Transportation Problems and Policy (2018)

An article titled Access to Choice by Jonathan Levine makes a central point of focusing on accessibility over mobility in transportation going forward. He describes accessibility as t he ability to reach valued destinations conveniently and mobility as t he ability to travel fast and not measured by distance necessarily. The next idea Levine presents is that land-use arrangements oriented around accessibility can reduce the need for travel, particularly single-occupancy vehicle travel. Some examples of this approach include transit villages (predominantly residential development with some nearby retail activities planned around a transportation hub), New Urbanism (walkable blocks and streets, housing and shopping in close proximity, and accessible public spaces), and job-housing balancing which means what it sounds like; locating jobs and housing nearby (Levine). A bright future rests in neighborhood design with reliable public transportation in mind. Transit Villages are...

On Friday, October 19th, PSU was honored to host Marilyn Johnson, a transportation researcher out of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She shared the successes and failures of an ongoing shift in transportation culture in Australia .  Using data-driven models to focus transportation policy on safety and fatal accident reduction specifically for cyclists, she discussed the strategy used by the Amy Gillett Foundation to engage the community and stakeholders across multiple disciplines.   These goals are mirrored here in the US with many large cities integrating a similar, data-driven perspective to reduce fatalities to zero, called Vision Zero. While cities such as New York and San Francisco have integrated strategies, which have reduced traffic-related deaths, Portland hasn’t had such luck with an increase of fatalities since the Vision Zero initiative was introduced in Portland in 2016 (Redden, 2018).  What is different about Portland and how can Johnson offer...

Many US cities, including Portland, have adopted Vision Zero strategies as a response to pedestrian and bicyclist traffic safety needs. Vision Zero, a traffic safety approach which originated in Sweden, is a program that aims to ultimately reduce the number of traffic-related-deaths to zero (Vision Zero Network 2018). The program’s approach is multifaceted, using public education, street design, legislation and law enforcement to reach its desired outcomes (Elevbakk 2007, Trujillo 2014). Sounds like a win-win, right? Ah, but let’s not forget our mantra of equity: “who gets what when and why?”. There is often more to the policy than we see at first glance. Indeed, Vision Zero does have its critics. Critiques of Vision Zero focus on concerns related to equity – including issues related to location of infrastructural improvements, and racially biased enforcement of traffic related laws (Bliss 2016). In cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, mobility justice groups have raised c...

In Rethinking Traffic Congestion, the author Brian Taylor discusses that cities exist because they promote social interactions and economic transactions and that the economic health of metropolitan areas is threatened by congestion. I interpret this to mean that there is an assumed “optimal medium” between the two extremes that supports both social interaction and economic activity, without deterring the behavior of consumers. However, it is important to note that the cities that have the most congestion also have the most economic diversity. Meaning there is a variety of goods and services available to consumers such as recreational activities. This challenges the second argument that congestion impedes economic health. This is further reflected in the reading as Taylor analyzes the ease at which one could find the live theater in New York or a Film Studio in LA in comparison to less crowded areas elsewhere. How do you feel congestion impacts economic activity in your community? Do...

We live in an era of data evangelism. From medicine to beer to professional sports, data drives our assessments of effectiveness and determines our priorities for scarce resources across any number of areas. In many ways, data-driven decision-making -- propelled by the growing field of data science and machine-learning -- has revolutionized the way we interact with the world around us, particularly through innovations in transportation. We often think of data as fundamentally neutral -- which implies that decisions derived from that data are not only unbiased, but optimized to produce the best outcome. But is this always the case? In transportation planning, for example, does the increasing use of data improve the quality of the overall system? It’s not an easy question to answer. However, as this piece by Joe Cortright on CityLab explains, the first thing we should consider is not whether we’re using our data correctly, but instead whether we’re using the correct data for the pro...

Lately I have considered purchasing a new road bike. I just started a new job that's in NW Portland. I currently live in SE Portland and don't own a car. I'm left with a few options; I could either ride a 35 to 40 minute bus trip or ride a bike on a 20 minute bike route. With this considered, my best option is to go with the bike route because it will get me to work faster and I don't have to rely on a bus schedule. To be perfectly honest though, I don't feel comfortable riding a bike by myself in the city. It is unsafe to ride a bike in the city unless you've maybe had experience with riding in busy streets before. I would feel more encouraged to ride a bike to work if I knew the streets were safer. "Promoting Safe Walking and Cycling to Improve Public Health:Lessons From The Neherlands and Germany," spoke out to me in a way that felt like encouragement to bike. I read this article because it states how unsafe most American roads are while addi...

I’m not necessarily against federally funded transportation, but if I state that the nation’s highway system is like McDonald’s because the quality is getting worse and its only appeal is that it is easy and the same in every state, it pigeon holes me into being against it. So for the sake of this post, I am against federally funded transportation.  “The vast majority of the country's road network is local, and likewise most travel occurs in a person's home county, so to some extent it makes sense for this level of government to generate its own funding revenues and establish its own funding priorities” (Jaffe 2013). The State serves as the entity creating and controlling the road ways within their boarders, so as Jaffe states it makes sense for states to also control the way these systems are financed. As the gas tax dwindles, local and state levels are already beginning to take control to transit funding, finding new ways to fund transportation growth. States have gone a...

New Road Order In my life right now, I do not worry about traffic congestion. I work odd hours waitressing and I have a bus right outside my apartment that gets me to school in 20 minutes no matter the time of day. However, the challenge of trying to reduce traffic congestion on a permanently and not simply opening the roads for more drivers has been taking up much more brain space then I ever planned. Watching more people move into Portland and attempt to navigate our limited road space is clearly going to be a pressing issue for years to come. In Brian D. Taylor’s “Rethinking Traffic Congestion” we are given some positive points to reflect on regarding congestion. First, we are reminded that congestion means at the very least the city, or surrounding area, is not in severe decline. More drivers on the road means more businesses are being patronized and therefore more workers contributing to local economic development. Taylor then explains that realistically, time spent on the free...

When most people think about climate change and resilience, their minds naturally picture electric vehicles, green buildings, and the otherwise large-scale implementation of new technologies that will (hopefully) reduce humans’ impacts on the environment. However, one impact that always seems to be left out of the discussion is the impacts of climate change on our urban and regional transit systems. Mark Barnes, writing in Geography Compass , has cited a distinct lack of preparation and attention in the US given to making sure our public transportation networks not only continue to function long-term in a changing climate, but are also protected from extreme weather and storms (Barnes 2015). In the case of the latter, at stake is billions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure – one needs only to think of the damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy and the flooded subway stations of New York and New Jersey. In the case of the former, at stake is the day-to-day performance of our transit ...

Bicycling culture experienced within the urban area has been used as the modern mode of transport. As the active mode of transportation, bicycling integrates physical activities, hence making it an alternative attractive urban transport compared to the automobile. Cycling has been associated with public health benefits that range from physical and mental health improvement. Health benefits include a reduction in obesity, decreased cases and risks of cardiovascular diseases among others. Cycling contributes to environmental benefits such as reduction of noise and air pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions. As the number of cyclist increases in the urban areas, there is a need for enhancing the cycling infrastructure. Cycling infrastructure increases the potential benefits that are associated with bicycling as the mode of transportation ( Reynolds et al, 2009 ). One influencing factor in cycling decision is the presence of secure and convenient bicycle parking. In order to enco...

By Anthony Tortorici Edited by Sophie Appell [Note: the use of "elderly" in this post instead of a more current term like "older adults" is consistent with the original cited article (Rosenbloom, 2003)] The elderly population, which is defined here as the age 65 and older, is set to make up nearly one quarter of the US population by the year 2060. That number is more than double what the population makes up now, which is over 46 million individuals. In the article “The Mobility Needs of Older Americans, " Roosenbloom states that over half of the elderly population (56%) lives in suburbs. This implies that the majority of the elderly population relies on a personal vehicle as their main form of transportation. The above graph shows the great disparity between single and high occupancy vehicles and transit or active transportation use among travelers age 65 or older.  Rosenbloom also discusses the elderly and safety in their vehicles. The 65+ pop...

I am sure most of you remember the announcement in the spring that Portland traffic from construction “will be so bad that ODOT recommends planning a vacation during that time or asking to work from home (Ault "I-84 summer construction: 'Great time for a vacation'" 2018).” They were not wrong. Now that all that summer construction is mostly ending, what changed? I commute for work from Oregon City to Beaverton. My commute includes I-205, I-5, and 217. It takes me about 40 minutes to get to work, and 75 minutes to get home. Each of these freeways has their own unique traffic and bottlenecks. All summer I watched the construction on I-5 south change and assumed it was just new paving. Then one day I was driving home and there was no traffic on I-5. I was driving 55 MPH on I-5 at 5:00 PM! All that time waiting through the construction was worth it, but what changed, and how long would it last? Most of the traffic built up on 217S and I-5S is created from these two ...

In Rethinking Traffic Congestion, Brian D. Taylor makes an interesting point that traffic congestion could be seen as a sign of success rather than a failure. On the first page Brian gets my full attention, because of this-  “Conventional wisdom holds that traffic congestion exacts a terrible social and economic toll on society; expanding transportation capacity only makes things worse; and redesigning cities and expanding alternative transportation modes offer the best long-term means for reducing traffic congestion. I want to offer ten propositions that challenge these ideas and suggest how we might begin to think differently about traffic congestion. “ I’m curious as to why he would have the opposite perspective that I, and many others have about traffic congestion.   Taylor’s fourth proposition suggests that the hilarious analogy of buying a bigger belt to address weight gain doesn’t equate to the situation of adding more lanes to address traffic congestion. ...

Cities across the nation, including Phoenix, Boston, and San Francisco, have already begun allowing transportation network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, to test out new autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. However, after the March 18 Uber crash, which resulted in the death of a woman, many cities put a halt to the testing. Despite this incident, cities have not terminated their plans to introduce self-driving vehicles onto their streets. Some cities, including Boston, MA, are gradually introducing AVs, starting with small driverless zones. Philadelphia, PA, has established a rigorous testing process. AVs must meet important standards, such as emergency braking and basic driving capabilities before the vehicles are released to the streets (Krauss, 2018) . Many cities are still excited about the potential benefits of AVs. The Boston municipal government argues that the introduction of AVs could lead to improved accessibility for people living with the aging population and ...