Li Zhao

Contact Information:

City Campus (Lincoln)
WHIT 262K
Prem S. Paul Research Center at Whittier School (WHIT)
(402) 472-1928
lizhao@unl.edu
LinkedIn icon

Personal Links:

• Nebraska Transportation Center
• Mid-America Transportation Center

Research Assistant Professor
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Transportation Systems Engineering, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2017
  • M.S. in Transportation Information Engineering & Control, Tongji University, 2013
  • B.S. in Automation (Traffic), Chang'an University, 2010

Certifications

  • Ph.D., P.E.

Appointment

  • 85% research, 10% teaching, 5% service

Areas of Research and Professional Interest

  • Traffic Safety and Mobility: (1) Highways: design & operation, traffic flow (capacity), congestion mitigation, left-turns, parking, vulnerable users, data collection. (2) Work zones: performance, crash modeling, traveler costs, travel time reliability, emissions, ITS, sensors, artificial intelligence. (3) Highway-rail grade crossing: gate violations, signal control preemption, optimization, CAV simulation, rail trespassing.
  • Microscopic Traffic Modeling: (1) Driver Behavior: car-following & lane change modeling, headway distributions, near-misses, heterogeneous traffic interference, ADAS, CAV, mental health. (2) Simulation: traffic scenarios, calibration, evaluation, data source, multi-sensors, hardware-in-the-loop.
  • Transportation Sustainability and Equity: (1) Alternative-fuel vehicles: safety, traffic electrification,  social impact, environmental efficiency. (2) Equity: rural communities, public engagement, benefits metrics, multi-modal transport.

Research Profiles:

In the News: Powered by the Nebraska Engineering News

Courses Taught

  • CIVE 361 - Transportation Engineering

Funding

(in recent 5 years)

  • An Equity-Informed Research on Commercial Motor Vehicle Drivers’ Perceptions and Compliance with Electronic Logging Devices Mandates. Funded by US DOT, $433,592, 10/24 - 09/26. Role: PI

  • Development of Accurate and Reliable Annual Average Daily Traffic Factoring Methods. Funded by the Nebraska Department of Transportation, $150,732, 7/24 - 5/26. Role: PI

  • Roadside-to-Vehicle Crash Avoidance Warning System for Commercial Motor Vehicles on Rural Roads. Funded by US DOT Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, $1,342,761, 9/24 - 8/26. Role: CoPI

  • Multi-sensor Fusion for Proactive Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety at Work Zone. Funded by US DOT Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration $1,085,359, 9/23 - 8/25. Role: CoPI

  • Understand the Sentiment of Rural Consumers on Electric Vehicle Charging Station Deployments using Real-time Data from Mobile Platforms. Funded by Nebraska Governance & Technology Center, $19,874, 5/23 - 4/24. Role: PI

  • Framework for Quantifying Benefits to Disadvantaged Communities: Application to Nebraska’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Plan. Funded by Nebraska Department of Transportation, $179,055, 7/23-5/25. Role: PI
  • Assessment of Flashing Yellow Arrow at Traffic Signals in Nebraska. Funded by Nebraska Department of Transportation, $171,435, 7/23-5/25. Role: CoPI
  • Assessment of Truck Parking Demand and Safety During Normal and Severe Weather Conditions in Nebraska. Funded by Nebraska Department of Transportation, $186,932, 7/23-5/25. Role: CoPI
  • Safety and Mobility Improvement at HRGC Using Real-Time Optimized Preemption of Traffic Signal Strategies. Funded by US DOT Region VII University Transportation Center, $101,434, 9/21-4/23. Role: PI. https://rip.trb.org/view/1944006
  • Performance Reliability and Safety Index for Region VII Highways. Funded by US DOT Region VII University Transportation Center, $122,116, 9/21 –2/23. Role: CoPI. https://trid.trb.org/View/1868904
  • Developing a Safety Management System Including Hazardous Materials for Highway-Rail Grade Crossings (HRGCs) in Region VII. Funded by US DOT Region VII University Transportation Center, $108,792, 12/21 –12/23. Role: PI. https://rip.trb.org/view/1740394
  • Evaluation of the Driveway Assistance Device (DAD) Systems in One-Lane Two-Way Work Zone. Funded by US DOT Region VII University Transportation Center, $124,016, 9/21 –9/23. Role: CoPI.
  • Intelligent Work Zone Using Automatic Queue Detection (AQD) Systems. Funded by Nebraska Department of Transportation, $159,466, 7/20 –5/22. Role: Co-PI

Selected Publications

(In recent 5 years)

  • L Zhao, LR Rilett, C. Liu. (2023). Modeling the impact of COVID-9 interventions on interstate crash rates using comparative interrupted time series. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, DOI: 10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-7605.
  • MS Haque, LR Rilett, L Zhao. (2023). Impact of platooning connected and automated heavy vehicles on interstate freeway work zone operations. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 149(3), 04022160.
  • MS Haque, L Zhao, LR Rilett, E Tufuor. (2023). Calibration and validation of a microsimulation model of lane closures on a two-lane highway work zone. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2677 (3): 974-990.
  • L Zhao, LR Rilett, C Liu. (2023). Gate violation prediction at highway-rail grade crossings using tree-based ensemble techniques. Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, 1-20.
  • L Zhao, LR Rilett. (2022). Verification and efficacy of automated queue detection systems on high-speed intelligent work zones. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 03611981221108155.
  • L Zhao, LR Rilett, MS Haque. (2022). A Calibration and validation methodology for simulation models of intelligent work zones. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 21-01034R1.
  • L Zhao, L Ying. (2022). Identifying origin-destination trips from GPS data – Application in travel time reliability of dedicated trucks. PROMET- Traffic & Transportation, 34(1): 25-38.
  • C Liu, L Zhao, C Lu. (2022). Exploration of the characteristics and trends of electric vehicle crashes: a case study in Norway. European Transport Research Review, 14(1): 1-11.
  • Y Li, L Zhao, K Gao. (2022). Revealing driver psychophysiological response to emergency braking in distracted driving based on field experiments. Journal of Intelligent and Connected Vehicles, 2022.
  • L Zhao, L Rilett. (2021). Modeling violation behavior at highway-rail grade crossings using a driver anxiety surrogate measure. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 147 (6): 04021025.
  • L Zhao, L Rilett, MS Haque. (2021). Hidden Markov model of lane-changing-based car-following behavior on freeways using naturalistic driving data. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 0361198121999382.
  •  Y Li, L Zhao, X Zhao, K Chen. (2020). Effectiveness of trajectory similarity measures based on truck GPS data. China Journal of Highway and Transport, 33(2): 146-157.
  • E Tufuor, LR Rilett, L Zhao. (2020). Calibrating the highway capacity manual arterial travel time reliability model. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 146 (12): 04020131.