Senior-Friendly Public Transportation in Winnipeg: Towards a Comprehensive Strategy

Report 86 pp.;ill., digital file.Healthy aging requires a safe and convenient method of connecting to life outside of the home. Public transportation can fulfill this essential role in assisting people to conduct both instrumental activities of daily life, such as grocery shopping, and social activities of daily life, such as visiting with family and friends. Senior-friendly public transportation in Winnipeg has never before been considered by relevant stakeholders through a sustained and coordinated effort. The Public Transportation Sub-committee of the Transportation Options Network for Seniors (TONS) is a multi-stakeholder community coalition that focuses on the importance of addressing this issue. During the fall and winter of 2008/09, TONS undertook an examination to identify and report upon the opportunities and challenges in existing public transportation systems and services for seniors in the city of Winnipeg. The research was conducted through the Institute of Urban Studies and done in collaboration with seniors in the community as well as relevant stakeholders so as to develop practical solutions to the problems. This position paper is intended to inform the various parties responsible for the provision of public transportation about the gaps in knowledge about seniors as clients. This document should also serve useful to seniors and other members of the public interested in this issue-area.Public Health Agency of Canad

Transportation for an Aging Population: Promoting Mobility and Equity for Low-Income Seniors

This study explores the travel patterns, needs, and mobility problems faced by diverse low-income, inner-city older adults in Los Angeles in order to identify solutions to their mobility challenges. The study draws information from: (1) a systematic literature review of the travel patterns of older adults; (2) a review of municipal policies and services geared toward older adult mobility in six cities; (3) a quantitative analysis of the mobility patterns of older adults in California using the California Household Travel Survey; and (4) empirical work with 81 older adults residing in and around Los Angeles’ inner-city Westlake neighborhood, who participated in focus groups, interviews, and walkabouts around their neighborhood

Walkability along the Bussvei

The urge to reduce the environmental impacts from transportation has induced several authorities worldwide to implement cleaner and efficient modes to travel around the cities. In the urban agglomeration of North Jæren, counting with 263,750 inhabitants as of 2021 (Hass-Klau, 2015; SSB, 2021) and headed by the city of Stavanger, dependency on individual cars is more than the Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim, the three main urban areas in Norway (Grue et al., 2021, p. 43). Individual cars are still the primary mode of transport of 52% of commuters in North Jæren, 39% in Oslo, 49% in Bergen and 44% in Trondheim urban areas (Grue et al., 2021, p. 43). In the other hand, the public transportation in North Jæren shows low usage, counting only for 9% of commuters, face to 23% in Oslo, 15% in Bergen and 11% in Trondheim. Often neglected, walking as a transport mode represents an opportunity to improve environmental performance in urban areas. Walking is cheap, clean, flexible and contributes to improving health conditions. The mobility by foot in North Jæren represents 20% of the overall transport mode share, lower than Oslo, Bergen and Trodheim urban areas, which are 24%, 21% and 25% respectively (Grue et al., 2021). The Bymiljøpakke (Urban environment) is a package of incentives installed to face the challenge of turning urban mobility greener in North Jæren. The most notorious project thereby funded is the Bussvei, a bus rapid transit solution seeking to encourage more people to travel on public transport through faster and more frequent bus rides. However, some questions arise over this project in connection to the environmental quality it provides to pedestrians. Well-established authors in Urban Studies, such as Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl, have previously regarded the negative impact for urban walkability brought by major road improvements, like these proposed by the Bussvei’s design. Also, recent studies regarded the sine qua non biding between walking and access to public transit. In the light of these questions, this thesis aims to understand how pedestrians use and experience the pedestrians’ structures within the structures of Bussvei. Mariero, a commercial centrality in Stavanger, was chosen as a study case, where it lies a stretch of the Bussvei. First, environmental indicators and urbanistic features to which pedestrians are exposed were explored through spatial analysis along the Bussvei stretch in Mariero. Next, the usage pedestrians do of Bussvei structures was studied through direct observation, followed by behavioural mapping over three bus stops in the area (Eikeberg, Mariero and Lyngnesveien). Afterwards, the questionnaire permitted to identify how pedestrians experience the Bussvei. Some weaknesses in the urban landscape in Marrero were found that eventually hold back the effort to encourage people to walk more. There is room to improve crossing possibilities, bus stops and attractiveness of façades and green elements

Evaluating public transit accessibility to employment : the case of Ottawa, Canada

The purpose of this study was to address the need for a straightforward and practical tool for evaluating public transit accessibility to places of employment. The need for such a study stems from the widespread adoption of planning policies by Canadian municipalities seeking to promote public transit commuting as part of their broader efforts to develop environmentally and socially sustainable transportation systems. To date, planners have not had any practical methods for identifying barriers to public transit commuting nor for evaluating the extent to which stated goals and objectives are being achieved. The study was conducted in three stages. First, a “Comprehensive Definition of Public Transit Commuter Needs” was developed by means of a literature review, a survey questionnaire, and consultations with sustainable transportation advocacy groups. In the second stage, the “Comprehensive Definition of Public Transit Commuter Needs” was used as a framework for creating the “Public Transit Commuter Accessibility Audit”. Through a six-step process that involves the collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, this tool provides planners with a means of identifying any potential obstacles or deterrents to public transit travel within the context of actual spatio-temporal commuter flows. The practical utility of the “Public Transit Commuter Accessibility Audit” was tested in the third stage by means of two case studies conducted in the City of Ottawa, Canada. This study has shown that commuters require a broad array of infrastructure, facilities and services in order for public transit to represent a viable travel option. It has also revealed that responsibility for promoting public transit commuting rests not only with transit agencies, but also with land use and transportation planners, private developers and employers. Furthermore, the case studies successfully demonstrated that application of the “Public Transit Commuter Accessibility Audit” can provide a preliminary indication of problem areas where direct planning interventions may be required, where municipal planning policies may need revision or more aggressive implementation, or where new policies may be necessary in order to increase the viability of public transit commuting

The role of Time, Income and Expenditure Patterns in Pedestrian decision-making in the Kumasi Metropolis (Ghana)

This research was undertaken in May 2012 using a sample size of 174 respondents in four proxy communities in the Kumasi Metropolis of Ghana. Using cross-tabulation quantitative methods, the research shows that walking speed is directly related to age. Also, when presented with the choice to walk or not in different scenarios, respondents with higher incomes prefer to trade money for time whiles lower income earners would trade time to save money. In addition, motorised transport costs represent 15% of the average monthly income of respondents and 18% off their expenditure; of which lower income earners cannot afford on a regular basis and therefore walk to 'survive'. Keywords: Pedestrian, Travel time, Kumasi, Income, Expenditure, Pedestrian behaviour, Ghan

Supporting People with Vision Impairments in Automated Vehicles: Challenge and Opportunities

Autonomous and automated vehicles (AVs) will provide many opportunities for mobility and independence for peoplewith vision impairments (PwVI). This project provides insights on the challenges and potential barriers to their adoptionof AVs. We examine adoption and use of ridesharing services. We study ridesharing as a proxy for AVs as they are asimilar means of single-rider transportation for PwVI through observations and interviews. We also investigateperceptions towards autonomous vehicles and prototypes to address perceived barriers to AV use through design focusgroups with blind and low vision people. From these studies, we provide recommendations to AV manufacturers andsuppliers for how to best design vehicles and interactive systems that people with vision impairments trust.United States Department of Transportationhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156054/3/Supporting People with Vision Impairments in Automated Vehicles - Challenges and Opportunities.pd

Geometrical and functional criteria as a methodological approach to implement a new cycle path in an existing Urban Road Network: A Case study in Rome

Most road accidents occur in urban areas and notably at urban intersections, where cyclists and motorcyclists are the most vulnerable. In the last few years, cycling mobility has been growing; therefore, bike infrastructures should be designed to encourage this type of mobility and reduce motorized and/or private transport. The paper presents a study to implement a new cycle path in the existing cycle and road network in Rome, Italy. The geometric design of the new path complies with Italian standards regarding the technical characteristics of bicycle paths, while the Highway Capacity Manual has been considered for the traffic analysis. In particular, a before-after approach has been adopted to examine and compare the traffic flow at more complex and congested intersections where the cycle path will pass. Trams, buses, cars, bikes and pedestrians were the traffic components considered in each analysis. The software package PTV VISSIM 8 allowed the simulations of traffic flows at traffic-light intersections; an original linear process has been proposed to model dynamic intelligent traffic controls, which are not admitted by the software used. The traffic analysis allowed the identification of the best option for each of the five examined intersections. Particularly, the maximum queue length value and the total number of passed vehicles have been considered in order to optimize the transport planning process. The results of this study highlight the importance of providing engineered solutions when a cycle path is implemented in a complex road network, in order to avoid negative impacts on the citizens and maximize the expected advantages

Two Trains Running: Capture and Escape in the Racialized Train Cars of the Jim Crow South, 1893-1930

The role of the railroad in the modern American experience—and its role in making that experience modern—cannot be overstated. This thesis proposes to tell one of many possible railroad stories. By focusing on the historical and cultural relevance of a series of bodies in transit, I examine the implementation of railroad segregation law and the response by African-American performers. The thesis begins at the end of the nineteenth century with the Homer Plessy test case and continues across three decades, meeting along the way novelists Charles Chesnutt and James Weldon Johnson and musicians W. C. Handy, Henry Ragtime Texas Thomas, and Honeyboy Edwards. I find that by studying the train scenes and train sounds produced by these black men under the constraints of the Jim Crow South, we might come to a better understanding of the role of the railroad in American life, the role of segregation law in southern life, and the role of train experience in the expression of protest escaping from an African-American community caught in its nadir