[sustran] VTPI News - Winter 2006

Todd Alexander Litman litman at vtpi.org
Wed Feb 8 02:45:17 JST 2006


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                                   VTPI NEWS
                                  -----------
                       Victoria Transport Policy Institute
                          "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
                       ------------------------------------
                             Winter 2006    Vol. 9, No. 1
                        ----------------------------------

The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an 
independent research organization dedicated to 
developing innovative solutions to transportation 
problems. The VTPI website (http://www.vtpi.org ) 
has many resources addressing a wide range of 
transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also provides consulting services.
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


ONLINE TDM ENCYCLOPEDIA
========================

The VTPI "Online TDM Encyclopedia" 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/tdm>http://www.vtpi.org/tdm 
) is a comprehensive information resource to help 
identify and evaluate innovative management 
solutions to transport problems, available for 
free on our website. We continually update and 
expand the Encyclopedia. We have recently updated the following chapters:

"Contingency-Based Planning" 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm123.htm>http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm123.htm )
"Road Space Reallocation" 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm56.htm>http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm56.htm )
"Campus Transport Management" 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm5.htm>http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm5.htm )


As always, we appreciate feedback. Please let us 
know if you have suggestions for improving any of these documents.
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NEW DOCUMENTS
==============

Important New Book By VTPI Director Todd Litman
"Parking Management Best Practices" by Planners 
Press (<http://www.planning.org>www.planning.org) 
will be released later this month. See the flyer 
at 
<http://www.vtpi.org/PMBP_Flyer.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/PMBP_Flyer.pdf 
for more information and a substantial discount 
available for orders made before February 28, 2006.

The typical automobile is parked 23 hours a day. 
Where and how it is parked can make a big 
difference to economic development, traffic 
reduction, smart growth, historic preservation, 
and many other planning efforts. "Parking 
Management Best Practices" describes more than 
two-dozen practical strategies for increasing 
parking facility efficiency and reducing 
excessive parking demand. These strategies expand 
the range of solutions available for addressing 
parking problems, providing an alternative to 
traditional predict and provide parking planning.

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UPDATED DOCUMENTS
==============
We recently updated the following documents:

"Evaluating Rail Transit Criticism" 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/railcrit.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/railcrit.pdf )
This report as been updated to respond to Randal 
O'Toole's latest criticism of rail transit investments.

"Safe Travels: "Evaluating Rail Transit 
Criticism" 
<http://www.vtpi.org/safetrav.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/safetrav.pdf). 
This report by Todd Litman and Steven Fitzroy 
investigates the safety benefits that can result 
from various mobility management strategies.
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PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE
Below are VTPI articles recently published in professional journals.


"Transportation Solutions," Moving the Movement: 
Race, Poverty, and the Environment, Urban Habitat 
(http://urbanhabitat.rpejournal.org/moving), 
Winter 2005. This journal includes a variety of 
articles dealing with transportation equity 
issues, available free on the website.


"Sustainable Transportation and Equity” 
("Igualdad y Transporte Sostenible"), in 'The 
Right to Mobility (El Derecho a la Movilidad), ' 
published by the Escuela de Arquitectura, 
Universidad de Valladolid 
(<http://www.uva.es/arquitec>www.uva.es/arquitec), 
2005; available at 
<http://www.ciudad-derechos.org/eindex.html>www.ciudad-derechos.org/eindex.html. 
This report includes a variety of papers that 
examine transportation equity issues throughout the world.


"Lessons From Katrina and Rita: What Major 
Disasters Can Teach Transportation Planners," 
Journal of Transportation Engineering 
(<http://scitation.aip.org/teo>http://scitation.aip.org/teo), 
Vol. 132, January 2006, pp. 11-18.


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UPCOMING EVENTS
================

VTPI Executive Directly Todd Litman will give the 
keynote speech at the School of Planning Annual 
Conference (http://planningconference.dal.ca), at 
Delhousie University, Halifax, Canada this week, February 9-10-11, 2006
The conference theme is, "Bringing Transit Home: 
Transforming Daily Life, Community, Attitudes & 
Opportunities." The conference is open to both 
professionals and the public and provides an 
excellent forum to explore and debate planning issues. Admission is free.

Todd Litman will also give a series of 
presentations in New York, including a seminar 
titled, "Well-Measured Transportation Planning," 
Thursday, February 23, 2006, 2:30 – 4:00 pm, Room 914, Kimmel Center
New York University, sponsored by Transportation 
Alternatives 
(<http://www.transalt.org/>http://www.transalt.org) 
and the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & 
Management (http://wagner.nyu.edu/news/293.html 
). This seminar will explore how the techniques 
used to measure transportation system performance 
affect planning decisions, and the role of new 
methods suitable for multi-modal evaluation (for 
background see 
<http://www.vtpi.org/measure.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/measure.pdf ).

                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


BEEN THERE – DONE THAT
=======================
We had a very busy but fun time at the 
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting this 
year. Not only did we have one workshop 
presentation, five paper presentations, two 
poster presentations, and three committee 
meetings to attend, the entire Litman family came 
along to explore Washington DC, including wife 
Suzanne Litman and sons Graham (16) and Raviv 
(13). A wonderful time was had by all.

There was considerable interest in our research 
on the future transportation trends 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/future.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/future.pdf 
), lessons for transportation planners from 
hurricanes Katrina and 
Rita 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/katrina.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/katrina.pdf 
), transit terrorism risks 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/transitrisk.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/transitrisk.pdf 
) and mobility management safety benefits 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/safetrav.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/safetrav.pdf ).

Todd Litman chairs the TRB Sustainable 
Transportation Indicators subcommittee, which is 
developing practical techniques for evaluating 
transportation systems' economic, social and 
environmental sustainability. To find out more 
and be kept informed about this subcommittee's 
activities contact Todd at litman at vtpi.org.

                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Urgent Issue: NPTS Not Funded
===============================

The new federal transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, 
does not provide sufficient specific funding for 
the National Personal Transportation Survey 
(NPTS, previously called the National Household 
Transportation Survey).  Without additional 
funding, user support (at 
<http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/index.shtml>http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/index.shtml 
) will end in about two months, and the next 
NPTS, scheduled for 2008, will be cancelled. 
Without NPTS we lose comprehensive and accurate 
travel demand data in a format that allows geographic and time series analysis.

NPTS project management is in the FHWA Office of 
Policy, whose research budget was significantly 
reduced in the bill. FHWA is now investigating 
what can be done to support the program, but 
there are no easy answers. Funding can also come 
from NHTSA, FTA, RITA/BTS and possibly OST, but 
all have limited research budgets.

The 2008 survey requires $7-8 million (less than 
the $11.5 million spent on the 2001 NHTS) and 
support functions for analysis and publications, 
website development and maintenance and user 
support costs another $850,000 per year. In a 
six-year cycle, the NPTS project totals about 
$12.6 million (averaging $2.1 million per year.)

The most effective action to take at this point 
is to make sure that U.S. DOT knows of the many 
users would be adversely impacted by not 
continuing this crucial data series.  Letters of support should be sent to:

Norman Y. Mineta
Secretary of Transportation
U. S. Department of Transportation (S-1)
400- 7TH Street, S.W.
Washington DC 20590

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USEFUL RESOURCES
=================
Below are some new information resources that you may find useful.

Marie Demers's new book "Walk For Your Life! 
Restoring Neighborhood Walkways To Enhance 
Community Life, Improve Street Safety and Reduce 
Obesity," (Vital Health Publishing, 
http://www.vitalhealthbooks.com/book/2414947630.html, 
2006) is easy to read and provides an excellent 
introduction to issues related to why and how to 
increase nonmotorized transportation. It can help 
planners and policy makers understand the 
importance of increased walking and cycling, help 
health professionals understand how this can be 
done, and encourage individuals to take more 
steps each day. The book discusses various 
reasons that individuals and communities should 
improve walking conditions and encourage walking 
activity, and describes various ways of doing 
this. It emphasizes public health (particularly 
reduced obesity and increased physical fitness), 
community livability (including community 
cohesion) and personal enjoyment benefits, as 
well environmental and equity benefits. It 
describes policy and planning reforms to help 
create more walkable communities.


CTOD and CNT, The Affordability Index: A New Tool 
for Measuring the True Affordability of a Housing 
Choice, Center for Transit-Oriented Development 
and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, 
Brookings Institute 
(<http://www.brookings.edu/metro/umi/20060127_affindex.pdf>www.brookings.edu/metro/umi/20060127_affindex.pdf), 
2006.


USEPA, Parking Spaces / Community Places: Finding 
the Balance Through Smart Growth Solutions, 
Development, Community, and Environment Division 
(DCED); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
(<http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/parking.htm>www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/parking.htm), 
2006.


Norman King, Patrick Morency and Lucie Lapierre, 
Impacts Of Transportation On Public Health, 
Montréal Public Health Department 
(<http://www.santepub-mtl.qc.ca/Publication/synthese/rapv8n3_eng.pdf>http://www.santepub-mtl.qc.ca/Publication/synthese/rapv8n3_eng.pdf), 
2006.


Pay as You Drive Insurance Pilot
King County Metro, the Washington State 
Department of Transportation and other partners 
has $2,2 million to develop a Pay As You Drive 
(PAYD) Insurance Pilot project for Washington 
State over a 4-year period to evaluate the 
impacts of a pilot including at least 5000 
participants. They are in the process of 
recruiting an insurance carrier to join in the 
project. The deadline for expressions of interest 
is February 15, 2006. For more information 
contact Bill Roach 
(<mailto:bill.roach at metrokc.gov>bill.roach at metrokc.gov) 
or Bob Flor (<mailto:bob.flor at metrokc.gov>bob.flor at metrokc.gov).

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Please let us know if you have comments or 
questions about any information in this 
newsletter, or if you would like to be removed 
from our email list. And please pass this 
newsletter on to others who may find it useful.



Sincerely,
Todd Alexander Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)
litman at vtpi.org
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA
“Efficiency - Equity - Clarity”

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