Browsing by Subject "Decision support systems"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Accessibility instruments for planning practice: A review of European experiences
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Papa, Enrica; Silva, Cecilia; te Brömmelstroet, Marco; Hull, Angela
    Although a large body of literature has been produced on the theoretical definitions and measurements of accessibility, the extent to which such indicators are used in planning practice is less clear. This research explores the gap between theory and application by seeking to understand what the new wave of accessibility instruments (AIs) prepared for spatial and transport planning practice purports to offer the users of AIs. Starting from the question of how urban and transport planners are designing AIs, the article analyzes and describes the AIs developed over the last decade (mainly in Europe), offering a structured overview and a clear categorization of how accessibility measures can be applied. The paper identifies AI characteristics, and considers their usability, based on AI developer perceptions.
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    Bridge Scour Monitoring Technologies: Development of Evaluation and Selection Protocols for Application on River Bridges in Minnesota
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2010-03) Lueker, Matthew; Marr, Jeff; Ellis, Chris; Winsted, Vincent; Akula, Shankar Reddy
    Bridge failure or loss of structural integrity can result from scour of riverbed sediment near bridge abutments or piers during high-flow events in rivers. In the past 20 years, several methods of monitoring bridge scour have been developed spanning a range of measurement approaches, complexities, costs, robustness, and measurement resolutions. This project brings together the expertise of Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) bridge engineers and researchers, university hydraulic and electrical engineers, field staff, and inspectors to take the first steps toward development of robust scour monitoring for Minnesota river bridges. The team worked with Mn/DOT engineers to identify variables of scour critical bridges that affect the application of scour monitoring technology. The research team will used this information to develop a Scour Monitoring Decision Framework (SMDF) that will aid Mn/DOT in selecting the best technologies for specific sites. The final component of the project will involve testing the SMDF on five bridges in a case-study type demonstration; work plans for two of the sites were developed for demonstration of deployed instrumentation.
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    Developing an Intelligent Decision Support System for the Proactive Implementation of Traffic Safety Strategies
    (Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, 2013-03) Chen, Hongyi; Chen, Fang; Anderson, Chris
    The growing number of traffic safety strategies, including the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and lowcost proactive safety improvement (LCPSI), call for an integrated approach to optimize resource allocation systematically and proactively. While most of the currently used standard methods such as the six-step method that identify and eliminate hazardous locations serve their purpose well, they represent a reactive approach that seeks improvement after crashes happen. In this project, a decision support system with Geographic Information System (GIS) interface is developed to proactively optimize the resource allocation of traffic safety improvement strategies. With its optimization function, the decision support system is able to suggest a systematically optimized implementation plan together with the associated cost once the concerned areas and possible countermeasures are selected. It proactively improves the overall traffic safety by implementing the most effective safety strategies that meet the budget to decrease the total number of crashes to the maximum degree. The GIS interface of the decision support system enables the users to select concerned areas directly from the map and calculates certain inputs automatically from parameters related to the geometric design and traffic control features. An associated database is also designed to support the system so that as more data are input into the system, the calibration factors and crash modification functions used to calculate the expected number of crashes will be continuously updated and refined.
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    In-Vehicle Decision Support to Reduce Crashes at Rural Thru- Stop Intersections
    (Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2011-08) Hayes, Caroline C.; Drew, Daniel
    Purpose: Within the context of thru-stop intersections, investigate the feasibility and future promise of warning systems inside the vehicle, where interfaces are best placed, and what modalities are most effective (visual versus haptic). Methods: A driving simulator study was conducted to compare three decision support systems (DSSs): a dynamic traffic sign, a set of displays on the vehicle side mirrors, and a vibrating seat. Dependent variables included measurements of safe driving behavior, and a usability questionnaire. A follow-up focus group study was conducted to gain further feedback on the in-vehicle systems and on ideas for how to improve the systems. Results: The vibrating seat yielded significantly higher results than the dynamic traffic sign on two safety variables. No system clearly outperformed the others in terms of promoting safer driving behavior, nor did any improve driving performance compared to the control condition. The questionnaire and usability data showed that the dynamic traffic sign was most preferred, while the in-vehicle displays were most comprehended. Comments during the simulator studies suggested that participants wanted stronger advisory messages from the systems, and the Focus Group Study confirms this. Conclusions: In-vehicle DSSs appear to be feasible for the purposes of assisting drivers with navigating rural thru-stop intersections. No results of this study indicate that in-vehicle systems are an inherently poor means of presenting traffic gap information to the driver. Results indicate that a visual display would be easier to comprehend than a vibrotactile display when no training or explanation is provided.
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    ITS and Transportation Safety: EMS System Data Integration to Improve Traffic Crash Emergency Response and Treatment - Phase III Report
    (Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, 2011-10) Schooley, Benjamin; Horan, Thomas A.; Hilton, Brian
    The transportation safety and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) literature has called for the development of better information system tools to support EMS to aid in reducing the human impact of medical emergencies. Building upon previous research by the researchers, this project seeks to advance a prototype of a mobile and web-based information service, known as CrashHelp, designed for use by various emergency medical practitioners involved in the end-to-end continuum of emergency patient care. The broad objective in this report was to examine the potential to provide – through a geographic information system (GIS)-based visual and interactive platform -- an easy to use analytical tool that can provide a holistic view of crash information (such as distance, age, severity of crash) that can better serve practitioners and agencies in planning for and responding to traffic crashes. The specific research objectives were to: (1) collect and examine information regarding the potential for using the CrashHelp system in the state of Idaho as a case-study; (2) identify and develop aggregate performance metrics for end-to-end EMS responses to automobile crashes for inclusion in CrashHelp; and (3) expand the CrashHelp prototype to include aggregate level clinical and operational performance metrics that would provide valuable decision-level information for planners and practitioners.
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    Visualizing uncertainty information in Engineering design processes to assist individual and team decision making
    (2012-09) Dong, Xiao
    This dissertation work describes a decision support system (DSS), two experiments, and the resulting insights regarding the role and influence of an uncertainty visualization in assisting decision makers to gauge more realistically whether they have enough information to make decisions. The primary goal of this work is to improve the scientific understanding of decision making in situations where the best design options are ambiguous. Decision makers are often faced with the task of identifying the "best" option from a set, where "best" is defined by multiple criteria came out by the decision maker. However, uncertainty and lack of information can make the task hard. Uncertainty is inherent in all real work contexts; it creates ambiguities that make decision making difficult. To help decision makers recognize and manage ambiguity the author developed and evaluated a domain-independent decision support tool (DSS), the Uncertainty DSS. It is designed to help decision makers recognize situations in which uncertainty creates ambiguity in their choices, and to identify information which can help reduce that ambiguity. It does so by providing a simple graphical representation of the relative value ranges of multiple options. The aim is to help decision makers visually recognize when options overlap in their possible values, in which case it is difficult to identify the "best" option with information available. In order to evaluate the impact of the Uncertainty DSS, the author created a pared-down version, the Certainty DSS, which provides no uncertainty visualizations. Two experiments were designed and conducted with engineering designers in the context of both individual and team decision making. Participants carried out real decision making task in the context of real design projects in which they had been engaged for at least a month. The results of the experiment with individual decision makers showed that without the visualizations, engineering designers did not distinguish between ambiguous and unambiguous sets of options despite being aware in a general sense that there was much uncertainty in their design alternatives. However, with Uncertainty DSS, participants exhibited a significantly improved ability to recognize ambiguous decision situations, and expressed appropriately reduced confidence in ambiguous situations. Additionally, Uncertainty DSS increased the likelihood that participants would form plans to seek clarifying information on critical, uncertain parameters. The results of the experiments with team decision makers were similar to the individual decision makers. Moreover, teams using the Uncertainty DSS communicated more within the team and developed better shared situation awareness. These results suggest that a relatively simple visualization of uncertainty can benefit both individual decision makers, and teams of decision makers by assisting them in: 1) identifying when they do not have enough information to make an unambiguous choice, 2) identifying what additional information might reduce uncertainty and 3) providing a common structure is which teams can discuss uncertainty and its impact on the design decisions. While there is still room for improvement to fine tune the DSS measurements, and training given to designers to enable them to think about how uncertainty and information (a lack of it) impact design decisions. However, this work represents a first step demonstrating that uncertainty visualization can change the way in which designers think about uncertainty--New guidance for tools for decision makers.
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    Web-Based Preventative Blowing and Drifting Snow Control Calculator Decision Tool
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2015-05) Wyatt, Gary; Zamora, Diomy; Smith, David; Gullickson, Dan; Current, Dean
    Blowing and drifting snow on Minnesota's roadways are transportation efficiency and safety concerns. Establishing standing corn rows, living and structural snow fences or proper grading during road construction improves driver visibility and road surface conditions and has the potential to lower costs of road maintenance as well as crashes attributed to blowing and drifting snow. These snow control solutions can also provide environmental benefits including carbon sequestration and avoidance of carbon emissions of snow removal operations. In recent years, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has paid farmers to establish snow control practices to protect identified snow problem roadways. Using public funds to pay landowners to establish land practices, which benefit the public and reduce MnDOT winter costs, needs to be justified. In 2012, our research team created a Microsoft Excel cost-benefit-payment calculator to estimate payments to farmers that included consideration of safety and snow removal cost savings to the public and the transportation agency. We worked closely with MnDOT engineers and plow operators to estimate the safety and snow removal costs. This project translated the Microsoft Excel tool to a web-based tool that can be used on laptops, smartphones and tablets. Beta testing has been done with transportation officials to improve the web tool. Outreach plans are being conducted to inform transportation agencies of this tool and the cost benefit analysis it offers.