Understanding User Needs

Are We Ready? Evaluating Evacuation Preparedness, Behavior, and Vulnerability During Wildfires in Washington

As wildfires intensify across the western United States, communities in the wildland-urban interface face growing risks to life, infrastructure, and mobility. Wildfire evacuations, often occurring under rapidly changing conditions with limited warning, require coordinated responses informed by real-world human behavior. However, current evacuation planning models often rely on assumptions that do not reflect the variability […]

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Opportunities and Limits of Individual Behavioral Changes: Phase I

Individual travel behavior changes such as changing from driving to non-car-based modes of transportation can have overarching implications at the system level in reducing congestion and improving the mobility for all. And yet, individual behavioral changes are hard due to a variety of personal and system-level factors. Efforts to change individual travel behaviors have been

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Do Millennials and Zoomers Participate in Teleactivities More and Travel Less Than Older Generations?

This project seeks to bridge two lines of inquiry, both concerning the future trajectory of travel behavior. The first one explores shifts in travel patterns amid the rise of home-based teleactivities – defined here as activities traditionally conducted outside the home but increasingly performed at home through digital technological applications, such as working from home,

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Estimating Latent Bicyclist and Pedestrian Demand for Shared Use Path Design

This is a human behavioral study designed to develop methodology to predict demand for bicycle and pedestrian facilities. The current design guidance for bicycle and pedestrian facilities does not include specific guidance for predicting numbers of bicycle and pedestrian users.  The available guidance for such facilities suggests designers should consider the number of users, and

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A Virtual Reality Framework for Analyzing Pedestrian Crossing Behavior and Decision-Making Factors

Pedestrian safety remains a critical concern, with a significant rise in pedestrian fatalities in recent years. In 2022 alone, 7,522 pedestrians died in crashes, marking a troubling 57% rise from 2013 (Smart Growth America, 2024). However, traditional safety research focusing on crash outcomes and infrastructure factors has failed to capture the nuanced behavioral aspects that

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Potential Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for Travel Behavior Survey Research

Traditional travel behavior surveys are resource-intensive and constrained by challenges such as small sample sizes, response bias, and high costs. With the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, particularly LLMs, we now have the opportunity to explore novel, cost-efficient methods for creating synthetic data comparable to real-world survey results. However, the potential of LLMs to contribute

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Enhancing the Use of Attitudinal Marker Variables in Travel Behavior Models: Evaluation of Latent Class Modeling Approaches Using a Nationwide Travel Survey

Recent studies have shown that an abbreviated set of attitudinal marker variables (MVs) can serve as proxies for attitudinal factor scores from the full set of attitudinal variables, either directly or through machine learning-based imputation. Compared to models without attitudes, these MVs enhance model fit, identify additional significant explanatory variables, and improve prediction of less-often

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Neutralizing Onerous Heat Effects on Active Transportation (NO-HEAT) in Atlanta

This project advances research at the intersection of heat resilience and multimodal transportation by combining urban microclimate modeling and sensing tools with big data and travel behavioral frameworks. We aim to explore how, and to what extent, people modify their activity-mobility patterns during periods of extreme heat in Atlanta, GA. We will extend recently developed

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Spatiotemporal Heterogeneous Change of Travel Behavior during Wildfires in California

California suffers from frequent and intense wildfires every year due to its unique weather patterns and dense, flammable vegetation. Wildfires often cause significant infrastructure damage, disrupt roadway networks, interrupt business operations, and generate hazardous smoke, all of which can deteriorate the driving environment, elevate perceived safety risks, limit individuals’ ability to meet daily work-life demands,

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