Electrifying the road: Navigating the transition to electric vehicles in Connecticut through hybrid insights and fleet evolution

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Peer effects in the adoption of solar energy technologies in the United States: An urban case study

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Building upon recent literature, we combine a novel spatiotemporal variable with spatial methods to investigate and quantify the influence of the built environment and jurisdictional boundaries on spatial peer-effects (SPEs) in inner-city areas. We focus on the Hartford Capital region, using detailed data at block-group and PV system levels for the years 2005-2013. This region is part of a state, Connecticut, actively engaged in supporting PV system at residential level. Adoption of PV systems varies substantially, and state policies are mediated by town-level regulations. We initially employ typology analysis to investigate the heterogeneity of the block groups with higher adoption rates. We then use panel FE and spatial estimations to determine the existence of spill-overs of SPEs beyond town boundaries. Our estimations suggest that new PV systems have a more limited spatiotemporal influence in inner-cities. We identify spatial spill-overs from neighboring block groups even between towns, suggesting that SPEs transcend municipal barriers. We do not find significant results for built-environment, although we identify several data limitations. Our results suggest that centralized, non-voluntary support policies may have larger effects if implemented beyond town-level, and that SPEs change their determination power depending on the underlying built environment

Comparing the Capitalisation Benefits of Light-rail Transit and Overlay Zoning for Single-family Houses and Condos by Neighbourhood Type in Metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona

Light rail transit (LRT) is increasingly accompanied by overlay zoning which specifies the density and type of future development to encourage landscapes conducive to transit use. Neighbourhood type (based on land use mix) is used to partition data and investigate how pre-existing land use, treatment with a park-and-ride (PAR) versus walk-and-ride (WAR) station and overlay zoning interrelate. Hedonic models estimate capitalisation effects of LRT-related accessibility and overlay zoning on single-family houses and condos in different neighbourhoods for the system in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Impacts differ by housing and neighbourhood type. Amenity-dominated mixed-use neighbourhoods---predominantly WAR communities---experience premiums of 6 per cent for single-family houses and over 20 per cent for condos, the latter boosted an additional 37 per cent by overlay zoning. Residential neighbourhoods---predominantly PAR communities---experience no capitalisation benefits for single-family houses and a discount for condos. The results suggest that land use mix is an important variable to select comparable neighbourhoods.

The geography of advance transit-oriented development in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, 2000–2007

Phoenix adopted overlay zoning (an additional, targeted layer of regulations) in some light-rail transit (LRT) station areas at the site-selection stage to reduce planning-related uncertainty. This prompts consideration of advance transit-oriented development (TOD)—development that takes place before LRT system operation. In this paper we break down almost $1 billion worth of advance TOD in the Phoenix area by type of TOD, type of station area, and use of overlay zoning. Factor analysis and cluster analysis are applied to GIS-based parcel-level data to identify five distinct station-area types. We then use ANOVA to verify statistically significant relationships between station-area type and: the value of advance TOD, the percentage of parcels with overlay zoning, and the percentage of advance TOD with overlay zoning. The five station-area types, ordered from highest to lowest advance TOD per station, are employment centers; Middle-Income Mixed-Use areas; transportation (park-and-ride) nodes; high population/rental areas; and urban poverty areas. Overlay zoning was used most in areas of urban poverty and least in station-area types with the most single-family housing. Advance TOD coincided strongly with overlay zoning in areas of urban poverty and least in employment and amenity centers

Missing Links How Social Paths Can Improve Pedestrian Accessibility to Light Rail

In the past several decades, planners and policy makers have focused on creating more balanced transportation systems that included better transit service as well as improved options for pedestrians and bicyclists. Pedestrian accessibility is vital to the success of this mode because transit users are likely to walk on at least one end of their trip. As a result, practitioners have focused on improving pedestrian environments in station areas. Pedestrian accessibility studies have focused on formal pedestrian links such as roads, sidewalks, and multiuse trails. However, a small but important body of literature suggests that the informal pedestrian environments play an important but often overlooked role in pedestrian accessibility. Social paths are informal routes that emerge in grassy areas because of footfall. Social paths have formed at numerous suburban transit stops and show deficiencies in the design of formal pedestrian networks. Because current travel behavior studies omit informal pedestrian networks, their results may be inaccurate and result in misguided policy. This study identified social paths at 12 light rail stations in Denver, Colorado, and Dallas, Texas. With two pedestrian accessibility metrics, the formal pedestrian environment was compared with a joint formal-informal pedestrian environment that includes social paths. This study makes the argument that social paths are important components of station-area pedestrian accessibility and should be incorporated into future travel behavior studies and pedestrian improvement projects

Residential Preferences, Transit Accessibility and Social Equity: Insights from the Denver Region

Our work exploring preferences of Denver metropolitan area households in deciding where to live provides important insights for regions seeking to leverage investments in transit and promote social equity through transit-oriented communities (TOC). Through a choice-based approach, we find evidence of widespread support for characteristics of TOC, with similar preferences for transit- and pedestrian-accessible environments among low-income and more affluent households. However, despite similar preferences, we find that affluent households moved to station areas after the arrival of light rail in much larger proportions than low-income households, pointing to trends consistent with local and national evidence of increased housing prices (and, likely, gentrification) near transit. If these trends continue without additional supplies of housing affordable to low- and moderate-income households in transit-rich neighbourhoods, those who are most likely to benefit from and use transit are likely to face increasing difficulty in realising preferences for TOC

Evaluating Selected Costs Of Automobile-Oriented Transportation Systems From A Sustainability Perspective,” Research in Transportation Business Safe Travels: Evaluating Mobility Management Traffic Safety Impacts Victoria Transport Policy

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o This paper uses an existing framework that encapsulates the concept of transportation sustainability to evaluate selected economic, social and environmental costs of automobile-oriented transportation systems as measured by rates of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) at the state-wide scale across the United States. States with higher percentages of commuting using private vehicles have higher rates of VMT per capita, higher carbon emissions, and pay more for transportation at the household level. Surprisingly, higher VMT per capita also corresponds to higher government spending on transportation, which likely reflects the expense of maintaining, repairing and expanding road networks. States with higher automobile-dependency also incurred higher social costs as measured by automobile-related fatalities. States with three times the VMT per capita than other places incurred five times as many fatalities showing that fatality rates are not simply a direct function of the amount of VMT occurring. Together, these metrics provide compelling evidence for the need to think about the impacts of VMT more holistically. These data can inform the global debate about the costs of VMT and provide guidance to those in transportation business and management to formulate cost-benefit analyses that are rooted in a transportation sustainability perspective