Neighborhood Crime and Travel Behavior: An Investigation of the Influence of Neighborhood Crime Rates on Mode Choice, MTI Report 07-02

While much attention has been given to the influence of urban form on travel behavior in recent years, little work has been done on how neighborhood crimes affect this dynamic. This research project studied seven San Francisco Bay Area cities, and found substantiation for the proposition that neighborhood crime rates have an influence on the propensity to choose non-automotive modes of transportation for home-based trips. Specifically, high vice and vagrancy crime rates were associated with a lowered probability of choosing transit in suburban cities for both work and non-work trips, high property crime rates were associated with a lower probability of walking for work trips in urban cities and inner-ring suburban cities, high violent crime rates with a lower probability of walking for work trips in suburban study cities, while higher property crime rates in San Francisco were associated with an increased probability of walking for non-work trips. While the signs of these significant relationships generally conformed to the author’s expectations—i.e., that high crime rates reduce the probability of choosing non-automotive modes of travel—the authors did not find statistically significant relationships for all city/trip model runs, suggesting that these relationships differ depending on the urban form and trip type contexts

Neighborhood Crime and Travel Behavior: An Investigation of the Influence of Neighborhood Crime Rates on Mode Choice – Phase II, MTI Report 11-04

There are considerable environmental and public health benefits if people choose to walk, bicycle, or ride transit, instead of drive. However, little work has been done on the effects of neighborhood crimes on mode choice. Instinctively, we understand that the threats posed by possible criminal activity in one’s neighborhood can play a major role in the decision to drive, take transit, walk or ride a bicycle, but so far little empirical evidence supports this notion, let alone guides public infrastructure investments, land use planning, or the allocation of police services. This report--describing Phase 2 of a research study conducted for the Mineta Transportation Institute on crime and travel behavior – finds that high crime neighborhoods tend to discourage residents from walking or riding a bicycle. When comparing a high crime to a lower crime neighborhood the odds of walking over choosing auto decrease by 17.25 percent for work trips and 61 percent for non-work trips. For transit access to work trips, the odds of choosing walk/bike to a transit station over auto decrease by 48.1 percent. Transit trips, on the other hand, are affected by neighborhood crime levels in a similar way to auto trips, wherein high crime neighborhoods appear to encourage transit mode choice. The odds of taking transit over choosing auto increase by 17.25 percent for work trips and 164 percent for non-work trips. Surprised by this last finding, the research team tested two possible explanations for why high levels of neighborhood crime would increase transit use: 1) the mode choice models do not adequately account for the effects and interplay between urban form and crime levels and mode choice; and 2) people who ride in cars or take transit may feel more protected when riding in a vehicle (termed here, the “neighborhood exposure hypothesis”). To investigate the first explanation, the researchers tested a number of alternative urban form and crime interaction variables to no effect. Digging deeper into the second hypothesis, the researchers tested whether the access portion of transit trips (walking, bicycling, or driving to a transit stop) is sensitive to neighborhood crimes as well, wherein high crime neighborhoods discourage walking and bicycling and encourage driving to transit stations. The report provides evidence that high crime neighborhoods encourage driving to transit stops and discourage walking or bicycling, lending support to the neighborhood exposure hypothesis

Selective Screening of Rail Passengers, MTI 06-07

The threat of another major terrorist attack in the United States remains high, with the greatest danger coming from local extremists inspired by events in the Middle East. Although the United States removed the Taliban government and destroyed al Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan, events in Europe and elsewhere have shown that the terrorist network leadership remains determined to carry out further attacks and is capable of doing so. Therefore, the United States must systematically conduct research on terrorist strikes against transportation targets to distill lessons learned and determine the best practices for deterrence, response, and recovery. Those best practices must be taught to transportation and security professionals to provide secure surface transportation for the nation. Studying recent incidents in Europe and Asia, along with other research, will help leaders in the United States learn valuable lessons—from preventing attacks, to response and recovery, to addressing the psychological impacts of attacks to business continuity. Timely distillations of the lessons learned and best practices developed in other countries, once distributed to law enforcement, first responders, and rail- and subway-operating transit agencies, could result in the saving of American lives. This monograph focuses on the terrorist risks confronting public transportation in the United States—especially urban mass transit—and explores how different forms of passenger screening, and in particular, selective screening, can best be implemented to reduce those risks

Bus rapid transit

Effective public transit is central to development. For the vast majority of developing city residents, public transit is the only practical means to access employment, education, and public services, especially when such services are beyond the viable distance of walking or cycling. Unfortunately, the current state of public transit services in developing cities often does little to serve the actual mobility needs of the population. Bus services are too often unreliable, inconvenient and dangerous. In response, transport planners and public officials have sometimes turned to extremely costly mass transit alternatives such as rail-based metros. Due to the high costs of rail infrastructure, cities can only construct such systems over a few kilometres in a few limited corridors. The result is a system that does not meet the broader transport needs of the population. Nevertheless, the municipality ends up with a long-term debt that can affect investment in more pressing areas such as health, education, water, and sanitation. However, there is an alternative between poor public transit service and high municipal debt. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) can provide high-quality, metro-like transit service at a fraction of the cost of other options. This document provides municipal officials, non-governmental organizations, consultants, and others with an introduction to the concept of BRT as well as a step-by-step process for successfully planning a BRT system

Collaborative Funding to Facilitate Airport Ground Access, Research Report 11-27

This report presents the findings and conclusions from a research study that has examined the challenges of funding airport ground access projects and the role of collaborative funding strategies between the different agencies that typically become involved in such projects. The report reviews the recent literature on funding airport ground access projects, as well as funding transportation projects more generally. This is followed by a detailed review of current federal transportation funding programs relevant to airport ground access projects, as well as a discussion of state and local funding programs and potential opportunities for private-sector funding. A major component of the research described in the report consists of detailed case studies of seven selected airport ground access projects, including a major intermodal center, two automated people-mover projects, two airport access highway projects, and two airport rail links. These case studies examine the history of each project, the costs involved, and the funding programs and mechanisms used to finance the projects. Based on the literature review, the review of current funding programs, and the case study findings, the report identifies potential funding strategies for intermodal airport ground access projects, requirements for effective implementation of these strategies, and a recommended approach to facilitate successful project development and implementation. The report also presents recommended changes to transportation funding program rules and regulations that could facilitate and simplify development of intermodal solutions to future airport ground access needs

OPTIMIZATION OF STATION LOCATIONS AND TRACK ALIGNMENTS FOR RAIL TRANSIT LINES

Designing urban rail transit systems is a complex problem, which involves the determination of station locations, track geometry, right-of-way type, and various other system characteristics. The existing studies overlook the complex interactions between railway alignments and station locations in a practical design process. This study proposes a comprehensive methodology that helps transit planners to concurrently optimize station locations and track alignments for an urban rail transit line. The modeling framework resolves the essential trade-off between an economically efficient system with low initial and operation cost and an effective system that provides convenient service for the public. The proposed method accounts for various geometric requirements and real-world design constraints for track alignment and stations plans. This method integrates a genetic algorithm (GA) for optimization with comprehensive evaluation of various important measures of effectiveness based on processing Geographical Information System (GIS) data. The base model designs the track alignment through a sequence of preset stations. Detailed assumptions and formulations are presented for geometric requirements, design constraints, and evaluation criteria. Three extensions of the base model are proposed. The first extension explicitly incorporates vehicle dynamics in the design of track alignments, with the objective of better balancing the initial construction cost with the operation and user costs recurring throughout the system's life cycle. In the second extension, an integrated optimization model of rail transit station locations and track alignment is formulated for situations in which the locations of major stations are not preset. The concurrent optimization model searches through additional decision variables for station locations and station types, estimate rail transit demand, and incorporates demand and station cost in the evaluation framework. The third extension considers the existing road network when selecting sections of the alignment. Special algorithms are developed to allow the optimized alignment to take advantage of links in an existing network for construction cost reduction, and to account for disturbances of roadway traffic at highway/rail crossings. Numerical results show that these extensions have significantly enhanced the applicability of the proposed optimization methodology in concurrently selecting rail transit station locations and generating track alignment