John Niles | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (original) (raw)

Papers by John Niles

The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University assigned a project team to... more The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University assigned a project team to design a planning template for transit-oriented development (TOD) that incorporates an understanding of nonwork travel, that is, trips for shopping, eating out, and engaging in recreational and cultural activities. Nonwork trips are growing in signifigance and now account for four of every five trips. At the same time, TOD has become a popular planning response to the impacts of metropolitan growth. Some planners believe that TOD will induce more pedestrian and transit trips and will reduce the average length and frequency of household auto travel. This effect is assumed to result from improved accessibility to employment and nonwork venues located in compact, mixed-use centers. Planning professionals in many MPOs also suggest that if multiple centers are linked by high quality transit, such as light or heavy rail, access is enabled to the broad range of nonwork activities. The project arrived at these essential findings: (1) Venues for nonwork activities are very numerous and geographically dispersed. (2) The spatial environment for nonwork activities is the result of growing prosperity, technical innovation, and a dynamic, competitive marketplace. (3) The consumer marketplace will provide many more places to go than mass transit can cost-effectively serve. (4) Current metropolitan planning methods and modeling tools focus on the work trip and do not adequately account for the complexity of nonwork trips and their linkage to work trips. These findings support the need for a new regional planning process to complement current methods. One recommended approach is that metropolitan communities establish a Nonwork Travel Improvement Planning Process using a multidisciplinary expert advisory group interacting with a core, Internet-enabled, professional transportation planning staff. An iterative interaction across varied but relevant skill sets could be achieved through a Backcasting Delphi process. The focus of the interaction would be on understanding the ramifications of consumer and retail industry behavior for TOD and other new transportation strategies, and then assessing the available strategies for cost-effectiveness in reducing the impacts of growth and automobility in a complex and uncertain metropolitan market.

Transport Problems, 2021

We examine the relative impact of increased housing vs. increased parking availability on ridersh... more We examine the relative impact of increased housing vs. increased parking availability on ridership of public transit. The approach sheds light on the trade-off in alternative land uses near transit stops: park-and-ride (PnR) vs. transit-oriented development (TOD). In the example of one city studied here, econometric analysis suggests that PnR provides more transit ridership than housing. However, the transit agency may choose the alternative of reducing PnR and partnering with housing developers as a source of new non-fare revenue that creates vibrant, walkable growth in station areas, which is considered to be just as important as ridership.

Pemberdayaan masyarakat merupakan treding topik setiap kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat, hal... more Pemberdayaan masyarakat merupakan treding topik setiap kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat, hal ini dibuktikan dengan sasaran utama oleh perguruan tinggi dalam melaksanakan tugas dan fungsinya sebagai lembaga pendidikan tinggi yang kompeten sehingga dengan keberadaan perguruan tinggi di setiap daerah membawa dampak positif bagi masyarakat. Pemberdayaan yang dimaksudkan disini adalah berkaitan dengan nawacita presiden yakni melalui revolusi mental khususnya membentuk pola pikir masyarakat kesadaran atas kebersihan dan kemandirian dengan memanfaatkan potensi yang ada di desanya masing-masing. Selama pelasakaan kegiatan ini, rata-rata masyarakat tidak menyadari akan potensi yang dapat dimanfaatkan untuk kemandirian desanya yang dapat menumbuhkembangkan pemasukan bagi desanya. Dari hasil pelaksanaan kegiatan terlihat bahwa kurangnya kepedulian masyarakat baik yang ada di desa tanjung buka maupun desa gunung putih akan kebersihan, terlihat bahwa masih banyaknya sampah yang berserakan di sekitar jalan dikarenakan tidak tersedianya tempat sampah. Kemudian sampah-sampah yang ada juga belum dimanfaatkan secara maksimal. Serta pemanfaatan potensi di desa-desa tersebut juga tidak dimanfaatkan, padahal selian tanah yang subur potensi aliran sungai dan gunung yang belum dikelola dengan baik.

Public Productivity Review, 1976

National Civic Review, 1990

Conventional wisdom holds that suburban public transportation officials need to wage war against ... more Conventional wisdom holds that suburban public transportation officials need to wage war against the American love affair with the automobile. A new, more constructive wisdom presented here suggests that public transportation officials try to create an Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS) application that exploits that love affair. Computerized message processing and portable wireless telecommunications permit the creation of a new mode of public transportation, called here Intelligent High Occupancy Vehicle, or IHOV. This mode combines a high-tech instant rideshare request system with incentives for drivers to invite passengers into their otherwise single-occupant vehicles (SOVs). Flexible single-trip carpooling occurs as opportunities present themselves in the matching system that are safe and convenient for both driver and potential passenger. Phone calls to a friendly computer, which processes voice messages and other information, let people find other people who are also a...

Modern Trends and Research in Intermodal Transportation, 2022

In order to save time and money by not driving to an ultimate destination, some urban commuters d... more In order to save time and money by not driving to an ultimate destination, some urban commuters drive themselves a few miles to specially designated parking lots built for transit customers and located where trains or buses stop. The focus of this paper is the effect Park-and-Ride (P&R) lots have on the efficiency of bus transit as measured in five bus transit systems in the western U.S. This study describes a series of probes with models and data to find objective P&R influence measures that, when combined with other readily-available data, permit a quantitative assessment of the significance of P&R on transit efficiency. The authors developed and describe techniques that examine P&R as an influence on transit boardings at bus stops and on bus boardings along an entire route. The regression results reported are based on the two in-depth case studies for which sufficient data were obtained to examine (using econometric techniques) the effects of park-and-ride availability on bus tra...

Public transit ridership in California declined in the five years before the pandemic of 2020–21 ... more Public transit ridership in California declined in the five years before the pandemic of 2020–21 and dropped significantly further after the pandemic began. A sharp downward step in the level of transit boarding occurred after February 2020, and continues to the date of this report as a result of the public-health guidance on social distancing, expanded work-at-home, and a travel mode shift from public transit to private cars. A critical issue has come to the foreground of public transportation policy, namely, how to increase the quality and geographic reach of transit service to better serve the essential trips of mobility disadvantaged citizens who do not have access to private vehicle travel. The research focus of this report is an examination of the circumstances where fixed route bus route service could cost-effectively be replaced by on-demand microtransit, with equivalent overall zone-level efficiency and a higher quality of complete trip service. Research methods were review...

Despite the sharp drop in transit ridership throughout the USA that began in March 2020, two diff... more Despite the sharp drop in transit ridership throughout the USA that began in March 2020, two different uses of land near transit stations continue to be implemented in the United States to promote ridership. Since 2010, transit agencies have given priority to multi-family residential construction referred to as transit oriented development (TOD), with an emphasis on housing affordability. In second place for urban planners but popular with suburban commuters is free or inexpensive parking near rail or bus transit centers, known as park-and-ride (PnR). Sometimes, TOD and PnR are combined in the same development. Public policy seeks to gain high community value from both of these land uses, and there is public interest in understanding the circumstances and locations where one of these two uses should be emphasized over the other. Multiple justifications for each are offered in the professional literature and reviewed in this report. Fundamental to the strategic decision making necess...

Note to Readers from the Authors This final report does not substantially change the findings, re... more Note to Readers from the Authors This final report does not substantially change the findings, recommendations and conclusions of the draft released on July 25, 2001 but clarifies language and makes technical corrections pointed out by readers. We have also appended a number of short reports bearing on the topic we and others have released since July 25. In addition to addressing the future use of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, this report is intended to stimulate discussion regarding the future of public transportation in the Puget Sound region at this critical juncture for decision makers. We appreciate the cooperation of staff from King County Council, Metro, and Sound Transit in providing us with the planning documents and other information from which we reached our findings, conclusions, and recommendations. We seek open, collegial dialogue with those having different data, conclusions, and recommendations for regional transit, and we encourage review and critique of this...

The economic forecasting and policy analysis tool used for this research was developed by Regiona... more The economic forecasting and policy analysis tool used for this research was developed by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI). The REMI Model is a dynamic, multi-region economic simulation model that encompasses input-output relationships, calibrated to regional data for user-designated regions. For this project, the researchers designated four regions: Madera County, Fresno County, Merced County, and the Rest-of-California.

Lecture Notes in Mobility, 2017

Mti Report, Jun 1, 2010

MTI works to provide policy-oriented research for all levels of government and the private sector... more MTI works to provide policy-oriented research for all levels of government and the private sector to foster the development of optimum surface transportation systems. Research areas include: transportation security; planning and policy development; interrelationships among transportation, land use, and the environment; transportation finance; and collaborative labormanagement relations. Certified Research Associates conduct the research. Certification requires an advanced degree, generally a Ph.D., a record of academic publications, and professional references. Research projects culminate in a peer-reviewed publication, available both in hardcopy and on TransWeb, the MTI website (http://transweb.sjsu.edu).

The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University assigned a project team to... more The Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San José State University assigned a project team to design a planning template for transit-oriented development (TOD) that incorporates an understanding of nonwork travel, that is, trips for shopping, eating out, and engaging in recreational and cultural activities. Nonwork trips are growing in signifigance and now account for four of every five trips. At the same time, TOD has become a popular planning response to the impacts of metropolitan growth. Some planners believe that TOD will induce more pedestrian and transit trips and will reduce the average length and frequency of household auto travel. This effect is assumed to result from improved accessibility to employment and nonwork venues located in compact, mixed-use centers. Planning professionals in many MPOs also suggest that if multiple centers are linked by high quality transit, such as light or heavy rail, access is enabled to the broad range of nonwork activities. The project arrived at these essential findings: (1) Venues for nonwork activities are very numerous and geographically dispersed. (2) The spatial environment for nonwork activities is the result of growing prosperity, technical innovation, and a dynamic, competitive marketplace. (3) The consumer marketplace will provide many more places to go than mass transit can cost-effectively serve. (4) Current metropolitan planning methods and modeling tools focus on the work trip and do not adequately account for the complexity of nonwork trips and their linkage to work trips. These findings support the need for a new regional planning process to complement current methods. One recommended approach is that metropolitan communities establish a Nonwork Travel Improvement Planning Process using a multidisciplinary expert advisory group interacting with a core, Internet-enabled, professional transportation planning staff. An iterative interaction across varied but relevant skill sets could be achieved through a Backcasting Delphi process. The focus of the interaction would be on understanding the ramifications of consumer and retail industry behavior for TOD and other new transportation strategies, and then assessing the available strategies for cost-effectiveness in reducing the impacts of growth and automobility in a complex and uncertain metropolitan market.

Transport Problems, 2021

We examine the relative impact of increased housing vs. increased parking availability on ridersh... more We examine the relative impact of increased housing vs. increased parking availability on ridership of public transit. The approach sheds light on the trade-off in alternative land uses near transit stops: park-and-ride (PnR) vs. transit-oriented development (TOD). In the example of one city studied here, econometric analysis suggests that PnR provides more transit ridership than housing. However, the transit agency may choose the alternative of reducing PnR and partnering with housing developers as a source of new non-fare revenue that creates vibrant, walkable growth in station areas, which is considered to be just as important as ridership.

Pemberdayaan masyarakat merupakan treding topik setiap kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat, hal... more Pemberdayaan masyarakat merupakan treding topik setiap kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat, hal ini dibuktikan dengan sasaran utama oleh perguruan tinggi dalam melaksanakan tugas dan fungsinya sebagai lembaga pendidikan tinggi yang kompeten sehingga dengan keberadaan perguruan tinggi di setiap daerah membawa dampak positif bagi masyarakat. Pemberdayaan yang dimaksudkan disini adalah berkaitan dengan nawacita presiden yakni melalui revolusi mental khususnya membentuk pola pikir masyarakat kesadaran atas kebersihan dan kemandirian dengan memanfaatkan potensi yang ada di desanya masing-masing. Selama pelasakaan kegiatan ini, rata-rata masyarakat tidak menyadari akan potensi yang dapat dimanfaatkan untuk kemandirian desanya yang dapat menumbuhkembangkan pemasukan bagi desanya. Dari hasil pelaksanaan kegiatan terlihat bahwa kurangnya kepedulian masyarakat baik yang ada di desa tanjung buka maupun desa gunung putih akan kebersihan, terlihat bahwa masih banyaknya sampah yang berserakan di sekitar jalan dikarenakan tidak tersedianya tempat sampah. Kemudian sampah-sampah yang ada juga belum dimanfaatkan secara maksimal. Serta pemanfaatan potensi di desa-desa tersebut juga tidak dimanfaatkan, padahal selian tanah yang subur potensi aliran sungai dan gunung yang belum dikelola dengan baik.

Public Productivity Review, 1976

National Civic Review, 1990

Conventional wisdom holds that suburban public transportation officials need to wage war against ... more Conventional wisdom holds that suburban public transportation officials need to wage war against the American love affair with the automobile. A new, more constructive wisdom presented here suggests that public transportation officials try to create an Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS) application that exploits that love affair. Computerized message processing and portable wireless telecommunications permit the creation of a new mode of public transportation, called here Intelligent High Occupancy Vehicle, or IHOV. This mode combines a high-tech instant rideshare request system with incentives for drivers to invite passengers into their otherwise single-occupant vehicles (SOVs). Flexible single-trip carpooling occurs as opportunities present themselves in the matching system that are safe and convenient for both driver and potential passenger. Phone calls to a friendly computer, which processes voice messages and other information, let people find other people who are also a...

Modern Trends and Research in Intermodal Transportation, 2022

In order to save time and money by not driving to an ultimate destination, some urban commuters d... more In order to save time and money by not driving to an ultimate destination, some urban commuters drive themselves a few miles to specially designated parking lots built for transit customers and located where trains or buses stop. The focus of this paper is the effect Park-and-Ride (P&R) lots have on the efficiency of bus transit as measured in five bus transit systems in the western U.S. This study describes a series of probes with models and data to find objective P&R influence measures that, when combined with other readily-available data, permit a quantitative assessment of the significance of P&R on transit efficiency. The authors developed and describe techniques that examine P&R as an influence on transit boardings at bus stops and on bus boardings along an entire route. The regression results reported are based on the two in-depth case studies for which sufficient data were obtained to examine (using econometric techniques) the effects of park-and-ride availability on bus tra...

Public transit ridership in California declined in the five years before the pandemic of 2020–21 ... more Public transit ridership in California declined in the five years before the pandemic of 2020–21 and dropped significantly further after the pandemic began. A sharp downward step in the level of transit boarding occurred after February 2020, and continues to the date of this report as a result of the public-health guidance on social distancing, expanded work-at-home, and a travel mode shift from public transit to private cars. A critical issue has come to the foreground of public transportation policy, namely, how to increase the quality and geographic reach of transit service to better serve the essential trips of mobility disadvantaged citizens who do not have access to private vehicle travel. The research focus of this report is an examination of the circumstances where fixed route bus route service could cost-effectively be replaced by on-demand microtransit, with equivalent overall zone-level efficiency and a higher quality of complete trip service. Research methods were review...

Despite the sharp drop in transit ridership throughout the USA that began in March 2020, two diff... more Despite the sharp drop in transit ridership throughout the USA that began in March 2020, two different uses of land near transit stations continue to be implemented in the United States to promote ridership. Since 2010, transit agencies have given priority to multi-family residential construction referred to as transit oriented development (TOD), with an emphasis on housing affordability. In second place for urban planners but popular with suburban commuters is free or inexpensive parking near rail or bus transit centers, known as park-and-ride (PnR). Sometimes, TOD and PnR are combined in the same development. Public policy seeks to gain high community value from both of these land uses, and there is public interest in understanding the circumstances and locations where one of these two uses should be emphasized over the other. Multiple justifications for each are offered in the professional literature and reviewed in this report. Fundamental to the strategic decision making necess...

Note to Readers from the Authors This final report does not substantially change the findings, re... more Note to Readers from the Authors This final report does not substantially change the findings, recommendations and conclusions of the draft released on July 25, 2001 but clarifies language and makes technical corrections pointed out by readers. We have also appended a number of short reports bearing on the topic we and others have released since July 25. In addition to addressing the future use of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, this report is intended to stimulate discussion regarding the future of public transportation in the Puget Sound region at this critical juncture for decision makers. We appreciate the cooperation of staff from King County Council, Metro, and Sound Transit in providing us with the planning documents and other information from which we reached our findings, conclusions, and recommendations. We seek open, collegial dialogue with those having different data, conclusions, and recommendations for regional transit, and we encourage review and critique of this...

The economic forecasting and policy analysis tool used for this research was developed by Regiona... more The economic forecasting and policy analysis tool used for this research was developed by Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI). The REMI Model is a dynamic, multi-region economic simulation model that encompasses input-output relationships, calibrated to regional data for user-designated regions. For this project, the researchers designated four regions: Madera County, Fresno County, Merced County, and the Rest-of-California.

Lecture Notes in Mobility, 2017

Mti Report, Jun 1, 2010

MTI works to provide policy-oriented research for all levels of government and the private sector... more MTI works to provide policy-oriented research for all levels of government and the private sector to foster the development of optimum surface transportation systems. Research areas include: transportation security; planning and policy development; interrelationships among transportation, land use, and the environment; transportation finance; and collaborative labormanagement relations. Certified Research Associates conduct the research. Certification requires an advanced degree, generally a Ph.D., a record of academic publications, and professional references. Research projects culminate in a peer-reviewed publication, available both in hardcopy and on TransWeb, the MTI website (http://transweb.sjsu.edu).