As central cities in California continue their renaissance, commercial gentrification is often identified by residents as a concern. For many, commercial gentrification means the intrusion of new businesses that force out a favorite food shop or a longstanding retail store because of higher rents. For others, it means an influx of hip cafés, trendy retail boutiques, and gourmet fast food restaurants - places that change the fabric of their familiar neighborhood, for better or for worse. For many merchants, commercial gentrification can have implications for economic survival, as increased...
Peer-to-peer (P2P) ridesharing is a relatively new concept that aims at providing a sustainable method for transportation in urban areas. This research is on the second phase of a sequence of projects that follows the previously funded UCConnect project titled “Promoting Peer-toPeer Ridesharing Services as Transit System Feeders”. In this phase, the study constructs a multimodal network, which includes P2P ridesharing, transit and city bike-sharing. The research develops schemes to provide travel alternatives, routes and information across multiple modes in the network. In addition, we...
This paper presents a case study of the use of San Francisco bike lanes with a focus on women. Bike counts and intercept surveys of cyclists at three locations in San Francisco’s SoMa District were complemented by focus groups with cyclists, particularly women cyclists, and brief interviews with non-cyclists. Consistent with other US studies, we find that white men are disproportionately represented among the cyclists we observed, and that women bike less and bike shorter distances. However, at least in the SoMa sample, women are more likely to bike to work than men. Cyclists included...
Amidst increasing investments in cycling infrastructure in California, trends continue to demonstrate that women from low-income communities of color are underrepresented as cyclists. I argue that prevailing bicycle justice movements have neglected the intersectional needs of women from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities by centering the ‘white, lycra-clad male’ and his commute needs within organized bicycling advocacy. Further, contemporary bicycle planning does little to investigate the barriers and joys related to cycling, as they are experienced by these women....
Adult bicycle education classes are becoming an increasingly popular strategy to improve safety, mitigate congestion, and reach environmental goals. However, there is limited empirical research on the effectiveness of these classes among adults, and there are no studies evaluating the impacts of classroom-based education on this population. To address this gap in knowledge, a study was conducted evaluating the effectiveness of classroom-based adult bicycle education on delivering changes related to bicycling activity, self-perceptions while bicycling, knowledge of the bicycling rules of...
Increasing the number of people bicycling is often proposed as a solution for addressing environmental and climate-related challenges. Strategies to support more bicycling have traditionally included building bicycle infrastructure, enforcing traffic laws, and educating people about bicycling. Additionally, many cities across California are pursuing Vision Zero, the goal to eliminate traffic death and serious injury in the next decade. In San Francisco, for example, Vision Zero strategies include creating safe streets, safe people and safe vehicles. It also seeks to include training on “...
In recent years, “smart city” information and communication technologies have proliferated. For local government agencies, procuring and introducing these technologies offers the possibility to manage infrastructure assets more effectively, plan for preventive maintenance, and disseminate schedules and information about transit and other services. Many of these technologies are deployed by private firms in the context of local regulations and government-sponsored incentives. In the transportation sector, examples of “smart city” technology services provided by private firms include:...
Electric powered two-wheel bicycles, while extremely popular in China, have been recently banned by policy makers due to safety, congestion, and environmental concerns. This study investigates the tremendous growth of electric two wheel bicycles in China and compares and quantifies their environmental and safety impacts with the impacts of alternative modes of transportation, such as traditional bicycles, public transportation, or personal cars. The research also analyzes the benefits of electric two wheel bicycles, such as increased mobility and access to opportunities. Additionally, the...
Shared micromobility – the shared use of bicycles, scooters, or other low-speed modes – is an innovative transportation strategy growing across the United States that includes various service models such as docked, dockless, and e-bike service models. This research focuses on understanding how docked bikesharing and dockless e-bikesharing models complement and compete with respect to user travel behaviors. To inform our analysis, we used two datasets from February 2018 of Ford GoBike (docked) and JUMP (dockless electric) bikesharing trips in San Francisco. We employed three methodological...
In 2005, ten million electric bikes were produced in China. Strong domestic sales are projected for coming years, raising concerns about the sustainability and potential regulation of this fairly new mode. Policy makers are wrestling with development policy on electric bikes with little information about who uses them, why they are used, and what factoes influence the electric bike travel. This paper probes these questions by surveying electric bike usage in two large Chinese cities, Kunming and Shanghai. Demographic comparisons are made between the different modes and cities as well as...
