Journal of Transport and Land Use The Journal of Transport and Land Use (JTLU) is a free, open-access, and peer-reviewed publication that welcomes articles on topics at the interdisciplinary intersection of transport and land use, including research from the domains of engineering, planning, modeling, behavior, economics, geography, regional science, sociology, architecture and design, network science, and complex systems.

Drivers Feeling Shunned by D.C.
City Less Welcoming to Suburban Cars

By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 6, 2008; Page A01

The District is escalating what some suburban commuters are calling its war against workers who drive into the city.
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The city has changed parts of Constitution Avenue NE from a reversible commuter artery back to a quiet side street and is considering removing the reversible lane on 16th Street NW, a key commuting route from Montgomery County.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration also is studying closing the section of the Interstate 395 tunnel that connects with New York Avenue NW, expanding the use of speed cameras and increasing parking fees and enforcement. Fees for encroaching on a crosswalk would increase from $50 to $500 under a pedestrian safety proposal.

The District is moving toward becoming "the most anti-car city in the country," said John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. "They see commuters as the enemy."

City officials say that the moves are part of a policy of putting the needs of its residents and businesses before those of suburban commuters and that they are trying to create a walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented metropolis.

Like New York, London, Stockholm and Portland, Ore., District officials said, the city is reclaiming its streets for the people who live there. With billions of dollars invested in the Metro system, there are plenty of ways for commuters to get into the city without bringing exhaust-spewing vehicles with them, officials said.

 

Malthus Lives in Anti-Immigrant Ads

By César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández . Posted July 4, 2008.

Banishing buses to L'Enfant

DDOT is planning to force all low-cost bus carriers, like Bolt Bus, DC2NY, and the Chinatown buses to stop loading in Chinatown and at various other spots around the city (a few pick up in Dupont Circle), reports the Examiner (via DCist). Instead, all buses will have to load and unload at a special zone at 10th and D Southwest, right by the L'Enfant Metro.

This seems like a terrible idea. It sounds like it came from the LOS-watchers within DDOT: "Hmm, these buses are causing a lot of pedestrian congestion and taking up some room on our streets which should be used to move commuters in and out of the city as fast as possible. OK, let's put the buses in an empty part of the city, but one that's near Metro."

Intercity trains are much more energy-efficient than buses, but one advantage of buses is their flexibility. It's good that buses can choose to pick up in areas where there are many customers. Also, the service brings more pedestrian activity to those neighborhoods. At L'Enfant, there's nothing, and people will all just hop on the Metro.

If traffic is a problem, take away some curb parking or a traffic lane. Each of those buses carries as many people as a few blocks full of single passenger vehicles. There are some underutilized streets - how about a loading zone on the very wide F Street by Gallery Place?

Our street network is for the use of all, including buses. Buses aren't something we should move out of the way to speed transportation: they are the transportation. Let's move cars out of the way to make room for the buses.

Bus Rules: Let's Call a Time OutThe number of cheap buses from DC to New York (like the Chinatown buses, DC2NY, Bolt Bus, Megabus, and others) has exploded recently. That's great for riders who want to get to New York cheaply, and to bring New Yorkers here to see what a great city we have (and spend money here).

It also causes noise in some neighborhoods. That's a problem, and one we should deal with. But after years and years of these buses operating, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has suddenly imposed "emergency" rules to banish all of these buses to the barren sidewalks of L'Enfant Plaza.

With only one month's notice, suddenly all of the bus companies will have to apply for permits, and can't pick up in more convenient areas. Some will go out of business. Visitors to our city will only see bland, depressing L'Enfant Plaza instead of vibrant, exciting Chinatown, Metro Center, Farragut Square, or Dupont Circle. There won't be anything to eat while waiting for a bus. People will feel less safe. Our businesses will lose revenue. And while private cars can still park for free or almost free on most blocks, we're hurting an environmentally friendly mode of transportation.

What's the rush? Can't we take a moment for a public discussion of better alternatives? What about auctioning off a few loading areas around the city? Or creating a bus zone in the huge parking lot that used to be the old convention center, or on one of the wide but mostly empty streets around Gallery Place or Judiciary Square?

Let's find a solution that keeps lively competition among our intercity buses while also fixing the problems. The buses have been operating for years. Let's take a time out on these rules until we can all work out a better solution.

DDOT is accepting comments for a few more days. Please send them a letter below asking them to call a time out on the new bus rules. Feel free to also weigh in with your opinion on what should be done.
Make Your Voice Heard

 

Issue in Spotlight:  Intercity Bus Loading & Unloading in Public Space

In response to various complaints with regard to intercity buses using public space for loading and unloading passengers, DDOT has instituted new regulations* that will now require intercity bus operators to obtain a permit as well as use newly identified, designated area(s) for pickups and drop offs. Existing intercity bus service operators, who utilize public space for loading and unloading passengers, should submit their application* for permits by July 3rd.

Limited space is available. Applications filed by July 3rd will be processed together. Any of these applications that include requests for use of the space at the same time will be resolved by the District Department of Transportation. All applications received after July 3rd will be given space as available on a first come first served basis.

Applications must be submitted in person at 941 North Capitol Street, NE, Suite 2300 along with a check made out to the DC Treasurer for the $100 application fee. The hours for submission are from 8:30 am and 4:15 pm, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The new regulations are part of a one-year pilot program to provide safer pedestrian environments in public space for visitors and residents.

Low-cost, regional bus companies forced to load in designated zone

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Say goodbye to the Chinatown Bus and hello to L’Enfant Coach.

Responding to the exploding popularity of inexpensive bus rides between Washington, New York and other destinations, the District plans to funnel all buses that load and unload passengers on city streets into a single “intercity bus zone” in Southwest. The myriad bus services, a staple of the downtown for years, will face fines up to $1,500 for loading

outside of that zone, which can accommodate only two buses at a time.

The D.C. Department of Transportation claims that the various Chinatown buses, DC2NY and BoltBus, among others, are congesting streets, disrupting transit and causing a safety hazard for pedestrians. With fares as low as $15 each way and modern amenities such as wireless Internet, the buses have proliferated as gas prices have skyrocketed.

“In some instances, this activity poses safety concerns to the general public and to the bus customers themselves,” Karyn LeBlanc, DDOT spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Under a soon-to-debut one-year pilot program, intercity buses will be routed to a curb lane on northbound 10th Street Southwest, just south of D Street beneath the L’Enfant Promenade. The regulations require that all buses obtain a DDOT permit to load there — the application for which must include a proposed schedule, plan for queuing passengers and a $100 fee.

Professor Jan Gehl

Tuesday 11 September 2007

Jan Gehl

For over 40 years internationally renowned Danish architect Jan Gehl's career has focused on improving the quality of urban life, especially for pedestrians.

Jan discusses how his research on public spaces and public life has been applied successfully in cities across Europe, North America, South America, Asia, and Australia. He will also share his observations on the ways we can make Sydney a truly great pedestrian city.

---

Man With a Plan

Q: As a former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, who won wide praise for making the city a model of enlightened planning, you have lately been hired by officials intent on building world-class cities, especially in Asia and the developing world. What is the first thing you tell them? In developing-world cities, the majority of people don’t have cars, so I will say, when you construct a good sidewalk, you are constructing democracy. A sidewalk is a symbol of equality.

I wouldn’t think that sidewalks are a top priority in developing countries. The last priority. Because the priority is to make highways and roads. We are designing cities for cars, cars, cars, cars, cars. Not for people. Cars are a very recent invention. The 20th century was a horrible detour in the evolution of the human habitat. We were building much more for cars’ mobility than children’s happiness.

Even in countries where most people can’t afford to own cars? The upper-income people in developing countries never walk. They see the city as a threatening space, and they can go for months without walking one block.

Bargain bus service Megabus, which touted fares as low as $1, said Friday that it would pull out of Los Angeles because of low ridership.

The decision to shut down the hub, which was expected, came less than a year after Megabus began service from Los Angeles to cities including San Francisco and Las Vegas.

"Our approach has been to go into different markets and give it a shot and see how they'll develop," said Megabus President Dale Moser. "If they develop quickly, we'll certainly sustain it. But in this case, the ridership trends aren't growing enough."

Megabus, a subsidiary of Coach USA, will end its service from Los Angeles to San Francisco and Oakland after June 22, and from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, San Jose and Millbrae, Calif., a few weeks earlier, Moser said.

Earlier this year, Megabus halted its service from Los Angeles to San Diego and Phoenix.

Despite spending "thousands of dollars" in advertising, Moser said, the 56-seat buses would sometimes pull out of Los Angeles with as few as 12 riders.

Meanwhile, the service is taking off in the Midwest, where Megabus serves 17 cities and has seen its business increase 137% during the last year, he said.

"We're disappointed too," Moser said. "It doesn't mean at a later date we won't revisit bringing the service back."

Fung Wah and easyBus

9 August 2004

Comparison of services

STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE S. GILLAN
VICE PRESIDENT ADVOCATES FOR HIGHWAY AND AUTO SAFETY

CURBSIDE OPERATORS' BUS SAFETY

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS, TRANSIT & PIPELINES

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, DC
MARCH 2, 2006

 

May 15, 2008
It's No Hallucination: Polka-Dot Buses Aim to Cut Travel Time
By JENNIFER MASCIA
No, there are no illegal drugs being handed out as passengers begin their morning commutes: For the past few weeks, those seats on the M23 crosstown bus really have been decorated with light and dark blue bubbles.

The new upholstery is probably the most conspicuous feature of Select Bus Service, an experimental project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with the support of the city and state Departments of Transportation, to improve service on congested routes.

The project, the result of several years of study, draws on several elements of Bus Rapid Transit, a system of bus operating practices used in cities around the world. The system's main elements will eventually include bus shelters where passengers pay the fare before boarding; fewer stops and greater distances between stops; dedicated bus lanes with a distinctive color and lettering; direct routes with frequent service that supplements, but does not replace, regular local bus service; and electronic signals that give the buses priority (a few extra seconds) if a traffic signal is about to switch, say, to yellow from green.

If the project is successful and put into place citywide, it could prove to be a great relief for customers who have long complained about the snail-like pace of city buses, especially the crosstown buses in Manhattan. It could also mark one of the starkest changes for bus riders, who for more than a century have been accustomed to dropping their change - or now, dipping a MetroCard - into the fare box upon boarding.

Under the new system, customers will pay before boarding, collecting a proof of purchase from a fare dispenser, similar to a MetroCard vending machine or Muni-Meter parking ticket machine, in the bus shelter.

 

Chinatown rezoning call keeps resounding at C.B. 3

By Heather Murray

Although Community Board 3 Chairperson David McWater has said the board won't ask the Department of Planning to expand a 114-block East Village/Lower East Side rezoning plan to include the Bowery and Chinatown, a coalition determined to expand the rezoning's area is working to mobilize the community.

The Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side was formed earlier this year to promote rezoning all of Community Board 3. The umbrella organization includes the Chinese Staff and Workers Association, National Mobilization Against Sweatshops, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, Two Bridges Neighborhood Housing Council, the Sixth Street Community Center, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Chinese Restaurant Alliance and the Community Coalition Against the Business Improvement District.
The original rezoning study that jumpstarted the plan was brought to the community board in 2005 by the East Village Community Coalition. The coalition was formed in 2004 to fight Gregg Singer's high-rise dormitory plan on the site of the old P.S. 64 on E. Ninth St.

...

C.S.W.A.’s Lee is worried that if the areas surrounding Chinatown are rezoned, it would entice developers to buy up property on the Bowery and in Chinatown. She feels for this reason it’s the Chinatown developers who are pushing for the redevelopment plan, not the working class.

“The community board, too, has a role to represent the entire community, not to draw a circle around where the leaders live,” Lee said. “They also need to represent the community, instead of pushing the government’s racist agenda upon the people, instead of becoming the mouthpiece for the developers in this community.”
Hoon Kim first spoke on behalf of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops at C.B. 3’s January meeting.

Since then, his organization and others in the coalition have been spreading the word about their opposition to the rezoning. Within the past couple of weeks, he has disseminated information and gathered petition signatures at several intersections in the area, including Avenue B and Sixth St. and Delancey and Pitt Sts., and visited local churches, senior centers and small businesses. The coalition has gathered more than 5,000 petition signatures thus far. Speaking last week, Kim said he knew of another 100 people in the past few previous days alone who had signed on to the coalition’s cause.

 

TROUBLE ON THE HIGHWAY
AND PARKED IN CHINATOWN
Questions about 'Chinatown bus' policies gain urgency after last month's deadly crash. > By I-Ching Ng

City Limits WEEKLY #591
June 11, 2007

Best known for their bargain prices, interstate buses run by Chinese companies have attracted travelers in droves, and helped many Chinese immigrants who can't communicate in English to travel to far-flung parts of the country. But a recent fatal accident involving a New York-bound bus has prompted new calls for the bus industry to step up safety measures.

New York City is the largest hub for these Chinese-run charter buses. The immigrant transportation industry started as an alternative and more affordable means to shuttle Chinese workers to Chinese restaurants in different locations. As the Chinese bus routes expanded rapidly along the East coast and Midwest over the years, commuters including students, artists, budget travelers and immigrants nationwide also caught the cheap fare trend. Currently the Chinese buses travel from New York City to Albany, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Michigan, Washington, D.C. and even as far as Florida for as little as $12 to $20 one way.

...

Low costs don’t necessarily mean low conscience, some say. City Councilmember John Liu, chairperson of Council’s transportation committee, said there is no pattern showing charter buses run by the Chinese companies are more accident-prone than those run by big national bus companies. He warned that the public should not stereotype these vehicles. “If an accident happened to a Greyhound or Trailway bus, you won’t say the 'Port Authority Bus' crashed. Likewise, Chinatown is not a company and it’s absurd to say the 'Chinatown buses' are not safe,” Liu said.

 

Volume 77, Number 10 | August 08 - 14, 2007

Editorial

Chinatown bus chaos

Chinatown's private bus business is booming. That this industry has grown to its current level in a little under 10 years is amazing. The rates are cheap and if one is not too fussy these rides are just the ticket.

Yet, while the busy bus business is good news for Chinatown's economy over all, it also has brought a host of problems that are affecting Chinatown as well as the Lower East Side.

The buses increase traffic, pollution, noise, garbage and even violence, due to the fights that sometimes flare between rival operators in their competition for passengers. Police say it's hard to oversee these problems because the buses are so spread out. And the buses' picking up at the curb at scattered locations means traffic is being impacted in a haphazard, irrational way. Residents, in particular, are feeling the bus invasion's effects.

As The Villager reported last week, the city recently proposed a 30-day pilot program under which all the Chinatown interstate buses would be shunted toward the end of Pike St., with no more than seven dropping off or picking up at any one time. However, neighbors at Knickerbocker Village and the Rutgers Houses opposed the idea and so did Community Board 3.

Ms Transit ; Jitneys Attracting Riders, Rivals on Paterson-to-N.Y. Commute

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 May 2007, 15:00 CDT

By DAVID A. MICHAELS, STAFF WRITER

A minibus company that began as an informal service catering to immigrants in Passaic County now carries more commuters between Paterson and New York than NJ Transit.

While critics have scoffed at the worn-out appearance of some minibuses, riders praise the Spanish Transportation company for its inexpensive and frequent service.

Even state transportation officials acknowledged that Spanish Transportation has evolved into an essential commuter service for a growing region that demands more mass transit than the state can supply.

"Our elected officials have realized the services we provide to the cities are a necessity," said Norberto Curitomai, the founder and president of Spanish Transportation. "We provide a quality public transportation, at lower rates that is maybe not provided by New Jersey Transit."

...

Curitomai's drivers make express trips in about 45 minutes compared with an hour or more on NJ Transit's long, winding circuits. His buses carry an estimated 30,000 daily passenger trips, Curitomai said.

Yet his success hasn't hurt NJ Transit's Paterson business. The state agency's revenue grew 18 percent between 2002 and 2006.

Source: The Bergen Record 

Low-Cost Bus Lines: Shaking Up Inter-City Travel

One of the justifications offered for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize Amtrak is the idea that lower-income people (students, immigrants, the retired, etc.) need an affordable alternative to using the airlines for inter-city travel. That's always rung hollow with me, since we've had nationwide Greyhound bus service since long before Amtrak. But Greyhound has been losing money for a number of years, and its annual passenger count has been declining since 2000—in part due to the growth of low-cost airlines.

But this decade has also witnessed a proliferation of new inter-city bus companies. So far, none is of national scope, but their niche markets are growing. And they seem to be following in the footsteps of low-cost air carriers, by thinking outside the box to cut costs dramatically.

 ...

 

In the northeast, several companies offer bus service between Chinatowns in various cities. The largest of these seems to be Chinatown Bus (Chinatown-bus.com), connecting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Fares vary, with "typical" one-way fares ranging from $12 New York-Philadelphia to $20 New York-DC. Another bus company, Vamoose, offers express service between Manhattan and two DC suburbs—Bethesda, MD and Arlington, VA for $25.

Private companies are even moving into urban markets. Spanish Transportation Corporation of Paterson, NJ now runs 130 commuter buses into Manhattan each day, on three different routes. The company has grown from a van service with 14 vans in 1993 to a sizeable enterprise today. The buses are branded Express Service. And Las Vegas now boasts a new door-to-door service among hotels and casinos on the Strip—at just $2.50 per ride. Called Arrow, it is offered by Vegas.com, a travel and booking company. Also offered is a $10 daily pass offering unlimited use of Arrow and the private Las Vegas monorail. Arrow competes with the regional transportation authority's double-decker Deuce buses.

 

The economics are hard to fathom, Pei Lin Liang, the owner of Fung Wah Bus Transportation, admits. At a time when a cab ride from Midtown to Chinatown might cost close to $10, how can a four-hour, 215-mile journey to Boston aboard Fung Wah or any of its competitors cost the same?

Mr. Liang, 41, a gaunt chain-smoker who regularly staggers through 15-hour work days, offers his explanation through a translator. It is ''business by suicide,'' he says.

Budget travelers up and down the Northeast know Fung Wah as the original ''Chinatown bus.'' The company was the first to start running vans and buses between Boston and New York at bargain rates, becoming something of a cult phenomenon. Today, it is just one of many players in the hypercompetitive Chinatown bus industry. With companies locked in a price war, rates have plummeted on Fung Wah's route, reaching a new low last spring at $10 for a one-way trip to Boston. Yes, $10.

Mexico City finds a green side 2:12
Hoping to repair its tarnished reputation, Mexico City finds new ways to go green. CNN's Harris Whitbeck reports

Is congestion the same everywhere?

Highway congestion, very simply, is caused when traffic demand approaches or exceeds the available capacity of the highway system. Though this concept is easy to understand, congestion can vary significantly from day to day because traffic demand and available highway capacity are constantly changing. Traffic demands vary significantly by time of day, day of the week, and season of the year, and are also subject to significant fluctuations due to recreational travel, special events, and emergencies (e.g. evacuations). Available highway capacity, which is often viewed as being fixed, also varies constantly, being frequently reduced by incidents (e.g. crashes and disabled vehicles), work zones, adverse weather, and other causes.

To add even more complexity, the definition of highway congestion also varies significantly from time to time and place to place based on user expectations. An intersection that may seem very congested in a rural community may not even register as an annoyance in a large metropolitan area. A level of congestion that users expect during peak commute periods may be unacceptable if experienced on Sunday morning. Because of this, congestion is difficult to define precisely in a mathematical sense – it actually represents the difference between the highway system performance that users expect and how the system actually performs.

Congestion can also be measured in a number of ways – level of service, speed, travel time, and delay are commonly used measures. However, travelers have indicated that more important than the severity, magnitude, or quantity of congestion is the reliability of the highway system. People in a large metropolitan area may accept that a 20 mile freeway trip takes 40 minutes during the peak period, so long as this predicted travel time is reliable and is not 25 minutes one day and 2 hours the next. This focus on reliability is particularly prevalent in the freight community, where the value of time under certain just-in-time delivery circumstances may exceed $5 per minute.

Science 8 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5864, pp. 742 - 743
DOI: 10.1126/science.319.5864.742

Calming Traffic on Bogotá's Killing Streets
Jon Cohen

With humor, education, and tough laws, this Colombian city has dramatically reduced traffic injuries and deaths
Long branded as one of the world's most dangerous cities, Bogotá, Colombia, has won plaudits for cutting its murder rate by more than 70% during the past decade. But this city of 7 million people has received far less attention for a dramatic decline in a more common danger that plagues urban areas everywhere: traffic-related injuries and deaths.

With a combination of innovative education campaigns, an overhaul of its public transportation system, strict law enforcement, and redesign of streets and highways, Bogotá has made moving from place to place safer and more efficient. "In 1997, everything was a mess and we were losing the battle," says Dario Hildalgo, a transportation engineer from Bogotá who is now with the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C. "To solve the problems, we needed a miracle. The miracle happened."

Mark Rosenberg, the former head of injury prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, says Bogotá is a model for the world. "Bogotá is not unique in having this problem, but it is unique in solving it," says Rosenberg, who now heads the nonprofit Task Force for Child Survival and Development in Decatur, Georgia.

Man Jailed For Creating Crosswalk, Vows More
Graduate Student Says Intersection Unsafe

POSTED: 11:06 pm EST January 30, 2008

MUNCIE, Ind. -- Whitney Stump didn't like watching drivers ignore the stop signs at the intersection outside his home, so he asked the city to paint crosswalks there.

When the city said no, he made one himself. And the city wasn't appreciative.

Stump, a 27-year-old Ball State University graduate student and father, says he was arrested in July on a charge of criminal mischief for creating the crosswalk at the intersection of Dicks and North streets. A police officer then warned him after he went back to touch up the paint in August, and the county prosecutor decided to charge him again.

 

Parking Plan Would Change Prices on Upper West Side
January 28, 2008

Two-hour coin operated parking meters could disappear from parts of the Upper West Side as early as this summer, with drivers instead paying varied parking prices that would change based on supply and demand.

The city Department of Transportation is evaluating a plan submitted by the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District that proponents say would increase the turnover of parked cars, improve access to businesses, and decrease congestion created by drivers circling the neighborhood for a coveted spot

Report, view, or discuss local problems
(like graffiti, fly tipping, broken paving slabs, or street lighting)

Title: Spatial Mismatch or Automobile Mismatch? An Examination of Race, Residence and Commuting in US Metropolitan Areas

 

NYC's Subway Spycam Network Stuck in the Station
By Noah Shachtman EmailJanuary 24, 2008 | 8:59:00 AM

New York City's plan to secure its subways with a next-generation  surveillance network is getting more expensive by the second, and slipping further and further behind schedule.

A new report by the New York State Comptroller's office reveals that "the cost of the electronic security program has grown from $265 million to $450 million, an increase of $185 million or 70 percent." An August 2008 deadline has been pushed back to December 2009, and further delays may be just ahead.

Shortly after a series of bombings in the London Tube, The Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees New York's mass transit systems, signed a contract in 2005 with defense contractor Lockheed Martin to put in thousands of security cameras, electronic tripwires, and digitally-controlled gates into New York's sprawling network of subways. The deal was inked just a few months after MTA chairman Peter Kalikow argued against "wasting money on unproven technology."

At the heart of the program was a network of surveillance cameras, passing what they saw through a set of intelligent video algorithms, designed to spot suspicious behavior: a bag left on the subway platform, a person jumping down to the tracks, a mob running up a down escalator.
...

With congestion continuing to grow despite valiant efforts to curtail it, and as the cost of congestion both in terms of lost personal time and reduced economic productivity continues to rise, the U.S. Department of Transportation decided to rethink the approaches the nation is taking to addressing congestion and to redirect efforts to improve results. The Department developed a bold, aggressive strategy, outlined in its May 2006 multi-prong National Strategy to Reduce Congestion on America's Transportation Network (PDF), which is often referred to as the Congestion Initiative. The first of the Congestion Initiative's tenets is to "relieve urban congestion," which further calls for the Department to enter into Urban Partnership Agreements with model cities, pursuant to their commitment to, among other things, implement "broad congestion pricing." To educate the public about the congestion problem and how broad congestion pricing is key to addressing it, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) developed a Congestion Pricing Primer....

Metropolitan Accessibility and Transportation Sustainability:

Comparative Indicators for Policy Reform
University of Michigan and University of Maryland

A project of the Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability of the Environmental Protection Agency
and the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute

WP-2001-03
Sustainable Development and Sustainable Transportation: Strategies for Economic Prosperity, Environmental Quality, and Equity
May 2001 / 41 pp.
Elizabeth Deakin

Concerns about environmental quality, social equity, economic vitality, and the threat of climate change have converged to produce a growing interest in the concept of sustainable development. Efforts are being made all over the world to increase the sustainability of development patterns. In nations with more advanced economies, particular attention is being paid to the critical roles played by transportation, land use, and activity systems. This paper reviews current thinking about sustainable transportation as part of a broader strategy of transportation and land use planning for sustainability. Strategies for increasing transportation sustainability include demand management, operations management, pricing policies, vehicle technology improvements, clean fuels, and integrated land use and transportation planning. In the past, planning and implementation of such strategies has been slow and spotty, deterred by the complexities of the underlying issues along with uncertainties about the magnitude and timing of impacts, the efficacy of available courses of action, and the consequences of action or inaction. Recently, however, a new interest in actively pursuing these strategies has emerged. Regional planners are increasingly being asked to take a leadership role in these planning efforts, applying their expertise to analysis of the issues and creating forums for discussion, conflict resolution, and joint undertakings.

The paper concludes with an identification of topics deserving additional research, as well as a detailed bibliography on sustainable development topics.

Gasoline Consumption And Cities
Newman, Peter W. G., Kenworthy, Jeffrey R.. American Planning Association. Journal of the American Planning Association. Chicago: Winter 1989. Vol. 55, Iss. 1; pg. 24, 14 pgs
Abstract (Summary)

Physical planning policies for conserving transportation energy in urban areas were evaluated by comparing how motor gasoline is used in 32 cities worldwide. Data on 10 US cities were extracted and analyzed before comparing them with data from the global sample. The data were collected over a 5-year period primarily by visiting each city and with follow-up correspondence. Gasoline consumption per capita in the US cities varied by up to 40%, mainly because of land use and transportation planning factors, rather than price or income variations. The same patterns appeared in the global sample, though more extreme. Average gasoline consumption in US cities was nearly twice as high as in Australian cities, 4 times higher than in European cities, and 10 times higher than in Asian cities. Allowing for differences in gasoline price, income, and vehicle efficiency explained only half of these discrepancies. Physical planning policies, especially reurbanization and a reorientation of transportation priorities, were suggested as a means of reducing gasoline consumption and dependence on automobiles.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Portland's support of cycling pays off
View from Jonathan Maus' bike in Portland traffic

According to Bicycling Magazine, Portland, Ore., has the highest number of bike commuters in the country. Ethan Lindsey reports on the industry that's grown up around all those riders.

 

Location: Fine Arts Library Reserve
Temporarily Shelved at Fine Arts Library Reserve

Classic Articles

...
Davidoff, Paul. "Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning," JAIP, Vol. 31, No. 4, November 1965, pp. 331-337.
...
Krumholz, Norman. "The Cleveland Policy Planning Report," JAIP, Vol. 41, No. 5, September 1975, pp. 298-304.

A multi-scale analysis of urban form and commuting change in a small metropolitan area (1990-2000)

Journal The Annals of Regional Science

Issue Volume 41, Number 2 / June, 2007

Mark W. Horner

Abstract Issues of growth, especially the spatial nature of recent urban development and its implications for travel patterns, have received a great deal of attention. In particular, questions persist as to how the spatial distribution of workers and jobs influences commute patterns. This paper investigates changes in commuting and land use patterns using measures of jobs-housing balance, commuting efficiency and other statistics. A smaller urban area is chosen for study (Tallahassee, FL, USA)and data on its workers, jobs, and commute patterns are obtained from the Census Transportation Planning Package for 1990 and 2000. The key research questions investigated probe whether there were substantial changes in urban form and commuting over the period. A two-tiered approach is taken where change is explored at the regional and local scales using GIS, optimization procedures, and inferential statistical techniques. The results reveal the extent of the spatial changes in the study area between 1990 and 2000. Major findings included stability in urban structure over the time period, as well as a persistent strong relationship between land use and commute patterns. These results are discussed in light of their implications for other cities and for future work.

Diversions
Study: Americans Commute an Average 25 Minutes
Morning Edition, October 12, 2007 · A new study shows the average American commutes an average of 25 minutes. That's almost nine full days a year behind the wheel. Commutes have worsened over the last two decades because highways haven't kept pace with population growth and urban sprawl. If you work in New York City, your average commute is the worst in the country: almost 36 minutes long. For the nation's easiest commutes, you have to turn to the colder climes of Omaha and Buffalo.

The Changing Commute: A Case-study of the Jobs-Housing Relationship over Time
Authors: Martin Wachs a; Brian D. Taylor a; Ned Levine a; Paul Ong a
Affiliation: a Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
DOI: 10.1080/00420989320081681
Published in: Urban Studies, Volume 30, Issue 10 December 1993 , pages 1711 - 1729
Abstract
Commuting patterns between home and work were studied among 30 000 employees of Kaiser Permanente, a major health care provider in Southern California. The study tracked the differences between home and work location among employees over 6 years by analysing employee records and responses to a survey of over 1500 of the workers. It was found that work trip lengths had in general not grown over the 6 year period. Growth of the work force had contributed more to the growth in local traffic congestion than had a lengthening of the work trip over time. The automobile remains the dominant mode of travel between home and work for these employees, and choices of residential location were found to be based upon many factors in addition to the home-work separation, such as quality of neighbourhood and schools and perceived safety.
view references (10) : view citations

Journal	Papers in Regional Science
Publisher	Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
ISSN	1056-8190 (Print) 1435-5957 (Online)
Issue	Volume 25, Number 1 / December, 1970
Category	Spatial Analysis
DOI	10.1007/BF01935821
Pages	133-150

American Planning History:
A Thematic Chronology

1975

Cleveland Policy Plan Report shifts emphasis from traditional land-use planning to advocacy planning.

baltimoresun.com

Scrapping of traffic-congestion plan urged - Proposal tilts too heavily toward highways, mass-transit advocates say

By Michael Dresser

Sun Reporter

August 29, 2007

 

 

 

 

A coalition of mass-transit advocates urged the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board yesterday to scrap its $8.7 billion draft plan for traffic congestion relief over the next 28 years, contending that the proposal is heavily skewed in favor of highway projects.

The advocates are attacking a potential blueprint for what the region's transportation system would look like in 2035. They say the draft Transportation Outlook 2035, prepared by local governments and the transportation board's staff, directs too much money to road projects, including many that would encourage sprawl and violate the state's Smart Growth policies.

At a public hearing last night, speakers almost unanimously turned thumbs down on a plan that critics described as lacking in regional vision.

Advocates demanded a roughly even split of the funds to finance a full regional rapid transit network and MARC system improvements.

The Greater Baltimore Committee expressed disappointment that the draft didn't include a Metro system extension to Morgan State University and Good Samaritan Hospital.

Gregory Schaffer, president of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, asked why the East Baltimore campus, with more than 6,300 employees, had been left out of plans for a new transit line and a MARC system upgrade.

Sustainability: Planning's Redemption or Curse?

8 February 2007 - 8:This editorial is based on an article that was originally published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research (JPER), Vol. 26, No. 2 (208-221). The full article is available online at Sage Publications.00am
Author: Michael Gunder, PhD

Sustainability is often defined as a balance of the three E's: the environment, the economy, and social equity. But as planners embrace the concept, the sustainability "balance" heavily favors one E: the economy. Michael Gunder warns that planners risk sacrificing the environment and social equity in the name of sustainable economic development.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 2, 208-221 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06289359
© 2006 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Sustainability
Planning's Saving Grace or Road to Perdition?
Michael Gunder

School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, New Zealand

This article explores the concept-sustainability-as a transcendental ideal of planning purpose and value. The article critically argues that sustainability largely has been captured and deployed under a narrative of sustainable development in a manner that stifles the potential for substantive social and environmental change, all of which constitutes new purpose, legitimacy, and authority for the discipline of planning and its practitioners while potentially sustaining or creating adverse social and environmental injustices. These are injustices that planning traditionally attempted to address but now often obscures under the primacy of the economic imperative within dominant institutional interpretations of the sustainable development narrative.

Key Words: sustainability • regulation • legitimacy • ideology • injustice

Weinshall Points to the Future
In a speech that seemed a significant departure for New York City’s transportation department under the Bloomberg administration, city transportation commissioner Iris Weinshall laid out an array of measures to improve New York’s pedestrian and bicycling environments, soften the quality of life impacts of heavy traffic and begin to reclaim the sheer urban acreage given over to automobiles. Commissioner Weinshall made her remarks at the opening of a large-scale transportation conference convened today at Columbia University by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer.
Both in terms of language used, which seemed to indicate that city government had moved closer to a goal of reducing car use, and the packaging together of a broad set of policy reform steps, the commissioner’s speech may signal that the problem of planning for a future city of 9 million
people is starting to concretely impact city policy.

The commissioner said NYC DOT would:
-Soon announce 5 bus rapid transit corridors, with accelerated construction (starting in fall 2007) on two of them. She also said NYC’s BRT system could become the world’s “most extensive.”
-Implement its recently announced initiative to build 240 new miles of bicycle ways (MTR #540).

But it's a priority for Toussaint, and it should be a priority for anyone who cares about a greenway around Manhattan. Except for the detour around the United Nations and the DOT staging area, this East Side route is nearly complete. Directly south of the big salt pile, a handful of homeless people sleep in the sand under tarps anchored to a cement wall. A few yards south of them, the older greenway starts up, with grass, trees, and fishermen. It's so close, this southward link to the rest of Manhattan, and so completely out of reach.

City concourse gets a breath of fresh air
Warren of tunnels is now scrubbed daily.
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
Inquirer Staff Writer

As a sensory experience, few things can match Philadelphia's Sherwood Forest in August.

For the uninitiated, Sherwood Forest is what police and public works crews call part of the concourse below 15th Street linking Suburban Station with tunnels to City Hall, the Municipal Services Building, and the Broad Street Subway.

It's a copse of concrete columns inhabited not by Robin Hood's Merry Men but by a band of homeless people seeking shelter from the elements. And in August, when Philly's temperature and humidity soar, the pungent odor of urine-soaked concrete is unforgettable.

But help is here.

The Center City District, the privately funded organization created to improve cleanliness, safety and the quality of life downtown, has begun tackling the quality of life below ground along 31/2 miles of corridors connecting the subways, Market East Station and the Gallery, Suburban Station, and much of South Broad Street's Avenue of the Arts.

For the first time, at least in anyone's memory, crews are cleaning the concourses 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

 

Center City Underground

San Francisco Chronicle
Supes put Muni plan on the ballot

Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 1, 2007

A split San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to place a measure on the November ballot that backers say would provide crucial funding and management tools to improve the city's troubled Muni system.

No one is saying that the plan would fix Muni, "but it's certainly going to help," said board President Aaron Peskin, the measure's chief sponsor.

"It will show the city's commitment to improving public transit and reducing greenhouse gas emissions" by giving people a reason to get out of their cars, he said.

The proposed charter amendment is endorsed by a politically powerful coalition of organized labor, public transportation advocates and environmentalists. It is opposed by deep-pocket business interests upset with wording tucked into the ballot measure at the 11th hour to cement existing city policy that restricts the amount of parking allowed in new large residential projects.

If approved by voters, the supervisors' measure would trump a separate November ballot initiative backed by businessman and Gap Inc. founder Don Fisher that would allow more parking in the city.

ournal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, 27-37 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9001000105
© 1990 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
The Chicago Area Transportation Study: A Case Study of Rational Planning
Alan Black

This case study of the Chicago Area Transportation Study during the late 1950s and early 1960s illustrates ex ecution of the rational planning model. The model is outlined in ten steps and the way the agency per formed each step is described. A fi nal section discusses staff attitudes in a research-oriented agency that emphasized rationality and avoided politics. The study shows that the rational model is workable but raises questions about whether it is effec tive in influencing decisions.

Trading places A few weeks ago, I checked out the latest monument to Los Angeles' newfound urbanity: the Getty Oil Building at the intersection of Wilshire and Western. The 23-story Modernist structure, designed by Claude Beelman and built in the early 1960s, has been converted into condominiums. Across the street is the Wiltern Theater, and Koreatown stores and restaurants are a block or two away. A Red Line station catty-corner to the Getty building gives a condo resident access to Universal City, Hollywood and downtown. The building, rechristened "The Mercury" by its developer, represents the epitome of car-free urban living.

If you can afford it. The condos cost about $700 a square foot, meaning a nice two-bedroom condo -- with windows on two sides and great views -- runs about $1 million.

A few evenings later, I found myself in the cramped living room of a single-family home in a suburb of Ventura, one of about 180 houses built a decade ago for buyers with annual incomes of about $50,000. Because the original development was federally subsidized, the homeowners can sell their house only at a restricted sales price of $300,000 to $400,000, which is 20% to 40% below the market price.

The cap on the selling price, the homeowners told me, has brought some changes to their neighborhood. It allows the working poor to afford these houses by teaming up to buy them. Realtors say four, five, even six people are listed on mortgage titles to qualify for financing. Seven, eight, nine cars are parked in the driveways and on the streets in front of the houses.

What's going on here? For a century, people in Southern California moved to the suburbs as they got richer, leaving the more "urban" parts of town to poor people. Now that pattern has reversed itself. Affluent people are leaving the suburbs to live in the city, while the working poor -- people who have jobs but don't earn enough to exceed the poverty line -- are doubling and tripling up in the suburbs to buy houses.

The migration of the affluent to the inner city has gradually increased in the last three years. According to a study by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, the household median income of downtown residents with a least one earner was about $99,600 a year in 2006, roughly $28,000 higher than that of Beverly Hills. Nearly half of those surveyed reported annual income of $100,000 to above $250,000.

Journal of Urban Affairs
Volume 23 Issue 2 Page 155-173, Summer 2001

Time To Work: Job Search Strategies and Commute Time for Women on Welfare in San Francisco

Karen Chapple
University of Minnesota

The major policy approaches to welfare-to-work attempt to facilitate the transition into the workforce by providing job search assistance and transportation subsidies. Although these policies help some women on welfare, they fail to respond to the needs of most, who rely disproportionately on social contacts to find jobs, seek to minimize commutes, and lack the educational attainment that would help them penetrate the regional labor market. This article uses in-depth interviews with 92 women on welfare in San Francisco, as well as a binomial logit model, to examine the relationship between job search strategies and employment characteristics. The findings suggest that low-income women with children are more likely to rely on contacts than women without children, because they seek to work close to home. For most women, building connections to employers, improving human capital, and increasing the density of neighborhood economic and social activity will make jobs more accessible.

This document has six sections:

1. General Advice for Better Academic Writing
2. Specific Advice for Writing Papers that Analyze and Critique Urban Theory/Planning Theory Writings
3. Proper Citations (and do I cite wikipedia?)
4. The Problem of Plagiarism
5. Taking an "Incomplete" Grade for a Course
6. Master's Theses/Professional Projects

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 12, No. 3, 184-198 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9301200302
© 1993 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Locational Models, Geographic Information and Planning Support Systems
Britton Harris

Michael Batty

Geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming widespread in management and planning, affecting the very organization and operation of the planning process itself. In this paper we address the problems and potential of such systems, particularly in relation to the analytical, predictive, and prescriptive models on which strategic planning processes are based. Current GIS are not rooted in the sorts of functions which drive these processes and here we will identify the difficulties and possibilities for developing more appropriate GIS which are sensitive to the simulation, optimization, and design activities which define spatial planning. To this end we will describe the development of planning support systems (PSS) in which a wide array of data, information, and knowledge might be structured, and within which GIS develop ment must take place. We will identify the sorts of urban system and locational models which characterize strategic planning and whose data-demands might be accommodated using GIS. Our critique of GIS is positive and constructive in that we are concerned to embed GIS into planning processes in the most appropriate way. In conclusion we will identify a series of requirements which PSS must meet.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 25, No. 1, 43-56 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X04270244
© 2005 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Spatial and Transportation Mismatch in Los Angeles
Paul M. Ong

UCLA's Ralph and Goldy Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies

Douglas Miller

Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University

This article compares the impacts of spatial mismatch (the geographic separation of workers and jobs) and transportation mismatch (the lack of access to a private automobile) on neighborhood employment-to-population ratios and unemployment rates. The study uses tract-level data for the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The analysis uses an instrumental-variable approach to correct for the simultaneity of employment and car ownership. Results indicate that transportation mismatch is the more important factor in generating poor labor-market outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged neighborhoods. Areas with relatively more jobs increase female employment rates but not male employment rates. On the other hand, lower car ownership rates significantly decrease the employment ratio and increase the unemployment rate for both sexes.

Key Words: employment • unemployment • poor neighborhoods

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 10, No. 1, 27-37 (1990)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9001000105
© 1990 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
The Chicago Area Transportation Study: A Case Study of Rational Planning
Alan Black

This case study of the Chicago Area Transportation Study during the late 1950s and early 1960s illustrates ex ecution of the rational planning model. The model is outlined in ten steps and the way the agency per formed each step is described. A fi nal section discusses staff attitudes in a research-oriented agency that emphasized rationality and avoided politics. The study shows that the rational model is workable but raises questions about whether it is effec tive in influencing decisions.

 

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 20, No. 1, 6-22 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/073945600128992564
© 2000 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Land Use and Transportation Interaction
Implications on Public Health and Quality of Life
Lawrence D. Frank, Ph.D.

College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Increases in per capita vehicle usage and associated emissions have spawned an increased examination of the ways in which our communities and regions are developing. Associated with increased vehicle usage are decreased levels of walking and biking, two valid forms of physical activity. The Surgeon General's 1996 report, Physical Activity and Health, highlights the increasing level of physical inactivity as a growing cause of mortality. The costs and benefits of contrasting land development and transportation investment practices have been the subject of considerable debate in the literature. Findings have been refuted based on methodological grounds and inaccurate interpretation of data. Several of these studies, their methodological approaches, and their critiques are analyzed. While most agree that the built environment influences travel, considerable disagreement exists over the likely impacts of increased density, mix, and street connectivity on air quality, and on transportation system performance and household activity patterns.

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 24, No. 3, 304-316 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X04267731
© 2005 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Teaching Integrated Land Use-Transportation Planning
Topics, Readings, and Strategies
Kevin Krizek

University of Minnesota

David Levinson

University of Minnesota

Planning pedagogy is increasingly focused on teaching interdisciplinary topics in an integrated and synergistic manner. The intersection of land use and transportation is that of two topics that have risen to be front and center for the planning profession. This article focuses on the manner in which planning programs and, in particular, specific courses address land use and transportation planning. After describing the context in which such courses exist, this article analyzes syllabi from fifteen courses in North American planning programs in two respects. The first examines the list of topics covered within each course by discussing the nature of primary, secondary, and peripheral topics. Second, the analysis uncovers the frequency with which specific readings are employed in each course. The article closes by discussing the nature of a land use-transportation course from the University of Minnesota in which there is a lecture and laboratory component.

Key Words: transportation planning • land use planning • teaching • interdisciplinary • pedagogy

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 17, No. 1, 55-62 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9701700106
© 1997 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Common Ground for Integrating Planning Theory and GIS Topics
Ann-Margaret Esnard

Department of city and regional planning Cornell University, Ithaca, New Yorkame7@cornell.edu.

E. Bruce MacDougall

Department of landscape architecture and regionalplanning, University of Massachusetes, Amherstebm@1arp.umass.edu.

The basic premise of this article is that planning theory and geographic information systems (GIS) course topics should be integrated in the planning curriculum. The increased use of GIS technology for informing planning and public policy decision making is discussed in the first section, followed by a summary of related technical and theoretical disparities. The concept of links is then introduced and used in the final section to demonstrate the contexts in which common themes can be identified for integrating planning norms (ethics, values, communicative rationality, planning process, and context) and GIS methods (data creation, analysis, and presentation).

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 14, No. 4, 280-291 (1995)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X9501400405
© 1995 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Other
Extending the Revolution: Teaching Land Use Planning in a GIS Environment
William J. Drummond

For planning educators the ultimate worth of the GIS revolution will be measured not by the number of new GIS courses offered, but by the integration of GIS technology into the traditional, substantive areas of planning. In the field of land use planning this integration remains in its infancy. The article suggests a general, modular approach for the incorporation of GIS technology into land use planning course work, using a combination of GIS, database, and spreadsheet software. Numerous specific examples are provided, including major applicauons in data collection, preliminary analysis, plan formulation, and plan evaluation.

Law Pedaled To Rein In Sidewalk Bikers

By DAVID POMERANTZ
Special to the Sun
July 24, 2007

For years, community leaders in the Upper East and West sides have been complaining about deliverymen who ride bicycles on sidewalks, run red lights, and generally menace pedestrians.

"The cyclists hit people left and right and just keep on going," the president of the 20th Police Precinct community council on the Upper West Side, Sam Katz, said. Ms. Katz and other leaders are counting on a new law that takes effect Thursday to help address the problem. The law, passed in March, requires restaurant managers to provide their deliverymen with safety equipment such as helmets, bells, and headlights. It also obliges restaurant managers to hang up posters — written in both English and the language spoken by the deliverymen — outlining the rules of the road for cyclists.

Deliverymen on bicycles irk residents on the Upper West Side so much that they are the no. 1 complaint heard by the 20th Precinct there, Lieutenant Biagio Carbone said.

Paris, the city of bikes?
In the first week of a rental program, officials report 45,000 rides and counting.
By Marjorie Miller, Times Staff Writer
July 22, 2007

PARIS - The Tour de France hasn't arrived yet, but the bicycles have. Paris is awash in two-wheelers, thousands of taupe bicycles that are part of a plan by City Hall to get people out of their cars and onto more eco-friendly transportation.

The bicycle rental service still has some kinks to work out, but the first week of the Velib program was a big hit with Parisians. City Hall reported 45,000 rentals a day and counting.

"It's superb," said IT engineer Olivier Lemaitre, 35, who rode a bike from Les Invalides on the left bank of the Seine to La Madeleine on the right. "I used to come by Metro, but it's better to be outside."

"It's healthier and the weather is beautiful," science writer Sophie Antoine, 29, said, taking her purse out of the metal basket on the front of the bike.

How will SEPTA use its funding?
Politicians who helped it get a dedicated financial base and its riders want to see improved services.
By Paul Nussbaum
Inquirer Staff Writer

Memo to SEPTA: Be careful what you ask for.

The state last week gave the Philadelphia region's long-suffering transit authority what it had always needed: money. Now, riders and politicians expect something in return: better service.

After years of blaming budget crises for its dingy subway stations, antiquated fare system, crowded trains, balky buses, and indifferent customer service, SEPTA has funding for this year and a dedicated, inflation-sensitive source of money for years to come.

Gov. Rendell on Wednesday signed a landmark transportation law, establishing new funding streams for mass-transit agencies. It provides about $156 million more in operating funds and $58 million more in capital funds for SEPTA this fiscal year, and eliminates the need for threatened service cuts or additional fare increases this year.

When he signed the bill, Rendell said he hoped SEPTA, and the state's other transit agencies, would use the money not to just stave off cuts but to "enhance some services."

He has lots of company.

What is Walk Score?

Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc.
How It Works

Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk Score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Check out how Walk Score doesn't work.
What does my score mean?

Your Walk Score is a number between 0 and 100. The walkability of an address depends on how far you are comfortable walking-after all, everything is within walking distance if you have the time. Here are general guidelines for interpreting your score:

* 90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
* 70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
* 50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a car.
* 25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving is a must.
* 0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!

How it Works

Walk Score^TM uses a patent-pending algorithm to calculate the walkability of an address based on:

* The distance to walkable locations near an address.
* Calculating a score for each of these locations.
* Combining these scores into one easy to read Walk Score.

Read more about what makes a neighborhood walkable. We'd love to hear your feedback. Send us a suggestion!

 

July 19, 2007
From Some Cabbies, a New In-Taxi Video System Gets No Stars
By JAMES BARRON

New York City taxi driver No. 523687 was not happy about what was going on in the back of her cab.

Her passengers were watching television- specifically, the news anchors from WABC-TV, who were introducing a story about stylish-looking dresses on racks.

It was not the story that irritated driver No. 523687, Lea Acey. It was the TV itself.

"It's annoying," she said. "It makes too much noise."

Ms. Acey is one of the many taxi drivers frustrated by a high-tech video-and-fare system that must be installed by the end of this year in all of the city's 13,000 yellow cabs. Besides watching TV, customers can follow the taxi's route on a map on the screen.

Space and the Measurement of Income Segregation

CASEY J. DAWKINS
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 255-272, May 2007

Abstract:
This paper proposes a new spatial ordering index that that can be used to quantify the dependence of a given pattern of income segregation on the spatial arrangement of neighborhoods. Unlike other spatial measures of income segregation proposed in the literature, the spatial ordering index is less sensitive to the presence of outliers, satisfies the principle of transfers, and is flexible enough to quantify a variety of spatial patterns of segregation. The index can be interpreted in terms of the ratio of two covariances. Properties of the proposed measure are demonstrated using an example from the city of Baltimore, Maryland.

Accepted Paper Series

Suggested Citation

Dawkins, Casey J., "Space and the Measurement of Income Segregation" (2006-07). Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 47, No. 2, pp. 255-272, May 2007 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=981558 or DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9787.2007.00508.x

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, 404-414 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06298820

© 2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
Exploring Changes in Income Clustering and Centralization during the 1990s
Casey J. Dawkins

Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, Virginia Center for Housing Research

This article employs a new "spatial ordering index" to describe and explain changes in the degree of income clustering and centralization within U.S. metropolitan areas during the 1990s. The results suggest that while the spatial pattern of household income became more decentralized and less clustered during the 1990s, the patterns established as of 1990 were highly persistent over the decade. Factors associated with metropolitan area size and growth affected changes in both the degree of centralization and the degree of clustering. Although traditional determinants of suburbanization were associated with increases in income decentralization during the 1990s, densely developed cities with an increase in the percentage of white residents saw increases in income centralization during the decade. Furthermore, changes in the patterns observed were shaped by various policy influences, including the number of Low Income Housing Tax Credit units, urban containment policies, and the degree of local government fragmentation.

Key Words: economic segregation • spatial analysis • metropolitan governance • urban containment • growth management

Journal of Planning Education and Research, Vol. 26, No. 4, 435-449 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0739456X06297860
© 2007 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning

The Sustainable Communities Experiment in the United States
Insights from Three Federal-Level Initiatives
Carla Chifos

School of Planning at the University of Cincinnati

This paper documents and analyzes a portion of the U.S. government's attempt to adopt the concept of sustainability after 1992. Numerous case studies of individual sustainable community development projects exist, although almost no literature describes the coordinated federal-level effort to create and implement a sustainable development policy from 1993 to 2000. Case studies of three prominent federal-level sustainable community programs are developed from twenty guided interviews and existing government documents. The analysis of these three cases reveals serious attempts to translate sustainability into federal programs and changes in agency cultures despite institutional barriers. Although the primary outcome of these efforts was a stronger framework for facilitation of planning at the federal level, it still remains unclear why planners were not more involved in this process.

Key Words: sustainable communities • federal policy • sustainable development • Clinton-Gore administration • President's Council on Sustainable Development

background

On November 16th, 2005, REBAR opened eyes worldwide by transforming a metered parking spot into a park. Locating a site that was underserved by public outdoor space, we installed a small, temporary park that provided nature, seating, and shade. By our calculations, we provided 24,000 square-foot-minutes of public open space that afternoon. See the video!

Since the initial PARK(ing) project was created we've been contacted by people worldwide. What began as a simple, playful idea has become a lively and visible symbol of the desire to reprogram the street and increase public open space in cities all over the planet.

In 2006, with support from The Trust for Public Land, we built upon this groundswell of interest and created an international event. PARK(ing) Day 2006 brought artists, designers, and activists together to create 47 PARKs in 13 Cities worldwide, including New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro. See our PARK(ing) Day 2006 page and the video!

In 2007, we will show how our temporary PARKs can become permanent new urban places and connect people with ways to transform their entire city's streetscape for a sustainable future.

Join artists, designers, and activists around the world who are peacefully demonstrating how to reduce congestion, clean the air, save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve urban neighborhoods.

Perpetual Motion Introduction

Mobility has always been the crux of where and how we live. Our cities, town, suburbs-even our houses-are largely the way they are because of transportation's demands on the environment. Given Dwell's interest in looking at domestic life through the lens of design, it seems fitting that we should explore the past, present, and future of transportation in the United States-country whose very existence and evolving fabric is based on its citizens' innate desire to keep on moving.

To tackle such a mammoth undertaking, we enlisted the help of intrepid adventurer and award-winning author Robert Sullivan. Amicably accepting the assignment, Sullivan agreed that the field research should be conducted in four parts-East, Midwest, West, and Southwest.

July 16, 2007
Paris Journal
A New French Revolution's Creed: Let Them Ride Bikes
By KATRIN BENNHOLD

PARIS, July 15 - About a dozen sweaty people pedaled bicycles up the Champs-Élysées on Sunday toward the Arc de Triomphe, as onlookers cheered.

These were not the leading riders of the Tour de France racing toward the finish line, but American tourists testing this city's new communal bike program.

"I'm never taking the subway again," said a beaming Justin Hill, 47, a real estate broker from Santa Barbara, Calif.

More than 10,600 of the hefty gray bicycles became available for modest rental prices on Sunday at 750 self-service docking stations that provide access in eight languages. The number is to grow to 20,600 by the end of the year.

The program, Vélib (for "vélo," bicycle, and "liberté," freedom), is the latest in a string of European efforts to reduce the number of cars in city centers and give people incentives to choose more eco-friendly modes of transport.

"This is about revolutionizing urban culture," said Pierre Aidenbaum, mayor of Paris's trendy third district, which opened 15 docking stations on Sunday. "For a long time cars were associated with freedom of movement and flexibility. What we want to show people is that in many ways bicycles fulfill this role much more today."

Users can rent a bike online or at any of the stations, using a credit or debit card and leave them at any other station.

JOURNEY TO THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN
They come by plane, by boat, by shipping container: Chinese immigrants, smuggled into New York by a thriving underground network. Every year, thousands still risk border patrols, vicious "snakeheads" and criminal kingpins, to seek their fortune on the streets of the city. > By Amy Zimmer

City Limits MAGAZINE
January 2004

He lives in Chinatown and wears a white t-shirt draping down to the knees of his baggy jeans. But Kevin, who's 13, still remembers vividly one particular moment when he was a toddler in Fuzhou. His father bought him a dog, then left for New York.
...

Migrants rarely find jobs outside of the restaurant, garment and construction industries--fields that are presently suffering. Kwong observes that U.S. employers who hire Fuzhounese for sub-minimum wages are a critical link in keeping the smuggling system going--without those jobs, migrants would have no way of paying back the smuggling fees. "Because of the pressure of having to pay the debts back as soon as possible, they are willing to get low pay and much more willing to tolerate abusive conditions," he says. As Fuzhounese migration has risen over the past decade, wages in these industries have fallen. Indeed, Fuzhounese have effectively displaced many Cantonese workers from the Chinatown labor market, pushing them to seek work elsewhere. At the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, 25 percent of the workers are now Chinese, most of them Cantonese

Chinatown bus lines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Brief History of Chinatown Bus

Copyright © 2006 by GotoBus®

The Transportationist: a weblog by David Levinson at the Nexus of Networks, Economics, and Urban Systems

The Spontaneous City
Essay on planning policies favoring more/less planning and the relationship with land use and transportation. Focuses on "Spontaneous develoment" and "Spontaneous action."

July 12, 2007
For Parking Space, the Price Is Right at $225,000
By VIVIAN S. TOY

In Houston, $225,000 will buy a three-bedroom house with a game room, den, in-ground pool and hot tub.

In Manhattan, it will buy a parking space. No windows, no view. No walls.

While real estate in much of the country languishes, property in Manhattan continues to escalate in price, and that includes parking spaces. Some buyers do not even own cars, but grab the spaces as investments, renting them out to cover their costs.

Spaces are in such demand that there are waiting lists of buyers. Eight people are hoping for the chance to buy one of five private parking spaces for $225,000 in the basement of 246 West 17th Street, a 34-unit condo development scheduled for completion next January. The developer, meanwhile, is seeking city approval to add four more spots.

Parking in new developments is selling for twice what it was five years ago, said Jonathan Miller, an appraiser and president of Miller Samuel.

Although spaces in prime sections of Manhattan are the most expensive, even those in open lots and in garages in Brooklyn, Queens, Riverdale and Harlem are close to $50,000, although at least one new Brooklyn development is asking $125,000.

COMMONspace is a project to explore and evaluate San Francisco's privately-owned public spaces.

In an effort to provide more public space downtown, the City of San Francisco has partnered with private developers to create a number of privately-owned public spaces. Some of these spaces are open and inviting - activated by public use. Others are under heavy surveillance, difficult to find, appear private, or are fundamentally inaccessible. To date, these spaces have not been systematically evaluated.

The goal of COMMONspace is to evaluate, activate and reclaim these spaces as a critical part of the public realm and as a valuable component of San Francisco's intellectual and artistic commons. We aim to determine just how public are these privately-owned public spaces?

Rebar has partnered with Snap Out Of It to conduct a series of events and paraformances in these spaces. To get involved with these events, send an email to:

THE STATE
Will gridlocked L.A. heed this toll call?
While Orange County officials have built a network of toll roads to address growing traffic, L.A. officials have invested much more heavily in rail and bus service.
By Rong-Gong Lin II and Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writers
June 29, 2007

The land of the freeway is poised to become a little less free.

Los Angeles County transit leaders on Thursday agreed to develop plans for toll roads within the next three years, after decades of opposition to the concept of motorists paying tolls to use the roads.

The decision by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board comes amid criticism that Los Angeles has not joined other metropolitan areas around the nation in experimenting with "congestion pricing," in which motorists pay to use less crowded lanes.

Last month, L.A. County lost out on a major federal grant because it did not have any congestion pricing in the works.

June 30, 2007
Manhattanites Face Driving Fee on the Way Out
By WILLIAM NEUMAN

In promoting his sweeping traffic reduction plan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his aides have stressed one provision: drivers who enter Manhattan below 86th Street would be charged an $8 fee.

But what has not been widely mentioned is a measure that could startle some Manhattanites: those who live within the zone would have to pay $8 to drive out.

The congestion pricing program was devised to cut traffic, chiefly by persuading people from the other boroughs and beyond to leave their cars behind and take public transit into Manhattan. But planners say that those who live inside the congestion pricing zone also contribute to traffic when they drive out, and should pay their share, too.

That means a man from Greenwich Village who drives to visit his grandmother in Queens would pay the fee. So would a C.E.O. who has a reverse commute, driving from the East Side to Stamford, Conn., each morning, and an Upper Eastsider who likes to drive to the Fairway supermarket in Harlem.

It might seem that anyone taking a car out of the congestion zone ought to be rewarded instead of penalized, but officials disagreed.

"We're not trying to get people to leave the zone in their cars," said Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, who played a leading role in fashioning the plan. "Overall what we're trying to do is get people to use their cars less."

Wiki for Triboro RX - proposed rail line for bronx, queens and brooklyn

In its 1996 Third Regional Plan, Regional Plan Association describes a rapid transit line in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx that could be built almost entirely on pre-existing rail rights of way. The so-called Triboro RX (TRX for short) presents a unique opportunity to provide mobility and accessibility to New Yorkers living or working within these three boroughs, at a fraction of the cost of most transit projects of similar size. This web site documents a possible alignment for the Triboro RX, and a crude estimate of what levels of initial ridership one could expect to see if it were built. The results, as you will see, are encouraging to say the least.

City Infrastructure Technologies
About Streetline

Streetline builds solutions to longstanding problems in city management and operations, through the customized design and application of new sensing technologies. Our parking management system offers cities the first real control and oversight of their complex inventory of on- and off-street spaces, and forms the backbone for other innovative sensing solutions that lower city costs and improve public services.

Streetline is located in San Francisco, California.

Opinion
Dust-Up

Nothing seems right in cars

How do you "get people out of their cars" and, if you can't do that, will Smart Growth plans accomplish anything other than increasing traffic? All this week, author Robert Bruegmann and activist Gloria Ohland debate the shape of America's cities.
Times Staff Writer

Today, Bruegmann and Ohland debate modifying public behavior. Previously, they discussed Smart Growth, and the social tensions over urban sprawl. Later this week, they'll debate environmental concerns, and more.

 

Authors: Randall Crane and Lisa A. Scweitzer

 

Title: Theories of urban politics / edited by David Judge, Gerry Stoker and Harold Wolman.
Physical Description: ix, 310 p. ; 24 cm.
Publisher/ Date: London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, 1995

LC Subjects: Municipal government.
Sociology, Urban.
Material Type: Book

Call Number: JS78 .T46 1995

Peddling Smart Growth
Call your project "smart" - even when it isn't - and get millions in public funds.

By David Zahniser
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Santa Monica real estate developer Dan Palmer faced a daunting task three years ago when he announced plans to build 5,800 homes in the Newhall Pass, a mountainous stretch that connects the northeast edge of the San Fernando Valley with the Santa Clarita Valley. After all, the project was certain to draw the ire of homeowner groups, open-space advocates and the city of Santa Clarita.

Title The Political Economy of Urban Regimes: A Comparative Perspective
Author Kantor, Paul; Savitch, H. V.; Haddock, Serena Vicari
Affiliation Fordham University [Kantor]; University of Louisville [Savitch]; University of Pavia (Italy) [Haddock]
Source Urban Affairs Review, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 348-377, January 1997

Abstract
The authors suggest how regime politics is influenced in systematic ways by particular kinds of bargaining environments. They describe a theoretical framework designed to examine the interplay of local democratic development, market environments, and intergovernmental networks on regime dynamics in eight cities in Western Europe and the United States since the 1970s. The authors explain how structural forces influence critical aspects of local regimes, particularly their governing coalitions, means of public-private coordination, and prevailing policy agendas on economic development.

Cityscapes
Latin America and Beyond
Winter 2003
Bogotá

Arturo Ardila-Gómez

The sleek red bus zooms out of the station in northern Bogotá, a futuristic symbol of an (almost) transformed city. Nearby, thousands of cyclists of all ages enjoy a sunny morning on Latin America's largest bike-path network.

The TransMilenio, as the modern bus network is called, moves 750,000 passengers per weekday-almost 100,000 more than Washington D.C.'s subway system. And Bogotá's citizens are proud of their transportation, proud of their city.

That wasn't always the case. In 1988, during Colombia's first mayoral elections, a local radio station launched its own "virtual" candidate. The candidate's transport platform was simple: instead of fixing all the roads, why not remove the pavement remaining to level out potholes. Vehicles would then no longer have to "sink" into potholes-instead they would simply ride over the unpaved street.
...

In the 1960s, Curitiba, Brazil, took a radical approach to solving the problems most cities face: pollution, traffic, unchecked growth, and social and economic inequities. FRONTLINE/World Fellow Tim Gnatek traveled to Curitiba to discover whether this experiment in urban design has kept pace with the city's tenfold population boom.

Reconstructing Urban Regime Theory: Regulating Urban Politics in a Global Economy

Mickey Lauria

Review author[s]: Megan K. Blake

Economic Geography, Vol. 75, No. 4. (Oct., 1999), pp. 419-420.

Title: Reconstructing urban regime theory : regulating urban politics in a global economy / edited by Mickey Lauria.
Physical Description: ix, 278 p. ; 25 cm.
Publisher/ Date: Thousand Oaks, Ca. : Sage, 1996.

Location (guide): Lehman
Call Number: JS78 .R43 1996
Status: Not checked out 

Title: Overcoming the Neglect of Economics in Urban Regime Theory
Source: Journal of urban affairs [0735-2166] Imbroscio yr:2003 vol:25 iss:3 pg:271

Abstract - Urban regime theory rightfully reigns as the dominant paradigm in the analysis of local governance. Nevertheless, regime theory has been hampered by its failure to engage economic questions in a sustained and systematic way, leaving it limited in both empirical and prescriptive terms. This article presents an agenda for research that allows for the engagement of economic questions in a way that enhances the strength of urban regime theory vis-à-vis economic determinist theories of urban politics. It then sketches some possible paths this research might take, with most of the attention given to developing the rudiments of a new alternative economics for regime theory. It also illustrates how this new alternative economic paradigm can potentially generate the conditions necessary for bringing about a fundamental reconstruction of urban regimes. [

Title: Urban Regime Theory: A Normative-Empirical Critique.
Authors: Davies, Jonathan S.
Source: Journal of Urban Affairs; Jan2002, Vol. 24 Issue 1, p1, 17p

Abstract: Over the past 10 years, urban regime theory has become the dominant paradigm for studying urban politics in liberal democracies. Yet there is disagreement about how far it can help us to understand urban political processes. This article argues that regime theory is best understood as a theory of structuring with limits in its analysis of the market economy. These limits undermine its ability to explain the importance of political agency-the scope of individual or collective choice in political decisions and the impact of those choices in the evolution of US cities. It is further argued that there are important normative dimensions to urban regime theory, most fully articulated in Elkin's commercial republic, which academic commentaries have not acknowledged. However, the empirical analysis developed in regime theory contradicts its normative objectives. The absence of a conceptualization of market dynamics, in the light of pessimism about the prospects for equitable regime governance, not only limits it as a theory of structuring but it also renders it unable to explain how the commercial republic can be realized. Regime theory is, therefore, unconvincing for two reasons. It cannot explain how much local politics matter, and it fails to demonstrate that its normative goal--more equitable regime governance--can be achieved, given the realities of the US market economy. Regime theory needs a more developed understanding of structuring. It may be fruitful, therefore, for regime theorists to re-engage critically with variants of Marxism, which unlike Structuralism, recognize the possibility of agency.

Title: The Evolution of Urban Regime Theory: The Challenge of Conceptualization
Source: Urban affairs review [1078-0874] Mossberger yr:2001 vol:36 iss:6 pg:810

Author(s): Mossberger, Karen ; Stoker, Gerry  

Abstract: Urban regime theory came to prominence with the publication of Clarence Stone's study of Atlanta in 1989, although earlier work by Fainstein and Fainstein (1983) and Elkin (1987) has also been influential. Since then, regime analysis has been extensively used to examine urban politics both inside North America and beyond. The authors argue that the wide use of regime analysis is a recognition of its value and insights but that some applications have stretched the concept beyond its original meaning to the point that the concept itself runs the risk of becoming meaningless and a source of theoretical confusion. By sifting through the extensive literature applying regime theory, the authors reestablish the core components of the concept and identify the key fields where it has made a contribution. It is suggested that regime analysis has helped considerably in reorienting the power debate in North America and in facilitating the analysis of politics beyond the formal institutions of the government outside North America.

Identifier: urban regime theory, comparative urban politics, public-private partnerships, concept stretching

 

tagged PPP city_planning planning_theory regime_theory urban_politics by jn ...on 07-JUN-07