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• 291. [Article] Travel Decisions & Their Implications for Urban Transportation: From Campus Transportation to Statewide Modeling

  The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels. Although several researchers ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Travel Decisions & Their Implications for Urban Transportation: From Campus Transportation to Statewide Modeling Author: Akar, Gulsah Year: 2015 The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels. Although several researchers have explored the links between the built environment, socio-demographics and travel behavior, a consensus is not reached. This talk highlights two recent projects. The first project focuses on individuals’ attitudes towards transportation, neighborhood characteristics and their effects on campus commuters’ transit use, and addresses the question whether attitudes, the built environment or a combination of both explains the resulting transit use better. The second part presents the Regional Land Use Allocation Decision Analysis Tool developed for The Ohio Department of Transportation, which enables decision makers to quantify the impacts of population and employment distribution in terms of the resulting VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled). This tool forecasts the impacts of future land-use policies in Ohio, based on alternative assumptions of highway and mass transit corridor development, zoning and environmental constraints, regional growth or decline projections, and changes in travel associated with auto trip generation rates and trip distances. Title: Travel Decisions & Their Implications for Urban Transportation: From Campus Transportation to Statewide Modeling Author: Akar, Gulsah Year: 2015 The ability to forecast future transportation patterns under a particular land-use scenario or urban form is key to making informed decisions at the local and regional levels. Although several researchers have explored the links between the built environment, socio-demographics and travel behavior, a consensus is not reached. This talk highlights two recent projects. The first project focuses on individuals’ attitudes towards transportation, neighborhood characteristics and their effects on campus commuters’ transit use, and addresses the question whether attitudes, the built environment or a combination of both explains the resulting transit use better. The second part presents the Regional Land Use Allocation Decision Analysis Tool developed for The Ohio Department of Transportation, which enables decision makers to quantify the impacts of population and employment distribution in terms of the resulting VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled). This tool forecasts the impacts of future land-use policies in Ohio, based on alternative assumptions of highway and mass transit corridor development, zoning and environmental constraints, regional growth or decline projections, and changes in travel associated with auto trip generation rates and trip distances. Close

• 292. [Article] Modeling Injury Outcomes of Crashes involving Heavy Vehicles on Texas Highways

  A growing concern related to large-truck crashes has increased in the State of Texas in recent years due to the potential economic impacts and level of injury severity that can be sustained. Yet, studies ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Modeling Injury Outcomes of Crashes involving Heavy Vehicles on Texas Highways Author: Hernandez, Salvador Year: 2014 A growing concern related to large-truck crashes has increased in the State of Texas in recent years due to the potential economic impacts and level of injury severity that can be sustained. Yet, studies on large truck involved crashes highlighting the contributing factors leading to injury severity have not been conducted in detail in the State of Texas especially for its interstate system. In this study, we analyze the contributing factors related to injury severity by utilizing Texas crash data based on a discrete outcome based model which accounts for possible unobserved heterogeneity related to human, vehicle and road-environment. We estimate a random parameter logit model (i.e., mixed logit) to predict the likelihood of five standard injury severity scales commonly used in Crash Records Information System (CRIS) in Texas – fatal, incapacitating, non-incapacitating, possible, and no injury (property damage only). Estimation findings indicate that the level of injury severity outcomes is highly influenced by a number of complex interactions between factors and the effects of the some factors can vary across observations. The contributing factors include drivers’ demographics, traffic flow condition, roadway geometrics, land use and temporal characteristics, weather, and lighting conditions. Title: Modeling Injury Outcomes of Crashes involving Heavy Vehicles on Texas Highways Author: Hernandez, Salvador Year: 2014 A growing concern related to large-truck crashes has increased in the State of Texas in recent years due to the potential economic impacts and level of injury severity that can be sustained. Yet, studies on large truck involved crashes highlighting the contributing factors leading to injury severity have not been conducted in detail in the State of Texas especially for its interstate system. In this study, we analyze the contributing factors related to injury severity by utilizing Texas crash data based on a discrete outcome based model which accounts for possible unobserved heterogeneity related to human, vehicle and road-environment. We estimate a random parameter logit model (i.e., mixed logit) to predict the likelihood of five standard injury severity scales commonly used in Crash Records Information System (CRIS) in Texas – fatal, incapacitating, non-incapacitating, possible, and no injury (property damage only). Estimation findings indicate that the level of injury severity outcomes is highly influenced by a number of complex interactions between factors and the effects of the some factors can vary across observations. The contributing factors include drivers’ demographics, traffic flow condition, roadway geometrics, land use and temporal characteristics, weather, and lighting conditions. Close

• 293. [Article] Bicycling Is Different: Built Environment Relationships to Nonwork Travel

  There is growing investment in infrastructure to support non-motorized travel modes in the United States, in particular for bicycling. However, there remains a dearth of knowledge on the relationships ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Bicycling Is Different: Built Environment Relationships to Nonwork Travel Author: Muhs, Christopher D. Year: 2014 There is growing investment in infrastructure to support non-motorized travel modes in the United States, in particular for bicycling. However, there remains a dearth of knowledge on the relationships between built environments and bicycling for non-work transportation. This issue is exacerbated by researchers and practitioners continuing to combine walking and bicycling into the category “non-motorized modes,” despite the two having many differences. This paper addresses these shortcomings through a segmented analysis of mode choice and mode share for walking, bicycling, and automobile travel. The data used are from a 2011 establishment intercept survey in the Portland, Oregon region and are destination-based. Results show pronounced differences in the empirical relationships between walking and bicycling and the built environment, when controlling for aspects of the individual, site, and trip. Models for mode choice and mode share indicate that the built environment attributes that influence automobile and walk travel are similar; yet, their influence is in the opposite direction. Empirical relationships with the built environment are altogether different for bicycling trips. Socio-demographic variable results are consistent with much of the non-work mode choice literature, but trip distance is not. Trip distance has the expected relationship with walking, but does not have a significant relationship with bicycling. The findings on the built environment relationships with travel modes support a move away from combining walking and bicycling together as non-motorized transportation for analysis and planning. They also lend insight into additional considerations for future work in non-work transportation research and policy. Title: Bicycling Is Different: Built Environment Relationships to Nonwork Travel Author: Muhs, Christopher D. Year: 2014 There is growing investment in infrastructure to support non-motorized travel modes in the United States, in particular for bicycling. However, there remains a dearth of knowledge on the relationships between built environments and bicycling for non-work transportation. This issue is exacerbated by researchers and practitioners continuing to combine walking and bicycling into the category “non-motorized modes,” despite the two having many differences. This paper addresses these shortcomings through a segmented analysis of mode choice and mode share for walking, bicycling, and automobile travel. The data used are from a 2011 establishment intercept survey in the Portland, Oregon region and are destination-based. Results show pronounced differences in the empirical relationships between walking and bicycling and the built environment, when controlling for aspects of the individual, site, and trip. Models for mode choice and mode share indicate that the built environment attributes that influence automobile and walk travel are similar; yet, their influence is in the opposite direction. Empirical relationships with the built environment are altogether different for bicycling trips. Socio-demographic variable results are consistent with much of the non-work mode choice literature, but trip distance is not. Trip distance has the expected relationship with walking, but does not have a significant relationship with bicycling. The findings on the built environment relationships with travel modes support a move away from combining walking and bicycling together as non-motorized transportation for analysis and planning. They also lend insight into additional considerations for future work in non-work transportation research and policy. Close

• 294. [Article] Development of a Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool: a Destination Choice Model

  There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Planners, engineers, and others seek improved tools to estimate ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Development of a Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool: a Destination Choice Model Author: Muhs, Christopher D. Year: 2015 There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Planners, engineers, and others seek improved tools to estimate pedestrian demand that are sensitive to environmental and demographic factors at the appropriate scale in order to aid policy-relevant issues like air quality, public health, and smart allocation of infrastructure and other resources. Further, in the travel demand forecasting realm, tools of this kind are difficult to implement due to the use of spatial scales of analysis that are oriented towards motorized modes, vast data requirements, and computer processing limitations.To address these issues, a two-phase project between Portland State University and Oregon Metro is underway to develop a robust pedestrian planning method for use in regional travel demand models. The first phase, completed in 2013, utilizes a tool that predicts the number of walking trips generated with spatial acuity, based on a new measure of the pedestrian environment and a micro-level unit of analysis. Currently, phase two is building upon this tool to predict the distribution of walking trips, connecting the origins predicted in phase one to destinations. This presentation will focus on phase two, which is one of the first studies to focus on destination choices among pedestrians separately from other modes. The approach can be extended to identify the spatial extent of potential pedestrian paths to these destinations. Ultimately, the products developed from the research can estimate various aspects of pedestrian demand – trip generation, trip distribution, and areas of potential pedestrian activity. These tools will add to the analytical methods available for transportation modeling, pedestrian and safety analysis, health assessments, and other pedestrian planning applications. Title: Development of a Pedestrian Demand Estimation Tool: a Destination Choice Model Author: Muhs, Christopher D. Year: 2015 There is growing support for improvements to the quality of the walking environment, including more investments to promote pedestrian travel. Planners, engineers, and others seek improved tools to estimate pedestrian demand that are sensitive to environmental and demographic factors at the appropriate scale in order to aid policy-relevant issues like air quality, public health, and smart allocation of infrastructure and other resources. Further, in the travel demand forecasting realm, tools of this kind are difficult to implement due to the use of spatial scales of analysis that are oriented towards motorized modes, vast data requirements, and computer processing limitations.To address these issues, a two-phase project between Portland State University and Oregon Metro is underway to develop a robust pedestrian planning method for use in regional travel demand models. The first phase, completed in 2013, utilizes a tool that predicts the number of walking trips generated with spatial acuity, based on a new measure of the pedestrian environment and a micro-level unit of analysis. Currently, phase two is building upon this tool to predict the distribution of walking trips, connecting the origins predicted in phase one to destinations. This presentation will focus on phase two, which is one of the first studies to focus on destination choices among pedestrians separately from other modes. The approach can be extended to identify the spatial extent of potential pedestrian paths to these destinations. Ultimately, the products developed from the research can estimate various aspects of pedestrian demand – trip generation, trip distribution, and areas of potential pedestrian activity. These tools will add to the analytical methods available for transportation modeling, pedestrian and safety analysis, health assessments, and other pedestrian planning applications. Close

• 295. [Article] Assessing Government’s Solutions for Urban Growth within a Sustainable Development Approach: The case of Portland, Oregon

  A growing number of cities around the world have been chasing the Sustainable Development Model, balancing between economic health, environment resilience and social equity in an overall transparent governance. ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Assessing Government’s Solutions for Urban Growth within a Sustainable Development Approach: The case of Portland, Oregon Author: Laraichi, Oussama Year: 2016 A growing number of cities around the world have been chasing the Sustainable Development Model, balancing between economic health, environment resilience and social equity in an overall transparent governance. Given the demographic trend of cities welcoming an increasing share of the world’s population, urban planners and government officials are challenged by a growing Urban Density. With a significant population increase pace, the city of Portland, Oregon will need to efficiently address Urban Density. The leadership in Sustainability that the largest city of Oregon is claiming could be jeopardized by the effects of Urban Density. What should Portland’s urban planners and policies makers do to overtake this challenging trend and remain in a leading position in Sustainability? Various solutions exist. Urban Sustainable Development literature shows us that cities embrace Urban Density by applying different set of adaptive tools in order to become or remain sustainable. Using a Hierarchical Decision Model, this paper aims to develop an adapted multi-perspective, multi-criteria model that will fit Portland’s needs for a sustainable overtake of Urban Density. Then, by submitting this model to an experts’ panel, it aims to conclude with a ranked proposal of solution alternatives to keep the city of Portland a Sustainability leader. Title: Assessing Government’s Solutions for Urban Growth within a Sustainable Development Approach: The case of Portland, Oregon Author: Laraichi, Oussama Year: 2016 A growing number of cities around the world have been chasing the Sustainable Development Model, balancing between economic health, environment resilience and social equity in an overall transparent governance. Given the demographic trend of cities welcoming an increasing share of the world’s population, urban planners and government officials are challenged by a growing Urban Density. With a significant population increase pace, the city of Portland, Oregon will need to efficiently address Urban Density. The leadership in Sustainability that the largest city of Oregon is claiming could be jeopardized by the effects of Urban Density. What should Portland’s urban planners and policies makers do to overtake this challenging trend and remain in a leading position in Sustainability? Various solutions exist. Urban Sustainable Development literature shows us that cities embrace Urban Density by applying different set of adaptive tools in order to become or remain sustainable. Using a Hierarchical Decision Model, this paper aims to develop an adapted multi-perspective, multi-criteria model that will fit Portland’s needs for a sustainable overtake of Urban Density. Then, by submitting this model to an experts’ panel, it aims to conclude with a ranked proposal of solution alternatives to keep the city of Portland a Sustainability leader. Close

• 296. [Article] Factors Affecting Behavioral Changes in Response to Road Fees: Some Analyses of the Effect of Attitudes, Transit Access, and Fuel Efficiency on Changes in Miles Driven

  Objective The Oregon Department of Transportation conducted a test of an innovative technology to replace fuel taxes with mileage fees. In the test, some vehicles were charged a flat fee per mile and others ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Factors Affecting Behavioral Changes in Response to Road Fees: Some Analyses of the Effect of Attitudes, Transit Access, and Fuel Efficiency on Changes in Miles Driven Author: Rufolo, Anthony M. Year: 2009 Objective The Oregon Department of Transportation conducted a test of an innovative technology to replace fuel taxes with mileage fees. In the test, some vehicles were charged a flat fee per mile and others were charged differential fees that were higher for travel in the Portland metropolitan area during weekday peak hours and lower for other travel. I was charged with developing the database for the project and analyzing the behavioral responses of the participants. The database is quite extensive, including responses to three surveys as well as information on mileage in various categories. The experiment ended on April 1, 2007 and the final report on the project is due June 30, 2007. This is also the time when funding for the project will end. The final report will include information on key behavioral changes, such as the reduction in miles traveled per day during the peak for the congestion charge group. However, the database has the potential for much more extensive analysis. In addition, a different type of congestion charging experiment was conducted by the Puget Sound Regional Council, and a public use dataset from that experiment is expected to become available within the next six months. The objective of this proposal is to extend the analysis of changes in behavior by subjects in the ODOT Road User Fee Pilot Project, and to draw on other sources, such as the Puget Sound project, to compare the behavioral changes observed in this experiment with those found in other contexts. Scope A substantial amount of data was collected on participants in the Oregon Road User Fee Pilot Project. Basic analysis of the data is being conducted as part of the project. However, there is potential to gain further information on characteristics that caused or prevented changes in participants’ driving patterns. For example, participants were asked the distance from their home to the nearest transit stop, but that was the only information on transit service that was available for analysis. It would be possible to use the participant’s address to generate much more comprehensive measures of transit service availability to determine whether these other dimensions of transit service affected the response to road pricing. In addition, information on day of week and morning versus evening peak travel is being aggregated for the existing study, but this data holds the potential for further information on the nature of the responses. Methodology A variety of statistical analyses will be conducted to evaluate both the extent of response to a vehicle mileage fee and the interaction with both demographic and attitudinal characteristics of the participants. A GIS analysis will be used to link household location with better measures of transit service. Results Results would include a better understanding of how pricing interacts with other factors in affecting driving patterns and in particular in affecting driving during peak periods. It would also provide a better understanding of the revenue potential from such charges. Title: Factors Affecting Behavioral Changes in Response to Road Fees: Some Analyses of the Effect of Attitudes, Transit Access, and Fuel Efficiency on Changes in Miles Driven Author: Rufolo, Anthony M. Year: 2009 Objective The Oregon Department of Transportation conducted a test of an innovative technology to replace fuel taxes with mileage fees. In the test, some vehicles were charged a flat fee per mile and others were charged differential fees that were higher for travel in the Portland metropolitan area during weekday peak hours and lower for other travel. I was charged with developing the database for the project and analyzing the behavioral responses of the participants. The database is quite extensive, including responses to three surveys as well as information on mileage in various categories. The experiment ended on April 1, 2007 and the final report on the project is due June 30, 2007. This is also the time when funding for the project will end. The final report will include information on key behavioral changes, such as the reduction in miles traveled per day during the peak for the congestion charge group. However, the database has the potential for much more extensive analysis. In addition, a different type of congestion charging experiment was conducted by the Puget Sound Regional Council, and a public use dataset from that experiment is expected to become available within the next six months. The objective of this proposal is to extend the analysis of changes in behavior by subjects in the ODOT Road User Fee Pilot Project, and to draw on other sources, such as the Puget Sound project, to compare the behavioral changes observed in this experiment with those found in other contexts. Scope A substantial amount of data was collected on participants in the Oregon Road User Fee Pilot Project. Basic analysis of the data is being conducted as part of the project. However, there is potential to gain further information on characteristics that caused or prevented changes in participants’ driving patterns. For example, participants were asked the distance from their home to the nearest transit stop, but that was the only information on transit service that was available for analysis. It would be possible to use the participant’s address to generate much more comprehensive measures of transit service availability to determine whether these other dimensions of transit service affected the response to road pricing. In addition, information on day of week and morning versus evening peak travel is being aggregated for the existing study, but this data holds the potential for further information on the nature of the responses. Methodology A variety of statistical analyses will be conducted to evaluate both the extent of response to a vehicle mileage fee and the interaction with both demographic and attitudinal characteristics of the participants. A GIS analysis will be used to link household location with better measures of transit service. Results Results would include a better understanding of how pricing interacts with other factors in affecting driving patterns and in particular in affecting driving during peak periods. It would also provide a better understanding of the revenue potential from such charges. Close

• 297. [Article] Travel Mode Choice Framework Incorporating Realistic Bike and Walk Routes

  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: Travel Mode Choice Framework Incorporating Realistic Bike and Walk Routes 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 model bike and walk travel. To ensure scarce resources are used most effectively, accurate models sensitive to key policy variables are needed to support long-range planning and project evaluation, and to continue adding to our growing understanding of key factors driving walk and bike behavior. This research attempts to synthesize and advance the state of the art in trip-based, nonmotorized mode choice modeling. Over the past fifteen years, efforts to model the decision to walk or bike on a given trip have been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive behavioral framework and inconsistency in measurement scales and model specification. This project develops a mode choice behavioral framework that acknowledges the importance of attributes along the specific walk and bike routes that travelers are likely to consider, in addition to more traditional area-based measures of travel environments. The proposed framework is applied to a revealed preference, GPS-based travel dataset collected from 2010-2013 in Portland, Oregon. Measurement of nonmotorized trip distance, built environment, tour-level variables, and attitudinal attributes as well as mode availability are explicitly addressed. Route and mode choice models are specified using discrete choice techniques, and predicted walking and bicycling routes are tested as inputs to various mode choice models. Results suggest strong potential for predicted route measures to enhance walk and bicycle mode choice modeling. Findings also support the specific notion that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure contribute not only to route choice but also to the choice of whether to bike or walk. For decisions to bicycle, availability of low-traffic routes may be particularly important to women. Model results further indicate that land use and built environments around trip ends and a person’s home still have important effects on nonmotorized travel when controlling for route quality. Both route and area travel environment impacts are mostly robust to the inclusion of residential self-selection variables, consistent with the idea that built environment differences matter even for households that choose to live in a walkable or bikeable neighborhood. The combination of area and route-based built environment measures alongside trip context, sociodemographic, and attitudinal attributes provides a new perspective on nonmotorized travel behavior relevant to both policy and practice. Title: Travel Mode Choice Framework Incorporating Realistic Bike and Walk Routes 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 model bike and walk travel. To ensure scarce resources are used most effectively, accurate models sensitive to key policy variables are needed to support long-range planning and project evaluation, and to continue adding to our growing understanding of key factors driving walk and bike behavior. This research attempts to synthesize and advance the state of the art in trip-based, nonmotorized mode choice modeling. Over the past fifteen years, efforts to model the decision to walk or bike on a given trip have been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive behavioral framework and inconsistency in measurement scales and model specification. This project develops a mode choice behavioral framework that acknowledges the importance of attributes along the specific walk and bike routes that travelers are likely to consider, in addition to more traditional area-based measures of travel environments. The proposed framework is applied to a revealed preference, GPS-based travel dataset collected from 2010-2013 in Portland, Oregon. Measurement of nonmotorized trip distance, built environment, tour-level variables, and attitudinal attributes as well as mode availability are explicitly addressed. Route and mode choice models are specified using discrete choice techniques, and predicted walking and bicycling routes are tested as inputs to various mode choice models. Results suggest strong potential for predicted route measures to enhance walk and bicycle mode choice modeling. Findings also support the specific notion that bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure contribute not only to route choice but also to the choice of whether to bike or walk. For decisions to bicycle, availability of low-traffic routes may be particularly important to women. Model results further indicate that land use and built environments around trip ends and a person’s home still have important effects on nonmotorized travel when controlling for route quality. Both route and area travel environment impacts are mostly robust to the inclusion of residential self-selection variables, consistent with the idea that built environment differences matter even for households that choose to live in a walkable or bikeable neighborhood. The combination of area and route-based built environment measures alongside trip context, sociodemographic, and attitudinal attributes provides a new perspective on nonmotorized travel behavior relevant to both policy and practice. Close

• 298. [Article] How to Pay for Transportation? A Survey of Public Preferences

  States around the nation are scrambling to find new sources of revenue to maintain and expand their transportation systems. The traditional major source of funds, state and federal fuel taxes, has rarely ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: How to Pay for Transportation? A Survey of Public Preferences Author: Dill, Jennifer, Agrawal, Asha Weinstein Year: 2006 States around the nation are scrambling to find new sources of revenue to maintain and expand their transportation systems. The traditional major source of funds, state and federal fuel taxes, has rarely kept pace with inflation. In most cases state legislatures have been unwilling to raise fuel taxes high enough to cover desired levels of expenditure, thus pushing state and local governments to look for new sources such as sales taxes and tolls. Another outcome of legislative reluctance to raise fees and taxes that generate transportation revenues has been to put any potential revenue measure before the voters, as a ballot proposition. As a result of these new trends in how legislatures respond to proposals for raising transportation revenues, transportation agencies are more and more asked to choose revenue options that have strong public support. This paper investigates public opinion in California on support for a range of revenue options to fund transportation, including taxes and fees, bonds, and tolling. The analysis is based on results from two telephone surveys of California residents conducted in 2006. The survey revealed fairly strong public support for some tolling options. The most popular tax or fee option was to increase vehicle registration fees by a variable amount depending on the vehicle?s air pollutant emissions and gas mileage. Three tax options ? gas taxes, sales taxes, and the vehicle license fee ? had virtually the same levels of overall support, about 40%. The analysis of demographic and other factors provides further insights. People living in regions that have toll roads and HOT lanes were far more supportive of these concepts. Support for pricing options was not clearly related to income or ethnicity. Lower income respondents were about equally likely to support tolls roads, express toll lanes, and HOT lanes. Younger adults were more supportive of most tolling options, the mileage fee, and the registration fee that varied by emissions and gas mileage. The survey also revealed what many researchers have found ? that methodology, particularly question wording, is very important. Overall, the survey provides some optimism for implementing new options, such as tolling, and more traditional options of user fees. The positive reaction to linking fees with environmental objectives should be explored further by researchers and policy makers. Title: How to Pay for Transportation? A Survey of Public Preferences Author: Dill, Jennifer, Agrawal, Asha Weinstein Year: 2006 States around the nation are scrambling to find new sources of revenue to maintain and expand their transportation systems. The traditional major source of funds, state and federal fuel taxes, has rarely kept pace with inflation. In most cases state legislatures have been unwilling to raise fuel taxes high enough to cover desired levels of expenditure, thus pushing state and local governments to look for new sources such as sales taxes and tolls. Another outcome of legislative reluctance to raise fees and taxes that generate transportation revenues has been to put any potential revenue measure before the voters, as a ballot proposition. As a result of these new trends in how legislatures respond to proposals for raising transportation revenues, transportation agencies are more and more asked to choose revenue options that have strong public support. This paper investigates public opinion in California on support for a range of revenue options to fund transportation, including taxes and fees, bonds, and tolling. The analysis is based on results from two telephone surveys of California residents conducted in 2006. The survey revealed fairly strong public support for some tolling options. The most popular tax or fee option was to increase vehicle registration fees by a variable amount depending on the vehicle?s air pollutant emissions and gas mileage. Three tax options ? gas taxes, sales taxes, and the vehicle license fee ? had virtually the same levels of overall support, about 40%. The analysis of demographic and other factors provides further insights. People living in regions that have toll roads and HOT lanes were far more supportive of these concepts. Support for pricing options was not clearly related to income or ethnicity. Lower income respondents were about equally likely to support tolls roads, express toll lanes, and HOT lanes. Younger adults were more supportive of most tolling options, the mileage fee, and the registration fee that varied by emissions and gas mileage. The survey also revealed what many researchers have found ? that methodology, particularly question wording, is very important. Overall, the survey provides some optimism for implementing new options, such as tolling, and more traditional options of user fees. The positive reaction to linking fees with environmental objectives should be explored further by researchers and policy makers. Close

• 299. [Article] Associations Between Street Connectivity and Active Transportation

  Background: Past studies of associations between measures of the built environment, particularly street connectivity, and active transportation (AT) or leisure walking/bicycling have largely failed to ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Associations Between Street Connectivity and Active Transportation Author: Berrigan, David, Pickle, Linda Williams, Dill, Jennifer Year: 2010 Background: Past studies of associations between measures of the built environment, particularly street connectivity, and active transportation (AT) or leisure walking/bicycling have largely failed to account for spatial autocorrelation of connectivity variables and have seldom examined both the propensity for AT and its duration in a coherent fashion. Such efforts could improve our understanding of the spatial and behavioral aspects of AT. We analyzed spatially identified data from Los Angeles and San Diego Counties collected as part of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Results: Principal components analysis indicated that ~85% of the variance in nine measures of street connectivity are accounted for by two components representing buffers with short blocks and dense nodes (PRIN1) or buffers with longer blocks that still maintain a grid like structure (PRIN2). PRIN1 and PRIN2 were positively associated with active transportation (AT) after adjustment for diverse demographic and health related variables. Propensity and duration of AT were correlated in both Los Angeles (r = 0.14) and San Diego (r = 0.49) at the zip code level. Multivariate analysis could account for the correlation between the two outcomes. After controlling for demography, measures of the built environment and other factors, no spatial autocorrelation remained for propensity to report AT (i.e., report of AT appeared to be independent among neighborhood residents). However, very localized correlation was evident in duration of AT, particularly in San Diego, where the variance of duration, after accounting for spatial autocorrelation, was 5% smaller within small neighborhoods (~0.01 square latitude/longitude degrees = 0.6 mile diameter) compared to within larger zip code areas. Thus a finer spatial scale of analysis seems to be more appropriate for explaining variation in connectivity and AT. Conclusions: Joint analysis of the propensity and duration of AT behavior and an explicitly geographic approach can strengthen studies of the built environment and physical activity (PA), specifically AT. More rigorous analytical work on cross-sectional data, such as in the present study, continues to support the need for experimental and longitudinal study designs including the analysis of natural experiments to evaluate the utility of environmental interventions aimed at increasing PA. Title: Associations Between Street Connectivity and Active Transportation Author: Berrigan, David, Pickle, Linda Williams, Dill, Jennifer Year: 2010 Background: Past studies of associations between measures of the built environment, particularly street connectivity, and active transportation (AT) or leisure walking/bicycling have largely failed to account for spatial autocorrelation of connectivity variables and have seldom examined both the propensity for AT and its duration in a coherent fashion. Such efforts could improve our understanding of the spatial and behavioral aspects of AT. We analyzed spatially identified data from Los Angeles and San Diego Counties collected as part of the 2001 California Health Interview Survey. Results: Principal components analysis indicated that ~85% of the variance in nine measures of street connectivity are accounted for by two components representing buffers with short blocks and dense nodes (PRIN1) or buffers with longer blocks that still maintain a grid like structure (PRIN2). PRIN1 and PRIN2 were positively associated with active transportation (AT) after adjustment for diverse demographic and health related variables. Propensity and duration of AT were correlated in both Los Angeles (r = 0.14) and San Diego (r = 0.49) at the zip code level. Multivariate analysis could account for the correlation between the two outcomes. After controlling for demography, measures of the built environment and other factors, no spatial autocorrelation remained for propensity to report AT (i.e., report of AT appeared to be independent among neighborhood residents). However, very localized correlation was evident in duration of AT, particularly in San Diego, where the variance of duration, after accounting for spatial autocorrelation, was 5% smaller within small neighborhoods (~0.01 square latitude/longitude degrees = 0.6 mile diameter) compared to within larger zip code areas. Thus a finer spatial scale of analysis seems to be more appropriate for explaining variation in connectivity and AT. Conclusions: Joint analysis of the propensity and duration of AT behavior and an explicitly geographic approach can strengthen studies of the built environment and physical activity (PA), specifically AT. More rigorous analytical work on cross-sectional data, such as in the present study, continues to support the need for experimental and longitudinal study designs including the analysis of natural experiments to evaluate the utility of environmental interventions aimed at increasing PA. Close

• 300. [Article] Residential Mobility and Revitalization in Portland Between 1970 and 1980: A Study of the Urban Structural Impacts on Neighborhood Revitalization

  Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Residential Mobility and Revitalization in Portland Between 1970 and 1980: A Study of the Urban Structural Impacts on Neighborhood Revitalization Author: Kamara, Sheka Gassimou Year: 1992 Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time and change through neighborhood revitalization provide the basis for this study. Additionally, some of the characteristics often employed in explaining the phenomenon in cities are manifested in the city of Portland. For example, Portland is endowed with a distinctive and well established downtown area that provides opportunities for the establishment of businesses as well as white-collar job opportunities. By the standards of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Portland has a relatively large population and several older neighborhoods. The city provides its residents the feel for inner-city living, such as its beautiful waterfront scenery, its high-rise and park block apartments, its cultural facilities and unique transit mall. These criteria underscore the selection of Portland as the geographical area of this research. The purpose of this research itself is to assess the urban structural changes that occurred in Portland between 1970 and 1980. The research used a sample of inner-city neighborhoods from the city to explain these structural changes over time. Additionally, two samples of neighborhoods (Northeast and Southeast) within the city were selected as the basis for comparing the structural changes. The data developed from the 1970 and 1980 census of population and housing characteristics comprised the change in the median household income ratio, the change in the home value ratio, and the change in the median rent ratio designated as dependent variables. Nine independent variables representing the pre-existing conditions in the city at the start of the decade were selected from locational, demographic, and housing factors. The research hypotheses were tested by regresslng the three dependent variables against the nine independent variables resulting in three regression models for each sample. The a priori expectations as reflected by the signs of the coefficients show mixed support for the hypotheses in each sample in predicted direction, and in level of significance. In the city sample the neighborhood housing quality factor was observed to have a strong positive causal relationship with neighborhood revitalization. The outcome confirmed the contention that a significant and systematic reverse revival trend occurred in Portland at the start of the 1970 decade. This finding contradicts the conventional invasion-succession theory associated with Burgess (1925). Similar reverse revival trends were observed in the Northeast and Southeast samples. But unlike the city sample the race factor had a strong positive causal relationship with revitalization. The outcome may be a reflection of the rental squeeze in terms of housing affordability faced by black renters in both subareas because their incomes could not keep pace with housing costs. Consequently their demand for rental housing may have grown faster than the supply of the rental housing stock in a segregated rental market. The chow tests show significant structural differences between the two submodels, but the impact of the race factor as reflected by the measures of relative variability was greater in Northeast Portland than in Southeast Portland. In light of the research findings, this study concludes that Portland may undoubtedly be the only city in the nation that experienced a significant and systematic revival trend between 1970 and 1980. However, this trend did not extend to the predominantly black areas of the city as reflected by the strong negative outcome of the race factor. In addition, the functional significance of the systematic revival trend in Portland may not be substantial when compared to larger and older cities like St. Louis and New Orleans that received media attention for a similar trend. Title: Residential Mobility and Revitalization in Portland Between 1970 and 1980: A Study of the Urban Structural Impacts on Neighborhood Revitalization Author: Kamara, Sheka Gassimou Year: 1992 Evidence of physical decline due in part to the rapid encroachment of commercial and industrial activity into some of Portland's residential areas in the mid-1960s and efforts to combat the forces of time and change through neighborhood revitalization provide the basis for this study. Additionally, some of the characteristics often employed in explaining the phenomenon in cities are manifested in the city of Portland. For example, Portland is endowed with a distinctive and well established downtown area that provides opportunities for the establishment of businesses as well as white-collar job opportunities. By the standards of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Portland has a relatively large population and several older neighborhoods. The city provides its residents the feel for inner-city living, such as its beautiful waterfront scenery, its high-rise and park block apartments, its cultural facilities and unique transit mall. These criteria underscore the selection of Portland as the geographical area of this research. The purpose of this research itself is to assess the urban structural changes that occurred in Portland between 1970 and 1980. The research used a sample of inner-city neighborhoods from the city to explain these structural changes over time. Additionally, two samples of neighborhoods (Northeast and Southeast) within the city were selected as the basis for comparing the structural changes. The data developed from the 1970 and 1980 census of population and housing characteristics comprised the change in the median household income ratio, the change in the home value ratio, and the change in the median rent ratio designated as dependent variables. Nine independent variables representing the pre-existing conditions in the city at the start of the decade were selected from locational, demographic, and housing factors. The research hypotheses were tested by regresslng the three dependent variables against the nine independent variables resulting in three regression models for each sample. The a priori expectations as reflected by the signs of the coefficients show mixed support for the hypotheses in each sample in predicted direction, and in level of significance. In the city sample the neighborhood housing quality factor was observed to have a strong positive causal relationship with neighborhood revitalization. The outcome confirmed the contention that a significant and systematic reverse revival trend occurred in Portland at the start of the 1970 decade. This finding contradicts the conventional invasion-succession theory associated with Burgess (1925). Similar reverse revival trends were observed in the Northeast and Southeast samples. But unlike the city sample the race factor had a strong positive causal relationship with revitalization. The outcome may be a reflection of the rental squeeze in terms of housing affordability faced by black renters in both subareas because their incomes could not keep pace with housing costs. Consequently their demand for rental housing may have grown faster than the supply of the rental housing stock in a segregated rental market. The chow tests show significant structural differences between the two submodels, but the impact of the race factor as reflected by the measures of relative variability was greater in Northeast Portland than in Southeast Portland. In light of the research findings, this study concludes that Portland may undoubtedly be the only city in the nation that experienced a significant and systematic revival trend between 1970 and 1980. However, this trend did not extend to the predominantly black areas of the city as reflected by the strong negative outcome of the race factor. In addition, the functional significance of the systematic revival trend in Portland may not be substantial when compared to larger and older cities like St. Louis and New Orleans that received media attention for a similar trend. Close