Bicycling in Davis, CA : A Critical Look at Policy and Behavior in the First Platinum Bicycle City in the U.S.

The video begins at 3:15.

In 2005, Davis, California was the first city in the U.S. to be named a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists. Although Davis has long been held up as a model bicycling community, where residents bike as a normal part of their daily lives, it has not been rigorously studied. Several studies underway at UC Davis are helping to fill this gap: an analysis of the history of bicycling policy in Davis; a behavioral study of factors contributing to high levels of bicycling in Davis in comparison; and an evaluation of a recent campaign to get kids to bicycle to soccer games. This presentation offers highlights from a three studies to provide a critical assessment of Davis as a bicycling community.

Susan Handy is a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and the director of the Sustainable Transportation Center at the University of California Davis. Her research focuses on the connections between land use and transportation, and she is well known for her work on the impact of neighborhood design on travel behavior. She serves on three committees of the Transportation Research Board and on the editorial boards of several journals in the fields of planning, transportation, and public health.

Sustaining a Transportation Legacy from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

The video begins at 3:47.

Abstract: Transportation planning for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games— Vancouver’s largest special event ever—was a complex challenge compounded by venue security road closures throughout the city. Through public engagement, careful planning and evaluation, and collaboration with transportation partners, the City of Vancouver developed a wide range of innovative strategies to create its Host City Olympic Transportation Plan. By almost every indicator, the transportation operations and transportation demand management (TDM) strategies of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games were an unqualified success. However, the goals of the Host City transportation plan were further verified the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan Downtown Monitoring Study in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC) to evaluate the transportation impact of the Games by using in-the-field data collection. The transportation legacy of the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan was a proven example of a large scale travel behaviour shift to sustainable modes, in unprecedented and record numbers.  The experience of the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan demonstrated that residents and businesses can be motivated to take sustainable modes of transportation if convenient alternatives to vehicle travel are available. This presentation will discuss the detailed results of the Host City Olympic Transportation...

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Portland SmartTrips: Results from the Northeast Hub project

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The video begins at 3:05.

Demonstrating the Benefits of Sustainable Streets for Active Aging

The video begins at 1:24.

This project will help demonstrate how sustainable ("green") streets contribute to the well-being of a community, including the physical and mental health of older and younger adults, along with the environment and economy. The project will collect data in Portland, OR neighborhoods to answer the following research questions:

Are residents living near sustainable streets more physically active in their neighborhood?

Do residents living near sustainable streets interact with neighbors more and demonstrate higher levels of neighborhood social capital?

What are residents’ opinions of sustainable streets?

Are there variations in responses to sustainable streets by age or other demographics? In particular, how to older adults differ from younger adults?

Does the implementation process and design affect green street outcomes?

Do sustainable streets affect home values?

How do green streets affect stormwater flows, urban heat island, and carbon sequestration in Portland neighborhoods?

The project includes a survey of residents in two neighborhoods with green street features and two control neighborhoods; an environmental assessment of the green street treatments; and an analysis of housing values using a hedonic modeling approach.

The project will be guided by an Advisory council of members of various stakeholder organizations...

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How Do People Choose a Travel Mode? Factors Associated with Routine Walking & Bicycling

The video starts at 0:58.

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Abstract: Walking and bicycling are being promoted as transportation options that can increase the livability and sustainability of communities, but the automobile remains the dominant mode of transportation in all United States metropolitan regions. In order to change travel behavior, researchers and practitioners need a greater understanding of the mode choice decision process, especially for walking and bicycling.

This presentation will summarize dissertation research on factors associated with walking and bicycling for routine travel purposes, such as shopping. More than 1,000 retail pharmacy store customers were surveyed in 20 San Francisco Bay Area shopping districts in fall 2009, and 26 follow-up interviews were conducted in spring and summer 2010. Mixed logit models showed that walking was associated with shorter travel distances, higher population densities, more street tree canopy coverage, and greater enjoyment of walking. Bicycling was associated with shorter travel distances, more bicycle facilities, more bicycle parking, and greater enjoyment of bicycling. Respondents were more likely to drive when they perceived a high risk of crime, but automobile use was discouraged by higher employment densities, smaller parking lots,...

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Making Transportation Concurrency More Multimodal: Lessons from Washington and Florida.

The video begins at 7:47.

The Past, Present and Future of Personal Urban Transportation

The video begins at 1:00.

Abstract: Transportation expert Gabe Klein, former Director of the District Department of Transportation (Washington, DC), Co-Founder of On-the-Fly, and former Regional VP of ZipCar, will be speaking about the future of urban transportation and quality of life. 85% of US citizens live in urban metropolitan areas. People are moving back to the urban cores, and what were once suburbs are now looking more like small cities or urban villages themselves. Given the inevitable demographic and geographic population shifts over the next 30 years, what is transportation going to look like in 2020? 2030? How will we manage the change? Gabe will talk about macro and micro policy and market trends, such as access vs. ownership, the commoditization of transportation, landuse, bicycle/pedestrian shifts, and technology affecting consumer choice.

Reducing Car Trips Through Individualized Marketing - Results from the Eastside Hub Target Area Program

The video begins at 1:22.

Walking and Biking on their Own: Modeling Children's Independent Travel to Neighborhood Parks and Schools

The video begins at 1:47.

Joseph Broach, PhD candidate in Urban Studies, will discuss the results of his research, which models the propensity of children aged 6-16 to walk or bike to parks and school without an adult chaperone, extending existing work on children’s active travel in several ways: 1) focus on travel without an adult, 2) inclusion of school and a non-school destinations, 3) separate walk and bike models, 4) consideration of both parent and child attitudes and perceived social norms, 5) explicit inclusion of household rules limiting walking or bicycling.

Comparing Active Transportation Approaches in China and Europe

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