Workforce Development Resources

As other mobility innovations individual electric mobility will presumably have a significant market share only in decades from now. Scenario planning technique provides a framework for exploring the mobility market of the future with a long term perspective. Against this background the chapter at hand has a twofold objective: (a) It promotes scenario planning as an alternative approach to explore the distant future of mobility to establish market conditions. (b) The chapter presents results from a scenario planning study for Germany as an example. Three scenarios for the future of mobility emerged from an elaborate scenario planning process: (1) Matured Progress, (2) Global Take-Off, (3) Frantic Standstill. In all three scenarios, the German population ages significantly, concentrates in urban areas and is increasingly aware of environmental issues with consequences for consumer choice. The scenarios differ specifically regarding immigration to Germany, the global and national economies, and the farsightedness of political decision making. Conforming to expectation, these heterogeneous external developments lead to different projections for future travel. Hence, the presented study can assist in identifying future developments that are very likely while others are subject to specific conditional processes. This helps explore the future market for electric mobility among other mobility innovations.

Decision makers in freight transportation need to assess new distribution systems and the impacts of changes in the freight distribution environment on infrastructure needs and usage, logistical performance, emissions, and energy use. There is a need, therefore, for behavioral models that can predict goods flows and vehicle flows in both current and future situations. This research outlines a conceptual framework consisting of the markets, actors, and supply chain elements of freight movement. Supply chains are constructed by linking distribution channels (of different logistics characteristics) between different activity types, such as consumers, supermarkets, stores, offices, distribution centers, and factories. The framework outlined in this research was used to develop the GoodTrip model--a demand-driven, commodity-based freight movement model that incorporates supply chains. Starting with consumer demand, the model estimates goods flows and simulates vehicle tours. The open architecture of the model allows mixed use of empirical data, behavioral models, and scenario-type assumptions. The behavioral models will be developed in future research. In its first application, the GoodTrip model was used to compare the logistical performance and external impacts of three types of urban distribution systems: the traditional system and two concepts using urban distribution centers (one using vans, the other using automated underground vehicles). The results show considerable differences in the performance and effects of the alternatives, especially when they are applied to different types of distribution channels, such as food retail stores or bookstores.

Urban freight transport has barely incited any modeling efforts when compared to passenger cars and public transport, which is mainly due to the lack of available data and the complexity of the delivery route patterns and the involved decision making. We present here a modeling approach consisting of a demand model followed by an entropy maximization procedure to estimate an origin-destination matrix for urban freight transport vehicles, both for business to business and home deliveries, during the morning peak hour. This approach requires relatively few data inputs in comparison with other existing models and represents an initial step toward the inclusion of freight delivery models in overall urban transport planning. The application of the model is illustrated with a case study in the city of Seville, with its efficiency tested by the validation of the results using actual traffic counts.

Modelling the complexity of urban freight transport requires large amounts of data related to supply chain management, delivery practices, tour configuration, time windows, etc., but when all this detailed data is not available local authorities still need models that represent this type of transport and its contribution to congestion and environmental impacts. We present here an improvement on other recent works, consisting of a demand model for B2B and home deliveries during the morning peak hour that uses only very limited data to estimate the number of delivery vehicles entering and leaving each zone of the city. We then calculate the trip distribution using an entropy maximization approach, and solve the resulting model using simulated annealing. We apply this model to a case study in the city of Seville, in Spain, and compare its results to those produced by a gravity model, and with actual traffic counts.

This report presents ways for the federal government to improve the efficiency and sustain the viability of the Marine Transportation Systems

The National Local Technical Assistance Program Association (NLTAPA) is a not-for-profit organization representing and serving the 58 LTAP and TTAP member-Centers in the United States and Puerto Rico. All staff of member-Centers are entitled to association services and are eligible to participate in programs and to serve as committee members and officers.

The association's main objectives are to build awareness about LTAP/TTAP in the transportation community, assist FHWA with developing strategies for the program, and build the capacity of each Center to best meet the needs of its customers.

Research on analyzing and showcasing benchmark HR practices in DOT.

Identifies data on race and gender in transit workplace, identifies gaps, and recommends further development in Phase II

Research and identify benchmarks that DOT HR management can use to maintain goals set by the Department

Research In-Service needs within DOTs and provide a summarizing report as a resource for DOT.

Research aimed at providing a comprehensive guide accessible to DOT management in order to deal with various challenges.

The objective of this research is to advice the Municipality of The Hague whether, if and under which conditions, the implementation of an Urban Consolidation Centre (UCC) is possible and desirable. To determine factors that caused the success or failure of UCCs in practice, a survey of 6 cases in Europe is conducted. The cases were selected because of the similarity of the service area of the UCC and the city centre of The Hague or because of the uniqueness of the UCC. To determine the possible success for a UCC in The Hague four scenarios are evaluated. Two major difficulties with implementing the UCC are the allocation of the costs and benefits and the willingness to cooperate of the transportation companies. Both consignees and transportation companies can benefit financially from using the UCC. The UCC operator, however, incurs the costs. The municipality should play a role in bringing the costs and benefits together.

In this paper, a modelling framework to complete the recent scientific works on urban goods modelling is proposed. More precisely, we introduce a substitution procedure that estimates the number of trips and the corresponding travelled distances for shopping drive, home delivery and reception points' strategies. Moreover, an appraisal of scenarios is proposed in order to study how these three new forms of proximity delivery services impact on the overall urban goods movement distribution. Starting from four extreme situations, we introduce more realistic scenarios in order to find a suitable combination of delivery strategies. All the scenarios are simulated using the proposed framework, and the main traffic issues related to e-commerce distribution channel are discussed. The best realistic combination promotes the joint usage of home deliveries and proximity reception points and allows a reduction of about 13% of the road occupancy rates in urban areas.

Urban goods distribution is essential for the prosperity of urban areas but at the same time poses problems related to the environment, traffic safety and accessibility. One way to overcome these problems is to implement a totally new designed logistical system that optimizes the efficiency from a business as well as societal perspective. The new system is based on physically separating intra-city transport from goods transport outside the cities. This opens the opportunity of optimizing both intra and 'inter' urban goods transport systems independently. Within urban areas lightweight, small, highly maneuverable, noiseless, safe and low-emission vehicles can be used. And in the further future, maybe underground goods distribution systems. Outside cities larger trucks (up to road-train combinations), rail transport and in some cases even shipping can be used. The system requires a physical transfer, somewhere at the frames of a city (or in a region). Such a physical transfer is normally regarded as an important disadvantage as it is time consuming, costly, and inserts additional risk factors in the process. This disadvantage can be reduced by using standardized load units and by automating transshipment processes. Further more, the transshipment should be integrated neatly in adapted logistical systems. Thus far, most initiatives on improving urban distribution have been more or less 'stand alone' solutions and often have failed. The proposed new system should incorporate various cities and regions and should be supported by private and public parties.

In this funny and thought-provoking talk, Janette Sadik-Khan, transportation commissioner of New York City, shares projects that have reshaped street life in the 5 boroughs, including pedestrian zones in Times Square, high-performance buses and a 6,000-cycle-strong bike share. Her mantra: Do bold experiments that are cheap to try out.

This report presents guidelines on evaluating and implementing strategies to improve the skills of the transit industry's maintenance workforce to keep pace with evolving technology