The Development of a Measurement Tool for Mastery of Assistive Technology

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-06-30) Satterfield, Richard (Ben) ; Walker, Bruce N. ; Milchus, Karen

This report describes the development of a survey tool used to measure and assess “mastery of assistive technology”. A Delphi Panel comprised of experts in the area of Assistive Technology (AT) was gathered to explore the question of “What is mastery of AT?” For the purposes of this study, mastery was defined as becoming a “power user” of AT. Panelists were asked to identify what characteristics are associated with being a power user of AT. The panel gave these characteristics Likert Scale rankings as to their applicability as a predictor of becoming a power user and as an indicator of having become a power user. The rankings were compared, and the panel was asked to revisit the rankings in order to identify the most important factors. The panel identified 12 predictors and 14 indicators that they felt were highly predictive of becoming a power user or indicative of being one. These factors were analyzed and found to coalesce around four constructs or areas of mastery: (1) Experience (Usage) with AT; (2) Proficiency with AT; (3) Knowledge of AT; and (4) Personal Connection with AT. An online survey-based tool for measuring AT mastery was developed based on these constructs and presented to the panel for feedback and critique.
Women’s Action towards Climate Resilience for Urban Poor in South Asia: Baseline Report

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-11) Elliott, Michael ; Iyer, Veena ; Chauhan, Dharmistha

The Women's action towards managing health impacts of climate change affecting urban poor in south Asia Project aims to build the resilience capacity of women from slum communities in seven cities of South Asia, to take the lead in action against four climate risks. These four climate stressors – heat waves, flooding and inundation, water scarcity, and increased incidence of water and vector borne diseases – often impact the poor most but are slower‐onset and less apparent than climate disasters and extreme events.
Women’s Action towards Climate Resilience for Urban Poor in South Asia: Midline Report

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-10) Elliott, Michael ; Iyer, Veena ; Chauhan, Dharmistha

The Women's Action towards Managing Health Impacts of Climate Change Affecting the Urban Poor in South Asia Project aims to build the resilience capacity of women from slum communities in seven cities of South Asia, to take the lead in action against four climate risks. These four climate stressors – heat waves, flooding and inundation, water scarcity, and increased incidence of water and vector borne diseases – often impact the poor most but are slower‐onset and less apparent than climate disasters and extreme events. The project aims to create a model wherein women take a lead through collective action and technology incubation to devise locally relevant, pro‐poor, and gender sensitive climate resilient solutions. This model will ultimately promote a culture of sustainable development and resilience among the urban poor in South Asia. Success for this project means a demonstration of how women‐led initiatives have built the necessary social capital, policy influence, technical expertise, for poor urban communities to respond effectively to climate change, thereby sustaining their health and livelihood options.
Crowdsourced Social Media Monitoring System Development

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2017-08) Kumar, Amit ; Ross, Catherine L. ; Karner, Alex ; Katyal, Rohan

Crowdsourcing is a relatively new area of research, but it is already generating an enormous amount of interest among both researchers and practitioners, and is finding applications in multiple domains. It is particularly useful for efficient traffic management and increasing public participation. Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) are already using crowdsourced technologies and others are exploring its applications for traffic management. Researchers are using sensor-rich mobile phones and online social networks for fetching data from network users. Despite recent advancements, there remain gaps between the state of the art and practice that need to be bridged. Programs like the Waze Connected Citizens Program and Strava Metro Data Program are success stories in practice. This study explores the implementation of crowdsourced traffic management by Georgia DOT (GDOT) and the challenges specific to them. The reliability of data and filtering high volumes of information were found to be the two primary concerns. The team proposed a system which can potentially tackle those challenges. The system consists of a mobile application and a text mining application that together leverage the existing Twitter technology stack. Based on interviews with traffic management professionals and a visit to GDOT, the report contains recommendations that would improve the workflow at the traffic management center (TMC). Computer vision, data management and social media analytics would be particularly beneficial to decrease operator burden. A system with multiple sources of information integrated into one would be particularly beneficial. We are on the cusp of a revolution with respect to big data and crowdsourcing. This is the ideal time for GDOT to invest in crowdsourcing technologies to reap the benefits in the future.
National MAP-21 Implementation and Monitoring

( 2016-12) Ross, Catherine L. ; Hunter, Michael D. ; Welch, Timothy F.

This report presents an analysis of performance measures adopted by states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in light of the adoption of such measures in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). MAP-21 was signed into law by President Obama on July 6, 2012. It featured a new federal emphasis on performance measurement. This focus promotes transparency of public data and decision-making and attempts to improve the accountability of public spending by better-linking investments to outcomes. MAP-21 identified seven thematic areas for which the Secretary of Transportation determined performance measures should be adopted. These areas include (1) safety, (2) infrastructure condition, (3) congestion reduction, (4) system reliability, (5) freight movement and economic vitality, (6) environmental sustainability, and (7) reduced project delivery delays. The project team studied 377 MPOs across the country and selected 40 MPOs for further detailed analyses. The analyses revealed similar findings to those at the state-level where some MPOs have implemented performance measures as suggested by the federal legislation while many other MPOs have not yet adopted any performance measures. An analysis of measures implemented by all state DOTs and MPOs reveals that agencies have independently implemented a vast number of measures that fall into the seven with the exception of significant deficiencies in freight movement and economic vitality and environmental sustainability measures.
Bringing Freight Components into Statewide and Regional Travel Demand Forecasting: PART 1

( 2016-01) Lee, David Jung-Hwi ; Ross, Catherine L.

Transportation decision makers have the difficult task of investment decision making having limited resources while maximizing benefit to the transportation system. Given the growth in freight transport and its importance to national, state, and regional economies, public-sector agencies need improved capabilities to analyze freight movement. In general, freight modeling is not widely developed and operationalized, at the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) level in particular due to the complexity of freight movement and the lack of availability of detailed truck trip data. This study develops a methodological framework of a tour-based freight demand model at the MPO level using GPS truck data. Methodologically it is a more accurate model compared to trip based models allowing truck trips to be linked, which reflects how truck drivers and dispatchers often make multiple trips within a single ‘trip chain’ or ‘tour’. Disaggregate truck movement data can be obtained via truck global positioning system (GPS) records collected in this study by the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI). The developed framework has been applied to two metropolitan areas in the southeast, one covering the region around Atlanta, Georgia, and the other around Birmingham, Alabama. The report illustrates, with examples, potential uses of the model with multiple performance measures and also shows possibilities of applying the model to corridor analyses, small geographic area analyses, and scenario planning. The report introduces performance measures to compare the results of the two classes of models namely, the tour-based and the trip-based models. The results of six scenarios of the Atlanta metropolitan area are presented and compared along with some important policy implications for practice. The numerical results demonstrate that GPS data is feasible for model calibration and that tour-based models provide conceptually robust forecasts that sustain empirical validation under multiple scenarios. Although the study focuses on the Atlanta Metropolitan area, policymakers at all levels of government in other state DOTs and MPOs can benefit from this study and develop their own truck demand model borrowing the framework used.
Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail: Population Comparison Measuring Changes in Behavior Related to Health

( 2012-12) Smith, Sarah M. ; Ross, Catherine L. ; Elliott, Michael

The Atlanta BeltLine is one of the largest redevelopment projects currently underway in the United States. It represents an exciting new vision for the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta region. The project will ultimately include the transformation of a 22-mile mostly abandoned freight rail corridor to a new system of parks, trails, and transit. The construction of the BeltLine is creating greater opportunities for residents to have a higher quality healthier life through the creation of new greenspace, walkable neighborhoods, high-quality infill development, transit, and healthy communities. Taken together, the BeltLine components are intended to create a continuous loop of urban regeneration around the core of the city. Linked by transit and greenspace, the BeltLine will connect people with places and with each other. A section of the BeltLine, known as the Eastside Trail, will eventually include lighting, plantings, and other design elements and is intended for walking, bicycling, and other non-motorized movement. This research report examines how an external health determinant such as the construction of the BeltLine Eastside Trail can potentially shape individual behavior patterns in the population living along the corridor. The report also analyzes how this behavioral change can impact public health, specifically by providing an increased opportunity for physical activity, as well as how the creation of greenspace, which provides opportunities for social interaction, can improve mental health.
Health Impact Assessment of Atlanta Regional Plan 2040

( 2012-12) Ross, Catherine L. ; Elliott, Michael ; Rushing, Michelle M. ; Barringer, Jason ; Smith, Sarah ; Frackelton, Alexandra ; Kent, John ; Rao, Arthi ; West, Harry

The objective of this work was to integrate the HIA process into the larger planning process to the greatest extent possible. An HIA will ensure the explicit consideration for the human health impacts in regional transportation and land use planning. Second, it increases the regional capacity for HIA practice through collaboration with community and research partners, and develops a prototypical approach for measuring and improving regional planning outcomes. Ultimately through the HIA process, sustainability, economic benefit, and health were presented as mutually-supportive and attainable goals of transportation and land use planning. Although some examples of comprehensive planning HIAs exist in the U.S., the Plan 2040 assessment is one of the earliest HIAs of a regional comprehensive plan for a major metropolitan area.
Progressive site modeling with videogrammetry

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-08) Brilakis, Ioannis

While existing fully automatic stereo reconstruction systems are showing great promise in 3D reconstruction of outdoor scenes, their main priority is to achieve a visually appealing model via smoothing or interpolating the 3D data; this may fill the holes in the model and/or smoothen bumpy areas but significantly affects the Euclidean accuracy of the measurements. Unlike these techniques, the primary goal of this project is to provide accurate measurements.
Development and implementation of a decision support tool for the Atlanta Beltline: final report

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-07) Ross, Catherine L. ; Elliot, Michael

The Beltline Tax Allocation Advisory Committee (TADAC) together with the Atlanta Beltline Inc. (ABI) contracted with the Georgia Tech Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development and its partners from Georgia Tech and Cambridge Systematics to develop a tool in support of systematic decision‐making for the Beltline. The decision support tool (DST) is designed to help guide TADAC, Atlanta BeltLine Inc., and stakeholders in process and program decisions, clarify and enumerate the goals, objectives, and vision for the BeltLine, and allow scenarios to be compared on their ability to effectively and equitably realize that vision. It provides a means of measuring both baseline conditions throughout the BeltLine and potential impacts of new development on those baseline conditions. The BeltLine is Atlanta’s most ambitious redevelopment project, directly impacting approximately seven percent of the land in the city and encompassing thousands of new homes, businesses, and public facilities, new parks and trails, transit service, and new or redesigned streets and sidewalks. The enabling legislation for the BeltLine requires these changes to be evaluated through a DST. The DST will integrate physical, environmental, and socioeconomic information to establish priorities, evaluate scenarios, establish accountability, and estimate likely impacts of the BeltLine implementation. The DST is designed to provide an objective and consistent way to test decisions against the BeltLine vision and goals, and to evaluate decisions on their alignment with the interests of all stakeholders, as expressed in this vision and goals. This document presents the Final Report for Phase I of the DST development project. This report describes the background for the project, outlines the framework and development of the DST model, explains the working of the model, and provides details as to its upkeep and management. It documents and provides guidance as to the use and maintenance of the model.