Suchergebnisse

Urban planners often seek to establish land use patterns around transit stations that encourage non-auto travel. However, the willingness of travelers to use different modes in the vicinity of transit remains understudied, in part because of the lack of spatially-precise data on destination and mode choices. Using transportation content extracted from Yelp, a location-based social network (LBSN), we investigate how travel mode to non-work destinations is influenced by proximity to transit. We use textual analysis to analyze travel for non-work activities in seven cities across North America and Europe. Mixed-effect and binomial logistic models show how reported travel by mode varies by distance to rail transit stations. We find that for most non-work activity purposes, reported rail use is highly sensitive to proximity to stations, but some purposes are more amenable to rail use overall. Additionally, compared to non-US cities, US cities are far more parking-dependent near rail stations. The results suggest that not all activities elicit the same levels of non-auto travel, and transit-oriented planning should account for specific activities and regional factors that may modify willingness to travel by different modes. While subject to limitations, LBSNs can illuminate local travel with greater spatial specificity than traditional surveys.

Researchers have posited that larger, denser metropolitan areas have important consumption advantages. We examine this using Cragg two-part hurdle and ordinary least square (OLS) regression models employing data from the American Time Use Survey. We test whether: 1) large metropolitan area residents participate in more out-of-home activities because these activities are more plentiful, richer, and/or easier to access, 2) large metropolitan areas have lower travel times because of higher densities, and 3) activities in larger metropolitan areas have more positive associations with subjective well-being than those in smaller places. We reject all three hypotheses. Metropolitan area population size is largely unrelated to time spent outside the home, excluding travel. Large-metropolitan-area residents participate in more arts and entertainment activities and eat and drink out more often, but they socialize, volunteer, and care for others outside the home less. Larger metropolitan areas are associated with dramatically more travel time. We find no evidence that large metropolitan area activities contribute any more or less to life satisfaction or affect than activities in smaller places. We also find that life satisfaction does not covary with metropolitan area size. In sum, living in a large metropolitan area may primarily involve a tradeoff of (travel) time for money (higher wages), with little net change in welfare.

Implementing the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 in Los Angeles is a difficult task in part because of the size and diversity of the problem. Los Angeles County -- the unit of government responsible for administering welfare programs -- is one of the largest counties in the country spreading across 4,083 square miles. The Los Angeles County is so large that it comprises its own metropolitan area. The County includes neighborhoods that are both highly urbanized as well as rural, areas of great affluence and areas of concentrated poverty, and neighborhoods that are racially and ethnically diverse.

Over the last few decades, walking and cycling have increased in the United States, especially in large cities. Future efforts to promote active travel will occur during a time when automated vehicles will increasingly perform driving tasks without human input. Little is known about impacts of an automated vehicle fleet on pedestrians and cyclists. This study uses semi-structured interviews with experts from academia as well as the public and private sectors in the United States to (1) explore potential synergies and conflicts between increasingly automated motorized vehicles and active travel; and (2) highlight planning and policy priorities for active travel in a time of emerging connected and automated vehicles (C/AVs). Our interviews indicate that while C/AVs promise to make roadways safer for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians, some potential hazards exist related to communication, behavior, and technical capabilities in the near term. In the long-term, C/AVs may have drastic impacts on infrastructure, the built environment, and land use, but these impacts are likely to vary by locality. Federal and state governments will play a role in ensuring that connected and automated vehicles operate safely, but local governments will ultimately determine how automated vehicles are integrated into the transportation network. ; Research for this paper was funded by the Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation Center (MATS) (DTRT13-GBUTC33). Publication of this article was supported by Virginia Tech's Open Access Subvention Fund.

Climate change, increasing resource scarcity, and rising traffic volumes are forcing us to develop new environmentally friendly and people-oriented mobility options. With the expansion of digital information systems, we will soon be able to reconfigure different modes of transport to suit our needs. These developments represent a significant challenge for designing a wide range of different mobility spaces. While Volume 1 of this series focused on practical aspects, Volume 2 collects research methods and findings from the fields of design, architecture, urban planning, geography, social sciences, traffic planning, psychology, and communication technologies. The book's consideration of the possibilities and prospects of usercentred mobility design offers an important contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the mobility revolution.