Greg Phillip Griffin

Microparticipation with Social Media for Community Engagement in Transportation Planning

Transportation planning processes may be enhanced and plans improved by engaging the community through social media technologies. “Microparticipation” means the engagement of the public with social media methods for the purpose of maximizing the information going into a planning process while minimizing the plans development time and the cost to the public. Twitter, Facebook, and other microparticipation media have been used for planning but have not been extensively evaluated for that purpose. This study examined more than 49,000 posts on Twitter and other social networking sites tracked by the Social Networking and Planning Project to determine public engagement in the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan. With the use of a mixed methods approach, relevant posts were examined to determine sentiment, extent of engagement, and impact on the decision-making process. The study found methods that could be used to analyze microparticipation. The report concluded that microparticipation could be effective in generating participation but faced substantial technical, analytical, and communication barriers to influencing decision making.

Planning for Bike Share Connectivity to Rail Transit

Bike sharing can play a role in providing access to transit stations and then to final destinations, but early implementation of these systems in North America has been opportunistic rather than strategic. This study evaluates local intermodal plan goals using trip data and associated infrastructure such as transit stops and bike share station locations in Austin, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois. Bike sharing use data from both cities suggest a weak relationship with existing rail stations that could be strengthened through collaborative, intermodal planning. The study suggests a planning framework and example language that could be tailored to help address the linkage between bike sharing and transit. Rather than an exhaustive study of the practice, this study provides evidence from these two cities that identify opportunities to improve intermodal planning. Cities that are planning or expanding a bike sharing system should consider carefully how to leverage this mode with existing modes of transport. Regardless of a citys status in implementing a bike sharing system, planners can leverage information on existing transport systems for planning at regional and local levels.

Geographic Specificity and Positionality of Public Input in Transportation: A Rural Transportation Planning Case from Central Texas

Current transportation planning processes often incorporate public input, but the types of engagement techniques can affect the ability of practitioners to meaningfully include local ideas. This study incorporates literature integrating communicative rationality with participatory mapping, supported by a case study focusing on two public engagement techniques. A transportation planning process in Central Texas is evaluated in terms of the geographic specificity and positionality of comments received from open-ended responses on a questionnaire and a facilitated mapping session, and reviews this input for relevance to developing a transportation plan. Although all input received from the public can be valuable in the process, location-based comments may be more actionable by transportation planners. Participants’ perceived roles likely affect their level of engagement, which planners can facilitate to maximize the quality of involvement. Planners are advised to understand the positionality of project stakeholders and professionals, designing involvement methods considering geographic specificity appropriate for each project.

Revisiting Image of the City in Cyberspace: Analysis of Spatial Twitter Messages During a Special Event

ABSTRACT This research investigated people’s communication of urban space as reflected in Twitter messages (tweets) during the 2012 Super Bowl. The authors archived over 600,000 tweets related to the Super Bowl from January 23 through early February 6. The authors identified 78 Indianapolis-area places or routes named in the tweets. Based on occurrence of these terms, the authors retained 9,103 city-specific messages for analysis. The frequency of such tweets changed over the two-week period and peaked two days before game day. Instances of all of Lynch’s (1960) The Image of the City elements (node, district, landmark, path, and edge) were found in the tweets. While node-referencing terms were most common among the 78 spatial identifiers, district and landmark references were most common in the tweet sample. Edge references were almost non-existent and only occurred as named waterways. This research has implications for city-oriented social media monitoring efforts for future special events.

The city as interface, by Martijn de Waal

individuals who maintain the residential function of the courtyard house (chapter 4); and, second, the mustathmirin (investors) who purchased transformed property for businesses purposes (chapter 5) and thus contributed to the predominantly commercial gentrification of Old Damascus. While assuming civilizational superiority, investors showed little respect for the neighborhood and its long-term tenants; they rather acted as self-declared “saviors” of the old city. Some describe their investment in Old Damascus as patriotic duty and agreed with regime officials in that the poor population was one cause for the old city’s backwardness that needed to be removed. The concluding chapter of Preserving the Old City of Damascus merges the aspects of “civilization” and “backwardness” discussed in the context of preservation and gentrification. Inquiring how the past shapes present concerns, Totah analyzes local discourses on civilizational anxiety and fear of the other in the city and cultural invasion. This is followed by a rather short outline of state–business relations in the field of heritage preservation. Rich ethnographic data offering intimate insights into everyday life in pre-war Damascus make Preserving the Old City of Damascus a must-read not only for scholars working on identity, heritage, or urban change in the Middle East, but also for everyone with an interest in the Syrian capital. However, the book would have benefited from, first, including more recent literature on gentrification (i.e. gentrification in the Global South, tourism gentrification, and the heritage gentrification nexus); and, second, a deeper engagement with the economic side of the process. Finally, gentrification is only loosely defined, and the distinction from related concepts like heritage preservation, rehabilitation, or revitalization remains vague. Though the author does refer to what she calls the relocation of tenants, she stops short of engaging critically with the experience of displacement and thus the dirty side of gentrification. Despite these shortcomings, Preserving the Old City of Damascus is an important ethnographic contribution to our knowledge of urban change in the Middle East and offers insights into an era when Syrian cities were considered to be hot spots of heritage preservation and not the paragon of urban annihilation.