ITS Berkeley

Transfer of Innovative Policies between Cities to Promote Sustainability: Case Study Evidence

Marsden, Greg
Frick, Karen Trapenberg
May, Anthony D.
Deakin, Elizabeth
2010

This paper describes how cities approach the challenging task of identifying, considering, and adopting innovative transport policies. Drawing on political science literature, the paper begins by establishing a framework for analyzing the process of policy transfer and policy learning. Cities were selected on the basis of their reputation for having adopted innovative policies. Data were collected from project reports and in-depth interviews with 40 professionals comprising planners, consultants, and operators in 11 cities across North America and northern Europe. This paper presents the...

Travel of TOD Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area: Examining the Impact of Affordable Housing

Barajas, Jesus
Frick, Karen
Cervero, Robert
2020

Legislation and public policies in California incentivize housing development near high-quality transit nodes to meet climate change and affordability goals. In general, transit-oriented development (TOD) encourages transit ridership and active travel while reducing the number and distance of car trips. BART has been active in encouraging affordable TOD in the region; the agency adopted a TOD policy in 2016 that aims to build 20,000 housing units on land it owns, 35 ...

Untapped Opportunities: Assessment of Organizational Strategies to Improve Border Coordination in California at the U.S. and Mexico Border; Final Report for California Integrated Border Approach Strategy, Phase 2

Trapenberg Frick, Karen
Deakin, Elizabeth
Whittington, Jan
Anderson, Karl
Leshner, Eleanor
Garrett, Mark
2017

In 2013, The California Department of Transportation-District 11 (Caltrans) launched the California Integrated Border Approach Strategy (CA-IBAS) in response to a need for a better-integrated border transportation system that reduces impacts on border communities. Work was conducted in two phases to identify ways to better address regional mobility needs and the traveler experience in California’s communities along the California-Mexico border. During Phase 1, led by METRANS, the team conducted a preliminary assessment of key institutional and policy issues at CaliforniaMexico land POEs,...

What Makes Public Transit a Success? Perspectives on Ridership in an Era of Uncertain Revenues and Climate Change

Deakin, Elizabeth
Tal, Gil
Frick, Karen
2010

This paper examines the gap between the perspectives of public transit managers and elected officials and other opinion leaders on what makes transit a success, and the role of ridership levels in that assessment. The authors draw upon the literature, discussions with experts and elected officials, and interviews with transit managers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The authors identify the considerations that lead to policies that urge transit agencies to expand, and those that raise operator concerns about such growth. The researchers and policy makers interviewed saw transit’s...

Why Do Building Owners Invest in Bicycle-Oriented Design?

Orrick, Phyllis
Trapenberg Frick, Karen
Ragland, David R.

We found that broader government policies such as infill zoning exemptions and energy-saving directives made BOD more feasible. A comprehensive survey of existing BOD requirements, guidelines, and best practices of BOD design elements would be useful to policymakers, local officials, and developers as they confront decisions on how or if to encourage BOD. More broadly, additional research on the potential relationship between BOD and mode choice of building tenants could lead to a greater understanding of what benefits are derived from these investments as well as constraints. Finally, an...

On-Ramp Metering Experiments to Increase Freeway Merge Capacity

Cassidy, Michael J.
Rudjanakanoknad, Jittichai
2005

Observations of two freeway/on-ramp merges unveil the mechanism that causes their capacities to diminish when queues form just upstream. Field experiments at one of the sites demonstrate that by responding to occupancies measured near the merge, ramp metering can reverse this mechanism, or postpone its occurrence, and thereby generate higher merge capacities. Detailed observations at the second site imply that higher merge capacities can also be achieved using traffic control schemes that regulate inflows to the merge from the freeway shoulder lane. Collectively, the findings point to...

Design of a Demand-Responsive Transit System

Li, Yuwei
Wang, Jessica
Chen, Justin
Cassidy, Michael
2007

This research investigates the feasibility of offering demand-responsive transit (DRT) service to the general public in situations of low demand density. The study region is AC Transit District 2 which consists of the cities of Fremont and Newark, California. We developed a methodology to evaluate operating efficiencies of existing bus lines and line segments, and identified areas suitable for DRT service based on year 2001 data. We proposed an alternating strategy of checkpoint DRT service and compared it to other strategies. The report also described the schema for an automated...

Vehicle-Miles for a Freight Carrier with Two Capacity Constraints

Hall, Randolf W.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
1985

The amount of freight that can be fit on a vehicle depends on the vehicle's weight capacity and volume capacity. In this paper mathematical equations are developed for evaluating the impact of weight capacity and volume capacity on total vehicle-miles. It is shown that the number of vehicle loads needed to carry a large amount of material is minimized when all vehicles are filled to the same capacity constraint. This is accomplished by mixing light items with heavy items in vehicle loads. Following this policy can reduce the number of vehicle loads and vehicle-miles. Under ideal...

Using Input-Output Diagram to Determine Spatial and Temporal Extents of a Queue Upstream of a Bottleneck

Lawson, Tim W.
Lovell, David J.
Daganzo, Carlos F.
1997

A simple approach is described for modifying an input-output (or queue-ing) diagram to measure the time and distance spent by vehicles in a queue in a much simpler and self-serving manner than a time-space diagram. The graphic technique requires construction of a curve depicting the cumulative number of vehicles to have reached the back of the queue as a function of time, but, as indicated here, the technique can be easily automated with a spreadsheet. The technique is applied to the simple case of a constant departure rate from a bottleneck and to the slightly more general case of a...

Urban Scaling of Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review

McCulley, EM
Mullachery, PH
Ortigoza, AF
Rodríguez, DA
Roux, AV Diez
Bilal, U
2022

Urban scaling is a framework that describes how city-level characteristics scale with variations in city size. This scoping review mapped the existing evidence on the urban scaling of health outcomes to identify gaps and inform future research. Using a structured search strategy, we identified and reviewed a total of 102 studies, a majority set in high-income countries using diverse city definitions. We found several historical studies that examined the dynamic relationships between city size and mortality occurring during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In more recent years...