Understanding driving behaviors is essential for improving safety and mobility of our transportation systems. Data is usually collected via simulator-based studies or naturalistic driving studies. Those techniques allow for understanding relations between demographics, road conditions and safety. On the other hand, they are very costly and time consuming. Thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones, we have an opportunity to substantially complement more traditional data collection techniques with data extracted from phone sensors, such as GPS, accelerometer gyroscope and camera. We developed statistical models that provided insight into driver behavior in the San Francisco metro area based on tens of thousands of driver logs. We used novel data sources to support our work. We used cell phone sensor data drawn from five hundred drivers in San Francisco to understand the speed of traffic across the city as well as the maneuvers of drivers in different areas. Specifically, we clustered drivers based on their driving behavior. We looked at driver norms by street and flagged driving behaviors that deviated from the norm.

Although several coastal cities across the United States continue to see growth in the recycling of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the Kansas City metropolitan area (KC metro area), straddling the states of Kansas and Missouri, continues to lag behind. A study was conducted to examine the reasons behind the lag and to explore the barriers to C&D waste management policies and practices in the region. The research involved a thorough investigation of published literature and websites from the region and coastal cities; interviews with local officials, designers, contractors, and owners in the regional construction industry (Topeka, Kansas; Lawrence, Kansas; KC metro area; and other bordering cities); and e-mails from designers and local officials from some coastal cities. The research found that the KC metro area faces problems unique to the region, such as unlimited landfill space, lack of markets for recycled C&D products, lack of facilities to recycle C&D wastes, lack of educational programs and recycling information, legislative issues, and poor supply chain management for C&D wastes. The interviewees identified several solutions and barriers to the implementation of comprehensive C&D waste management policies and practices. However, most interviewees agreed that combining regional and national efforts is the key to successful C&D waste management policies and practices in the KC metro area.