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Volpe Center Highlights - September/October 2003

Published & Presented

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility | Human and Natural Environment
Security | Organizational Excellence | Awards | Published and Presented

Published and Presented

• Mr. Christopher Roof of the Environmental Measurement and Modeling Division presented a paper at the Inter-Noise 2003 Conference in Seogwipo, Korea, held August 25 to 28, 2003. "Use of One-Third Octave-Band Spectral Data in Community Noise Models" details recent and planned enhancements to the Integrated Noise Model, a computer model developed by Volpe for the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Environment and Energy for airport noise prediction and analysis.

• Two articles by Volpe Center staff are featured in the July/August 2003 Public Roads special issue on transportation and the environment, which emphasizes the importance of environmental stewardship and streamlining to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Public Roads is a bimonthly publication of the FHWA. The articles can be found at http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/03jul/index.htm.

  • "Reviews on the Fast Track," authored by Ms. Cassandra C. Allwell of the Planning and Policy Analysis Division, provides a step-by-step guide to practices that states employ to streamline the environmental review process. This article reflects work led by Ms. Allwell since 2000 in support of the FHWA's environmental stewardship and streamlining initiative.

  • "Nurturing an Environmental Perspective," co-authored by Ms. Rachael Barolsky of the Planning and Policy Analysis Division and Ms. Ruth Rentch of the FHWA, sheds light on best practices that honor environmental commitments throughout the lifetime of a transportation project. The article summarizes a report produced by the FHWA and the Volpe Center, "Domestic Scan: Environmental Commitment Implementation -- Innovative and Successful Approaches," which can be viewed at http://environment.fhwa.dot.gov/strmlng/domScanRpt/index.htm.

  On August 26, 2003, Mr. Greg Ayres of the Accident Prevention Division and Dr. Mary Stearns of the Operator Performance and Safety Analysis Division presented "Human Factors in Driver Assistance Systems" at a meeting organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology chapter of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. The presentation focused on human factors issues that will be investigated by the Volpe Center during a field operational test of a Roadway Departure Crash Warning System conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Volpe evaluation will assess test participants' ability to understand the system's warnings and to respond effectively to them in a real-world driving environment.

  In August 2003, the Motor Carrier Safety Assessment Division delivered "Measuring the FMCSA's Safety Objectives from Year 2000 to 2002" (FMCSA-RI-03-018) to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). This report documents the progress made toward meeting FMCSA's safety objectives during 2000-2002 and describes in detail the methodology for establishing the metrics and benchmarks for measuring progress. In developing the report, the Volpe team used industry safety measures from SafeStat, a Volpe-developed, data-driven analysis system that utilizes a comprehensive variety of safety data to determine the relative safety fitness of motor carriers on a periodic basis. The analyses/metrics in this report demonstrate that FMCSA is moving in a positive direction with respect to meeting its stated safety objectives, as further evidenced by NHTSA statistics showing year-to-year reductions in truck-related highway fatalities. Mr. Donald Wright, Mr. David Madsen, and Ms. Julie Nixon of the Motor Carrier Safety Assessment Division authored the report. Mr. Walter Zak and Mr. Leon Parkin of EG&G Technical Services (a Volpe on-site contractor) and Ms. Anusha Seetharaman of Cambridge Systematics Inc. (a Volpe on-site contractor) provided technical support. The report is available on line at: http://ai.volpe.dot.gov/CarrierResearchResults/CarrierResearchContent.stm#safeobj.

  Volpe Journal 2003: Transportation and Security

  

  How do we increase security while preserving our economy and quality of life? The Volpe Center's security work addresses this question, in many contexts and for many clients. The 2003 issue of the Volpe Journal, "Transportation and Security," describes the Center's three-fold perspective on security: 1) identifying vulnerabilities in the transportation system; 2) introducing preventive measures and protecting potential targets; and 3) managing the consequences of a terrorist attack. Recent projects include: assessing critical transportation infrastructures for DOT, deploying screening systems for the Departments of State and Defense, and helping communities respond to emergencies.

  The Volpe Journal is available online at http://www.volpe.dot.gov/infosrc/journal/index.html, or in hard copy from Lynn Murray at (617) 494-2224 or MurrayL@volpe.dot.gov.

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