu, adding “On average, it's one data point every three seconds. With such data, the accuracy and timeliness of travel demand models could be greatly improved.” Zhu noted his colleague Vidyashankar will be reviewing the data fusion to ensure a rigorous statistical approach.

The new data also opens the door for new safety studies, Zhu said, adding safety studies are currently based mainly on police reports after an accident has occurred. By using alternate data, such as how often a car’s brake deceleration rate exceeds a certain threshold or how hard a driver turns the steering wheel, dangerous locations might be addressed before an accident occurs. Zhu is interested in exploring the topic further using the dataset resulting from his current project.

Zhu foresees data from connected vehicles becoming increasingly important as more and more people adopt the technology. He said, “Now we are investing in the methodology part and seeing how we can make this connection more productive, to improve the driving environment, to make our roads safer, to make the driving experience better, and also to reduce our energy consumption and emissions."

Topics

Department of Civil Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (CEIE)

transportation engineering

Big Data

big data analytics

Transportation Policy Operations and Logistics

Research

CEC faculty research

Civil engineering student draws inspiration from her birthplace

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 20:03:39 +0000

Civil engineering student draws inspiration from her birthplace Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/18/2021 - 15:03

Civil engineering major Karla Pineda’s undergraduate career is about to end. Yet, as she prepares to embark on her accelerated master’s program, she reflects on what inspired her to study civil engineering.

Karla Pineda is also a member of Mason's chapter of the American Society for Civil Engineers.

Born in El Salvador, Pineda and her family moved to Northern Virginia when she was 4 years old. She always had an interest in STEM and loved working on tangible projects, so she quickly realized civil engineering was her path.

But visits back to El Salvador led her to concentrate on transportation engineering. “When I traveled home, it was hard to see the harsh difference in infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, and that made me more interested in the transportation side of civil engineering,” she says.

Pineda is specifically interested in the intersection between transportation and sustainability. “In El Salvador, and many other places, you can clearly see how pollution has affected the lands and the communities. I know we can do better, we have one earth, and we have to make changes.”

She sees transportation as an accessible path to pursue sustainable efforts because almost everyone uses some form of transportation regularly. “There are little modifications we can make in transportation engineering that will have a huge impact,” says Pineda. Changes like recycling asphalt, using more sustainable materials, and adjusting one’s lifestyle can make a difference.

Mason’s student club, Engineers for International Development (EfID), fascinated Pineda because of their mission to tackle these grand challenges, one small change at a time. Currently, she serves as the vice president and works with the president and the executive board to coordinate events centered around sustainability.

“Typically, we take a trip down to Ecuador in the winter and summer to help a village build a sustainable water supply, but with COVID-19, we haven’t been able to do that,” she says. “We have gotten creative to help the village from a distance and creating other socially distanced events. We’ve hosted a few tree planting events throughout the community, and I worked with other members of the club to translate guides and information to send to the village in Ecuador.”

As part of her accelerated master’s program in transportation engineering, Pineda has already started taking graduate courses during her undergraduate education. She says she chose the accelerated master’s option because it made sense for her long-term career goals and allows her to learn more about transportation engineering. “Getting a master’s in one year instead of two is a great opportunity. I get to take graduate courses in my undergraduate career, and in five years, I come out with a solid foundation of knowledge in civil and transportation engineering,” she says.

“I love school, I love to learn, and the bachelor’s program gives a strong foundation in civil engineering, but I want to be prepared for a career in transportation engineering,” says Pineda.

Topics

Civil Engineering

accelerated masters

Engineers for International Development (EfID)

Sustainability

transportation engineering

Sustainable Infrastructure