Spring 2021
The UMEC Report The newsletter for the Urban Mobility & Equity Center, a Tier 1 University Transportation Center led by Morgan State University
Research spotlight COVID-19 creates unique research opportunity
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hen COVID-19 upended daily routines, UMEC researchers quickly designed projects for this rare chance to study drastic changes in both road and transit use. Dr. Jianhe Du, senior research associate at Virginia Tech, noted that in 2019, the 276 million registered vehicles in the U.S. Traffic on I-66 in Virginia in 2019 accounted for 28.2% of the U.S.’ total energy consumption and to take a look at this seriously,” Dr. emissions. Researchers had studied Du said. improving the efficiency of both She presented her findings in a the transportation system and the webinar on Feb. 26, “COVID-19 vehicles themselves, “but these only Pandemic Impacts on Traffic Sysscratched the surface of the probtem Delay, Fuel Consumption and lem,” she said. Emissions,” which is available on One method never before invesYouTube. tigated was decreasing the overall Dr. Du and her team examined demand of the system –what if seven testbeds – five in Los Angeeveryone who could stayed home. les, one in Doha, Qatar, and an“When COVID-19 hit, it actually other for I-66 in northern Virginia generated a great opportunity for us Director’s Message 2
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– all areas notorious for traffic congestion. The researchers used two major models: QUEENSOD software to estimate linked travel volume, and INTEGRATION, which uses travel demand and the embedded VT-Micro to estimate fuel consumption and greenhouse gases based on instantaneous speed, acceleration and deceleration of vehicles. In the first Los Angeles testbed, they found that a 10% reduction in demand reduced delays by 20%, but when the demand fell by 45%, delays were reduced by 90%, “which is really impressive,” Dr. Du said. Emissions didn’t drop quite as much as congestion, but they still were reduced by 65% to 75%, and the results were consistent across the other Los Angeles testbeds. Continued on page 2 Research Projects
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