BRIDGE: Behavioral Response to the I-35W Disruption: Gauging Equilibration

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This research is built upon a recent NSF-funded Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) project (NSF Award CMMI 0753580) that aims to collect perishable travel behavior and traffic data after the collapse of I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. The goal of this project is to analyze the collected data and develop a firm foundation for travel behavior models that can answer the following three open questions: 1) How do travelers make their trip-making choices in a day-to-day context under network disruption? 2) How do traffic patterns evolve from a disequilibrium state toward an equilibrium state? 3) How should transportation agencies prioritize the allocation of transportation resources in response to the network disruption, particularly during the process of traffic equilibration? Answering these questions will make a major leap forward in transportation science because the learning process and resulting altered behavior of travelers after severe network disruption has rarely been studied due to data availability. This work will benefit many audiences, including undergraduate and graduate students, transportation researchers and practicing engineers. Results from the research will be used to enhance both undergraduate and graduate level courses in transportation engineering. Additional data collected from this project and other related projects will be shared with interested researchers. The PIs will work closely with local and state transportation agencies and will make their best effort to convey the findings from this research to the transportation agencies and academic community.