ARTIMIS Telephone Travel Information Service: Overall Public Awareness

This report summarizes the results of a random telephone survey of households in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Area. The objective was to determine awareness of the traffic management center and its telephone travel information service. A secondary objective was to determine the public\u27s preference for dialing and recalling phone numbers for travel information. The survey found that 39% were aware of a traffic management center while 55% were aware of a telephone traffic information service. Awareness varied by work location, household characteristics and personal attributes. Some households that could potentially benefit from the service were unaware of its existence. Some minor confusion over traffic management services was found. The majority of both those aware and unaware of the service indicated a preference for 211 over 333-3333 as a dialing code for traffic information (both for recall and ease of dialing)

Incorporating Long-Distance Travel intoTransportation Planning in the United States

In the early years of transportation planning and highway infrastructure development in the United States the focus was on intercity or long-distance travel, a contrast to the metropolitan travel and state-based models that dominate today. Daily home and work-based travel, which have been the focus of data collection and models since the 1950s, are well-modeled by regional agencies and a limited number of state travel demand models even include some long-distance travel. Nonetheless, long-distance travel demand and factors affecting behavior are not thoroughly considered in transportation planning or behavior research. Only one recent activity-based model of national travel demand has been created and its scope was limited by a severe lack of data. The conceptualization of models to consider intercity long-distance travel has changed little since its inception in the 1970s and 1980s. In order to comprehensively consider transportation system sustainability, there is a critical need for improved nation-wide annual overnight activity data and models of overnight travel (a re-focus and important distinct re-framing of long-distance trips that this white paper suggests). Truly addressing the economic, environmental, and social equity issues required to create a sustainable global transportation system will entail completely updating our existing planning framework to meaningfully include long-distance travel. It is clear that long-distance passenger miles must be accounted for when addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other negative environmental externalities. Less well-known are the questions of social justice that loom large when one considers the details of long-distance travel. Travel in our society is becoming increasingly associated with quality of life. Those without intercity access may miss opportunity and social capital. However, without representative long-distance travel data it is impossible to compare the relative participation by different groups and to consider latent demand. It is difficult to measure who comprises the global mobile elite and who lacks sufficient intercity mobility for reasonable social network obligations and personal services. This white paper suggests utilizing a common framework for long-distance data collection and tabulation that re-defines long-distance travel into daily or overnight. The author advocates using overnight as the defining characteristic for data collection, which complements existing daily travel surveys already capturing long day-trips. Within frameworks moving forward it is important to clearly characterize all trip purposes, including mixed purposes and purposeless travel, which comprise an appreciable portion of long-distance travel. Spatial data that distinguish between simple out-and-back trips and spatially complex trips are necessary and mobile devices have now made this measurement of long-distance tours feasible. In order to truly model all travel in the current system, we must move away from the idea that most travel is routine, within region, and home-based. Many people, especially the most frequent travelers, have long-distance routines including multiple home bases. Additionally, our models should not assume that travelers staying at a second home, hotel, or friend’s home travel like residents. Efforts to measure and model non-home-based travel or travel at destination are essential to accurately modeling behavior. Daily surveys such as the 2017 National Household Transportation Survey are increasingly doing this. A nation-wide annual activity model of overnight travel must fully incorporate both surface and air travel to allow full consideration of alternative future system scenarios

Bicycle Cordon Count Pilot Study

The Kentucky State Bicycle Coordinator is tasked with a difficult problem: planning for and supporting the needs of Kentucky cyclists. Unfortunately, very little quantitative information on the number of cyclists or their travel patterns has been collected in Kentucky. There is a pressing need to develop an efficient and low cost means to collect broad and useful data to support the bicycle program in Kentucky. Although some other jurisdictions include bicycles as vehicles in their traffic counting programs, Kentucky does not. Several complications make counting bicycles difficult: they cannot easily be detected by automatic counting devices, they travel in different locations, make unpredictable shortcuts and are simply a very uncommon vehicle in most of Kentucky. The objective of this project was to develop and test a bicycle count methodology that could be used in the locations in Kentucky where bicycle traffic is significant. This test of the count procedure should provide KYTC with information to consider the inclusion of bicycles as one element in the traffic counting programs. For planning purposes, more than just counts are desirable for bicycles. An understanding of the number, age, gender, travel infrastructure preferences (road vs path vs sidewalk), and origin/destination patterns for cyclists is needed to better plan for bicycling as a mode of transportation as well as to consider safety issues. This report outlines the methodology and pilot test of such a bicycle count and data collection procedure. The assumed largest regular bicycle trip generator in Kentucky, the University of Kentucky Lexington campus was the location of the pilot study. Student counters were stationed around the perimeter of campus forming a complete cordon in shifts from 7AM to 7PM on Tuesday September 22, 1998. Counters recorded the following data: time of observation, gender, approximate age, helmet usage, location of bicycle (road versus sidewalk), travel direction (inbound versus outbound), and travel direction (with or against traffic). Despite the non-ideal weather conditions for biking (cool, overcast with some drizzle) a total of 3628 bicycle trips were counted. A total of 79% of the cyclists were male and only 11% were wearing helmets. Only 14% of the cyclists traveling on the road were traveling against traffic (the wrong way), while 44% of those on the sidewalk were. Certain points around the campus handled the bulk of the bicycle traffic which suggests possible locations or routes for specific bicycle infrastructure improvements. Several dangerous bicycle travel patterns were noted suggesting the need for safety education. This next section of this report describes the count methodology and execution of the survey. The subsequent section provides comprehensive quantitative results, while the following section describes results which are of local value relating to bicycle transportation planning at the University of Kentucky. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are presented

Challenges and Opportunities for Integrating Climate Adaptation Efforts across State, Regional and Local Transportation Agencies

To address the challenges posed by climate change to the transportation system, agencies are investigating climate change adaptation measures. This white paper presents a five-step framework for adapting transportation systems: inventorying and monitoring transportation assets; assessing climate threats; evaluating the vulnerability of assets; prioritizing assets; and identifying and executing adaptation actions. This framework provides a basis for further discussion and implementation. Collaboration among agencies at all levels is critical to successful adaptation efforts

Assessing Seasonal and Climate-Related Variability in Rates of Walking and Physical Activity with Time Use Data

Background: Levels of walking as an activity that impacts health and quality of life is related to socioeconomic status and home location but the impacts of climate, season, and weather on walking have been largely understudied in both the transportation planning and public health professions. Purpose: This paper assesses seasonal and climatic effects on walking related activities and demonstrates the utility of the ATUS for active transportation research as few such applications exist. Methods: The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) is used to observe and analyze the seasonality of pedestrianism and general physical activity nation-wide by measuring the effect of month and climate region while controlling for sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents and their household using statistical regressions. Results: Expected seasonal patterns for physical activity are found, but are paired with counterintuitive results on the influence of climate regions suggesting both weather and culture influences levels of active transportation and recreation. Conclusion: Differences in walking behavior between climatic regions offer one explanation of how respondents’ surroundings impact their daily activities

Who Do We Miss by Moving Travel Surveys Online? –Assessments from Vermont

Online travel surveys are increasingly common because of cost, user burden, and geocoding advantages. Consequently, it is important to ask how online survey samples compare to paper survey samples. This study compares paper and online responses to a 2016, state wide, Vermont transportation planning survey. Internet and smartphone access were analyzed by socioeconomic characteristics as well as by residential location to assess rural coverage. Respondents’ selection of the paper option was linked to lower population density. Online respondents showed significant spatial clustering. Crucially, the travel behavior and transportation attitudes of paper and online respondents differed even after weighting for demographic attributes. Smartphone ownership in Vermont is too skewed by age to be a primary travel survey method. Internet access is more widespread but does exclude some population segments. We recommend consideration of respondents by geographic location as well as socioeconomic characteristics when selecting survey mode and weighting, especially for state-wide surveys