Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Regional Planning, Greenhouse Gases, And Urbanfootprint Open Source Software, Garlynn Woodsong

PSU Transportation Seminars

Since about 2008, the planning world has been experiencing a paradigm shift that began in places like California and Oregon that have adopted legislation requiring the linking of land use and transportation plans to outcomes, specifically to the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In response to this need, Calthorpe Associates has developed a new planning tool, called UrbanFootprint, on a fully Open Source platform (i.e. Ubuntu Linux, PostGIS, PostGreSQL, etc.). As a powerful and dynamic web and mobile-enabled geo-spatial scenario creation and modeling tool with full co-benefits analysis capacity, UrbanFootprint has great utility for urban planning and research at multiple …

Modeling Injury Outcomes Of Crashes Involving Heavy Vehicles On Texas Highways, Salvador Hernandez

PSU Transportation Seminars

A growing concern related to large-truck crashes has increased in the State of Texas in recent years due to the potential economic impacts and level of injury severity that can be sustained. Yet, studies on large truck involved crashes highlighting the contributing factors leading to injury severity have not been conducted in detail in the State of Texas especially for its interstate system. In this study, we analyze the contributing factors related to injury severity by utilizing Texas crash data based on a discrete outcome based model which accounts for possible unobserved heterogeneity related to human, vehicle and road-environment. We …

A Second Chance For Oregon, High School Dropouts, And The Ged, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Identficaton And Characterization Of Pollutant Hot Spots Integratng Probe Vehicle, Traffic And Land Use Data, Katherine Eleanor Bell, Miguel Figliozzi

PSU Transportation Seminars

Identification and Characterization of PM2.5 and VOC Hot Spots on Arterial Corridor by Integrating Probe Vehicle, Traffic, and Land Use Data: The purpose of this study is to explore the use of integrated probe vehicle, traffic and land use data to identify and characterize fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and volatile organic compound (VOC) hot spot locations on urban arterial corridors. An emission hot spot is defined as a fixed location along a corridor in which the mean pollutant concentrations are consistently above the 85th percentile of pollutant concentrations when considering all other locations along the corridor during the same time …

Effects Of The Objective And Perceived Built Environment On Bicycling For Transportation, Liang Ma, Jennifer Dill

PSU Transportation Seminars

Effects of the Objective and Perceived Built Environment on Bicycling for Transportation:
This paper investigates the relative effects of the objectively-measured built environment versus stated perceptions of the built-environment on bicycling. Data are from a random phone survey conducted in the Portland, Oregon region. Binary logit and linear regression models, using objective measures, perceived measures, and both sets of measures, were estimated to predict odds of bicycling and frequency of bicycling separately. Results showed that the perceived environment and objective environment had independent effects on bicycling. This suggests that future bicycling research should include both perceived and objective measures of …

Modeling The Impact Of Traffic Conditions On The Variability Of Mid-Block Roadside Pm2.5 On An Urban Arterial, Adam Moore

PSU Transportation Seminars

Modeling Impact of Traffic Conditions on Variability of Midblock Roadside Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations on an Urban Arterial: This paper presents an innovative modeling of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations as a function of very high resolution meteorological and traffic data. Peak period measurements were taken at a mid-block roadside location on an urban arterial commuter roadway. To capture the impact of dynamic traffic conditions, data were analyzed at 10-second intervals, with substantially higher resolution than typical roadside air quality study designs. Particular attention was paid to changes in traffic conditions, including fleet mix, queuing and vehicle platooning over the …

Evaluating Driver And Pedestrian Behaviors At Enhanced Multilane Midblock Pedestrian Crossings, Nick Foster

PSU Transportation Seminars

Case Study in Portland, Oregon This study examines driver and pedestrian behaviors at two enhanced midblock pedestrian crossings in Portland, Oregon. One crossing is on a five-lane arterial with a posted speed of 35/45 miles-per-hour (MPH) and features six rectangular rapid flash beacon (RRFB) assemblies and a narrow median refuge. The other crossing is on a suburban arterial with four travel lanes and a two-way left-turn lane. The crossing is enhanced with four RRFB assemblies and a median island with a “Z” crossing, or Danish offset, designed to encourage pedestrians to face oncoming traffic before completing the second stage of …

Benefit-Cost Evaluation Method For Transit Stop Removal, Zef Wagner

PSU Transportation Seminars

The introduction of wider stop spacing through the removal or consolidation of existing stops is one method transit agencies can use to reduce travel time and reliability on many transit lines. A great deal of research has been done to provide tools for determining optimal stop spacing, but tools are still needed to help service planners determine the optimal stops to remove. Stop-level bus performance data provide the information needed to develop a method for assessing the total benefits and costs to riders of removing individual stops. This tool compares the benefit to through-riders in terms of travel time savings …

Bicycling Is Different: Built Environment Relationships To Nonwork Travel, Christopher D. Muhs

PSU Transportation Seminars

There is growing investment in infrastructure to support non-motorized travel modes in the United States, in particular for bicycling. However, there remains a dearth of knowledge on the relationships between built environments and bicycling for non-work transportation. This issue is exacerbated by researchers and practitioners continuing to combine walking and bicycling into the category “non-motorized modes,” despite the two having many differences. This paper addresses these shortcomings through a segmented analysis of mode choice and mode share for walking, bicycling, and automobile travel. The data used are from a 2011 establishment intercept survey in the Portland, Oregon region and are …

City Of Sharonville Resident Perception Survey, Center For Urban And Public Affairs, Wright State University

Government Services

This report summarizes the perceptions of Sharonville’s citizens, and studies differences in perceptions between groups of people. Survey questions have been grouped into topical areas, such as “General Public Sentiment” and “Views of City Services,” representing the chapters in this report. In each section, the results from the survey are described in detail, and statistical differences between groups of people are noted whenever applicable.

The survey instrument was designed by researchers at APRI (formerly CUPA) with the input and approval of the City of Sharonville. The questionnaire was developed from APRI’s experience in conducting surveys for local governments.

Data collection …

Acknowledgements: Richmond, Race And Regionalism, Richmond Peace Education Center

Richmond, Race and Regionalism

Acknowledgements of contributors to Richmond, Race and Regionalism video project, sponsored by the Richmond Peace Education Center and funded by Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Educational Leadership.

City Of Fairborn Analysis Of Impediments To Fair Housing, Center For Urban And Public Affairs, Wright State University

Community Development

The City of Fairborn Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing (AI) is a review of barriers to fair housing in the public and private sector which restricts housing choices or the availability of housing choices based on a person’s membership in a protected class. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (Fair Housing Act) prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings to the protected classes, which include:

• Race
• Familial status
• Disability
• Sex
• Religion
• National origin

The 1988 amendments to the Fair Housing Act also created an exemption to the provisions which allowed discrimination on the …

Evolving United States Metropolitan Land Use Patterns, Andrea Sarzynski, George Galster, Lisa Stack

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

We investigate spatial patterns of residential and non- residential land use for 257 U.S. metropolitan areas in 1990 and 2000, measured with 14 empirical indices. We find that metropolitan areas became denser during the 1990s but developed in more sprawl-like patterns across all other dimensions, on average. By far the largest changes in our land use metrics occurred in the realm of employment, which became more prevalent per unit of geographic area, but less spatially concentrated and further from the historical urban core, on average. Our exploratory factor analyses reveal that four factors summarize land use patterns in both years, …

Building Trust, Establishing Credibility, And Communicating Fire Issues With The Public, Josh Mcdaniel

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

With more people than ever living in the vicinity of the wildland-urban interface, communicating wildland fire management activities and building trust with the public is paramount for safety. Although the time and resources it takes to build and maintain the public’s trust may seem daunting, it may be one of the most important factors determining the long-term viability of a fire management program. Trust is built over time through personal relationships with citizens and communities and also by demonstrating competence and establishing credibility. When trust and confidence have been established, managers can enjoy strong support of fire and fuels management …

Revitalization In The Heartland Of America: Welcoming Immigrant Entrepreneurs For Economic Development, Paul Mcdaniel

Faculty Articles

A potent combination of declining population growth and economic stagnation has led many citiesand metropolitan regions to rethink how to reinvigorate their communities. The Midwest is a primeexample of this trend. According to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, “the Midwest cannot hopeto keep up with other regions or international competitors without a vital entrepreneurial sector.”1 TheCouncil notes that “immigrants, risk takers by nature, are unusually successful entrepreneurs, morethan twice as likely as native-born Americans to start their own firms.”2 As a result, immigration is oneof the strategies to which communities are repeatedly turning to fuel economic growth. A buddingplace-based …

Wave Energy In Clatsop County, Or: An Economic Impact Analysis, Jeff Renfro, Janai Kessi, Ayesha Khalid, Kyle O'Brien

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

This study analyzes the economic impacts of building a wave energy commercial generation project in Clatsop County, Oregon. The modeled project is relatively small, and was produced by reviewing relevant wave energy literature and working with two local wave energy developers to estimate the expenditures and related costs of the project. We find that the construction and ongoing operation of a commercial wave energy project would create gains in employment, income, and output in the area as well as preparing Astoria for further wave energy development.

Framing Transportation Planning Pedagogy For Sustainability Generalists, Beth Sweeney, Ann Scheerer, Vicki Elmer

TREC Final Reports

This paper describes a pilot graduate sustainable transportation course developed at the University of Oregon to provide hands-on project experience for students studying sustainability. New approaches to sustainability and transportation pedagogies will provide a galvanizing force for tomorrow’s graduates, who must respond to concerns about climate change and the environment, social equity, and an uncertain economy. They will require an aptitude for both technical skills and collaborative leadership and communication skills. The course was guided by a framework founded in five themes from the literature on sustainability education and transportation planning and engineering education: leading with sustainability’s cornerstones of people, …

Brooklyn's Thirst, Long Island's Water: Consolidation, Local Control, And The Aquifir, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

The creation of greater New York City in 1898 promised a solution to the problem of supplying Brooklyn and Queens with water. In the 1850s, the City of Brooklyn tapped ponds and streams on the south side of Queens County, and in the 1880s, dug wells for additional supply. This lowered the water table and caused problems for farmers and oystermen, many of whom sued the city for damages. Ultimately, salt water seeped into some wells from over-pumping. By 1896, Brooklyn’s system had reached its limit. Prevented by the state legislature from tapping the aquifer beneath Suffolk’s Pine Barrens, the …

Pursuing An Answer: Bureaucratic And Legal Accountability In Local Law Enforcement Pursuit Policies, Casey Lafrance

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

Using qualitative and quantitative data obtained from 30 interviews with local law enforcement managers (12 county sheriffs and 18 municipal police chiefs), this study explores the decision-making processes used by these managers in the context of a pursuit-related accident involving an innocent third party. My findings suggest that: (1) managers most often conduct internal investigations to ensure that their officers’ behavior demonstrated adherence to the agency’s standard operating procedures; (2) managers use multiple mechanisms, including consultations with legal actors and professional peers, to keep their pursuit policies updated with regard to case law; (3) policy restrictiveness shares a positive, but …

Miami Township Resident Perception Survey, Center For Urban And Public Affairs, Wright State University

Government Services

As one means of tracking data about customer needs in terms of government services, the Township provides the opportunity for citizens to share their opinions on government and services, and to assess residents’ desires for the future of Miami Township. In 2014, APRI (formerly CUPA) conducted the public opinion survey for the Township.

This report summarizes the perceptions of Miami Township’s residents. Survey questions have been grouped into topical areas, such as “General Public Sentiment” and “Views of City Services,” representing the chapters in this report.

The survey instrument was designed by Miami Township officials and employees with guidance from …

Greene County Parks And Trails: Community Survey, Center For Urban And Public Affairs, Wright State University

Government Services

This survey, conducted by APRI (formerly CUPA) captured how informed residents are about the parks and trails, where they get their information, their opinions of the quality and value of the parks and trails, what they feel should be the park district's top spending priorities, and to gauge the feasibility of a possible operating issue. Five hundred (500) voters, sampled from the Greene County Board of Elections Voter Registry, were interviewed for this survey from May 7, 2014 to June 3, 2014, resulting in 95% confidence for the study and a margin of error of +/- 4.4%.

How Well Has Land-Use Planning Worked Under Different Governance Regimes? A Case Study In The Portland, Or-Vancouver, Wa Metropolitan Area, Usa, Jeffrey D. Kline, Paul R. Thiers, Connie P. Ozawa, J. Alan Yeakley, Sean N. Gordon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examine land use planning outcomes over a 30-year period in the Portland, OR-Vancouver, WA (USA) metropolitan area. The four-county study region enables comparisons between three Oregon counties subject to Oregon’s 1973 Land Use Act (Senate Bill 100) and Clark County, WA which implemented land use planning under Washington’s 1990 Growth Management Act. We describe county-level historical land uses from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s, including low-density residential and urban development, both outside and inside of current urban growth boundaries. We use difference-in-differences models to test whether differences in the proportions of developed land resulting from implementation of urban growth …

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 …

Race, Segregation, And Choice: Race And Ethnicity In Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Applicant Neighborhoods, 2010–2012, Matthew F. Gebhardt

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the past two decades, concern about spatial concentrations of poverty and disadvantage has become an ascendant scholarly and policy issue, and research on the effect of neighborhoods on individual and family life chances has grown substantially. The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative (hereafter, Choice), introduced in 2009, is a new federal program designed to address concentrated poverty. Choice, which is functionally the successor to the Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, or HOPE VI, Program, provides competitive grants to fund redevelopment and revitalization in neighborhoods that have concentrations of poverty and publicly subsidized housing, with the goal of transforming them into neighborhoods …

Union Carpenter Activity Forecasting, Thomas Potiowsky, Kyle O'Brien, Jeff Renfro

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

The objective of this study is to obtain a model and methodology for forecasting carpenter activity for the purpose of forecasting Trust contributions. Employer contributions into the trust are a function of hours worked by carpenter union members. Therefore, by forecasting the hours worked by carpenters, the Trust can easily obtain an estimate for employer contributions.

Getting Your House In Order: A Model For African-American Financial Education, Lisa K. Bates, Stacey Triplett

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Portland Housing Center (PHC) is a national leader in educating and creating first time homebuyers, with outreach efforts that bring diverse households to its services. However, in 2010, PHC recognized that African American customers were much less likely to buy homes, even when they received counseling. The Portland (OR) area’s African American homeownership rate was just 35% (compared to 65% for Whites) and actually declined from 2000 to 2010.

Working with an African American advisory committee and with research guiding development, implementation, and evaluation, PHC developed a comprehensive program around outreach and services to African Americans in the Portland …

Impacts Of Transportation Infrastructure Proximity And Accessibility On Real Property Values, Arturo Bujanda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Investments in public infrastructure such as highways, airports, mass transit, and stadiums can increase adjacent property values, generating a value premium for private developers and adjacent property owners. A portion of this value can be "captured" as public revenue via property taxes to assist financing such improvements. States and local governments aim to anticipate and capture the economic value created by transportation accessibility. While value capture (VC) represents an opportunity for regional agencies to recapture some transportation infrastructure costs, it is not clear how much value is added by the infrastructure in a particular region. This research applies geographic weighted …

Suburban Sustainability: Favorable, Forgotten, Or Fantasy?, Tessia Melvin, Tessia G. Melvin

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

In the decades after World War II, the United States became a prosperous nation and world superpower. Reinventing itself through the development of suburbs, many communities were created by suburbs. Years later, criticized for suburban sprawl and aging communities, suburban communities today are faced with the dilemma of what changes to make in order to create sustainable suburban communities.

Most of the literature on sustainability and its success comes from the private sector. Much available literature provides sustainable indicators and concepts on corporate sustainability. As a result, many public administrators are faced with a reality that changes need to occur …

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

Theorizing More Inclusive Cities: A Relational Model Of Boundary Transformation And Urban Research Agenda, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

To generate more inclusive environments for marginalized urban communities of color demands a strategy that privileges symbolic boundary change and uses it as the inroad towards spatial changes. This paper theorizes a three step relational process of a) communicative democratic activism, b) "multicultural" capital brokers providing access to the policy making process, and c) practices of community building that reflect the role of cities as key sites for sociospatial boundary transformation. An emphasis on discursive and ideational change, relying on communicative democratic processes steeped in historical, comparative analysis opens up our minds towards different classification schemes for stigmatized groups. Participating …