Category: Recent Research

Recent transit and transportation research

Research Roundup: Which High-Speed Rail Corridors Are Poised For Success? How Does Smart Growth Promote Wealth? Why Is Intercity Bus Travel The Fastest Growing Transportation Mode?

The United States has embarked on a program of building high-speed rail corridors in the nation’s most urbanized corridors and regions. This is a bold step toward meeting the infrastructure needs of the coming century, including providing capacity for economic…

Research Roundup: Climate Change In State Transportation Policy, OCTA’s Draft Long Range Plan & Green Jobs From Freight Rail

With a comprehensive climate bill stalled at the federal level, many are turning to the states to make progress toward reducing carbon emissions.  Are the states ready? Getting Back On Track: Aligning State Transportation Policy With Climate Change Goals (66p.…

Recent Research: Urban Congestion Trends, High-Speed Rail Lessons & Travel Assistance Device Deployment

Is traffic congestion getting better or worse? The Federal Highway Administration collects various statistics each year to help us understand whether traffic is improving or increasing. We wanted to take a closer look at a document titled 2009 Urban Congestion…

2010 Transportation Ballot Measures: An Examination Of Key Trends And Results

Election Day has come and gone. Yesterday, our daily Transportation Headlines highlighted the Center For Transportation Excellence‘s state-by-state results of all transportation ballot measures in 2010. 43 of 56 measures passed: a 77% success rate. But what does it mean…

Research Roundup: Social Media For Public Transportation, Funding The Needs Of An Aging Population & An Overview Of U.S. Parking Management Strategies

Each and every day, social media tools change the way that organizations interact with their users. A recent report from the Center For Urban Transportation Research at University of South Florida titled Routes To New Networks: A Guide To Social…

Research Roundup: Spawl Crawl And Rethinking Peak Hour Commutes, The New Sharing Economy & Smart Mobility For The 21st Century

The organization CEOs For Cities released a widely-cited report last month titled Measuring Urban Transportation Performance: A Critique Of Mobility Measures And Synthesis (71p. PDF). Their research finds that the secret to reducing the amount of time Americans spend in…

Research Roundup: More Transit = More Jobs, Congestion Trends & Statistics, Managing Increased Ridership

The Transportation Equity Network (TEN) has released More Transit = More Jobs: The Impact Of Increasing Funding For Public Transit (31p. PDF). TEN is a coalition of more than 350 grassroots organizations in 41 states that has worked since 1997…

Research Roundup: Benefits Of California HSR, The ARC Effect, BRT Studies & Evaluating Rail Criticism

The Institute Of Transportation Studies’ Center For Urban Infrastructure at UC Irvine released its Thinking Ahead: High-Speed Rail In Southern California (31p. PDF) report last week. It attempts to quantify some of the regional economic and other benefits likely to…

Research Roundup: Transit Benefits & Costs, Highway Funding, Bus & Rail Transit, Security & Procurements

The Victoria Transport Policy Institute has just published a new guidebook describing how to create a comprehensive framework for evaluating the full impacts (benefits and costs) of a particular transit service or improvement. Their “Evaluating Public Transit Benefits And Costs:…

Demand-Based "Smart Parking": Watch How It Works

SFpark Overview from SFpark on Vimeo. You may have heard recent stories about San Francisco’s bold experiment with demand-based parking, a two-year pilot project that launched two weeks ago (see links to stories at end of this post). This new…