Santos Ramos
UTRGV Civil Engineering student Santos Ramos, completed his UTCRS REU experience at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Mr. Ramos showed an active interest in the field of Transportation Engineering, and the problem of traffic flow and congestion. Thus, his summer research project work focused on the analysis of traffic flow at one of the most dangerous Highway-Railway Grade Crossings (HRGCs) in the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. Utilizing a common approach in the engineering field, Mr. Ramos used simulation techniques in the Synchro 9 software to build and analyze a traffic flow model of this HRGC. This software is often used in the case of road networks, but has not been implemented to the HRGC problem. Some of the variables he considered were vehicle speed, concentration, density, occupancy, headway, flow, signalized time, gate time and spacing. He also substituted the railroad tracks and presence of a train with an additional road network. Mr. Ramos then looked at the level of service of the intersection as a measure of its effectiveness. In this manner, he showed that it is possible to simulate the traffic flow and congestion at an HRGC using software that was not purposely designed for this problem. His work also highlights the extremely poor levels of service at the HRGC he evaluated, and the imperative need to address such intersection.