Stephanie Ivey

Attracting Students to Transportation Engineering: Gender Differences and Implications of Student Perceptions of Transportation Engineering Careers

With a significant fraction of the nations transportation workforce nearing retirement age, it is essential to attract new talent to transportation fields and to retain that talent. In addition, it is also important to attract a diverse workforce, because women and minorities are still significantly under-represented in transportation engineering and related fields. To address the nations transportation workforce needs, FHWA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and other leading transportation organizations emphasize the importance of outreach activities in kindergarten through 12th grade. In particular, programs directed at middle and high school students are essential for increasing the pipeline of transportation students and professionals. One such program at the University of Memphis in Tennessee, Transportation Engineering Careers (TREC), is designed to increase high school students’ interest in transportation careers through a week-long, fast-paced, active learning environment. This paper first provides a review of relevant literature and then presents assessment findings from the first 2 years of the TREC program regarding gender differences and student perceptions of transportation engineering. Finally, lessons learned and implications for similar efforts are also presented.

Active Travel to School: Findings From the Survey of US Health Behavior in School‐Aged Children, 2009‐2010

BACKGROUND Whereas childrens active travel to school (ATS) has confirmed benefits, only a few large national surveys of ATS exist. METHODS Using data from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2009-2010 US survey, we conducted a logistic regression model to estimate the odds ratios of ATS and a linear regression model to estimate the adjusted mean differences of the percentage of ATS within a school. RESULTS Overall, 21.4% of children engaged in at least one way of active travel to or from school. ATS was less common for trips to school than from school. Greater distance to school was a major barrier preventing children from ATS. Children living in large cities were more likely to engage in ATS, and schools located in a large city had higher proportions of ATS rate. Children having lower family satisfaction, or engaging in a greater number of physically active days during the past week were all more likely to engage in ATS. CONCLUSIONS Although ATS is low among US children, significant variation exists. HBSC is a promising data source for an ATS study. As the first study to explore the variation of ATS at school level, this research contributes uniquely to current knowledge.

Advances in Truck Scheduling at a Cross Dock Facility

In this paper the authors deal with the scheduling of inbound and outbound trucks to the available inbound and outbound doors at a cross dock facility. They assume that all trucks served at the facility need to meet several deadlines for deliveries and pick-ups and thus request a departure time window from the facility, penalizing the facility operator, on a unit of time basis, if that deadline is not met. To solve the resulting problem with reasonable computational effort, a memetic algorithm is developed and a number of computational examples show the efficiency of the proposed solution algorithm and the advantages of scheduling inbound and outbound trucks simultaneously, as opposed to sequentially.

Assessment of Introductory Transportation Engineering Course and General Transportation Engineering Curriculum

Transportation engineering is a critical subdiscipline of the civil engineering profession as indicated by its inclusion on the Fundamentals of Engineering Examination and overlap with other specialty areas of civil engineering and as recognized by TRB, ITE, and ASCE. With increasing transportation workforce needs, low numbers of students entering the pipeline, and limited hours within undergraduate civil engineering programs, it is important to ensure that civil engineering students receive adequate preparation and exposure to career opportunities in the transportation engineering field. Thus, investigations into the status of transportation engineering within civil engineering programs and specifically the introductory transportation engineering course are essential for understanding implications to the profession. Relevant literature and findings from a new survey of civil engineering programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology is reviewed; that survey yielded 84 responses. The survey indicates that 88% of responding programs teach an introductory course in transportation engineering, and 79% require it in their undergraduate programs. Significant variation exists in the structure of the introductory course (number of credit hours, laboratory requirements, etc.). Common responses about improvements that could be made include adding laboratories, requiring a second course, and broadening course content. In addition, nearly 15% of instructors teaching the introductory course did not have a primary focus in transportation engineering. This finding should be investigated further, given that the course may be an undergraduate civil engineering students only exposure to the profession.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Studies Based on Data from National Household Travel Survey

Communities around the nation are addressing new federal regulations and an increased pressure by national and local advocacy groups to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians in transportation projects. To meet these demands, state and local transportation planning agencies must often rely on data sets derived from small samples and with little previous application to develop user characteristics and travel demand models that estimate the effect an increase in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure will have on the transportation network. One of the main sources for data on travel and transportation available to industry professionals is the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), which FHWA conducts every 5 to 7 years and which provides data sets on daily travel for all transportation modes, including information on driver characteristics, travel time, trip purpose, time of day, and day of the week a trip took place. An add-on program with NHTS offers agencies an opportunity to obtain local data that may be used for bicycle and pedestrian studies. This paper presents the results of a literature review on the current methodology NHTS uses to gather bicycle and pedestrian data, the application of the data by transportation planning agencies and researchers, and lessons learned in the use of those data for bicycle–pedestrian studies.

Review of Policies on Access to Transportation Planning Data and Models: Implications for Transportation Planning Agencies

Transportation planning agencies receive requests from both public and private entities to share their transportation planning data, models, and model output. In addition, some agencies receive requests from these entities to undertake special model runs on their behalf. Planning agencies have to respond to these requests with consideration, first, of state laws governing access to public information and, second, of the professional staff time required and the significant monetary expenses incurred in the process. Given the adverse state of public finances, planning agencies may face resource challenges in responding to such requests. This paper, first, presents the results of a literature review on data sharing/release policies for the transportation sector. Second, results of a nationwide survey of transportation planning agencies, conducted to identify primary concerns related to data release and cost recovery, are presented. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of these findings for public agencies seeking to develop policies. The literature review points to the need to develop data release and sharing arrangements so that limited public resources can be maximized and to ensure data that is released is well documented so that misuse does not occur. The survey findings indicate that the area of greatest concern for most planning agencies in sharing information is the potential for misinterpretation or misuse of data or models because they have found that often, requesters do not understand the limitations or appropriate uses of the data or models. To address these concerns, this paper makes a strong case for agencies to develop formal data and model release policies and to define a specific cost recovery structure if the agency intends to charge for services.

Marketing active transportation to school to improve children’s health: Utilizing parental perspectives from an inner-city environment

ABSTRACT Thirty years ago, nearly half of the children in the United States walked or rode their bikes to school. Today, less than 15% of children actively commute to school. With the growing obesity epidemic, encouraging children to walk or bike to school has become a national priority. This research examines factors that influence parental decisions allowing their children to walk to school in an urban environment to identify effective marketing and communication strategies to reach those parents. Results indicate differences in parental perspectives across populations; suggestions for effectively marketing the Safe Routes to School program to minority populations are provided.

Transportation Engineering Careers: Strategies for Attracting Students to Transportation Professions

Critical to building an American workforce with 21st century skills is the recruitment and graduation of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. However, a nationwide lack of student interest and preparation in these fields results in a shortage of workforce talent. The transportation field is not immune to this shortage and faces significant issues related to attracting and retaining transportation professionals. Thus, it is crucial to raise awareness of opportunities available through the transportation profession with precollege students. The Transportation Engineering Careers (TREC) program at the University of Memphis is designed to engage students in active challenge-based learning, to showcase the variety of transportation engineering career opportunities through visits from industry professionals, and to provide interaction with peer role models through a structured mentoring component. This paper presents a brief review of relevant literature, a description of the University of Memphis TREC program and its evolution since 2010, the evaluation results from four years of participants, and preliminary results from a longitudinal survey. Lessons learned from the program assessment in attracting students to transportation professions are also discussed.

A Single-Objective Recovery Phase Model

The Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA has identified the four phases of disaster related planning as mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery. The recovery phase is characterized by activity to return life to normal or improved levels. Very little research considers the recovery phase, which encompasses restoring services and rebuilding disaster stricken areas of the highway transportation network. Existing recovery phase models deal primarily with travel times and do not focus on specific routes for reconstruction. This research proposes a plan for repair and restoration of bridges to restore a highway network that allows accessibility to key facilities in the area. This research differs from other recovery phase models in that actual routes are chosen for recovery based on given criteria. The single-objective optimization model developed in this paper is a flexible model that can be applied to a variety of natural disaster situations and other situations that involve damage to transportation components where decisions on recovery strategies must be made.