Economics and Finance

Safe Routes to Transit Program Evaluation Final Report

Sanders, Rebecca L.
Weinzimmer, David
Dittrich, Heidi
Cooper, Jill F.
2014

Safe Routes to Transit (SR2T) was initiated in 2004 with the adoption of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Regional Measure 2 which established a $1 increase in Bay Area bridge tolls. The intended purpose of this funding was to support various transportation projects within the region in order to reduce congestion along the seven state-owned toll bridge corridors. Consistent with this purpose, the SR2T Program was awarded $20 million to fund enhancements to increase walking and cycling to regional transit stations.SR2T funds were used for the following improvements, among others: ssecure...

SafeTREC Seminar April 10: Creating Space for Bikeways: Road Diets and Parking Removal

Brazil, John
2015

The City of San Jose's Active Transportation Program is in the midst of a ten-year plan to complete a 400-mile on-street bikeway network. With more than 250 miles implemented to date, most of the easier projects have been completed. Increasingly, remaining projects are faced with constrained right-of-way without enough space to accommodate a quality bicycle facility. To create space for new bikeways, San Jose has turned to the use of road diets (removal of a travel lane to create space for other features) and/or removal of on-street parking. These projects create a number of challenges...

SafeTREC - UCTC Seminar: ODOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Implementation Plan

Braughton, Matt
Griffin, Ashleigh
2014

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) identified bicycle and pedestrian crashes as a key safety focus area within Oregon’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan and sought to develop a plan to reduce frequency and severity of those crashes on all roadways throughout Oregon. Kittelson & Associates, Inc. (KAI) worked with ODOT to develop a Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Implementation Plan that identified systemic, low-cost countermeasures and prioritized locations for implementation of the countermeasures. Priority implementation locations were developed using two complementary...

Applying UrbanSim to Transportation Issues in Cities

Foti, Fletcher
2015

UrbanSim(link is external) is a software-based simulation system for supporting planning and analysis of urban development, incorporating the interactions between land use, transportation, the economy, and the environment. It is the result of over 15 years of active research, and has been applied to planning processes of over a dozen regional governments and large cities. Recent improvements to UrbanSim include an accessibility engine to compute walking-scale accessibility metrics over a metropolitan area in less than a second, and the ability to run real estate pro formas on the complete...

Benefit Cost Analysis Applied to Behavioral and Engineering Safety Countermeasures in San Francisco

Greene-Roesel, Ryan
2013

The state of the practice in safety has advanced rapidly in recent years with the emergence of new tools and processes for improving selection of the most cost-effective safety countermeasures. However, many challenges prevent fair and objective comparisons of countermeasures applied across safety disciplines (e.g. engineering, emergency services, and behavioral measures). These countermeasures operate at different spatial scales, are funded often by different financial sources and agencies, and have associated costs and benefits that are difficult to estimate.This research proposes a...

SafeTREC - UCTC Seminar: An Innovative Performance Based Approach to the Health Impacts of Transit Investments

Co, Sean
2014

The epidemic of obesity and increased health care costs is a growing issue that is no longer confined to the public health field. Transportation agencies have begun to examine the impact of projects on public health. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission conducted a first of its kind benefit cost analysis of projects to be considered in the long range Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). This performance assessment of transportation investments was conducted to assess the impacts of projects on levels of transit and walking and biking. Bay Area residents that received increases in...

Low Cost Upgrades to At-Grade Crossing Safety Devices

Cooper, Douglas L
Ragland, David R
Felschundneff, Grace
2013

The only way to absolutely prevent all drivers from going around lowered gates at level rail-highway crossings is to make it physically impossible, or at least very difficult, for them to do so. While there are various options to accomplish this (constructing a separation of grade, closing the crossing, or deploying an impenetrable concrete barrier), most have high monetary or social costs. Alternative approaches—such as channelization devices and long-arm gates—while not 100 percent effective, can be used to prevent deaths and injuries while remaining economically feasible. Research has...

Development and Application of the San Francisco Pedestrian Intersection Volume Model

Schneider, Robert J.
Henry, Todd
Mitman, Meghan F.
Stonehill, Laura
Koehler, Jesse
2013

The San Francisco pedestrian volume modeling process refined the methodology used to develop previous intersection-based models and incorporated variables that were tailored to estimate walking activity in the local urban context. The methodology included two main steps. First, manual and automated pedestrian counts were taken at a sample of 50 study intersections with a variety of characteristics. A series of factor adjustments were applied to produce an annual pedestrian crossing estimate at each intersection. Second, log-linear regression modeling was used to identify statistically-...

Giving cycling the green light: An overview of transportation in Ireland and the design of the National Cycle Network

Manton, Richard
2013

Similarly to the US, driving a car to work continues to gain ground in Ireland and the country is presented with major challenges in environment and health as a consequence. In safety, at least, Ireland has had some major successes. In 40 years, the number of fatalities has fallen from 640 to 162, a drop of 75%. Such improvements in road safety have been attributed to a combination of education, enforcement and engineering. Pedestrian and cyclist fatalities have each fallen by 66% in 20 years, however, this could be attributed to the lower numbers of people walking and cycling....

Social Equity Impacts of Congestion Management Strategies

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Stocker, Adam
Meza, Ruth
2019

This white paper examines the social equity impacts of various congestion management strategies. The paper includes a comprehensive list of 30 congestion management strategies and a discussion of equity implications related to each strategy. The authors analyze existing literature and incorporate findings from 12 expert interviews from academic, non-governmental organization (NGO), public, and private sector respondents to strengthen results and fill gaps in understanding. The literature review applies the Spatial – Temporal – Economic – Physiological – Social (STEPS) Equity Framework (...