What’s Behind Recent Transit Ridership Trends in the Bay Area? Volume I: Overview and Analysis of Underlying Factors

Public transit ridership has been falling nationally and in California since 2014. The San Francisco Bay Area, with the state’s highest rates of transit use, had until recently resisted those trends, especially compared to Greater Los Angeles. However, in 2017 and 2018 the region lost over five percent (>27 million) of its annual riders, despite a booming economy and service increases. This report examines Bay Area transit ridership to understand the dimensions of changing transit use, its possible causes, and potential solutions. We find that: 1) the steepest ridership losses have come on buses, at off-peak times, on weekends, in non-commute directions, on outlying lines, and on operators that do not serve the region’s core employment clusters; 2) transit trips in the region are increasingly commute-focused, particularly into and out of downtown San Francisco; 3) transit commuters are increasingly non-traditional transit users, such as those with higher incomes and automobile access; 4) the growing job-housing imbalance in the Bay Area is related to rising housing costs and likely depressing transit ridership as more residents live less transit-friendly parts of the region; and 5) ridehail is substituting for some transit trips, particularly in the off-peak. Arresting falling transit use will likely require action both by transit operators (to address peak capacity constraints; improve off-peak service; ease fare payments; adopt fare structures that attract off-peak riders; and better integrate transit with new mobility options) and public policymakers in other realms (to better meter and manage private vehicle use and to increase the supply and affordability of housing near job centers)

understanding reflection

understanding reflection is a collection of poems which examines reflection both as an element of memory and self-image. The thirty-six poems represent devices and conventions employed by Philip Larkin, Donald Justice, Kamala Das, and Adrienne Rich. The style and voice mastered by these four poets served as an inspiring force in my creative efforts. The thesis introduction examines the voices of these poets and their influence on my work -- particularly in respect to my exploration of sexual, cultural and familial tensions. The introductory essay, in essence, introduces my progression through reflection. Throughout the course of my progression, Larkin and Justice served as my primary inspiration. While the themes explored are common throughout poetry (love, loss, anger), they are unique to my examination in regard to my sexual, cultural and familial tensions. I suggest throughout both the introductory essay and the creative portion that there are two predominant definitions of reflection (the physical act of glancing at a mirror and the concept of reflecting back through one\u27s memory) and that inherently they are related. I found through the course of my thesis that much of our past (that which we reflect back on) bears relevance on the perception we have as we view the physical reflection of ourselves. Whether it is the shape of our nose, the color of our eyes, or how our hair rests in curly waves over the forehead, we find ourselves interpreting our physical reflection based on our familial and cultural background. All in all, my collection of poetry allowed me to use both definitions of reflection to examine the familial, cultural, and sexual tensions as they apply to my past -- and ultimately to understand reflection in the present

understanding reflection

understanding reflection is a collection of poems which examines reflection both as an element of memory and self-image. The thirty-six poems represent devices and conventions employed by Philip Larkin, Donald Justice, Kamala Das, and Adrienne Rich. The style and voice mastered by these four poets served as an inspiring force in my creative efforts. The thesis introduction examines the voices of these poets and their influence on my work -- particularly in respect to my exploration of sexual, cultural and familial tensions. The introductory essay, in essence, introduces my progression through reflection. Throughout the course of my progression, Larkin and Justice served as my primary inspiration. While the themes explored are common throughout poetry (love, loss, anger), they are unique to my examination in regard to my sexual, cultural and familial tensions. I suggest throughout both the introductory essay and the creative portion that there are two predominant definitions of reflection (the physical act of glancing at a mirror and the concept of reflecting back through one\u27s memory) and that inherently they are related. I found through the course of my thesis that much of our past (that which we reflect back on) bears relevance on the perception we have as we view the physical reflection of ourselves. Whether it is the shape of our nose, the color of our eyes, or how our hair rests in curly waves over the forehead, we find ourselves interpreting our physical reflection based on our familial and cultural background. All in all, my collection of poetry allowed me to use both definitions of reflection to examine the familial, cultural, and sexual tensions as they apply to my past -- and ultimately to understand reflection in the present

One Never Knew : David Foster Wallace and the Aesthetics of Consumption

Increasingly, David Foster Wallace is becoming a cult figure among literary enthusiasts. His novels, essays, and short stories are all known for their poignant critiques of modern culture. Since his 2008 suicide, Wallace’s name has come to represent a way of thinking that rejects – and perhaps transcends – the hegemonic power of late capitalism. Wallace had a problem with pleasure. His writing often seemed to deflate or deconstruct what many people enjoy. For him, so much was “supposedly fun.” To understand Wallace’s relationship with pleasure, we must see how pleasure incorporates aesthetics and consumption. Wallace takes issue with the pleasure that comes from the aesthetics of cultural commodities. Irony produces pleasure, which turns culture into a desirable commodity. In my first chapter, I argue that Wallace’s essays challenge aesthetic pleasure by deconstructing self-reflexive irony. In his descriptions of consumer culture, Wallace evokes the feeling of disgust to undo the aesthetic pleasure of consumption. In my second chapter, I move to Infinite Jest to show how Wallace engages with irony while using it to exceed aesthetic pleasure. Infinite Jest challenges the hierarchy of aesthetics and suggests that deformity and waste can be beautiful and important. Infinite Jest demonstrates that, by trusting others instead of pursuing aesthetic ideals, people can build communities that are more honest and fulfilling than the pleasure of consumption

Planning and Policymaking for Transit-Oriented Development, Transit, and Active Transport in California Cities

This report provides research findings from the first year of a two-year research project on patterns of local policymaking in California to support transit-oriented development (TOD), transit, and active transport. The project aims to assess motivations, perceived obstacles, and priorities for development near transit, in relation to patterns of local policy adoption, from the perspective of city planners in the state’s four largest regions: the San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento metropolitan areas. This first-stage report discusses research and policy context that informed the methodology, findings from the analysis of results from an online survey of city planning directors administered in the spring of 2019, and findings from two case studies of TOD policymaking in urban central cities, namely Los Angeles and Sacramento. A sampling methodology for conducting further case studies of TOD policymaking during the upcoming second phase of the project is also described, based on findings from the first year of the research.View the NCST Project Webpag

From Fields Of Golden Grain To Black Liquid Gold: The Economic Contribution Of The Oil Industry To Ellis County, Kansas

This thesis will demonstrate how the financial wealth that resulted from the discovery of oil in 1928 and the continued oil production until the decline in 1970 became a major contributing factor to the economic prosperity of Ellis County, Kansas for over four decades. The introductory chapter provides a clear picture of the agricultural background of the Ellis County economy. Confronted by economic depression from the 1929 Stock Market Crash, extreme drought, and dust storms across the Kansas prairies, Ellis County farmers and residents faced financial devastation. But when oil production began to provide an influx of financial wealth, the county of Ellis experienced an economic boost when it needed it most. Chapters two and three cover the numerous and productive commercial oil wells that were drilled in Ellis County and the economic prosperity that resulted from them for over forty years. In the face of nationwide economic depression, crippling weather conditions, and financial bankruptcy, the farmers and residents might have all been forced to eventually abandon their homesteads, their farms, and their land. But after the discovery of oil on the William Shutts farm November 15, 1928, the oil production that occurred over the next forty years became the major contributing factor to the economic prosperity of Ellis County, Kansas. Where the agricultural landscape was once dead and nonproductive, golden fields of grain now flourish in the sun while pump jacks rise up in the distance, contributing economic prosperity to the county of Ellis

Spartan Daily, May 5, 2016

Volume 146, Issue 39https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartan_daily_2016/1037/thumbnail.jp

Smarter choices ?changing the way we travel. Case study reports

This report accompanies the following volume:Cairns S, Sloman L, Newson C, Anable J, Kirkbride A and Goodwin P (2004)Smarter Choices ? Changing the Way We Travel. Report published by theDepartment for Transport, London, available via the ?Sustainable Travel? section ofwww.dft.gov.uk, and from http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/archive/00001224/

Charming Charleston: Elite Construction of an Idealized History in Twentieth-Century Tourism

An innocuous tourist pamphlet? The hyperbolic claim of a self-important city? Or the relics of slavery-era paternalism and nostalgia in a twentieth century Southern city dominated by an elite class obsessed with heritage. The associations that leap from this pamphlet, published and widely distributed in the 1930s and 1940s advertising Charleston as a tourist destination for those seeking the aesthetic and historic, raise illuminating questions about the nature of tourism in Charleston. The artist could have chosen anybody to hold the door open to the incoming public, but he chose an elderly black gentleman, grasping the gate with a huge grin on his face, having taken his hat off, and with a slightly bowed posture. Inside the gate, the luscious gardens and blooming azaleas beckon, along with the steeples of the city’s churches in the distance. The image, in short, seems to invite a very specific audience into Charleston. This brochure markets Charleston tourism as packaged for tourists seeking to go back to olden times; they desired to view gardens, historic houses and landmarks, and in essence experience the Charleston of an antebellum planter, complete with a happily subservient and very visible black population

The road in American literature and film Jack Kerouac's Legacy

Traballo Fin de Grao en Lingua e Literatura Inglesas. Curso 2013-2014The road has been an enduring icon of American history and culture from the accounts of the first settlers to present-day literature, including frontier narratives. The nation was built upon social and spatial mobility: the American dream about prosperity and improvement was accompanied by the long quests for a home of natives, pilgrims, settlers, pioneers, slaves or immigrants. This mixture gave birth to a particular sense of stability and independence that has stuck to American society. In that way, the conceptions of “identity” and “self-discovery” are almost inseparable from that of “journey”, as if the ultimate internal and social voyage could only be achieved through a physical one, in Ronald Primeau‟s words: “[w]hereas most travelers of old in pilgrimages or quest romances moved with deliberation toward goals, Americans were nomadic in their trust that the power of movement itself would bring happiness, success, and fulfillment” (18). Thus, we are able to realize how the road acquires a particular sensibility in the American context, separating their idea of mobility from –especially- the Europeans‟ one, becoming a sort of foundational myt