MSU Doctoral Students Present Research at National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board 2023 Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting Is the World’s Largest Gathering of Transportation Practitioners and Researchers

Two Morgan State University doctoral students, Evan Taylor and Nicole Anderson, studying in the Transportation and Urban Infrastructure Studies Program (TUIS), recently presented their research before a gathering of approximately 350 session attendees at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 2023 Annual Meeting. Held in association with the National Academies of Sciences, TRB’s Annual Meeting attracts thousands of transportation professions from around the world. The theme of the 2023 meeting was “Rejuvenation Out of Disruption: Envisioning a Transportation System for a Dynamic Future.”

Taylor and Anderson’s participation in the meeting comes by way of their selection as 2023 Transportation Review Board Minority Student Fellows, a program designed to support Historically Black College or University (HBCU) students interested in pursuing professional careers in the transportation industry. The TRB Minority Student Program selects high-performing students studying in areas such as civil engineering, urban planning, biochemistry, global national security, and computer science to take part in the program. As participants in TRB’s Annual Meeting the fellows give paper presentations and engage in numerous other activities, including a career panel, networking, and committee meetings. The fellows are also matched with a mentor based on academic and professional goals.

Held each year during the month of January in Washington, D.C., the TRB Annual Meeting attracts more than 13,000 attendees. The meeting covers all transportation modes with sessions and workshops addressing an array of topics attracting policymakers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academia. The event allows attending minority student fellows to learn from top transportation researchers and professionals.

At this year’s meeting, Anderson presented her research Identifying Safest Complete Street Design: A Driving Simulator Study. She, along with other Morgan State students and professors, developed an efficient Complete Street (C.S.) based on the interactions among different transport modes across different population segments. This study evaluated the safety of a C.S. by simulating the interactions among bikes, cars, and transit using full-size driving and bike simulators. Participants from different socio-demographic groups were recruited to drive the car and ride the bicycle. The results found that the effectiveness of the various road layouts strongly depends on the type of barrier applied to the road pavement to separate the car lane from the bike lane. Lateral distance analysis also revealed that most drivers increased their lateral distances with the integrated bikes when passing through them.

Evan Taylor received the ‘Outstanding Graduate Poster Presentation’ award for his research — Analyzing Changes in Vehicular, Bicycle and Pedestrian Traffic Around Baltimore City Parks During COVID-19. The focus of his research centered on the COVID-19 pandemic as not only a global health crisis but also a source of disruption worldwide. Stay-at-home orders and other restrictions on mobility represent potential inhibitors of outdoor recreational activities, especially around parks. In Baltimore City, these restrictions on daily activities are of central concern as equitable park usage drives the well-being of people across the City. Using the Streetlight mobility data platform, his research paper investigated whether vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic around Baltimore City parks changed during the pandemic. To this end, the study considers three dimensions of park-related mobility during the pandemic: changes in traffic volume; changes in traveler attributes; and shifts in the time people visited parks. Taylor worked with Dr. Celeste Chavis and Dr. Mansoureh Jeihani to complete this work during the summer of 2022.

The National Academy of Sciences is an internationally recognized society of distinguished scholars who provide objective scientific advice to the government on matters related to science and technology which supports public policy. The Transportation Research Board provides the Academies with trusted, timely, impartial, evidence-based information, research, and advice on all modes of transportation and technology.

Congratulations to Evan Taylor and Nicole Anderson for their achievements and ensuring Morgan continues its ascendancy on the pathway to excellence.