Andrew Mondschein | University of Virginia (original) (raw)

Papers by Andrew Mondschein

This project explores ways that communities can reclaim control over their streets as Connected a... more This project explores ways that communities can reclaim control over their streets as Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and associated technologies become part of the urban fabric. The historic loss of flexible public space associated with the introduction of cars in the early 20th century and emerging concerns about management of CAVs today indicate that local governments and communities must find new ways to assert control over the planning and operation of streets. We define how technology can serve as a common language between communities and CAVs, allowing localities additional participation into the management of streets and what the rules of a CAV-accessible road network should be. Critical to this approach is a direct relationship between policy and technology, with planners and regulators using technology to accomplish long-standing social objectives. Our analysis builds on prior work in transportation planning, policy, engineering, and sociology. We investigate how cities and communities have already begun to reimagine the use and management of streets in the face of disruptive technologies and diverse needs for which existing practices are inadequate. Building on current efforts in transportation planning, particularly efforts to increase flexibility and "tactical" action in streets, we propose strategies for increasing local control over urban streets using technologies inherent to CAVs. These strategies do not prescribe a single approach for all streets, but acknowledge differences of place and culture by returning decision-making power to the people living alongside those streets.

Center for Embedded Network Sensing, 2007

A new mobility application Each of us has a complex and reciprocal relationship with our environm... more A new mobility application Each of us has a complex and reciprocal relationship with our environment. Based on limited knowledge of this interwoven set of influences and consequences, we constantly make choices: where to live, how to go to work, what brands to buy, what to do with our leisure time. These choices evolve into patterns, and these patterns become driving functions of our relationship with the world around us. With increasing ease, devices we carry can sense, process, and transmit data on these patterns for our own use or to share, carefully, with others. In particular, here we will focus on location time series, gathered from GPS-enabled personal mobile devices. From this capacity emerges a new class of hybrid mobile-web applications that, first, enable personal exploration of our own patterns and, second, use the same data to index our life into other available datasets about the world around us. Such applications, revealing the previously unobservable about our own lives, offer an opportunity to employ mobile technology to illuminate the ramifications of our choices on others and the effects of the "microenvironments" we move through on us. This paper proposes and demonstrates how easily gathered location time series data can be used as an index into geospatial models to infer personal environmental impact and exposure. It focuses on three areas of interaction between individuals and the environment: transportation mode choice, overall carbon footprint, and opportunities for healthy eating. This class of applications represents a novel use of mobile systems, web-based mapping, and geospatial data and services. They pose interesting technical challenges and require multidisciplinary research.

2015Final ReportPDFTech ReportDTRT13-G-UTC33Land use planningMaster plansModal shiftMode choicePo... more 2015Final ReportPDFTech ReportDTRT13-G-UTC33Land use planningMaster plansModal shiftMode choicePolicy analysisSustainable transportationTravel patternsVehicle miles of travelUnited StatesVirginiaMiddle Atlantic StatesMid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation CenterMondschein, Andrew S.Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation CenterUniversity of VirginiaUniversity of DelawareVirginia Center for Transportation Innovation and ResearchUniversity Transportation Centers Program (U.S.)Ohlms, Peter B.Scott, Marcia S.US Transportation CollectionDiverse states like Virginia, with a mix of urban, suburban, and rural environments and transportation systems, cannot rely on a single approach to increasing transportation sustainability, but require an understanding of what has worked and what might work for the state\u2019s wide range of communities. The Virginia Sustainable Travel Choices project examines travel sustainability across Virginia, exploring how key indicators vary by location and land use patterns. This report asks, how are Virginians increasing the sustainability of their travel today, and what travel choices, by location, may be most effective in the future? For this report, sustainability is defined primarily as long-term environmental benefits from reduced energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The analyses focuses on three potential approaches to achieving sustainability benefits through the transportation system: (1) reduced vehicle miles traveled (VMT), (2) improved vehicle efficiency, and (3) increased travel by alternative modes. This report demonstrates how VMT, vehicle efficiency, and travel mode vary across neighborhoods, counties, and the state as a whole

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2016

It is widely assumed that traffic congestion is a significant burden on the economies of metropol... more It is widely assumed that traffic congestion is a significant burden on the economies of metropolitan regions. In this article, the authors suggest that the relationship between traffic congestion, as defined by the speed of travel across different parts of metropolitan regions, and economic activity is considerably more subtle and complex than is widely assumed. This study analyses the location of new business establishments (start-ups) in metropolitan Los Angeles for two industries, the entertainment and information technology (IT) industries, in 2009. There is a broad literature devoted to understanding why new business establishments locate where they do within regional economies. This research generally finds that firms of “basic” or tradable industries tend to exhibit a high degree of spatial clustering, or agglomeration. Since the performance of certain industries determines the success of regional economies, and co-location –or reduced impedance in the parlance of transportation planners –contributes to within sector productivity, the authors’ work draws on both transportation economics and economic geography to determine how transportation networks and delays on them affect the ability of industries to co-locate within regional economies. The authors’ examination of these two basic industries suggests that while region-wide claims about the effect of traffic congestion on economic activity may have merit in the aggregate, it is more likely the case that accessibility is distinctively different among industries.

Routledge eBooks, Jul 28, 2017

The 1999 Annual Symposium Series on The Transportation, Land Use, and Environment Connection, spo... more The 1999 Annual Symposium Series on The Transportation, Land Use, and Environment Connection, sponsored by the UCLA Extension Public Policy Program, took place October 24-26, 1999 at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, California. The special theme for the conference was Inter-Regional Travel and Local Development. The symposium contained nine sessions. These were: 1. Emerging Patterns and Trends in Inter-Regional Travel and Trade; 2. Change and Growth in the Airline Industry: Implications for Airport Planning and Land Use Conflict; 3. High-Speed Rail: Plans, Prospects, and Implications for Metropolitan Development; 4. High-Speed Rail and/or Increased Air Travel: Complementary or Competitive? 5. Highways and Metropolitan Development: Past Experience and Future Prospects; 6. The Restructuring of Maritime Trade: Mega-Ships, Mega-Ports, Mega-Impacts; 7. The Politics of Recent Mega-Projects: Lessons From the Successes and Failures of Major Inter-Regional Transportation Projects; 8. The Environment: Challenges to Air Quality Planning and Mitigation In and Around Inter-Regional Transport Facilities; and 9. Forging Inter-Agency Strategies For Addressing Inter-Regional Travel and Development.

IGI Global eBooks, Mar 4, 2022

Civic technology models propose that urban environmental sensing and analysis can inform communit... more Civic technology models propose that urban environmental sensing and analysis can inform communitybased decision making, but technology-driven planning and design is still subject to systemic challenges including a lack of community trust and local government capacities. This chapter examines the problem of integrating urban sensing into engaged planning and design. The authors assess the outcomes of two planning and design efforts in Virginia, USA utilizing the community-centered urban sensing (CCUS) and engagement platform. Developed by planners, urban designers, landscape architects, and data scientists at the University of Virginia, CCUS addresses the need for actionable information on the urban environment through community-engaged urban data collection and analysis. The cases provide evidence for the importance of engagement around sensing itself. Based on these findings, the authors propose a conceptualization of urban sensing applications that accounts for a range of local contexts from high capacity and trust to dysfunction and mistrust.

Cities & health, Sep 28, 2022

De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 5, 2022

A conference entitled “Alternative Fuel / Advanced Vehicles Technologies & Infrastructure Require... more A conference entitled “Alternative Fuel / Advanced Vehicles Technologies & Infrastructure Requirements: Bringing Innovation to Our Streets” was held in New York, NY at New York University on June 14, 2011. The conference addressed several of the key issues concerning the widespread adoption of low-carbon vehicles in New York State. Panel topics included (1) recent findings and developments in alternative fuels and vehicles, including electric, biofuel, natural gas, and advanced engine technology, (2) infrastructure needs for growth of a low-carbon transportation system, and (3) policy requirements. Panelists and attendees included academic researchers, representatives of the private sector, public agency staff, and advocacy group members. The information disseminated and ensuing discussion has helped build a community of individuals in New York State with the knowledge and motivation to increase adoption of low-carbon alternative vehicles and fuels by government, businesses, and the...

As of February, 1999, 231,766 people were on welfare in Los Angeles. To put these figures into pe... more As of February, 1999, 231,766 people were on welfare in Los Angeles. To put these figures into perspective, Los Angeles has more welfare recipients than every state other than New York and California. With this large and highly diverse caseload comes an enormous bureaucracy, one that has had difficulty responding to the shift in the welfare system from one that guaranteed public assistance to those in need, to a program that now offers temporary financial assistance and mandates employment. Some studies suggest that, among other obstacles to employment, welfare recipients face a spatial separation from jobs and other employment related services. Geographic data for Los Angeles show that there is a spatial mismatch between the residential location of welfare recipients and the location of low wage jobs. However, the mismatch is not one between central city and suburbs, despite job growth in suburban neighbourhoods, the highest concentration of jobs in Los Angeles remains in the centr...

De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 5, 2022

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2017

Cycling and walking are commonly recognized as energy-efficient alternatives to motorized transpo... more Cycling and walking are commonly recognized as energy-efficient alternatives to motorized transport. Research and practice lack a comprehensive set of methods to assess spatiotemporal patterns of traffic volumes across an entire transportation network. Current non-motorized traffic monitoring programs are primarily implemented in urban areas and for singular components of the network (e.g., off-street trails, specific corridors). Our approach synthesizes ongoing efforts in non-motorized traffic monitoring to estimate Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT), across an entire network in Blacksburg, VA-a small, rural college town. We selected count sites across the network, stratified by street functional class (e.g., major roads, local roads), centrality of the link relative to origins and destinations, and planned bicycle facilities. We collected 45,456 h of pedestrian and cyclist counts using three types of automated counters: pneumatic tube (n = 12), passive infrared (n = 10), and radio beam (n = 3) at both reference locations (n = 4; 1-year) and shortduration locations (n = 97; 1-week) during 2015. We found a strong correlation between manual validation counts and automated counts. We used day-of-year scaling factors to estimate AADT for bicycles and pedestrians and found that temporal and spatial patterns differed between modes. Pedestrian volumes were higher and more variable than bicycle volumes (median [interquartile range] AADT for pedestrians: 135 [89-292]; bicycles: 23 [11-43]); both modes were positively correlated with street functional class, presence of facilities, and proximity to campus. Our approach provides insight for planners or policymakers interested in comprehensive monitoring programs to track performance measures or for use in environmental and health impact studies.

Journal of Public Transportation

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2019

Transportation planning research addresses accessibility from diverse approaches, focusing varyin... more Transportation planning research addresses accessibility from diverse approaches, focusing varyingly on the usability of the transportation system as a whole, a particular mode, the pattern of land uses, or the wherewithal of individuals and communities to make use of those systems. One aspect of accessibility that has received relatively little attention from planners is its cognitive, experiential aspect. Individuals' activity and travel choices require not just money and time but also information about opportunities in the city. This component of an individual's accessibility is highly personal but also dependent on the terrain of land uses and transportation options shaped by planners and policymakers. I seek to extend current accessibility research, addressing shortcomings in how the literature deals with individual experience of the city and knowledge. Through a series of empirical analyses of activity patterns and cognitive maps of the iii Los Angeles region, I explor...

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2017

In this paper the authors consider travel across Virginia and identify sustainability sweet spots... more In this paper the authors consider travel across Virginia and identify sustainability sweet spots where commute lengths and vehicle emissions per mile combine to maximize green travel in terms of total CO₂ emissions associated with commuting. The analysis is conducted across local voter precincts (N=2,373 in the state) because they are a useful proxy for neighborhoods and well- sized for implementing policy designed to encourage green behavior. The analysis also shows changes over time. Virginia is especially appropriate for an examination of change because the state’s development, demographic, and political patterns have been changing rapidly. The authors identify four Virginia precinct-based sustainability clusters: Sweet Spots, Emerging Sweet Spots, Neutral and Non-sustaining. A model of demographic differences among the clusters shows that sustainability outcomes are highly associated with the diverse demography of the state. The authors also look at changes in the transportation and socio-demographic trends within the clusters over the past half decade, showing that differences in sustainability and demographic metrics are actually accelerating within the state over time. They conclude with a discussion of the implications of the differences among the clusters for developing and implementing effective transportation sustainability policies across the state.

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2017

New designs, technologies, and rules are all being deployed to make roads more usable for people ... more New designs, technologies, and rules are all being deployed to make roads more usable for people traveling by a variety of modes: walking, biking, transit, and driving. This paper examines whether and how road user education might be better integrated into the multimodal planning process. Interviews with multimodal transportation planners and education specialists, in addition to content analysis of online educational videos geared toward enhancing bicycle capabilities and awareness, reveal a nexus between the significant changes to roads and facilities proposed by planners and road user education. It is found that some multimodal transportation organizations have adopted practices that support education of current road users, with content and approaches that emphasize safe usability and mode shift. Planners can play a distinctive role in the process of educating current and potential users, helping set the “time and place” for education and the content of educational materials and practices. Still, a lack of agreement is evident for planners as to whether current practices fall within their purview. Hurdles that impede planners’ ability to engage in multimodal road user education include inadequate coordination, a lack of funding, and limited training or access to trained specialists and effective content. If users’ capabilities to safely use and be aware of multiple modes are seen as essential to communities’ mobility objectives, a conceptual shift for planners, adding education to traditional expertise in infrastructure and policy, may be required.

Journal of Transport Geography, 2017

Congestion is universally unpopular, but is it always a problem? Are some places more "congestion... more Congestion is universally unpopular, but is it always a problem? Are some places more "congestion-adapted" than others? Using data for Los Angeles, we examine whether the geographies of congestion and accessibility are distinct by mapping and describing them across neighborhoods. We then estimate a series of regression models of trip-making to test the net effects of traffic delays on behavior. We find that there are places where people make many trips and engage in many activities despite lots of congestion, which tend to be more central, built-up areas that host many short trips; in other places, high congestion and low activity coincide. Why the variance? While congestion can constrain mobility and reduce accessibility, traffic is also associated with agglomerations of activity and is thus a byproduct of proximity-based accessibility. Whether agglomeration and congestion have net positive or negative impacts on activity participation thus varies substantially over space. Controlling for factors such as income and working at home, we find that the effects of congestion on access depend on whether congestion-adaptive travel choices (such as walking and making shorter trips to nearby destinations) are viable. Because "congestion-adapted" places tend to host more trip-making, planners may be justified in creating more such places in order to increase accessibility, even if doing so makes absolute levels of congestion worse in the process.

This project explores ways that communities can reclaim control over their streets as Connected a... more This project explores ways that communities can reclaim control over their streets as Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) and associated technologies become part of the urban fabric. The historic loss of flexible public space associated with the introduction of cars in the early 20th century and emerging concerns about management of CAVs today indicate that local governments and communities must find new ways to assert control over the planning and operation of streets. We define how technology can serve as a common language between communities and CAVs, allowing localities additional participation into the management of streets and what the rules of a CAV-accessible road network should be. Critical to this approach is a direct relationship between policy and technology, with planners and regulators using technology to accomplish long-standing social objectives. Our analysis builds on prior work in transportation planning, policy, engineering, and sociology. We investigate how cities and communities have already begun to reimagine the use and management of streets in the face of disruptive technologies and diverse needs for which existing practices are inadequate. Building on current efforts in transportation planning, particularly efforts to increase flexibility and "tactical" action in streets, we propose strategies for increasing local control over urban streets using technologies inherent to CAVs. These strategies do not prescribe a single approach for all streets, but acknowledge differences of place and culture by returning decision-making power to the people living alongside those streets.

Center for Embedded Network Sensing, 2007

A new mobility application Each of us has a complex and reciprocal relationship with our environm... more A new mobility application Each of us has a complex and reciprocal relationship with our environment. Based on limited knowledge of this interwoven set of influences and consequences, we constantly make choices: where to live, how to go to work, what brands to buy, what to do with our leisure time. These choices evolve into patterns, and these patterns become driving functions of our relationship with the world around us. With increasing ease, devices we carry can sense, process, and transmit data on these patterns for our own use or to share, carefully, with others. In particular, here we will focus on location time series, gathered from GPS-enabled personal mobile devices. From this capacity emerges a new class of hybrid mobile-web applications that, first, enable personal exploration of our own patterns and, second, use the same data to index our life into other available datasets about the world around us. Such applications, revealing the previously unobservable about our own lives, offer an opportunity to employ mobile technology to illuminate the ramifications of our choices on others and the effects of the "microenvironments" we move through on us. This paper proposes and demonstrates how easily gathered location time series data can be used as an index into geospatial models to infer personal environmental impact and exposure. It focuses on three areas of interaction between individuals and the environment: transportation mode choice, overall carbon footprint, and opportunities for healthy eating. This class of applications represents a novel use of mobile systems, web-based mapping, and geospatial data and services. They pose interesting technical challenges and require multidisciplinary research.

2015Final ReportPDFTech ReportDTRT13-G-UTC33Land use planningMaster plansModal shiftMode choicePo... more 2015Final ReportPDFTech ReportDTRT13-G-UTC33Land use planningMaster plansModal shiftMode choicePolicy analysisSustainable transportationTravel patternsVehicle miles of travelUnited StatesVirginiaMiddle Atlantic StatesMid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation CenterMondschein, Andrew S.Mid-Atlantic Transportation Sustainability University Transportation CenterUniversity of VirginiaUniversity of DelawareVirginia Center for Transportation Innovation and ResearchUniversity Transportation Centers Program (U.S.)Ohlms, Peter B.Scott, Marcia S.US Transportation CollectionDiverse states like Virginia, with a mix of urban, suburban, and rural environments and transportation systems, cannot rely on a single approach to increasing transportation sustainability, but require an understanding of what has worked and what might work for the state\u2019s wide range of communities. The Virginia Sustainable Travel Choices project examines travel sustainability across Virginia, exploring how key indicators vary by location and land use patterns. This report asks, how are Virginians increasing the sustainability of their travel today, and what travel choices, by location, may be most effective in the future? For this report, sustainability is defined primarily as long-term environmental benefits from reduced energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The analyses focuses on three potential approaches to achieving sustainability benefits through the transportation system: (1) reduced vehicle miles traveled (VMT), (2) improved vehicle efficiency, and (3) increased travel by alternative modes. This report demonstrates how VMT, vehicle efficiency, and travel mode vary across neighborhoods, counties, and the state as a whole

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2016

It is widely assumed that traffic congestion is a significant burden on the economies of metropol... more It is widely assumed that traffic congestion is a significant burden on the economies of metropolitan regions. In this article, the authors suggest that the relationship between traffic congestion, as defined by the speed of travel across different parts of metropolitan regions, and economic activity is considerably more subtle and complex than is widely assumed. This study analyses the location of new business establishments (start-ups) in metropolitan Los Angeles for two industries, the entertainment and information technology (IT) industries, in 2009. There is a broad literature devoted to understanding why new business establishments locate where they do within regional economies. This research generally finds that firms of “basic” or tradable industries tend to exhibit a high degree of spatial clustering, or agglomeration. Since the performance of certain industries determines the success of regional economies, and co-location –or reduced impedance in the parlance of transportation planners –contributes to within sector productivity, the authors’ work draws on both transportation economics and economic geography to determine how transportation networks and delays on them affect the ability of industries to co-locate within regional economies. The authors’ examination of these two basic industries suggests that while region-wide claims about the effect of traffic congestion on economic activity may have merit in the aggregate, it is more likely the case that accessibility is distinctively different among industries.

Routledge eBooks, Jul 28, 2017

The 1999 Annual Symposium Series on The Transportation, Land Use, and Environment Connection, spo... more The 1999 Annual Symposium Series on The Transportation, Land Use, and Environment Connection, sponsored by the UCLA Extension Public Policy Program, took place October 24-26, 1999 at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, California. The special theme for the conference was Inter-Regional Travel and Local Development. The symposium contained nine sessions. These were: 1. Emerging Patterns and Trends in Inter-Regional Travel and Trade; 2. Change and Growth in the Airline Industry: Implications for Airport Planning and Land Use Conflict; 3. High-Speed Rail: Plans, Prospects, and Implications for Metropolitan Development; 4. High-Speed Rail and/or Increased Air Travel: Complementary or Competitive? 5. Highways and Metropolitan Development: Past Experience and Future Prospects; 6. The Restructuring of Maritime Trade: Mega-Ships, Mega-Ports, Mega-Impacts; 7. The Politics of Recent Mega-Projects: Lessons From the Successes and Failures of Major Inter-Regional Transportation Projects; 8. The Environment: Challenges to Air Quality Planning and Mitigation In and Around Inter-Regional Transport Facilities; and 9. Forging Inter-Agency Strategies For Addressing Inter-Regional Travel and Development.

IGI Global eBooks, Mar 4, 2022

Civic technology models propose that urban environmental sensing and analysis can inform communit... more Civic technology models propose that urban environmental sensing and analysis can inform communitybased decision making, but technology-driven planning and design is still subject to systemic challenges including a lack of community trust and local government capacities. This chapter examines the problem of integrating urban sensing into engaged planning and design. The authors assess the outcomes of two planning and design efforts in Virginia, USA utilizing the community-centered urban sensing (CCUS) and engagement platform. Developed by planners, urban designers, landscape architects, and data scientists at the University of Virginia, CCUS addresses the need for actionable information on the urban environment through community-engaged urban data collection and analysis. The cases provide evidence for the importance of engagement around sensing itself. Based on these findings, the authors propose a conceptualization of urban sensing applications that accounts for a range of local contexts from high capacity and trust to dysfunction and mistrust.

Cities & health, Sep 28, 2022

De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 5, 2022

A conference entitled “Alternative Fuel / Advanced Vehicles Technologies & Infrastructure Require... more A conference entitled “Alternative Fuel / Advanced Vehicles Technologies & Infrastructure Requirements: Bringing Innovation to Our Streets” was held in New York, NY at New York University on June 14, 2011. The conference addressed several of the key issues concerning the widespread adoption of low-carbon vehicles in New York State. Panel topics included (1) recent findings and developments in alternative fuels and vehicles, including electric, biofuel, natural gas, and advanced engine technology, (2) infrastructure needs for growth of a low-carbon transportation system, and (3) policy requirements. Panelists and attendees included academic researchers, representatives of the private sector, public agency staff, and advocacy group members. The information disseminated and ensuing discussion has helped build a community of individuals in New York State with the knowledge and motivation to increase adoption of low-carbon alternative vehicles and fuels by government, businesses, and the...

As of February, 1999, 231,766 people were on welfare in Los Angeles. To put these figures into pe... more As of February, 1999, 231,766 people were on welfare in Los Angeles. To put these figures into perspective, Los Angeles has more welfare recipients than every state other than New York and California. With this large and highly diverse caseload comes an enormous bureaucracy, one that has had difficulty responding to the shift in the welfare system from one that guaranteed public assistance to those in need, to a program that now offers temporary financial assistance and mandates employment. Some studies suggest that, among other obstacles to employment, welfare recipients face a spatial separation from jobs and other employment related services. Geographic data for Los Angeles show that there is a spatial mismatch between the residential location of welfare recipients and the location of low wage jobs. However, the mismatch is not one between central city and suburbs, despite job growth in suburban neighbourhoods, the highest concentration of jobs in Los Angeles remains in the centr...

De Gruyter eBooks, Dec 5, 2022

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2017

Cycling and walking are commonly recognized as energy-efficient alternatives to motorized transpo... more Cycling and walking are commonly recognized as energy-efficient alternatives to motorized transport. Research and practice lack a comprehensive set of methods to assess spatiotemporal patterns of traffic volumes across an entire transportation network. Current non-motorized traffic monitoring programs are primarily implemented in urban areas and for singular components of the network (e.g., off-street trails, specific corridors). Our approach synthesizes ongoing efforts in non-motorized traffic monitoring to estimate Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT), across an entire network in Blacksburg, VA-a small, rural college town. We selected count sites across the network, stratified by street functional class (e.g., major roads, local roads), centrality of the link relative to origins and destinations, and planned bicycle facilities. We collected 45,456 h of pedestrian and cyclist counts using three types of automated counters: pneumatic tube (n = 12), passive infrared (n = 10), and radio beam (n = 3) at both reference locations (n = 4; 1-year) and shortduration locations (n = 97; 1-week) during 2015. We found a strong correlation between manual validation counts and automated counts. We used day-of-year scaling factors to estimate AADT for bicycles and pedestrians and found that temporal and spatial patterns differed between modes. Pedestrian volumes were higher and more variable than bicycle volumes (median [interquartile range] AADT for pedestrians: 135 [89-292]; bicycles: 23 [11-43]); both modes were positively correlated with street functional class, presence of facilities, and proximity to campus. Our approach provides insight for planners or policymakers interested in comprehensive monitoring programs to track performance measures or for use in environmental and health impact studies.

Journal of Public Transportation

Transportation Research Board 98th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2019

Transportation planning research addresses accessibility from diverse approaches, focusing varyin... more Transportation planning research addresses accessibility from diverse approaches, focusing varyingly on the usability of the transportation system as a whole, a particular mode, the pattern of land uses, or the wherewithal of individuals and communities to make use of those systems. One aspect of accessibility that has received relatively little attention from planners is its cognitive, experiential aspect. Individuals' activity and travel choices require not just money and time but also information about opportunities in the city. This component of an individual's accessibility is highly personal but also dependent on the terrain of land uses and transportation options shaped by planners and policymakers. I seek to extend current accessibility research, addressing shortcomings in how the literature deals with individual experience of the city and knowledge. Through a series of empirical analyses of activity patterns and cognitive maps of the iii Los Angeles region, I explor...

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 2017

In this paper the authors consider travel across Virginia and identify sustainability sweet spots... more In this paper the authors consider travel across Virginia and identify sustainability sweet spots where commute lengths and vehicle emissions per mile combine to maximize green travel in terms of total CO₂ emissions associated with commuting. The analysis is conducted across local voter precincts (N=2,373 in the state) because they are a useful proxy for neighborhoods and well- sized for implementing policy designed to encourage green behavior. The analysis also shows changes over time. Virginia is especially appropriate for an examination of change because the state’s development, demographic, and political patterns have been changing rapidly. The authors identify four Virginia precinct-based sustainability clusters: Sweet Spots, Emerging Sweet Spots, Neutral and Non-sustaining. A model of demographic differences among the clusters shows that sustainability outcomes are highly associated with the diverse demography of the state. The authors also look at changes in the transportation and socio-demographic trends within the clusters over the past half decade, showing that differences in sustainability and demographic metrics are actually accelerating within the state over time. They conclude with a discussion of the implications of the differences among the clusters for developing and implementing effective transportation sustainability policies across the state.

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2017

New designs, technologies, and rules are all being deployed to make roads more usable for people ... more New designs, technologies, and rules are all being deployed to make roads more usable for people traveling by a variety of modes: walking, biking, transit, and driving. This paper examines whether and how road user education might be better integrated into the multimodal planning process. Interviews with multimodal transportation planners and education specialists, in addition to content analysis of online educational videos geared toward enhancing bicycle capabilities and awareness, reveal a nexus between the significant changes to roads and facilities proposed by planners and road user education. It is found that some multimodal transportation organizations have adopted practices that support education of current road users, with content and approaches that emphasize safe usability and mode shift. Planners can play a distinctive role in the process of educating current and potential users, helping set the “time and place” for education and the content of educational materials and practices. Still, a lack of agreement is evident for planners as to whether current practices fall within their purview. Hurdles that impede planners’ ability to engage in multimodal road user education include inadequate coordination, a lack of funding, and limited training or access to trained specialists and effective content. If users’ capabilities to safely use and be aware of multiple modes are seen as essential to communities’ mobility objectives, a conceptual shift for planners, adding education to traditional expertise in infrastructure and policy, may be required.

Journal of Transport Geography, 2017

Congestion is universally unpopular, but is it always a problem? Are some places more "congestion... more Congestion is universally unpopular, but is it always a problem? Are some places more "congestion-adapted" than others? Using data for Los Angeles, we examine whether the geographies of congestion and accessibility are distinct by mapping and describing them across neighborhoods. We then estimate a series of regression models of trip-making to test the net effects of traffic delays on behavior. We find that there are places where people make many trips and engage in many activities despite lots of congestion, which tend to be more central, built-up areas that host many short trips; in other places, high congestion and low activity coincide. Why the variance? While congestion can constrain mobility and reduce accessibility, traffic is also associated with agglomerations of activity and is thus a byproduct of proximity-based accessibility. Whether agglomeration and congestion have net positive or negative impacts on activity participation thus varies substantially over space. Controlling for factors such as income and working at home, we find that the effects of congestion on access depend on whether congestion-adaptive travel choices (such as walking and making shorter trips to nearby destinations) are viable. Because "congestion-adapted" places tend to host more trip-making, planners may be justified in creating more such places in order to increase accessibility, even if doing so makes absolute levels of congestion worse in the process.