Instead of converting former rail lines to multi-use trails, states and municipalities are also finding that trails can be built alongside active rail lines. This report examines the characteristics of 88 rails-with-trails in 33 states, based on a survey of trail managers and the results of ongoing study over the past 20 years.
Health
Getting the Goods Without the Bads: Freight Transportation Demand Management Strategies to Reduce Urban Impacts (SSTI, 2013)
This project, funded by SSTI with a matching grant from the Center for Freight Infrastructure Research and Education (CFIRE), identifies and evaluates strategies to reduce the social costs associated with goods movement in urban areas by managing freight transportation demand.
Tools for Estimating VMT Reductions from Built Environment Changes (Anne Vernez Moudon and Orion Stewart , University of Washington, 2013)
This report reviews the built environment characteristics associated with travel and the tools available that utilize these built environment characteristics to estimate travel and related outcomes such as vehicle emissions and health co-benefits. Tools ranged from simple to complex, and a number of factors should be considered when applying a tool to a planning effort.
Getting on Board for Health (Alameda County Public Health Department, 2013)
This health impact assessment informed the development of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Regional Transportation Plan. It focused specifically on transit-dependent populations and the expected health outcomes that may result from changes to bus access as determined by RTP.
How to Increase Bicycling for Daily Travel (Active Living Research, 2013)
What are the most effective strategies cities can use to increase bicycling? This brief summarizes the available evidence about strategies for increasing bicycling levels and encouraging bicycling as a mode of transportation. It also presents related policy implications.
Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions Among Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality (EPA, 2013)
The EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities Smart Growth Program offers this comprehensive review on how the built environment – the way we build our cities and towns – directly affects our environment and public health. It provides evidence that certain kinds of land use and transportation strategies – where and how we build our communities – can reduce the environmental and human health impacts of development.
The New Majority: Pedaling Toward Equity (League of American Bicyclists and Sierra Club, 2013)
This report features data on demographic ridership, the effect of safe cycling infrastructure on ridership, new immigrant perceptions of bicycling, as well as the economic impact of transportation and health inequity.
Proceedings from SSTI Community of Practice Meeting – Making the most of the Transportation Alternatives Program (SSTI, 2013)
The findings and key points of the discussions from the May 7-9, 2013 “SSTI Community of Practice Meeting – Making the most of the Transportation Alternatives Program” are being made available for the public.
The Best Complete Streets Policies of 2012 (Smart Growth America, 2013)
Communities across the country are making roads safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them, and more communities are using these strategies now than ever before. This guide from Smart Grown America, released today, examines all the Complete Streets policies passed in the last year and highlights some of the best. The analysis also revealed that the Complete Streets movement grew in 2012, continuing a national trend since 2005.
A Distance-Based Method to Estimate Annual Pedestrian and Bicyclist Exposure in an Urban Environment (FHWA, 2013)
This report describes a methodology for measuring pedestrian and bicyclist exposure based on counts of pedestrian and bicyclist volumes as well as the distances that pedestrians and bicyclists travel on facilities shared with motor vehicles. The distances that pedestrians and bicyclists travel on these facilities represent a measure of their exposure to the risk of having a crash with a motor vehicle.