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Pathways Toward Electric Mobility in Hennepin County, Minnesota

This fact sheet presents the findings from a comprehensive community engagement initiative focused on advancing equitable transportation electrification in Hennepin County. This initiative responds to the critical need for inclusive and sustainable mobility solutions in the face of rising environmental and financial challenges in the transportation sector. This project has two goals. First, to learn what each community's priorities are and share them with the city, county, and state government to inform transportation plans and projects. Second, to bridge divides between government and community, building pathways for community-guided decision making on future transportation plans.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLIC↗

Cordon screen: A cordon-based congestion pricing policy evaluation method for U.S. cities

Global trends toward urbanization will exacerbate traffic congestion, delays in economic productivity, and air pollution issues for growing cities. Traffic congestion pricing is one method available to help ameliorate these concerns. New York City is on the verge of implementing a cordon-based traffic congestion pricing policy around its central business district. For budget-constrained municipalities, evaluating implementation of such policy could be costly. This article proposes a sketch-planning methodology, called Cordon Screen, for major U.S. cities to evaluate the net income, traffic mitigation, and avoided pollution emissions from cordon-based traffic congestion pricing. This method relies on national datasets and limited user-specific data inputs, along with a range of user-selectable assumptions informed by academic literature to deliver order-of-magnitude results. The numerous limitations of this method are acceptable for preliminary policy evaluation to determine if greater financial investment to obtain more accurate results is justified. The Denver metropolitan area is used to demonstrate Cordon Screen capabilities, with mid-range assumption results suggesting the policy is most effective at generating net income and increasing vehicle speeds on major interstates. For Denver, the policy is comparably less effective at reducing air pollution and increasing speeds on minor roadways. Validation against early implementation results from the London cordon are acceptable. Still, users should discount revenue generation projections. Choice of cordon area may be the most difficult obstacle when using the Cordon Screen. With refinement, Cordon Screen could serve as a low-cost, open-source planning evaluation tool for growing and congested U.S. cities.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

2001 Atlanta Household Travel Survey

The 2001 Atlanta Household Travel Survey collected demographic, socioeconomic, and travel information on work and non-work travel behavior for a 48-hour travel period. The study was conducted on behalf of the Atlanta Regional Commission, and it is an essential element in the transportation planning and modeling efforts for the 13-county Atlanta region. The main objective of the study was to produce data that could be used to develop and calibrate travel demand models for use in travel forecasting, land use planning, and air quality planning to improve the transportation system. The second component in the survey was the deployment of an electronic travel diary with person-based GPS and an accelerometer to collect health and activity information. Travel data includes trip generation, trip distribution, and modal choice. The survey recruited a total of 12,184 households to participate in the study. Of these, 8,069 households (66%) completed travel. The 8,069 households, when weighted, represent 21,323 persons, 14,449 vehicles, and 126,127 places visited from April 2001 through April 2002. This dataset is part of the Metropolitan Travel Survey Archive, which includes travel surveys from numerous public agencies across the United States and is archived by the Transportation Secure Data Center to ensure their continued public availability.

1Hz data↗

2000 Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission Household Travel Survey

This survey was conducted from March through December 2000 under the auspices of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and the Southern Jersey Transportation Planning Organization and funded through the Pennsylvania and New Jersey departments of transportation. Cambridge Systematics provided quality assurance under a subcontract to NuStats. The purpose of the survey was to obtain information about work and non-work trip generation, trip distribution, modal choice, and traffic assignment, as well as to obtain data on average vehicle occupancy. The dataset contains demographic and travel data on 5,677 households in the 14-county study area. Of those households, 4,217 were from the 10-county Delaware Valley region of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The 4,217 Delaware Valley households, when weighted, represent 9,358 members and 6,069 vehicles, and reported a total of 31,631 trips.

1Hz data↗

Transit Survey - Miami-Dade Metrorail - 2009

This Miami-Dade Metrorail Survey obtained ridership characteristics such as origin-destination patterns, trip purpose, and mode of access and egress. The data obtained from this survey was used to update and validate the Southeast Regional Planning Model (SERPM v6.5) and for transportation planning in the region.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Carbon Transport and Storage Planning and Viability Support Tools

The EDX disCO2ver Carbon Transport and Storage Planning and Viability Support Tools are made up of the Carbon Storage Planning Inquiry Tool (CS PlanIT, Justman et al. 2024) and the Carbon Storage Technical Viability Approach Support Tool (CS TVA). Together, these tools support data access to support understanding data availability to support planning efforts for carbon transport and storage. The Carbon Storage Planning Inquiry Tool (CS PlanIT) is an online web mapping application designed to help users explore, query, and evaluate multiple data layers to support and accelerate carbon storage resource and feasibility assessments and planning efforts. CS PlanIT currently contains a range of datasets associated with geologic, technical, and infrastructure factors. The data sets can be filtered geographically for an area of interest to update statistics and charts within the dashboard. The dashboard is divided into different sections called widgets, relating to different steps in the carbon storage planning process. The resources in this submission include a link to PlanIT, as well as a data catalog and link to user documentation. The original citation for the CS PlanIT tool, which has now been integrated into the toolset here, was: - Devin Justman, Scott Pantaleone, Maneesh Sharma, Lucy Romeo, Paige Morkner, CS PlanIT (Carbon Storage Planning Inquiry Tool) , 6/28/2024, https://edx.netl.doe.gov/dataset/cs-planit-carbon-storage-planning-inquiry-tool, DOI: 10.18141/2377953 The Carbon Storage Technical Viability Approach Support (CS TVA) Tool displays spatial data availability for the many components of Geologic Carbon Storage (GCS) technical viability assessment (Creason al 2025). Identifying sites suitable for GCS requires evaluating the intersection of myriad factors, including reservoir conditions, subsurface and surface hazards, infrastructure requirements, and energy community metrics. The technical viability of a site can only be confirmed for instances where all these factors have data available, and where those data support viability. Additional Resources related to the Technical Viability Assessment Tool: - Julia Mulhern, Casey White, Araceli Lara, Neyda Cordero Rodriguez, Zachary Jackson, Jacob Shay, Gabriel Creason, MacKenzie Mark-Moser, Paige Morkner, Kelly Rose, Carbon Storage Technical Viability Approach (CS TVA) Database, 3/26/2025, https://edx.netl.doe.gov/dataset/edx4ccs-carbon-storage-technical-viability-approach-database , DOI:10.18141/1984655 - Julia Mulhern, MacKenzie Mark-Moser, Gabriel Creason, Casey White, Araceli Lara, Neyda Cordero Rodriguez, Zach Jackson, Paige Morkner, Kelly Rose, Carbon Storage Technical Viability Approach (CS TVA) Matrix, 3/27/2025, https://edx.netl.doe.gov/dataset/carbon-storage-technical-viability-approach-cs-tva-matrix , DOI: 10.18141/2539979 - Gabriel Creason, Zach Jackson, Neyda Cordero Rodriguez, Julia Mulhern, Casey White, Araceli Lara, MacKenzie Mark-Moser, Paige Morkner, Kelly Rose, Carbon Storage Technical Viability Approach (CS TVA) Data Availability Results Database, 3/27/2025, https://edx.netl.doe.gov/dataset/carbon-storage-technical-viability-approach-cs-tva-data-availability-results-database, DOI:10.18141/2538557

Carbon storage↗

2008 East Tennessee Household Travel Survey

The 2008 East Tennessee Household Travel Survey, conducted by NuStats, was a comprehensive study of travel behavior in Knox, Blount, Anderson, Jefferson, Loudon, Roane, Sevier, and Union counties. The purpose of the survey was to collect weekday travel characteristics of households in the eight-county region during a 24-hour timeframe. The data will be used by the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization and local agencies to update transportation and air quality models and to identify transportation needs in the region. The survey collected demographic and travel data from a sample of 1,400 households between February and May 2008. In total, 12,012 trips were reported by 3,301 persons.

1Hz data↗

Integrating the Mobility Energy Productivity Metric into the CDOT Statewide Model

The Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) metric measures the quality of mobility at a specific location and can be used to evaluate how changes to transportation systems impact the mobility of that location over time, such as through infrastructure investments. The objective of this study is to demonstrate integration of the MEP metric into CDOT's transportation planning process by leveraging data from their statewide travel demand model. We evaluate the MEP metric in 2015 as well as 2030 baselines and projected impacts in 2030 for two different regions in Colorado under multiple scenarios across multiple modes (driving, walking, biking, and transit). It was found that increasing development (increasing population density, jobs, and opportunities) had a significant impact on MEP, independent of any specific alternatives. For drive mode, there was a trade- off of increasing congestion on the road network and increasing job and opportunity access. Impacts to bike, walk, and transit MEP were also demonstrated in both regions. This report shows how MEP can be used as a tool to support evaluating the impacts of various transportation projects across the state. With projections of significant growth across the state of Colorado, access to the increasing opportunities and jobs will be important to understand through the context of energy efficiency. MEP could support future project evaluation and decision-making by enabling the unique and important dimension of energy- efficient accessibility of a transportation system.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Improving future travel demand projections: a pathway with an open science interdisciplinary approach

Transport accounts for 24% of global CO 2 emissions from fossil fuels. Governments face challenges in developing feasible and equitable mitigation strategies to reduce energy consumption and manage the transition to low-carbon transport systems. To meet the local and global transport emission reduction targets, policymakers need more realistic/sophisticated future projections of transport demand to better understand the speed and depth of the actions required to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, we argue that the lack of access to high-quality data on the current and historical travel demand and interdisciplinary research hinders transport planning and sustainable transitions toward low-carbon transport futures. We call for a greater interdisciplinary collaboration agenda across open data, data science, behaviour modelling, and policy analysis. These advancemets can reduce some of the major uncertainties and contribute to evidence-based solutions toward improving the sustainability performance of future transport systems. The paper also points to some needed efforts and directions to provide robust insights to policymakers. We provide examples of how these efforts could benefit from the International Transport Energy Modeling Open Data project and open science interdisciplinary collaborations.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Dataset 2: A National Dataset on Human Choices in Pooled Rideshare, 2022

Dataset 2: A National Dataset on Human Choices in Pooled Rideshare, 2022. Dataset Description: Pooled Rideshare Acceptance Survey - Phase 2 (2022, N = 2,884). This dataset captures responses from a nationally representative sample of 2,884 adults across the United States to understand choice behaviors between personal and pooled rideshare services. The primary objective of this research is to investigate choice behaviors in rideshare services and provide insights that inform service design, policymaking, and transportation planning, with the aim of encouraging pooled rideshare adoption and enhancing transportation network energy efficiency. Data was collected via an online survey administered through a national panel provider. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 94 years, and representation from all U.S. regions. The survey was designed with a focus on investigating the stated-preference between personal and pooled rideshare services. Each participant responded to 20 stated-preference questions, where they were presented with a hypothesized situation to choose between a personal rideshare option and a pooled rideshare option to complete a trip. The sociodemographic information and attitudes towards factors of pooled rideshare acceptance were also collected to support the comprehensive investigation of participants’ rideshare choice behaviors. - Phase_2_Final - Each row represents an individual respondent, and each column corresponds to a variable such as stated-preference scenario attributes, stated-preference scenario responses, attitudes toward specific service features, and sociodemographic data. The data is available in both .CSV and .SAV formats. - Phase_2_Final_MapFile - The accompanying data dictionary explains all variable labels, response scales, and codes. An .XLSX format of the full survey instrument is included to support interpretation and reuse of the dataset.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Draft Prototype Microreactor Transportation Safety Program

Microreactors are compact reactors capable of producing less than 50 megawatts of electrical energy. Typically, these reactors are factory-fabricated and designed to be easily transportable by truck, rail, vessel, or air. Microreactor designs often assume that the unit can be transported containing either unirradiated or irradiated fuel. The interest in microreactors is driven by several factors, including the need to generate power on at remote locations, at military installations, at facilities such as data centers, and in areas recovering from natural disasters. The U.S. Department of Defense is actively pursuing the microreactor concept to meet the increasing energy demands of military operations that require portable and dense power sources. Commercial vendors are also exploring microreactor concepts. The report Microreactor Transportation Emergency Planning Challenges (Maheras et al. 2024) outlined the emergency planning challenges associated with the transportation of microreactors by road, rail, and by barge/ship. The successful commercial deployment and redeployment of microreactors will also require the development of microreactor transportation safety programs. The elements in these safety programs are not specific to microreactors; however, the transport of microreactors may pose unique challenges in these areas. This report builds on the report Microreactor Transportation Emergency Planning Challenges (Maheras et al. 2024) and develops the elements of a prototype microreactor transportation safety program that describes the elements that should be contained vendor-developed microreactor transportation safety programs, identifying the unique elements associated with microreactor transport. This will provide vendors and their transportation contractors a basis for their transportation planning and will accelerate the commercial deployment and redeployment of microreactors by identifying those issues unique to microreactor transport. The emphasis of this report is on highway transport of microreactors. This is based on a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission transportation package approval strategy of crawl-walk-run, where transport by highway is evaluated first (Coles et al. 2021, 2024, Maheras et al. 2021), then other surface modes (rail and barge/ship), and finally air transport. Evaluation of maritime transport of microreactors was recently initiated (Rigato et al. 2024, Maheras et al. 2025). The report first discusses microreactors in general and microreactor transportation safety program planning assumptions. The report then provides a description of the transportation safety planning process and provides an extensive discussion of the elements of transportation safety programs. Specific elements examined included transportation roles and responsibilities, transportation planning, transportation mode and route selection, carrier selection, transportation packaging, advance notification of shipments, public information and communications, emergency response plans and procedures, inspections, security, safe parking, shipment tracking, weather and road conditions, medical preparedness, training and exercises, and program evaluation. The report then identifies the unique elements of a transportation safety program associated with microreactor transport. These unique elements were in the areas of: the unusual nature of microreactor designs, compensatory measures, increased radiation dose rates in the vicinity of microreactors, transportation package approval versus 10 CFR 50.59, and the use of a risk-informed transportation package approval process.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Navigating Urban Mobility: Evaluating Infrastructure Strategies for Enhanced Energy-Efficient Access for Micromobility

Cities and communities continue to expand pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure as part of their sustainable mobility and post-pandemic recovery plans. However, the emergence of micro-mobility (e.g., electric bicycles) has created new challenges for urban transport planning. As the popularity of micro-mobility modes has grown, so have safety concerns due to rising injuries, thus challenging many cities to come up with regulatory measures that enable efficient access while minimizing negative impacts from micro-mobility. Leveraging the Open-Source Tool (Mobility Energy Productivity metric), powered by an open-source dataset (OpenStreetMap), and enhanced through the incorporation of perceived discomfort (level-of-traffic stress), this research study focuses on evaluating the accessibility implications of infrastructure planning and regulatory measures for micro-mobility. Five scenarios pertaining to level of traffic stress, sidewalk access, traffic calming, and bike lane coverage were tested in the Denver-Aurora region in Colorado. Maximum improvements in energy-efficient access are realized when allowing sidewalks for micro-mobility use. Cities and planning agencies could leverage this information to assess sidewalk use policies for micro-mobility, while ensuring pedestrian safety and ADA access. Results indicate that expansion of bicycle lane coverage yields 11% accessibility benefits for micro-mobility compared to implementing traffic calming measures yielding 3% accessibility improvements. Further, it was observed most of the population in the Denver-Aurora region is experiencing lower accessibility in-part due to presence of a high-stress connections in the network. Although not generalizable, the use of open-source data and access calculation methodology, make this analysis reproducible and transferable to other locations.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

MEP Metric Correlations with Socioeconomic and Built Environment Factors [Slides]

NREL's Mobility Energy Productivity tool, or MEP, quantifies the ability of an area's transportation system to connect individuals to goods, services, employment opportunities, and other activities while accounting for time, cost, and energy. However, the MEP tool itself does not examine correlations between mobility energy productivity and other sociodemographic and built environment variables relevant to the urban and transportation planning space. Examining these correlations could have two possible implications -- first, understanding what factors correlate with mobility energy productivity could help urban planners make equitable decisions in allocating transportation resources. Second, as the MEP has not been calculated for all urban areas in the US and is computationally expensive, if other publicly available variables were predictive enough of MEP then a simple model could be used to predict MEP instead of having to compute it for an area for which it has not been updated. A statistical analysis to investigate both of these questions is presented, with many significant associations found between the MEP and identified variables of interest.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Foundations of an Electric Mobility Strategy for the City of Mexicali

The Foundations of an Electric Mobility Strategy for the city of Mexicali aligns with numerous energy, environmental, and transport plans and will help Mexicali meet multiple related goals. Mexicali’s energy mix, with 28% renewables, already enables plugin electric vehicles (PEVs) to reduce the mass of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per km driven 2/3 below that of their conventional counterparts. This GHG benefit will increase should Mexicali take steps to further increase their share of renewables in their electricity supply. Beyond increasing renewables, Mexicali could possibly deploy PEVs so that electric load is added in the right location (depending on further analysis of substations and feeders) and at the right time (between 21:00 and 11:00) in order to minimize grid upgrade costs. There are a handful of charge timing control mechanisms –at various stages of development– that Mexicali could implement. Transport electrification can facilitate mass transit by powering buses, trains, and small vehicles that get people from their homes or work to the transit stations and vice versa. Mexicali could utilize fleets as early PEV adopters in order to gain acceptance and add electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). Recommended prioritization of different types of fleets are suggested in this report: transit buses, school buses, airport ground support equipment (GSE), refuse trucks, taxis, shuttle buses, campus vehicles, delivery trucks, utility trucks, and finally semitrailers. There are a handful of policy options that Mexicali could use to incentivize fleets to purchase PEVs, including mandates, economic incentives, energy performance contracts, waivers to access restrictions, electricity discounts, and EVSE requirements in building codes. Mexicali’s taxi fleet was an early adopter of PEVs and had experienced some challenges—mostly related to the insufficient range of the taxis due to hot weather. In this report, we strategize ways to extend the range of the current electric taxis, including ways to make charging more convenient to the drivers, and more suggestions for appropriate vehicles to purchase in the future. This report also includes the groundwork of geotracking Mexicali’s taxi fleet so that more detailed recommendations can be made in the future. Once fleets have increased PEV acceptance and EVSE installations, the market will be ready to expand to private vehicle owners. In order to do this, more EVSE needs to be installed in the right locations. This mobility strategy lays out general local areas where EVSE could be well utilized, based on traffic patterns, land use, and demographic data. Mexicali could approach businesses within these areas that would likely make suitable hosts, based on how well they can profit from the additional business that EVSE would bring. Mexicali could then adopt a series of purchase incentives (including sales tax waivers or access to high-occupancy vehicles [HOV] lanes) that would encourage private vehicle owners to purchase PEVs. Purchase incentives run the risk of creating equity issues, which can be countered by promoting electrification in mass transit, creating more HOV lanes that have PEV exemptions, and installing EVSEs in underserved communities. Private PEV ownership will require a set of experts that Mexicali can help train, including PEV repair technicians, EVSE installation electricians, and first responders.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Integrating the Mobility Energy Productivity Metric Into the Delaware Department of Transportation Statewide Model

The Mobility Energy Productivity (MEP) metric quantifies the quality of mobility at a given location and evaluates how changes in the transportation system impact mobility over time, such as through infrastructure investments. This study demonstrates the integration of the MEP metric into the Delaware Department of Transportation's (DelDOT's) transportation planning process by utilizing data from its statewide travel demand model. Specifically, the study assesses MEP for the 2020 baseline conditions and three alternative scenarios - 2030, Churchman, and Old Orchard - across multiple travel modes, including driving, walking, biking, and transit. The findings highlight that mobility and accessibility in Delaware are primarily supported by the driving mode, while transit services remain relatively limited, often ranking below biking and walking in many areas. In the 2030 scenario, where network operations and opportunities expand as projected, overall statewide accessibility declines, although Kent and Sussex counties experience improvements. The results from the Churchman and Old Orchard scenarios indicate that local network enhancements can positively influence accessibility, though primarily at a localized level, demonstrating MEP's capability to capture regional accessibility changes. Further, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory team successfully transferred MEP operational knowledge to the DelDOT team through dockerization, enabling DelDOT to independently run MEP for various scenarios of interest. Integrating MEP into DelDOT's planning framework supports future project evaluations and decision-making by incorporating access to opportunities as a key dimension of transportation system assessment.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

A Decision Support Tool for Planning Neighborhood-Scale Deployment of Low-Speed Shared Automated Shuttles

Increasing interest and investment in connected, automated, and electric vehicles, and mobility-as-a-service concepts are paving the way for the next major shift in transportation through automated and shared mobility. The initial excitement towards rapid deployment and adoption of automated vehicles has subsided, and low-speed automated shuttles are emerging as a more pragmatic pathway for introducing automated mobility in geo-fenced districts. Such shuttles hold the promise to provide a viable alternative for serving short trips in urban districts with high travel densities. As interest in low-speed automated shuttle systems (to improve urban mobility) increases, the need for tools that can inform communities regarding benefits or dis-benefits of automated shuttle deployments is imminent. However, most of the existing transportation planning and simulation tools are not capable of handling emerging shared automated mobility options. This presentation presents a microscopic simulation toolkit that can be used by cities and communities to plan for the deployment of low-speed automated shuttles systems, as well as other shared mobility options. Labeled as the Automated Mobility District (AMD) modeling and simulation toolkit, the proposed decision support tool can help cities evaluate the mobility and sustainability impacts of deploying shared automated vehicles in geofenced regions. This paper presents a description of the toolkit, as well as a sample scenario analysis for the deployment of low-speed automated shuttles in Greenville, South Carolina. Results from the scenario study demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed simulation toolkit in planning for advanced mobility systems.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Decision Support Tool for Planning Neighborhood-Scale Deployment of Low-Speed Shared Automated Shuttles

Increasing interest and investment in connected, automated, and electric vehicles as well as mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) concepts are paving the way for the next major transformation in transportation through automated and shared mobility. The initial excitement toward rapid deployment and adoption of automated vehicles (AVs) has subsided, and low-speed automated shuttles are emerging as a more pragmatic pathway for introducing automated mobility in geofenced districts. Such shuttles hold the promise to provide a viable alternative for serving short trips in urban districts with high travel densities. As interest in low-speed automated shuttle systems (to improve urban mobility) increases, the need for tools that can inform communities in relation to benefits or disadvantages of automated shuttle deployments is imminent. However, most of the existing transportation planning and simulation tools are not capable of handling emerging shared automated mobility options. This paper presents a microscopic simulation toolkit that can be used by cities and communities to plan for the deployment of low-speed automated shuttles systems, as well as other shared mobility options. Labeled as the Automated Mobility District modeling and simulation toolkit, the proposed decision support tool intends to help cities evaluate the mobility and sustainability impacts of deploying shared automated vehicles (SAVs) in geofenced regions. This paper describes the toolkit, as well as a sample scenario analysis for the deployment of low-speed automated shuttles in Greenville, South Carolina, U.S. Results from the scenario study demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed simulation toolkit in planning for advanced mobility systems.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗