Pankaj Maheshwari

Estimation of performance indices for the planning of sustainable transportation systems

In the context of sustainable transportation systems, previous studies have either focused only on the transportation system or have not used a methodology that enables the treatment of incomplete, vague, and qualitative information associated with the available data. This study proposes a system of systems (SOS) and a fuzzy logic modeling approach. The SOS includes the Transportation, Activity, and Environment systems. The fuzzy logic modeling approach enables the treatment of the vagueness associated with some of the relevant data. Performance Indices (PIs) are computed for each system using a number of performance measures. The PIs illustrate the aggregated performance of each system as well as the interactions among them. The proposed methodology also enables the estimation of a Composite Sustainability Index to summarize the aggregated performance of the overall SOS. Existing data was used to analyze sustainability in the entire United States. The results showed that the Transportation and Activity systems follow a positive trend, with similar periods of growth and contractions; in contrast, the environmental system follows a reverse pattern. The results are intuitive and are associated with a series of historic events, such as depressions in the economy as well as policy changes and regulations.

Dynamic model development of performance indices for planning of sustainable transportation systems

Sustainability has recently become a very important research area in transportation because of the dependencies between transportation, economic and environmental system. A lot of research is taking place in various aspects that try to understand the interdependencies. However, there is a need to capture the behavior of such systems over time. The research presented in this paper is the first attempt to build dynamic models that try to capture the interdependent behavior of these systems. The research is influenced and motivated by the predator-prey models developed by renowned researchers Lotka and Volterra. The current study is performed to capture the interaction between interdependent systems i.e. transportation system, activity system, and environmental system. To study the interactions from a macro-scale, this research emphasizes non-linear modeling techniques to capture the nominal behavior of all the three systems. The results indicate that the performance of transportation system and the activity system follow a periodic behavior with phase lag, while the performance of environment system decreases with time. The modeling approach proposed in this research will be helpful to other researchers so that they can modify and enhance such models for proper analysis of sustainable systems.

The feasibility of a Land Ferry system to reduce highway maintenance cost and associated externalities

This study provides an economic evaluation for a Land Ferry, which is a rail system capable of carrying trucks and all other types of vehicles, passengers, and cargo. The Land Ferry system involves a sliding loading system to roll heavy loads onto a flatbed; as a result, loading and unloading of all vehicles and cargo could be accomplished simultaneously. The evaluation for this system included (1) the design of a new track alignment over which the Land Ferry system would run, (2) evaluation of various sources of power, (3) estimation of how many local jobs the Land Ferry would generate, and (4) a benefit-cost analysis. It was estimated that the Land Ferry would create over 45,788 temporary jobs in Nevada during the three-year construction period and 318 permanent jobs during operation. The majority of the benefits were attributed to savings in travel time (

Dynamic Modeling of Performance Indices for Planning of Sustainable Transportation Systems

356.4 M), vehicle operating costs (

Estimation of Performance Indices for the Planning of Sustainable Transportation Systems

1000.4 M), reduction of accidents (

Development of control models for the planning of sustainable transportation systems

544.6 M), and pavement maintenance (

A combinatorial optimization based sample identification method for group comparisons

503.2 M). These benefits would be a consequence of the shift of trucks from the highway, thus resulting in higher speeds, decrease fuel consumption, and decrease vehicle maintenance costs. The overall benefit-cost ratio of 1.7 implies a cost-effective project.