[sustran] VTPI NEWS - Spring 2007

[Todd Alexander Litman]

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                                   VTPI NEWS
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                       Victoria Transport Policy Institute
                          "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"
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                           Spring 2007    Vol. 10, No. 2
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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.
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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.

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NEW DOCUMENTS
==============

"Valuing Transit Service Quality Improvements: 
Considering Comfort and Convenience In Transport 
Project Evaluation" (http://www.vtpi.org/traveltime.pdf )
This paper investigates the value travelers place 
on qualitative factors such as comfort and 
convenience, and practical ways to incorporate 
these values in project evaluation. This can help 
identify cost-effective transit service improvements.


"Transportation Market Distortions" (http://www.vtpi.org/distortions_BPJ.pdf )
This article, published in the Berkeley Planning 
Journal, investigates various market distortions 
that reduce travel options and underprice motor 
vehicle travel. It describes reforms that can 
correct these distortions, increasing transport system efficiency and equity.


"Reassessing 'The Social Desirability of Urban 
Rail Transit Systems': Critique of Winston and 
Maheshri" (http://www.vtpi.org/warner.pdf ) This 
paper, by scientist Jay Warner, evaluates the 
statistical analysis used by Winston and Maheshri 
in their 2006 article, "The Social Desirability 
of Urban Rail Transit Systems," which concluded 
that most U.S. urban rail systems have a negative 
social desirability. This is a companion to our 
report "Evaluating Rail Transit Criticism" (http://www.vtpi.org/railcrit.pdf ).

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UPDATED DOCUMENTS
==============

"Appropriate Response to Rising Fuel Prices: 
Citizens Should Demand, 'Raise My Prices Now!'" 
(http://www.vtpi.org/fuelprice.pdf )
This paper evaluates options for responding to 
rising fuel prices in terms of various planning 
objectives. Recent fuel price increases make this paper timely.


"Socially Optimal Transport Prices and Markets; 
Principles, Strategies and Impacts" (http://www.vtpi.org/sotpm.pdf )
This paper investigates the socially optimal 
level of mobility, that is, the amount and mix of 
transport activity that consumers would choose in 
an efficient market that reflects the economic 
principles of efficient pricing, consumer options 
and optimal planning. It discusses market 
principles, identifies existing transport market 
distortions, estimates how correcting these 
distortions would affect mobility and 
investigates the economic impacts. This analysis 
indicates that in more optimal transport and land 
use markets, consumers would choose to drive 
significantly less, use alternative modes more, 
choose more accessible locations, and be better off overall as a result.


"Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis," 
(http://www.vtpi.org/tca ). Many of the chapters 
in this comprehensive study have been updated to 
include new information, particularly extensive 
transportation costing analysis by the research 
CE Delft (http://www.ce.nl/eng/index.html ), described below.


Errata. the book, "Parking Management Best 
Practices" (http://www.planning.org/apastore ) 
contains an embarrassing error. Table 2-1 
('Typical Minimum Parking Standards') has 
measurement units of "square miles", which is 
totally inappropriate...the correct unit is 
"square meters". Unfortunately, the abbreviation 
"sq. m." was misunderstood when it was expanded, 
and we failed to catch the error in the final 
review. The corrected Table 2-1 is available on 
the VTPI website at http://www.vtpi.org/PMBP_Table2-1.pdf .

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PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE
Below are recently published reports and articles.

'Transportation Market Distortions,' in the 
"Berkeley Planning Journal," Volume 19, 2006, pp. 
19-36; issue theme: "Sustainable Transport in the 
United States: From Rhetoric to Reality?" 
(<http://www-dcrp.ced.berkeley.edu/bpj>http://www-dcrp.ced.berkeley.edu/bpj 
); available at 
<http://www.vtpi.org/distortions_BPJ.pdf>http://www.vtpi.org/distortions_BPJ.pdf 
.


Auckland, City of Cars: Episode 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3d13EOfRI )

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UPCOMING EVENTS
================
VTPI will participate in these upcoming events:

"Transportation Problem Solving for Healthy 
Communities" Roads, Rails, and Trails Lecture 
Series 
(<http://uvic.commonenergy.org/wiki/Roads,_Rails,_and_Trails>http://uvic.commonenergy.org/wiki/Roads,_Rails,_and_Trails 
)
19:00 (7:00pm), Tuesday, May 22nd, Engineering 
and Computer Science Building, University of Victoria, British Columbia.


"Sustainable TransForum" (http://www.sustainabletransforum.ca )
May 28-29, 2007, Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Over 30 speakers from across Canada and around 
the world will cover topics such as building 
sustainable communities, encouraging more active 
forms of transportation and transit use, using 
market based strategies to affect change, 
adapting infrastructure to address the challenges 
of climate change, and enhancing the efficiency 
of all modes of transportation. Sponsored by the 
Ontario Ministry of Transportation.


"Making Compact Development Work for Everyone: Full Day Smart Growth"
Coalition for Smart Growth, Lancaster County, PA
Forum (http://www.coalitionforsmartgrowth.org/summit07.html )
This conference will provide practical solutions 
and guidance to help decision makers, officials, 
planners, developers and community members for 
implementing the recommendations of Balance and 
assuring the future of Lancaster county balances 
growth, conservation and affordable housing and community development.


"Transportation Land Use Impacts"
June 4, 2007 - Vancouver, BC
(<http://www.apeg.bc.ca/prodev/events/transport_land_use_van.html>http://www.apeg.bc.ca/prodev/events/transport_land_use_van.html 
)
This workshop describes practical methods for 
comprehensive evaluation of land use impacts 
resulting from transportation policy and planning 
decisions. It will explore these issues in the 
context of concerns about the costs of sprawl and 
the potential of smart growth development 
policies. For more information or to register for this session, please visit:


"Parking Management Best Practices"
June 5, 2007 - Vancouver, BC
(<http://www.apeg.bc.ca/prodev/events/parking_mgmt.html>http://www.apeg.bc.ca/prodev/events/parking_mgmt.html 
)
This workshop will investigate various parking 
management strategies and how they can be used to 
support transportation and land use planning 
objectives. It will discuss problems with current 
parking planning practices, discusses the costs 
of parking facilities and the savings that can 
result from improved management, describes 
specific parking management strategies and how 
they can be implemented, describes how parking 
planning decisions affect transportation and land 
use patterns, discusses parking management 
planning and evaluation, and describes how to 
develop the optimal parking management program in 
a particular situation. For more information or 
to register for this session, please visit:


"Transportation and Air Quality" workshop at the 
Metropolis Commission Meeting on Urban Mobility 
Management in Seoul, Korea, June 11-15. 
Participants will also be able to experience for 
themselves Seoul's world-famous public transport 
and urban livability improvements 
(http://www.nctr.usf.edu/jpt/pdf/JPT%208-5%20Pucher.pdf 
). Metropolis (http://www.metropolis.org ) is an 
international association of large cities. It is 
also the metropolitan section of the United 
Cities & Local Government organization (UCLG). 
Its mission is to promote international 
cooperation and exchanges among members, i.e., 
local and metropolitan governments.


"How To Measure Access: Definition, Measurement 
And Consequences Of A Changed Set Of Objectives 
In Transportation Designed To Meet The Needs Of 
People" European Science Foundation Exploratory 
Workshop 
(http://www.esf.org/activities/exploratory-workshops/social-sciences-scss/workshops-detail.html?ew=4854 
)
Sept 27-28, Dresden, Germany

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USEFUL RESOURCES
=================

"How to Handle Parking" Transit-Friendly 
Development: Newsletter of Transit-Oriented 
Development and Land Use In New Jersey
(http://policy.rutgers.edu/vtc/tod/newsletter/vol3-num1/TODParking.html )
This article summarizes interviews with four 
experts discussing parking demand, design, financing, and management.


FHWA (2007), Advanced Parking Management Systems: 
A Cross-Cutting Study, Report FHWA-JPO-07-011, 
Intelligent Transportation Systems 
(<http://www.its.dot.gov/>www.its.dot.gov), FHWA, 
USDOT; available at 
<http://www.its.dot.gov/jpodocs/repts_te/14318.htm>www.its.dot.gov/jpodocs/repts_te/14318.htm. 



Manual For Streets 
(<http://www.manualforstreets.org.uk/>www.manualforstreets.org.uk)
The Manual for Streets, published by the UK 
Department for Transport and Communities and 
Local Government, provides practical guidance for 
balancing multiple, often conflicting objectives 
in roadway planning and management. This document:
·       Creates a new classification of roads 
which incorporates multi-functional streets such as 'main roads'.
·       Uses a new hierarchy of users, which places pedestrians at the top.
·       Proposes a new design process, designed 
to cater for engineering concerns about risk when 
adopting new design approaches.
·       Summarizes research into the relationship 
between street geometry, speed and so road crashes.
·       Summarizes extensive design guidance in one volume.


David Banister (2007), "Visioning and Backcasting 
for UK Transport Policy" Bartlett School of 
Planning, University College London 
(<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/>www.ucl.ac.uk); at 
<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucft696/vibat2.html>www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucft696/vibat2.html. 
This research project involves estimating 
emission reductions needed to achieve 60% 
reduction in climate change emissions from 
baseline by 2030, and evaluates various packages 
of policies to achieve such reductions, including 
new technologies and travel reduction incentives.


The research organization CE Delft has performed 
extensive analysis of transportation costs and 
pricing reforms, available free on their website 
(http://www.ce.nl/eng/index.html ). These include:
·       "Infrastructure Expenditures and Costs: 
Practical Guidelines to Calculate Total 
Infrastructure Costs for Five Modes of 
Transport," for the European Commission 
(<http://www.ec.europa.eu/>www.ec.europa.eu).
·      "Marginal Costs of Infrastructure Use – Towards a Simplified Approach."
·      "The Price of Transport: Overview of the Social Costs of Transport."


John Pucher (2007), Cycling for Everyone: Key to 
Public and Political Support, keynote address at 
the 2007 National Bike Summit, League of American 
Bicyclists, Washington, DC, March 16, 2007; 
available at 
<http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/BikeSummit2007COMP_Mar25.pdf>www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/BikeSummit2007COMP_Mar25.pdf. 



John Pucher and Ralph Buehler (2006), “Why 
Canadians Cycle More Than Americans: A 
Comparative Analysis Of Bicycling Trends And 
Policies,” Transport Policy, Vol. 13, May, 2006, 
pp. 265–279; available at 
<http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/TransportPolicyArticle.pdf>www.policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/TransportPolicyArticle.pdf.


Ethan M. Berke, Laura M. Gottlieb, Anne Vernez 
Moudon, Eric B. Larson (2007), "Protective 
Association Between Neighborhood Walkability and 
Depression in Older Men," Journal of the American 
Geriatrics Society 
(<http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/>www.blackwell-synergy.com), 
Vol. 55, No. 4, pp. 526–533. This article reports 
on a study in Seattle of older men, and 
walking.  Not only did men living in walkable 
neighbourhoods get more exercise, but, mile for 
mile (after controlling for distance walked), 
their walks brought them into more contact with 
others, thereby reducing their chance of experiencing depression.


CCAP (2005), Transportation Emissions Guidebook: 
Land Use, Transit & Transportation Demand 
Management, Center of Clean Air Policy 
(<http://www.ccap.org/guidebook>www.ccap.org/guidebook). 
This Guidebook provides information on various 
smart growth and mobility management strategies, 
including rules-of-thumb estimates of VMT and 
emission reductions. Each part of the guidebook 
contains a series of policy briefs which include 
information about each strategy, including an 
overview, cobenefits, implementation, case 
studies and information resources. It includes a 
spreadsheet model that calculates total emission 
reductions from specific combinations of these strategies.

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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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