The NEXTRANS Center is led by Purdue University, and administered by Purdue University's Discovery Park. The NEXTRANS Center is one of ten regional university transportation centers selected competitively by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to serve as leaders in meeting the nation's need for safe, efficient, and environmentally-sound transportation systems.
NEXTRANS was established in 2007 based on an award from USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) in order to implement a multidisciplinary program of transportation research, education, and technology transfer. Led by Purdue University, the NEXTRANS Center's major partners are the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and The Ohio State University. Other university partners include the Illinois Institute of Technology, Wayne State University, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Martin University, and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis.
NEXTRANS focuses on developing integrated and innovative solutions to transportation challenges, with some emphasis on intermodal freight transportation, to address regional and national needs and economic opportunities. NEXTRANS works towards these solutions by explicitly capturing the interactions between vehicle, traveler, and infrastructure. Research projects identified as systematic, integrated, amenable to continuous improvement, and adaptable to changing priorities, are carefully selected each year. Innovative partnerships across academia, government, and the private and public sectors, allow NEXTRANS to collaborate on research that meets shared goals, maximizes its resources, utilizes technology, and creates a higher value for research results through technology transfer. By implementing a holistic approach, NEXTRANS aims not only to develop integrated solutions, but to foster a new generation of paradigms and a highly qualified transportation workforce.
Undergraduate summer interns (seated), faculty, graduate students, and center staff are pictured at Purdue University's Discovery Park following final internship presentations in July 2010.
NEXTRANS is conducting a study on quantifying the benefits of real-time traffic information systems which will use NAVTEQ's map and traffic data source. The study seeks to understand route choice behavior of commuters under real-time information provision. This research will bridge the key gap in terms of adequately understanding the role of human behavior in real-world contexts by conducting field tests. This is because traveler response to the real-time information provided is a fundamental determinant of the evolution of the traffic system and benefits thereof. We seek to address this issue by conducting field experiments in which the role of human behavior is analyzed through careful experiment design to understand the potential benefits of real-time information to travelers. It is imperative to have reliable traffic data and GIS maps to conduct such experiments and this is where collaboration with NAVTEQ proves valuable to the study.
NAVTEQ will provide the map database, live traffic data feed and historical traffic pattern data for Indiana as well as related technical help for the experiments. In summary, the ability to explicitly quantify the human behavior dimension provides a broader set of parameters to private sector entities like NAVTEQ relative to the evolution of the travel information market.
