Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Difference In Travel Behavior Between Immigrants In The U.S. And U.S. Born Residents: The Immigrant Effect For Car-Sharing, Ride-Sharing, And Bike-Sharing Services, Sangwan Lee, Michael J. Smart, Aaron Golub

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding immigrants’ travel behavior is important to transportation planners and policymakers working to implement better transportation planning and public policies to serve those needs. The recent changes to the transportation system, specifically, the recent emergence of shared mobility services, such as car‐sharing, ride‐ sharing, and bike‐sharing, may have resulted in changes in how immigrants travel. Thus, we explored two research questions: (1) whether immigrants in the U.S. are more likely to rely on the three newly emerging transportation modes than US‐born persons, and (2) whether the assimilation theory can be applied to the modes. To answer these questions, we used …

Capturing The Built Environment-Travel Interaction For Strategic Planning: Development Of A Multimodal Travel Module For The Regional Strategic Planning Model (Rspm), Liming Wang, Brian Gregor, Huajie Yang, Tara Weidner, Anthony Knudson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Integrated land use and transportation models have evolved along a spectrum from simple sketch planning models to complex microsimulation models. While each has its niche, they are largely unable to balance the flexibility and realism of microsimulation and the speed and interactivity of simple models. The Regional Strategic Planning Model (RSPM) aims to fill this gap by taking a microsimulation approach while making other simplifications in order to model first-order effects quickly. It enables planners to consider the robustness of prospective policies in the face of future uncertainties by accepting a broad range of inputs and allowing rapid simulations of …

A Fair Distribution Of Accessibility: Interpreting Civil Rights Regulations For Regional Transportation Plans, Karel Martens, Aaron Golub

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The US Department of Transportation requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to consider social equity in their plans and projects in accordance with civil rights–related laws. In this paper, we suggest four interpretations of directives’ distributional standards in relation to accessibility. Employing this framework, we review the equity assessments of regional plans of the ten largest MPOs in the United States. Against our expectations, we find that MPOs tend to employ relatively strong distributional standards, albeit never explicitly. We argue that more explicit guidance regarding standards would improve the fairness and consistency of planning practice

Hedonic Modeling Of Commercial Property Values: Distance Decay From The Links And Nodes Of Rail And Highway Infrastructure, Kihwan Seo, Deborah Salon, Michael Kuby, Aaron Golub

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigates the impacts of positive and negative externalities of highways and light rail on commercial property values in Phoenix, Arizona. We hypothesize that the positive externality (i.e., accessibility) of highway and light rail accrues at exits and stations, whereas nodes and links of highways and light rail emanate negative effects. Positive and negative effects decay with increasing distance and are captured by multiple distance bands. Hypotheses are tested using a spatial error regression model. Results show that commercial property values are positively and significantly associated with the accessibility benefits of transport nodes. The distance-band coefficients form a typical …

"Naturally Occurring" Or "Until Market Speculation Starts": Investigating The Precarity Of Affordable Rental Housing And The Potential For Displacement Along Planned Transit Lines, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

New transit infrastructure is a double-edged sword for low-income renters: one the one hand, increased mobility supports access to jobs and critical services; but if transit-oriented development fails to include and preserve affordable housing, they may be pushed out by rising rents. The question of whether public investments spur gentrification and displacement have created intense controversy around planned transit extensions in our region. My research on precarious rental housing illuminates the specific mechanisms of housing displacement and challenges for housing affordability in the single-family/duplex and the large multifamily rental market. The loss of low-cost housing is occurring even without new …

Do People’S Perceptions Of Neighborhood Bikeability Match “Reality”?, Liang Ma, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Do people perceive the built environment the same as we objectively measure it? If not, what are the relative roles of the objective versus the perceived environment on bicycling behavior? This study, based on data from Portland, Oregon, explored the match or mismatch between the objective and perceived bicycling environment and how it affects people’s bicycling behavior. The descriptive analysis indicated a fair agreement between perceived and objective measures. Older adults, women having children, less-educated and lower-income persons, and those who bicycle less tended to perceive their high-bikeable environment (measured objectively) as being a low-bikeable environment. In addition to the …

Transportation Cost Index As A Performance Measure For Transportation And Land Use Systems: New Approaches And Applications, Liming Wang, Huajie Yang, Jenny H. Liu

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research aims to fill gaps in existing multi-modal performance measures for transportation and land use systems:

1. As a supplement/replacement of traffic-centric measures such as LOS, travel delay;
2. Recent federal and state legislations put more emphases on using of performance measures in transportation planning & operation: MAP-21, Oregon Job and Transportation Act (OJTA);
3. Existing performance measures for transportation and land use systems, although now numerous, have their own limitation (Table 1), and leave important aspects and policy areas uncovered, for example, the balance of transportation investment between different modes and across geographical areas as mandated by OJTA

Transportation Leadership Education: Portland Traffic And Transportation Course A Case Study And Curriculum, Nathan Mcneil

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Portland Traffic and Transportation course serves a number of different purposes. On one hand, it is designed to develop citizens who are informed about the transportation system, including how it got where it is today, what agencies and actors play a role in its operation and development, and how they, as citizens, play a role in its future. In this sense, there is a goal of broadening and deepening the existing knowledge about the system among the general population. On the other hand, there is an implicit goal of encouraging participation in the system with the understanding that doing …

Comparing Two Common Approaches To Public Transit Service Equity Evaluation, Alex Karner, Aaron Golub

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding the equity effects of transit service changes requires good information about the demographics of transit ridership. Both on-board survey data and census data can be used to estimate equity effects, though there is no clear reason these two sources will result in the same finding of impact. Guidance from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recommends using either of these data sources to estimate equity impacts. This article makes a direct comparison of the two methods for the public transit system in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. The results indicate that, although both sources are acceptable for FTA compliance, the …

But Do Lower-Wage Jobs Follow? Comparing Wage-Based Outcomes Of Light Rail Transit To Control Corridors, Arthur C. Nelson, Matt Miller, Dejan Eskic, Joanna P. Ganning, Jenny H. Liu, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Literature suggests that rail transit improvements should be associated with more jobs and perhaps increasing share of jobs in a metropolitan area. Literature and some research also suggest that such improvements should increase the number of lower-wage jobs accessible to transit. In this paper, we assess both in the context of all 11 light rail transit systems built in metropolitan areas of fewer than eight million residents in the nation since 1981. Using census block-level job data over the period 2002 to 2011, we evaluate change in jobs and change in metropolitan area job share for all jobs, and lower- …

Workshop Synthesis: Sampling Issues, Data Quality & Data Protection, Jimmy Armoogum, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This workshop discussed various aspect of the mathematical part of survey methodology, as well as archiving and confidentiality issues aimed at improving data quality and its use through time. Participants identified ways to correct or minimize bias by dealing with incomplete sampling frames, using weighing and imputing procedures. We discussed methods to archive and share GPS-based survey data to preserve anonymity. Finally, we debated research needs on these topics for the next following years.

Transit And Economic Resilience, Arthur C. Nelson, Matt Miller, Joanna P. Ganning, Philip Stoker, Jenny H. Liu, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Do fixed-guideway transit systems facilitate resilience with metropolitan areas? There is little literature making this connection theoretically and none testing it empirically. This paper helps close this gap in both respects. In evaluating metropolitan areas with light rail transit systems the authors find evidence that transit corridors on the whole performed better than control corridors during the recovery period of two recessions: that of the early 2000s and the so-called Great Recession. In particular, during the Great Recession transit corridors outperformed control corridors among many economic sectors. Outcomes were more impressive during recoveries from both the recession of the early …

Retail Rent With Respect To Distance From Light Rail Transit Stations In Dallas And Denver, Arthur C. Nelson, Dejan Eskic, Joanna P. Ganning, Shima Hamidi, Susan J. Petheram, Jenny H. Liu, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

A growing body of recent research is challenging the assumptions underlying the half-mile-circle in planning for development around transit stations. In this article we review this literature and extend it to include retail land uses. We estimate the rent premium conferred on retail properties in metropolitan Dallas and metropolitan Denver, both of which have extensive light rail transit systems. We find that consistent with half-mile-circle assumptions, retail rent premiums extend only to about 0.30 mile from transit stations with half the premium dissipating after a few hundred feet and three quarters within the first 0.10 mile. We offer implications for …

Office Rent Premiums With Respect To Distance From Light Rail Transit Stations In Dallas And Denver, Arthur C. Nelson, Dejan Eskic, Joanna P. Ganning, Shima Hamidi, Susan J. Petheram, Jenny H. Liu, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

It seems an article-of-faith that real estate markets respond more favorably to location within one-half mile of transit stations. Planning and public decision-makers have thus drawn half-mile (or smaller) circles around rail transit stations assuming larger planning areas would not be supported by the evidence. Recent research, however, has shown market-responsiveness well beyond one-half mile. We contribute to this literature by evaluating the distance-decay function of office rents in metropolitan Dallas and Denver with respect to light rail transit (LRT) station distance. Using a quadratic transformation of distance we find office rent premiums extending in the range of two miles …

Commuter Rail Transit And Economic Development, Arthur C. Nelson, Matt Miller, Keuntae Kim, Joanna P. Ganning, Jenny H. Liu, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Commuter rail transit (CRT) is a form of rail passenger service connecting downtowns and other major activity centers with suburban commuter towns and beyond. Between 1834 and 1973, only three public CRT systems were built in the U.S. serving New York, Chicago and then Boston. There are now 25 such systems. Modern CRT systems aim to expand economic development in metropolitan areas. But do they? This paper evaluates the economic development performance of five modern CRT systems. The authors find that several economic sectors perform well within 0.50 miles of CRT stations. The authors offer planning and policy implications.

Do Tods Make A Difference? Ns Streetcar Line Portland, Oregon, Jenny H. Liu, Zakari Mumuni, Matt Berggren, Matt Miller, Arthur C. Nelson, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This analysis was intended to help answer the following policy questions:

Q1: Are TODs attractive to certain NAICS sectors?
Q2: Do TODs generate more jobs in certain NAICS sectors?
Q3: Are firms in TODs more resilient to economic downturns?
Q4: Do TODs create more affordable housing measured as H+T?
Q5: Do TODs improve job accessibility for those living in or near them?

The first question investigates which types of industries are actually transit oriented. Best planning practices call for a mix of uses focused around housing and retail, but analysis provides some surprises. The second question tests the economic development …

Do Tods Make A Difference? Max Yellow Line Portland, Oregon, Jenny H. Liu, Zakari Mumuni, Matt Berggren, Matt Miller, Arthur C. Miller, Reid Ewing

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This analysis was intended to help answer the following policy questions:

Q1: Are TODs attractive to certain NAICS sectors?
Q2: Do TODs generate more jobs in certain NAICS sectors?
Q3: Are firms in TODs more resilient to economic downturns?
Q4: Do TODs create more affordable housing measured as H+T?
Q5: Do TODs improve job accessibility for those living in or near them?

The first question investigates which types of industries are actually transit oriented. Best planning practices call for a mix of uses focused around housing and retail, but analysis provides some surprises. The second question tests the economic development …

Multiday Gps Travel Behavior Data For Travel Analysis: The Effect Of Day-To-Day Travel Time Variability On Auto Travel Choices, Jennifer Dill, Joseph Broach, Kate Deutsch-Burgne, Yanzhi Xu, Randall Guensler, David Levinson, Wenyun Tang

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project explored the potential of archived multi-day GPS data to expand the understanding of travel-time reliability. While reliability is often observed and considered at the system or segment level, travel-time uncertainty is also experienced at the household and trip level. Any move toward incorporating reliability into regional travel models will necessitate a re-examination of travel-time variation at more disaggregate levels. The analysis uses multiday vehicle-based GPS data analyzed within the Transportation Secure Data Center (TSDC). There were three major goals for the research. The first goal was to consider the ways in which multiday GPS data could be translated …

Route Segment Level Analysis Of Bus Safety Incidents, James G. Strathman, Sung Moon Kwon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper analyzes collision and non-collision incidents that occurred on TriMet’s bus system over a near two-year period. The bus route network was decomposed into stop and line haul segments, and a typology of models was estimated from segment level incident, risk exposure, and roadway feature data. The frequency of non-collision incidents – mainly slips, trips and falls – was estimated to be primarily related to associated risk exposure variables. The frequency of collision incidents was also estimated to be related to risk exposure variables, as well as a number of roadway design variables. The findings serve as an initial …

Research And Development Of A Land Use Scenario Modeling Tool, John Gliebe, Hongwei Dong, Josh Frank Roll

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Planning and Analysis Unit (TPAU) developed a land use modeling tool called the “Land Use Scenario Developer in R” (LUSDR). LUSDR is a modeling tool, written in the “R” language, that may be used to predict and analyze regional land use changes probabilistically, creating a distribution of possible outcomes. It is designed to be integrated with travel demand modeling programs, making it potentially valuable for analyzing the interaction between transportation and land use when assessing various growth-policy and socioeconomic assumptions. This project is Phase 2 for Research and Development of a Land Use Scenario …

Measuring The Performance Of Transit Relative To Livability, Marc Schlossberg, Jennifer Dill, Liang Ma, Cody Meyer

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project sought to understand the relationship between urban form, transit service characteristics, and ridership measured at the stop level. Most previous work in this area has looked at these issues separately, by either linking system performance (e.g. on-time performance, cost, etc.) to ridership or exploring the connection between urban form (e.g. density) and transit use. This project synthesized these disparate approaches. While transit service characteristics (e.g. frequency, travel time, etc.) are important to help individuals reach their desired destinations, most transit users are pedestrians at the beginning and end of any transit trip. Therefore, focusing on the walkable zone …

Making Accessibility Analyses Accessible: A Tool To Facilitate The Public Review Of The Effects Of Regional Transportation Plans On Accessibility, Aaron Golub, Glenn Robinson, Brendan Nee

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The regional transportation planning process in the United States has not been easily opened to public oversight even after strengthened requirements for public participation and civil rights considerations. In the effort to improve the public review of regional transportation plans, this paper describes the construction of a proof-of concept web-based tool designed to analyze the effects of regional transportation plans on accessibility to jobs and other essential destinations. The tool allows the user to analyze disparities in accessibility outcomes by demographic group, specifically income and race, as required by civil rights-related planning directives. The tool makes cumulative-opportunity measures of the …

Development And Sensitivity Testing Of Alternative Mobility Metrics, John Gliebe, James G. Strathman

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Oregon Highway Plan’s (OHP) mobility policies guide various planning and programming activities of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Among these activities are ODOT’s land use change review responsibilities under the Transportation Planning Rule, as adopted by the state’s Land Conservation and Development Commission. This report examines supplemental transportation performance metrics beyond the volume-to-capacity metric that currently supports OHP mobility policies. Selected supplemental metrics are empirically analyzed using a travel demand model calibrated for a Medford, Oregon study area.

Design Of A Dynamic Activity Travel Modeling System For Metro, John Gliebe

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Trip-based models are no longer adequate for some of the more complex questions. They fail to account for time of day sensitivity, dynamic congestion effects, variable pricing and tolls, and the reliability of both highways and transit. Existing activity/tour-based models lack the enhanced temporal element provided by a more dynamic, activity-based microsimulation. DASH is the next-generation model being developed by the Metro Research Center.

Evaluation Of Innovative Bicycle Facilities: Sw Broadway Cycle Track And Sw Stark/Oak Street Buffered Bike Lanes, Christopher Michael Monsere, Nathan Mcneil, Jennifer Dill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Two innovative bicycle facilities installed in late summer and early fall 2009 in downtown Portland by the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) were evaluated to understand how they are functioning on multiple levels. All of these facilities involved removing a motor vehicle lane by restriping to provide additional roadway space to bicyclists. The facilities include:

• A cycle track (a seven-foot bike lane separated from motor vehicle traffic by a row of parked cars and a painted three-foot pedestrian buffer), on SW Broadway from SW Clay to SW Jackson through the Portland State University campus, and
• A couplet of …

Evaluation Of Bike Boxes At Signalized Intersections, Jennifer Dill, Christopher M. Monsere, Nathan Mcneil

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report presents a before-after study of bike boxes at 10 signalized intersections in Portland, Oregon. The bike boxes, also known as advanced stop lines or advanced stop boxes, were installed to increase visibility of cyclists and reduce conflicts between motor vehicle and cyclists, particularly in potential ?right-hook? situations. Before and after video were analyzed for seven intersections with green bike boxes, three intersections with uncolored bike boxes, and two control intersections. User perceptions were measured through surveys of cyclists passing through five of the bike box intersections and of motorists working downtown, where the boxes were concentrated. Both the …

Demonstrating The Benefits Of Green Streets For Active Aging: Initial Findings, Jennifer Dill, Margaret B. Neal, Vivek Shandas, Gretchen Luhr, Arlie Steven Adkins, Darin Lund

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project will help demonstrate how sustainable ("green") streets contribute to the well-being of a community, including the physical and mental health of older and younger adults, along with the environment and economy. The project will collect data in Portland, OR neighborhoods to answer the following research questions: Are residents living near sustainable streets more physically active in their neighborhood? Do residents living near sustainable streets interact with neighbors more and demonstrate higher levels of neighborhood social capital? What are residents’ opinions of sustainable streets? Are there variations in responses to sustainable streets by age or other demographics? In particular, …

Rural Transit In Oregon: Current And Future Needs, Jennifer Dill, Margaret B. Neal

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of the research reported was to identify the current status and needs for general public transportation in Oregon’s rural areas, as well as opportunities and barriers (e.g., funding, governance issues, and leadership) to expanding services over a 20 year period. Oregon is a largely rural state. This lack of density poses problems for the provision of public transit, whether through fixed route or demand response service. People living in the rural areas and who lack cars and access to public transportation are at a strong disadvantage. With no access to these transit resources, they may be limited to …

A Brief Portrait Of Multimodal Transportation Planning In Oregon And The Path To Achieving It, 1890-1974, Carl Abbott, Sam Lowry

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project was designed to outline transportation chapters of a planned written history of Oregon land use planning, written in ways that would make the transportation planning profession relevant to a popular audience. The writing would focus on stories from the profession, and on historical facts and events in Oregon transportation planning history that would surprise or enlighten popular reading audiences. Technology transfer would occur through publication of one or more written pieces of work.

The result is a topical and historical tale entitled "A Brief Portrait of Multimodal Transportation Planning in Oregon and the Path to Achieving It, 1890-1974." …

Equity Analysis Of Portland’S Draft Bicycle Master Plan – Findings, Jennifer Dill, Brendon Haggerty

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland's current bicycle network has brought the city into the national spotlight as a leader in the provision of cycling infrastructure. As the city looks forward to 2030 with ambitions of becoming a truly world-class bicycling city, it is clear that if the Draft Plan is fully implemented, nearly all of the city will be covered by a dense network of bikeways. The question of equity in the future is therefore not so much one of network coverage or lack of coverage, but of project priority and timing of implementation. The current network, while outstanding relative to other cities, nevertheless …