Access for Performance

This paper urges that policy decisions be based on important and reliable performance measures. Robust measures that assess the performance of the transportation and land use dimensions of cities, however, are typically missing from such discussionsÑthey typically focus on congestion and mobility. The heart of approach suggested herein lies concept of accessibility: the ability of people to reach the destinations that they need to visit in order to meet their needs. By focusing on accessibilityÑrather than congestion or mobilityÑthis approach produces a more complete and meaningful picture of metropolitan transport and land use. We place accessibility in a position of prominence as a performance measure by (a) describing the use and measurement of accessibility for metropolitan areas, (b) identifying robust, concrete and practical issues about measurement of the concept, (c) and offering prescriptions for resolving measurement issues.Accessibility, Performance Measures, Transportation, Land Use, Measures of Effectiveness.

A Schematic for Focusing on Youth in Investigations of Community Design and Physical Activity

This paper provides a first step to address special considerations for youth in a relatively new area of physical activity research. After reviewing the urgent need for novel approaches to increasing physical activity, the growing interest in the effects of community design is discussed. Although most discussion on this topic has focused on adults, there are important differences between youth and adults that warrant a special focus on youth and need to be accounted for. This article presents a schematic that accounts for how and where youth spend their time, decomposing the day into time spent in travel and time spent at destinations, and identifying portions of those times that are spent engaged in physical activity. By focusing on both spatial and behavioral dimensions of youth time, the schematic may help organize and advance scientific inquiry into the relationships between community design and physical activity specifically for youth. .

Designing and Assessing a Teaching Laboratory for an Integrated Land Use and Transportation Course

The intersection of land use and transportation policy is becoming an increasingly important focus for all urban planners. This focus, however, challenges the academic community to design effective courses that teach the concepts and professional skills required for professional experience. Integrated land use and transportation courses should engage students to develop interdisciplinary skills while becoming familiar with, for example, travel behavior and zoning policies. Laboratory courses (or segments of courses) as part of graduate curricula provide platforms to further emphasize skills. A common pedagogy problem is devising laboratory assignments that are integrative, cumulative, practical, and interesting for students. Furthermore, laboratory projects should introduce students to real-world problems and techniques while exploring broad planning themes. This paper presents uses four years of laboratory segments from a land use-transportation course (LUTC) at the University of Minnesota to evaluate the needs and results of practitioner-oriented land use and transportation planning education. The laboratory used group projects where students proposed integrated developments using air rights above existing (and sunken) urban freeways in the Twin Cities. The projects provided a practitioner-oriented project through a collaborative and reflexive learning process. This article describes the completed projects, as well as the technical skills, integrated approach and visionary planning necessary for successful execution. The students addressed complicated problems associated with large-scale development by researching neighborhood demographics, characteristics, and pertinent regulations. They used their research to analyze traffic impacts, propose zoning regulations, and outline costs and benefits from their proposal using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), statistical analyses, assessor data and traffic engineering manuals. Using the completed student projects and comparisons with other land use-transportation course and laboratory projects the authors demonstrate how these laboratory components serve multiple pedagogy goals.

Value of Trail Access on Home Purchases

We use hedonic analysis of home sales data from the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area to estimate the effects of access of different types of trails on home value. Our model includes proximity to three distinct types bicycle facilities, controlling for local fixed effects and open space characteristics. Using interaction terms detect different preferences between city and suburban homebuyers. Regression results show that off-street bicycle trails situated alongside busy streets are negatively associated with home sale prices in both the city and suburbs. Proximity to off-street bicycle trails away from trafficked streets in the city are positively associated with home sale prices, with no significant result in the suburbs. On-street bicycle lanes have no effect in the city and are a disamenity in the suburbs. The following policy issues are relevant from this research. First, type of trail matters. On-street trails and road-side trails may not be as appreciated as many city planners or policy officials think. Second, city residents have different preferences than suburban residents. Third and as suspected, larger and more pressing factors likely influencing residential location decisions. The finding also suggest that urban planners and advocates need to be aware of the consequences of providing for bicycle facilities, as the change in welfare is not necessarily positive for all homeowners.

Bicycling Access and Egress to Transit: Informing the Possibilities

When effectively integrated with transit services, considerable room exists for bicycling to realize various benefits to communities. A successful marriage between bicycling and transit will likely increase the use and efficiency of both modes. A core problem, however, exists in that the predominant approach for integrating bicycles and transit—bicycles aboard transit vehicles—frequently runs up against capacity restraints. Integrating bicycling and transit requires analysis of a broad range of alternatives that considers both the travel patterns and needs of individuals but also accompanying urban form characteristics. What are the most cost effective strategies likely to generate the largest number of cyclists accessing transit? To aid in developing a framework to evaluate the cost effectiveness of different strategies to integrate transit and bicycling this project: (1) reviews the state of the knowledge, (2) proposes an analysis framework for communities and transit agencies to consider in efforts to maximize the integration of bicycling and transit, (3) conducts focus groups with cyclists from five case study communities to gauge preferences for bicycle and transit integration strategies, and (4) develops a preliminary application to evaluate four bicycle and transit integration strategies based on focus group discussions and use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). These evaluation measures are applied to five communities. A CTU index provides an initial attempt to understand transit stops that have a higher likelihood to attract CTUs. The Analytic Hierarchy Process ranked cyclists’ preferences for four bicycle and transit integration strategies in order of preference: (1) “Bike ON transit” (transporting the owner’s bicycle aboard( inside or outside) the transit vehicle) (0.471), (2) “Bike TO transit” (using and parking the owner’s bicycle at a transit access location) (0.185), (3) “Shared bike” (sharing a bicycle, which would be based at either the transit access or egress point) (0.185), and (4) “Two bike” (using an owner’s two bicycles at the access and egress location) (0.159). Results of the cost effectiveness assessment suggest that “Bike ON transit” ranked most cost effective overall, followed by “Bike to transit,” “Two bike,” and “Shared bike” strategies

Reliability Testing of the PABS (Pedestrian and Bicycling Survey) Method

The Pedestrian and Bicycling Survey (PABS) is a questionnaire designed to be economical and straightforward to administer so that it can be used by local governments interested in measuring the amount and purposes of walking and cycling in their communities. In addition, it captures key sociodemographic characteristics of those participating in these activities. Methods: In 2009 and 2010 results from the 4-page mail-out/mail-back PABS were tested for reliability across 2 administrations (test-retest reliability). Two versions--early and refined--were tested separately with 2 independent groups of university students from 4 universities (N = 100 in group 1; N = 87 in group 2). Administrations were 7 to 9 days apart. Results: Almost all survey questions achieved adequate to excellent reliability. Conclusions: Transportation surveys have not typically been tested for reliability making the PABS questionnaire an important new option for improving information collection about travel behavior, particularly walking and cycling

The End of Traffic and the Future of Access: A Roadmap to the New Transport Landscape

In most industrialized countries, car travel per person has peaked and the automobile regime is showing considering signs of instability. As cities across the globe venture to find the best ways to allow people to get around amidst technological and other changes, many forces are taking hold — all of which suggest a new transport landscape. Our roadmap describes why this landscape is taking shape and prescribes policies informed by contextual awareness, clear thinking, and flexibility

Patterns of Use in Main Street Activity: A Case Study of Downtown Chapel Hill

With increasing growth in suburban fringes, many downtown areas are faced with challenges to maintain their vitality. A thriving business district, a center focus for the community, and the opportunity to walk from shop to shop are common features that help maintain such vitality. While many of these features are dependent upon larger and more complex factors such as economic conditions, coordinated planning efforts, and striking the correct mix of retail, other aspects, including the physical surroundings, how people use downtown public space, and the safety of pedestrian access, are often overlooked. Unsuccessful public spaces in many cities may be a result of this lack of concern with the quality of human use and activity. To address this problem, researchers have examined how pedestrians use urban (and small town) public spaces to improve the quality of those spaces for the pedestrian. This paper continues that research by using Chapel Hill, North Carolina as a case study to examine the relationships between patterns of use, the downtown physical environment, and the time of day. I conclude that increased awareness of commonly overlooked items could lead to important improvements in the total pedestrian environment, thereby leading to increased downtown livability and vitality

Visual Eye Gaze While Cycling: Analyzing Eye Tracking at Signalized Intersections in Urban Conditions

The manner in which cyclists visually perceive elements of the urban environment plays an important role in bicycle crashes, which have been increasing in recent years. Yet, how visual information is processed by the user while riding a bike is still poorly analyzed by researchers. This study investigates cyclists' eye gaze behavior at signalized intersections taking into account a set of gaze characteristics. Recording cyclist's visual fixations by mobile-eye glasses in a real outdoor environment, a total of 13 field tests have been analyzed along a three-kilometer route in the urban center of Bologna, Italy. Findings reveal key differences in gaze behavior by experience level of the cyclist and type of intersection.</p

Simple, Inexpensive Approach to Sampling for Pedestrian and Bicycle Surveys

Many transportation planners undertake local surveys for a better understanding of the levels of walking and cycling of residents in their city or town. This paper explores the challenges of designing a robust sampling strategy for such surveys. A review of existing surveys on nonmotorized transportation demonstrated that many existing surveys used less than ideal sampling approaches for communities that were aiming to collect populationwide data on cycling and walking and thereby jeopardized the strength of their conclusions. Either surveys used approaches that were too expensive and complex for most communities to implement or surveys generated data that were not applicable to all residents in a community (i.e., data that were not generalizable to the full population). In response to that sampling problem, this paper presents a new method for collecting generalizable data: the sampling method developed in the Pedestrian and Bicycling Survey (PABS) project. PABS offers a rigorous, yet inexpensive, simple, and well-documented method to conduct surveys. The PABS mail-out-mail-back survey and probabilistic (generalizable) sampling approach can be performed in-house within municipal agencies. With the use of PABS, transportation professionals can obtain higher-quality data about their community as a whole than they would obtain with many of the other existing approaches. PABS is thus a useful complement to other sampling approaches such as intercept surveys (an important way to collect data on the use of specific facilities) or surveys distributed to e-mail lists (a cheap and useful way to collect qualitative data)