Connected And Autonomous Vehicles: Implications For Policy And Practice In City And Transportation Planning

Vehicular transportation is undergoing a technological change. Cars are being automated, which have significant implications for governments. Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) can have significant benefits such as improved overall roadside safety and efficiency however, there may also be negative effects as well such as increased sprawl and social inequity. In Ontario, AV testing on public roads has been conducted under O. Reg. 306/15, which has also helped to establish Ontario as a leader of innovation in Canada. Before CAVs can be mass deployed in Ontario and Canada at large however, a number of barriers will need to be addressed such as legislation, infrastructure and cooperation between municipalities, and between municipalities and the automotive industry. Recommendations for municipal and provincial governments are provided

"That's A Hard Question": Undergraduate Students Talk About Culture

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012In this project I examine the ability of undergraduate students to articulate a working definition of culture and cross-culture. The students were predominately elementary education majors, enrolled in one of two culture-based elective courses at the University of Alaska Fairbanks during the 2010-2011 school year. Through the use of semi-structured interviewing and participatory/observational autoethnographic fieldwork, I provide several viewpoints from which to look at this complex issue. Through the examination of historical and institutional documents, I show that the School of Education within the University has had a long-standing commitment to teacher education in the Alaskan context, including creating teachers who understand the importance of cultural relevance. As this project shows, how students are taking up this aspect of theft teacher-training program is varied, and few students were able to provide a concise and applicable definition or framework for thinking about culture and cultural difference. In order to create culturally relevant teachers, the School must undertake more and better activities to provide students carefully structured experiences with cultural diversity, and culturally diverse learners, as well as ways to talk about those experiences. Like many other universities, students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks come to classes with many stereotypes about cultural groups and the importance, or lack thereof, of multicultural education. In my project, this came forth as resistance to talking about cultural diversity, and resistance to multicultural coursework. The students actively worked minimize cultural difference in favor of thinking in terms of individual, personality, and place-based difference

Urban green space: stakeholders’ and visitors’ perception in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Planning, development and maintenance of urban green space is among the key elements of sustainable urban development. Acknowledging and participating in the conservation and enhancement of the urban green space can improve the environment and provide huge benefits to city dwellers. The aim of this paper is to investigate the stakeholders’ and visitors’ understanding of their responsibility and responsiveness towards urban green spaces in Kuala Lumpur. Stakeholders and people understanding and responsibilities were investigated using interview method. Visitors to various urban parks in Kuala Lumpur and representatives of the National Landscape Department (JLN) and the City Hall of Kuala Lumpur (CHKL) were interviewed to capture the view of stakeholders and visitors. The study found that most visitors are concerned with the quality of the physical development and social necessities as their preferences for ‘sustainable city’. The survey also indicates that the government should initiate enhancement of urban green space and promote awareness of conservation through gazettes and information campaign to preserve urban green space. Thus, stakeholders such as NGOs, developers, professionals should play their role in realizing the visions of local authorities and the nation. Research demonstrated that there is need to have high awareness towards environmental attitude which could be enhanced to encourage preservation and conservation of nature and their associated benefits. Key words: Urban planning, Urban green space, Urban environment, Social benefits

Scotland's New Urbanism: in theory and practice

What form is taken by the architecture and planning movement known as the New Urbanism in Scotland? To answer this, and offer an original contribution to knowledge, the thesis takes as its starting point a survey of New Urbanism and moves to connect it to how New Urbanism is understood and practised in contemporary Scottish urbanism. In it, I argue that New Urbanism does not pay attention to the complexities of the recent spatial-social history of places and adds to the semantic confusion of new places generally. The thesis is a historical-spatial study concerned with the transfer of knowledge between New Urbanist theories and practice and how they have been received and reconfigured transnationally. The thesis is organised into four parts. It begins with a literature review that is a metahistoric account of the movement paying close attention to the symbiotic relationship of the U.S. and Anglo-European procedures and charting the theoretical basis and key figures, events and canonical developments. The scale narrows its focus throughout the thesis in a linear fashion, moving in chapter three to a close reading and review of Scottish governmental policy documents and associated literature produced since 2001. The aim here is to chart patterns in the official approaches that illuminate a tendency towards the New Urbanist procedure. I posit that government support for New Urbanism demonstrates an institutional preference for growth over social equity. I argue that the emergent New Urbanism in Scotland is representative of a perceived lack of community aligned with the privileging of upper middle-class tastes and lifestyles which are held as the dominant representation of cultural life (S. Zukin, 2009). Simultaneously, a move towards neo-traditional planning and architecture is also a politically sanctioned strategy for economic growth that prioritises growth in housing over environmental or ecological sustainability. Two site studies document the emerging New Urbanism in Scotland by analysing two different approaches. The site studies deal with one built example and one masterplan located in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire respectively. Separated into two sections they can be read as comparative studies which account for two distinct manifestations of Scottish New Urbanism; a modified Anglo-European version promoted by the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community and an ‘imported’ US version typically led by established urban designers DPZ (or Urban Design Associates), with both broadly receiving government support. The purpose of the research is to contribute to a better understanding of the movement’s origins and subsequent recontextualisation in a specifically Scottish condition. This is arguably relevant not only to contemporary Scottish urbanism but to general scholarship on the organisation and politics of space

Mangroves degradation: a local perspective on its awareness

Mangroves in Malaysia reside on the coastlines, and the largest areas of mangrove are in the Northern Sabah. Over the past decades, mangrove species have been reported to be disappearing from the globe. It is due to several natural processes that have been inserted to fill the needs of the increased population. These include illegal logging, agriculture activities and urbanisation. In this regards, awareness of the local residents about the problem of mangrove depletion is important to inhibit the problem to prolong further.Therefore, this research was conducted to determine the degree of awareness of local residents on the importance of mangroves in managing environmental quality. Consequently, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 103 respondents to examine their awareness on the subject of mangrove degradation.The respondents were selected randomly among local residents of Kuala Selangor district.It is found that only twenty percent of the total number of respondents are totallyaware of the issue and acted upon it; either taking part in the endeavours made by the government as well as those with the nongovernmental bodies or practicing mangroves replanting at their backyard