Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled, Encouraging Walk Trips, And Facilitating Efficient Trip Chains Through Polycentric Development, Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park, Sadegh Sabouri, Torrey Lyons, Keuntae Kim, Dong-Ah Choi, Katherine Daly, Roya Etminani Ghasrodashti

TREC Final Reports

Compact development can result in many benefits for communities and residents. Areas can connect compact developments through high-quality transportation options, creating a network of centers, or a “polycentric” region. This development pattern is very popular in Europe and is linked to significant benefits. Salt Lake County has organically developed several small centers, and with the right strategies could continue to fuel this kind of growth. The metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the region, the Wasatch Front Regional Council, has been planning for polycentric development since the Wasatch Choice for 2040 Vision was released in 2010. Our research is aimed at …

The Role Of Bus Stop Features In Facilitating Accessibility, Keith Bartholomew, Ja Young Kim, Divya Chandrasekhar, Reid Ewing, Arlie Adkins, Samuel Jensen

TREC Final Reports

Although transit decision-makers and riders generally favor improving bus stops by adding shelters, benches, and similar features, it is unclear the impact such features have on transit demand and there has been little research that measures these impacts. This study examines the link between stop improvements and changes in stop-level boardings on scheduled-service buses and in ADA paratransit demand in the Salt Lake City, UT, metropolitan area between 2014 and 2017. The study also investigates current bus stop improvement practices of leading transit agencies nationwide. The study uses a number of quantitative and qualitative techniques, including propensity score matching, propensity …

From Third World To First World: Law And Policy In Singapore’S Urban Transformation And Integration, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The physical transformation of a colonial backwater city, Singapore, in one generation has been described as a feat of urban planning, renewal, and development. Less studied is the political will of the government to create a thriving city fit for purpose. Even less studied is the role of law that provides the powerful levers for the rapid and deep-seated changes to the urban landscape in Singapore. In this regard, the mindset shift that accompanied the massive urban transformation has facilitated a national psyche that embraces the material dimension of progress, for which urban renewal is not just a mere indicator …

Negative Consequences Of Innovation-Igniting Urban Developments: Empirical Evidence From Three Us Cities, Ahoura Zandiatashbar, Carla Maria Kayanan

Faculty Publications, Urban and Regional Planning

Emergent economic development policies reflect the challenges urban growth coalitions face in attracting the footloose tech-entrepreneurs of the global economy. This convergence between the focus on place and the harnessing of global capital has led to the proliferation of innovation-igniting urban developments (IIUD)—place-based economic development strategies to boost the local knowledge economy. Economic developers are using IIUD strategies to convert areas of the city into entrepreneurial “launch pads” for innovation. However, because these developments remain young, considerations to implement IIUDs lack an evidence-base to show the potential for negative consequences on the communities where they are embedded. This research addresses …

Webinar: A National Scan Of Bike Share Equity Programs: Best Practices And Lessons Learned, Nathan Mcneil, John Macarthur, Adriel Thornton

TREC Webinar Series

Connecting with cities and bike share operators from across the United States, Portland State University conducted a nationwide scan on what programs and initiatives were running to address equity in bike share. The report “National Scan of Bike Share Equity Programs” documents responses from over 70 bike share systems. This resource will help cities and operators navigate the range of actions that have been implemented to make bike share systems more equitable, examine successful strategies employed across the U.S., and understand how those successes (and challenges) are being measured and articulated. In doing so, we hope the report helps bike …

A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago's Approach To Immigrant Inclusion, Paul Mcdaniel, Rob Paral

Faculty Articles

Global cities significantly shape our world by driving solutions across a range of challenges, including migration. A new Chicago Council report, A Global Welcome: Metro Chicago’s Approach to Immigrant Inclusion, provides an overview of greater Chicago’s immigrant community and highlights unique approaches taken to create a more inclusive city, while also emphasizing ways for Chicago and other cities to improve. The report is authored by Paul N. McDaniel, Associate Professor of Geography at Kennesaw State University, and Rob Paral, Nonresident Fellow at the Chicago Council.

Community Development, Quality Of Life, And Community Well-Being: Three Fields Ripe With Opportunities For Future Research And Practice, Craig A. Talmage

Community Development Practice

This perspective piece aims to spur conversations between quality of life, community well-being, and community development scholars and practitioners. The article showcases overlaps in concepts found across journals devoted to those three fields of inquiry. The major themes from those overlaps are discussed, so future directions for interdisciplinary research can be identified. The article finishes with specific attention to exploring how collaborations between the fields of quality of life (QoL), community well-being (CWB), and community development (CD) can better inform community development practice, so that community well-being and quality life can be positively shifted through evidence-based practice.

The Potential Of Green Infrastructure In Mitigating Flood Impacts On The Mobility Of Low Income And Minority Neighborhoods, Courtney Crosson, Yinan Zhang, Daoqin Tong

TREC Project Briefs

Short-term flooding from extreme storm events poses a serious transportation challenge in U.S. cities. This problem—which is anticipated to grow over the next century with our global climate crisis—is often hardest on vulnerable populations, including low-income and minority neighborhoods. This project advances national research methods for assessing flood vulnerability and prioritizing transportation improvement investments to ensure that no community is left stranded when the next flood occurs.

Urban Transportation System Flood Vulnerability Assessment With Special Reference To Low Income And Minority Neighborhoods, Courtney Crosson, Daoqin Tong, Yinan Zhang

TREC Final Reports

A flood vulnerability assessment of the City of Tucson, Arizona’s transportation systems was conducted with special reference to low-income and minority neighborhoods. Short-term flooding from extreme storm events pose a serious challenge to transportation system reliability and emergency response in cities across the United States. This problem, which is anticipated to grow over the next century due to climate change, is often hardest on vulnerable populations, including low-income and minority neighborhoods. Our work aimed to advance national research methods for assessing multi-modal transportation degradation due to flooding. We identified priority locations for Tucson to make transportation improvement investments for the …

Towards More Inclusive Smart Cities: Reconciling The Divergent Logics Of Data And Discourse At The Margins, Jane Yeonjae Lee, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this article, we survey a growing body of literature within geography and other intersecting fields that trains attention on what inclusive smart cities are, or what they could be. In doing so, we build on debates around smart citizens, smart public participation, and grassroots and bottom-up smart cities that are concerned with making smart cities more inclusive. The growing critical scholarship on such dis- courses, however, alerts us to the knowledge politics that are involved in, and the urban inequalities that are deeply rooted within, the urban. Technological interventions con- tribute to these politics and inequalities in various ways. …

Relating Green Space Characteristics To Student Housing Habits, Joshua Randall

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

Urban Warfare: Emerging Geopolitical Conundrum, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Urban warfare is as old as human history. It is becoming increasingly important in international political and military planning due to increasing global urbanization and the presence of megacities (urban areas with populations exceeding 10 million) in many global regions and being in areas of recent and potential military conflict. 2018 World Bank data notes that approximately 56% of the world's population lives in urban areas which is up from 34% in 1960. Many of these megacities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Manila are adjacent to oceanic waters and vulnerable to trade and supply …

Brave New World - Emerging Threats In Cybersecurity, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities in particular are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, governments are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Brave New World - The Rise Of Cities Globally: Urbanizationmeets Technological Innovation And Digitization, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, city governments worldwide are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Brave New World: Privacy, Data Sharing And Evidence Based Policy Making, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities in particular are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, governments are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

Global To Local: Creating 'Glocal' Links For Diplomacy, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

Over the past few years, “smart cities” have led in leveraging technology to modernize their services and infrastructure— and have emerged on the global stage on key issues of international concern. In 2017, Hidalgo and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Mayor of Buenos Aires, spearheaded the Urban 20 (U20), a platform for major cities in G20 countries to bring their “urban perspective” to the G20 member states in tackling common problems, showcasing their innovative approaches leveraging emerging technologies at the local level to tackle global issues. In April 2018, mayors from 20 cities signed the U20’s first Joint Declaration; six months later, …

Brave New World: Ethical Considerations And Risks, Rhonda S. Binda

Open Educational Resources

The trifecta of globalization, urbanization and digitization have created new opportunities and challenges across our nation, cities, boroughs and urban centers. Cities in particular are in a unique position at the center of commerce and technology becoming hubs for innovation and practical application of emerging technology. In this rapidly changing 24/7 digitized world, governments are leveraging innovation and technology to become more effective, efficient, transparent and to be able to better plan for and anticipate the needs of its citizens, businesses and community organizations. This class will provide the framework for how cities and communities can become smarter and more …

A Modeling Framework For Urban Growth Prediction Using Remote Sensing And Video Prediction Technologies: A Time-Dependent Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture, Ahmed Hassan Jaad

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Studying the growth pattern of cities/urban areas has received considerable attention during the past few decades. The goal is to identify directions and locations of potential growth, assess infrastructure and public service requirements, and ensure the integration of the new developments with the existing city structure. This dissertation presents a novel model for urban growth prediction using a novel machine learning model. The model treats successive historical satellite images of the urban area under consideration as a video for which future frames are predicted. A time-dependent convolutional encoder-decoder architecture is adopted. The model considers as an input a satellite image …

What Makes Cents? How Uber Shapes Municipal On-Street Parking Revenue, Anne Brown, Benjamin Y. Clark

TREC Final Reports

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will challenge cities in many ways that are critical to address before widescale adoption. In particular, AVs may upset municipal budgets as they upend traditional auto-related funding streams like registration fees and parking revenues. This research begins to quantify the potential financial impacts of AVs by analyzing current associations between transportation network company (TNC) trips—often viewed as a precursor of AVs—and parking revenue. This report uses TNCs as a proxy for future AV travel to examine the connections between trip-making and on-street parking occupancy and revenue. Specifically, we use Uber trip data along with built environment and …

Will Automated Vehicles Cut Parking Revenue? Not Overnight, But Cities Should Plan Ahead, Benjamin Y. Clark, Anne Brown

TREC Project Briefs

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will challenge cities in ways that are difficult to fully predict, yet critical to address. A particular challenge is the potential for AVs to upset municipal budgets, as they upend traditional auto-related funding streams like vehicle registration fees and parking revenues. To prepare for this uncertain future, cities should practice scenario planning to understand revenue implications and identify alternative solutions

Detroit Food Metrics Report 2019, Alex B. Hill

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

This report provides a snapshot of data and information on Detroit’s food system as well as trends over time. The report includes a broad range of programs and initiatives that local organizations, the Detroit Food Policy Council, and the City of Detroit are undertaking to address food insecurity, increase healthy food access and awareness, and support a more sustainable and just food system.

Cascade 30: Historic Columbia River Highway Active Transportation Network Plan, Jeff Broderick, Timothy Dubois, Seth Healy, Henry Miller, Elisha Ransom, Justin Sherrill

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

While Apiary Planning Group created design concepts for the Oregon Department of Transportation, it should be noted these are only design concepts, not a final proposal. Funding to commence formal planning, engineering, and construction processes to implement these ideas has not been identified. No timeline to build any of these concepts has been established. Apiary Planning Group hopes these preliminary concepts will encourage and inspire jurisdictions, community groups, residents and businesses to work together to create a gateway to Hood River that honors the past while creating new, safer and accessible transportation opportunities in the future.

Webinar: Findings From 15 Years Of Travel Surveys At Portland Area Transit-Oriented Developments (Tods), Jennifer Dill, Nathan Mcneil

TREC Webinar Series

Since 2005, Portland State University has periodically surveyed occupants of recently developed higher-density and mixed-use projects near transit, often referred to as Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs). The general objectives of the surveys were to better understand actual transit use, among other factors, of residents in these buildings. Between 2005 and 2018, the research team surveyed residents of nearly 50 TODs. With funding from Metro and the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, the research team carried out a two-pronged study drawing on this wealth of data. First, we explore geographic differences within the Portland region in terms of travel behavior and …

Toxic Structures: Speculation And Lead Exposure In Detroit's Single-Family Rental Market, Alexa Eisenberg, Eric Seymour, Alex B. Hill, Joshua Akers

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Foreclosure sales permitted investors to purchase large volumes of low-cost residential properties after the last financial crisis, reshaping patterns of property ownership in low-income housing markets across the US. This study links post-foreclosure property acquisitions by investor-landlords to subsequent lead poisoning cases among children under age six living in Detroit, Michigan. We find that the odds of exhibiting elevated blood lead levels (≥ 5 μg/dL) are higher for children living in investor-owned homes purchased through tax foreclosure sale. These findings highlight the potential for property speculation in post-foreclosure housing markets to exacerbate severe and racialized burdens of excess lead toxicity …

Building For Culture: How Municipal Ownership Of Cultural Facilities Influences Annual Arts Funding In American Cities, Adam M. Sachs

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores how local government support for arts and culture varies across 24 American cities. It has proven to be challenging for researchers to accurately measure municipal arts support. Research on cultural policy has also often focused on the federal level, despite total city expenditures far exceeding national or state government support. This thesis attempts to take an accurate pulse of city expenditures in 2017 and correlates those spending levels to the variation in city ownership of arts facilities. Rooted in the historical perspectives of the ‘new institutionalism’ and path-dependency, this paper argues that past decisions about taking ownership …

Clackamas Community College Shuttle Service And Access Plan, Shiori Azumaya, Ryan Mckinnon, Christina Winberry, Daisy Quinonez, Baxter Shandobil, Andre Lightsey-Walker

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Addressing transportation-related barriers is an essential part of Clackamas Community College's mission to make education more accessible. This plan provides a student-centered analysis of barriers that make it difficult for students with limited access to personal vehicles to access CCC’s Oregon City and Harmony campuses and identifies strategies to overcome them. The plan focuses on the CCC Xpress Shuttle, which sees over 26,500 trips per academic year, and on the compounded barriers facing students of color, low-income students, and students with disabilities.

Hamlet Futures: A Planning Framework For The Stafford Hamlet, Hannah Anderson, Heide Camarata, Hillary Harris, Kate Harbour, Sebrina Mortenson, Lydia Ness

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

After 30 years of land use battles, the Stafford Hamlet is at a turning point with its recent designation as an urban reserve in the Portland metro region. Our project asks: How can an all-volunteer advisory group in urban reserves best represent their community in regional planning?

This planning framework applies both a regional and equity lens to issues the Stafford Hamlet community will face as they navigate their future. It is designed for internal use by the Stafford Hamlet Board. The Project Overview is a scene-setting document intended to establish a shared understanding of recent history, demographics, and planning …

Steering New Mobility In The Right Direction: Matching The Speed Of Technology With The Speed Of Local Government, Marc Schlossberg, Heather Brinton

TREC Project Briefs

Advances in transportation technology — e-scooters and bike share, Lyft & Uber, and autonomous vehicles — are beginning to have profound impacts on cities. New mobility is changing not only how we travel, but also urban form and development itself. In the near future, we can expect differences in what public transit looks like, the layout of cities, and the places we spend our time. In turn, these changes will likely have additional effects on land use, street design, parking, housing, equity, and municipal finance. Will cities be ready to meet these changes? Rather than be swept along in the …

Matching The Speed Of Technology With The Speed Of Local Government: Developing Codes And Policies Related To The Possible Impacts Of New Mobility On Cities, Marc Schlossberg, Heather Brinton

TREC Final Reports

Advances in transportation technology such as the advent of scooter and bikeshare systems (micromobility), ridehailing, and autonomous vehicles (AV’s) are beginning to have profound effects not only on how we live, move, and spend our time in cities, but also on urban form and development itself. These new technologies are changing the systems of transport, the layout of cities, and the places we spend our time. In turn, these changes will likely have additional and profound effects on land use, street design, parking, housing, equity, municipal finance, and fundamental issues related to urban density, sprawl, vitality and the economic viability …

Disamenity Or A Signal Of Competence? The Empirical Political Economy Of Local Road Maintenance, Benjamin Blemings, Margaret Bock

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Empirical results find different conclusions than theoretical evidence of how electorates perceive road work. This paper uses a geographically smaller unit of analysis than prior work, political alignment, local election cycles, and difference-in-differences. It finds political distortions in invasive road maintenance timing and rules out maintenance seasonality. Spatial discontinuity plots leveraging ward boundary cutoffs confirm the shift. Results identify new public distortions to road maintenance, local election cycles, which are widespread and frequent. The estimates are used to calculate financial costs of local elections on road maintenance. Local elections have cost medium-large U.S. cities over $185.5 million from 1960- 2020.