Planning agencies and transportation decision makers often talk about the importance of improving access to destinations, but they rarely have the tools or resources to measure accessibility and incorporate those metrics into decision making. This report guides agencies through that process.
Resources
Renewable Energy in the Right of Way
At SSTI’s first Sustainability Directors Community of Practice meeting in June 2015, attendees discussed their states’ interest in siting solar and other renewable energy generation facilities in the highway right-of-way but cited uncertainty regarding FHWA rules and unfamiliarity with the business side of renewable energy production as major hurdles. In an effort to support these efforts and allow interested states to learn from others, SSTI has gathered the technical documents gathered here, under the headings below, comprise a living repository for state DOTs and others to use as examples as they develop their own ROW renewable energy projects.
Advancing Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety: A Primer for Highway Safety Professionals (NHTSA, 2016)
As communities strive to encourage biking and walking, planners and engineers are focusing on designs and programs that improve safety for these users.This primer summarizes the most promising infrastructure treatments and behavioral programs available for addressing specific safety problems and highlights how these approaches can be combined and implemented.
Trip-making data, TDM, and connectivity in Northern Virginia (SSTI and Michael Baker International, 2016)
Commercially available GPS data offers valuable new insight about trip origins, destinations, and routes, including short trips that travel demand models often cannot capture. Using this data, SSTI worked with Michael Baker International, the Virginia DOT, and local stakeholders to identify opportunities for managing travel demand and improving connectivity throughout Northern Virginia. This final report describes the full data set and 17 selected case studies, along with recommended projects and policies, estimated costs, and benefits for each.
Bikesharing and Bicycle Safety (Mineta Transportation Institute, 2016)
When bike sharing first began, many commentators and critics expressed concern that shared bicycle systems would lead to high crash and injury rates. Yet the injury and overall crash rate for bike share use has been extremely low. The researchers at the Mineta Transportation Institute examined why this is so.
The Business Case for Investment in Public Transportation (APTA, 2016)
While transit has principally been considered the realm of the public-sector, new technologies, service providers, and investment models are building the case for private investment in public transportation. The American Public Transportation Association presents a new report that shows the various ways that private investment is becoming more common in public transportation.
Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making: Guidebook for Transit Agencies (TRB, 2016)
Land use decisions play a key role in shaping the long-term success of virtually every transit system in the United States. Organizations other than transit agencies hold the responsibility and authority for integrating land use and transit. However, transit agencies can influence the framework for those stakeholders to routinely make transit-supportive land use decisions. This guidebook was developed to help transit agencies better address the connections among transit, land use planning, and development decision making. It provides transit agencies with the tools to be more effective at the decision-making table.
Trip-making and accessibility: New tools, better decisions (SSTI, 2016)
Transportation researchers and practitioners have long sought other tools to complement or perhaps replace conventional methods—tools that would better analyze trips rather than speed at points in the system, speak to non-auto modes of travel, address land use solutions as well as highway infrastructure, and so on. Fortunately, new sources of data and emerging methods, as well as new-found interest in performance and scenario planning, are yielding the types of tools that the field needs.
Growing a Culture of Transportation Sustainability in Massachusetts (McCahill, Ebeling and Codd, 2014)
MassDOT is among a growing number of state agencies tackling sustainability efforts in the transportaiton section and its approach offers valuable lessons for others. number of state agencies tackling this issue and its approach offers valuable lessons for others. This paper traces the evolution of MassDOT’s sustainability efforts, beginning with its revised Project Development and Design Guide, published in 2006, and ultimately encapsulated in its ongoing GreenDOT program, launched in 2010. These efforts represent the combined actions of state legislators, agency leaders, and personnel at all levels of MassDOT.
Effects of Parking Provision on Automobile Use in Cities: Inferring Causality (McCahill, Garrick, Atkinson-Palombo and Polinski, 2015)
Automobile use has been on the rise in cities for nearly a century and so has the supply of parking. Because driving often seems unavoidable, policymakers, developers and the public push endlessly for more parking to meet demand. That push, however, might only be making matters worse. SSTI Senior Associate Chris McCahill’s research suggests that abundant parking in cities causes people to drive more, shedding important light on the question of cause and effect.