Master of City and Regional Planning

Series

Master of City and Regional Planning

Permanent Link

https://hdl.handle.net/1853/73244

Series Type

Degree Series

Associated Organization(s)

Organizational Unit

School of City and Regional Planning

Full item page

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 373

Analyzing the difference between bike share trips made on regular and electric bicycles

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-09-11) Borsch, Adam

In 2017, JUMP Bicycle Company introduced dockless electric bicycles in several cities in the United States. Two of these cities were Austin, TX, and Atlanta, GA, both of which already had bikeshare companies operating with traditional non-electric bicycle fleets. This makeup of two unique sources of data for non-electric and electric bikeshare in these two cities presents a unique opportunity to study the difference between trips made on a pedal-assist bicycle and a standard bicycle that are a part of an urban bikeshare network. To conduct this work, the researchers collected three months of data in each of the cities and analyzed the data by comparing trip counts, mapping the origins and destinations and the routes of the trips, and finally analyzing the distance and other characteristics of the trips. The results of the study found an increase in the number of bikeshare trips taken in both cities, however, many of these new electric bicycle trips come at the expense of existing bikeshare trips. The geographic area covered by the trips increase greatly when electric bicycles trips are compared to regular bike trips in both cities, however, the average trip lengths stayed constant. Results suggest the introduction of electric bikeshares is a promising prospect to increase mobility and will need to be incorporated into transportation plans for cities moving forward.
Economic and social sustainability of sidewalk infrastructure

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-08-27) Patel, Deep

The presence of sidewalks and quality of sidewalk infrastructure are important indicators of perceived pedestrian safety and the walkability of neighborhoods. However, a wide gap exists between the accessibility and quality of infrastructure provided for pedestrians compared to the infrastructure provided for motorized vehicles. While there may be numerous reasons for poor quality of pedestrian infrastructure across cities and neighborhoods, one of the main reasons is the lack of sustained operation and maintenance programs among these local government agencies. This study outlines an approach to quantify sidewalk infrastructure costs over an 80-year life cycle period. Equivalent annual costs for three different scenarios are allocated in part directly to property owners, with the remaining costs in each scenario recovered over time through an equivalent increase in property tax millage rates. The four sidewalk management scenarios are then examined in more detail to assess how implementation may differentially impact Atlanta’s 244 neighborhoods and their residents across income and ethnicity groups. The two somewhat surprising findings of the study are: 1) even though sidewalk infrastructure may have a lifespan of more than 40-years, the costs of owning and operating this infrastructure over an 80-year period with replacement are high; and 2) low income neighborhoods are negatively impacted when portions of sidewalk infrastructure management costs are allocated directly to property owners, rather than handling sustainable management through traditional property tax assessment methods.
Estimating managed lanes door-to-door travel timesavings using shortest path algorithms

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-08-27) Chang, Chia-Huai

Implementing managed lanes, such as high-occupancy toll lanes, within existing urban highway corridors has become increasingly common in cities that want to provide a reliable transportation option but lack sufficient right-of-way to construct new corridors. This study develops a framework that utilizes a shortest path algorithm to compare before and after commute routes and estimate the change in door-to-door travel time offered by managed lane facilities. Using this modeling approach, a case study is explored for the Northwest Corridor (NWC) managed lane facility located in the Atlanta, Georgia, region. The shortest path routines predict that the facility provides a 21.0% - 27.1% decrease in door-to-door travel time for the NWC managed lane users, and a 5.8% – 12.0% travel time decrease for non-NWC general-purpose lane users, for corridor travelers departing home between 6:30 and 8:30 A.M. (traversing the corridor between 6:30 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.). This framework can be easily customized and applied to any other commute route/time change assessment for major managed lane projects.
Estimating demand for an electric vertical landing and takeoff (eVTOL) air taxi service using discrete choice modeling

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-07-30) Boddupalli, Sreekar-Shashank

Urban Air Mobility (UAM), often referred to in the press as “flying cars,” is slated to be the next big thing in transportation. As congestion continues to increase on our roads and transit systems are in dire need of maintenance, commuters are looking out for other alternatives that can save time, and be cost-efficient, safe, and comfortable. With numerous companies vying to launch their service in the early part of the next decade, it is essential to analyze the effectiveness of UAM solutions and model how UAM could compete against the other, more established modes of transportation. A travel demand modeling study, on the basis of the utility maximization theory, has been conducted based on a stated preference survey of 2,500 commuters living and working in the Atlanta, Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Francisco, and Los Angeles areas. The study provides estimates of market share for the new air taxi service assuming current market conditions (i.e., no autonomous ground vehicles).
It takes green to go green: An Atlanta-based evaluation of employer-provided commuting incentives as a method to overcome work site car-dependency

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-07-30) Greenwald, Jeremy Adams

Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is the concept of applying travel options and incentives to mitigate the effects of congestion through human travel behavior change. While traditionally applied in a municipal context, TDM has recently penetrated the corporate landscape, where employers utilize financial incentives and work place perks to achieve a commuter mode shift in their employee population that often results in financial benefits and increased employee well-being and productivity. A limitation in current employer-based TDM and within existing relevant literature is the arbitrary nature in which transportation alternatives and incentives are applied. This thesis, and the incorporated Atlanta, GA employer case study, aims to further define the influence of travel-related behaviors within employee populations and the targeted methods of incentivization that could be applied to overcome alternative mode barriers. This research specifically evaluates the viability of carpooling and transit as alternative modes within the corporate commuting landscape, distinguishing between carpool driver and carpool passenger. A mixed-method survey approach is utilized to inform a multinomial logistic regression analysis that produces utility measures for socio-demographic and TDM-related variables. This work offers value to the field of corporate TDM by providing a contemporary reference point for TDM practitioners that can help them effectively target incentives to achieve their workplace commuting-related objectives.
A Flood Resilience Policy Analysis: New York City

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05) Sherman, Jonathan

The urgency of flood resilience in coastal regions has amplified over the past decade as several high cost storms have hit significant metropolitan regions. New data has indicated that major hydrological events have doubled since 2004 and quadrupled since 1984 (EASAC 2018). The Mid-Atlantic United States is particularly vulnerable to coastal flooding as the statistics approximate above average sea level rise for the region (EPA, 16). Sea levels are expected to rise globally between eight inches and six and a half feet by the end of the century (NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency 2013). The Mid-Atlantic region SLR rates are three to four times the global average, indicating a much faster rate of increase than other parts of the globe. This region encompasses several densely populated areas including New York City. Strategies to mitigate climate change impacts or adapt to changing environmental conditions have become frontline topics in planning and urban design.
Church-Based Transportation: A New Shared Mobility Service That Converts Church Parking Lots into Transportation Hubs

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05) Tyger, Curtis

The Atlanta metro region leads national polls and statistics that reveal the inadequacy of available transportation services. For example, Atlanta has the 2nd lowest rate of economic mobility, 4th highest rate of suburbanization of poverty, and is the 4th most traffic-congested city in the United States. Each ranked criterion can be credited to the region’s public transportation system and its inability to keep pace with the metro area’s sprawling land use pattern. Economic mobility or “an individual, family, or group’s ability to improve their economic status” is often measured by access to efficient and reliable transportation services (Forward Through Ferguson, 2015). Suburbanization of poverty, or the increase in poverty rates in suburbia, has close ties to how metropolitan governments have neglected to ensure adequate regional transit services. As regional governments allocate millions of public dollars to well-needed transportation projects, their projected completion dates are often in the distant future, thus forcing residents to wait years for a solution. However, this paper will analyze how a ubiquitous community asset can offer the space to implement immediate mobility services to underserved communities in the Atlanta metro area.
Middle Ground: Market Demand and the Housing Supply Mismatch for Middle Housing in the United States

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05) Healy, Clare

The purpose of this report is to analyze the market case in other words, the abundance of demand and lack of supply for middle scale, middle density housing. This category of housing used to be common in our cities but today is better known as the “missing middle,” due to demolition of the existing stock and a lack of new construction. The concept of missing middle housing has gained traction among urban planning circles in recent years, and even in the popular press. As the concept generates more buzz, it is important to step back and substantiate the degree to which middle housing is a bonafide market opportunity that satisfies unmet housing demand, rather than a fad. This established, stakeholders in the real estate development process can move forward to the more difficult task of addressing the many known regulatory and financial challenges associated with actually building middle housing today. This report surveys these challenges briefly but is more focused on emphasizing the market opportunity at stake more than laying out regulatory solutions, which is already well addressed in the literature. This report operates on the belief that what is needed today is not so much solutions as motivation to actually work toward those solutions.
Federal Opportunity Zones: The newest gentrification tool?

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05) Carter, Melody

The Federal Opportunity Zones tax incentive has taken over the conversation amongst professionals in the economic and community development world for the past year. The legislation sparked from a think tank exploring ideas about how to tap into a large amount of private capital – unrealized capital gains. With $6.1 trillion of unrealized U.S. capital gains, thought leaders imagined a mechanism to drive this source of private dollars into communities around the country that are most disinvested. Attempting to bridge the economic prosperity gap that is so prevalent in the U.S., the Federal Opportunity Zones were enacted.
Envisioning a Complete Streets Prioritization Scheme for Georgia’s Small and Medium-Sized Cities

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05) Smith, Andrew

This paper explores the policy implications of implementing a prioritization methodology exclusively for Complete Streets projects in Georgia urbanized areas (UZAs) with a population range of 50,000 to 200,000 people, or those UZAs that are not defined as transportation management areas (TMAs) by the United States Census Bureau. It is partly based on past work the author completed with the Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization and Southern Georgia Regional Commission from January to July 2017 in the development of a report titled Valdosta and Lowndes County Complete Streets Suitability. The effectiveness and criticisms of this report are examined in the paper. Potential improvements to the methodology are suggested should this either be implemented in Valdosta again or in another Georgia metropolitan planning organization (MPO). This paper is written with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and the state’s 16 MPOs as the intended audience. The ultimate goal is to illustrate why there is a need for a Complete Streets scoring methodology for road segments in small and medium-sized cities and UZAs in Georgia and discuss how MPOs can develop and implement such a methodology for their planning areas.