Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

From Confrontation To Partnership: City Regulation Of Micromobility, William Henderson

PSU Transportation Seminars

It has been more than two years since shared scooters first appeared in Santa Monica, California and more than four years since the first dockless bikeshare bikes appeared in China. As shared micromobility has experimented in its deployment and operations across the globe, cities have also been experimenting with ways to regulate and manage this phenomenon in a way that best achieves public outcomes. But how do we best protect individual rights' while still protecting the right-of-way? This seminar will discuss experiences from cities with micromobility programs and considerations for agency staff and elected officials when launching and overseeing a …

Fast Track: Allowing Bikes To Participate In A Smart-Transportation System, Stephen Fickas, Marc Schlossberg

TREC Final Reports

This project focuses on a mode of transportation that is currently left out of V2X (vehicle-to-everything) conversations: bicycling. The project demonstrates how university researchers, city traffic engineers, and signal-controller manufacturers can come together to give bicyclists the same technology appearing on modern vehicles: Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory (GLOSA). GLOSA allows motorists to set their speed along corridors to maximize their chances of catching a “green wave” (i.e., not being forced to stop as they travel through the corridor). This project demonstrates how GLOSA can be used by bicyclists in the same way it is used by motorists on a …

Webinar: Social Transportation Analytic Toolbox (Stat) For Transit Networks, Xiaoyue Cathy Liu

TREC Webinar Series

This webinar will present an open-source socio-transportation analytic toolbox (STAT) for public transit system planning. This webinar will consist of a demonstration of the STAT toolbox, for the primary purpose of getting feedback from transit agencies on the tool's usefulness. We are especially interested in hearing about any improvements that would aid transit agencies in implementing it.

The STAT toolbox was created in an effort to integrate social media and general transit feed specification (GTFS) data for transit agencies, to aid in evaluating and enhancing the performance of public transit systems. The toolbox enables the integration, analysis, and visualization of …

The Datafication Of Cycling – Effects And Opportunities At The Intersection Of Industry And Transport Policy, Shaun Williams

PSU Transportation Seminars

This seminar will provide a brief overview to Shaun Williams’ "Datafication of Cycling" PhD project. The main aim is to understand how volunteered app data, provided by cyclists, are used to inform transportation planning practice and policy. There is an emerging body of academic work calling for digital aspects of cycling – such as app data - to be considered by transportation authorities. This project builds upon these contributions and asks: Are new forms of cycling data contributing to increased cycling provision and infrastructure? The Datafication of Cycling Project runs from 2017 – 2021 and includes visits to Portland (Oregon) …

Social-Transportation Analytic Toolbox (Stat) For Transit Networks, Xiaoyue Cathy Liu, Qian Zuo, Shenruoyang Na, Ran Wei, Aaron Golub, Liming Wang, Jake Davis

TREC Final Reports

This project builds an open-source, socio-transportation analytic (STAT) toolbox for public transit system planning in an effort to integrate social media and general transit feed specification (GTFS) data for transit agencies in evaluating and enhancing the performance of public transit systems. This toolbox is novel and essential to transit agencies in two aspects. First, it enables the integration, analysis and visualization of two major, new open transportation data, social media and GTFS data, to support transit decision-making. Second, it allows transit agencies to evaluate service network efficiency and access equity of transit systems in a cohesive manner, and identify areas …

Bicycle Planning Gis Tool, Joseph Broach

TREC Final Reports

Although currently only about one percent of US trips are done by bicycle, there is significant geographic variation. Differences across communities, along with much higher cycling rates observed in other places around the world, indicates large potential bicycling demand for daily travel in the US. In response, many communities are developing and implementing bicycle master plans that include a range of bikeway infrastructure aimed at making riding more appealing, including separated paths, protected (or separated) bike lanes, striped bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, sharrows, route signage, and intersection crossing aids. Given limited resources, planners and engineers need tools to estimate the …

Planning In Gateway And Natural Amenity Region Communities: Understanding The Unique Challenges Associated With Transportation, Mobility, And Livability, Danya Rumore, Philip Stoker, Zacharia Levine, Lindsey Romaniello

TREC Final Reports

Communities outside of major public lands and other natural amenities throughout the western United States face a variety of transportation and planning-related concerns associated with rapid growth and increases in tourism. Surprisingly, while the unique transportation and planning-related challenges of these western gateway and amenity region (GNAR) communities have, to some extent, been documented in recreation and tourism research, these concerns have largely been overlooked in planning scholarship. To begin to address this gap, this report presents key descriptive findings from a study aimed at examining the unique transportation, mobility, and access to opportunity-related challenges being experienced by GNAR communities …

Improving Transportation Access Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Noelle Fields, Courtney Cronley, Kate Hyun, Stephen Mattingly, Multiple Additional Authors

TREC Project Briefs

This study explored how engineers, planners, and social workers interact around issues of transportation and transportation equity, and identified opportunities for enhanced collaboration and training in anticipation of emerging transportation needs for environmental justice (EJ) populations. This study provided the foundation for future educational research, identify strategies for using two Android apps (Safe Activity and My Amble) developed at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and identified opportunities for collaborative solutions within the state of the practice. The study assessed the current level of knowledge amongst professionals (engineers, planners, and social workers) about the training needs of the other …

Addressing Changing Demographics In Environmental Justice Analysis, Aaron Golub

TREC Project Briefs

Since 1994, every Federal agency has a mandate to develop a strategy for identifying and addressing disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects on low income populations and minority populations. In transportation planning this means including those communities’ voices in the planning process, and evaluating the social impacts early on.

A new report from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), prepared by Portland State University and ICF International, provides an in-depth analysis of national demographic trends and a synthesis of best long-range planning practices borne out of five case studies

How Can Interdisciplinary Teams Leverage Emerging Technologies To Respond To Transportation Infrastructure Needs? A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Of Civil Engineers, Urban Planners, And Social Workers’ Perspectives, Noelle Fields, Courtney Cronley, Kate Hyun, Stephen Mattingly, Vivian J. Miller, Saeed Reza Ramezanpour Nargesi, Sheida Khademi, Shamsun Nahar, Jessica Williams, Erin Roark Murphy, Melinda Kitchens, Vanessa Wattron

TREC Final Reports

This study explored how engineers, planners, and social workers interact around issues of transportation and transportation equity, and identified opportunities for enhanced collaboration and training in anticipation of emerging transportation needs for environmental justice (EJ) populations. This study provided the foundation for future educational research, identify strategies for using two Android apps (Safe Activity and My Amble) developed at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and identified opportunities for collaborative solutions within the state of the practice. The study assessed the current level of knowledge amongst professionals (engineers, planners, and social workers) about the training needs of the other …

Webinar: Words Matter: Recognizing And Addressing Modal Assumptions To Shift Transportation Culture, Barb Chamberlain

TREC Webinar Series

Search #DriverNotCar or #CrashNotAccident on Twitter and you’ll find a vigorous discussion about the power of word choices to shape our understanding of what happens on the street and who’s responsible. When we directly examine and discuss the language we use, we acknowledge its power both to reflect existing attitudes and to shape developing attitudes. This presentation will uncover embedded biases or assumptions in common transportation terminology and provide tips and tools to help us broaden our inclusion of everyone we are supposed to serve as transportation professionals.

The Success Of An Integrated Mobility Strategy: Lessons From The Netherlands For The Pacific West Coast, Lucas Van Der Linde

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Netherlands sets the standard for their multimodal connectivity. It has world's highest use of cycling and an integrated mobility network with an efficient transport system. During this seminar, Lucas will tell more about the Dutch Approach and how this could be applied to the American transportation context.

Lucas will use the case of the Bay area to show this. The Bay Area in California currently faces massive challenges in transportation because of the enormous growth of the region. With the use of a new innovative modelling tool, the Move Meter (http://www.movemeter.com/), Lucas will show the potential of …

Addressing Changing Demographics In Environmental Justice Analysis, State Of Practice, Aaron Golub, Les Brown, Michael Grant, Nathan Mcneil, Charles Ryerson, Matt Gray, Stephanie Lonsdale, Madison Levy

TREC Final Reports

This report documents how metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), State departments of transportation (DOT), and other transportation agencies are adapting Environmental Justice (EJ) analysis techniques to understand transportation impacts in communities undergoing rapid demographic change. The report also highlights national demographic trends, showing significant change in the size and location of low-income and minority households. These changes are documented in a series of State- and county-level maps demonstrating absolute and percent change in minority populations, low-income populations and limited English proficiency populations between the 1990 – 2010 decennial census periods. Based on the state of practice review, the report also highlights …

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 …

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 …

Active And Public Transportation Connectivity Between North Temple Tod And Jordan Park River Trail, Ivis Garcia Zambrana, Christie Oostema

TREC Final Reports

The project seeks to capitalize on existing community assets—several TOD stations and a regional bike and pedestrian trail system—by studying how these can be linked. The overarching goal of this project is to increase scholarship on networking safe routes that can encourage public and active transportation choices and thus, encourage a healthier lifestyle and advance sustainability. By expanding pedestrian, bicycle and transit connections to green space and offering the most potential for TOD, this proposal clearly demonstrates the greatest priorities of NITC. Moreover, nationwide, communities like Salt Lake’s West Side are in greater need of sustainable transportation choices that foster …

Webinar: The Effects Of Demand-Responsive Parking On Transit Usage And Congestion: Evidence From Sfpark, Nicole Ngo

TREC Webinar Series

Parking is a serious issue in many urban areas, especially those experiencing rapid population growth. To address this problem, some cities have implemented demand-responsive pricing programs, where parking prices vary depending on the occupancy rate in a previous period. Yet, few empirical studies have rigorously evaluated these programs. In this study, we investigate the impacts of SFpark, a demand-responsive pricing parking program in San Francisco that began in 2011. We observe effects on three important aspects of urban transportation: parking availability, transit bus ridership and congestion. The timing of this program is plausibly exogenous to factors that affect these outcomes …

How Does Transportation Affordability Vary Among Tods, Tads, And Other Areas?, Brenda Scheer, Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park, Shabnam Sifat Ara Khan

TREC Final Reports

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has gained popularity worldwide as a sustainable form of urbanism; it concentrates development near a transit station so as to reduce auto-dependency and increase ridership. Existing travel behavior studies in the context of TOD, however, are limited in terms of small sample size, inconsistent TOD classification methods, and failure to control for residential self-selection. Thus, this study has three research questions. First, how can we distinguish between Transit-oriented development (TOD) and Transit-adjacent development (TAD)? Second, how do travel behaviors vary between TODs and TADs? Third, how does transportation affordability vary between TODs and TADs? This study utilizes …

What Do We Know About Location Affordability In U.S. Shrinking Cities?, Joanna Ganning, Jenna Rosie Tighe

TREC Final Reports

In late 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Location Affordability Index (LAI) portal. Their dataset uses models to estimate typical amount households spend on housing and transportation at the block group level, and calculates “H + T Affordability,” the percent of household income spent on these items. In our previous research, we analyzed 81 shrinking cities to determine how location affordability differs across various neighborhoods. Our results suggest that households in declining neighborhoods, as compared to stable or redeveloping neighborhoods, face the greatest H + T affordability challenges in shrinking cities. Furthermore, in declining neighborhoods, …

Impacts Of Bus Rapid Transit (Brt) On Surrounding Residential Property Values, Victoria Perk, Martin Catalá, Maximillian Mantius, Katrina Corcoran

TREC Final Reports

As bus rapid transit (BRT) grows in popularity in the United States, a better understanding of the mode’s impacts on land uses and property values is needed. Economic theory suggests, and literature has shown, that people are willing to pay higher housing costs to lower their costs of transportation to areas of economic activity. Does high-quality BRT service reliably provide such access and, thereby, increase residential property values? The hypothesis is that property values are higher closer to BRT stations, reflecting a premium for the access provided by the BRT service to various goods, services, employment, education, and recreation. There …

Homes Close To Fast Transit: The Value Is Still Rising, Victoria Perk, Martin Catalá, Maximillian Mantius, Katrina Corcoran

TREC Project Briefs

This research contributes to the relatively small body of literature on property value impacts of BRT in the U.S. by conducting a case study on Lane Transit District’s EmX BRT service in Eugene, Oregon, using econometric modeling techniques to estimate changes in property values associated with the BRT. The analysis is based on hedonic price regression analysis, where sale prices are modeled using several property characteristics that contribute to the market or sale price. The findings of this research indicate that the EmX BRT system does positively impact surrounding single-family home sale prices.

When Cities Shrink, Affordability Does Too, Joanna Ganning, Jenna Rosie Tighe

TREC Project Briefs

To better understand the real costs of housing and transportation in a declining urban context, NITC researchers implemented a household survey to determine whether the assumptions made in existing research literature and in the LAI regarding household expenditures and transportation accessibility hold true when analyzing shrinking cities—generally, cities characterized by a long-term loss in occupied housing units. The project was led by Joanna Ganning of Cleveland State University, who has conducted previous research into shrinking cities with the support of the NITC program.

Annual Metro Regional Trail Count And Why Local Extrapolation Factors Matter, Geoff Gibson

PSU Transportation Seminars

Metro, Portland's regional governing agency, conducts annual two-hour counts along its regional trail every September. This upcoming fall (2017) will be the 10th year that the counts have been held, which means we at Metro can finally start seeing noticeable, long-lasting trends in the regional trail network. Perhaps more importantly, we are seeing how these data have directly impacted investments in future trail, bicycle, and pedestrian projects.

This seminar will cover the history of the program, details of how it's conducted and why it's conducted that way, how data are used (including an inside look at future iterations of Metro's …

Impact Of Bike Facilities On Residential Property Prices, Wei Shi

PSU Transportation Seminars

As many cities are investing in street improvement or transportation infrastructure upgrade projects to provide better bike access or more complete bike networks, the economic value of bike infrastructure and bike facilities remains an area where many practitioners, planners and policy makers are seeking more conclusive evidence. Using residential property values as indicators of consumer preferences for bicycle infrastructure, this study focuses on advanced bike facilities which represent higher levels of bike priority or bike infrastructure investments that have been shown to be more desirable to a larger portion of the population. Estimating ordinary least squares hedonic pricing models and …

Realistic Or Utopian? Coordinating Transit And Land Use To Achieve Equitable Transit-Oriented Development, Ian Carlton

PSU Transportation Seminars

Equitable transit-oriented development (E-TOD)—the prioritization of social equity as an outcome of TOD implementation—has become a U.S. DOT policy stance, an objective of many other government bodies, and part of many NGOs' missions. But is it feasible to coordinate transit and land use in ways that allow us to achieve these goals, or is this a classic example of a wicked problem?

This talk will use Portland as a case study to explore some of the internal contradictions inherent in E-TOD goals, the systemic challenges that must be considered, and glimmers of hope for delivering E-TOD. Transportation and land use …

Webinar: The Association Between Light Rail Transit, Streetcars And Bus Rapid Transit On Jobs, People And Rents, Arthur C. Nelson

TREC Webinar Series

What are the job, residential development and market rent outcomes of Light Rail Transit (LRT), Streetcar Transit (SCT) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)?

LRT, SCR and BRT investments are spreading rapidly across the country but there is scant evidence of their effect on where people work and live, and effects on market rents as an indicator of value. This webinar will summarize several years of NITC-sponsored research into development outcomes associated with these transit investments. The webinar will be led by NITC researcher Arthur C. Nelson who was the principal investigator of two projects: Do TODs Make a Difference? and …

Planning Transportation For Recreational Areas, Anne Dunning

PSU Transportation Seminars

Population growth and increased accessibility of formerly remote destinations have created new needs for planning mobility to and within recreational areas.

Transportation planners studying recreational travel face unusual travel-demand peaks, travelers who are often unfamiliar with their surroundings, and a uniquely important need for traveler and community communication. Planners must consider what characteristics of an individual area make it attractive to visitors, as well as local goals for the special resources of the area.

This presentation will characterize unique facets of mobility in recreational areas, and pose approaches to planning transportation systems to serve them.

Understanding Where We Live And How We Travel, Kristina Marie Currans

PSU Transportation Seminars

Understanding changing residential preferences—especially as they are represented within land use and travel demand models—is fundamental to understanding the drivers of future housing, land use and transportation policies. As communities struggle to address a rising number of social challenges with increasing economic uncertainty, transportation and land use planning have become increasingly centered on assumptions concerning the market for residential environments and travel choices. In response, an added importance has been placed on the development of toolkits capable of providing a robust and flexible understanding of how differing assumptions contribute to a set of planning scenarios and impact future residential location …

Can Location Value Capture Pay For Transit? Organizational Challenges Of Transforming Theory Into Practice, Deborah Salon

PSU Transportation Seminars

Successful public transit systems increase the value of locations they serve. Capturing this location value to help fund transit is often sensible, but challenging.

This presentation will define location value capture, and synthesize lessons learned from six European and North American transit agencies that have experience with location value capture funding.

The opportunities for and barriers to implementing location value capture fall into three categories: (1) agency institutional authority, (2) agency organizational mission, and (3) public support for transit.

When any of these factors is incompatible with a location value capture strategy, implementation becomes difficult. In four of the cases …

Developing A Model For Transit Oriented Development In Latino Immigrant Communities: A National Study Of Equity And Tod, Gerardo Francisco Sandoval

TREC Final Reports

This research project is a continuation of a previous NITC-funded study. The first study compared the MacArthur Park TOD in Los Angeles to the Fruitvale Village TOD in Oakland. The findings from this new study further validate the key findings from the first study. This new comparative case study analyzed the extension of Los Angeles’ Gold Line into Boyle Heights and the revitalization linked to Boyle Heights due to two TODs built in that neighborhood. I conclude from all four cases that TODs can help serve as catalysts for neighborhood revitalization in low-income communities by paying attention and building upon …