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Paper

Testing Curbside Management Strategies to Mitigate the Impacts of Ridesourcing Services on Traffic

 
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Publication:  Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Publication Date: 2020
Summary:

Increased use of ridehailing leads to increased pick-up and drop-off activity. This may slow traffic or cause delays as vehicles increase curb use, conduct pick-up and drop-off activity directly in the travel lane, or slow to find and connect with passengers. How should cities respond to this change in an effort to keep travel lanes operating smoothly and efficiently? This research evaluates two strategies in Seattle, WA, in an area where large numbers of workers commute using ridesourcing services: (i) a change of curb allocation from paid parking to passenger load zone (PLZ), and (ii) a geofencing approach by transportation network companies (TNCs) which directs their drivers and passengers to designated pick-up and drop-off locations on a block. An array of data on street and curb activity along three study blockfaces was collected, using video and sensor technology as well as in-person observations. Data were collected in three phases: (i) the baseline, (ii) after the new PLZs were added, expanding total PLZ curb length from 20 ft to 274 ft, and (iii) after geofencing was added to the expanded PLZs. The added PLZs were open to any passenger vehicle (not just TNC vehicles), weekdays 7:00–10:00 a.m. and 2:00–7:00 p.m. The results showed that the increased PLZ allocation and geofencing strategy reduced the number of pick-ups/drop-offs in the travel lane, reduced dwell times, increased curb use compliance, and increased TNC passenger satisfaction. The two strategies, however, had no observable effect on travel speeds or traffic safety in the selected study area.

Recommended Citation:
Ranjbari, Andisheh, Jose Luis Machado-León, Giacomo Dalla Chiara, Don MacKenzie, and Anne Goodchild. “Testing Curbside Management Strategies to Mitigate the Impacts of Ridesourcing Services on Traffic.” Transportation Research Record, (October 2020). https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198120957314.
Paper

Bike-Share Planning in Cities with Varied Terrain

 
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Publication: Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal
Volume: 84:07:00
Pages: 31-35
Publication Date: 2014
Summary:
Decisions to install public bike-share programs are increasingly based on ridership estimations, but the topography’s influence on ridership is rarely quantified. This research evaluated a geographic information system-based approach for estimating ridership that accounted for hills. Double-weighting a slope relative to other measures produces a realistic representation of the bicycling experience. Because of their benefits, bike-share programs are increasingly of interest in cities and universities across the country. A bike-share program provides short-term use bicycles to the public through a system of unattended stations for their checkout and return. This research enhanced methodology developed in Philadelphia by developing and evaluating an additional indicator that accounts for hills. Several scenarios were tested, using Seattle as a case study, to find the best method to account for the notable impact of hills on bike riders’ choices and to evaluate the addition of slope to the calculation of bike-share demand.
Authors: Dr. Ed McCormack, Erica Wygonik, Daniel H. Rowe
Recommended Citation:
McCormack, E., & Rowe, D. H. (2014). Bike-share planning in cities with varied terrain. Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal, 84(7), 31.
Paper

An Evaluation of Logistics Sprawl in Chicago and Phoenix

 
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Publication: Journal of Transport Geography
Volume: 88
Publication Date: 2018
Summary:

This paper evaluates whether or not there is a sprawling tendency to the spatial patterns of warehouse establishments in the Chicago and Phoenix metropolitan areas. The trend of warehouses to move away from the urban centers to more suburban and exurban areas is referred to as “Logistics Sprawl”. To measure sprawl, the barycenter of warehousing establishments was compared to the barycenter of all other industry establishments in the region between the years of 1998 and 2013 for Chicago; 1998 and 2015 for Phoenix. This shows that logistics sprawl is a behavior experienced by warehouses in the Chicago area, but not in the Phoenix area. This paper discusses if logistics sprawl is a national trend or a regional behavior by comparing these results to the previous case studies of the Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Seattle metropolitan areas.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Melaku Dubie, Kai C. Kuo
Recommended Citation:
Dubie, Melaku, Kai C. Kuo, Gabriela Giron-Valderrama, and Anne Goodchild. (2018) An Evaluation of Logistics Sprawl in Chicago and Phoenix. Journal of Transport Geography, 88, 102298–. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.08.008
Paper

Evaluating the Impacts of Density on Urban Goods Movement Externalities

Publication: Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability
Volume: 10:04
Pages: 13-Jan
Publication Date: 2017
Summary:

Research has established a potential to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by replacing passenger travel for shopping with delivery service, and a few studies have indicated CO2 emissions can also be reduced. However, that research has mostly focused on urban locations and has not addressed criteria pollutants. This study examines the impacts of replacing passenger travel for shopping with delivery service over a broader set of externalities (VMT, CO2, NOx, and PM10) in both urban and rural communities. Three different goods movement strategies are considered in three different municipalities in King County, Washington, which vary in size, density, and distance from the metropolitan core. The research finds that delivery services can reduce VMT over passenger vehicle travel for shopping, however, the potential to reduce CO2, NOx, and PM10 emissions varies by municipality. Significant trade-offs are observed between VMT and emissions – especially between VMT and criteria pollutants.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Erica Wygonik
Recommended Citation:
Wygonik, Erica, and Anne Goodchild. Evaluating the Impacts of Density on Urban Goods Movement Externalities. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 10, no. 4 (2017): 487-499. 
Thesis: Array
Paper

Current State of Estimation of Multimodal Freight Project Impacts

 
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Publication: Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Volume: 2410
Pages: 141-149
Publication Date: 2014
Summary:

As available data have increased and as the national transportation funding bills have moved toward objective evaluation, departments of transportation (DOTs) throughout the United States have begun to develop tools to attempt to measure the effects of different projects. Increasingly, DOTs recognize that the freight transportation system is necessarily multimodal. However, no DOTs have clearly stated objective tools with which to evaluate multimodal freight project comparisons.

This paper fills that gap by summarizing the existing academic literature on the state of the science for the estimation of freight project impacts and by reviewing methods currently used by selected DOTs nationwide. These methods are analyzed to identify common themes to determine potential avenues for multimodal project evaluation.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Erica Wygonik, Daniel Holder, B. McMullen
Recommended Citation:
Wygonik, Erica, Daniel Holder, B. Starr McMullen, and Anne Goodchild. "Current State of Estimation of Multimodal Freight Project Impacts." Transportation Research Record 2410, no. 1 (2014): 141-149. 
Paper

The Clean Trucks Program: Evaluation of Policy Impacts on Marine Terminal Operations

Publication: Journal of Maritime Economics and Logistics
Volume: 10(4)
Pages: 393-408
Publication Date: 2008
Summary:

The Clean Trucks Program is a Clean Air Action Plan initiative currently being adopted by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This paper examines each of the Clean Trucks Program’s current requirements and estimates the impact on terminal operations. Using terminal operations data supplied by three terminal operating companies, we conduct a simple queuing analysis and present a regression model which allow us to consider the potential impact of the policy changes. While the impact at a specific terminal is not estimated in this paper, we consider order of magnitude effects. While the programme itself does not require terminal operations changes, the programme will modestly increase incentives to improve operational efficiency outside the terminal and reduce terminal gate processing time. It will also require technology that could be used for further operational changes. We show, however, that unless gate time improvements are matched with these operational improvements in the terminal, they will only move the delay inside the terminal and not reduce total terminal time. Our research considers the impact of the Clean Trucks Program on the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but similar concerns are driving changes at ports around the globe.

Authors: Dr. Anne Goodchild, Karthik Mohan
Recommended Citation:
Goodchild, Anne, and Karthik Mohan. “The Clean Trucks Program: Evaluation of Policy Impacts on Marine Terminal Operations.” Maritime Economics & Logistics, vol. 10, no. 4, 2008, pp. 393–408., doi:10.1057/mel.2008.13.