What is mixed use? Presenting an interaction method for measuring land use mix

JTLU vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 63-72 (2013)In recent decades, the mixing of complementary land uses has become an increasingly important goal in transportation and land use planning. Land uses mix has been shown to be an influential factor in travel behavior (mode choice and distance traveled), improved health outcomes, and neighborhood-level quality of life. However, quantifying the extent to which a given area is mixed-use has proven difficult. Much of the existing research on the mixing of land uses has focused on the presence and proportion of different uses as opposed to the extent to which they actually interact with one another. This study proposes a new measure of land use mix, a land use interaction method—which accounts for the extent to which complementary land uses adjoin one another—using only basic land use data. After mapping and analyzing the results, several statistical models are built to show the relationship between this new measure and reported travel behavior. The models presented show the usefulness of the approach by significantly improving the model fit in comparison to a commonly-used land use mix index, while controlling for socio-demographic and built form factors in three large Canadian cities (Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal). Our results suggest that simple, area-based, measures of land use mix do not adequately capture the subtleties of land use mix. The degree to which an area shows fine-grained patterns of land use is shown to be more highly correlated with behavior outcomes than indices based solely on the proportions of land use categories

What makes travel ‘local’: Defining and understanding local travel behavior

JTLU vol 5, no 3, pp 15-27 (2012)In recent years, land use and transportation planning priorities have shifted from issues of mobility to focus on the capacity of neighborhoods to provide opportunities to live, work, shop, and socialize at the local scale. This research explores a sample of households from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, that engaged in multiple trip purposes on the same day and measures the effects of household, individual, and trip characteristics on their travel behavior, especially the localization of these trips. A new measure to understand the spatial dispersal of actual activity space of each household is proposed while controlling for distance traveled. The findings show that levels of regional and local accessibility have different effects on this new index. Furthermore, these effects vary with household size and socio-demographic factors. This study could help transportation professionals who are aiming to develop policies to localize household travel patterns through land use and transportation coordination at the neighborhood and regional scale. As wealthier car-owning households are seen to exhibit more dispersed travel behavior regardless of accessibility measures, implications for social equity and exclusion are also explored

Cycling Frequency Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada’s Most Populous Urban Regions

We surveyed 2,066 residents of Toronto and Montréal and Vancouver-area municipalities to identify changes in self-reported cycling frequency from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicate that 5% of people who were infrequent cyclists (less than once a week) became frequent cyclists (at least once a week) over the pandemic; these were more likely to be men, those aged 30-59 years, those living in more urban neighbourhoods, and those who felt that new cycling facilities provided better access to their usual and/or desired locations via active transportation

From Transportation Equity to Transportation Justice: Within, Through, and Beyond the State

This manuscript version is made available under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Cite as Karner, A., London, J., Rowangould, D., & Manaugh, K. (2020). From Transportation Equity to Transportation Justice: Within, Through, and Beyond the State. Journal of Planning Literature, 35(4), 440\u2013459. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412220927691Transportation policies, plans, and projects all flow through state institutions because of the substantial cost of infrastructure and the need to assess transportation system performance, including equity implications. But environmental justice scholarship interrogates the state\u2019s role in perpetuating injustice

Incorporating issues of social justice and equity into transportation planning and policy

For most of the 20th century transportation planning goals were almost entirely mobility-based; transportation systems were primarily seen as a means to efficiently, safely, and quickly connect people and freight to desired destinations. However, as the century progressed, cultural, societal and ecological movements had major impacts on how planners perceive transportation networks and public transit more specifically. Several overlapping concerns have altered the role that planners and policy-makers see for transportation and land use planning. Environmental degradation, air pollution, traffic congestion, an unsure energy future, and global climate change, for example, have drastically redefined priorities for planners and policy-makers. These concerns have led to an increasing interest in public transit and active transportation—walking and cycling—as potential solutions to many environmental problems. Concurrent to these shifts, concerns of social equity and environmental justice have also entered the transportation planning framework. However, while transportation planning goals have shifted in recent decades to encompass social justice and environmental goals, many of these aims do not have clear indicators or accepted ways of measuring progress. In addition, while these diverse values and ideals do often underlie policy, they can have contradictory influence on transportation planning decisions. Transportation benefits include, what might be termed "tangible" or easily measured outcomes, however, many goals that address issues of social equity have "intangible" outcomes. Not only are the former easier to measure and to present to the public, but they often have more political capital than more socially progressive goals. While a rich body of research has explored these issues, most current planning documents do not make explicit that these conflicts of value exist. The concern from an equity planning standpoint is that very real and important environmental concerns will lead away from the other important roles that transportation systems can play in providing equitable outcomes. In light of these concerns, this dissertation sets out to address four research questions: •How do municipalities and transit agencies balance economic, social, and environmental goals and objectives in transportation plans? •How do these decisions affect outcomes, particularly with regards to social equity? •How can current methods of measuring and understanding active transportation and neighbourhood walkability be improved to better capture these wide ranging objectives? •How can these findings be used to improve decision-making in the future?This dissertation highlights the importance of adopting a multi-dimensional and mixed methods approach to examining complex urban issues and processes, and contributes to knowledge in three ways:•Identifies a set of indicators that capture elements of social equity in transportation planning and decision-making;•Develops methodologies to measure outcomes of transportation infrastructure using accessibility measures that focus on the desired destinations of residents; and•Deepens the understanding of how people and households of different socio-economic status “respond” to measures of local and regional accessibility. While most—if not all—studies do "control for" socio-economic factors, my work makes these factors the primary focus.In doing so, this research brings awareness of important transportation-related social equity goals and increases the role that these goals may play in decision-making processes.La planification des transports au 20e siècle a été principalement fondée sur l'objectif de la mobilité : les systèmes de transport ont été vus avant tout comme un moyen sécuritaire, rapide et efficace de mettre en réseau des personnes et de transporter des marchandises. Cependant, au fil du siècle, les mouvements culturels, sociétaux et écologiques ont peu à peu changé la façon dont les planificateurs perçoivent le transport en général et le transport en commun spécifiquement. Plusieurs préoccupations se chevauchant ont profondément modifié le rôle que les urbanistes et les élus attribuent au transport et à l'aménagement du territoire. La dégradation de l'environnement, la pollution atmosphérique, la congestion routière, l'avenir énergétique, et les changements climatiques, ont radicalement redéfini les priorités du transport. Ces préoccupations ont conduit à un intérêt croissant pour le transport en commun et pour le transport actif, la marche et le vélo, apparaissant de plus en plus comme des solutions potentielles aux problèmes environnementaux.Cependant, en dehors de ces préoccupations environnementales, des questions importantes se posent en matière de redistribution et de justice sociale. Les nouvelles infrastructures de transport offrent des avantages évidents tels que l'accès facilité a une destination voulue, la stimulation du développement économique ou la réduction des temps de déplacement. En outre, bien que diverses valeurs et idéaux sous-tendent une politique, ceux-ci peuvent influencer de manière contradictoire les décisions prises en matière de planification des . Cependant, de nombreux objectifs ayant trait aux questions d'équité sociale sont «intangibles» en matière de résultats quantifiables. Cela les rend difficiles à présenter à la population, ce qui conduit à des décisions aux gains potentiels plus grands en terme de capital politique que ne le sont des objectifs de progrès social difficilement mesurables.À la lumière de ces préoccupations, cette thèse vise à répondre à quatre questions de recherche: •Comment les municipalités et les organismes de planification du transport équilibrent le traitement des objectifs économiques, sociaux et environnementaux dans les plans de transport?•Comment ces décisions influencent les résultats, en particulier en ce qui concerne l'équité sociale?•Comment les méthodes de mesure actuelles, la compréhension du transport actif et le potentiel piétonnier d'un quartier peuvent être améliorés afin de mieux en saisir les des objectifs généraux?•Comment ces résultats seront utilisés à l'avenir pour améliorer la prise de décision? Cette thèse met en évidence l'importance d'adopter des méthodes multidimensionnelles et des approches mixtes lors de l'examen des questions complexes et des processus urbains ; elle contribue à l'enrichissement de la connaissance de trois façons:•Par l'identification d'un ensemble d'indicateurs qui rendent compte des facteurs d'équité sociale dans la planification des transports et dans la prise de décision;•Par l'élaboration des méthodes permettant d'évaluer une infrastructure de transport en utilisant des mesures d'accessibilité qui se concentrent sur les destinations souhaitées par les résidents;•Par une meilleure compréhension de la façon dont les gens et les ménages de différentes catégories socio-économiques «répondent» à des paramètres d'accessibilité locale et régionale. Alors que la plupart, sinon toutes les études ne font qu'utiliser les facteurs socio-économiques, mon travail se concentre directement sur ces facteurs, avec pour objectif principal de les mettre au premier plan.Ce faisant, cette recherche participe à une prise de conscience de l'importance des objectifs d'équité sociale reliés au transport et souligne le rôle que ces objectifs peuvent jouer dans les processus décisionnels

Equity in practice? Evaluations of equity in planning for bus rapid transit

The distribution of transportation benefits is mediated through planning professionals and elected officials, who frame the goals of these investments and can prioritize the importance of fairness in decision-making. Despite increasing evidence of the importance of transportation equity, there are broad questions about how equity principles factor into planning processes. This work provides an empirical analysis of the role of transit equity in planning for BRT investments in three Canadian metropolitan areas. Our findings show that transit equity rarely figured into the design and planning of BRT systems and there is a lack of clarity in both defining equity and determining how it should be integrated in planning processes. Most definitions of transit equity focused on the equal distribution of resources for all groups, rather than consideration of transit-dependent riders. Equity outcomes were also in conflict with other goals, as BRT systems were viewed largely as a tool for encouraging development and focused on attracting car drivers to transit. This paper argues that there needs to be a better understanding of the values and priorities of those involved in professional and political decision-making processes if transit equity goals are to be realized

Rescuing the captive [mode] user: an alternative approach to transport market segmentation

The prevailing approach to transport market segmentation which identifies two distinct groups, ‘‘captive’’ and ‘‘choice’’ users, has widely been used by professionals and scholars despite the ambiguity associated with these terms. Furthermore, conflicting interpretations from the point of view of decision makers and individuals may result in negative policy implications where the needs of captive users are neglected in favour of attracting new users. This study attempts to address these concerns by proposing an alternative segmentation framework that could be applied to any mode of transport, in any regional context, by users and decision makers alike to better guide the development of transport policies. Using the results of a large-scale transportation survey, a series of clustering techniques are employed to derive this alternative approach for segmenting walkers, cyclists, transit and automobile users. The main factors considered in the final clustering analysis are the level of trip satisfaction and practicality. The analysis yielded four market segments: captivity, utilitarianism, dedication and convenience. Using this theoretical framework to understand the distribution of travellers among market segments is essential in identifying distinct and appropriate policy interventions to improve trip conditions. It is hoped that the segmentation approach and policy framework proposed here will encourage a better balance between pragmatic and idealistic goals in transportation policy