4 pages paper due today at 5:30 pm

Team Project Written Presentation

Mashal Al Marzooqi, Maymi Myint, Jonathan Cruz

1 December 2019

Florida Institute of Technology

Explain the subject of the report:

Every day, a heavy traffic starts when the students travel from the north side of the campus to the south side of the campus by crossing University Boulevard. The traffic mostly happens between the ten-minute break when students move to other classes. At that specific time, heavy traffic begins, and cars can’t move due to the enormous number of pedestrians crossing the road, which causes traffic delays. The traffic affects everyone who is on the road, either students or cars, because they will be late for destinations they are trying to reach.

What makes the traffic worse is that some students cross the road without checking cars while they are riding their skateboards or bicycles. It is dangerous to cross the road without paying attention because pedestrians might get hit by a car. Even though cars must stop when pedestrians walk across the road on the zebra crossing lines, students should yield before they pass the road. This scenario tends to happen often on campus especially during the ten-minute break; students who ride skateboards and bicycles do not care about the drivers and can cause an accident and can end up with a permanent injury.

Explain the purpose of the report:

The purpose of the report is to gather all the information and data that was found in this project.

Provide background:

Every day, a traffic starts on University Boulevard, and it causes traffic delays. It starts on the ten-minute break when students transfer to other classes by crossing the road. What makes this traffic worse is that some pedestrians cross the road without looking for approaching cars. Several people that took the survey said that they saw people got hit by a car because they were not paying attention, so this problem must be taken seriously. The team thought of some solutions to end this problem. However, the group had a lack of knowledge of the school's budget, which is a big problem. Without knowing the school’s budget for this project, it is hard to think of a solution because it might be too expensive for Florida Tech to afford it. For that reason, a research must be done on the school's budget, and what ideas they would support most.

Describe sources of information:

There were several types of sources of information for the research, and they were: personal experiences, expert opinions, and web pages. In the very beginning of the research, Mashal made an appointment with Susan Meeler, the academic advisor of the Civil Engineering department, to discuss with her about the problem and if she has any solutions for the issue. Meleer provided Mashal with a good amount of information and sources that he refers to with the research, and she gave him some suggestions and recommendations for the solutions. Meleer was a good source of information as she had a good experience on those kinds of issues.

Then, the team interviewed Frank Iannone, the director of the security department, as an expert opinion. Mashal, Jonathan and Maymi discussed with Frank about the research and the possible solutions to solve the problem. Frank approved their work and the solutions that they had for the issue. Also, Frank recommended to focus on the bridge solution because it was more sufficient and appropriate. In addition to this, Frank told us that Florida Tech will not be able to install traffic lights because the road is not the university's property; therefore, the university will need to have permission from the Melbourne City Office (MCO) to install traffic lights. Frank concluded the conversation by saying that the bridge idea is the best idea for this problem because it will maintain a smoother and safer vehicle traffic flow. Also, it is cheap and sufficient.

Maymi Myint interviewed one of the security officers on campus as an expert opinion. Maymi discussed with him about the issue and the reasons behind the traffic jam. Then she discussed with him about the possible solutions and he said that some might work, and some might not work. The officer said that they will not be able to regulate traffic every day because there are only six security officers on and off campus. For the given reason, it would be impossible to be on site every day to regulate the traffic and control it unless if there were more officers.

The team used web pages as sources of information to collect data for the research. Maymi looked up for the costs of installing traffic lights, hiring security officers, and constructing a bridge. Prices were different for each solution, traffic lights were the most expensive one, and the bridge was the cheapest. Despite the fact that bridge idea was the cheapest one, it was the most efficient and appropriate solution for this problem. Also, the director of the security department recommended to apply this solution as it was the best one of all the solutions that the team had.

Indicate scope of the report:

The goal of the research is to end the traffic on University Boulevard as soon as possible. This traffic did not only cause traffic delays but also accidents. Finding the right solution for this issue will lead to a safe and smooth vehicle traffic flow. According to the survey, at least six people that took the survey saw people getting hit by a car on University Boulevard, so it is necessary to start working on this project as soon as possible before it gets out of hand.

Summarize the most significant findings:

As mentioned before, Maymi Myint interviewed one of the security officers on campus, officer Golembiowski. Maymi recommended to him one of the solutions for the traffic jam and he said it would be hard to apply due to the number of security officers that works on and off campus, which is only six officers. The team had no idea that only six officers works on and off campus.

One of the solutions was to install traffic lights on University Boulevard. However, it turned out that Florida Tech will not be able to do that as University Boulevard road is not the school’s property, according to the director of the security department, Frank Iannone.

Briefly summarize your recommendations:

The directors of Florida Institute of Technology must focus on this problem and work on it as soon as possible. This issue can get bigger if they did not fix it on time, and more people might get hit by vehicles. The team recommends to Florida Tech directors to put this issue in their top priorities to fix due to its importance. The team realize that there are not enough security officers at this time to regulate traffic. However, the group highly recommend that at least one security officer must be on site when the traffic starts to regulate it until they find the proper solution.

Explain the organization of the report:

Define key terms:

Melbourne City Office (MCO): Melbourne City Office is a local government located in the city of Melbourne. Their job is to improve the city and build what people need in their area.

Discussion

Traffic safety is important for pedestrians including bikers, skateboarders, and other small vehicle users. In 2006, 5,987 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States. A total of 5,900 traffic crashes has one or more pedestrian fatalities (“National Highway Traffic…”, 2018). Moreover, pedestrian safety is extremely critical at school and collage crosswalk since main transportation for students on and off campus in walking, riding a bike, and using a skateboard. In Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), since the University Boulevard crosswalk is the busiest one and produces heavy traffic, small accidents tend to happen once in a while. Therefore, in order to protect student’s safety and prevent future accidents on campus, a proposal of installing traffic lights, building a bridge, and hiring more campus security were planned. Interviews with Mr. Golembiowski and Mr. Iannone and a survey were conducted to accomplish the project. The results of interviews and survey showed which solution has the most potential for the project to be successful.

Traffic signals are the highest form of traffic control and having a traffic signals in the intersection and signalized crosswalks provide safer routes for the students (“Traffic Signals”, 2019). Since the traffic lights will be installed, pedestrian lights, and countdown timer modules will be necessary in order to establish a complete traffic control. The budget for all the traffic signal installment can be estimated as minimum $251,190 to maximum $516,630 depending on the quality of the product (“Traffic Signals”, 2019). Besides, school has to pay for the electric bills and maintenance fee in the future, which would be around $8000 per year (“Traffic Signals”, 2019). The interviews about the traffic signal was performed, and the director did not support the idea, but the campus security officer did. Although traffic signals would benefit the drivers’ time due to the traffic problem, more disadvantages were learned. Firstly, the University Boulevard is not FIT’s property but State’s property. Permission from the Melbourne City Office will be required to proceed the project, so less chances of success are predicted. Moreover, installing traffic signals might cause more harm than good since the pedestrians sometimes do not follow the rules. Pedestrians look around and cross the road even though the pedestrian light is red. If the students and cars do not cooperate in obeying the laws, more issues could be experienced. Moreover, according to the budget mentioned before, the cost of the project will be too expensive for the school to approve it. According to the survey, most students are not willing to donate money for the project; therefore, the idea of installing traffic signals will be tough to fulfil. Moreover, it will be hard to set the module timer since only 10 minutes break is busy on the road. Most students will complain about waiting for the traffic light to change, so students will eventually cross the road no matter what the light change or not, which would make this project useless.

Another solution to resolve the problem is building a bridge across the road to connect the north to the south side of the campus. Pedestrian bridges are useful in linking the destinations at school, in a community, and on highways (“Pedestrian Bridge…”, 2016). The director strongly approved the bridge plan more than the traffic signals installation idea; he admired the idea as soon as the pedestrian bridge was mentioned in the conversation. Moreover, the cost of building a pedestrian bridge can be calculated within a range from $150 to $250 per square foot or $500 to $2000 per linear foot. Compared with the cost with the previous solution, a pedestrian bridge might be much affordable than the traffic signals. There will not be any extra cost after the bridge is constructed: no electric bill, no maintenance, or no repairment are needed. The pro of having a bridge is that the safety of the students is more likely to be protected, and accidents would barely occur on campus. In this way, the problem of heavy traffic will be totally resolved, and it will be convenient for the drivers around the area. Moreover, most students chose the pedestrian bridge among other solutions. The only downside for the bridge is wasting more time by climbing upstairs and downstairs, which could be normally finished in a few seconds by crossing the road. Therefore, building a bridge produce more advantages than disadvantages to solve the traffic problem on the University Boulevard.

When a heavy traffic occurs, a campus officer sometimes helps to clear up the traffic by stopping students, but it only happens once in a while not every day. After the interview with the campus officer, we noticed that school does not have enough officers. There are only ten officers on campus and off campus; moreover, they have to finish different duties including patrolling the campus and dorms, checking the parking lots, and so on. Therefore, hiring more campus security officers is necessary to stay on the road full time to clear up the traffic problem. The first step for to accomplish this solution, job offers have to be posted online through job.com so that people who are interested in the job will be able to apply. However, since the road is the state’s property as mentioned above, campus officers are not legally allowed to guide the students. Instead, only Melbourne City Officers or traffic controllers are permitted due to the law. The presence of traffic controllers might be able to solve the traffic problems once the city approves the project. The average salary of a traffic controller is around $2,165 per year, and at least two people; therefore, a total of $4,270 will cost the school every year. Although it seems like the lowest-cost option, it might be second most expensive through overtime. Accordingly, hiring traffic controllers has the second most potential to succeed the project.

While we were working on the project, we experience some challenges, and we noticed that there were some implications in carrying out the interviews and surveys. Although

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End Matter

References

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic Safety Facts 2016 Data: Pedestrians. S. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC; 2018. Available at https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812493

Traffic Control Corporation: Manufacturers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.trafficcontrolcorp.com/manufacturers/.

Guide.saferoutesinfo.org. (2019). SRTS Guide: Traffic Signals. [online] Available at: http://guide.saferoutesinfo.org/engineering/traffic_signals.cfm [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].

Guide.saferoutesinfo.org. (2019). [online] Available at: http://guide.saferoutesinfo.org/pdf/crossing_guard_guidelines_web.pdf [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].

Community and Economic Development in North Carolina and Beyond. (2019). Pedestrian Bridges: Connecting People with Communities - Community and Economic Development in North Carolina and Beyond. [online] Available at: https://ced.sog.unc.edu/pedestrian-bridges-connecting-people-with-communities / [Accessed 2 Dec. 2019].

Appendices

Interview Questions

Are you aware the traffic situation on the University Boulevard crosswalk?

What would be the best solution for this problem?

Why would you not hire more officers to guide the traffic?

Would hiring more officers, installing traffic lights, or building a bridge solve the traffic problem?

How should we approach this project to be successful?

Do you think this project will succeed?

Survey Questions

What is your main transportation around campus?

Do you feel safe crossing the road in campus? (especially in University Boulevard)

Have you seen or run into an accident while using the crosswalk?

Do you agree that pedestrians should be fined when they do not follow the traffic rules?

Do you feel safe to ride a skateboard/bike in the crosswalk?

Do you think using a skateboard/bike while crossing the road should be permitted?

What kind of solution(s) would help reduce traffic?

How much are you going to support for this project?

Supporting material

Survey Monkey

https://www.surveymonkey.com

Glossary