From carlosfpardo at gmail.com Sat Mar 2 21:10:26 2019 From: carlosfpardo at gmail.com (Carlosfelipe Pardo) Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2019 07:10:26 -0500 Subject: [sustran] My 5904 photos from around the world Message-ID: Dear Sustraners, Though it took me a few weeks and many very early weekends, I finally uploaded and organized my nicer pictures from around the world taken during the past 15 years. Feel free to use and distribute as you like (all photos can be downloaded in higher res). Below are two links, one is organized by continent and the other is by topic or city. Photos by continent (collection): https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosfpardo/collections Photos by topic and cities (album): https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlosfpardo/albums Best regards, Carlos. Virus-free. www.avast.com <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> From litman at vtpi.org Sat Mar 23 03:53:00 2019 From: litman at vtpi.org (Todd Litman) Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2019 11:53:00 -0700 Subject: [sustran] VTPI NEWS - Spring 2019 Message-ID: <132601d4e0e0$7d9a7e40$78cf7ac0$@vtpi.org> ----------- VTPI NEWS ----------- Victoria Transport Policy Institute "Efficiency - Equity - Clarity" ------------------------------------- Spring 2019 Vol. 19, No. 1 ----------------------------------- The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transportation problems. The VTPI website (www.vtpi.org ) has many resources addressing a wide range of transport planning and policy issues. VTPI also provides consulting services. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEW VTPI REPORTS =================== "Rethinking Malahat Solutions: Or, Why Spend a Billion Dollars if a Five-Million Dollar Solution is Better Overall?" (www.vtpi.org/malahat.pdf ) This report evaluates various options for reducing traffic problems on the Malahat Highway north of Victoria, British Columbia. The analysis indicates that a combination of bus service improvements, Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies and incremental roadway improvements is the most cost effective and beneficial option. In addition to financial savings this solution provides additional benefits including reduced traveller stress, consumer savings and affordability, improved mobility options for nondrivers, reduced downstream traffic problems, energy conservation and emission reductions. Current planning tends to undervalue many of these impacts. This report illustrates the benefits of more comprehensive and multimodal planning. * * * * * PUBLISHED & PRESENTED ELSEWHERE ================================ "Toward More Comprehensive Evaluation of Traffic Risks and Safety Strategies" (https://bit.ly/2TQO3S3 ), published in 'Research in Transportation Business & Management.' Despite large investments in traffic safety programs and technologies, motor vehicle accidents continue to impose high social costs. Recent research improves our understanding of factors that affect traffic risks and ways to increase traffic safety. Applying this knowledge requires a paradigm shift, a change in the way we define problems and evaluate potential solutions. The old paradigm assumed that driving is generally safe and favored targeted safety programs that reduce special risks such as youth, senior, impaired and distracted driving. The new paradigm recognizes that all vehicle travel imposes risks, and so supports vehicle travel reduction strategies such as more multimodal planning, efficient transport pricing, Smart Growth development policies and TDM programs. This article examines our emerging understanding of traffic risks and new ways to increase safety. Summarizes, "A New Traffic Safety Paradigm" (www.vtpi.org/ntsp ) "Effects of Perceived Traffic Risks, Noise, and Exhaust Smells on Bicyclist Behaviour: An Economic Evaluation," (www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/2/408 ), by Stefan G?ssling, Andreas Humpe, Todd Litman and Daniel Metzler, published in, 'Sustainability: Sustainable Transportation for Sustainable Cities.' Active mode (walking, bicycling, and their variants) users are exposed to various negative externalities from motor vehicle traffic, including injury risks, noise, and air pollutants. This directly harms the users of these modes and discourages their use. These impacts are widely recognized but seldom quantified. This study evaluates these impacts and their consequences by measuring the additional distances that bicyclists travel in order to avoid roads with heavy motor vehicle traffic. The results indicate that survey respondents cycle an average 6.4% longer distances to avoid traffic impacts. These detours are estimated to impose private costs of at least ?0.24/cycle-km, plus increased external costs when travellers shift from non-motorized to motorized modes. Conventional transport planning tends to overlook these impacts, resulting in overinvestments in roadway expansions and underinvestments in other types of transport improvements. "A Conceptual Framework to Formulate Transportation Network Design Problem Considering Social Equity Criteria" (https://bit.ly/2Jux3ML ), by Hamid Behbahani, Sobhan Nazari, Masood Jafari Kang and Todd Litman, published in 'Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice'. This study suggests ways of incorporating social equity measures in transportation network planning. It describes various equity impacts that can result from transportation planning decisions, discusses various social equity concepts and theories, reviews previous attempts to incorporate equity considerations into transport network modeling, and suggests a framework for simultaneously optimizing network design and achieving social equity objectives. According to this framework, network design can be formulated using bi-level integer programming models corresponding to seven major social equity approaches along with the classical approach of "Total Travel Time Minimization." This approach is more comprehensive and flexible than previous equity impact models. The proposed framework can be used to evaluate and optimize the equity impacts of various infrastructure investment decisions. Recent Planetizen Blogs (www.planetizen.com/blog/2394 ): "Seeing the Urban Forest for the Trees" (https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/103026 ). It is important to focus on forests rather than individual trees when evaluating trade-offs between infill and sprawled development. "No, Traffic Congestion Does Not Really Cost Every American $1,348 Annually" (https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/102904 ). The INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard exaggerates congestion costs in order to enhance the value of its traffic monitoring services. A little skepticism is justified. "Can Upzoning Increase Housing Supply and Affordability?" (https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/102740 ). Increasing allowable densities and reducing parking requirements are important strategies for achieving long-term planning goals, but to succeed they must be applied to large areas. "A Better Travel Experience" (https://www.planetizen.com/blogs/102436 ). Transportation engineers sometimes treat people as objects to be moved as quickly and cheaply as possible from one location to another, but people have preferences and feelings which should be considered when planning transport systems. * * * * * PROFESSIONAL EVENTS and ACTIVITIES =================================== Todd Litman is scheduled to speak about "Economic Aspects of Cycling Development" and "A New Traffic Safety Paradigm" at the International Cycling Conference (https://en.cyclingcongress.ru ), March 28-31 in St Petersburg, Russia. We will participate in the National Bike Summit (http://www.canadabikes.org/2019-national-bike-summit ) May 13th and 14th, Ottawa, organized by Velo Canada Bikes. Todd Litman is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers "Transportation & Health Task Force" (https://www.ite.org/technical-resources/topics/transportation-and-health ), which is investigating linkages between transportation and health, and developing resources to help transportation professionals incorporate health considerations into planning and programming. BEEN THERE ? DONE THAT ======================= This video (https://vimeo.com/319029568 ) shows highlights from the Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All) Consortium Meeting, January 16 at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. There was excitement over the Global Roadmap of Action (GRA) toward Sustainable Mobility (https://sum4all.org/global-roadmap-action ). World Bank Vice President Mahmoud Mohieldin challenged SuM4All members to think "bold and fast." * * * * * USEFUL RESOURCES ================= "Transport and Climate Change Global Status Report (TCC-GSR): Tracking Transport Emissions Trends, Raising Transport Policy Ambition" (http://slocat.net/tcc-gsr ). This report provides comprehensive information on transport sector emission trends, and practical strategies for achieving the 1.5-degree Paris Agreement target. It includes worldwide examples of successful emission reduction programs. "[Re]Evaluating How We Value Transportation" (https://bit.ly/2TPoaSR ), by Wesley Marshall, Daniel Piatkowski and Chris McCahill. This introduction to a special issue of 'Research in Transportation Business & Management' discusses the need for more comprehensive transportation planning evaluation, and specific ways to do this. "The Geography of Time: Mapping Sydney's Effective Job and Service Density" (https://pwc.to/2Qo1dzb ) and "Seeing the City: Towards a Data-Driven Sydney" (https://bit.ly/2Cwslbf ), by the Committee for Sydney, Australia. These two reports use sophisticated mapping systems to analyze and illustrate Sydney's development patterns, travel networks, access to jobs and services and social equity impacts. This is an outstanding example of comprehensive planning analysis. "TOD Implementation Resources and Tools" (http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31121 ), by the World Bank Global Platform for Sustainable Cities. Transit-oriented development (TOD) concentrates activities within a 5-10 minute walk of rapid transit stations. This report provides comprehensive information for TOD planning and analysis. See also "Transforming the Urban Space through Transit-Oriented Development " (https://bit.ly/2gJrUlO). "Transit Design Guide" (https://bit.ly/2UPpAca ) and "TOD Priority Tool" (https://www.capmetro.org/tod ) by the Austin, Texas Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. These documents provide excellent guidance for transit-oriented planning. "Street Smarts" (http://welcome.thinkstreetsmart.org ) is a comprehensive program to synthesize research concerning the impacts and effectiveness of transportation policies and programs, with information presented in intuitive and easy-to-use formats. "How to Move More Cars, Faster (Congestion Pricing)" (https://bit.ly/2TXsajn ), video interview with experts Sam Schwartz, and Jonas Eliasson. "What happened when Oslo decided to make its downtown basically car-free?" (https://bit.ly/2Dx4o4q ), by Adele Peters. It was a huge success: Parking spots are now bike lanes, transit is fast and easy, and the streets (and local businesses) are full of people. "Sustainable & Safe: A Vision and Guidance for Zero Road Deaths" (www.wri.org/publication/safe-system ), by the World Resources Institute and the Global Road Safety Facility. This report describes the 'Safe System' approach to road safety. "Speed Management for Safety" (https://bit.ly/2Cwo9Ix ). This new ITE website gives transportation professionals new tools for evaluating speed management and improving road design. "Place Value Wiki" (www.place-value-wiki.net ) is a collaborative platform for researchers interested in empirical links between aspects of place quality and value. Evidence is categorized under four discrete sections: Health, Society, Economy, and Environment. "Introducing VMT ? Vehicle Miles Traveled" (https://youtu.be/aHkKLinYaSQ ). Many jurisdictions are shifting from trying to maximize roadway Level of Service (LOS) to minimizing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and associated traffic problems. This video explains these issues in an easy-to-understand way. "Road Pricing Equity Report and Toolkit" (https://bit.ly/2G0J75U ), by Stuart Cohen and Alan Hoffman. This new report and toolkit applies comprehensive analysis to road pricing, considering various impacts, and identifies way to achieve equity goals through pricing reforms. "Why are Bike-Friendly Cities Safer for All Road Users?" (https://bit.ly/2Wf23Sn ), by Wesley E. Marshall, Nick Ferenchak and Bruce Janson. Although bicycling is considered more dangerous than driving, high-bicycling-mode-share cities are much safer for bicyclists and other road users. This article investigates these safety effect and their implications for planning. "The Social Cost of Automobility, Cycling and Walking in the European Union" (https://bit.ly/2Whv6ow ) by Stefan G?ssling, Andy Choi, Kaely Dekker and Daniel Metzler. This study calculated the total costs of walking, bicycling and automobile travel. Car travel external costs are estimated at ?0.11/km., while cycling and walking provide ?0.18 and ?0.37 per kilometer benefits, due to low infrastructure needs and positive health effects. The researchers recommend expanding transport economic analysis to include currently overlooked impacts. "ITE Journal ? Parking Special Issue" (https://bit.ly/2DZULvE ). This Institute of Transportation Engineers? publication includes several articles concerning the paradigm shift that is replacing minimum parking requirements with more efficient parking management. "Blind Spots: How Unhealthy Corridors Harm Communities and How to Fix Them" (https://bit.ly/2GUgd6T ) and "Building Healthy Corridors: Strategies and Resource Guide" (https://bit.ly/2IsOgpj ), by the Urban Land Institute. These reports describe why and how to create safer, healthier and more attractive urban roadways. "Reducing Demand for Vehicle Trips in Cities" (https://bit.ly/2CuAxc2 ) and "The Role of Companies in Improving Urban Mobility" (https://bit.ly/2EYDS3y ), by the World Resources Institute?s Transformative Urban Mobility Program. These short guides succinctly describe how cities can implement transportation demand management policies and programs. "10 Principles for Sustainable Urban Transport" (https://bit.ly/2HMZe6Y ), by the Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP). This vibrant infographic illustrates "avoid-shift-improve" principles for sustainable urban transport. It is available in 25 languages. "Rethinking Streets for Bikes" (http://www.rethinkingstreets.com ). This free book uses diverse and detailed case studies to illustrate street retrofit projects that improve bicycling conditions. "Stop Trying to Solve Traffic and Start Building Great Places? (https://brook.gs/2Ok2zf9 ), by the Brookings Institution. This report describes the importance of favoring people and urban communities over vehicle traffic. * * * * * 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 Litman (litman@vtpi.org) Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org) Office: 250-360-1560 | Mobile: 250-508-5150 1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA Efficiency - Equity - Clarity