Bhuiyan Monwar Alam

Faculty Quality at U.S. Graduate Planning Schools A National Research Council-Style Study

Faculty quality assessment methods of the National Research Council study of research doctorate programs are applied to U.S. urban and regional planning graduate programs. Findings suggest that about one-half of planning faculty actively publish and that there is considerable concentration of both publication and citation activity among a relatively small group of scholars and schools. Accredited and nonaccredited schools show substantial differences, as do doctoral degree-granting schools compared with master’s-only schools. The strengths and weaknesses of faculty quality measures used are discussed, leading to a call for other studies using different measures.

Transit Accessibility to Jobs and Employment Prospects of Welfare Recipients Without Cars: A Study of Broward County, Florida, Using Geographic Information Systems and an Econometric Model

On August 22, 1996, President William Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. This legislation, widely known as the welfare reform act, transformed welfare from a long-term support program into one with a primary objective of moving people off the welfare rolls into gainful employment in the shortest possible time. The passage of this act renewed a long-standing debate over whether improved public transit would lessen the length of time that people remain on welfare. Studies addressing this issue draw different conclusions from their methodological differences in measuring transit accessibility indices and in using aggregate versus disaggregate data. A new study uses distance–decay parameters estimated by a measure of transit accessibility based on origin–destination data and thereby addresses the arbitrary selection of distance–decay parameters in the accessibility equation used by earlier studies. It also uses disaggregate data at the individual level to overcome the shortcomings of earlier studies. Based on welfare recipients in Broward County, Florida, an analysis using a geographic information system and the Florida Standard Urban Transportation Modeling Structure reveals that there is a statistically significant inverse association between transit accessibility to jobs and length of time spent on welfare. This association implies that transit accessibility plays a significant role in the employment prospects of welfare recipients in the study area.

Estimating Transit Accessibility with an Alternative Method Evidence from Broward County, Florida

Scientists have attempted to measure accessibility in several ways—the gravity-based measure being the most widely used. A typical gravity-based model estimates accessibility on a zonal basis as being a function of the sum of total opportunities weighted by the distance, time, and cost needed to travel from the origin zone to those dispersed opportunities. The model includes a parameter that represents the distance–decay relationship and takes an exponential form. Unfortunately, most scientists have arbitrarily chosen the value of the distance–decay parameter instead of estimating it from field survey data. Also, a typical model does not have any parameter attached to the socioeconomic variables. This study uses distance–decay parameters estimated with the use of survey data in Sacramento County, California, to estimate transit accessibility to jobs in Broward County, Florida. Assuming that transferability of distance–decay parameters is possible from one geographic area to another, it then explores such transferability of parameters from Sacramento County to Broward County by analyzing the spatial distribution of transit accessibility and compares the effectiveness of estimated transit accessibility with the traditional transit accessibility measure—proportion of a geographic unit covered by 1/4-mi buffer from a transit route. Results indicate that accessibility indices estimated by using the method presented in this paper reflect what one would expect in reality—much better than what a simple 1/4-mi transit buffer would produce. The paper explores the fact that the distance–decay parameters estimated in one geographic unit are transferable to another. It advances knowledge of the accessibility measuring method that would help solve long-standing debate on what parameters to use for distance–decay and socioeconomic variables going into the accessibility model. Future research needs to focus on validating such transferability of distance–decay parameters from one study area to another.

Contribution of Behavioral Aspects of Older Drivers to Fatal Traffic Crashes in Florida

Fault in a set of fatal traffic crashes that occurred on state roadways in Florida, primarily in the year 2000, was examined. A case-study approach by a team of trained investigators was taken to examine data compiled from a variety of sources, including traffic homicide reports and crash scene photographs. Crash types were identified in which older drivers were significantly over- and underrepresented in fault. Finally, for crashes in which older drivers were at fault, various contributing factors were identified, including driver errors. Older drivers were overrepresented in fault by a factor of 1.37 compared with younger drivers in the data set. Older drivers were significantly overrepresented in fault in left turn crashes versus oncoming traffic and cross-traffic. Consistent with other work, older drivers were responsible for more intersection than nonintersection crashes. Among other factors, misjudging speeds of other vehicles, failure to observe other vehicles, disregarding traffic signals, and improper (disallowed) left turns were the major driver errors in intersection crashes. Sudden loss of control and driving under the influence of alcohol were the major contributing factors in nonintersection crashes. Approximately 10% of crash contributing factors indicated confusion, inappropriate action, or illegal maneuvers, with more than two-thirds of these cases being attributed to drivers aged 75 years and older. Another important finding of the study is that investigating officers have a tendency to frequently use the term “failure to yield right-of-way,” rather than identifying more specific contributing factors.

Contributing Factors for Young At Fault Drivers in Fatal Traffic Crashes in Florida

This state level case based study is aimed at providing a complete picture of contributing factors for fatal crashes caused by younger drivers (younger than age 25) in Florida. Results showed that nonhuman factors were primary contributing causes in only 6% of the crashes, but secondary and tertiary contributing factors in up to 25% of those crashes. The most common nonhuman factor was tire blowout/tread separation. Common human factors included alcohol use, inattention, and high speed. Younger drivers were at fault in 62% of crashes in which they were involved, and they were highly overrepresented in fault in forward impacts with control loss due to high speeds and abrupt steering input. At the time of the fatal crash, younger drivers were more likely to have had passengers in the vehicle than older drivers and approximately one in four younger at fault drivers was under the influence of alcohol. However, most of the youngest (16 to 17 year olds) at fault drivers were in compliance with nighttime and passenger restriction statutes of graduated driver licensing at the time of the fatal crash. The findings imply that there still remains gaps and weaknesses in current driving programs aimed at younger drivers.

Land Prices and Intracountry Industrial Relocation in China

This article investigates the major role of high land prices in the current massive intracountry industrial relocation from coastal to inland areas in China. A conceptual model is developed to explore the causalities of urban expansion, land prices, and coastal-to-inland business relocation. It demonstrates that relocation is mainly driven by high land prices resulting from urban expansion. Research is based on in-depth field studies of several representative relocated firms in the Yangtze Delta area. The findings derived from the case studies support the theoretical model and empirically validate the hypothesis.

A Reply to Graduate Planning School Study Responses

Published responses to the study of faculty quality at U.S. urban and regional planning graduate programs (Stiftel, Rukmana, and Alam 2004) raise issues that deserve clarification and further comment. We begin by correcting misunderstandings about our work, acknowledge where we think the commentators have identified genuine weaknesses, report an error, and then move on to discuss suggestions made for more effective school performance measurement. Several commentators do not accurately describe what we did to compile the publications and citations data reported. Forsyth (2004) suggests that we tabulated book reviews and other minor journal publications, as well as more traditional articles. We did not. Our protocol was to count “ISI-listed articles” only (Stiftel, Rukmana, and Alam 2004, 8). The Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) database distinguishes thirty-three categories of publications in journals, many of them specific to certain artistic endeavors. We counted only those entries categorized as “articles,” excluding book reviews, bibliographies, corrections, editorials, letters, and the remainder of the thirty-three categories. This may omit certain significant scholarly contributions, but it is a more tractable, and we believe more useful, measure than one that mixes the various categories. Fainstein (2004 [this issue]) believes that the thirty-one journals listed in footnote 4 (p. 21) were the only journals searched for publications and citations. This is not the case. We searched the full ISI database of more than 8,700 journals to prepare the counts of publications and citations reported. These include approximately 5,900 journals indexed by the Science Citation Index, 1,700 journals indexed by the Social Science Citation Index, and 1,100 journals indexed by the Arts and Humanities Citation Index. All bibliometric results reported in our study are based on this full database. Rather than listing all journals searched, footnote 4 was an attempt to assess the completeness of the ISI database with respect to coverage of urban planning journals. In the footnote, we constructed a small sample of journals that we believed to be core planning journals and then reported whether these journals are included in the ISI database. The three journals stated by Professor Fainstein as excluded from our searches, the Journal of

A Reflection on the Ph.D. Program in Spatially Integrated Social Science at the University of Toledo

The use of spatial analysis tools is on the rise in many academic fields and practical applications. These tools enhance the ability to examine data from spatial perspectives. Though the study of place and space has traditionally been the domain of the field of geography, growing numbers of researchers are turning to these tools in the social sciences and beyond. The University of Toledo has established a unique Ph.D. granting program to encompass the theories, tools, and applications of spatially integrated social science. In the first couple of years of its inception the program has attracted students from different places and diverse backgrounds. It is expected that the program will continue to thrive in attracting diverse students, securing external grants, and positively impacting on the economy of Northwest Ohio. This paper is a personal reflection of the views of the authors on the Ph.D. program in Spatially Integrated Social Science at the University of Toledo two years after its inception in fall 2009. The views, by no means, are of the University of Toledo, its SISS program, or any of the participating departments and faculty members.

Factors Affecting Travel Demand by Bus: An Empirical Analysis at U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Area Level

Understanding the nature of transit travel demand is at the heart of transportation policy making and the success of transit systems. Unfortunately, most existing studies focus narrowly on a single or a few transit systems or metropolitan areas to analyze the determinants of transit travel demand. It is, therefore, difficult to generalize their findings over a broader geographic scale. This paper examines and explores the determinants of transit travel demand by bus generalizable to the entire U.S. by investigating internal and external factors at the U.S. metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level for 2010. The authors collected and used data for all 358 MSAs nationwide. Internal factors are those that the transit managers and operators have some control over (e.g., transit supply, transit coverage), whereas external factors are those that they do not have control over (e.g., population density, vehicles per household). Several variables came directly from the U.S. Census Bureau and National Transit Database, whereas the authors constructed others using data from these two sources. The paper employs a log-log regression model to address the issues of non-normality, non-linearity, and heteroscedasticity. Findings suggest that internal factors tend to be significant predictors of travel demand by bus mode compared with external ones. As such, transit authorities have the ability to attract ridership by adjusting the influential internal factors under their control.

Methods of Crossing at Roundabouts for Visually Impaired Pedestrians: Review of Literature

Because roundabouts offer so many beneficial features to a community, it is important that they are made as safe as possible for all users and comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines. There have been several studies conducted with the purpose of creating a safer crossing environment for visually impaired pedestrians at roundabouts. These studies focus on four methods: crosswalk placement, sound applications, signalized options, and automated yield detection. The purpose of this review paper is to explore these possible solutions, identifying the advantages and disadvantages, the practicality, and the overall performance of each solution. The research done here will also address which methods may be most appropriate for low volume roundabouts, moderate volume roundabout, and high volume roundabouts, as well as for one-lane roundabouts and two-lane roundabouts. When evaluating each option, it’s also important to estimate the effect it will have on the flow of traffic and travel demand management. An ideal solution will allow access to all users while maintaining the initial benefits of a roundabout.