Karen Trapenberg Frick

Bounded rationality in policy learning amongst cities: lessons from the transport sector

The internationalization of policy regimes and the reorganization of the state have provided new opportunities for cities to bypass nation-state structures and work with other cities internationally. This provides greater opportunity for cities to learn from each other and could be an important stimulus to the transfer of policies across the globe. Few studies exist however which focus on the processes that shape the search for policy lessons and how they are affected by the institutional context within which they are conducted. This paper describes research conducted in the field of urban transport and planning policy across eleven cities in Northern Europe and North America which seeks to explore the motivations for and mechanisms supporting learning about new policies. Thirty policies were examined across the eleven sites using document review and interviews with key actors. The paper explores the search for lessons and the learning process and considers the influences of institutional context, organizational behaviour, and individual cognitive constraints. The process of seeking out and learning policy lessons is defined by individuals operating within a particular policy space and exhibits a number of characteristics of strongly bounded rational choice. The search parameters are significantly influenced by preconceptions of the nature of the preferred solutions and the likelihood of cities in other contexts offering meaningful learning opportunities. Trusted peer networks emerge as critical in overcoming information overload, resource constraints, and uncertainty in the potential for policy transfer. The mobility of policies seems also to be linked to the mobility of the key transfer agents. Cities adopt quite different approaches to engaging with the communities of policy mobilizers which seems likely to impact on the pace and pattern of the movement of policies.

Markets for Dynamic Ridesharing? Case of Berkeley, California

Ridesharing programs are widespread across the United States. Dynamic ridesharing is a newer way to share rides on the fly or up to several days in advance using cell phone or computer messaging to make arrangements. This paper describes research conducted to assess the potential for dynamic ridesharing for travel to downtown Berkeley, California, and the University of California, Berkeley, campus. The study provides insights about the opportunities and challenges presented by this travel option. Data were collected from statistical and geographic analysis of the downtown and campus travel markets, and surveys and focus groups were administered to employees and graduate students. The study found that about one-fifth of commuters who drive alone to the campus would be interested in using dynamic ridesharing at least occasionally and live in areas where matches could be found. They would prefer to arrange a shared ride at least the night before rather than immediately before the trip is made. Many of these travelers were unaware of current rideshare services, and some would be willing to find a regular carpool partner. Finally, if parking charges are fairly high and parking supply is limited and regulated, financial incentives and carpool parking subsidies greatly increase interest in dynamic ridesharing.

The Actions of Discontent: Tea Party and Property Rights Activists Pushing Back Against Regional Planning

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The Tea Partys effects on local and regional planning efforts, given the movements fierce support of property rights and equally fierce opposition to sustainability goals in regional planning efforts, have received little study. I wanted to understand how Tea Party and fellow property rights advocates became involved in regional planning efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Atlanta, GA, and how planners perceived and dealt with their objections and tactics. Interactions between the two groups were marked by philosophical differences over the role of government and the necessity and value of regional planning. However, these actors were also deeply divided on plan content and the authenticity of the public outreach process. Tea Party and property rights activists were not the only ones with substantive and procedural concerns about regional planning efforts; tactical -coalitions of unexpected allies emerged, aligning on plan viability, finance methods and funding, project costs, impacts, and process. My research shows that common ground can be negotiated between -opposing groups on matters of content and process. The concerns of the various stakeholders involved parallel questions often addressed by scholarly planning research, providing evidence of continuing challenges and flaws in planning. Takeaway for practice: The planning community should not dismiss the opposition of Tea Party and property rights advocates; these activists could catalyze new coalitions of opponents if planners do not attend to the substantive and procedural concerns of participants.Problem, research strategy, and findings: The Tea Partys effects on local and regional planning efforts, given the movements fierce support of property rights and equally fierce opposition to sustainability goals in regional planning efforts, have received little study. I wanted to understand how Tea Party and fellow property rights advocates became involved in regional planning efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area and Atlanta, GA, and how planners perceived and dealt with their objections and tactics. Interactions between the two groups were marked by philosophical differences over the role of government and the necessity and value of regional planning. However, these actors were also deeply divided on plan content and the authenticity of the public outreach process. Tea Party and property rights activists were not the only ones with substantive and procedural concerns about regional planning efforts; tactical -coalitions of unexpected allies emerged, aligning on plan viability, finance methods and funding, project costs, impacts, and process. My research shows that common ground can be negotiated between -opposing groups on matters of content and process. The concerns of the various stakeholders involved parallel questions often addressed by scholarly planning research, providing evidence of continuing challenges and flaws in planning. Takeaway for practice: The planning community should not dismiss the opposition of Tea Party and property rights advocates; these activists could catalyze new coalitions of opponents if planners do not attend to the substantive and procedural concerns of participants.

BAY BRIDGE CONGESTION-PRICING PROJECT: LESSONS LEARNED TO DATE

The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, connecting San Francisco and the East Bay, is one of the most heavily traveled corridors in the nation. In an effort to address traffic congestion in this corridor, the Bay Area Congestion Pricing Task Force—a group of business, environment, public interest, and government organizations—has been examining the viability of variable tolls on the Bay Bridge. Tolls would be higher during peak commute hours when demand is highest and lower in off-peak hours when the bridge has excess capacity. This supply-and-demand-based concept is known as congestion pricing. The federally sponsored planning phase of the Bay Bridge congestion-pricing demonstration program commenced in the fall of 1993. Its purpose was to determine the most feasible alternatives for reducing congestion on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge through implementing a congestion-pricing program. The process by which the task force developed a congestion-pricing proposal for the Bay Bridge is described, as are...

The politics of sustainable development opposition: State legislative efforts to stop the United Nation’s Agenda 21 in the United States

The Tea Party exploded on the US political scene with President Barack Obama’s election and scholarly research focuses on its role in national issues. However, Tea Party and property rights advocates, among others, also fiercely oppose sustainability city planning issues, recently having legislation introduced in 26 US states to stop such practices. They perceive planning as directly connected to the United Nation’s 1992 document, Agenda 21: the Rio Declaration on Development and Environment. The counter-narrative suggests the UN seeks to restrict individual property rights and American sovereignty. Meanwhile, Agenda 21-related planning is favourably considered and practiced worldwide. Through a mixed-methods approach using quantitative and case-based research, we track the opposition’s emergence through the introduction and sometimes adoption of state legislation. We draw conclusions and implications for research and practice using a theoretical framework routed in scholarship from planning, geography, political science, and communications/new media.

Transfer of Innovative Policies Between Cities to Promote Sustainability: Case Study Evidence

This paper describes how cities approach the challenging task of identifying, considering, and adopting innovative transport policies. Drawing on political science literature, the paper begins by establishing a framework for analyzing the process of policy transfer and policy learning. Cities were selected on the basis of their reputation for having adopted innovative policies. Data were collected from project reports and in-depth interviews with 40 professionals comprising planners, consultants, and operators in 11 cities across North America and northern Europe. This paper presents the findings from three key innovations: congestion charging, compact growth and transport planning, and carsharing. Each of these innovations was implemented at several sites, and there was evidence of learning across the sites studied. The case studies present a discussion of each policy alongside indications of its positive and negative impacts and then examine how the different cities approached the task of learning about how to introduce it and the issues that they faced. The paper identifies conditions that appear to support effective learning: reliance on strong networks of personal and professional contacts, drawing lessons from multiple sites, and financial and institutional support to facilitate the uptake of risky or technologically immature innovations.

Citizen activism, conservative views & mega planning in a digital era

Abstract Scholarship on citizen activism in a digital era is growing exponentially in sociology, political science, and communications/new media studies. Theorists observe changing dynamics and power shifts within a public virtual sphere. In contrast, planning scholarship is sparse on how citizens use technology outside of official channels to participate and mobilize. To explore this under-studied phenomenon, a new conceptual framework is developed by synthesizing literature across disciplines to examine digital networked activism in planning and focusing on conservative activists’ fierce opposition to regional planning in Atlanta, Georgia and the San Francisco Bay Area. I find activists use new media in combination with traditional strategies to communicate, organize, market their cause and refine tactics. The new media facilitates their channeling of deeply held emotions into the production, performance and circulation of counter-narratives that destabilize the planning process as conventionally understood. Planners’ responses are largely reactive and catching up to the challenge. As a result, planners I interviewed are rethinking civic engagement in a digital era.AbstractScholarship on citizen activism in a digital era is growing exponentially in sociology, political science, and communications/new media studies. Theorists observe changing dynamics and power shifts within a public virtual sphere. In contrast, planning scholarship is sparse on how citizens use technology outside of official channels to participate and mobilize. To explore this under-studied phenomenon, a new conceptual framework is developed by synthesizing literature across disciplines to examine digital networked activism in planning and focusing on conservative activists’ fierce opposition to regional planning in Atlanta, Georgia and the San Francisco Bay Area. I find activists use new media in combination with traditional strategies to communicate, organize, market their cause and refine tactics. The new media facilitates their channeling of deeply held emotions into the production, performance and circulation of counter-narratives that destabilize the planning process as conventionally underst...

Impact of Peak and Off-Peak Tolls on Traffic in San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge Corridor in California:

The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area in California and connects two of the largest cities in northern California over San Francisco Bay. In July 2010, the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) increased tolls on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge from a flat toll collected westbound only to weekday peak and off-peak tolls. BATA also instituted a carpool toll of

Old Road, New Directions: Plan for Adeline Street in Berkeley, California

2.50 (previously carpools crossed for free) payable by FasTrak electronic toll collection tag only. With floating-car data provided by BATA, the change in travel time for the I-80, I-580, and I-880 approaches was computed by payment type (cash, FasTrak, and high-occupancy vehicle access lanes) and hour. Travel times were found to have been reduced by 0 to 16 min for cash customers (varying by time of day and approach), with varying results for FasTrak customers and little change for high-occupancy vehicle customers. Data collected by BATA at the toll plaza were analyzed by hour and payment type. The analysis found that the number of vehicles in the carpool lanes was reduced by more than 20% at times, whereas FasTrak volumes remained steady or increased and cash volumes were slightly lower than before the toll switch.

Airports and Bicycles: What Are Obstacles to and Incentives for Improving Bicycle Access?

This paper presents a plan for transforming a major arterial and a transit station that divide a low-income business and residential district into an economically healthy, context-sensitive, transit-oriented development. Adeline Street is a major point of entry into Berkeley, California, linking the city of Oakland on the south to the central districts of Berkeley. Formerly a major streetcar corridor, Adeline is now the location of a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station and a surface parking lot, for which housing and businesses were removed in the 1960s. The streets 180-ft right-of-way, fast-moving traffic, and many uncontrolled intersections present an imposing barrier to pedestrians and bicyclists and detract from the retail uses that remain on portions of the street. The goal of this study was to redesign Adeline to be safer and more inviting. The design envisions Adeline as a balanced, multimodal link in the transportation network and a safe, attractive district for residents and visitors. The proposed redesign reconfigures the corridor, by reclaiming underutilized street and parking space for new housing, commercial uses, and parks. A road diet approach is used, with fewer travel lanes on some sections and redesigned intersections that shorten crossings and provides new pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities. A reconfiguration of the BART parking lot creates land for the development of new housing and open space. The proposed implementation plan includes a low-build alternative with initial basic improvements and more dramatic ones as funding becomes available.