School bikeability – what is it, and why is it important? An overview of key indicators and measurement
Ivana Paulusová and Fariya Sharmeen
TRANSPORT REVIEWS
https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2024.2405218
Despite the theoretical recognition of children’s specific needs regarding road safety, there remains a lack of literature focusing on children’s bikeability or bikeability to school. This is rather concerning as many developed countries have witnessed a decline in active travel to school over the past few decades, despite the existence of well-recognized positive benefits of cycling for children. Recognising the significance of school travel, this study addresses this gap. Through an overview of existing literature, it discusses the importance of school bikeability and sheds light on its specific differences from general accessibility and bikeability, and identifies a set of indicators for measuring it. These indicators, categorised into four domains – Cycling Infrastructure, Connectivity and urbanisation, Safety, and Surrounding environment, can be further utilised to assess school bikeability in any given area. The results of such an assessment can be effectively used to guide investments and policies aimed at establishing safe and secure cycling routes to and from schools.
Snow Removal at Extreme Temperatures
Michelle Akin, Jiang Huang, Xianming Shi, David Veneziano, Dan Williams
Clear Roads Program, Minnesota Department of Transportation, March 2013.
http://www .clearroads.org/downloads/Snow-Removal-Extreme-Temps-Final-Report.pdf
This report is immediately noteworthy for the thoroughness of its literature review in Appendix A, which makes up more than two-thirds of the report: 47 of 72 pages. Moreover, it includes international research and research from fields such as airports where snow-removal practices are different but potentially relevant to the work of state DOTs. The literature review also represents a clear topical organization, first providing an overview of literature available on various deicing chemicals with a focus on their physical properties, and then reviewing various strategies for clearing snow and ice from roads at low temperatures.
Development of a Concrete Maturity Test Protocol
W. James Wilde
Center for Transportation Research and Implementation, Minnesota State University, Mankato Report No. MN/RC 2013-10, April 2013.
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TS/2013/201310.pdf
Field and laboratory studies were undertaken to evaluate the applicability of the concrete maturity method to establishing criteria for opening portland cement concrete pavements to traffic. The field study included visits to18 paving projects in Minnesota over a 3-year period. At these projects, different sensor types were evaluated. In the laboratory study, 2-in. mortar cubes were tested to develop sensitivity analyses related to the proportions of cementitious materials, water–cementitious materials ratio, and other mix components. The literature review chapter of the report summarizes and discusses the literature regarding (1) the maturity method in general and its use in concrete pavements in particular; (2) supplementary cementing materials; (3) maturity and flexural strength; and (4) various types of sensors for measuring maturity.
Quality of Life: Assessment for Transportation Performance Measures
Ingrid Schneider, Tian Guo, Sierra Schroeder
Minnesota Department of Transportation
Report No. MN/RC 2013-05, January 2013.
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/research/TS/2013/2013-05.pdf
This report investigates a topic (the effect of transportation on quality of life) with relatively little published research and none that addresses the topic comprehensively. To provide context for the report, the researchers start with a broader assessment of research into quality of life. This assessment defines key terms relevant to the study as well as methodologies that have been used to measure and predict quality of life, with a number of demographic distinctions.
Connecting the literature to transportation requires something of a patchwork approach, collecting papers that illuminate some specific element of transportation’s effect on quality of life to give as complete a picture as possible. Chapter 2 reports on the limited assessments that have been conducted as well as the strengths and weaknesses of their methodologies, organized by the specific factor investigated. In doing so, the literature review clearly delineates what is known and what is not known about the subject.