Safe and Equitable Mobility Systems

The safe and equitable mobility systems thematic area focuses on developing transportation systems that prioritize safety, accessibility, and fairness for users. Researchers work to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries through advanced modeling, data analytics, and the integration of emerging technologies. The interdisciplinary research leverages innovation, policy development, and community engagement to create sustainable, inclusive mobility solutions for the future.

Example research topics include: 

• Integrating computing, sensing, and technology to improve mobility
  Example projects: Safe integration of autonomous vehicles in work zones; SCC-CIVIC-PG Track B: novel shared transportation services to improve rural-urban commutes; multi-scale models of urban congestion dynamics to support advanced congestion management strategies; PennDOT Act 130 Reporting: evaluating the impact of connected and automated vehicles to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; enhance autonomous truck-mounted attenuator system resiliency in a GPS-denied environment
• Reducing fatalities and injuries for all roadway users 
  Example projects: Updated calibration factors for highway safety manual crash prediction models; safety effects of freeway rumble strips on crash severity; crash modification factors for high-tension cable median barriers; crash modification factors for high-friction surface treatments; engineering countermeasures to mitigate reckless driving behavior
• Multimodal traffic operations
  Example projects: Enhancing crash modification factors and safety performance functions for pedestrian and bicyclist countermeasures; safety performance for active transportation modes using exposure models; economic modeling and control methods for next-generation carpool services; pedestrian and bicycle safety performance functions for the highway safety manual; SMART intersection multimodal safety countermeasure study
• Optimizing urban freight and curb space management
  Example projects: A data-driven microsimulation tool for dynamic curb planning and management; Zero-emissions urban freight and green loading zones market search; Analyzing the impacts of COVID-19 disruption on online and in-store shopping behaviors; Agent-based simulation approach to assess the system-wide environmental impacts of different parcel locker implementation strategies
• Electrifying transportation systems for sustainability and energy independence
  Example projects: Electric vehicle charging station (EVST) innovation: streetlight charging in city; electrifying terminal trucks in unincentivized markets; Pennsylvania medium and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicle program data collection and analysis; Penn State zero-emission fleet implementation