A New Approach to Non-CMA/CA Areas

Non-metropolitan areas in Canada are often simply referred as rural Canada, without enough attention paid to their inner differences. The Metropolitan Influence Zones (MIZ) conceptual framework allows us to divide non-metropolitan areas into No Metropolitan Influence Zone (No MIZ), Weak Metropolitan Influence Zone (Weak MIZ), and Moderate Metropolitan Influence Zone (Moderate MIZ), according to the commuting flows to and from metropolitan areas. Analyses on New Brunswick show that the nonmetropolitan population are economically disadvantaged overall compared to metropolitan population. However, there are substantial differences within nonmetropolitan areas. Population in the No Metropolitan Influence Zone do not appear to be the most disadvantaged economically. In so far as the No Metropolitan Zone may be regarded as the most rural, this casts doubt on the conventional wisdom regarding "rural" as the synonym of socio-economic disadvantage. In fact, the urban population in the No Metropolitan Influence Zone is shown to be the most disadvantaged economically. The pattern in Saskatchewan is quite different from New Brunswick. In general, median family income decreases, unemployment rate and incidence of low income families increase as the influence of metropolitan areas decreases. Together with the findings concerning New Brunswick, it is clear that non-metropolitan Canada is anything but homogeneous. More research is needed to bring out this diversity so that social policies can be better tailored to the needs of non-metropolitan Canadian population.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Easy Come, EZ-GO: A Federal Role in Removing Jurisdictional Impediments to College Education

Outlines the need to raise college degree attainment by creating Educational Zone Governance Organizations in multistate metropolitan regions to coordinate and incentivize policies that expand access. Offers data by metro area, age, and race/ethnicity

Bucharest metropolitan area and its external hinterland: spread or backwash effects?

Even if it has not a legal status yet, the Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA) project is in an advanced preparation phase, already producing effects in the real economy. Conventionally, BMA imbeds the entire Ilfov county (which surrounds it and form together the Bucharest-Ilfov region (NUTS 2)) as well as localities from other four counties of the South - Muntenia region (also NUTS 2). As Bucharest-Ilfov region appears as an enclave within South-Muntenia region, in a broader view it is considered that BMA influences all seven surrounding counties belonging to the South-Muntenia region. This region as a whole (apart from the localities of the four counties that are to be incorporated in the metropolitan area) plus Bucharest MA are viewed as the Bucharest metropolitan region, in other words the South-Muntenia region is the BMA external hinterland. In technical terms, the metropolitan area is a zone of direct city impact in which the relationships are strong and permanent (functional urban area, internal hinterland zone) whereas the metropolitan region is a zone in which the relationships are weaker, but the area is under the core city influence (macroregion, external hinterland zone). One of the main debates around BMA and metropolitan region refers to the effects of the BMA on its external hinterland, South-Muntenia region, by far less developed: are they / will they be spread or rather backwash effects? Our paper addresses this question focusing on a series of issues such as: examples of links between BMA and surrounding region, examples of positive and negative influences of the metropolis on its surrounding region, changes in regional settlement system and its drivers, changes in regional production system and main drivers, labour commuting patterns and drivers, policies with significant impact on metropolis ? region relationship, how external interventions address the needs of the metropolitan area and its external hinterland, to what extent the metropolitan area can contribute to the external hinterland regeneration, etc. The paper is the result of the research undertaken within the GRINCOH FP7 project

Towards a common standard: comparing European and American cities

This paper assesses to what extent it is possible to construct standardised geographical definitions of cities that will allow American and European cities to be compared in a consistent manner. It reproduces, in citable form and, for scholarly purposes, the report of the same name produced by the author for the Greater London Authority.Keywords: City; global city; Functional Urban Region; Larger Urban Zone; Territorial Indicators; Metropolitan Region; pluralism

A reduction in ag/residential signature conflict using principal components analysis of LANDSAT temporal data

Methods to accurately delineate the types of land cover in the urban-rural transition zone of metropolitan areas were considered. The application of principal components analysis to multidate LANDSAT imagery was investigated as a means of reducing the overlap between residential and agricultural spectral signatures. The statistical concepts of principal components analysis were discussed, as well as the results of this analysis when applied to multidate LANDSAT imagery of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area

Understanding Transit Ridership Demand for a Multi-Destination, Multimodal Transit Network in an American Metropolitan Area, Research Report 11-06

This study examines the factors underlying transit demand in the multi-destination, integrated bus and rail transit network for Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta provides an opportunity to explore the consequences of a multi-destination transit network for bus patrons (largely transit-dependent riders) and rail patrons (who disproportionately illustrate choice rider characteristics). Using data obtained from the 2000 Census, coupled with data obtained from local and regional organizations in the Atlanta metropolitan area, we estimate several statistical models that explain the pattern of transit commute trips across the Atlanta metropolitan area. The models show that bus riders and rail riders are different, with bus riders exhibiting more transit-dependent characteristics and rail riders more choice rider characteristics. However, both types of riders value many of the same attributes of transit service quality (including shorter access and egress times and more direct trips) and their use of transit is influenced by many of the same variables (including population and employment). At the same time, the factors that influence transit demand vary depending on the type of travel destination the rider wishes to reach, including whether it is the central business district (CBD) or a more auto-oriented, suburban destination. The results of the study offer new insights into the nature of transit demand in a multi-destination transit system and provide lessons for agencies seeking to increase ridership among different ridership groups. The results suggest that more direct transit connections to dispersed employment centers, and easier transfers to access such destinations, will lead to higher levels of transit use for both transit-dependent and choice riders. The results also show that the CBD remains an important transit destination for rail riders but not for their bus rider counterparts. Certain types of transit-oriented development (TOD) also serve as significant producers and attractors of rail transit trips

An Integrated Pipeline Architecture for Modeling Urban Land Use, Travel Demand, and Traffic Assignment

Integrating land use, travel demand, and traffic models represents a gold standard for regional planning, but is rarely achieved in a meaningful way, especially at the scale of disaggregate data. In this report, we present a new pipeline architecture for integrated modeling of urban land use, travel demand, and traffic assignment. Our land use model, UrbanSim, is an open-source microsimulation platform used by metropolitan planning organizations worldwide for modeling the growth and development of cities over long (~30 year) time horizons. UrbanSim is particularly powerful as a scenario analysis tool, enabling planners to compare and contrast the impacts of different policy decisions on long term land use forecasts in a statistically rigorous way. Our travel demand model, ActivitySim, is an agent-based modeling platform that produces synthetic origin--destination travel demand data. Finally, we use a static user equilibrium traffic assignment model based on the Frank-Wolfe algorithm to assign vehicles to specific network paths to make trips between origins and destinations. This traffic assignment model runs in a high-performance computing environment. The resulting congested travel time data can then be fed back into UrbanSim and ActivitySim for the next model run. This technical report introduces this research area, describes this project's achievements so far in developing this integrated pipeline, and presents an upcoming research agenda

Look-up Tables to Link 1991 Population Statistics to the 1998 Local Government Areas

Between 1995 and 1998 the local authority structure and geography of the United Kingdom was substantially revised. The two-tier system of local government was abolished in Wales, Scotland, and in parts of non-metropolitan England, and replaced with a single-tier system. This involved the creation of a new set of local authority area boundaries which in many places cut across those of the old districts. In addition, many of the local authorities unaffected by the reorganisation nonetheless had experienced small - though demographically significant - boundary changes since the last census. By the time the final phase of the reorganisation came into effect on 1st April 1998 the local government map of the United Kingdom was very different from that of April 1991. There is a need therefore to provide demographic and other geographically based data for the new geography for years prior to 1998. This paper aims to fill a part of this requirement by focusing on two important issues. First, it describes a look-up table detailing exactly how the 1998 local government geography relates to 1991 Census areas, and second, it sets out methods for producing 1991 Census data and mid-1991 population estimates (including single year age detail) for the new geography. A selection of the results produced by the described methods is included in tables and population pyramids