Travel Behavior

Compulsory Convenience? How Large Arterials and Land Use Affect Midblock Crossing in Fushun, China

Wendy Tao
Shomik Mehndiratta
Elizabeth Deakin
2010

Abstract: This study focuses on how street design and land uses influence pedestrian behavior in a medium-sized Chinese city, Fushun. In cities throughout China, the change from workplace-managed and assigned housing to market housing has had profound effects on pedestrians. Coupled with motorization, pedestrian trips are increasingly external, pushed out of the protected space of the gated block and onto massive arterials that now carry automobiles, trucks, and buses in growing numbers. Long blocks, unenforced zebra crossings, and inadequate green time at traffic signals do not equitably...

Travel Choices and Customer Responses to Changing Service Levels: Findings from the San Francisco Bay Area

James Charles Rubin
Elizabeth Deakin
2012

This paper presents findings from a survey and focus groups designed to assess mode choices, attitudes toward transit and other modes, and willingness to pay for reliable services. The survey examined why travelers to downtown Oakland, CA, a transit-rich location, chose to use transit or not. The focus groups examined responses to changes in tolls and carpool rules and likely responses should the Bay Area Rapid Transit system's reliability decline due to funding shortfalls. The factors that most significantly affected mode choice were whether the traveler had a free parking space and...

Building more parking at major employment centers: Can full-cost recovery parking charges fund TDM programs?

Aldo Tudela Rivadeneyra
Manish Shirgaokar
Elizabeth Deakin
William Riggs
2017

In dense urban areas, surface parking often poses an opportunity cost, and reuse of the land for urban development with parking relocated to a multi-story structure may be an attractive option. This paper analyzes the cost of replacing surface parking with a parking structure and finds that it may be equally cost effective to pursue travel demand management strategies. The paper analyzes what it costs to build a parking space in a multi-story structure (garage) using US average data as well as data from the case of a typical large US employer, the University of California, Berkeley. The...

An integrated assessment of factors affecting modal choice: towards a better understanding of the causal effects of built environment

Samira Ramezani
Barbara Pizzo
Elizabeth Deakin
2018

This paper discusses the methodological challenges in understanding causal relationships between urban form and travel behavior and uses a holistic quasi-experimental approach to investigate the separable marginal influence of each of several urban form factors on mode choice as well as the complex relationships between those factors and a wide range of personal traits. Data analysis and models are used to reveal the effect of such interactions on mode choice for both work and non-work trips in Rome, Italy. It is found that population density does not have a significant marginal positive...

Built Environment versus Personal Traits: an Application of Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Model (ICLV) in Understanding Modal Choice in Rome, Italy

Samira Ramezani
Barbara Pizzo
Elizabeth Deakin
2015

In spite of numerous applications of Integrated Choice and Latent Variable (ICLV) modelling in the field of transportation engineering, there is no published work applying it in studies of the effect of built environment on modal choice. This study uses an ICLV model to investigate the relative importance of built environment versus personal traits. It designs a quasiexperiment to elicit a better understanding of the causal effects of several urban form characteristics on modal choice. Findings suggest that built form can compete with the magnitude of the influence of personal traits, if...

Analyzing the Equity Impacts of Transit Fare Changes: A Case Study of AC Transit

Cornelius Nuworsoo
Elizabeth Deakin
2006

Many transit agencies, faced with budget shortfalls, must consider increasing fares. In this paper we analyze the case of the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit). In March 2005, AC Transit put forth five alternative fare proposals for public discussion. The proposed fare structures included combinations of fare hikes, base fare reductions, eliminations of free transfers, and discontinuation of periodic passes. Using data from the agency’s 2002 on-board survey, we assessed the impacts of the various fare proposals on different subsets of riders and evaluated the equity of...

Residential Permit Parking: Better Off Without It?

Emily Moylan
Matthew Schabas
Elizabeth Deakin
2014

Residential permit parking (RPP) programs are an often-used yet imperfect solution to parking spillover concerns in residential neighborhoods. A common form of RPP allows residents to purchase stickers that permit unlimited on-street parking but imposes short time limits on nonresident parkers. These programs succeed in general to protect on-street spaces for residents but raise concerns about costs, enforcement difficulties, and inefficiencies if parking goes unused. The concept also raises issues about the equity of favoring resident parkers over others. New technologies (e.g., license...

Influence of the Social Environment on Children's School Travel

Noreen McDonald
Elizabeth Deakin
Annette Aalborg
2010

To analyze the association between parental perceptions of the social environment and walking and biking to school among 10–14-year-olds. Surveys were conducted with 432 parents of 10–14-year-olds in the San Francisco Bay Area during 2006 and 2007; the final sample size was 357. The social environment was measured with a 3-item scale assessing child-centered social control. Unadjusted and adjusted differences in rates of active travel to school were compared between families reporting high levels of social control in their neighborhood and those reporting low or neutral levels of social...

Bounded Rationality in Policy Learning Amongst Cities: Lessons from the Transport Sector

Greg Marsden
Anthony May
Elizabeth Deakin
2012

The internationalization of policy regimes and the reorganization of the state have provided new opportunities for cities to bypass nation-state structures and work with other cities internationally. This provides greater opportunity for cities to learn from each other and could be an important stimulus to the transfer of policies across the globe. Few studies exist however which focus on the processes that shape the search for policy lessons and how they are affected by the institutional context within which they are conducted. This paper describes research conducted in the field of urban...

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Generational Heterogeneity on Ecommerce Shopping Styles – A case study of Sacramento, California

Qianhua Luo
Teddy Forscher
Susan Shaheen
Elizabeth Deakin
Joan Walker
2023

The COVID pandemic has accelerated the growth of ecommerce and reshaped shopping patterns, which in turn impacts trip-making and vehicle miles traveled. The objectives of this study are to define shopping styles and quantify their prevalence in the population, investigate the impact of the pandemic on shopping style transition, understand the generational heterogeneity and other factors that influence shopping styles, and comment on the potential impact of the pandemic on long-term shopping behavior. Two months after the initial shutdown (May/June 2021), we collected ecommerce behavioral...