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Nazmul Arefin Khan’s Dissertation Defense

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Yesterday brought some good news for DalTRAC, as PhD candidate, Nazmul Arefin Khan successfully defended his dissertation (from a safe social distance, of course) and has now completed all the requirements of his PhD degree.

Committee members watching Nazmul’s defense over video conferencing. 

Nazmul defending his dissertation over video conferencing.

Nazmul’s dissertation develops an activity-based travel demand forecasting model, which addresses the underlying process mechanisms and interactions between various activity and travel attributes. His research not only contributes to travel demand modelling and forecasting literature but also provides critical insights to the evolution of urban activity and travel decisions which can be used to test alternative transportation and land use policies.

Nazmul has been conducting research with DalTRAC for six years now and his hard work and dedication have certainly paid off! Congratulations Nazmul, we cannot wait to see what exciting opportunities the future will bring for you!

Dr. Habib and his children cheering Nazmul on.

Nazmul’s biggest fans.

Successful Week for DalTRAC at WCTR in Mumbai, India

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It’s been a busy week for DalTRAC’s director Dr. Ahsan Habib, and PhD student Nazmul Khan, who are currently on the other side of the world in Mumbai, India. From May 26th to May 31st, prominent transportation experts from around the globe have gathered at the 15th World Conference on Transportation Research. This event represents an excellent opportunity for the exchange of ideas on topics ranging from transportation modelling, to disaster management, to urban goods movement.

Beyond going to learn about global transportation research, members of DalTRAC were recognized for their contributions to the field. On Thursday, DalTRAC’s own Nazmul Khan received the Young Initiative Prestige Grant Award for his work on a vehicle allocation model. This global recognition emphasizes both the importance and the quality of work that DalTRAC undertakes. Congratulations to Nazmul!

Dr. Ahsan Habib, DalTRAC’s director, was also on the ground in Mumbai. Building on research undertaken by DalTRAC, Dr. Habib gave a presentation on ridesourcing (which includes services such as Uber and Lyft). A highlight of WCTR was Dr. Habib’s involvement as a co-applicant for a Canadian effort to bring the conference to the great white north in 2022. After months of planning and coordination, it was announced that in 2022, WCTR will be held in Montreal – a momentous achievement.

With WCTR coming to a close, DalTRAC now is looking forward to continuing its important research, and to attending other transportation-related events such as the Transportation Association of Canada conference happening right here in Halifax in September.

Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting: Day 2

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Today, some of DalTRAC’s students will be presenting at the TRB annual meeting.

From 8.00 am to 9.45 am (PST):

  • Urban Freight Network and Emission Modeling for Port City Halifax, Canada: A Spatial and Temporal Evaluation of Commercial Vehicles Movement by Pauline Laila Bela and Muhammad Habib, Session 513, Presentation 18-06689
  • The Relationship Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Emergency Health Services Vehicle Demand: A Poisson Hurdle Regression Modeling Approach by Babatope Olajide, Muhammad Habib, Mikiko Terashima and Sara Campbell, Session 517, Presentation 18-05049
  • Microsimulation of Life Stages, Residential Mobility, and Location Choice Processes by Mahmudur Fatmi and Muhammad Habib, Session 517, Presentation 18-06658
  • Investigation of Subjective Well-Being, Travel, Built Environment, and Attitudes: A Random-Parameters Ordered Choice Modeling Approach  by Stephen McCarthy and Muhammad Habib, , Session 713, Presentation 18-05015
Dr. Ahsan Habib with M.A.Sc Pauline Bela at the TRB Conference on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with M.A.Sc student Pauline Bela at the TRB Annual Meeting on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Ph.D student Nazmul Arefin at the TRB Conference on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Ph.D student Nazmul Arefin at the TRB Annual Meeting on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Ph.D student Jahedul Alam at the TRB Conference on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Ph.D student Jahedul Alam at the TRB Annual Meeting on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Post-doc Associate Mahmudur Fatmi at the TRB Conference on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Post-doc Associate Mahmudur Fatmi at the TRB Annual Meeting on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Post-doc Associate Jahedul Alam at the TRB Conference on the 9th of January, 2018

Dr. Ahsan Habib with Ph.D student Jahedul Alam at the TRB Annual Meeting on the 9th of January, 2018

DalTRAC students invited to present in the 97th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board (TRB)

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In January 2018, six DalTRAC students will present six research papers at the 96th Annual Meeting of Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington, D.C. The sessions’ information can be found below:

  • Urban Freight Network and Emission Modeling for Port City Halifax, Canada: A Spatial and Temporal Evaluation of Commercial Vehicles Movement by Pauline Laila Bela and Muhammad Habib, Session 513, Presentation 18-06689, Tuesday January 9, 8:00 am-9:45 am
  • The Relationship Between Neighborhood Characteristics and Emergency Health Services Vehicle Demand: A Poisson Hurdle Regression Modeling Approach by Babatope Olajide, Muhammad Habib, Mikiko Terashima and Sara Campbell, Session 517, Presentation 18-05049, Tuesday January 9, 8:00 am-9:45 am
  • Microsimulation of Life Stages, Residential Mobility, and Location Choice Processes by Mahmudur Fatmi and Muhammad Habib, Session 517, Presentation 18-06658, Tuesday January 9, 8:00 am-9:45 am
  • Investigation of Subjective Well-Being, Travel, Built Environment, and Attitudes: A Random-Parameters Ordered Choice Modeling Approach  by Stephen McCarthy and Muhammad Habib, , Session 713, Presentation 18-05015, Tuesday January 9, 3:45 pm-5:30 pm
  • Investigation of Tour Participation, Time Allocation, and Mode Choice: An Application of Multiple Discrete-Continuous Extreme Value-Mixed Multinomial Logit Modeling Approach  by Nazmul Arefin Khan, Annesha Enam, Muhammad Habib and Karthik Konduri, Session 829, Presentation 18-06704, Wednesday January 10, 10:15 am-12:00 pm
  • Evaluation of the Traffic Impacts of Mass Evacuation of Halifax: A Flood Risk and Dynamic Traffic Microsimulation Modeling  by MD Jahedul Alam, Muhammad Habib, Kevin Quigley and Tim Webster, Session 862, Presentation 18-06677, Wednesday January 10, 2:30 pm-4:00 pm

Dr. Eric Miller – Toronto’s Experience

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DalTRAC Distinguished Lecture Series

Inaugural Speaker: Professor Eric Miller, University of Toronto

Date: Tuesday, June 25th, 3:30 -5:00 p.m.

Location: Alumni Lounge, Engineering B Building, Sexton Campus, 1360 Barrington Street, Halifax, NS (adjacent to the DalTRAC lab)

Please RSVP to carol.madden@dal.ca by June 21st.

Please join us for the inaugural lecture of Dalhousie University Transportation Collaboratory’s (DalTRAC) Distinguished Lecture Series. Dr. Eric Miller will share Toronto’s experience in university-government partnerships with respect to transportation data, analysis and modelling. The presentation will also include an overview of integrated urban modelling research that has been supported by this collaborative R&D environment.

 

 

CycleTracks Study: Record your rides & enter to win!

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Cycletracks Pilot Study

DalTRAC is experimenting with new ways of doing active transportation data collection by employing smartphone apps! Cities around the world are exploring the use of GPS-enabled smartphones to collect data on route choice, travel behaviour, potholes, and more! We will be doing a pilot study in the Halifax Regional Municipality using Cycletracks, a free app developed by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. This will help us understand how cyclists move around with respect to trip purpose, gradients, road types, and much more.

Participants will enter to win a $50 gift certificate to Mountain Equipment Co-op!

Interested? Follow these steps:
1. Download Cycletracks. Currently, anyone who has an iPhone can download the app. Unfortunately, this app does not work on Androids in Canada.

2. Enter a few brief points about yourself under the ‘settings’ tab, such as your gender, and postal codes of your home and work.

3. Click “start” at the beginning of your ride, and “save” once you have reached your destination. We encourage you to do this for every ride that is done entirely by bicycle.

4. Select the type of ride. You will be prompted to choose from a variety of trip purposes, such as “commute” or “recreation”.

If you have any questions, contact Niki Siabanis at nk603580@dal.ca
Happy riding!

Daycare Travel Planning: A Study of Parents’ Travel Patterns

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Hi Everyone,

My name is Caroline King. I am a Masters of Planning Studies student here at Dalhousie University. I am also facilitator for the Ecology Action Centre’s Tiny Travel Planning program, Transportation Officer for Dalhousie’s Office of Sustainability, Student Researcher at DalTRAC, and Director of Membership for the Halifax Cycling Coalition.

I am currently working on creating a daycare travel planning program to investigate travel patterns and determine transportation barriers for parents with children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years. I thought I would share the latest poster for the proposal of this research. If you have any comments or feedback on my project, I would love to hear it.

Research Design – Caroline A. King

More updates and information on the DalTRAC team to come!

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