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 235

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.
A Greenspace Ethnography of Southwest Atlanta: A Review and Tool

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-05-03) Wright, Janelle Paige

The purpose of this thesis study is to provide a tool and foundation for a community science-based greenspace ethnography of a neighborhood. The research requires an assessment of environmental history, policy, plans, and programs throughout the region of interest. This tool's development and application will build on the Southwest Atlanta region and the Bush Mountain neighborhood's existing strategic and programmatic work. Bush Mountain is one of the smallest historically Black neighborhoods within the region, and this study area contains significant environmental and community action and planning around maintaining historical breadth. The neighborhood origin during Reconstruction between 1910 and 1960 and had "developed and sustained [itself] by mobilizing and utilizing its indigenous resources despite the neglect it received from municipal and social institutions" (Pope 2013). Transformation amongst annexations and impending urban redevelopment informed greenspace maintenance throughout time. The ethnography asks the following question: How is place-keeping facilitated across landscape through greenspace change? It does so in the development of a greenspace timeline, and analysis of the structure of greenspace assessment tools support the quantitative ethnographic methodology that builds the practice from the experience of urban agriculture stewards in greenspaces, into practice into community through a community science framework. Perhaps the methodology seeks to reclaim tradition, both Black and indigenous, and in "sustaining curiosity rather than knowability" (McKittrick 2021, YouTube)
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.
Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed People’s Attitude about Where to Live? Some Preliminary Answers from a Study of the Atlanta Housing Market

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-04) Kim, Ilsu

In March 2020, the national lockdowns and social distancing mandates to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the US abruptly disrupted all aspects of urban life, requiring people to conduct daily activities including work, shopping, learning, schooling, and socializing, from home using online tools. These lockdowns and stay-at-home orders sharply increased unemployment and hindered active transactions in the housing market in the second quarter of 2020 (Liu & Su, 2021). While the high unemployment rate was a severe economic and social concern affecting housing demand, monetary easing and low interest rates increased liquidity and the flow of money into the housing market (Zhao, 2020). A growing body of work started to examine the overall vitality of the housing market in response to the disruptions caused by the pandemic (D’Lima et al., 2020; Liu & Su, 2021; Yoruk, 2020; Zhao, 2020). In addition, reports in popular media have highlighted trends in cities like New York and San Francisco, where many households were giving up expensive central city residences for low-density suburban houses with large yards. This finding implied that cities were losing their appeal given the reduction in the need for commuting in a work-from-home culture and the desire for security and open space in a low-density environment in the suburbs. Despite this type of anecdotal evidence, we know very little about how the preferences for housing in different locations are changing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores whether and how the pandemic affected the housing preferences in the Atlanta single-family housing market. The focus goes to locational characteristics such as the accessibility to the rail transit system, accessibility to freeway systems, and walkability. The housing market participants’ attitudes toward the different travel modes can be revealed with the price effects of the accessibility-related locational characteristics. The impact of whether a house is in the inner city, inner-ring suburb, or outer-ring suburb on housing prices is also examined. A few main findings are derived from comparing the descriptive statistics and hedonic price models for 2018, 2019, and 2020. First, a steep drop in the number of transactions in the second quarter of 2020 was followed by an increase in the number of transactions and housing prices. The observed boom in the Atlanta single-family housing market aligns with the arguments of Zhao (2020) and Liu and Su (2021) that the lowered mortgage rate caused the influx of money to the housing markets across the US. Second, the positive price effect of parcel size and a pool increased in 2020 while that of square footage decreased. Third, the recently increasing preference for the inner city over the suburban area was restrained in 2020, which might have resulted from the diminished advantage of staying near the city center for job accessibility. Fourth, the pandemic did not substantially change the capitalization effect of the accessibility to a MARTA rail station and freeway. A few suggestions are made for future studies. First, the endeavor to further clarify the underlying reasons for the observations from this study would be necessary, which hedonic price models alone cannot do. Conducting a customized survey is one way to reveal the existence of and reasons for the changes in the attitudes, lifestyle, and travel patterns of diverse market participants covering both the supply and demand sides. Second, investigating the parts of the housing market that are not examined in this study will bring a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the housing market and the changes the market went through. The houses for rent and the houses other than detached single-family houses are not included in this study. Moreover, the transactions of the newly constructed houses are not usually in the FMLS data even though they take up a significant proportion of the transactions in the Atlanta region. Third, the analyses with some submarket segmentation using such criteria as the housing price, number of rooms, and location are expected to bring useful policy implications enabling detailed and customized solutions to the issues that planners are tackling.
Cluster-based Delineation of Megaregions in the United States: Identifying administrative boundaries that reflect meta-communities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-04) Miller, Bryce Curtis

Coordination and collaboration through governance at meta-urban scales have the potential to significantly improve quality of life while reducing the bureaucratic burden on society. Megaregional research and delineation has largely focused on scholarly inquiry into specific relationships using narrow datasets or on private efforts to identify market opportunities with opaque analysis methods. This work aims to provide a megaregion delineation that is transparent, data diverse, and comprehensible to a degree that the resulting boundaries are well suited to administrative implementation. The process developed leverages a combination of cluster analysis and metropolitan planning organization locations to identify sub-regions that share morphological characteristics and functional relationships. Recommendations are made for subsequent research into four areas: new data sources, process refinements, applications for megaregional planning, and implementation principles for megaregional government.
The Shape of Discourse in Urban Movements through the Lens of Social Media: A case study of the anti-redevelopment movement in South Korea

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-04) Lee, Seolha

This study explored the shape of discourse around the anti-redevelopment movement in Seoul, South Korea, and investigated the effects of social media in the urban movement. The site was an old manufacturing district in Euljiro street, where small manufacturing workshops have agglomerated for the last decades and are now being demolished under the city's redevelopment plan. While struggles around forced demolition and redevelopment have been perpetuated in the country’s urbanization process, the movement in Euljiro distinguished itself by mobilizing young activists and artists. They framed the struggle with the goals of preserving the industry ecosystem and promoting urban diversity. Social media has been part of the activism since they joined the movement. I used a mixed-method approach combining interviews and social media analysis to investigate the different standpoint of the tenants, the activists, and general citizens toward the redevelopment and how social media affected the shape of discourse. The analyses found that the activists’ new framing and social media activities gathered attention and external supports to the struggle. The attention was translated into participatory actions online. The social media analysis revealed that the ways people on social media related themselves to the place were varied, associated with the spectrum of stance toward the redevelopment. The analysis also found confusions, conflicts, and reflective discussions among the different standpoints, which led to a discussion of the limitation of social media activism and ways to overcome it. Based on the findings, I discussed questions regarding how different parties in urban space react and adjust to the changing media landscape and how to sustain localized activism in urban movements within the changes. There has been growing attention to urban movements and social media in urban governance as participatory practices become a crucial agenda in urban governance and development. Still, few studies have explored social media in bottom-up actions to impact urban development processes. As one of the few studies, this study contributes to the literature on both topics. It also adds to the discussion around how urban societies can work together within the changing media and technology landscape.
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.