Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Good Life Automobility: Cultural/Rhetorical Resistance And Persistence Of Us Car Hegemony, Trinity O. Thompson

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project takes the car as a historical signifier of a rhetorical racialization process that enables a hypermobile white, masculine, neoliberal identity that pervades conceptions of mobility in the West. I locate these overlapping social formations under a cultural logic of good life automobility (GLA) that positions cars, a quintessential form of private property, as a motivator for a contemporary “good life” citizenship identity that cultivates neoliberal subjectivities of free movement and market consumption in contempt of socialized and racialized public transit futures. The introduction chapter elaborates on the boundaries of GLA while also contextualizing the two analysis chapters through …

Physical Space And Democratic Citizenship: Third Place Usage And Civic Engagement Among Undergraduates, Justin L. Fintel

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis examines the relationship between third place usage and civic engagement levels among undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Drawing on urban planning and political science literature, I hypothesize that students who more frequently use and interact with campus third places—which are informal communal spaces that foster community, such as coffee shops, libraries, and student unions—demonstrate higher levels of civic engagement. Using survey data from thirty-eight undergraduates and ordinary least squares regression analysis, I find strong support for my hypothesis. Third place usage significantly predicts civic engagement (β = 0.609, p < 0.001) statistically, and this relationship remains robust even after controlling for family socialization and socioeconomic status. The findings suggest that physical spaces on college campuses play an independent role in promoting democratic citizenship beyond students' pre-existing characteristics. These results have important implications for university and urban planning, while highlighting the value of investing in communal campus spaces as mechanisms for promoting civic participation.

Transportation Practitioners' Reflections On Addressing Transportation Barriers For Vulnerable Populations In Nebraska, Aysan Esmaely

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study examines transportation planning practices and challenges in Nebraska, with particular attention to how planners and agencies address the needs of vulnerable populations. Using a qualitative approach, thirty-five transportation planners, practitioners, and service providers were interviewed. Participants were selected based on their professional in transportation planning and service delivery. The study explores what institutional and funding barriers planners and practitioners face, and what strategies they consider most effective for improving access and inclusion. Findings reveal that limited funding, fragmented authority, and the absence of a coordinated regional planning framework significantly constrain transportation development across Nebraska. While metropolitan areas such …

Evaluating The Preparedness Of Local Zoning Regulations For Flood Risk Reduction In The Most Affected Local Jurisdictions In Nebraska, Md Asaduzzaman Noor

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Flooding has profound social, economic, and environmental impacts on local communities, and zoning plays a critical role in mitigating these risks. The 2019 Nebraska floods, among the most severe in the state’s history, highlighted the urgent need to strengthen local preparedness and mitigation strategies. This study assesses the extent to which local zoning regulations in Nebraska’s most affected jurisdiction, including rural areas, address flood risk reduction. A systematic review of 117 zoning ordinances from counties, cities, towns, and villages, we applied a structured analytical framework encompassing regulatory and permitting policies, voluntary and incentive-based measures, and nature-based solutions. The results show …

A Comparative Analysis Of Complete Streets And Multimodal Transport Approaches: Implications For Sustainable Urban Mobility In Lincoln, And Global Contexts, Oliva Richard Kilyenyi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Movement of people and goods in urban areas through different modes of transportation including walking, cycling, public transit and by autos is termed as urban mobility. Urban mobility presents significant environmental, social, and economic challenges for cities worldwide as they grapple with the impacts of conventional transportation systems, particularly in North America context where car-centric planning approaches has dominated urban developments since 1950s. Car-centric dominance is 80% in North American Metropolitan areas (Manaugh et al., 2015). The impacts of these conventional systems include greenhouse gas emission emissions contributing approximately 24% of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, air pollution …

Roots Of Justice: A History Of Race And Racism In Nebraska, Kevin Abourezk, M. Dewayne Mays, Paul Olson, Gabriel Bruguier, Preston Love Jr., Adam Fletcher Sasse, Heather Fryer, J.S. Onésimo (Ness) Sándoval, Sharon Ishii-Jordan, Emira Ibrahimpašić, Julia Reilly

Zea E-Books Collection

There is much to understand about the history of Nebraska and how the past shapes the present. This book attempts to bring into clearer focus the triumphs and trials of five broad groups whose lives have often been overlooked when the state’s history is told. The authors know some of this history of racism firsthand: Most of them have lived as people of color in Nebraska. They’ve experienced “the good, the bad and the ugly” that makes up our state story. We encourage educators, scholars and family historians to continue to dig, to document and to tell these stories. And …

Stop Design: Rethinking The Approach To Public Transit's Architecture, Elizabeth M. Nielsen

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Public spaces are the foundation of our social health and wellbeing, but are often designed without considering the needs of the public, creating spaces that people do not feel encouraged to use. Just as public space design as a whole often falls short of serving the public, the same can be said for a subset of public space design, public transit stops. While they are public spaces created for the purpose of waiting, their design rarely reflects this.

Well-designed public transit stops are capable of both maintaining existing ridership and drawing in new riders. Most commonly, this design occurs at …

Quality Considerations In The Pedestrian Realm: Dead Space Intervention And Prevention, Alycia Ramage

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

What if every space deemed “unadmirable” was reimagined as a stage for community life? Efforts to find solutions to this question prompted a more complex question: how can new construction promote interaction between architecture and the pedestrian realm?

This thesis is conducted in three main parts: 1) understanding dead space, 2) reinventing dead spaces in existing conditions, and 3) creating a design handbook that works to minimize dead spaces in new design.

Using Lincoln, Nebraska as a case study, part one begins with observation- looking for spaces that could be deemed unadmirable by a pedestrian. Utilizing research and observation, the …

A Framework For Quantifying The Benefits Of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Development, Donya Negahbani

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Under the Biden Administration’s Justice40 Initiative, a significant portion of benefits derived from federal clean transportation investments is required to be directed to disadvantaged communities. Meeting this mandate necessitates a transparent and reproducible approach that quantifies various dimensions of value and allocates them equitably. This dissertation presents a flexible framework specifically tailored for the deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Nebraska, effectively translating equity goals into rigorous spatial and economic analyses. The framework first identifies multiple distinct categories of benefit that reflect the societal value of charging access: energy savings, economic opportunities, environmental quality enhancements, and public health improvements. …

Considerations And Techniques For Producing Urban Tree Canopy Maps Using Freely Available And Accessible Methods, Hugh Reed Ellerman

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Urban forests are valued as green infrastructure for the variety of benefits they provide across ecological, social, public health, and economic domains. To understand the distribution of trees, maps are required. Many methods of mapping tree cover use expensive and data-intensive datasets such as hyperspectral and LiDAR imagery, making these methods inaccessible to municipal forest managers. Variations in the modelling approaches of existing, freely available methods are not addressed in sufficient enough detail to understand the trade-offs implicit in these variations. Further, characteristics of urban tree canopy mapping (high spatial resolution imagery, heterogeneous urban environments, the importance of the tree …

Housing Affordability Impacting Factors In U.S. Urban Areas From 2010 To 2020: An Empirical Review Of Theoretical Factors, Colby Lee Woodson

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study examines housing affordability in United States Combined Statistical Areas (CSAs) and counties from 2010 to 2020, using American Community Survey and Building Permits Survey data. It evaluates theoretical frameworks from George Galster and Kwan Ok Lee. Using a multiscalar approach, affordability is assessed through a costs-over-income ratio, incorporating both supply- and demand-side factors. A novel contribution is the integration of elder dependency rates, which limit housing turnover and exacerbate supply constraints. Findings indicate that rising full homeownership—particularly among older households—has reduced tenure mobility. The study also shows that CSAs offer a stronger analytical resolution than counties. Despite home …

From Equitable Access To Equitable Usage: Moving Towards Data-Driven, Evidence-Based Cycling Assets Management, Kewei Ren, Yunping Liang, Chun-Hsing Ho

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Cycling is increasingly recognized for its wide range economic, environmental, and health benefits as a mobility option. However, disparities in the provision and the quality of bicycle infrastructure persists. Ensuring fair access and usage of these benefits for all presents a significant challenge. As a result, establishing effective methodologies to evaluate cycling equity is critically important. This paper synthesizes research on infrastructure asset management with a focus on equity considerations in bicycle infrastructure. A systematic review of 19 North American studies critically examines how existing research categorizes vulnerable populations and assesses fairness. The results reveal that most existing analyses focus …

Reclaiming Tremé: A Design Research Thesis, Tori Dunston

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Reclaiming Tremé explores the potential for design to support the well-being of the oldest African American neighborhood divided by urban highway projects in the US. This comprehensive thesis that seeks to improve the well-being the neighborhood using precedents, historical context, and the quantifiable architectural goals of WELL v2, to present a design solution for Tremé. Through understanding the current communities needs and having historical context of the area, the design strategy focuses on creating a vibrant cultural core that enhances the community's well-being. By integrating new structures and amenities, preserving cultural heritage, and enhancing physical and social infrastructure, the project …

Scooting To A Brighter Tomorrow: Shared E-Scooters And Their Use In Lincoln, Nebraska, Tanner J. Hiemer

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

As a recent addition to our transportation systems, shared e-scooters have the potential to improve how people travel in the urban environment. While there is a lot to be hopeful about, the relative novelty of e-scooters calls for closer examination of how they interact with the built environment and other modes of transportation. Additionally, the equity of shared e-scooters must be at the forefront of discussion when considering their utility in the future. Given their flexibility in use, e-scooters could fill spatial gaps in transportation systems and provide improved mobility to those who are most transportation disadvantaged. This research aims …

Attitudes Of Experiential Designers Across Design Disciplines, Danielle Degarmo

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

The expanded use of the term scenography is widening its understanding of the word to encompass many experiential design disciplines beyond its origin in theatre. At its essence, scenography is the culmination of a designer’s collaborative efforts to take a prompt, whether it be a client program, a script, or other, and produce a holistic assemblage of experiential design elements to spatially engage an end user. Many experts in across design fields have acknowledged that there is disciplinary cross over among those practicing in experiential design fields in terms of design output or intention. By means of designer surveys and …

An Analysis Of Racially Disparate Impacts On Housing For The City Of Tukwila, Washington, Neil Tabor

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

The housing crisis within the Pacific Northwest of the United States has prompted action from Washington legislators, resulting in Governor Inslee identifying housing as a key priority and the legislature passing a number of forward-thinking bills in the last half decade, requiring the allocation of more resources, and asking more of jurisdictions to address current housing needs and anticipated future growth. Layered within the planning efforts for future growth are concerns and considerations for the potential of new housing development to perpetuate and exacerbate societal inequities built on discriminatory housing policies and practices of generations past and present. In an …

Building Before: Community Resiliency As Emergency Management, Alexandria Rinne

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This project seeks to address gaps in emergency preparedness education related to tornado response. Through an examination of current research about best practices for tornado emergency management response and an examination of the needs of FEMA Regions 7 and 8, the author has identified key strategies and stakeholders to increase positive outcome through building community engagement and resiliency. Three presentations were created for delivery to key community stakeholders—local government officials; non-governmental organizations, social networks, and associations; and individual private citizens. The project offers an overview of background research and provides presentation slide decks, scripts, and discussion guides, all created with …

Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis And Kernel Density Models, Environments, And Urban Scale, Amy E. Thompson, John P. Walden, Adrian Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Damien Marken, Bernadette Cap, Eric Fries, M. Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Timothy S. Hare, Sherman W. Horn Iii, George J. Micheletti, Shane M. Montgomery, Jessica Munson, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Traci Ardren, Jaime J. Awe, M. Kathryn Brown, Michael Callaghan, Claire E. Ebert, Anabel Ford, Rafael A. Guerra, Julie A. Hoggarth, Brigitte Kovacevich, John M. Morris, Holley Moyes, Terry G. Powis, Jason Yaeger, Brett A. Houk, Keith M. Prufer, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) …

Creole Sketches, Lafcadio Hearn, Charles Woodward Hutson

Zea E-Books Collection

New Orleans in 1878 was the most exotic and cosmopolitan city in North America. An international port, with more than 200,000 inhabitants, it was open to French, Spanish, Mexican, South American, and West Indian cultural influences, and home to a thriving population descended from free African Americans. It was also a battleground in the fight against yellow fever (malaria) and in the political upheavals that followed the end of Reconstruction. The continued influx of Anglo-Americans and the renewed ascendancy of white supremacists threatened to overwhelm the local blend of languages, races, and cultures that enlivened the unique Creole character of …

Exploring 3d Data Reuse And Repurposing Through Procedural Modeling, Rachel Opitz, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Karin Dalziel, Jessica Dussault, Greg Tunink

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Most contemporary 3D data used in archaeological research and heritage management have been created through ‘reality capture,’ the recording of the physical features of extant archaeological objects, structures, and landscapes using technologies such as laser scanning and photogrammetry (Garstki 2020, ch.2; Magnani et al. 2020). A smaller quantity of data are generated by Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) projects, and even fewer data are generated through procedural modeling, the rapid prototyping of multi-component threedimensional (3D) models from a set of rules (Figure 8.1.). It is unsurprising therefore that in archaeology and heritage, efforts around digital 3D …

Understanding And Contextualizing Foraging Among Recreational Opportunities In The North Central United States, Iris I. Mcfarlin

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the past few decades, there has been a resurgence in popularity and recognition of foraging for wild products and foods. Despite the cultural importance and ubiquity of foraging, there have been relatively few scientific investigations (as compared to other consumptive outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing) of the social factors influencing foraging behavior, landscape preferences, and the types of materials foraged in the United States. As such, there is a fundamental need to understand more about the practice and about those who participate. We conducted two surveys to gather information on foragers’ motivations and demographic characteristics and to …

Scenario Analysis Of Downtown One-Way Street Conversions In Lincoln, Nebraska, A Case Study For Downtown Livability And Pedestrian Safety, Terrence Lage

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

An era of downtown street design benefiting the automobile has become over designed for the movement of volumes of traffic in many North American cities. Since the 1950s, the primary focus of planners and traffic engineers has been to address the growing problem of traffic congestion caused by the suburban traveler coming into and out of downtown. The solution was retrofitting the original two-way street grid into a network of wide and straight multi-lane one-way corridors. This design successfully moved volumes of traffic through downtown streets but induced behavior to favor the automobile instead of design that favors active mobility …

Investing In Bicycle Infrastructure To Spur Statewide Economic Growth Through Bicycle Tourism, Pedro Aguero Arroyo, Daniel P. Piatkowski, F. Alsaleem

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Bicycle tourism is a growing industry that has been shown by prior studies to contribute significantly to the economy of numerous states. The economic benefits of recreational bicycling are not limited to the direct effects of the transactions of bicyclists in related industries, but also spillover effects such as the reduction of automobile activity and its associated costs to society, or the decrease of the costs of obesity and inactivity to the healthcare system. This study focuses on the former and provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the economic impacts derived from recreational bicycling expenditure, as well as an …

A Big Data Approach For Improving Nebraska Cycling Routes, Fadi Alsaleem, Ali Al-Ramini, Mohammad Ali Takallou, Daniel P. Piatkowski

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

More people are becoming interested in creating healthy lifestyle habits for themselves. It has been proved that cycling has several health benefits. Therefore, governments are planning towards more cycling-friendly infrastructures and environments. To understand the cycling activities in Nebraska, we analyze Strava data for the last three years, providing valuable insight into cycling activities for urban planning purposes.

We analyze commute and recreational cycling patterns varying between weekdays and weekends to identify peak hours. Moreover, we study the effect of weather on cycling activity patterns for the last three years. Also, we use the impact of the outside temperature as …

The Relationship Between Separated Bicycle Lanes And Bicycle Crashes In Denver, Colorado, Wonsun Chang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Cyclists feel more comfortable when they ride in a bike facility separated from traffic. Therefore, cyclists tend to prefer separated bicycle lanes over other lanes. It follows that cities are increasing the installation of separated bicycle lanes for bicycle utilization and bicycle safety. However, previous research has proven that separated bicycle lanes cause more crashes. Through empirical study, this paper examined the impact of both separated bicycle facilities and shared roads on bicycle crashes and which is safer or dangerous among methods of the separation. This study deals with bicycle accidents in Denver from 2013 to 2019. This research creates …

Tiny Houses In Metropolitan Areas Of Nebraska: Seasonal Or Permanent Living Environments, Michele L. Hybner

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

This study is designed to determine if tiny houses offer a viable seasonal and/or permanent living environment for Nebraska residents. Two objectives are used to assess the viability of tiny housing in this Midwestern state. The first analyzes the economics (demand, supply, and cost) of tiny housing in metropolitan areas of Nebraska. The second identifies barriers to occupancy of tiny houses in the state. The results of this research are significant because tiny housing presents a means to address the state’s need for more affordable housing options available to Nebraska residents. At the time of this study, 11.4% of Nebraska’s …

Designing Single-Family Residences: A Study Of The Positive Impact Of Interior Design In Creating New Home Value, Shawn M. Falcone

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

This study seeks to demonstrate that interior designers should be included as primary stakeholders in the home construction market. The market demand for new single-family homes in America is a relative constant. The primary stake and role that land developers, architects, draftsman, home builders, bankers, appraisers, real estate agents, and buyers have in the home construction market is clear. What is less clear is the role in value an interior designer has in the home construction market. This thesis examines the impact designers have on home value when their expertise is utilized in space planning (i.e.: layout, function, room utilization, …

Measuring Landscape Performance: Case Study Investigation, Hannah Michelle Lopresto, Brandon Zambrano, Catherine De Almeida

UCARE: Research Products

Participating in the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s 2018 Case Study Investigation has been an incredibly informative experience for our research team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We are eager to shine a spotlight on the landscape performance of two Great Plains projects: P Street Corridor, a revitalized downtown streetscape in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park, a waterfront redevelopment in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Working on the post-occupancy study of both projects has been extremely beneficial in understanding how reclaiming underutilized sites can create high-performing landscapes. Both are public projects in urban settings with primary goals of transforming formerly unpleasant, …

Mapping Quality Of Life In Nebraska: Population Distribution By Race, Ethnicity, And Age, Sarah Taylor, Maria Rosario T. De Guzman, Grant Daily, Rodrigo Cantarero, Soo-Young Hong, Aileen S. Garcia, Jeong-Kyun Choi, Yan Xia

Mapping Quality of Life in Nebraska

KEY POINTS

This section details key points from the data on racial, ethnic, and age groups across Nebraska.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES IN NEBRASKA

• The proportions of Nebraska’s racial and ethnic minority populations tend to be smaller by 4% (i.e., Asian) to 8% (i.e., Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino) than those of the US, except for the Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaska Native populations (i.e., smaller only by 0.1% to 0.2%).

• Nebraska’s urban areas, which comprise 73.1% of the Nebraska population, have higher numbers of racial and ethnic minorities than suburban or rural areas. …

Mapping Quality Of Life In Nebraska: Migration Rates, Aileen S. Garcia, Rodrigo Cantarero, Grant Daily, Maria Rosario T. De Guzman, Jeong-Kyun Choi, Soo-Young Hong, Sarah Taylor

Mapping Quality of Life in Nebraska

KEY POINTS AND IMPLICATIONS

Nebraska is a state that is not often viewed as affected significantly by mobility and migration. As a state, the net migration rate of 1.1 from 2015 to 2016 is fairly low compared to others like Florida (16.0) or Nevada (14.4). However, data from this report suggests that there is, in fact, substantial movement of people moving in and moving out; as well as pockets within the state where there is higher than average influx of both domestic and international migrants.

In general, migration trends in the state mirror national trends of “rural flight” where people …