Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Designbridge: Integrating Transportation Into Service Learning Design/Build Projects, Juli Brode, Nico Larco, John Roswell

TREC Final Reports

This proposal develops transportation-related projects through the work of designBridge. This active, student-based organization is composed of members from the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts working cooperatively with participants from the UO’s Planning, Public Policy and Management, Landscape Architecture, Geography, and Art departments. The program provides an opportunity for students to gain valuable, real-world experience by encouraging them to explore significant design issues in the community, to seek appropriate solutions to transportation problems, and to develop professional skills. Students are engaged in all phases of the design and building process, from the first client meeting through …

Cooperation, Competition And The Development Of Institutional Capacity: Civil Rights And Public Transportation In Southern Nevada, Bruce Erwin Turner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the implementation of social goals through government action and the context and relations of agencies charged with demonstrating and enforcing equality in transit. Specifically, I explain complexities involved in the top-down federal mandate to demonstrate equal transit service for minority communities and low income residents. Institutional entrepreneurship by local government agencies influenced the legislation and regulation that they were charged to enforce. The local Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), created to enable a local voice in major capital road projects, acquired new institutional capabilities as federal agencies tasked them with implementing new social goals. Engineers and planners, initially …

Wayfinding In Boise, Thomas Wuerzer, Cherilyn Blender, Bradley Clark, Breland Draper, Paul Morrow, Andrew Mitzel, Alisha Peña

Urban Studies and Community Development Faculty Publications and Presentations

This document reviews the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of wayfinding within the Boise and downtown areas. This project was done in coordination with the City of Boise Parks & Recreation (Boise P&R) Department as an in-class Service Learning component of the Community and Regional Planning course “CRP 503 Plan Making and Implementation” at Boise State University.

The purpose of this project is to develop a quality set of findings and recommendations that adhere to accepted planning processes and sound methodology. The goal from the onset is to develop content that is broad-based, all-inclusive, and will be helpful to Boise …

Getting On The Bus: Marketing San Luis Obispo's Regional Transit Authority, Jenna Higgins

Master's Theses

A new trend is emerging, seeking to recognize the benefits of and encourage the use of public transportation. In the past, public transit agencies have not directed much energy or focus at marketing, seeking to use limited funds elsewhere. “The common perception is that money spent on marketing would be better spent on transit systems themselves…over time, a sustained investment in marketing increases the number of people who use transit. Increased ridership leads to increased revenue, and ideally, an increase in service to match the new demand” (Arpi, 2009).

Even as marketing gains importance in the public transit world, questions …

Maintaining Diversity In America’S Transit-Rich Neighborhoods: Tools For Equitable Neighborhood Change, Stephanie Pollack, Barry Bluestone, Chase Billingham

Stephanie Pollack

No abstract provided.

Case Study: University At Albany Develops A Guide To Examine Commuting Behavior And Patterns, Catherine T. Lawson, Mary Ellen Mallia, Chris Franklin, Benjamin Fischer, David Hogenkamp, Matt Ryan

Publications

The University at Albany conducted an examination of campus commuting patterns and behaviors over an eighteen month period. The components included a review of existing options, the development of GIS maps indicating origin points of commutes, a survey of campus perceptions of barriers to using alternative transportation and on-time tracking of mass transit offerings. The study revealed that the success of alternative transportation is hindered by limitations in bus routes and frequency in scheduling, the need for commuters to make additional trips outside their commute route and a distrust of bus reliability.

Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Community Needs Assessment, Robert Parker, Juli Brode, John Rowell

TREC Final Reports

Dependence on fossil fuels, climate change, and degraded air quality are forcing the auto industry and consumers to seek alternative solutions to the current transportation system. Significant technical breakthroughs are allowing automakers to develop electric vehicles (EVs) that transcend some of the key barriers that limited them historically. Plug in electric vehicles entered the Oregon marketplace in early 2011. A range of reports suggest the demand for EVs will grow rapidly once affordable highway speed vehicles become available. ODOT identified the lack of a reliable network of electric vehicle service equipment (e.g., charging stations) that increases the range of these …

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.

Extraboard Management: Trimet Case Study, James G. Strathman, Sung Moon Kwon, Steve Callas

TREC Final Reports

This paper examines extraboard operations and management at TriMet, the transit provider for the Portland Oregon metropolitan area. The extraboard consists of a pool of operators who fill open work resulting from absences and other causes. The paper first examines the general performance of the extraboard in filling open work, drawing on seven years of daily operations data from three bus garages. It then presents statistical analyses focusing on open work patterns and the effects of selected work rules on operator utilization and service delivery. Lastly, suggestions are made for improving the efficiency of extraboard operations.

Calibrating The Hsm Predictive Methods For Oregon Highways, Karen Dixon, Christopher M. Monsere, Fei Xie, Kristie Gladhill

TREC Final Reports

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) was published by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in the spring of 2010. Volume 2 (Part C) of the HSM includes safety predictive methods which can be used to quantitatively estimate the safety of a transportation facility. The resulting information can then be used to provide guidelines to identify opportunities to improve transportation safety. The safety performance functions (SPFs) included with this content, however, were developed for several states other than Oregon. Because there are differences in crash reporting procedures, driver population, animal populations, and weather conditions (to name a …

Regional Transportation And Land Use Decision Making In Metropolitan Regions: Findings From Four Case Studies, Richard D. Margerum, Susan Brody, Robert Parker, Gail Mcewen, Terry Moore

TREC Final Reports

Throughout the United States, metropolitan regions face increasingly complex issues related to transportation and land use. The diffuse nature of decision making creates a need to better coordinate land use and transportation to address issues such as: congestion, infrastructure costs, and greenhouse gas emissions. Key players in this decision making are regional metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) with transportation planning authority, regional planning responsibilities, and in some cases regional land use planning authority. The goal of this study was to describe and assess efforts by regional agencies to coordinate land use and transportation. Policies and processes in four key topic areas …

Bicycle And Pedestrian Engineering Design Curriculum Expansion, Ashley Haire

TREC Final Reports

This project summary report describes the execution of OTREC Project #298 (Development, Deployment and Assessment of a New Educational Paradigm for Transportation Professionals and University Students). The project is one facet of a multiyear collaboration of the Region X Transportation Consortium that was sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The regional collaboration aims to shift the traditional paradigm of engineering course delivery to foster a more hands-on approach. The University of Idaho, for example, has created activity-based modules for a traffic signals course, while the University of Washington developed similar modules for a freight systems course. The focus of …

Indicators Of The Metroscape: Emissions, Michael Burnham

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Brief article outlining transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions in the Portland Metropolitan Area.

Death By A Thousand Curb-Cuts: Evidence On The Effect Of Minimum Parking Requirements On The Choice To Drive, Rachel R. Weinberger

Rachel R Weinberger

Little research has been done to understand the effect of guaranteed parking at home –in a driveway or garage—on mode choice. The research presented here systematically examines neighborhoods in the three New York City boroughs for which residential, off-street parking is possible but potentially scarce. The research is conducted in two stages. Stage one is based on a Google Earth© survey of over 2,000 properties. When paired with the City’s tax lot database, that survey served as the basis to estimate on-site parking for New York City neighborhoods. With parking availability estimated, a generalized linear model based on census tracts …

What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options To Support Public Transit, Highways, And Local Streets And Roads? Results From Year 3 Of A National Survey, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Hilary Nixon, Vinay Murthy

Hilary Nixon

This report summarizes the results of a national random-digit-dial public opinion poll that asked 1,519 respondents if they would support various tax options for raising federal transportation revenues, with a special focus on understanding support for increasing revenues for public transit. Eleven specific tax options tested were variations on raising the federal gas tax rate and creating a new mileage tax, and creating a new federal sales tax. Other questions probed various perceptions related to public transit, including knowledge and opinions about federal taxes to support transit. In addition, the survey collected data on standard socio-demographic factors, travel behavior (public …

Weaving Together A Knowledge Community, Aaron Maples, Bob Sack, Brett Walker, Chris Mulcahy, Daniel Navarro-Gomez, Jan Frutiger, Jeremy Grotbo, Melissa Peavey, Sofie Malm, Steffanie Lorentzen

Urban Design Workshop

The purpose of this document is to propose a framework for future development that result in a connected and integrated collection of neighborhoods that form the larger University District. Design Principles guide the proposed Concept Plan. Improving multi-modal transit corridors will result in a more seamless transition between neighborhoods. Key objectives of the study include:

• Completing the fabric: Connect adjacent neighborhoods through meaningful design
• Erasing edges: Overcome barriers created by large-scale infrastructure
• Connections, continuity and accessibility: Create a connected community for all users
• Extending the urban core: Redesign areas for a more urban, vital experience
• Global knowledge exchange: Use the …

Neighborhood Crime And Travel Behavior: An Investigation Of The Influence Of Neighborhood Crime Rates On Mode Choice – Phase Ii, Christopher Ferrell, Shishir Mathur

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

A Decision-Support Framework For Using Value Capture To Fund Public Transit: Lessons From Project-Specific Analyses, Shishir Mathur, Adam Smith

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Active Transportation Measurement And Benchmarking Development: New Orleans State Of Active Transportation Report 2010, Billy Fields

UNOTI Publications

Over the last decade, there has been a surge in bicycle and pedestrian use in communities that have invested in active transportation infrastruc-ture and programming. While these increases show potentially promising trends, many of the cities that have shown the highest growth are geo-graphically concentrated in the northern tier of the country. Communities in the South have tended to lag behind the northern and western cities in terms of active transportation use.

The Active Transportation Measurement and Benchmarking Development: New Orleans Case Study aims to improve the policy making and planning framework by creating a comprehensive set of active transportation …

Transport Manager Responsibilities And Risk Based Insurance Analysis, Ivana Simkova

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis addresses the issue of the responsibility of the transport manager. The transport manager´s conditions which have to be respected during his/ her work are analyzed. The transport manager is responsible for the decisions made during the whole transportation process. Individual decisions are evaluated and a probabilistic estimate of their importance is determined. A methodology for insurance for the transport manager is proposed.

Neighborhood Crime And Travel Behavior: An Investigation Of The Influence Of Neighborhood Crime Rates On Mode Choice – Phase Ii, Christopher Ferrell, Shishir Mathur

Shishir Mathur

No abstract provided.

A Decision-Support Framework For Using Value Capture To Fund Public Transit: Lessons From Project-Specific Analyses, Shishir Mathur, Adam Smith

Shishir Mathur

No abstract provided.

Bringing Equity To Transitoriented Development: Stations, Systems, And Regional Resilience, Rolf Pendall, Juliet Gainsborough, Kate Lowe, Mai Nguyen

Kate Lowe, PhD

No abstract provided.