Volpe Center: Volpe Center Highlights

Information Resources

Volpe Center Highlights - May/June 2003

Papers & Presentations

A paper written by Ms. Melissa Laube of the Service and Operations Assessment Division and Mr. Michael Dyer of the Technology Applications and Deployment Division, "Ferry Service Market Analysis: National Parks of New York Harbor," was recenty published in the Journal of the Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Record No. 1793. The paper discusses the Volpe Center's analysis of the feasibility of developing a water transportation system to serve the National Parks of New York Harbor. An innovative approach to predicting demand was developed based on the estimation of market thresholds needed for the service to be financially viable. The approach is applicable in a wide range of situations where the data to perform traditional transportation demand analysis are lacking, and where planned services are expected to attract riders with substantially different socioeconomic and travel behavior characteristics than existing transportation markets.

The papers result from the Center's work for NHTSA under the DOT's Intelligent Vehicle Initiative Program.

On March 3, 2003, Volpe Center staff presented two papers on collision avoidance research at the 2003 Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Wassim Najm and Mr. Andy Lam, of the Accident Prevention Division, and Dr. David Smith, of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), presented "Analysis of Braking and Steering Performance in Car-Following Scenarios," which describes the Volpe Center's independent evaluation of an automotive rear-end crash avoidance system.

Mr. Jonathan Koopmann, Accident Prevention Division, and Dr. Najm presented a paper titled "Identification of Traffic States from Onboard Vehicle Sensors." This paper describes the development of a data processing algorithm for the Center's evaluation of the crash avoidance system.
Ms. Jane Lappin of the Economic and Industry Analysis Division recently delivered a lecture titled "Consumer Response to Advanced Traveler Information Services" to Professor Joseph M. Sussman's "Introduction to Intelligent Transportation Systems" class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ms. Karen Van Dyke of the Center for Navigation recently addressed a class of electrical engineering students at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Her lecture described the operation characteristics of the Global Positioning System (GPS); the current status of the GPS constellation; differential GPS augmentation systems; and the projected evolution of GPS over 30 years.
In support of the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, the Volpe Center is developing a supplemental environmental assessment for the deployment of Modular Causeway Systems (MCS) in the Puget Sound area in Tacoma, Washington. MCS are standardized components used to build floating piers, floating offshore platforms for discharging ship cargo, and powered ferries for transporting vehicles and containers ashore. As part of this effort, on March 10, 2003, Dr. Amishi Joshi of the Environmental Engineering Division and Ms. Deirdre Carrigan of the Technology Applications and Deployment Division completed a feasibility report describing potential storage and training sites for the MCS. The report is available on the Volpe Web site at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/enviro/pubs.html.
From March 12 through 14, 2003, Mr. Gregg Fleming of the Volpe Center's Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division participated in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Annual Symposium held in Berkeley, California. At the invitation of Carl Burleson, Director, FAA Office of Environment and Energy, Mr. Fleming presented the paper "The Federal Aviation Administration's System for Assessing Aviation's Global Emissions (SAGE)." The Volpe Center is supporting the FAA's Office of Environment and Energy by improving, enhancing, and validating air-quality modeling tools.
In March 2003, Volpe Center staff delivered the final report, "Water Transportation Planning for Eastern Massachusetts: A Strategic Assessment of Passenger Ferry Services" to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. Mr. Michael Dyer of the Technology Applications and Deployment Division performed a feasibility analysis of eight potential ferry and water shuttle routes within the Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay Area. Other contributors include Mr. Eric Plosky of the Service and Operations Assessment Division, Ms. Deirdre Carrigan of the Technology Applications and Deployment Division, and Mr. Charles Norris of Norris & Norris Associates (a Volpe Center contractor). The Center also developed a strategic assessment tool that examines the infrastructure, access, intermodal connectivity, vessel reconfiguration, environmental and economic development policy, and operational finance aspects of proposed services. This tool will assist the Commonwealth in making resource decisions for future water transportation projects.
On March 18, 2003, Mr. William Chernicoff of the Service and Operations Assessment Division moderated the panel "How Does the Transportation Sector Affect Fuel Cell Commercialization?" at the Fuel Cell Investment Summit held in Uncasville, Connecticut and sponsored by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, the U.S. Fuel Cell Council, and Fuel Cells 2000. As part of the World Fuels Conference held March 25 - 27, 2003, in San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Chernicoff participated in an expert panel, "Fuel Cell Vehicles--Is the Hydrogen Economy Real?" He discussed perspectives on the development and emergence of fuel cell vehicles and their deployment into the transportation system.
Dr. Aviva Brecher of the Office of Environmental Preservation and Systems Modernization, and 2002-2003 Distinguished Sigma Xi Lecturer, recently presented invited lectures at two universities. At Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, she presented "Electromagnetic Fields, Health and Environmental Issues in Transportation" and "Balancing Transportation, Energy and Environment" and met with faculty and graduate students in the Global Affairs Institute and Center for Environmental Policy. At Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, she presented "Transportation in 2050: Technologies and Outlook" at the Annual Sigma Xi Banquet.
FAA-sponsored, flight-deck human factors research performed by Volpe's Operator Performance and Safety Analysis Division was presented at the 12th International Symposium on Aviation Psychology held April 14 - 17, 2003, in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Judith Burki-Cohen presented "Flight Simulator Fidelity: An Update on Motion Requirements," which reports on Volpe's efforts to obtain scientific data on the platform motion simulation requirements for training and evaluation of airline pilots. Dr. Michelle Yeh presented "Determining Minimal Display Element Requirements for Surface Map Displays," which describes the results of an information analysis assessing the value of airport surface attributes when presented on electronic map displays. Also presented was Dr. Michael Zuschlag's "Hidden Markov Models as a Tool to Measure Pilot Attention Switching During Simulated Instrument Landing System Approaches," which covers the development of a means of inferring a pilot's current cognitive task from a sequence of eye fixations on cockpit instruments.

Photo of the general aviation simulator with surface map display.

Volpe staff use this general aviation simulator with surface map display in human factors research. The simulator is on loan to the Volpe Center from the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center.

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