Transportation Commons^™

California Voting And Suburbanization Patterns: Implications For Transit Policy, Mti Report 12-05, Matthew J. Holian, Matthew E. Kahn

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public transit is an environmentally friendly transportation mode that usually focuses on transporting people within and to the city center. However, over the last 60 years, population and employment has been suburbanizing. As the median voter lives further from the city center, and thus enjoys fewer benefits from accessing public transit, does this reduce such a voter’s propensity to support public investment in public transit improvements? We analyze voting patterns on 20 transit-related ballot propositions from state-wide elections in California between 1990 and 2010. Controlling for demographic, socio-economic and political ideological factors, we focus on the role of suburbanization as …

Evaluations Of Port Performances From A Seaborne Cargo Supply Chain Perspective, Joyce M. W. Low, Shao Wei Lam, Loon Ching Tang, Zhang Lan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Previous research on port efficiency focuses primarily on the provider’s perspective and assumes that maximizing the output is always desirable. This paper recognizes that maximizing the final output does not necessarily guarantee an efficient system and the notion of port efficiency and service effectiveness needs to be considered from the perspectives of both the provider and the consumer of the port service. The paper proposes a network-DEA model to evaluate the performances of 30 seaports worldwide. The concurrent consideration of efficiency scores from the network-DEA model and the traditional DEA-CCR model will offer valuable insights to port operators on how …

Measuring Walkability: Development Of An Automated Sidewalk Quality Assessment Tool, Alexandra Frackelton, Alice Grossman, Evangelos Palinginis, Felipe Castrillon, Vetri Elango, Randall Guensler

Suburban Sustainability

Sidewalks are a critical part of sustainable transportation systems, supporting pedestrian travel and healthy physical activity. Presence and quality of sidewalks is a significant predictor of perceived safety and quality of the pedestrian environment. Lack of adequate pedestrian infrastructure data has been identified as a major barrier to large-scale pedestrian planning. Sidewalk presence, width, and surface condition are identified as important indicators of facility quality and accessibility. Georgia Tech is deploying an Android tablet application to automatically generate spatial sidewalk inventories, automatically assess sidewalk quality, and prioritize sidewalk repairs. The research team has collected field data on sidewalk segments across …

Omsi - Clinton: A Corridor For Invention And Innovation, Todd Borkowitz, Katherine Dahlin, Gena Gastaldi, Kyle Goodman, Lisa Harrison, Szilvia Hosser-Cox, Irene Kim, Shihui Liu, Qi Liu, Lindsey Menard, Julia Metz, Corrie Minor, Eve Nilenders, John Tomasini, John Verssue, Kate Washington

Urban Design Workshop

This project focuses on developing a vision for the corridor between two new MAX light rail transit stations at OMSI and Clinton Street, which are part of the Portland-Milwaukie Light Rail (PMLR) project, connecting downtown Portland with north Clackamas County via southeast Portland.

This vision must be created with respect to the industrial sanctuary that flanks this stretch of light rail corridor to the west and the residential and light industry to the east.

This document is the product of a 2013 urban design workshop at Portland State University. The project builds upon three previous urban design workshops that focused …

Peak Of The Day Or The Daily Grind: Commuting And Subjective Well-Being, Oliver Blair Smith

Dissertations and Theses

To understand the impact of daily travel on personal and societal well-being, researchers are developing measurement techniques that go beyond satisfaction-based measures of travel. Metrics related Subjective Well-Being (SWB), defined as an evaluation of one's happiness or life satisfaction, are increasingly important for evaluating transportation and land-use policies. This dissertation examines commute well-being, a multi-item measure of how one feels about the commute to work, and how it is shaped. Data are from a web-based survey of workers (n=828) in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A., with three roughly equally sized groups based on mode: bike, transit and car users. Descriptive analysis shows …

Impact Of Rail Transit On The Denver Metro Region: Transportation And Land Use, Sutapa Bhattacharjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Among the reasons behind construction of the light rail system in the 1990s and 2000s and currently the FasTracks lines, in Denver metro region, has been reduction of traffic congestion and consolidation of land use. This research analyzes the success of the rail transit system in achieving the above-mentioned goals.

A temporal and spatial analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) data from 1992 to 2008 on the highways in Denver has been conducted to determine if traffic congestion has reduced after the initial light rail service began in 1994. Temporal analysis provides an insight into the changes in the level …

Nevada Surface Transportation, The Lincy Institute And Brookings Mountain West

Brookings Mountain West Publications

This fact sheet examines how Federal funding is allocated between Nevada counties, while also comparing to other Mountain West states. Elements of major bridge, freeway, and bypass projects in northern and southern Nevada are also compared to show the discrepancies between major infrastructure project funding within the state.

Exploring Factors Contributing To Injury Severity At Freeway Merging And Diverging Locations In Ohio, Worku Y. Mergia, Deogratias Eustace, Deo Chimba, Maher Butros Qumsiyeh

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics Faculty Publications

Identifying factors that affect crash injury severity and understanding how these factors affect injury severity is critical in planning and implementing highway safety improvement programs. Factors such as driver-related, traffic-related, environment-related and geometric design-related were considered when developing statistical models to predict the effects of these factors on the severity of injuries sustained from motor vehicle crashes at merging and diverging locations. Police-reported crash data at selected freeway merging and diverging areas in the state of Ohio were used for the development of the models. A generalized ordinal logit model also known as partial proportional odds model was applied to …

Worker Experiences Of Accessibility In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Kate Lowe, Mariana E. Marmol

UNOTI Publications

Existing research has identified transportation challenges that low-income workers face, including a spatial mismatch between suburban entry level-jobs and urban low-income workers. These studies rely on travel models and secondary data and thus may not capture the temporal or other constraints that low-income workers experience. To better understand mobility patterns and accessibility as experienced, this analysis considers commute choices and perceptions of accessibility. Findings are based on open-ended surveys with 50 low-income workers in New Orleans and its inner suburbs. According to a sizable share of respondents (40%), transportation problems do not preclude applying to jobs. Black and centrally located …

Transit-Oriented Development: An Examination Of America’S Transit Precincts In 2000 & 2010, John L. Renne, Reid Ewing

UNOTI Publications

This study creates a typology of all fixed transit precincts across the United States to categorize all stations as either a Transit Oriented Development (TOD), Transit Adjacent Development (TAD) or hybrid. This typology is based on an index that accounts for density, land use diversity and walkable design. This study also presents a separate non-typological multilevel, multivariate analysis of transit commuting and the built environment, which is unique in that it is the first national study of transit station precincts of its kind to control for both regional and neighborhood level variables. The findings lend support for the TOD concept …

Walking In The City, Renia Ehrenfeucht, Justice Mcpherson

UNOTI Publications

Motivated by traffic congestion, excessive energy use and poor health outcomes, planning and public health researchers have developed an extensive body of research that examines walking and other active transport as well as walking for recreation. In different discussions, walking has become a newly interesting subject and method to understand urban (and non urban) life, and a growing number of researchers have sought to understa nd mobility, the social experience and functions of walking and its cultural meanings. These areas of research rarely overlap. The latter has the potential for enriching the research about active travel and physical activity and, …

What Do Americans Think About Federal Tax Options To Support Public Transit, Highways, And Local Streets And Roads? Results From Year Four Of A National Survey, Mti Report 12-07, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Hilary Nixon

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report summarizes the results of year four of a national random-digit-dial public opinion poll asking 1,501 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, 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 sociodemographic factors, travel behavior …

Evaluation Of Smart Phone Weight-Mile Tax Truck Data For Supporting Freight Modeling, Performance Measures And Planning, Katherine E. Bell, Miguel Andres Figliozzi

Student Research Symposium

Oregon is one of the few states that currently charge a commercial truck weight-mile tax (WMT). This research serves to evaluate ancillary applications for a system developed by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to simplify WMT collection. The data collection system developed by ODOT – Truck Road Use Electronics (TRUE) - includes a smart phone application with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device and microprocessor. The TRUE data has enormous advantages over commercial truck GPS data used in previous research due to its level of disaggregation and its potential to differentiate between vehicle and commodity types. This research evaluates …

Partners On Campus: Open Access Transportation Research At Purdue University, David Scherer

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

In the third community webinar presentation on regional and community partnerships, David Scherer, the Scholarly Repository Specialist at Purdue University, described how institutional repositories can support community engagement through the rewards of the partnership between Purdue's institutional repository, Purdue e-Pubs, and Indiana's Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP). The Purdue Libraries and the Purdue University Press have worked to archive and showcase the fruits of over 75 years of strong collaboration between Purdue University and the Indiana Department of Transportation on research that has a significant impact on the safe and efficient operation of transportation systems throughout Indiana, the United States, …

Analyzing The Effects Of Transit Network Change On Agency Performance And Riders In A Decentralized, Small-To-Mid-Sized Us Metropolitan Area: A Case Study Of Tallahassee, Florida, Mti Report 12-04, Jeffrey Brown, Tuna Batuhan, Torsha Bhattacharaya, Michal Jaroszynski

Mineta Transportation Institute

On July 11, 2011, StarMetro, the local public transit agency in Tallahassee, Florida, restructured its entire bus network from a downtown-focused radial system to a decentralized, grid-like system that local officials and agency leaders believed would better serve the dispersed local pattern of population and employment. The new, decentralized network is based on radial routes serving the major arterial roads and new crosstown routes linking the outer parts of the city, where population and employment is growing. Local officials and agency staff hoped the change would increase transit’s attractiveness and usefulness to the community. One year after the service restructuring, …

Research And Development Of A Land Use Scenario Modeling Tool, John Gliebe, Hongwei Dong, Josh Frank Roll

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Planning and Analysis Unit (TPAU) developed a land use modeling tool called the “Land Use Scenario Developer in R” (LUSDR). LUSDR is a modeling tool, written in the “R” language, that may be used to predict and analyze regional land use changes probabilistically, creating a distribution of possible outcomes. It is designed to be integrated with travel demand modeling programs, making it potentially valuable for analyzing the interaction between transportation and land use when assessing various growth-policy and socioeconomic assumptions. This project is Phase 2 for Research and Development of a Land Use Scenario …

Investigation Of Crashes And Identifying The Best Practices For Setting Up Speed Zones In Towns Along Rural Highways In Nevada, Krishna Prasad Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2010, 51,664 crashes occurred in Nevada. Only about 9% of those crashes occurred in rural areas of the state. However, if only fatal crashes are considered, 41% of those fatal crashes occurred in rural areas. Generally, speed zones are provided in towns along rural highways to reduce speed-related crashes. However, a guideline is necessary for a consistent procedure to setup speed zones throughout the state. The main objectives of this study are to determine factors associated with crashes and to identify the best practices for setting up speed zones in towns along rural highways.

Eleven towns along rural highways …

Planning Bicycle Infrastructure Based On The Quickest Or Easiest Route Method, Olena Tokmylenko

All Theses

Current bicycle models assume average speed along the route and among routes and that travel time is proportional to distance. There is no method that determines realistic cycling time based on change in speed due to topography. My research proposes a model for the development of bicycle infrastructure based on reducing travel time and level of difficulty. I identified that topography, human power, and riding speed have strong relationship and developed a bicycle travel time model where speed is a function of human power and topography. I solved the shortest route problem with time impedance where time was computed based …

The Land Use And Rapid Transportation Nexus In The Massachusetts Bay, Jennifer Folz

All Theses

ABSTRACT
Throughout the last several decades a growing emphasis has been placed on creating sustainable places through innovative planning practices. Urban designers, researchers, planners, and policy makers have continuously examined the land use transportation nexus in order to develop methods to efficiently guide transit funding to encourage alternate modes of travel.
The United States is in the middle of a paradigm shift in generational behaviors. Baby boomers are downsizing and according to the Urban Land Institute are looking for more location-efficient residences. Similarly, Generation Y's attitudes are focused on living and working in close proximity. They are also waiting longer …

The Impact Of Airport Service Quality Dimension On Overall Airport Experience And Impression, Redha Widarsyah

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research examines the relationship between seven airport service dimensions (Access, Services and Facilities, Dining, Shopping, Service Personnel and Security, Environment, and Immigration and Customs) and overall passenger perceptions of service quality. The study used convenience sampling collecting data from a total of 304 travelers who were passengers at four major international airports in the West Coast region of United States - Las Vegas McCarran International, Los Angeles International, San Francisco International, and Seattle-Tacoma International. The data was collected online through Qualtrics with a self-administered questionnaire and it was analyzed using multiple linear regression.

Airport access, environment, dining, and immigration …