Bruce Appleyard

Sustainable and Healthy Travel Choices and the Built Environment

Until recently, data and technology have limited the ability of travel behavior research to uniquely capture details of the built environment that may influence a persons choice to walk or bicycle. Most previous studies have relied on aggregated zonal averages homogeneously attributed to unique individuals and have likely missed key subtleties of the built environment important to people traveling outside the protective enclosure of an automobile. Furthermore, most studies focus on the characteristics of the origin, not the critical components of the destination (such as parking, availability, and price). To understand better the choice of green and active modes, which is central to an understanding of how to achieve important environmental and health benefits, this paper presents methods to align detailed measures of the built environment (in sum, more finely disaggregated data of the built environment) more closely with the individual for disaggregated analyses of travel behavior. Through the use of a new, linear spatial unit of analysis—the individual access corridor—characteristics of the built environment are captured all the way from the origin to the destination for a group of individuals large enough to be statistically meaningful for policy and urban design guidance through the use of predictive, multinomial logit mode choice models. This study provides planning and design guidance on how to increase the likelihood that one will choose walking or bicycling over motorized modes and examines such elements as zoning, subdivision ordinances, and streetscape design as well as station policies for bicycle and auto parking.

Reinventing the Urban Interstate: A New Paradigm for Multimodal Corridors

This report presents strategies for planning, designing, building, and operating multimodal corridors—freeways and high-capacity transit lines running parallel in the same travel corridors. This report will be of interest to urban and transportation planners and policymakers in large urban areas. The objectives of this research were to (1) evaluate the potential for rehabilitating and reconstructing portions of interstate freeways and similar freeways in urbanized areas of the United States as multimodal transportation facilities and (2) develop strategies to plan and implement these facilities. The multimodal corridor would take one of three forms: transit-oriented multimodal corridors; park-and-ride access multimodal corridors; or transit-optimized/freeway-constrained multimodal corridors.

Toward Livability Ethics: A Framework to Guide Planning, Design, and Engineering Decisions

“Livability” has become a popular term in planning, design, and engineering circles, yet there continues to be a lack of clear consensus about what livability actually means, let alone how to measure it and how to achieve it. In response, this article draws deeply on the literature to develop a comprehensive understanding of this complex concept. The presented analysis suggests that livability is best understood as an individuals ability to access opportunities to improve his or her quality of life. However, one persons pursuit of quality of life can actually detract from the livability of another. This concept is particularly true in transportation, as one persons travel inherently touches the lives of others along the pathway. As wealth and social status often play a key role in determining whose pursuit of quality of life wins, a moral and ethical framework must be at the heart of the achievement of livability. Therefore, livability in a just society requires that all individuals be ensured equal access to such opportunities. Rather than one monolithic definition of livability, a need exists for a theoretical moral basis to measure, understand, and judge activities toward livability achievement through a set of clear, concise, and easily applicable livability ethics. Toward this goal, this paper first presents a comprehensive examination of the literature and then provides guidance to professionals on the application of livability concepts in practice by articulating (a) an overarching definition of livability and a set of supporting metaprinciples, (b) a set of ethical livability principles, and (c) a set of livability process principles.

Exploring the imprint of social media networks on neighborhood community through the lens of gentrification

Gentrification, the rise of affluent socioeconomic populations in economically depressed urban neighborhoods, has been accused of disrupting community in these neighborhoods. Social media networks meanwhile have been recognized not only to create new communities in neighborhoods, but are also associated with gentrification. What relation then does gentrification and social media networks have to urban communities? To explore this question, this study uses social media networks found on Twitter to identify communities in Washington, DC. With space-time analysis of 821,095 geo-tagged tweets generated by 77,528 users captured from 15 October 2015 to 18 July 2016, we create a location-based interaction measure of tweets which overlays the social networks of the comprising users based on their followers and followees. We identify gentrifying neighborhoods with the 2000 Census and the 2010–2014 American Community Survey at the block group level. We then compare the density of location-based interactions between gentrifying and nongentrifying neighborhoods. We find that gentrification is significantly related to these location-based interactions. This suggests that gentrification indeed is associated with some communities in neighborhoods, though questions remain as to who has access. Making novel use of big data, these results demonstrate the important role built environment has on social connections forged “online.”

Transit Corridor Livability

In recent years, strategies to promote transportation and land use integration have gained prominence in planning-related fields, believed to yield many potential benefits toward travel, health, welfare, and sustainability goals. Although livability has been identified as an important outcome of this approach as well, little guidance exists on what livability actually is, how to measure it, or how transportation and land use integration strategies can promote it. The findings of a multiyear study of the livability literature, theory, and practice are followed by an extensive quantitative and qualitative study of more than 350 transit corridors including thousands of stations throughout the United States. Although often dismissed as subjective, this research shows that livability can be understood in well-defined and measurable ways, which are validated through an innovative geospatial approach using detailed national data on travel, health, safety, and other quality-of-life outcomes. The findings in this paper show how more integrated and livable transit corridors can yield multiple benefits regarding travel, health, welfare, and sustainability. The findings show how livability goals and their measures can inform planning decisions to promote equitable access to opportunities locally and regionally and yield multiple benefits. Therefore, livability can be seen as an organizing principle for determining when and how to deploy integrated transportation and land use planning strategies. A practical handbook and a calculator for building livable transit corridors are introduced; both were designed to empower practitioners and members of the public to equitably achieve higher levels of livability at local and regional scales.

Toward a Typology of Transit Corridor Livability

“Livability” has become a popular term for planners, engineers, and urban designers, yet there is still little consensus on what livability means, how to measure it, and ultimately how to achieve it. In response, this research built on a multiyear analysis of the livability literature, theory, and practice, followed by an extensive quantitative and qualitative study of more than 350 transit corridors throughout the United States, in one of the largest federally funded studies on livability related to transportation. Although livability is often associated with the best planning and engineering practices, this is the first study to establish its empirical link to quality-of-life outcomes at the transit corridor level. Toward that end, this paper identifies important characteristics of one type of livability—referred to here as transit corridor livability (TCL)—based on the literature, theory, and practice; presents a comprehensive set of livability metrics built on this foundation; and then applies the metrics toward the development of a typological framework for promoting TCL. This effort links higher levels of transportation and land use integration, access to livability opportunities, and the potential for individuals to realize key quality-of-life outcomes such as higher non-automobile travel, shorter trip distances, and even lower levels of obesity and unemployment. This paper also introduces a practical handbook and TCL calculator, both designed to empower practitioners and members of the public to reliably assess transit corridor livability strengths and needs and then identify key policy strategies to achieve higher levels of transit corridor livability for their constituents.

Pathways Toward Zero-Carbon Campus Commuting: Innovative Approaches in Measuring, Understanding, and Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

While universities are significant generators of transport-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, they are uniquely qualified to encourage more sustainable travel behaviors toward achieving rapid decarbonization to meet our global climate action goals. Building on previous university climate action plans, this paper contributes to the literature by describing new and innovative methods in surveying and geospatial analytics. The new geospatial methods involve mapping individuals’ routes to campus, and the creation of Commute/Policy Zones—walk, bike, transit, and motorized—proving useful in (1) quantifying emissions per mode and weighting the survey sample; (2) exploring and testing various policy scenarios; and (3) guiding policy discussions with key stakeholders throughout the campus community. This study also tests four synergistic policy options that, if implemented, could realize a pathway to zero-carbon campus commuting for San Diego State University (SDSU) by 2030, including: (1) more on-campus student housing; (2) expanding public transit use; (3) electrifying vehicles; and (4) electrifying public transit. Finally, the economic and health costs of auto-commuting for SDSU are considerable: Annually, personal auto-commuting is estimated to cost

New and Unique Aspects of University Campus Transportation Data to Improve Planning Methods.

46.7 million, healthcare costs from non-GHG air pollutants are

Quantifying the Sustainability, Livability, and Equity Performance of Urban and Suburban Places in California

1.67 million, and

The economic impact of one to two-way street conversions: advancing a context-sensitive framework

81 million worth of time (5.4 million hours) is lost in car commutes to campus. SDSU is also estimated to subsidize each parking space at over