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Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in City and Regional Planning

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/73257
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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    What metropolitan-level factors affect Latino-owned business performance?
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-11-07) Doyle, Jessica L. H.
    An estimated 1.54 million Latinos are self-employed in unincorporated businesses, while the 2012 national Survey of Business Owners counted 3.3 million Latino-owned firms, with a total of $474 million in annual sales or receipts. This entrepreneurship is all the more remarkable given that Latinos traditionally begin their businesses with lower levels of personal capital and have historically had more difficulty obtaining formal startup capital from third parties such as banks or government agencies. While this observation holds true at the national level, different metropolitan areas may provide business environments more or less hospitable to Latino-owned businesses, due to such factors as industry mix, availability of financing, demographics, and local political expression of “welcoming” or anti-immigrant sentiment. This dissertation examines the question of what metropolitan-level factors affect Latino-owned business formation and performance. It finds that Latino entrepreneurs nationwide face persistent obstacles in the form of obtaining financing for both new and existing businesses, which can be addressed at the local level. However, certain concepts currently prominent in research about ethnic entrepreneurs, such as the makeup and geographic concentration of the “ethnic enclave” and the importance of prior history of immigrant settlement in the metropolitan area, may be less applicable to Latinos who come from a broader range of countries and settle in less dense metropolitan areas.
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    Investigating the potential of on-demand ride service and its impact on mode choice and accessibility
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-07-31) Wang, Fangru
    The recent advancement in information technologies has facilitated the emergence and growth of travel modes like ride-sourcing, car-sharing, and bike-sharing, providing travelers with unprecedentedly broad travel options. The nature of these options will significantly affect the way how people travel and engage in activities, and therefore lead to transport network impacts. Ride-sourcing, referring to app-based on-demand ride service (ODRS), exhibits similar traits of traditional taxis but provides better real-time information and lowered cost compared to taxis. The fast growth of ride-sourcing also reflects the trend known as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and can be seen as a litmus test of connected and autonomous vehicles which will further transform the transportation landscape. This dissertation explores three main aspects of ODRS using a three-part analysis: an exploratory analysis of the role of ODRS in urban transportation, a discrete choice modeling to understand the choice of ODRS, and scenario forecasting to quantify the potential impact of ODRS on transport accessibility and equity. The dissertation results indicate the critical role that ODRS has in serving transport-disadvantaged population and multimodal travel and filling in gaps of transit, identify the socio-demographic, built environment, and trip characteristics associated with the choice of ODRS, and reveal the substantial accessibility and equity benefits of integrating ODRS with transit. The dissertation also shows strong performance of machine learning travel mode choices and suggests the further integration of machine learning with travel demand forecasting. The findings unveil the potentials of ODRS in elevating transport benefits of the existing infrastructure and point to strategies of leveraging ODRS and autonomous vehicles to improve transport mobility, accessibility, and equity. The results also reveal challenges of realizing the benefits of ODRS and incorporating ODRS into travel demand forecasting, which will have to rely on data collection, public-private collaboration, and research and practical exploration of synergizing ODRS with other travel modes.
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    Electronic retail effects on airports and regional development
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-05-04) Hylton, Peter J.
    This dissertation is an investigation of the relationship between e-retail logistics (e-fulfillment) and aviation, and of airport staff’s planning responses to e-fulfillment. By its nature, planning requires a thorough understanding of the forces on transportation and land use that can affect areas of planning interest. Electronic retail (e-retail) is one such trend whose rapid growth influences airport activity, demand for industrial real estate, workforce needs, and surface transportation infrastructure. E-retail’s growth alters regions’ attractiveness for logistics development, the strategies needed to promote the industry, and the data and models required to prepare for its transportation, land use, and workforce needs. This study’s objective is to provide guidance to urban and airport planners on the relevant effects on e-fulfillment as well as appropriate planning responses. The dissertation includes a three-part analysis. A location model measures differences between the sales channels in the regional and airport traits associated with logistics activity. A survey of retail shippers is intended to examine associations detected in the logistics model and measure their relative strength by documenting differences in operations and regional needs between DCs and FCs. Interviews with logistics professionals supplement the shipper survey. Analysis 3 examines the extent to which airport staffs are planning for changes in cargo patterns associated with e-fulfillment through planning document reviews and interviews with staff at seven airports served by Amazon Prime Air. Dissertation results indicate that e-retailers choose FC location as a function of customer proximity, airport access, integrator hub proximity, and a variety of regional factors with weaker effects. E-retail activity will continue to generate disproportionate air cargo activity while concentrating logistics facilities in the same regions as large customer bases, integrator air hubs, and international gateway airports. These patterns will impact infrastructure and land needs, and planners should incorporate these trends into their forecasts and strategies. Airport planners are increasingly aware of e-retail’s cargo generation potential, and they are gathering data in an ad hoc manner to understand it. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of implications of the research for airport and transportation planners, economic development planners, and land use planners. Logistics activity related to e-retail is expected to grow in coming decades, concentrating particularly around logistics hubs and population centers in the Northeast, Ohio River Valley, and major metropolitan areas.
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    Landscape anthropometrics: A multi-scale approach to integrating health into the regional landscape
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-07-20) Rao, Arthi
    This research creates a consistent, scalable approach for incorporating health considerations into regional land planning. A prototypical framework is presented for the Atlanta region. Determinants of healthy places from Social/Landscape Epidemiology, Urban Planning and Landscape Ecology are incorporated into defining the landscape and its associated pattern metrics. Key research objectives are to — 1) provide a new method to measuring urban form and health relationships through the use of landscape metrics 2) analyze urban form to understand configuration, mix, spatial distribution and proportions of land uses and socioeconomic factors and their association with health outcomes. Methodologically, this research examines associations between landscape patterns at nested scales (county and tract) with mortality rates across chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Two primary research questions are explored— 1) Are landscape patterns significant determinants of mortality rates? 2) At what scale do landscape patterns matter for reduced mortality rates? Landscape Pattern metrics are generated using GIS software. Random Forest, Hierarchical Clustering and other classification techniques are used to identify preliminary landscape signatures and associations. Hierarchical impacts of county and tract-level determinants on local health outcomes are examined through multilevel logistic modeling. The aim is to present a succinct set of landscape metrics to inform land use planning for healthy communities. The framework developed can be used for multiple applications including Transportation Planning and sustainable Comprehensive Planning at multiple scales.
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    Formers versus zoners; how and why communities shift to form-based zoning
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-11-14) Faga, Barbara
    City design has long been recognized as predicated on power. Planners have the power to regulate the use and form of privately owned land—an enormous task. Zoning is the foundation of city planning. The caliber of cities' future development hinges on zoning. Over the last fifteen years, communities have been divesting themselves of their historic Euclidean zoning in favor of the newer concept of form-based code. However, changing an entire zoning code is an immense project that requires a massive investment of motivation, time, perseverance and money. Does changing code provide an answer to undesirable consequences of Euclidean zoning, or are the claims of form-based code advocates correct and their code the panacea for everything wrong with planning and development? This is a sweeping question and one that is asked in hundreds of planning offices by planners, urban designers, politicians and their communities. The primary question is why and how communities change from conventional Euclidean zoning to form-based code. This research examines the state of practice and the impact of form-based code on zoning. Issues critical to an examination of the theory and practice aspects of this investigation includes key questions: What motivates change? What difference does it make? Who are the primary motivators for change? What is the comparative analysis and the basis for change and the impact of form-based code? Two protocols, including online surveys of planning practitioners and case studies of Cincinnati, Denver and Miami, are used to investigate the intended, and often unintended, outcomes and consequences that emerge with a zoning change within an established community.
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    Reducing vehicle-miles traveled: an argument for land use as a policy lever
    (Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-11-15) Sundquist, Eric William
    Reducing vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) has become an important goal for improving environmental outcomes and reducing the costs of travel and infrastructure. One way to accomplish such reductions could be to enact policies that foster more compact development. However, while it is accepted that compact development is associated with lower VMT, there remain disagreements about the efficacy of this policy lever. One issue casting doubt on the power of compact development relates to travelers' exposure to density. A conventional view holds that many travelers' neighborhoods are "locked in place" because change in established neighborhoods is slow. Additionally, conventional explanations of the effect of denser development focus on travelers' own neighborhoods, or on the metro area as a whole, failing to isolate the effect of densifying nodes near, but outside of, the travelers' neighborhoods. This study employs housing and travel data from the Seattle-Tacoma, Wash., where policies aimed at encouraging compact development have been in place since the mid-1990s. Findings suggest that 1) in established neighborhood, incremental change often results in exposure to substantially higher density, and 2) that even where localized density is constant, increases in density at intentional nodes or other areas near, but outside of, a traveler's own neighborhood, has a strong effect on VMT. The findings tend to undermine some of the key doubts about using land use as a policy lever for VMT reduction.
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