The Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development & Education Center (STRIDE) is the
2016 Region 4 (Southeast) U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Center headquartered at the University of Florida Transportation Institute.
Research Projects
Featured Research: Micro-Mobility as a Solution to Reduce Urban Traffic Congestion
Micro-mobility is an emerging form of transportation which involves shared electric bikes or scooters. The potential exists for micro-mobility to improve first-and-last-mile connections and decrease congestion, but transportation agencies need to explore if and how that can be accomplished. Dr. Xilei Zhao of UF leads the micro-mobility study along with her co-PIs Dr. Ruth Steiner of UF and Dr. Virginia Sisiopiku of UAB.


Featured Research: Locating and Costing Congestion for School Buses and Public Transportation
It is vital for public and school transportation planning officials to have specialized tools to assist them in ensuring that traffic flows smoothly in their towns without affecting their bottom line. To do this, STRIDE researcher Kai Monast of the Institute of Transportation Research & Education at North Carolina State University, along with co-PI Dr. Ruth Steiner of the University of Florida, are working on a STRIDE-funded project that will create a tool to assist in pinpointing where congestion is occurring and how much that congestion costs in order to efficiently operate and fund school and public transportation.


Featured Research: Developing a Methodology to Evaluate Detours for Major Construction Projects in the Era of Real-Time Route Guidance
During major road construction projects, detour routes are communicated to the public using static signage, variable message signs (VMS), highway advisory radio, project websites, and television and radio. But what is not known is how the detour information is being used by motorists, how they choose their routes around road construction projects, where they are getting their information, and how effective the different strategies are. STRIDE researchers Dr. Andrew Sullivan and Dr. Virginia Sisiopiku of the University of Alabama have set out to tackle these questions and are working on creating a methodology for detour route planning that will include a set of best practices for long-term construction projects.


Featured Research: Emerging Mobility Services for the Transportation Disadvantaged
Having access to private or public transportation is important regardless of income or social status. It is also significant for maintaining social interactions and engaging in life-sustaining activities. However, for the transportation disadvantaged (TD), accessing various forms of public transportation may not always be easy and affordable. A multi-institution, interdisciplinary STRIDE-funded project led by Dr. Eleni Bardaka at North Carolina State University, explores this topic by taking a collective view of the transportation needs of disadvantaged populations.


Research Products
Get to Know Our Researchers
Kai Monast, MRP
Director, Public Transportation Group/ITRE, NCSU
Kai Monast, MRP, is the interim director of the School Planning and Transportation Group and the director of the Public Transportation Group at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) at North Carolina State University. At ITRE, Kai specializes in bus and paratransit planning, operations and performance measurement.

Dr. Xilei Zhao
Assistant Professor
University of Florida
Dr. Xilei Zhao is an assistant professor at the University of Florida’s Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering who specializes in data science applications for innovative mobility and evacuation.

Education
1st Place, STRIDE Student Poster Showcase/Competition Winner
Sahila Sarjana, M.S.
UAB
This spring, Sahila Sarjana graduated with a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She worked as a graduate research assistant on a STRIDE-funded project titled “Technology Influence on Travel Demand and Behavior”, a project led by her thesis adviser Dr. Virginia Sisiopiku. Sahila won 1st Place at the STRIDE Student Poster Showcase/Competition held at TRB 2020.

2nd Place, STRIDE Student Poster Showcase/Competition Winner
ABM Tausif Ullah Chy, M.S.
UAB
ABM Tausif Ullah Chy completed his graduate work this Spring and graduated with a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). As a research assistant, he mostly concentrated on traffic operations and management with a focus on freeway work zones. Tausif won 2nd Place at the STRIDE Student Poster Showcase/Competition held at TRB 2020.

STRIDE Student of the Year & 3rd Place Student Poster Showcase/Competition Winner:

Rebecca Kiriazes, GaTech
Rebecca Kiriazes began her transportation engineering journey at the University of Florida’s Transportation Engineering program, participating in projects as an undergraduate student and eventually graduating with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in May 2018. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and has worked on two STRIDE-funded projects. She is the recipient of the STRIDE Center's Student of the Year Award, which was presented to her in January 2020 at the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Awards Banquet during the 99th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) in Washington, D.C. Her poster also won 3rd Place at the STRIDE Center's Student Poster Showcase/Competition held during TRB at the University of Florida Transportation Institute Reception.

STRIDE Assists with Establishing Internship Program for Women at UF
A first-ever Women in Transportation Initiative (WITI) Internship Program was established at the University of Florida this spring 2020 with the assistance of the STRIDE Center. WITI is a flagship program of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Small Business (OSDBU) focused on encouraging young women to pursue careers in the transportation industry.

Technology Transfer
STRIDE Showcases I-STREET at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas
Dr. Roozbeh Rahmani, postdoctoral researcher at the UFTI's T2 Center, and Ines Aviles-Spadoni, research coordinator of the UFTI/STRIDE Center, showcased I-STREET in January 2020 at the USDOT's booth during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. I-STREET is a real-world test bed in Gainesville, Florida, where various advanced technologies are tested and deployed, including connected and autonomous vehicles, smart devices and sensors. I-STREET researchers are developing and applying novel applications to enhance mobility and safety.
The I-STREET display at the USDOT's booth during the Consumer Electronics Show
STRIDE Hosted Student Poster Showcase & Competition during UFTI Reception at TRB
Students affiliated with the STRIDE consortium showcased their research and participated in a poster competition on January 13, 2020. The event was held in conjunction with the University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI) Reception at TRB. Click on the link below to see the award recipients and a gallery of images.

STRIDE Study Featured in New York Times Article
A STRIDE project led by Dr. Kari Watkins of The Georgia Institute of Technology, which evaluated partnerships between shared mobility providers and the public sector to provide access to those with limited mobility, was featured in the New York Times.

Upcoming STRIDE Webinars
June 3, 2020, 12 PM, ET
Speaker: Dr. Nasim Uddin UAB

July 1, 2020, 12 PM, ET
Speaker: Dr. Robert Whalin, JSU and Guojing Hu, PhD Candidate, JSU

July 8, 2020, 12 PM, ET
Speaker: Dr. William J. Davis and Dr. Daniel B. Bornstein, The Citadel
STRIDE Webinar Playlist on YouTube
Recordings of past STRIDE webinars can be accessed on YouTube via the STRIDE Center's playlist on the University of Florida Transportation Institute's YouTube channel.

Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility (C2M2) Hosts STRIDE Director as Distinguished Speaker, May 27th, 2 pm, ET
Dr. Lily Elefteriadou professor and director of UFTI/STRIDE, will be presenting a webinar hosted by the C2M2 University Transportation Center (UTC) at Clemson University as part of their Distinguished Lecturer Series. The webinar will be held on May 27, 2020 from 2 pm to 3 pm, ET. Dr. Elefteriadou will present on Optimizing Traffic Signal Control with Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in the Traffic Stream.


K-12 Updates
Online Resources for K-12 Educators
For at-home teachers and parents looking for educational resources related to engineering and transportation, STRIDE maintains a list of free K-12 resources on its website.

Other News
The 8th Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region, originally scheduled for March 26- 27, 2020, has been postponed due to COVID-19. Please check the conference website for updates.

To view updates, click here
The UAB ITE Team won the Traffic Bowl District Championship in February 2020. The team also won the William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge for Traffic Bowl. The team is scheduled to compete in the International Traffic Bowl Competition at the ITE Annual Conference in New Orleans in August 2020.
UAB's K-12 STRIDE-funded program wins this year's UAB Outstanding Community Service Award. The Girls in Engineering Day program was led by Dr. Virginia Sisiopiku.
Dr. Justin Mason, who has worked on STRIDE projects, was awarded the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Pilot Grant to explore younger and older drivers’ trust, attention, and workload during vehicle automation (SAE Level 1). Dr. Mason was also appointed as a Research Assistant Professor in March 2020 and will teach Occupational Therapy Clinical Skills I (Biomechanics) in Summer 2020.
STRIDE Partners
University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI)
Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development & Education Center (STRIDE)