Transportation Problems and Policy (2018)

Hang around the transportation planning field long enough, and you’ll hear the pitch: Our cities are strangled by congestion, our streets an unsafe bedlam of inattentive drivers and beleaguered commuters, our transit agencies rotting from within as ridership declines, and rideshare startups struggling to produce a viable profit model. Out of this cloud of gloom emerges our saviour: the automated vehicle (AV). With one fell swoop, we are told, congestion will be cleared away, our roads will become a safe, orderly clockwork, and commuters will finally be given the freedom to do what they’ve always wanted to do: perform more work on the way to and from the office. Amid the breathless blog posts, glittering auto shows, and Elon Musk’s swaggering assurances, there is an arena of proposed AV implementation that’s usually the last to be discussed: how transit agencies may apply AV, or CAV (connected automated vehicles, linked to smart infrastructure) technology to improve operations. In a sen...

By Josh Linden Buried within an extremely interesting debate in September at the Cato Institute between Jarrett Walker (Oregon-based transit consultant) and Randal O’Toole (Oregon-based anti-transit writer) is a brief discussion of autonomous vehicles. Will AVs be an “extinction-level event” for transit, as O’Toole claims, by providing residents with a more convenient way to get around in a far less congested road environment? Or will their overall impact depend upon the precise nature of their deployment (which may still be years away) and the specific problem they’re trying to solve, as Walker argues? For O’Toole, the problem is relatively simple: (1) people love driving; (2) driving is often too difficult or takes too long; and (3) we should therefore make driving easier. The personal automobile was a transformative and liberating event for humanity, in his view, and national mode-share trends -- despite billions of dollars in transit subsidies to support and expand systems wit...

Hey, transportation planners, want to improve the speed and reliability of your bus or light rail network? If so, consider the noble termite. I don’t mean mimic termites’ rapacious appetite for historic bungalow basements, or their ability to build an England-sized network of mounds visible from space , even though those are both compelling potential transit improvements that could be considered down the road. No, what I’m talking about is a concept called “ stigmergy ,” by which eusocial creatures (termites, ants, etc.) communicate with each other via modifications to the physical environment in a self-organizing system of stimulation and response. “Huh?” you’re saying to your computer monitor. “What does this have to do with transit?” Well, it has to do with the increasing interest around automated vehicles (AVs), and how these technologies can be applied to improving transit systems plagued by interruption and delay. A 2017 paper by a team of researchers from the Nation...

One of the automobile’s most attractive traits is the ability to control you transit. It provides the user with the ability to decide when you go, where you go, and to an extent how fast you go. These factor’s can be helpful for those who have complex schedules that don’t allow for the use of different methods of transportation. However, these are not the only people using the automobile. The illusion of choice is the most appealing part of the automobile, but can it be an appealing part of other modes of transportation? “Those who switched to public transportation were more predisposed to switching, were more cost-conscious, and had more favorable perceptions and attitudes towards public transportation. Those who did not switch became happier with their cars,” was the finding of Maya Abou-Zeid and Moshe Ben-Akiva in their paper “Travel Mode Switching: Comparison of Findings from two Public transportation experiments.”   Abou-Zeid and Be-Akiva discovered that people became happ...

In Noreen McDonald’s research article “Are Millennials Really the “Go-Nowhere Generation?” she asks whether millenials are really driving less than previous generations -- and if so, why. Her piece begins with two possible explanations to the current decline in automobile use among individuals born between 1979 and 1990. The first school of thought centers around millennials taking up driving only when their familial needs require them to do so, meaning later in life when family and employment require a personal vehicle. The second theory is that millennials are choosing to live in areas that do not require the traditional automobile (i.e. where transit and active transportation options are more easily accessible. McDonald compares overall licensure and driving between millennials and Gen Xers at the same age, and uses the data to determine why millenials are ditching the car unlike any previous generation. McDonald’s discussion for the possible decrease in automobile use among mille...

Travel behavior is a study that explores different travel choices and outcomes. In the study of travel behaviors, we are trying to answer how many people travel? How they travel (what mode the choose)? Where do they go? When are they traveling? What route choices they make? Is there any pattern for their trips? There are so many constraints and factors that can influence travel behaviors such as the living location, the place of work, lifestyle, health, and economic condition. It’s important to know some individuals are more responsive to the travel behavior changes. In general, understanding people travel behaviors and their impact on public health is essential for the government and for those who are trying to make effective transportation system policies. Policymakers are interested to know what changes in travel behavior would be beneficial to society and how they can promote those behavior changes.  Ram M. Pendyala et al. on “emerging issues in travel behavior analysis” p...

Turning on the news, you hear of the environmental doom that awaits us. It is your fault after all; the vehicle you drive to and from work is destroying our planet. The social and environmental pressure has become too much. It’s time to give up the car! What are your options? The average cost of the four most popular electric vehicles is $47,000. That is a hefty price tag  few can justify. Many consumers are waiting for changes in technology and the inevitable decrease in cost.  Public transportation is a viable option for many, but isn’t appealing to those who are used to immediate transportation in their private vehicle. According to Forbes, delays and transfer time are the most common reasons public transportation falls short for some.  Bicycling is an option. If you’re used to the ease of acceleration in a motor vehicle, the idea of switching to a bicycle as a primary mode of transportation can seem intimidating. The use of a bicycle can also depend on your ...

Going back to the past weeks related to safety, I want to discuss bike safety. I am a cyclist and victim of a railway track incident (it wasn’t that bad). I wanted to know how serious of a problem this is and what or if there are any ongoing planning methods associated with fixing or mitigating this problem in places where bikes and rail tracks meet often. This has been sitting in my mind since the day that I crashed and fractured my wrist. I was talking to the Doctor and he mentioned that he sees at least one cyclist rail track victim come through every day. One a day seemed like a lot but after some thought I realized it made a lot of sense for a place like Portland, which has a larger b icyclist population and a downtown rail system that frequently meets bikes on the road. In a study (done by Ziwen L., Christospher C., & Nerbesh D. 2017), a video monitor was used to record the number of crashes at a spot where a train track crossed through a bike path....

A recent CityLab article suggests that having a taste of mass transit will get drivers more interested and confident about taking public transit. Eric Jaffee reports that 30 percent of regular car commuters gave up their full-time parking permits after a brief, free-transit trial. 25 percent of them stuck with transit full time. This study reminded me of a seminar I recently heard by Sarah Goforth about Portland’s Transportation Wallet. This wallet is $100  bus and light-rail, an annual streetcar pass, and an annual bike share membership. This is available only in two areas of Portland; the NW Portland Parking District and in the Central Eastside Industrial Parking District. These parking districts have a high concentration of commuters, densely populated neighborhoods, are walkable with good transit connectivity, have BIKETOWN station density, and many other qualities that make them good for this trade in. The passes are available to residents and employees who can purchase ...

We are at a time when the baby boomer generation has become the largest, and healthiest group of retirees in American history. Their large numbers paired with the fact that many of them live in the suburbs creates a new and unprecedented batch of transportation problems.   In 2003, Sandra Rosenbloom wrote in “The Mobility of Older American: Implications for Transportation Reauthorization” that a majority of these older Americans are single, elderly, women. Being single and elderly means that one is more likely to be responsible for their own transportation whether it be to medical appointments or more common day-to-day errands. Living with the intersection of the potential issues that come along with being single, elderly and a woman,   along with a living situation dependent on the car for access to services, puts elderly women in tough spot. In general, women’s problems are either ignored or just not understood. For example, the struggles of menopause are, for the most...

Although this class is on urban transportation, the topic of road safety is just as important in rural areas as well. I currently live on a small farm just outside of Oregon City about 30 minutes away from downtown Portland. Our farm is located off of Redland Road, which is an Oregon Safety Corridor. Oregon Safety Corridors are roads with high rates of serious and fatal injury crashes. The purpose of the designation is to “reduce these crashes in the short-term through the use of partnerships with engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency service. Each component contributes to the mutual goal of reducing serious injury crashes by encouraging drivers to change poor behaviors within safety corridors and drive safely.” (ODOT, 2017) To describe the road, it is two lanes, very winding, and 50 MPH, which is a generous speed for how many curves are on the road (and drivers typically go over this speed). There are many driveways and turn-offs on this road. There is also an elementa...

My focus in this post is assessing two congestion management strategies: making driving harder/more costly, or making other modes of transportation ‘better’ in whatever context is relevant to the user. Congestion pricing is certainly a hot topic within congestion management discussions. However, I wonder why it remains at the forefront of addressing the issue when it is met with such a high degree of public opposition. In Road Pricing and Public Transit , Kenneth Small writes, “Rather than mass transit being the solution to congestion, perhaps congestion pricing – a measure often viewed as an alternative to transit – could be transit’s savior.” Although I think congestion pricing would provide a reduction in congestion, I wonder why the efforts to reduce congestion are focused on making driving “harder” or more costly, rather than making other modes easier or more accessible to use.             For example,...