Monday, November 21, 2011

Sustainability of Transportation Networks by Including the Critical Human Element -- Commentary for Resources for the Future

I just heard from Resources for the Future (RFF) that my policy commentary, Designing Transportation Infrastructure to Include the Human Element, has been published.

It is also posted on the RFF homepage
(and should reside there, I am told, for two weeks).

Resources for the Future is a Washington DC non-profit policy think tank, which focuses on environmental, energy, and natural resources issues. The invitation to contribute a piece came after my SAMSI presentation on
Sustainability: Methodology with Applications in Raleigh, North Carolina in September.

In my commentary (with a nice graphic included, compliments of Resources for the Future), I also discuss the Braess paradox and several instances around the globe. The translation of the famous Braess paradox (1968) paper from German to English, which Tina Wakolbinger and I, together with Professor Braess did, is cited in the commentary as well as the preface to the article that I wrote with David E. Boyce (whom I recently had the pleasure of seeing in Miami at the Regional Science conference). Both the translation and the preface appeared in the INFORMS journal,
Transportation Science.

With 7 billion people now on our planet and with the number of cars and other vehicles growing globally, there is a lot that we can and must do together to minimize not only congestion but also environmental emissions.