Past Projects
Socially Responsible Road Charging for Online Retailers to Support Disadvantaged Urban Communities; September 2023 - September 2024
Summary: This research project investigated a socially responsible model for road charging for E-Commerce Delivery Vehicles (EDVs). The system aims to maximize revenue collection while preserving existing traffic conditions through two key components: 1) an annual base fee paid by EDVs for road usage, and 2) a fuzzy logic-based pay-for-priority system allowing EDVs to request signal priority for a nominal fee in specific cases. Also, this project contributes to addressing the externalities of increased e-commerce deliveries by proposing an innovative charging mechanism that can generate revenue for infrastructure maintenance while improving EDV efficiency. Results demonstrate that the system reduces delays and travel times for EDVs while maintaining constant delays for passenger vehicles across various traffic demand and EDV penetration scenarios. Also, a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed system indicates that the system would be economically viable in medium to high traffic demand scenarios, with the annual base fee generating the majority of revenue.
Traffic Signal Optimization based on Fuel-consumption and Pollutant Emissions, County of Lake, Illinois; December 2019 – July 2021
Summary: Purpose of this project is to develop a methodology to reduce fuel consumption and vehicular emissions by utilizing common traffic engineering data and methods and disseminate results in the forms applicable to both static (pre-timed signal plans) and dynamic (adaptive or real-time control) traffic signal operations and both data-poor and data-rich networks of signalized intersections.
