As suburban and urban areas infill, more bicyclists and pedestrians may use arterial corridors, and conflict with motor vehicles and resulting crashes can increase. When residents demand protection from traffic dangers to create more walkable, livable neighborhoods, state DOTs are increasingly called on to shift their focus from exclusively measuring the level of service provided to drivers, to designing for the safety and accessibility of pedestrians and cyclists.
Multimodal
Netflix-of-transportation app guiding users toward sustainable mode choices
The Whim app, launched a year ago in Helsinki, partners with local public and private transportation providers, bundling transit and taxi fares, bikeshare trips, and other mobility services into a monthly subscription, with tickets based on the regional mode choice and travel behavior. A recent analysis of the data shows that this Mobility as a Service app allows residents to use the existing system more efficiently and improve their choices for each trip.
To meet clean energy goals, everyone will need better transportation options
The proposed Green New Deal, like many local green energy and climate action plans across the country, aspires to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. SSTI has crunched the numbers in several cases, including for Hawaii’s Transcending Oil report, and found that ignoring the amount that people drive means even the most ambitious energy plans could fall well below their targets. But that also means focusing on those who drive the most—typically in far-flung suburbs with limited transportation options—and finding creative ways for them to reduce their impacts.
Estimating policy effects on reduced vehicle travel in Hawaii (SSTI, 2019)
Transcending Oil, released in April 2018, describes Hawaii’s path toward meeting its ambitious clean energy goals by 2045. The report was commissioned by Elemental Excelerator and prepared independently by Rhodium Group and Smart Growth America. It focuses mainly on transitioning the electrical grid to renewable energy while moving large numbers of vehicles to electric power but also points to the importance of managing overall travel demand through transportation policies and investments. This technical guide describes the methods and findings behind Transcending Oil’s travel demand forecasts, developed by SSTI and Smart Growth America.
Reopening of Quincy Station MBTA gate provides area households with access to hundreds of thousands of additional jobs
After sitting shuttered for more than 30 years, the city of Quincy, MA recently reopened a pedestrian gate that allows residents of the town’s Penn’s Hill neighborhood to connect directly to the Quincy Adams MBTA station. Previous to the gate reopening, residents were forced to walk more than a mile to cross the Red Line train tracks and access the station. We measured how much this improved the accessibility of the adjacent neighborhoods.
Can we bring back the golden era of transit in the U.S.?
A recent statistics brief by Union Internationale des Transports Publics compares transit ridership and metro infrastructure development around the world. Although U.S. cities were among the first to introduce subways and elevated trains as a form of public transportation, the statistics are clear that in the past few decades there has been little to no development in this transit sector. However, a few transit systems are innovating to boost their ridership and integrate it with other new modes.
Modernizing Mitigation: A Demand-Centered Approach (SSTI, September 2018)
This report proposes a new approach to assessing and responding to land use-driven transportation impacts, called “modern mitigation.” Instead of relying on auto capacity improvements as a first resort, this approach builds on practice around transportation demand management (TDM) to make traffic reduction the priority. Based on programs dating to the 1990s in several cities, a modern mitigation program requires certain new land uses to achieve TDM credits.
Technical assistance helped six MPOs improve how they prioritize projects
Through a grant from the Kresge Foundation, Smart Growth America worked with six regions over the past year to help them use performance measures to advance transportation projects that line up with their priorities for the future. SSTI supported several of the regions, focusing on helping each MPO tie their investments to policy priorities like economic vitality, accessibility to necessities, and equity.
The shortest path usually isn’t the best one, according to bikeshare users
Many transportation models assume that people choose the shortest (or least cost) path connecting them from point A to point B. But this isn’t how individuals actually behave—or so confirms one recent study based on bikeshare trip data. This affects how we model travel behavior, but also our understanding of people’s travel preferences and the ways in which we accommodate them.
Toward livable streets: A review of recent improvements in practice
In the last decade a number of project development and design guides, such as ITE’s “Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares,” NACTO’s “Urban Street Design Guide,” and city design guide manuals, have emerged. A new article by Eric Dumbaugh of Florida Atlantic University and Michael King of BuroHappold Engineering, reviews these updated practices. The article finds four general principles of livable streets engineering.