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• 111. [Article] Building Planner Commitment: Are California’s SB 375 and Oregon’s SB 1059 Models for Climate-Change Mitigation?

  California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375) and the Oregon Sustainable Transportation Initiative (SB 1059) have made them the first states in the nation to try and reduce greenhouse ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Building Planner Commitment: Are California’s SB 375 and Oregon’s SB 1059 Models for Climate-Change Mitigation? Author: Bartholomew, Keith, Proffitt, David Year: 2017 California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375) and the Oregon Sustainable Transportation Initiative (SB 1059) have made them the first states in the nation to try and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the transportation-planning process. Evaluating how these pioneering laws have changed local planning processes – as well as plans themselves – in each state provides insight into the laws’ effectiveness at changing development patterns in a way that reduces GHG emissions, without waiting decades to see the effects in the built environment. Both states’ laws require metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the municipalities that comprise them to plan development scenarios that reduce per capita GHG emissions from private automobiles. The emissions-reductions targets for each metro are determined through negotiation with state agencies and are updated periodically. Planning researchers (Burby et al., 1997) categorize laws like these as state planning mandates because they require local-level governments to incorporate state-specified goals into their plans. A host of empirical studies (Berke & French, 1994; Bunnell & Jepson, 2011; Burby & Dalton, 1994; Burby & May, 1998; Burby, 2005; Burby et al., 1993; Dalton & Burby, 1994; Hoch, 2007; May, 1993) suggest that the structure of state planning mandates, particularly the way their “carrots” and “sticks” encourage full adoption of the mandate’s goals and objectives or allow for just minimal compliance, are key to their success in changing development patterns. This is because greater planner commitment tends to result in higher-quality local plans and better plan implementation (Alterman & Hill, 1978; Berke & French, 1994; Berke & Godschalk, 2009; Berke, 1996; Brody & Highfield, 2005; Brody, 2003; Laurian et al., 2004; Talen, 1996), effectively acting as a multiplier that increases the plan’s influence on the built environment and other development outcomes. Therefore, we believe that evaluating the degree to which state planning mandates in California and Oregon have changed local planning documents and practices is the best available indicator of how the mandates will influence development patterns in the future. Furthermore, tracing how the mandates affect decisions made by local planners informs the suitability of California and Oregon’s planning mandates to serve as a model for policy in other states, or at the national or international scale. This study fits the NITC themes of taking long-term action on transportation emissions and climate change and integrating multimodal transportation and land use. We employ content analysis to evaluate SB 375 and SB 1059’s influence on regional transportation plans (RTPs) produced by MPOs. Conducting content analyses of RTPs approved before and after the planning mandates took effect will produce scores that allow us to compare how much the plans have changed due to the laws. It will also allow us to group MPOs based on their performance and identify characteristics of the metro areas they represent that predict their scores. For instance, some RTPs may shift from a weak focus on emissions reduction to a strong focus, while others may have a strong focus both before and after the planning mandates took effect. Building case studies in this way will allow us to ascertain which aspects of the laws are working as intended and which are not, and answer whether the laws can serve as models for climate change-mitigation policy. Title: Building Planner Commitment: Are California’s SB 375 and Oregon’s SB 1059 Models for Climate-Change Mitigation? Author: Bartholomew, Keith, Proffitt, David Year: 2017 California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375) and the Oregon Sustainable Transportation Initiative (SB 1059) have made them the first states in the nation to try and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using the transportation-planning process. Evaluating how these pioneering laws have changed local planning processes – as well as plans themselves – in each state provides insight into the laws’ effectiveness at changing development patterns in a way that reduces GHG emissions, without waiting decades to see the effects in the built environment. Both states’ laws require metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and the municipalities that comprise them to plan development scenarios that reduce per capita GHG emissions from private automobiles. The emissions-reductions targets for each metro are determined through negotiation with state agencies and are updated periodically. Planning researchers (Burby et al., 1997) categorize laws like these as state planning mandates because they require local-level governments to incorporate state-specified goals into their plans. A host of empirical studies (Berke & French, 1994; Bunnell & Jepson, 2011; Burby & Dalton, 1994; Burby & May, 1998; Burby, 2005; Burby et al., 1993; Dalton & Burby, 1994; Hoch, 2007; May, 1993) suggest that the structure of state planning mandates, particularly the way their “carrots” and “sticks” encourage full adoption of the mandate’s goals and objectives or allow for just minimal compliance, are key to their success in changing development patterns. This is because greater planner commitment tends to result in higher-quality local plans and better plan implementation (Alterman & Hill, 1978; Berke & French, 1994; Berke & Godschalk, 2009; Berke, 1996; Brody & Highfield, 2005; Brody, 2003; Laurian et al., 2004; Talen, 1996), effectively acting as a multiplier that increases the plan’s influence on the built environment and other development outcomes. Therefore, we believe that evaluating the degree to which state planning mandates in California and Oregon have changed local planning documents and practices is the best available indicator of how the mandates will influence development patterns in the future. Furthermore, tracing how the mandates affect decisions made by local planners informs the suitability of California and Oregon’s planning mandates to serve as a model for policy in other states, or at the national or international scale. This study fits the NITC themes of taking long-term action on transportation emissions and climate change and integrating multimodal transportation and land use. We employ content analysis to evaluate SB 375 and SB 1059’s influence on regional transportation plans (RTPs) produced by MPOs. Conducting content analyses of RTPs approved before and after the planning mandates took effect will produce scores that allow us to compare how much the plans have changed due to the laws. It will also allow us to group MPOs based on their performance and identify characteristics of the metro areas they represent that predict their scores. For instance, some RTPs may shift from a weak focus on emissions reduction to a strong focus, while others may have a strong focus both before and after the planning mandates took effect. Building case studies in this way will allow us to ascertain which aspects of the laws are working as intended and which are not, and answer whether the laws can serve as models for climate change-mitigation policy. Close

• 112. [Article] Rerouting Mode Choice Models: ​H​ow Including Realistic Route Options Can Help Us Understand Decisions to Walk or Bike

  For a number of reasons—congestion, public health, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, demographic shifts, and community livability to name a few—the importance of walking and bicycling as transportation ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Rerouting Mode Choice Models: ​H​ow Including Realistic Route Options Can Help Us Understand Decisions to Walk or Bike Author: Broach, Joseph Paul Year: 2016 For a number of reasons—congestion, public health, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, demographic shifts, and community livability to name a few—the importance of walking and bicycling as transportation options will only continue to increase. Currently, policy interest and infrastructure funding for nonmotorized modes far outstrip our ability to successfully model bike and walk travel. In the past five years, we have learned a lot about where people prefer to bike and walk, but what can that tell us about whether people will bike or walk in the first place? The research presented here is designed to start bridging the gap between choice of route and choice of travel mode (walk, bike, transit, drive, etc.). A mode choice framework is presented that acknowledges the importance of attributes along specific walk and bike routes that travelers are likely to consider for a given trip. Adding route quality as a factor in mode choice decisions is new, and shows promise for: (1) improving prediction of pedestrian and cycling trips, (2) increasing sensitivity of models to finer-grained policy scenarios--testing the impact of a single proposed facility or design change on bike and walk mode shares, and (3) identifying separately the effects of pedestrian and cycling facilities on decisions to walk or ride from which route to take. The proposed framework is applied to revealed preference, GPS travel data collected from 2010-2013 in Portland, Oregon. Key results include: (1) specific walk and bike facilities are significant factors for mode as well as route choice, (2) lower traffic-stress routes may be more important for women than men when choosing whether to bike, (3) available routes on a specific trip may have independent impacts from more traditional measures of land-use and built environment such as density, and (4) the importance of walking and biking environments appears to remain even when controlling for neighborhood self-selection. Title: Rerouting Mode Choice Models: ​H​ow Including Realistic Route Options Can Help Us Understand Decisions to Walk or Bike Author: Broach, Joseph Paul Year: 2016 For a number of reasons—congestion, public health, greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, demographic shifts, and community livability to name a few—the importance of walking and bicycling as transportation options will only continue to increase. Currently, policy interest and infrastructure funding for nonmotorized modes far outstrip our ability to successfully model bike and walk travel. In the past five years, we have learned a lot about where people prefer to bike and walk, but what can that tell us about whether people will bike or walk in the first place? The research presented here is designed to start bridging the gap between choice of route and choice of travel mode (walk, bike, transit, drive, etc.). A mode choice framework is presented that acknowledges the importance of attributes along specific walk and bike routes that travelers are likely to consider for a given trip. Adding route quality as a factor in mode choice decisions is new, and shows promise for: (1) improving prediction of pedestrian and cycling trips, (2) increasing sensitivity of models to finer-grained policy scenarios--testing the impact of a single proposed facility or design change on bike and walk mode shares, and (3) identifying separately the effects of pedestrian and cycling facilities on decisions to walk or ride from which route to take. The proposed framework is applied to revealed preference, GPS travel data collected from 2010-2013 in Portland, Oregon. Key results include: (1) specific walk and bike facilities are significant factors for mode as well as route choice, (2) lower traffic-stress routes may be more important for women than men when choosing whether to bike, (3) available routes on a specific trip may have independent impacts from more traditional measures of land-use and built environment such as density, and (4) the importance of walking and biking environments appears to remain even when controlling for neighborhood self-selection. Close

• 113. [Article] Examining Consumer Behavior and Travel Choices

  This study represents a first attempt to answer a few of the questions that have arisen concerning multimodal transportation investments and the impacts of mode shifts on the business community. This research ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Examining Consumer Behavior and Travel Choices Author: Clifton, Kelly J., Muhs, Christopher Devlin, Morrissey, Sara, Morrissey, Tomás, Currans, Kristina Marie, Ritter, Chloe Year: 2013 This study represents a first attempt to answer a few of the questions that have arisen concerning multimodal transportation investments and the impacts of mode shifts on the business community. This research aims to merge the long history of scholarly work that examines the impacts of the built environment on non-work travel with the relatively new interest in consumer spending by mode of travel. This empirical study of travel choices and consumer spending across 89 businesses in the Portland metropolitan area shows there are important differences between the amounts customers spend on average at various businesses by their mode of travel. However, these differences become less pronounced when we control for demographics of the customer and other attributes of the trip. This study of consumer spending and travel choices has some compelling findings that suggest some key spending and frequency differences by mode of travel that will likely invigorate the discussion of the economic impacts of these modes. Key findings are: 1) Bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders are competitive consumers: When demographics and socioeconomics are controlled for, mode choice does not have a statistically significant impact on consumer spending at convenience stores, drinking establishments and restaurants. When trip frequency is accounted for, the average monthly expenditures by customer modes of travel reveal that bicyclists, transit users and pedestrians are competitive consumers and, for all businesses except supermarkets, spend more on average than those who drive and 2) The built environment matters: We support previous literature and find that residential and employment density, the proximity to rail transit, and the amount of automobile and bicycle parking are all important in explaining the use of non-automobile modes. In particular, provision of bike parking and bike corrals are significant predictors of bike mode share at the establishment level. Other findings lend more insight into the relationship between consumer behavior and travel choices. For the non-work destinations studied, the automobile remains the dominant mode of travel. Patrons are largely arriving by private vehicle to most of the destinations in this study, particularly to grocery stores where larger quantities of goods tend to be purchased. But, high non-automobile mode shares and short travel distances exist in areas of concentrated urban activity. In sum, this study provides some empirical evidence to answer the questions of business owners about how mode shifts might impact their market shares and revenues. More work is needed to better understand the implications of future changes and to provide a robust assessment of the returns on these investments and their economic impacts. Title: Examining Consumer Behavior and Travel Choices Author: Clifton, Kelly J., Muhs, Christopher Devlin, Morrissey, Sara, Morrissey, Tomás, Currans, Kristina Marie, Ritter, Chloe Year: 2013 This study represents a first attempt to answer a few of the questions that have arisen concerning multimodal transportation investments and the impacts of mode shifts on the business community. This research aims to merge the long history of scholarly work that examines the impacts of the built environment on non-work travel with the relatively new interest in consumer spending by mode of travel. This empirical study of travel choices and consumer spending across 89 businesses in the Portland metropolitan area shows there are important differences between the amounts customers spend on average at various businesses by their mode of travel. However, these differences become less pronounced when we control for demographics of the customer and other attributes of the trip. This study of consumer spending and travel choices has some compelling findings that suggest some key spending and frequency differences by mode of travel that will likely invigorate the discussion of the economic impacts of these modes. Key findings are: 1) Bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders are competitive consumers: When demographics and socioeconomics are controlled for, mode choice does not have a statistically significant impact on consumer spending at convenience stores, drinking establishments and restaurants. When trip frequency is accounted for, the average monthly expenditures by customer modes of travel reveal that bicyclists, transit users and pedestrians are competitive consumers and, for all businesses except supermarkets, spend more on average than those who drive and 2) The built environment matters: We support previous literature and find that residential and employment density, the proximity to rail transit, and the amount of automobile and bicycle parking are all important in explaining the use of non-automobile modes. In particular, provision of bike parking and bike corrals are significant predictors of bike mode share at the establishment level. Other findings lend more insight into the relationship between consumer behavior and travel choices. For the non-work destinations studied, the automobile remains the dominant mode of travel. Patrons are largely arriving by private vehicle to most of the destinations in this study, particularly to grocery stores where larger quantities of goods tend to be purchased. But, high non-automobile mode shares and short travel distances exist in areas of concentrated urban activity. In sum, this study provides some empirical evidence to answer the questions of business owners about how mode shifts might impact their market shares and revenues. More work is needed to better understand the implications of future changes and to provide a robust assessment of the returns on these investments and their economic impacts. Close

• 114. [Article] State Funding and Planning Mechanisms to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Transportation Sector

  38 pages

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: State Funding and Planning Mechanisms to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Transportation Sector Author: Isbell, Rory Year: 2017, 2016 38 pages Title: State Funding and Planning Mechanisms to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Transportation Sector Author: Isbell, Rory Year: 2017, 2016 38 pages Close