Discussion on (Identifying Areas Of) Research in Transportation
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Discussion on (Identifying Areas of) Research in Transportation Final Report Compiled by: Partha Chakroborty, Ph.D. Vinod Vasudevan, Ph.D., P.E. Animesh Das, Ph.D. Syam Nair, Ph.D. Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Kanpur, UP 208016 Sponsored by: Department of Science and Technology Government of India Hosted by: Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Introduction Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur hosted a workshop titled “Discussion on (Identifying Areas of) Research in Transportation,” sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India on November 7, 2014. The purpose of the meeting was to identify important areas of research in transportation engineering. Twenty one participants from various academic institutions, research organizations, consulting organizations, and industry participated in this workshop. The list of participants (along with their affiliation in parenthesis) is as follows: Prof. A. Veeraragavan (IIT Madras) Prof. Akhilesh Maurya (IIT Guwahati) Major Alok Mohanty (Border Roads) Prof. Animesh Das (IIT Kanpur) Prof. Ashish Verma (IISc, Banglore) Prof. B. B. Pandey (IIT Kharagpur) Dr. Devesh Tiwari (CSIR - Central Road Research Institute) Prof. Geetam Tiwari (IIT Delhi) Prof. Gopal Patil (IIT Bombay) Dr. Harikishan K. Reddy (VR Techniche) Dr. P. K. Jain (CSIR - Central Road Research Institute) Prof. P. K. Sikdar (ICT Technocrats, Pvt Ltd) Prof. Partha Chakroborty (IIT Kanpur) Maj. R. R. Deshpande (Border Roads) Dr. S. Velmurugan (CSIR - Central Road Research Institute) Prof. Sanjay K. Singh (IIM Lucknow) Prof. Satish Chandra (IIT Roorkee) Prof. Syam Nair (IIT Kanpur) Prof. Tom Mathew (IIT Bombay) Mr. V. K. Singh (UPPWD) Prof. Vinod Vasudevan (IIT Kanpur) Other than the above participants, Prof. Karthik Srinivasan of IIT Madras gave his inputs via email. This report lists the topics identified in this workshop along with brief description on each of them. Note that each of these topics could lead into more than one research project. 1 Potential Research Topics in the Areas of Traffic Engineering, Travel Demand Forecasting, and Transit Systems 2 Title: Understanding pedestrian crossing behaviour for developing warrants for different types of crossing facilities Brief Description : Studies need to be conducted on how pedestrians behave on roads (at intersections, mid-blocks, near public-transit stops, etc.) especially when crossing them. The study should throw light on gap-acceptance behaviour of pedestrians as well as the trade-off they make between their safety and ease of crossing. The outcome from such studies may include, among other things, (i) hypotheses on pedestrian crossing behaviour and (ii) volume warrants for zebra, signalized, and pelican crossing as well as subway or FOB. Title: Understanding pedestrian behaviour in (primarily) longitudinal flow for design of pedestrian facilities Brief Description: Studies need to be conducted on how pedestrians behave while moving along roads (footpaths, shoulders, etc.) The study should throw light on flow parameters of such pedestrian streams as well as the trade-off they make between their safety and ease of mobility. The outcome from such studies may include, among other things, (i) hypotheses on pedestrian stream behaviour (including capacity and level of service) and (ii) design parameters for road- side pedestrian infrastructure. Title: Understanding pedestrian behaviour in heavy flow condition Brief Description: Studies need to be conducted on how pedestrians and groups of related pedestrians behave at high densities (for example, at transit stations, special event gatherings like Kumbh-Mela, sports grounds, etc.) during normal scenarios and under panic situations. The outcome from such studies may include, among other things, (i) hypotheses on pedestrian stream behaviour and (ii) design parameters for pedestrian facilities, and (iii) evacuation strategies, etc. Title: Understanding bicycle traffic behaviour/characteristics Brief Description: Studies need to be conducted on (i) bicycle stream behaviour, (ii) bicycle crossing behaviour, (iii) bicycle and motorised vehicular stream interactions, and (iv) bicycle and pedestrian interactions. The study should throw light on flow parameters of such pedestrian streams as well as the trade-off they make between their safety and ease of mobility. The outcome from such studies may lead to design parameters for road-side bicycle infrastructure. Title: Developing an automatic traffic counter-cum-classifier for Indian mixed and disorderly traffic Brief Description: Indian traffic streams differ from traffic streams in US, Europe, etc. (where such instruments were designed) in the following ways (i) traffic is not lane based in India, and (ii) extreme heterogeneity in traffic streams in India creates large speed differentials and varied vehicle types. Hence there is a need to develop instruments that can handle these differences and still provide accurate vehicle counts by classes. 3 Title: Characterizing non-lane based mixed traffic flow and developing macroscopic traffic flow models Brief Description: Indian traffic streams differ from traffic streams in US, Europe, etc. (where most traffic flow studies were done) in the following ways (i) traffic is not lane based in India, and (ii) extreme heterogeneity in traffic streams in India creates large speed differentials and varied vehicle operating characteristics. Hence there is a need to develop a different view of the traffic stream parameters as well as develop fundamentally different models of traffic flow. For example, while lateral interactions in lane base traffic streams are episodic, in Indian streams such interactions are present at all times. Therefore, while 1-D models of traffic flow might suffice for lane based traffic, one needs 2-D stream models for Indian traffic. Title: Modelling driving behaviour for non-lane based mixed traffic (microscopic models of traffic flow) Brief Description: Indian traffic streams are unique in that (i) the traffic is not lane based, and (ii) the heterogeneity in traffic streams is high. The non-lane based nature implies that one needs to understand and model both lateral and longitudinal placement behaviour of Indian drivers. The heterogeneity requires that such models be sensitive to the types of vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the modelled driver. In a way the need is to develop models that integrate both car-following and lateral placement behaviours. Overtaking behaviour in such streams also needs to be studied. Research also needs to be carried out to predict macroscopic behaviour from these microscopic models. Title: Developing methodology for estimation of flow equivalency in uninterrupted and interrupted flow conditions Brief Description: Owing to the extreme variability present in Indian traffic streams (due to the large variations in vehicle operating characteristics and no lane discipline) concepts like passenger car equivalency needs to be revisited and redefined for Indian conditions. Title: Understanding flow through signalised intersections Brief Description: Research needs to be carried out to understand the factors that impact arrival processes (arrival distributions, progression factors, etc.) and departure processes (lost times, saturation flow, etc.) at signalized intersections. Effect of phasing schemes on safety and efficiency of such intersections also needs to be studied. Work on ideal cycle lengths at intersections also need to be carried out. These studies may ultimately lead to Indian design guidelines for signalized intersections. Title: Understanding flow through unsignalised intersections Brief Description: Research needs to be carried out to understand the factors that impact arrival processes (arrival distributions, etc.), departure processes (gap acceptance, merging, etc.) and stacking process (where waiting vehicles often occupy opposing lanes) at unsignalized intersections (including T-intersections). Queuing models for such intersections need to be developed. Such models should be able to estimate queue and delay distributions. Impact of channelization on flow at such intersections also needs to be studied. The studies conducted can also lead to realistic simulation models. Title: Identifying methods to predict travel time for real time applications Brief Description: With the proliferation of faster and cheaper communication devices road users as well as system planners can now benefit from real-time information on the travel 4 times on various parts of the network. Algorithms that can make reliable travel-time predictions are therefore the need of the day. Research on developing algorithms that (a) work on various data sources (like, (i) speed, flow, occupancy data from static devices, (ii) probe vehicle (automobile) data, (iii) data from trucks and buses, etc.), (b) require different extents of computation, and (c) provide varying tradeoffs between accuracy and computational effort needs to be carried out. Studies on how such methods can be used to identify congestions on a network are also required. Title: Developing area-wide traffic control algorithms/strategies Brief Description: Algorithms/strategies that can influence various traffic control measures (like, signal timings, coordination, bus priority, lane reversals, ramp meters, etc.) in order to reduce system (area-wide) travel times need to be developed. Such strategies must be sensitive to the way transport demand reacts to various traffic and control