The fall issue of ACCESS Magazine is hot off of the press and now available to view at the brand-new ACCESS website, accessmagazine.org. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find in the latest issue:
Quantified Traveler: Travel Feedback Meets the Cloud to Change Behavior
Raja Sengupta and Joan L. Walker
Most people are aware that car emissions harm the environment, but they continue to drive anyway. What would it take for people to drive less and use other means of travel more?
In their new article, “Quantified Traveler: Travel Feedback Meets the Cloud to Change Behavior,” authors Raja Sengupta and Joan Walker try to get people to walk, bike, and take transit more through a new program, Quantified Traveler. With this program, respondents were able to track their travel behavior and compare it with the behavior of their peers and the national average. The authors found that awareness of one’s habits, especially in comparison to others, leads to reduced driving distances and changed respondents’ attitudes towards travel.
Unraveling the Modal Impacts of Bikesharing
Susan Shaheen and Elliot Martin
You’ve probably seen them in most major cities: bikes readily available for checkout, used by commuters and tourists alike. But how are bikesharing programs influencing other forms of travel? Are you more likely to take the bus if you also share a bike?
In their recent article, “Unraveling the Modal Impacts of Bikesharing,” Susan Shaheen and Elliot Martin surveyed bikesharers in four major cities to see how their travel behavior changed over the course of time. They discovered that, besides biking more, bikesharers also drive less and own fewer vehicles. In addition, bikesharing serves as an important first- and last-mile connector for public transit.
Does Transit-Oriented Development Need the Transit?
Dan Chatman
Developing housing near rail stations is expensive, but it’s supposed to encourage people to walk, bike, and take transit. Does it?
Dan Chatman’s latest article, “Does Transit-Oriented Development Need the Transit?” explores the effect of rail proximity on people’s travel habits. When all other factors were considered (bus access, job and population density, housing type, etc.), rail access had no effect on auto ownership. What did have an effect? Parking availability.
Life-Cycle Impacts of Transit-Oriented Development
Matthew J. Nahlik and Mikhail V. Chester
If you build housing near a rail station, can the residents expect lower pollution levels and household costs? What about the pollution created and the costs involved in creating TODs in the first place? To understand the full ramifications of TODs, authors Matthew Nahlik and Mikhail Chester developed an assessment to measure the full impact of TOD development in their article, “Life-Cycle Impacts of Transit-Oriented Development.”
The authors evaluated redevelopment around Los Angeles Metro’s Gold and Orange lines, including emissions from rehabilitating nearby buildings, changes in household energy use, and reduced automobile use as households shift to alternate travel modes. The result showed that proposed developments could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by over 35 percent compared with business-as-usual developments. The upfront costs to construct TODs would be offset by emission reductions over time from residents who change their behaviors and break away from car-dependent habits.
Changing Lanes
Joseph F. C. DiMento and Cliff Ellis
After World War II, states were provided with a 90 percent federal match for the construction of freeways meant to penetrate urban cores, clear out slums, and renew central business districts. By the late 1960s, however, this love affair with the freeway ended as citizen protests forced public officials to reassess the effects of their intruding highways.
The article, “Changing Lanes,” based on the book by the same name, explores the controversy, racism, and legal battles associated with some of these urban highways. As several cities plan to demolish their urban highways for other creative developments, authors Joseph DiMento and Cliff Ellis examine possible opportunities for them, including a chance for more public transit.
ALMANAC: Common Ground
Karen Trapenberg Frick
We’ve all been in an argument where neither side seems to be listening to the other. We start trying to “win” instead of figuring out a solution that works. This is even truer when dealing with people whose views are ideologically opposed to our own views. So how do we move forward, especially when the political process is involved?
In her latest article, “Common Ground,” Karen Trapenberg Frick emphasizes the importance of finding any areas of common ground in order to advance policy. In the course of the author’s political planning research, both sides of an argument could always agree on something. Whether it was electric vehicles not paying their fair share of transportation costs, or questioning the wisdom of running costly rail lines through low-density areas, there was always a common ground to be found if participants considered their opponents as legitimate adversaries rather than as enemies unworthy of engagement.
