BTR6 Headline Speakers

Please join us each each day to kick off BTR sessions with…

United States’ Susan Handy, Denmark’s Francisco Camara Pereira, 
Japan’s Toshiyuki Yamamoto, India’s Geetam Tiwari.

Western track: Time TBD

SHIFTING GEARS: CAN RESEARCH CHANGE PROFESSIONAL THINKING?

BIO: Susan Handy is a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Policy and Director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation at the University of California, Davis, where she also chairs the graduate program in Transportation Technology and Policy. Her research focuses on strategies for reducing automobile dependence, including bicycling as a mode of transportation. She is the author of Shifting Gears, published by MIT Press.

ABSTRACT: It is not hard to find examples in which research has informed transportation policy and practice. But does research also influence how transportation professionals think? I start by discussing why ideas are important to the profession and what role research can play in shaping them. I then present three examples of core ideas in the transportation profession that have shifted to a lesser or greater degree, while considering the role of research, including my own, in these shifts: mobility versus accessibility, capacity expansion versus demand management, and hierarchy versus connectivity. These examples illustrate a few of the ways that core ideas within the transportation profession have shifted over time and the role of different kinds of research in supporting, encouraging, and documenting those shifts.

Western track: Time TBD

SCALABILITY AND GENERALISATION OF TRANSPORT MODELING AND SIMULATION WITH AI

BIO: Francisco Camara Pereira is Professor at DTU, where he leads the Intelligent Transport Systems group. His research is about the methodological combination of Machine Learning and Transport Research, to address challenges such as demand modeling, traffic prediction, data collection, simulation metamodeling, or anomaly detection. He has been Marie Curie fellow for two times (2011 and 2016) and is currently a Novo Nordisk Data Science Distinguished Investigator. He has published over 70 articles in both Machine Learning and Transport Research. Before joining DTU, he was Senior Research Scientist with SMART/MIT (2011-2015) and Assistant professor in the University of Coimbra (2005- 2015).

ABSTRACT: Large-scale transport simulation models face the critical challenge of computational complexity. This complexity significantly hampers calibration and model exploration, such as scenario discovery, due to the extensive time required for each simulation run. Traditionally, two approaches have been employed to mitigate this issue: model simplification through spatial and/or temporal aggregation and scope reduction by focusing on specific segments of the transport network or population subsets. Alternatively, analytical or statistical model approximations, known as metamodels, have been utilized. Recently, Machine Learning (ML)-based metamodels have gained popularity for their potential to streamline simulations. However, these models often struggle with out-of-distribution scenarios, failing to accurately represent the original simulation under new conditions, such as policy interventions.
This keynote introduces recent advancements in causal metamodeling, an approach that integrates ML-based metamodeling with domain-specific knowledge to produce simulation approximations that not only remain true to the original model but also operate with significantly enhanced speed. Drawing on the recent and ongoing research, I will outline the foundational concepts, share preliminary findings, and explore the challenges and opportunities this research presents. Through causal metamodeling, we aim to significantly improve the scalability and generalization capabilities of simulation models, opening new avenues for comprehensive and efficient scenario analysis and policy advisory.

Eastern track: Time TBD

HYDROGEN CHICKEN AND EGG: HYDROGEN FUEL CELL VEHICLE OWNERSHIP AND ACCEPTANCE OF HYDROGEN FUELING STATION

BIO: Toshiyuki Yamamoto is Professor at Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability, Nagoya University, Japan. He obtained doctoral degree on household vehicle ownership and use from Kyoto University, Japan in 2000. He stayed at INRETS (now IFSTTAR), France and University of Washington, U.S.A. as visiting scholar from 2000 to 2001 and then, joined Nagoya University as Associate Professor at Department of Civil Engineering. He became Professor at EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University in 2010 (reorganized to Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability in 2015), and also concurrently joined Green Mobility Collaborative Research Center (now Global Research Institute for Mobility in Society), Nagoya University in 2011. His research interests are next-generation mobility, activity-travel behavior, traffic safety, etc. He is Principal Investigator of the project, Sustainability development and cost-reduction of hybrid renewable energies powered hydrogen stations by risk-based multidisciplinary approaches funded by JST SICORP EIG Concert-Japan in 2022-2024, and another project, Technological Research and Development of Phase-Free Transportation Management through Digital Transformation funded by MLIT, Japan in 2023-2024. He serves as Associate Editor for the journal, Transportation, Committee Member for Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values AEP30, Transportation Research Board, and International Steering Committee Member for International Conference on Transport Survey Method.

ABSTRACT: Hydrogen has been touted as a clean alternative to fossil fuels in Japan. As the first country to adopt plans for a “Hydrogen Society,” which is a society that uses hydrogen as a major source of power, it becomes crucial to investigate the consumers’ attitudes towards this technology. Currently, sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) remain small compared to what was envisaged in the Basic Hydrogen Strategy. The first half of the talk is on consumer preferences toward HFCVs including the investigation of the socioeconomic profiles of 500 potential car buyers with and without interest in HFCVs, stated preferences for HFCVs under various hypothetical vehicle attributes and policy incentives, the profile of 89 actual private HFCV early adopters, and the intention to continue or discontinue their ownership. One of the findings is that approximately 50% of the private HFCV early adopters intended to discontinue their HFCV ownership, and insufficient number of stations is a significant factor among others.
The second half of the talk is on public acceptance to hydrogen fueling stations (HFSs). We adopt a cross-national research perspective to investigate the public acceptance of neighboring HFSs in Japan, Spain, and Norway. Five categories of explanatory variables, i.e., awareness levels of hydrogen energy, HFS configurations (site type and scale, hydrogen source and supply), residential characteristics, car ownership and usage, and socio-demographics, are used to account for public acceptance. The results highlight several predictors with polarizing effects, e.g., the awareness of hydrogen-related accidents, the presence of risk information and safety measures, and the availability of green hydrogen supply at HFSs, indicating potential pathways to promote public acceptance.

TENTATIVE TITLE: COST-EFFECTIVE INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE ROAD DEATHS GLOBALLY

BIO: Geetam Tiwari is an international authority on transportation planning and safety, and serves as MoUD Chair Professor for Transport Planning at the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. She has extensive research experience in dealing with transportation issues of special relevance to low-income countries, including development of safer and more efficient bus systems and road designs, with a particular focus on traffic and transport planning related to pedestrians, bicycles, and bus systems. With degrees from the University of Roorkee (BA, architecture) and the University of Illinois, Chicago (MA, urban planning and policy; Ph.D., transport planning and policy), Tiwari has served as Adlerbertska Guest Professor for sustainable urban transport at the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden (2007–2010).