Professor Nathan Gartner

Nathan H. GARTNER ScD

Professor and Department Chair

BSc Systems Engineering (Technion, Israel, 1961)

MSc Transportation/Systems Engineering (Technion, Israel 1967)

ScD Transportation Engineering & Operations Research (Technion, Israel 1970)

 

Email: nathan_gartner@uml.edu

Phone: (978) 934-2289

Location: Pasteur 111

Specialty: Transportation Engineering

Research Areas:

Transportation Systems Analysis, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Optimization and Simulation Methods

 

Courses offered in past decade:

14.340 Transportation Engineering

14.341 Transportation Engineering Lab

14.372 Civil Engineering Systems

14.470 Engineering Economics

14.540 Urban Transportation Planning

14.541 Traffic Engineering

14.542 Fundamentals of ITS and Traffic Management

14.543 Traffic Principles for Intelligent Transportation Systems

14.548 Traffic Management and Control

14.581 Engineering Systems Analysis

 

Contributions & Awards:

  1. Chairman, Committee on Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council.

  2. Associate Editor, Transportation Research (an International Journal published by Elsevier Publishing)

  3. First Dissertation Prize - Transportation Science Section, Operations Research Society of America, 1972.

  4. Postdoctorate Fellowship - Joint Program in Transportation, University of Toronto – York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1971-72.

  5. IPA/DOT Fellowship - Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Dept. of Transportation, 1976-78.

  6. IATSS (Japan) Fellowship - Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Universities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Nagoya, 1986.

Narrative description:

Dr. Gartner is Professor of Civil and Transportation Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.  His principal areas of professional interest are in traffic and transportation engineering, with special emphasis in Intelligent Transportation Systems and in methods of Operations Research and Engineering Systems Analysis.

 Dr. Gartner has done extensive research in traffic flow models and in transportation systems with special concentration in urban traffic control strategies and systems and in transportation network analysis, fields in which he is widely published and internationally recognized.  He has developed and authored several computer methods for traffic control and network optimization, including:  The Generalized Combination Method, MITROP, MAXBAND and MULTIBAND.  He also developed OPAC (Optimization Policies for Adaptive Control), the first real-time, traffic-adaptive signal control strategy to be deployed in the U.S. It was implemented in the RT-TRACS program in the U.S. and in numerous other ITS projects both in the U.S. and abroad. Click to see related reports

Sample list of Funded Research Projects

(either as sole Principal or Co Principal Investigator):

 

2004-2006       Investigation of Policies for Arterial Street Operations.
Sponsor:  FHWA, Univ. Transp. Centers Program, Region 1

2001- 2003      Development of a Web-Based Course on Traffic Principles for Intelligent Transportation Systems
Sponsor:  FHWA, Univ. Transp. Centers Program, Region 1.

1995-1997             Evaluation of the Massachusetts Motorist Assistance Program.
Sponsor:  Massachusetts Highway Department.

1993-1998       Real-Time Traffic Adaptive Control (RT-TRACS) for Intelligent Transportation Systems.
Sponsor: Federal Highway Administration, USDOT.

1993-1995             Network-Wide Optimization Models.
Sponsor: FHWA/USDOT.

1991-1993             Real-Time Strategies for Intelligent Traffic Signal Networks.
Sponsor: FHWA, Univ. Transp. Centers Program, Region 1.

1986-1988       Multi-Band Design Scheme for Arterial Control.
Sponsor:  Massachusetts Department of Public Works.

1985-1988       Computer Technology for Improved Traffic Operations.
Sponsor: Massachusetts Department of Public Works.

1979-1982       Demand-Responsive Decentralized Urban Traffic Control.
Sponsor:  U.S. Department of Transportation. Click to see related reports

 

Sample publications:

BOOKS and MONOGRAPHS

  1. N.H. GARTNER, A.J. RATHI and C.J. MESSER (Editors):  Revised Monograph on Traffic Flow Theory: A State-of-the-Art Report, Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Dept. of Transportation. To be published as a Special Report by the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council, 2005. Available on the web at URL: http://www.tfhrc.gov/its/tft/tft.htm.

  2. N.H. GARTNER and G. IMPROTA (Editors):  Urban Traffic Networks - Dynamic Flow Modeling and Control, Springer-Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York-Tokyo, 1995.

  3. N.H. GARTNER and N.H.M. WILSON (Editors):  Transportation and Traffic Theory, Elsevier Science Publishing, 1987.

REFEREED ARTICLES in JOURNALS and BOOKS (Selected list click for full listing)

  1. N.H. GARTNER and P. WAGNER: “Analysis of Traffic Flow Characteristics on Signalized Arterials.” Transportation Research Record No. 1883, J. of the Transportation Research Board, 2004, 94-100.

  2. N.H. GARTNER and Ch. STAMATIADIS: “Progression Optimization Featuring Arterial- and Route-Based Priority Signal Networks.” J. of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 8, 2004, 77-86.

  3. N. H. GARTNER:  “Development of an Adaptive Control Strategy in a Traffic Signal Network: The Virtual-Fixed-Cycle Approach.” Transportation and Traffic Theory in the 21st Century (M.A.P. Taylor, Ed.),  Pergamon, 2002, 137-155.

  4. N. H. GARTNER:  “Combined Models for Signal Control and Route Assignment in Urban Traffic Networks.” J. of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers (SICE) of Japan, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2002, 217-224.