In the August 2014 issue of the ITE Journal, Jeffrey Tumlin, Eric Dumbaugh, and Wesley Marshall explore the error of assuming transportation performance measures are objective. They are not. The authors assert “we should be aware of how our performance measures relate to the values and desires of the public which we serve. If there... Read more »
BART Board member Gail Murray, Joey Goldman, Cathleen Sullivan, Bethany Whitaker, and other colleagues led a study that has been released from the Transportation Research Board. Under TCRP Project H-49, they identified and documented the motivations, benefits, and barriers to coordination and integration among multiple public transportation providers. The Transit Integration Manual (Volume I) provides... Read more »
RB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 832: State DOTs Connecting Specialized Transportation Users and Rides, Volume 2: Toolkit for State DOTs and Others assists agencies and organizations with the process of designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating linkages that connect customers of specialized transportation services and programs with rides. The stand-alone toolkit directs lead agencies and partners through the decision process for their state, region, or county, and factors in budget limitations. Design decisions and evaluation criteria tailored to each functionality level are also provided.
In an era of limited and constrained funding, transportation agencies struggle to meet the needs of travelers and the demands on the system. Agencies need creative and low-cost transportation solutions and seek to identify ways to maximize use of existing multimodal networks.
There are tradeoffs to everything; there is no perfect material. Using fly ash as recycled content in concrete solves one problem (how to dispose of a hazardous industrial by-product), but is it perpetuating the justification of burning coal as a fuel source?
PVC is unique within the broad spectrum of plastics because it is a chlorinated plastic. Its chlorinated chemistry is responsible for a range of environmental and human health hazards.
Many flame retardants are persistent, bioaccumulative, and/or toxic, and the building products that incorporate them can be avoided in many cases.
Mass timber high-rise construction is gaining momentum in the United States. Developers are finding that along with its beautiful aesthetic and sustainable appeal, mass timber is a cost competitive and schedule-advantaged structural material. Using the mass timber and concrete designs presented by Timmers et al in the report Mass Timber High-Rise Design Research: Museum Tower... Read more »
This study demonstrates a design of a code-compliant, highrise mass timber apartment tower in Los Angeles. Using the existing reinforced concrete Museum Tower Apartment building in downtown Los Angeles as a basis, the study demonstrates architectural, structural and fire performance improvements and trade-offs of the mass timber design compared to the reinforced concrete design. The... Read more »
ABSTRACT: The paper will discuss the design of a bi-directional thermo-hygroscopic façade as a dedicated outdoor air system to cool and dehumidify outside air. The system is a variant of dedicated outdoor air systems to separate dehumidification and cooling in air-conditioning equipment and locates components within the building envelope. The integrated hybrid-building envelope relies on... Read more »
ABSTRACT: Available energy analysis and optimization methods do not produce fast and accurate enough results to provide guidance to professional design teams making massing and technology decisions. This paper proposes two methods using the reduced-order Energy Performance Calculation (EPC) toolkit with parametric building models and optimizers in Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and MATLAB to provide rapid feedback... Read more »
