Director’s Message

Dear Colleagues, Collaboration is indeed everything and key to the success of the STRIDE Center and to the mission of the USDOT/ RITA University Transportation Centers as a whole. When a group of eight universities in the Southeastern region of the U.S. come together to resolve transportationrelated issues, when researchers from these universities team up across state lines to work on research, educational, workforce development and technology transfer projects, that’s when collectivity wins and success ensues. Peppered throughout this annual report, you’ll find quotes from researchers associated with STRIDE who have welcomed this approach. In the two years since the STRIDE Center’s inception, 29 projects have been selected and 73 percent of those are collaborative, bringing together researchers from multiple institutions within the STRIDE consortium. The projects range from using virtual reality to teach children how to safely cross the street, to investigating the relationship between unsafe driving events and driver body posture, to using crowdsourcing as a way to improve bike route networks, to integrating emissions modeling into CORSIM, a microscopic traffic simulation software maintained at the University of Florida. Read about these projects and more starting on page 12.

Our policy on collaboration continues right into STRIDE’s educational activities with teams of researchers working on creating new courses. These range from public transportation education, to bike and pedestrian planning course modules, to teaching basic principles that introduce rating systems for designing sustainable neighborhoods. These educational initiatives are highlighted beginning on page 24.

Henry Ford said “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Here at STRIDE we firmly believe this, and we once again look forward to another productive and collaborative year in 2014. Our doors are open. We invite you to join us in this mission.

Lily Elefteriadou, Ph.D. Professor & UFTI/STRIDE Director

Publisher

Lily Elefteriadou, Ph.D. UFTI/STRIDE Director Kisinger Campo Professor of Civil Engineering elefter@ce.ufl.edu

Managing Editor

Ines Aviles-Spadoni, M.S. STRIDE Coordinator iaviles@ce.ufl.edu

Copy Editor

Alison Tillman, B.A.

Graphic Artist

Christina Cozart, B.F.A

Center Theme

The Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE) Center is a USDOT/RITA grant-funded, regional University Transportation Center (UTC) headquartered at the University of Florida that conducts transportationrelated research in the areas of safety, livable communities and economic competitiveness. Through the strong interdisciplinary network of researchers, educators, state DOTs, private and public agencies, and professional organizations across the southeastern U.S. and nationally, the Center will advance the state-of-the art in transportation and develop a robust workforce for designing, implementing and managing the transportation systems of the future to improve the transportation system and collectively expand its outreach in the Southeast and in the U.S.