This report provides a concise presentation of the research on key factors—beyond travel time and cost—that affect travelers’ choice of premium transit services. The report is supported by 10 technical appendices that present the detailed research results.
Focus Areas
Advancing Transportation and Health (National Center for Safe Routes to School, 2013)
Safe transportation and the health benefits of active travel are at the core of the Federal Safe Routes to School Program. This report reflects the approaches that the SRTS Program has used to advance transportation and …
A Performance-Based Approach to Addressing Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Transportation Planning (FHWA, 2014)
This publication is a handbook designed to be a resource for State DOTs and MPOs engaged in performance-based planning and programming to integrate greenhouse gas performance measures into transportation decisionmaking. It discusses key approaches for integrating GHG emissions into a PBPP approach, considerations for selecting an appropriate GHG performance measure, and using GHG performance measures to support investment choices and to enhance decisionmaking.
Autonomous Vehicle Legislation (Council of State Governments, 2014)
This brief from the Council of State Governments examines the issues states will need to consider as they prepare for autonomous and self-driving vehicles. The brief argues that, with rapidly changing technology, some legislation may be premature.
Automated Cars: A smooth ride ahead? (Independent Transport Commission, 2014)
This paper, by researchers at the Imperial College London, raises a wide range of important public policy questions regarding vehicle automation, from safety issues to the effects on public transport and the movement of goods.
Repair Priorities 2014 (Smart Growth America and Taxpayers for Common Sense, 2014)
How much would your state need to repair its roads? Most likely the answer to that question is “a lot.” In some cases, state DOTs could spend their entire annual budget on repair and maintenance and still have work left to do. So why are many states making the problem even worse by continuing to spend scarce transportation dollars expanding their road networks? This report, and update of the Repair Priorities 2011, includes ideas for how DOT officials as well as state and federal policymakers can prioritize repair spending, and help drivers and taxpayers at the same time.
Lifting the Veil on Bicycle & Pedestrian Spending (Advocacy Advance, 2014)
This report benchmarked planned bicycling and walking project spending in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program and breaks down how state Departments of Transportation can become more transparent and responsive to community needs. Both stand-alone bicycle-pedestrian projects and also road projects that have a bicycle-pedestrian accommodation or component were included.
Effectiveness of a Safe Routes to School Program in Preventing School-Aged Pedestrian Injury (DiMaggio and Li, PEDIATRICS, 2014)
This study provides important evidence to support the effectiveness of Safe Routes to School programs in New York City. The program is intended to “improve safety on walking and bicycling routes to school and to encourage children and families to travel between home and school using these modes.” While studies have looked at behaviors and attitudes toward journey to school transportation, few have examined whether SRTS programs are effective in reducing pedestrian injury.
Civil rights guidance and equity analysis methods for regional transportation plans: a critical review of literature and practice (Journal of Transportation Geography, 2013)
In this critical review, the authors examine the law, regulatory guidance, academic research, and agency practice pertinent to equity analysis of MPO regional transportation plans. They find that equity recommendations are extensive but generally lack specificity and are rarely enforceable. The current methodology is not appropriate for the analysis of transportation investment benefits. Newer travel demand modeling paradigms are capable of sidestepping methodological problems, and legacy models can be adapted and improved.
Regional accessibility metric offers powerful approach to transportation system planning
Researchers at the University of Minnesota developed a measure of multimodal accessibility for the Minneapolis-St. Paul region, which they hope can be implemented in metropolitan areas around the nation as an alternative to commonly-used congestion metrics for prioritizing transportation projects and planning system improvements. For decades, transportation system performance has been measured in terms of traffic congestion and delay, both at the project scale and the regional scale. Developers of the new accessibility measure flip the equation by asking what the value of accessibility is, rather than what the costs of congestion are.