Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Planning, Preserving, And Increasing Accessibility: A Reflection On Going “Car-Free”, Abigail J. Weizer

City and Regional Planning

This paper studies the accessibility of car-free areas to those with mobility impairments by examining three car-free and car-lite experiments in California. Whether slowly converted to car-free with long-term, careful planning, or expeditiously changed to car-free during the COVID-19 pandemic, these three car-free experiments show the shortcomings of planning for accessibility in car-free spaces, and how instead of improving accessibility, current planning practice often hinders it. This paper offers a deep-dive into the drawbacks and benefits of going car-free and the ethical and legal reasons why urban planners, designers, and policymakers must consider the accessibility of a space before planning …

Collaboration In Public And Private Partnerships, Abby M. Foreman

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

For the past few decades, there has been a shift in the public sector, which has been documented by academics and thoroughly felt by public administrators. The increase of public-private partnerships as a result of contracting, privatization, and other mechanisms has changed expectations and created new demands for managers.

Climate Adaptation And Risk Preparedness In Florida’S East Coast Cities: Views Of Municipal Leaders, Sheila A. Young, Kenyon C. Lindeman, Samantha R. Fowler

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Cities along Florida’s Atlantic coastline are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, posing significant challenges for city planners. How cities see themselves in terms of developing or implementing their climate change adaptation action plans depends, in part, on the extent to which they perceive climate-related events as risks, and their city size. Data were obtained from city leaders (i.e. mayors, city/town managers, or their designees) from 86 cities along Florida’s Atlantic Coast from January to May 2021 to quantitatively assess factors influencing city adaptation planning. Validity and reliability were obtained for the survey. Multiple regression analyses showed significant …

Exploring Associations Between Multimodality And Built Environment Characteristics In The U.S., Sangwan Lee

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study demonstrated associations between multimodality and built environment characteristics, and proposed policy implications for fostering multimodal travel behaviors. It conducted a U.S. nationwide analysis using ordinary least square regression and gradient boosting decision tree regressor models with American Community Survey 2015–2019 5-year estimates and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Smart Location Database version 3.0. Notable findings were as follows: First, built environment characteristics were found to be statistically significant predictors of multimodality across the U.S. Second, certain features were identified as having considerable importance, specifically including population density, regional accessibility, walkability index, and network density, all of which …

Our Streets: Increasing Equity In Active Transportation Planning Through Community Outreach, Jordan Hoy

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT Significant research has demonstrated that active transportation infrastructure is essential for the growth and livability of San Francisco: it increases access to economic opportunities, promotes overall improved public health, encourages mobility without contributing to roadway congestion, prevents traffic injuries and fatalities, and supports the sustainability goals of the city. Despite the fact that communities of color will benefit the most from active transportation infrastructure development, historical disenfranchisement in tandem with a lack of diverse representation within public participation contributes to an inequitable distribution of walking and biking investments throughout the city of San Francisco. While research shows that Black …

Somewhere That’S Green: Recreational Space Use And Civic Engagement In Massachusetts’ Urban Areas, Matthew Donohue

Honors Program Theses and Projects

Public green spaces, their use, and their accessibility are all crucial indicators of the state of life in urban areas. These spaces can signify the socioeconomic wellbeing of neighborhoods and cities, and often reflect trends accordingly; in one such case, Rehling et al. found in a study in German urban areas that those living at lower socioeconomic levels are often farther from green spaces than those at higher ones.^[1] Perhaps unsurprisingly, access to these spaces is also often an indicator of personal physical health. Rundle et al. found that adults in New York City who lived closer to large …

The Soniferous Experience Of Public Space: A Soundscape Approach, Kenya Dubois Williams

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the awareness and perceptions of practitioners regarding the role of the soundscape in understanding and managing public spaces. Without considering the role of the soundscape as part of public spaces, urban planners, designers, and policy officials cannot accurately engage in placemaking that provides a complete sensory experience. The antiquated practice of enforcing noise codes has been the traditional approach to mitigate noise (unwanted sounds). However, sound is an overlooked element in the sensory experience of cities and how individuals and communities construct a "sense of place." This study considers the implications of the soundscape approach and soundwalks …

Webinar: Transportation Benefits Of Polycentric Urban Form, Reid Ewing, Sadegh Sabouri

TREC Webinar Series

A “polycentric” region consists of a network of compact developments connected with each other through high-quality transportation options. Rather than continuing the expanse of low-density development radiating from an urban core, investments can be concentrated on central nodes and transit connections. This development pattern is very popular in Europe and is linked to significant benefits. This presentation is aimed at exploring the academic literature and empirical evidence surrounding polycentric development, analyzing more than 120 regional transportation plans to see how they promote polycentric development, defining types of centers in a hierarchy of centers, quantifying the transportation benefits of polycentric development, …

Expanding The Geography Of Opportunity And Ownership, Maritza E. Mercado Pechin

Richmond Racial Equity Essays: Individual Essays

The author, a city planner, defines an equitable Richmond as a city where all Richmonders have equal or equivalent access to goods, services, status, rights, power, and amenities. She outlines four ideas to help Richmond expand physical and ownership access: rewriting the zoning ordinance; reconnecting the city; establishing programs that increase generational wealth; expanding engagement and education of city planning.

Integrative Sonic Urbanism: Artist-Led Strategies For Urban Sound Design In The Contemporary City, Sven Anderson

Doctoral

This doctoral research advances the fields of urban sound design and acoustic planning, presenting new ways of exploring the interrelationship between individual and collective sonic experience, the dynamic potential of the urban sound environment and the complex evolution of the contemporary cityscape. It links urban sound art practices with larger urban design processes, revealing how sound contributes to the production of urban space. The research progresses by crafting a dynamic, integrative methodology that activates contrasting sonic perspectives to critically reassess the role of sound in the public realm. As it discloses this methodology, the research navigates the tension between new …

Comparing The Promise And Reality Of E-Scooters: A Critical Assessment Of Equity Improvements And Mode-Shift, Michael Glenn Mcqueen

Dissertations and Theses

In just three years, e-scooters have substantially disrupted and altered the urban mobility landscape. Throughout this period, they have been commonly touted as part of a larger micromobility solution that promises to erase equity barriers and solve the first-mile/last-mile problem. However, few studies in the nascent e-scooter literature have considered these claims. In this study, we surveyed students at Portland State University (n = 1,968) about the role that e-scooters, among other modes, played in meeting their general and university-related travel needs. We then estimated models that incorporated demographics, travel behavior, and latent attitudes distilled using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). …

Green Spots In The Heart Of Town’: Planning And Contesting The Nation’S Widest Streets In Georgia’S Fall Line Cities, J. Mark Souther

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Building Healthy Communities Through Seattle's Growth Policy, Dongho Chang

PSU Transportation Seminars

Seattle is experiencing transformational changes with record-breaking population growth among large scale urban renewal and redevelopment. These changes are occurring in a constrained transportation system that is being reconfigured to meet the mobility needs of vibrant and thriving community. Learn about the policies that provide the roadmap for managing City’s growth, plans that guide where transportation investments are made, and how Seattle will reach the safety goals of Vision Zero.

Economic And Development Benefits Of Fixed Route Transit Through Denser Housing: A National Assessment, Arthur C. Nelson, Robert Hibberd

TREC Project Briefs

Building upon seven years of research, NITC investigators used economic analysis to determine development outcomes and land use planning implications of different fixed route transit systems (FRT). They have created, analyzed, and shared a nationwide data repository that explores links between transit station proximity and real estate rents, jobs, people, and housing. Earlier research revealed important differences in development outcomes of FRT’s during the 2000’s, but the significantly expanded data repository offers a more representative look at development outcomes after the Great Recession and with 22 new FRT systems added.

The main takeaway from this expanded analysis? Only 5% of …

The Link Between Transit Station Proximity And Real Estate Rents, Jobs, People And Housing With Transit And Land Use Planning Implications, Arthur C. Nelson, Robert Hibberd

TREC Final Reports

This report updates and expands prior research in the genre of research that has used economic base analysis (especially shiftshare) and CoStar commercial rent data to estimate the development outcomes to transit. The study period for prior economic base analysis was 2002-2011and census data for 2000 and 2010, as well as CoStar data for 2013. Prior analysis compared development, demographic and housing outcomes associated with those transit systems during the period before the Great Recession (2000 through 2007) and during recession into recovery (2008 through 2011). Though NITC researchers found important differences in outcomes between the study periods of 2000-2007 …

Chinatown Anti-Displacement Community Research Project Report, George Villanueva, Debbie Liu

George Villanueva

The Greater Chinatown area in Chicago (see Figure 1 for map) is rapidly changing because of recent public and private investments. The area continues to attract great interest by developers because of its proximity to downtown, public transportation rail infrastructure, bicycle shares, and its vibrant ethnic culture. Consequentially, Greater Chinatown’s popular real estate market creates concerns about the implications of gentrification (economic and cultural) and potential displacement of existing communities. Community advocates, policymakers, and scholars nationwide point to the displacement in lower-income and ethnic communities resulting from urban revitalization. In particular, Chinatowns across the nation have become part of the …

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 …

Barriers To “New Mobility”: A Community-Informed Approach To Smart Cities Technology, Aaron Golub, Vivian Satterfield

PSU Transportation Seminars

There is an active debate about the potential costs and benefits of emerging “smart mobility” systems, especially in how they will serve communities already facing transportation challenges. This presentation will describe the results of an assessment of these equity impacts in the context of lower-income areas of Portland, Oregon, based on a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research.

Portland, Oregon’s proposal for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, “Ubiquitous Mobility for Portland,” focuses on developing mobility solutions that would serve traditionally underserved populations (low-income, communities of color, and residents with mobility challenges). This study found that by lowering …

Center For Population Dynamics Quarterly Brief October 2015: A Reason To Be- The "Upskilling" Of Cleveland's Workforce, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charlie Post

Richey Piiparinen

Not having a reason to be is the human crisis. Developing worth is the cure. Such is the case not just for people, but for cities. Cities without uses become ghost towns, with a midway existence called “the shrinking city”. Cleveland, like many Rust Belt cities, is a so-called shrinking city. For decades now the region has fought against the anticipation of disappearing. This fight is called “economic development”. Often, development policies are more instinctive than strategic. Cleveland has lost jobs, mostly manufacturing jobs. The solution, then, is to simply go get those jobs back. But manufacturing as a share …

Paradoxes Of Violence: A Post-Colonial 'Gaze' On Chicago's Segregation, Zackary Rupp

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

Although post-colonial theory was developed to examine the legacy of colonial powers, this project proposes that post-colonial theory can nonetheless fruitfully be used for a literary analysis of the Fair Housing Act to account for the typically non-colonial legacy of US segregation. Even though Chicago is not a city in the colonial context, the post-colonial discourse of violence, territorialization, and citizenship are useful tools for understanding the language in legislation that shaped American systemic segregation. Through a post-colonial lens, the research shifts the individual attention away from the marginalized offender and focuses on systemic othering that has shaped spaces suffering …

Urbanism Next: How Technology Is Changing Our City, Nico Larco

PSU Transportation Seminars

Advances in technology such as the advent of autonomous vehicles (AV’s), the rise of E-commerce, and the proliferation of the sharing economy are having profound effects not only on how we live, move, and spend our time in cities, but also increasingly on urban form and development itself. These new technologies are changing the ease of transport, the role of transit, and the places we spend our time. These changes will have profound effects on cities including large shifts in land use, changes in street design, a potential reduction on the need for parking, a shift on where we choose …

Chinatown Anti-Displacement Community Research Project Report, George Villanueva, Debbie Liu

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Greater Chinatown area in Chicago (see Figure 1 for map) is rapidly changing because of recent public and private investments. The area continues to attract great interest by developers because of its proximity to downtown, public transportation rail infrastructure, bicycle shares, and its vibrant ethnic culture. Consequentially, Greater Chinatown’s popular real estate market creates concerns about the implications of gentrification (economic and cultural) and potential displacement of existing communities. Community advocates, policymakers, and scholars nationwide point to the displacement in lower-income and ethnic communities resulting from urban revitalization. In particular, Chinatowns across the nation have become part of the …

Metropolitan Centers: Evaluating Local Implementation Of Regional Plans And Policies, Richard D. Margerum, Keith Bartholomew, Rebecca Lewis, Robert Parker, Stephen Dobrinich

TREC Final Reports

The Denver and Salt Lake City Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) have embarked upon regional visioning strategies that promote development around higher density, mixed use centers with current or future access to transit. This study examines the programs and policies in the Salt Lake City and Denver regions to examine regional vision influence on local planning and the opportunities and constraints facing centers. The research team analyzed local plans over the past several decades, interviewed planners, and examined demographic, land use and transportation characteristics in select centers across the region. We found that the regional vision had a moderate influence on …

Metropolitan Centers Mean Smart Growth, Richard D. Margerum, Rebecca Lewis, Keith Bartholomew

TREC Project Briefs

In this study, a multidisciplinary team from the University of Oregon and the University of Utah examined regional metropolitan center programs and policies in the Salt Lake City and Denver regions. The goal of the study was to examine this topic on two levels. First, to learn how and why local governments have adopted the concepts of metropolitan centers over time and the related supporting and constraining factors. Second, to understand how demographics, land use, and transportation choices have changed over time in the designated centers.

Agent-Based Model Simulating Pedestrian Behavioral Response To Environmental Structural Changes, Amy Lobben, Christopher Bone

TREC Final Reports

Our research focused on understanding the travel behavior of individuals in complex urban environments. Specifically, we investigated how land use patterns and infrastructure influence how individuals across a broad range of travel abilities navigate through urban landscapes. Our overall project goal was to develop a transportation planning tool that allows users to simulate pedestrian travel behavior. The tool was built on a computation model that was developed through rigorous measures and observations of pedestrian travel behavior. Our definition of pedestrian includes a broad perspective as one of our aspirations through this project was to expand the definition of what constitutes …

Parking Infrastructure: A Constraint On Or Opportunity For Urban Redevelopment?, Mikhail Chester

PSU Transportation Seminars

Many cities have adopted minimum parking requirements, but we have relatively poor information about how parking infrastructure has grown.

In this research, using building and roadway growth models, we estimate how parking has grown in Los Angeles County from 1900 to 2010, and how parking infrastructure evolves, affects urban form, and relates to changes in automobile travel.

We find that since 1975, the ratio of residential offstreet parking spaces to automobiles in Los Angeles County is close to 1.0 and the greatest density of parking spaces is in the urban core. Most new growth in parking occurs outside of the …

An Analysis Of Cyclist Path Choices Through Shared Space Intersections In England, Allison Boyce Duncan

PSU Transportation Seminars

Shared space is a traffic calming technique as well as urban design concept. Also known as ‘Naked Streets’, this technique strives to fully integrate the roadway into the urban fabric by removing elements such as lane markings, curbs, and traffic signs. By removing these elements and creating a more plaza-like space, these spaces become ambiguous and no user group has priority. The technique is relatively new, and the majority of existing research concerns pedestrians only.

This study focused on intersections in England with the goal of understanding how bicycle riders perceive and travel through shared space intersections.

Using video observations, …

Center For Population Dynamics Quarterly Brief October 2015: A Reason To Be- The "Upskilling" Of Cleveland's Workforce, Richey Piiparinen, Jim Russell, Charlie Post

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Not having a reason to be is the human crisis. Developing worth is the cure. Such is the case not just for people, but for cities. Cities without uses become ghost towns, with a midway existence called “the shrinking city”. Cleveland, like many Rust Belt cities, is a so-called shrinking city. For decades now the region has fought against the anticipation of disappearing. This fight is called “economic development”.

Often, development policies are more instinctive than strategic. Cleveland has lost jobs, mostly manufacturing jobs. The solution, then, is to simply go get those jobs back. But manufacturing as a share …

Converting Garages Into A Dissertation: A Conversation With Jacob Wegmann, Jonathan P. Bell

Jonathan P. Bell

UrbDeZine, June 17, 2014. In part 1 of the article, I highlight that burgeoning scholarship on "informality" in the U.S. housing market fails to address the implementation side of planning: the regulation and enforcement of unpermitted dwelling units. Part 2 includes a Q&A with PhD candidate Jacob Wegmann on his groundbreaking dissertation examining the impacts of extralegal dwelling units on the political economy and housing market in Southeast Los Angeles County. The enforcement perspective is core to Wegmann's study. URL: http://losangeles.urbdezine.com/2014/06/17/converting-garages-into-a-dissertation-a-conversation-with-jacob-wegmann/

Street Portals: Urban User Interface 'Test Bed' Prototype For Bike Shares, Jason Germany, Philip Speranza

TREC Final Reports

The objective of this research project is to develop a user interface “test bed” to measure the role of touchscreen kiosks with community connectivity. This interface test bed will apply the knowledge of interface design to the domain of public transit kiosks, with a particular focus on bike share stations. The value of this research is the ability to generate user feedback between community members using urban experiences. Safety, effectiveness and community connectivity of public transit is enhanced with this information interface.

This report explains the test bed kiosk’s design, physical build, and hardware and software testing. User interaction studies …