Freight Efficiency & Congestion Mitigation

NTRCI is taking aim at improving Freight flow efficiency and congestion mitigation by conducting relevant research to real-world problems.  Key areas of improvement that are current issues are traffic congestion, commercial vehicle tracking, and intermodal efficiencies. Our goal has been to investigate ways of improving supply chain efficiency while also reducing carbon footprint of commercial vehicles.  We have investigated control, tracking and general management of containers as well as expanding use of intermodal to smaller communities using less equipment intensive approaches and more efficient and safe commercial vehicle configurations.  Freight containers’ movement inland is important to the supply chain of the United States and other countries.  By improving this flow the benefits of improved supply chain efficiency can distribute freight away from already congested areas, manage freight costs, and have a positive environmental impact.

Assessment of Heavy Vehicle Impact on Emergency Evacuation Operations

Re-routing heavy trucks during emergency situations requires consideration of numerous constraints presented by the size and weight of these vehicles as well as available roadways. TrEPS-P is one of the latest FHWA-sponsored traffic engineering analysis tools that can be used to help evaluate Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) traffic management and information strategies. It was designed for traffic engineers to model ITS components such as Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS), Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO), and Emergency Management Systems (EMS). more...

Demonstration of Low-Cost Technology for Traffic Management and Clean Air Enhancement

The primary objective of this demonstration project was to assess the viability of estimating important traffic management information from technologies that are minimally infrastructure invasive, and which have the potential for generating such information at a fraction of the cost of more traditional approaches. more...

Evaluation of Freight Vehicles in Short-Haul Intermodal Lanes

The further development of intermodal truck-rail freight services is a leading strategy in the mitigation of growing highway congestion. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this policy alternative is limited by the dominance of “short-haul” truck movements that cannot be economically diverted to intermodal service under current business models and practices. more...

License Plate Recognition

License Plate Recognition (LPR) technology has been used for off-line automobile enforcement purposes. The technology has seen mixed success with correct reading rate around 60 to 70% depending on the specific application and environment. This limitation can be, and is often, remedied through human verification after the fact and before a citation is issued. Armed with advanced text-mining algorithms, this study enables LPR technology for real-time enforcement by matching plates whether correctly or incorrectly read at various locations in a network or along a corridor and, hence, tracking the movement and speed of vehicles. more...

Longer Combination Vehicle's Impact on Improving Operational Efficiency, Freight Flows and Traffic Congestion

Longer combination vehicles (LCVs) are attractive for the transportation community because they carry more freight per trip. However, the implications, costs and benefits of LCVs are not clearly delineated or well documented. more...

Marine Containers on Chassis: Safety Issues

This project is to investigate safety related problems involving chassis used for transporting marine containers on US highways. In recent years, much concern has arisen regarding the safety implications of allegedly substandard container chassis maintenance and inspection practices. This recognition is reflected in the recent effort to pass federal legislation mandating more effective container chassis inspection more...

Real-Time Commercial Vehicle Safety & Security Monitoring

Real-time monitoring of commercial vehicles in a highway network is a technologically challenging endeavor under the constraints that these vehicles are not required to be equipped with tracking devices such as RFID tags, other transponders of similar nature, or GPS based active tracking devices. Instead, a passive mechanism, based on the license plates all vehicles are legally required to install, is the only feasible way to uniquely identify and track each individual vehicle at different locations in a roadway system. more...

Traffic Signal Safety

This project will develop new traffic signal control logic to improve the safety of heavy vehicles on high speed approaches to signalized intersections using wireless communication between a heavy vehicle and a roadside traffic signal controller. The project will build on the Trusted TruckTM onboard computer system using the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) concept for deployment of communication technology between vehicles and roadside infrastructure. This technology for heavy vehicles can also be migrated to emergency responders more...