Alex Karner | Georgia Institute of Technology (original) (raw)
Papers by Alex Karner
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by governme... more Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by government agencies as an 'environmental justice' community. This work describes a series of sequentially implemented policies to mitigate local diesel truck impacts resulting from goods movement activity at two port facilities while simultaneously improving traffic operations in the communities of Barrio Logan, San Diego and Old Town, National City, both low-income communities of color.
Current concerns surrounding regional air pollution, climate change, rising gasoline prices and u... more Current concerns surrounding regional air pollution, climate change, rising gasoline prices and urban congestion could presage a substantial increase in bicycle mode share. However, state-ofthe-art methods for the safe and efficient design of bicycle facilities are based on difficult to collect data and potentially dubious assumptions regarding cyclist behavior. Simulation models offer a way forward, but existing bicycling models in the academic literature have not been validated using actual data. This paper addresses these shortcomings by obtaining real-world bicycle data and implementing a multilane, inhomogeneous cellular automaton simulation model that can reproduce observations. The existing literature is reviewed to inform the data collection and model development. It is found that the model emulates field conditions while possibly under-predicting bike path capacity. Since the simulation model can "observe" individual cyclists, it is ideally suited to determine level of service based on difficult to observe cycling events such as passing. The conclusion suggests future work on data collection and model development.
Journal of Transport & Health, 2015
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new methods to identify, measure, and map issu... more In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new methods to identify, measure, and map issues of social and regional equity. Yet it is not always
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2010
... Dana Rowan, Alex Karner, and Deb Niemeier 8 ... By means of a discrete choice model, it was s... more ... Dana Rowan, Alex Karner, and Deb Niemeier 8 ... By means of a discrete choice model, it was shown that transportation experts were more likely to calculate fuel sav-ings with a linear approach when given fuel economy in miles per gallon. ...
ABSTRACT The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) replaced the state's Divi... more ABSTRACT The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) replaced the state's Division of Highways on 1 July 1973. Consistent with the creation of other state departments of transportation throughout the U.S.A. at the time, the enabling legislation envisioned a multimodal agency that would shift transportation policy and planning away from its highway emphasis. Competing conceptions of multimodalism and regional transportation governance advanced by key actors heavily influenced the policies and plans they proposed. Eventually, public and local government opposition to the implementation of multimodal transportation policies diminished the state's role while elevating the responsibilities of voluntary regional planning agencies. California's contemporary transportation policy goals remain similar to those that prevailed when Caltrans was created - reducing automobile dependency and promoting compact urban forms - but its transportation institutions were designed precisely to oppose their achievement. Supportive public coalitions now offer the best hope for realizing the state's multimodal dreams.
Science and Engineering Ethics, 2010
In this paper we seek to document what, if any, divergences exist between how experts and 'lay' p... more In this paper we seek to document what, if any, divergences exist between how experts and 'lay' people conceptualize the energy used in automobiles, motivated by previously-documented divergences in the home energy sector. From a total of 15 interviews with 19 individuals, we identify several common ways 'lay' people think about automobile energy use, and draw a number of conclusions relevant to the development of transportation energy policy. In our informants' minds, automobiles use gasoline, rather than a more generic form of energy, and they therefore have a difficult time comparing energy use across activities. When asked to compare their total energy use for both residential and transportation activities, informants used dollars to provide a common unit of measurement. Our informants thought of automobile efficiency almost exclusively as fuel economy and were aware of it, albeit based on inconsistent methods and varying degrees of rigor. They measure fuel economy almost exclusively in miles per gallon and demonstrated easy familiarity with this measure-they were very comfortable comparing their present cars with past cars, or with other cars in terms of fuel economy. However, the prevalence of this volumetric, moreis-better measure may present challenges for communication as alternative fuels (e.g. electricity) gain market share because such fuels may not comport with this measure in an intuitive way. Indash fuel economy displays seem to have made some drivers more aware that driving behavior is a factor in realized fuel economy, although it appears that this link could be strengthened if displays were to provide more pertinent information. However, in contrast to home energy use where active management is a primary means of saving energy, automobile energy use is considered primarily at the point of purchase rather than in daily driving decisions. Finally, our informants tended to eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. evaluate their fuel economy relative to a benchmark of some kind, whether CAFE standards or their perception of the fleet (or vehicle class) average.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
... Cellular Automaton Approach Gregory Gould and Alex Karner 157 ... As an alternative to field ... more ... Cellular Automaton Approach Gregory Gould and Alex Karner 157 ... As an alternative to field observations, Navin (11) conducted a controlled experiment observing 11-to 14-year-old childrenriding on a 2.5-m wide oval track following a lead cyclist whose speed was varied. ...
Journal of the American Planning Association, 2010
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2014
Smart growth policy and planning have tended to emphasize urban centers and regions, yet rural co... more Smart growth policy and planning have tended to emphasize urban centers and regions, yet rural communities can also be important sites of innovation. Recent work demonstrated that these communities had surprisingly high levels of current and potential nonmotorized travel. Legislation in California mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across all of the state's metropolitan planning organization (MPO) regions, including the heavily rural San Joaquin Valley. Advocates for rural communities are finding common cause with more traditional environmental organizations around the vision of investing in and enhancing extant rural places as an alternative to leapfrog patterns of urban and suburban sprawl. Because of existing patterns of extreme disparity and legion underserved unincorporated communities, analyses that can help integrate social equity within regional planning are needed to serve and empower rural residents. This paper presents the results of several new analyses of the social equity dimensions of regional transportation plans in the San Joaquin Valley. Activity-based travel model data were used to analyze equity, with a particular focus placed on eight disadvantaged unincorporated communities identified by community advocates to be important demonstration sites. The investigators showed how improvements to traditional equity analysis could enhance the consideration of equity in the planning process and compared the results developed by innovative techniques with those obtained by use of their traditional counterparts. The methods outlined here can make substantial contributions to reduce disparities in rural communities, which would likely be overlooked in typical regional equity analyses because of their small size, and offer lessons for MPOs serving rural areas across the country.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by governme... more Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by government agencies as an 'environmental justice' community. This work describes a series of sequentially implemented policies to mitigate local diesel truck impacts resulting from goods movement activity at two port facilities while simultaneously improving traffic operations in the communities of Barrio Logan, San Diego and Old Town, National City, both low-income communities of color.
Journal of Transport Geography, 2013
Metropolitan planning organizations typically undertake an analysis of regional transportation pl... more Metropolitan planning organizations typically undertake an analysis of regional transportation plan equity to comply with federal anti-discrimination law, most prominently Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In this critical review, we examine the law, regulatory guidance, academic research, and agency practice pertinent to equity analysis. We find that recommendations are extensive but generally lack specificity and are rarely enforceable. In the absence of detailed guidance, practice has become dominated by a single method that has foundations in the spatial analysis of environmental exposures and the neighborhood effects literature. We argue that this method is not appropriate for the analysis of transportation investment benefits, in part because target populations must be defined a priori based on demographic thresholds for areal units rather than on the basis of exposure. Further, it does not represent the travel behavior of Title VI-protected populations adequately, most notably people of color. Newer travel demand modeling paradigms are capable of sidestepping methodological problems, and legacy models can be adapted and improved. However, agencies generally have not shifted from traditional methods and planners do not view race as a variable relevant to travel behavior. By relying on an analytical technique that is not likely to reflect the travel behavior of people of color, planning agencies reduce the likelihood that racially disparate outcomes will be identified and mitigated. Meaningful transportation equity analyses must include an assessment of both current and near-term conditions and provide racially specific outcomes, while seeking to mitigate inequities through programming decisions.
Environmental Science & Technology, 2010
Environmental Justice, 2009
In this article, we outline the important role that environmental justice organizations played in... more In this article, we outline the important role that environmental justice organizations played in the development of AB 32, California's landmark climate change legislation (AB 32) in ensuring that a wide range of environmental justice ideas were incorporated into policy. We distinguish between the formal elements contained in the legislation and the discursive impacts, particularly in relation to public health concerns and about cap and trade and market mechanisms. Drawing from interviews, public documents, and legislative archives, we document the process by which these diverse environmental justice elements were incorporated into AB 32 to ask a seemingly simple question. Is California really ''best in show'' when it comes to climate and environmental justice policy? The complex politics involved in the drafting and passage of the legislation show to what extent environmental justice organizations played in AB 32's passage. We then argue that understanding the contentiousness in how AB 32 was drafted lends insight and context to the ongoing conflicts over the implementation of AB 32, specifically the role of cap and trade and market mechanisms more generally. Given the historical and continuing prominence of California in national and environmental policy development, the intersection of environmental justice movements with the development of state policy, described here, has larger implications for the broader climate justice movement and the complicated engagement between social movements and policy-making.
Energy Policy, 2008
With the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32), California has begun an ambi... more With the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32), California has begun an ambitious journey to reduce in-state GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Under the direction of executive order S-20-06, a mandated Market Advisory Committee (MAC) charged with studying market-based mechanisms to reduce GHG emissions, including cap and trade systems, has recommended taking an "upstream" approach to GHG emissions regulation, arguing that upstream regulation will reduce administrative costs because there are fewer agents. In this paper, we argue that, the total costs to society of a GHG cap and trade scheme can be minimized though downstream regulation, rather than the widely proposed upstream approach. We propose a household carbon trading system with four major components: a state allocation to households, household-to-household trading, households to utility company credit transfers, and utility companies to government credit transfers. The proposed system can also be considered eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. more equitable than carbon taxes and upstream cap and trade systems to control GHG emissions from residential energy use and is consistent with AB32.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by governme... more Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by government agencies as an 'environmental justice' community. This work describes a series of sequentially implemented policies to mitigate local diesel truck impacts resulting from goods movement activity at two port facilities while simultaneously improving traffic operations in the communities of Barrio Logan, San Diego and Old Town, National City, both low-income communities of color.
Current concerns surrounding regional air pollution, climate change, rising gasoline prices and u... more Current concerns surrounding regional air pollution, climate change, rising gasoline prices and urban congestion could presage a substantial increase in bicycle mode share. However, state-ofthe-art methods for the safe and efficient design of bicycle facilities are based on difficult to collect data and potentially dubious assumptions regarding cyclist behavior. Simulation models offer a way forward, but existing bicycling models in the academic literature have not been validated using actual data. This paper addresses these shortcomings by obtaining real-world bicycle data and implementing a multilane, inhomogeneous cellular automaton simulation model that can reproduce observations. The existing literature is reviewed to inform the data collection and model development. It is found that the model emulates field conditions while possibly under-predicting bike path capacity. Since the simulation model can "observe" individual cyclists, it is ideally suited to determine level of service based on difficult to observe cycling events such as passing. The conclusion suggests future work on data collection and model development.
Journal of Transport & Health, 2015
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new methods to identify, measure, and map issu... more In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new methods to identify, measure, and map issues of social and regional equity. Yet it is not always
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2010
... Dana Rowan, Alex Karner, and Deb Niemeier 8 ... By means of a discrete choice model, it was s... more ... Dana Rowan, Alex Karner, and Deb Niemeier 8 ... By means of a discrete choice model, it was shown that transportation experts were more likely to calculate fuel sav-ings with a linear approach when given fuel economy in miles per gallon. ...
ABSTRACT The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) replaced the state's Divi... more ABSTRACT The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) replaced the state's Division of Highways on 1 July 1973. Consistent with the creation of other state departments of transportation throughout the U.S.A. at the time, the enabling legislation envisioned a multimodal agency that would shift transportation policy and planning away from its highway emphasis. Competing conceptions of multimodalism and regional transportation governance advanced by key actors heavily influenced the policies and plans they proposed. Eventually, public and local government opposition to the implementation of multimodal transportation policies diminished the state's role while elevating the responsibilities of voluntary regional planning agencies. California's contemporary transportation policy goals remain similar to those that prevailed when Caltrans was created - reducing automobile dependency and promoting compact urban forms - but its transportation institutions were designed precisely to oppose their achievement. Supportive public coalitions now offer the best hope for realizing the state's multimodal dreams.
Science and Engineering Ethics, 2010
In this paper we seek to document what, if any, divergences exist between how experts and 'lay' p... more In this paper we seek to document what, if any, divergences exist between how experts and 'lay' people conceptualize the energy used in automobiles, motivated by previously-documented divergences in the home energy sector. From a total of 15 interviews with 19 individuals, we identify several common ways 'lay' people think about automobile energy use, and draw a number of conclusions relevant to the development of transportation energy policy. In our informants' minds, automobiles use gasoline, rather than a more generic form of energy, and they therefore have a difficult time comparing energy use across activities. When asked to compare their total energy use for both residential and transportation activities, informants used dollars to provide a common unit of measurement. Our informants thought of automobile efficiency almost exclusively as fuel economy and were aware of it, albeit based on inconsistent methods and varying degrees of rigor. They measure fuel economy almost exclusively in miles per gallon and demonstrated easy familiarity with this measure-they were very comfortable comparing their present cars with past cars, or with other cars in terms of fuel economy. However, the prevalence of this volumetric, moreis-better measure may present challenges for communication as alternative fuels (e.g. electricity) gain market share because such fuels may not comport with this measure in an intuitive way. Indash fuel economy displays seem to have made some drivers more aware that driving behavior is a factor in realized fuel economy, although it appears that this link could be strengthened if displays were to provide more pertinent information. However, in contrast to home energy use where active management is a primary means of saving energy, automobile energy use is considered primarily at the point of purchase rather than in daily driving decisions. Finally, our informants tended to eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. evaluate their fuel economy relative to a benchmark of some kind, whether CAFE standards or their perception of the fleet (or vehicle class) average.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
... Cellular Automaton Approach Gregory Gould and Alex Karner 157 ... As an alternative to field ... more ... Cellular Automaton Approach Gregory Gould and Alex Karner 157 ... As an alternative to field observations, Navin (11) conducted a controlled experiment observing 11-to 14-year-old childrenriding on a 2.5-m wide oval track following a lead cyclist whose speed was varied. ...
Journal of the American Planning Association, 2010
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2014
Smart growth policy and planning have tended to emphasize urban centers and regions, yet rural co... more Smart growth policy and planning have tended to emphasize urban centers and regions, yet rural communities can also be important sites of innovation. Recent work demonstrated that these communities had surprisingly high levels of current and potential nonmotorized travel. Legislation in California mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across all of the state's metropolitan planning organization (MPO) regions, including the heavily rural San Joaquin Valley. Advocates for rural communities are finding common cause with more traditional environmental organizations around the vision of investing in and enhancing extant rural places as an alternative to leapfrog patterns of urban and suburban sprawl. Because of existing patterns of extreme disparity and legion underserved unincorporated communities, analyses that can help integrate social equity within regional planning are needed to serve and empower rural residents. This paper presents the results of several new analyses of the social equity dimensions of regional transportation plans in the San Joaquin Valley. Activity-based travel model data were used to analyze equity, with a particular focus placed on eight disadvantaged unincorporated communities identified by community advocates to be important demonstration sites. The investigators showed how improvements to traditional equity analysis could enhance the consideration of equity in the planning process and compared the results developed by innovative techniques with those obtained by use of their traditional counterparts. The methods outlined here can make substantial contributions to reduce disparities in rural communities, which would likely be overlooked in typical regional equity analyses because of their small size, and offer lessons for MPOs serving rural areas across the country.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2009
Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by governme... more Background: Barrio Logan is a neighborhood of San Diego, California and is recognized by government agencies as an 'environmental justice' community. This work describes a series of sequentially implemented policies to mitigate local diesel truck impacts resulting from goods movement activity at two port facilities while simultaneously improving traffic operations in the communities of Barrio Logan, San Diego and Old Town, National City, both low-income communities of color.
Journal of Transport Geography, 2013
Metropolitan planning organizations typically undertake an analysis of regional transportation pl... more Metropolitan planning organizations typically undertake an analysis of regional transportation plan equity to comply with federal anti-discrimination law, most prominently Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In this critical review, we examine the law, regulatory guidance, academic research, and agency practice pertinent to equity analysis. We find that recommendations are extensive but generally lack specificity and are rarely enforceable. In the absence of detailed guidance, practice has become dominated by a single method that has foundations in the spatial analysis of environmental exposures and the neighborhood effects literature. We argue that this method is not appropriate for the analysis of transportation investment benefits, in part because target populations must be defined a priori based on demographic thresholds for areal units rather than on the basis of exposure. Further, it does not represent the travel behavior of Title VI-protected populations adequately, most notably people of color. Newer travel demand modeling paradigms are capable of sidestepping methodological problems, and legacy models can be adapted and improved. However, agencies generally have not shifted from traditional methods and planners do not view race as a variable relevant to travel behavior. By relying on an analytical technique that is not likely to reflect the travel behavior of people of color, planning agencies reduce the likelihood that racially disparate outcomes will be identified and mitigated. Meaningful transportation equity analyses must include an assessment of both current and near-term conditions and provide racially specific outcomes, while seeking to mitigate inequities through programming decisions.
Environmental Science & Technology, 2010
Environmental Justice, 2009
In this article, we outline the important role that environmental justice organizations played in... more In this article, we outline the important role that environmental justice organizations played in the development of AB 32, California's landmark climate change legislation (AB 32) in ensuring that a wide range of environmental justice ideas were incorporated into policy. We distinguish between the formal elements contained in the legislation and the discursive impacts, particularly in relation to public health concerns and about cap and trade and market mechanisms. Drawing from interviews, public documents, and legislative archives, we document the process by which these diverse environmental justice elements were incorporated into AB 32 to ask a seemingly simple question. Is California really ''best in show'' when it comes to climate and environmental justice policy? The complex politics involved in the drafting and passage of the legislation show to what extent environmental justice organizations played in AB 32's passage. We then argue that understanding the contentiousness in how AB 32 was drafted lends insight and context to the ongoing conflicts over the implementation of AB 32, specifically the role of cap and trade and market mechanisms more generally. Given the historical and continuing prominence of California in national and environmental policy development, the intersection of environmental justice movements with the development of state policy, described here, has larger implications for the broader climate justice movement and the complicated engagement between social movements and policy-making.
Energy Policy, 2008
With the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32), California has begun an ambi... more With the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB32), California has begun an ambitious journey to reduce in-state GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Under the direction of executive order S-20-06, a mandated Market Advisory Committee (MAC) charged with studying market-based mechanisms to reduce GHG emissions, including cap and trade systems, has recommended taking an "upstream" approach to GHG emissions regulation, arguing that upstream regulation will reduce administrative costs because there are fewer agents. In this paper, we argue that, the total costs to society of a GHG cap and trade scheme can be minimized though downstream regulation, rather than the widely proposed upstream approach. We propose a household carbon trading system with four major components: a state allocation to households, household-to-household trading, households to utility company credit transfers, and utility companies to government credit transfers. The proposed system can also be considered eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. more equitable than carbon taxes and upstream cap and trade systems to control GHG emissions from residential energy use and is consistent with AB32.