Master of City and Regional Planning

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Master of City and Regional Planning

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

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School of City and Regional Planning

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 26

Explore pedestrian route choice preferences by demographic groups: analysis of street attributes in Chicago

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05-15) Lieu, Seung Jae

Traditional transit accessibility models often overlook travel behavior and fine-grained transit characteristics experienced during first and last-mile walking. Existing models typically assume travelers choose the shortest walking path to minimize travel time, but studies suggest pedestrians do not always follow this pattern. This study investigates pedestrian route choice preferences in Chicago, Illinois, using a diverse dataset of home-based work walking trajectories collected from a smartphone application. The impact of street attributes on route choice is examined, and a comparison is made of how built environment factors influence preferences among different demographic groups. A path-size logit model with a constrained enumeration approach-based choice set is employed for analysis. This study also addresses two gaps in pedestrian route choice research. First, unlike most studies that use data constrained to a particular study area or limited participant groups, this research employs a diverse dataset of actual walking trajectories covering a wide range of destinations and participant profiles. Second, this study utilizes GPS data, offering more accurate route choice analysis compared to questionnaires. Such surveys may suffer from recall bias, and they may not capture route choice variability across different times and days. The findings from this study indicate that factors such as distance, the number of amenities and establishments, sky visibility, greenery, and park accessibility along the route significantly influence route choice. While route distance and the number of establishments have a negative impact on preference, other factors positively affect route selection. To compare the effect of each variable across gender, age, and income, this study has operationalized the coefficients to use the concept of ‘equivalent walking distance.' This measure quantifies the incremental disutility resulting from various route attributes, represented as an equivalent increase or decrease in walking distance. The analysis shows that male pedestrians are more willing to walk further when there is greater sky visibility. Similarly, individuals aged over 30 years old tend to walk longer distances with increased sky visibility. Notably, we found no significant variables influencing route choice among different income groups.
Re-Think the Streets: An Evaluation of Green Street Practices as a Method to Achieve Combined Sewer Separation

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-04-19) Krieger, Jenna Elizbeth

Older cities across the United States have been grappling with how to mitigate stormwater for decades. The ongoing trend of land development coupled with the heightened frequency and intensity of storm events has necessitated costly infrastructure improvements that are short-sighted and fail to address the underlying cause of increased runoff. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) has recently emerged as a popular stormwater mitigation tool that mimics and restores the natural environment while providing the same functional benefits as conventional systems. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of GSI in roadside applications (i.e., “Green Streets”) to reduce combined sewer dependency and provide an alternative solution to sewer separation. Typically, roadways reach the end of their design life after 40 years, at which point, they are fully reconstructed. Reconstruction provides an opportunity to re-imagine the right-of-way (ROW) and shift away from conventional drainage design. The Green Street Toolkit presented in this research provides a planning and design framework that can be utilized prior to reconstruction to integrate green infrastructure into the ROW, which has the potential to eliminate stormwater runoff from the combined sewer system along the reconstructed segment. The Toolkit is applied under three design storm scenarios to evaluate the feasibility of a green street approach for varying storm intensities. Although green streets may not eliminate combined sewer dependency in every case, this work shows their potential in removing a substantial amount of stormwater runoff from the combined sewer system while providing secondary benefits not offered by conventional infrastructure.
Shared E-scooter Adoption and Mode Substitution Patterns

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-08-30) Chen, Yun-Hsuan

This thesis explores the adoption and mode substitution patterns of e-scooters using survey data from four metropolitan areas in the southern United States, obtained from Fall 2019 to Spring 2020. For adoption patterns, we find a positive correlation between the use of ridehailing services and being an e-scooter user, as well as observed higher multimodality for e-scooter users compared to non-users (N =2,914). E-scooters are found to be used by people with lower income, higher racial diversity, and certain disabilities. For substitution patterns, we examine heterogeneity in trip attributes, substitution patterns, and rider characteristics in a sample of e-scooter rides (N=295). With a latent-class cluster analysis, we identify three distinctive classes of e-scooter rides and associated users. The off-to-nightlife class (39.9%) captures many rides for social and recreational trips at night, many of which substitute for private vehicles, ridehailing, or taxis. Many users associated with this class are college-educated and middle-aged with middle-to-high household income, convenient access to cars, and positive attitudes toward density, technology, and environmental policies. The weekend-fun class (31.9%) includes many trips made “just for fun” by users, many of which would not have been made otherwise. Riders taking this type of trip rarely use e-scooters, live in the least dense suburbs with auto-oriented lifestyles, and are more likely to be female, older (relative to the other classes), well-educated, and wealthy. The commutes class (28.2%) tends to involve short rides during weekday daytime for work/school-related trips, most of which would replace active modes. Most commutes users are low-income young students with diverse racial backgrounds and limited access to cars. These tend to reside in the densest neighborhoods and are the most multimodal in the sample. For each class, we discuss behavioral mechanisms and policy options for sustainable transportation. In brief, this thesis fills important literature gaps by identifying heterogeneous e-scooter rides and users, incorporating attitudes, and focusing on the southern U.S.
AN ATLANTA-BASED ANALYSIS ON THE FEASIBILITY OF EMPLOYEE COMMUTE OPTIONS PROGRAMS AND SWITCHING FROM DRIVING ALONE TO ALTERNATIVE COMMUTE MODES

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-08-02) Ling, Sharon

Employee commute options programs – also known as employer-based transportation demand management (TDM) programs – are rooted in the philosophy of TDM and trip reduction. There is a long history of TDM policies and efforts undertaken by both the public and private sectors in the United States, although the name and shape of such efforts has varied over time. However, a common goal has persisted throughout, which is to reduce employees’ reliance on gasoline-powered single-occupant vehicles (i.e. traditional cars) for traveling to and from work. To this end, employee commute options programs today often focus on incentivizing employees to switch from driving alone to using an alternative commute mode. These alternative modes range from public transit (e.g. rail or bus), ridesharing (e.g. carpooling or vanpooling), “active commuting” (e.g. biking or walking), to even alternative work hour arrangements (e.g. telecommuting) where possible (Griffin 2020). Carrot-and-stick approaches are often used to motivate employees to make the switch – such as rewarding alternative mode users with financial incentives and/or workplace perks, or even imposing charges for driving and parking. In addition, the benefits of adopting alternative modes are often extolled to the employee audience to make these options appear more attractive to potential users. Commonly cited benefits of alternatives to driving alone include reducing travel times and commute-related stress, saving commute costs, improving commuter satisfaction, creating a more sustainable environment, and so on. Employer-based TDM proponents and enthusiasts tend to emphasize, perhaps overtly so, that employee commute options programs can and will help create lasting behavioral changes. All parties involved in this enterprise – namely employers, employees, and society at large – are assumed to reap rewards from adopting TDM approaches and goals.
Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Implementing a MARTA Youth Fare

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-10) Todd, Kara Grace

Unlike many transit systems in the United States, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) does not offer a discounted youth fare. Such a fare policy creates a financial disincentive to choosing transit for many families traveling with children or youth traveling independently. Instead, most parents chauffeur their children by car, adding to the well-known traffic congestion in the Atlanta region. Encouraging the use of more sustainable travel modes, including public transit, has benefits for the physical health of travelers as well as the economic and environmental well-being of the region. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the costs and benefits, financial and otherwise, that might result if MARTA were to offer a reduced or even free youth fare. Using data from the 2011 Regional Household Travel Survey conducted by the Atlanta Regional Commission, a multinomial logit model of youth mode choice for non-school trips is developed. Various youth fare policies are then tested, including reduced and free fares for all youth as well as reduced and free fares available to only low-income youth, to estimate their potential to attract additional young riders. The policies are evaluated based on their estimated impacts on ridership and farebox revenue, as well as the socioeconomic characteristics of the individuals predicted to choose public transit in each scenario. Although offering a discounted youth fare may not be profitable to MARTA in the short-term, the positive impacts it could have on the community as a whole could outweigh the financial costs, making it worth further consideration by city and regional officials.
The Future of Streets in an Age of Pandemics

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-12-08) Postma, Deborah E.

There is not a place unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, with its recommended public health social distancing guidelines of six feet, city transportation agencies have repurposed street space for residents to safely travel and recreate outside. At the same time, transportation agencies have become essential in partnering with local businesses in their expansion of dining space into public right-of-way space: sidewalks, parking lanes, and vehicular lanes. City agencies have had to adapt, evolve, and respond quickly to the current pandemic in order to effectively provide residents and businesses the ability to safely go outside and to continue some level of business. The work presented in this thesis includes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of city transportation agency responses to Covid-19. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Toronto serve as case study cities. Interviews were conducted with relevant city personnel from each city in order to gain a nuanced and detailed understanding of how cities are responding, what factors instigated responses, how project logistics differ under a pandemic, and how vulnerable populations were supported by these responses. The researcher found that all cities studied had a prior inclination to people-friendly projects, that approval and outreach processes were bypassed in order to respond quickly to Covid-19, that certain projects will become permanent, and others have the potential to do so, and that project success is often context and locality specific. The equity maps demonstrate that there is much more work to be done to support vulnerable populations.
Tide to Town: Rapid Health Impact Assessment of Savannah’s Tide to Town Urban Trail System

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020) Zhu, Kevin ; Igietseme, Nene ; Jones-Bynes, Jasmine

The Tide to Town Rapid Health Impact Assessment (HIA) was conducted as part of a studio assignment at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). The purpose of the HIA is to evaluate the potential health and social impacts of the proposed Tide to Town trail in Savannah, Georgia.
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.