For the last five years, our team has been studying the planning and development challenges of small towns and cities near national parks, public lands, and other natural amenities. Our prior and ongoing NITC funded research shows that these “gateway communities”–which comprise a significant portion of the rural West, constituting about 31% of all communities in the U.S. Mountain West and more than 60% of those under 25,000 people–are experiencing rapid growth and increased tourism. This has… Read More

Transportation professionals who are developing plans and projects that aim to change people’s travel behavior – such as getting more people to bicycle – need to understand the people they are targeting. To do so, planners and researchers have developed typologies of cyclists; however, many of these typologies are based upon surveys of current cyclists and, therefore, are of limited use in planning to attract new people to bicycling for transportation. One exception is the “Four Types of… Read More