Western Transportation Institute
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/35
The Western Transportation Institute is the country's largest National University Transportation Center focused on rural transportation issues.
Because we live and work in rural communities, we understand the critical roles rural transportation plays in the lives of people, in the environment and in the economy.
We draw from our eight integrated research groups to create solutions that work for our clients, sponsors and rural transportation research partners. WTI focuses on rural issues, but some of our program areas also address the concerns of the urban environment. Whatever the objective, we bring innovation and expertise to each WTI transportation research project.
WTI's main facility with its state-of-the-art labs is adjacent to the Montana State University campus in Bozeman, Montana. We have additional offices in Alberta, Canada, and central Washington, and a large testing facility in rural Montana near Lewistown. Contact us to find out how to address your rural transportation research needs.
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Item Intercity Bus Service Funding and Assessment Methodology(University of South Florida Libraries, 2012-09) Ye, Zhirui; Kack, David; Chaudhari, Jaydeep; Ewan, LeviThe Federal Transit Administration (FTA)’s 5311(f) program requires that 15 percent of 5311 program funds given to a state be used to develop and support intercity bus (ICB) service. This 15 percent can be waived if the governor certifies that the ICB needs are being met within the state. This certification became harder to justify when FTA began requiring a more stringent consultation process before certification could be given. The objectives of this study are to learn about current practices of ICB service funding mechanisms, funds prioritization, and determination processes and strategies that promote ICB service. An assessment methodology for Montana was developed to determine whether ICB needs are being adequately met and how to allocate funds to support service. The results of this study will be valuable to other states considering developing methodologies for certification and funding allocation purposes.Item Incorporating wildlife passive use values in collision mitigation benefit-cost calculations(Nevada Department of Transportation, 2019-09) Duffield, John; Neher, ChrisThis document is a task report for a larger Wildlife Vehicle Collision (WVC) Reduction and Habitat Connectivity pooled fund study. It addresses the potential use of passive use economic values for wildlife to inform the mitigation of wildlife-vehicle collisions. Passive use, also known as non-use values, are the values individuals place on the existence of a given animal species or population as well as the bequest value of knowing that future generations will also benefit from preserving the species. This report provides a summary of the current literature of wildlife passive use value estimates and provides per-animal passive use values for selected species and populations. Additionally, an example of applying these values to a Montana road segment is outlined. Finally, a discussion of regional economic impacts of mitigation structure spending is outlined.Item Short and narrow roads cause substantial impacts on wildlife(2019) Magioli, Marcelo; Bovo, Alex A. A.; Huijser, Marcel P.; Abra, Fernanda D.; Miotto, Renata A.; Andrade, Victor H. V. P.; Nascimento, Adriana M.; Martins, Maisa Z. A.; Micchi de Barros Ferraz, Katia M. P.Short and narrow roads are generally overlooked when assessing road impacts on biodiversity. However, these roads bisect natural environments and may cause significant impacts on wildlife in local scale. Thus, we monitored roadkills along a short two-lane road (CPM road) in Southeastern Brazil and propose mitigation strategies to reduce wildlife mortality. We monitored roadkilled vertebrates along 5 km of CPM road from 2010 to 2016 and we also compiled data from previous studies along the same road. We conducted a hotspot analysis to identify CPM road areas with significant roadkill aggregation. We recorded 77 roadkilled vertebrates from 14 taxonomic groups along the CPM road. Mammals were the most frequently recorded group (91% of roadkills), which represented 56% of all medium- and large-sized mammal species known to occur in the study area. We identified three roadkill hotspots along the CPM road. Two of them were located at two stream crossings, where the road cut across the associated riparian forests, and the other was at a road section with water drainage from a pond, also connected to a riparian forest. These riparian forests are part of the remaining natural habitat that provides connectivity between the forest remnants in the landscape, and therefore, for wildlife. Our results showed that even short and narrow roads can have considerable roadkill, which may have severe effects for wildlife on a local scale. The results stress the need to carefully look at these types of roads and propose measures to reduce impacts. We propose the creation of safe crossing opportunities in the hotspot zones combined with wildlife fencing to keep the animals off the road and guide them towards the safe crossing opportunities.Item Performance of Arch-Style Road Crossing Structures from Relative Movement Rates of Large Mammals(2017-10) Andis, A. Z.; Huijser, Marcel P.; Broberg, LenIn recent decades, an increasing number of highway construction and reconstruction projects have included mitigation measures aimed at reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and maintaining habitat connectivity for wildlife. The most effective and robust measures include wildlife fences combined with wildlife underpasses and overpasses. The 39 wildlife crossing structures included along a 90 km stretch of US Highway 93 on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana represent one of the most extensive of such projects. We measured movements of large mammal species at 15 elliptical arch-style wildlife underpasses and adjacent habitat between April and November 2015. We investigated if the movements of large mammals through the underpasses were similar to large mammal movements in the adjacent habitat. Across all structures, large mammals (all species combined) were more likely to move through the structures than pass at a random location in the surrounding habitat. At the species level, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (O. hemionus) used the underpasses significantly more than could be expected based on their movement through the surrounding habitat. However, carnivorous species such as, black bear (Ursus americanus) and coyote (Canis latrans) moved through the underpasses in similar numbers compared to the surrounding habitat.Item Pay or prevent? Human safety, costs to society and legal perspectives on animal-vehicle collisions in Sao Paulo state, Brazil(2019-04) Abra, Fernanda D.; Granziera, Beatriz M.; Huijser, Marcel P.; de Barros Ferraz, Katia Maria Paschoaletto Micchi; Haddad, Camilla M.; Paolino, Roberta M.Direct road mortality and the barrier effect of roads are typically identified as one of the greatest threats to wildlife. In addition, collisions with large mammals are also a threat to human safety and represent an economic cost to society. We documented and explored the effects of animal-vehicle crashes on human safety in São Paulo State, Brazil. We estimated the costs of these crashes to society, and we summarized the legal perspectives. On average, the Military Highway Police of São Paulo reported 2,611 animal-vehicle crashes per year (3.3% of total crashes), and 18.5% of these resulted in human injuries or fatalities. The total annual cost to society was estimated at R$ 56,550,642 (US $ 25,144,794). The average cost for an animal-vehicle crash, regardless of whether human injuries and fatalities occurred, was R$ 21,656 (US $ 9,629). The Brazilian legal system overwhelmingly (91.7% of the cases) holds the road administrator liable for animal-vehicle collisions, both with wild and domestic species. On average, road administrators spent R$ 2,463,380 (US $ 1,005,051) per year compensating victims. The logical conclusion is that the Brazilian legal system expects road administrators to keep animals, both wild and domestic species, off the road. We suggest an improved coordination between the laws that relate to animal-vehicle collisions and human safety, and the process for environmental licenses that focuses on reducing collisions with wildlife and providing habitat connectivity. In addition, we suggest better management practices, raising awareness and social change with regard to abandoned domesticated animals including horses, cattle, and dogs. This should ultimately result in a road system with improved human safety, reduced unnatural mortality for both domestic and wild animal species, safe crossing opportunities for wildlife, and reduced monetary costs to society.Item The role of social capital in traffic safety citizenship(2018) Finley, Kari; Otto, Jay; Ward, NicholasTraffic safety citizenship is an emerging approach to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on our roadways. The goals of this study were to develop a model to identify beliefs and values associated with intention to engage in traffic safety citizenship behaviors with strangers and to explore the role of an individual's perception of social capital in this model. This study focused on two safety citizenship behaviors: intervening as a driver to ask a passenger to wear a seat belt and intervening as a passenger to ask a driver to stop reading or typing on a cell phone while driving. Results showed that one-third of the respondents had been in a situation to intervene with a stranger in the past twelve months. Of those in a situation to intervene, most reported they did not always intervene. They were more likely to intervene about a seat belt than about texting. Intention to intervene was significantly correlated with intervening behavior, and linear regression models revealed that perceived control was the dominant component most predictive of intention to intervene. Social capital did not directly predict intention to intervene but was predictive of the perceived injunctive norm and the perceived descriptive norm, which were both predictive of intention. Results of the study provide a better understanding of the beliefs and values associated with the intention to engage in traffic safety citizenship behaviors and the role of social capital to facilitate engagement in these behaviors. Recommendations to increase safety citizenship behaviors are provided.Item Bicycle & Pedestrian Infrastructure Improvements Realized in Communities of Less Than 10,000 People: Final Report(2018-12) Villwock-Witte, NatalieThe objective of this study was to better define underlying factors that have allowed communities of less than 10,000 people within three states (Maine, Minnesota, and New Hampshire) to successfully implement bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. These factors were defined by first conducting a thorough literature review along with general information gathering, as there is little published knowledge about communities of less than 10,000 people. Based on the information collected and synthesized from the literature review, interview questions were developed to ask leadership (planners, town administrators, elected officials) and advocates within communities of less than 10,000 people. Interviewees were targeted from two types of communities: those that have successfully implemented bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and those that have shown potential to implement bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. As an outcome of a series of in-depth interviews with key members in chosen communities, the following characteristics surfaced as being influential in whether or not bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure can be found within these smaller communities within Maine, Minnesota, and New Hampshire: • The speed limits, particularly adherence to speed limits within a community, • Having many champions for bicycle and pedestrian modes, • Having programs to teach or support bicycle and/or pedestrian modes, • Having bicycle and/or pedestrian groups, and • The community approval process.Item Economic feasibility of safety improvements on low-volume roads(2017-09) Al-Kaisy, Ahmed; Ewan, Levi A.; Hossain, FahmidThis article presents an investigation into the economic feasibility of safety countermeasures along rural low-volume roads. Although these roads may be associated with higher crash risks as they\'re built to meet lower standards, crash frequencies are notably lower than those on other roadways with higher traffic exposure. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some conventional safety countermeasures that are proven to be cost effective on well-travelled roads may turn out to be infeasible on low-volume roads. Twenty-seven safety improvements were examined in this investigation for their economic feasibility along low-volume roads. A roadway sample of 681 miles of Oregon was used in this study. Detailed benefit-cost analyses were performed using countermeasure costs, 10-year crash data, and expected crash reductions using Highway Safety Manual methods. Around half of the countermeasures investigated were found cost-effective for implementation along low-volume roads. Further, most of the countermeasures that were found to have very high benefit-cost ratio are associated with low initial cost and many of them do not require much maintenance cost. At the other end of the spectrum, almost all roadway cross-section safety improvements were found economically infeasible due to higher associated costs relative to the expected crash reduction benefits on low volume roads.Item Wolverine behavior varies spatially with anthropogenic footprint: implications for conservation and inferences about declines(2016-03) Stewart, Frances E.C.; Heim, Nicole A.; Clevenger, Anthony P.; Paczkowski, John; Volpe, John P.; Fisher, Jason T.Understanding a species’ behavioral response to rapid environmental change is an ongoing challenge in modern conservation. Anthropogenic landscape modification, or “human footprint,” is well documented as a central cause of large mammal decline and range contractions where the proximal mechanisms of decline are often contentious. Direct mortality is an obvious cause; alternatively, human-modified landscapes perceived as unsuitable by some species may contribute to shifts in space use through preferential habitat selection. A useful approach to tease these effects apart is to determine whether behaviors potentially associated with risk vary with human footprint. We hypothesized wolverine (Gulo gulo) behaviors vary with different degrees of human footprint. We quantified metrics of behavior, which we assumed to indicate risk perception, from photographic images from a large existing camera-trapping dataset collected to understand wolverine distribution in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. We systematically deployed 164 camera sites across three study areas covering approximately 24,000 km2, sampled monthly between December and April (2007–2013). Wolverine behavior varied markedly across the study areas. Variation in behavior decreased with increasing human footprint. Increasing human footprint may constrain potential variation in behavior, through either restricting behavioral plasticity or individual variation in areas of high human impact. We hypothesize that behavioral constraints may indicate an increase in perceived risk in human-modified landscapes. Although survival is obviously a key contributor to species population decline and range loss, behavior may also make a significant contribution.Item Integrated adaptive design for wildlife movement under climate change(2015-11) Lister, Nina-Marie; Brocki, Marta; Ament, Robert J.Climate change is anticipated to alter both wildlife movement and distributions. Despite mounting evidence that wildlife-crossing infrastructure offers a reliable, physical solution to the linked problems of wildlife road mortality and habitat fragmentation, pervasive barriers - from economic to governance structures - prevent the widespread introduction of an infrastructure network. To overcome these barriers, and to cope with the challenges posed by climate change, we argue that proactive, anticipatory planning and evidence-based, integrated highway-impact mitigation strategies are needed. Specifically, wildlife-crossing infrastructure should emphasize an integrated and adaptive approach to constructing innovative, modular, and potentially moveable structures that can be transferred from one location to another as monitoring of habitats and wildlife needs indicate. Continued investment in fixed, static structures, which are typically based on engineering standards designed for traffic loads rather than wildlife movement, may prove ineffectual as habitats change in composition and location, potentially leading to associated changes in the locations of wildlife-vehicle collisions.