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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Climate change and urban transportation systems

By Haluk Gerçek,  Klaus Jacob, and Sumeeta Srinivasan

This chapter primarily focuses on the movement of people or passengers, and where relevant, issues of freight or information are referenced. Many transportation systems, especially urban mass transit, particularly in developing countries, are predominantly publicly owned and operated, but other systems (such as air and water-based transport) are more often privately owned; as are cars, vans, and trucks owned and operated by individuals. However, the ownership and management patterns for transportation systems vary by city and country and are an important factor in the design of institutional arrangements to formulate and implement mitigation and adaptation strategies. The ability to mitigate and adapt to climate change related scenarios depends on ownership. For instance, a publicly owned facility may have access to direct and indirect subsidies and large-scale public investments that are unavailable for private sector operators.


more about climate change and cities:

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

Daytime urban heat island effect in high-rise and high-density residential developments in Hong Kong

MITIGATING URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT BY URBAN DESIGN: FORMS AND MATERIALS

Sustainable Transport and Climate Change: Environmentally Experiences and lessons from community initiatives

Asian cities at highest risk to climate change, study says

Research on Factors Relating to Density and Climate Change

Mexico’s Proposed 2012 Budget Fails to Allocate Adequate Funding for Climate Change

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Feasibility of Voluntary Reduction of Private Car Use

By Margareta Friman, Tore Pedersen and Tommy Gärling

In this research report we propose a classification of the various TDM-measures, encompassing the specific characteristics of each, how the various measures may be distinguished from each other and to what extent they may interact, as well as how effective they are in modifying or reducing private car use. One distinction between the various TDM measures is that between coerciveness and non-coerciveness, that is whether a change is forced upon the private car users (e.g., road closures) or whether they are motivated to make a voluntary change (e.g., informational campaigns). Another partly overlapping distinction is that between top-down and bottom-up processes, where the former refers to changes that are not freely chosen, whereas the latter empowers car users to voluntarily change. A third distinction is that of time scale, that is at what times of day the measures are implemented, for instance, congestion pricing only during peak hours. The fourth distinction is spatial scale, that is where the measure is applied, for instance in the city centers. Marked-based (e.g., pricing mechanisms) versus regulatory-based (e.g., legislation) measures makes up a fifth distinction. A final distinction is that between influencing latent versus manifest travel demand. Measures that aims to impact the former typically consist of, for instance, building of new roads to reduce congestion, whereas measures that aim to impact the latter is characterized by an impact on manifest travel behaviour, for instance, limiting car access to specific areas at specific times of day.


more about travel behavior research:

What if you live in the wrong neighborhood? The impact of residential neighborhood type dissonance on distance traveled

Vehicle Miles Traveled and the Built Environment: Evidence from Vehicle Safety Inspection Data

Residential Self-Selection and Its Effects on Urban Commute Travels in Iranian Cities Compared to US, UK, and Germany

MODELING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IMPACTS OF MICRO-SCALE LAND USE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

A Copula-Based Approach to Accommodate Residential Self-Selection Effects in Travel Behavior Modeling

QUALITATIVE METHODS IN TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH

GPS in pedestrian and spatial behaviour surveys

Lecture on sampling methods by Prof. Murtaza Haider

Friday, July 18, 2014

Societal trends, mobility behaviour and sustainable transport in Europe and North America

By Georg Rudinger, Kieran Donaghy and Stefan Poppelreuter

This contribution describes the work of Focus Group three of the European Union network Sustainable Transport in Europe and Links and Liaisons to America (STELLA). It examines especially social and behavioural aspects of sustainable transport from a transatlantic perspective. Significant societal trends (e.g. the ageing of societies) are surveyed and their implications for mobility behaviour are drawn. The sustainability of this behaviour is considered along with constraints and drivers of this behaviour in Europe and North America. The contribution takes up relevant policy issues and concludes with a discussion of a transatlantic research agenda on social and behavioural aspects of sustainable transport.


more about sustainable transportation:

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

Sustainable Transport and Climate Change: Environmentally Experiences and lessons from community initiatives

Challenges of urban transport in developing countries- a summary

The influence of neighbourhood design on travel behaviour: Empirical evidence from North East England

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORT SYSTEM: PLANNING FOR NON-MOTORIZED VEHICLES IN CITIES

Opportunities for transport mode change: an exploration of a disaggregated approach

A new approach to the Iranian urban planning, using neo-traditional development

MODELING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IMPACTS OF MICRO-SCALE LAND USE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

What if you live in the wrong neighborhood? The impact of residential neighborhood type dissonance on distance traveled

by Tim Schwanen and Patricia L. Mokhtarian

While urban form in general and density in particular are believed by many to significantly influence travel behavior, various recent studies have argued that the true determinants of travel patterns are attitudes rather than land use characteristics. This research builds on this notion and investigates to what extent a lackof congruence between physical neighborhood structure and preferences regarding land use near one s home location (termed residential neighborhood type dissonance or mismatch) affect distance traveled overall and by mode. A conceptual model is described in which the relationship between neighborhood type dissonance and distance traveled is embedded in a wider set of individual and household choices, and tobit models of the influence of neighborhood type mismatch are presented. The results suggest that neighborhood type mismatch should be taken into account in future research as well as in policies attempting to modify travel behavior through land use regulations.

more about travel behavior:

Vehicle Miles Traveled and the Built Environment: Evidence from Vehicle Safety Inspection Data

Residential Self-Selection and Its Effects on Urban Commute Travels in Iranian Cities Compared to US, UK, and Germany

MODELING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IMPACTS OF MICRO-SCALE LAND USE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

Determinants of Automobile Use: A Comparison of Germany and the U.S.

UNDERSTANDING PERCEPTIONS OF ACCESSIBILITY AND MOBILITY THROUGH STRUCTURATION THEORY

A Copula-Based Approach to Accommodate Residential Self-Selection Effects in Travel Behavior Modeling

Examining the Impacts of Residential Self-Selection on Travel Behaviour: A Focus on Empirical Findings

MODELLING AND PROSPECTS OF THE AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT FOR OUTDOOR ADVERTISING BASED ON DATA COLLECTION USING GPS DEVICES (ELECTRONIC PASSIVE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM)

Monday, July 14, 2014

Applying a CA-based model to explore land-use policy scenarios to contain sprawl in Thessaloniki, Greece

By Apostolos Lagarias and Poulicos Prastacos

This study addresses the issue of urban sprawl through the application of a Cellular Automata (CA) based model in the area of Thessaloniki, Greece. To link macro-scale to micro-dynamic processes the model integrates a statistical model at the regional level with a CA model at the local level. The model is used to compare two scenarios of growth of Thessaloniki to year 2030; the first one assuming a continuation of existing trends, whereas the second one assuming the enactment of various land use regulations in order to contain urban sprawl. The comparison of the results demonstrate that in the second scenario there is a smaller degree of leapfrog growth, with high percentage of new developed land being inside the existing city plans with development in areas outside the plans and in agricultural areas being minimized.




more about urban sprawl:

Urban Sprawl Pattern Recognition Using Remote Sensing and GIS – Case Study Shiraz City, Iran

URBAN SPRAWL IN MID-SIZED CITIES OF MENA, EVIDENCE FROM YAZD AND KASHAN IN CENTRAL IRAN

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

The Impact of Urban Sprawl up on Air Pollution 

Strategy for Sustainable Urban Development: A Case Study of Urmia City, Iran


Studying the effects of urban sprawl of metropolis on tourism - climate index oscillation: A case study of Tehran city

Friday, July 11, 2014

Urban Sprawl Pattern Recognition Using Remote Sensing and GIS – Case Study Shiraz City, Iran

By Ab. Latif bin Ibrahim and Mahdi Sabet Sarvestani

In this research with respect to increasing role of Geoinformation sciences in environmental studies and the importance of sustainable development in urban planning, Shiraz city as the most important city in the southern part of Iran was selected for urban growth studies and the estimation of natural resources destruction during past three decades. For this purpose different satellite images of the study area since 1976 to 2005, and population censuses of Shiraz city in this time period were used. Four main land use types such as water, constructed areas, vegetation and bareland areas were classified from satellite images of Shiraz city. Then land use coverage for different dates of the classified maps have been measured and with respect to population, the built-up and vegetation per capita also calculated. The results of this study showed that in despite of general belief, in recent years the vegetation coverage has not decreased extremely but it was not grown correspondingly to urban growth. It is recommended that the future planning will be more focused on protection of available vegetation and compensation of destroyed coverage.


More about Middle Eastern cities:

URBAN SPRAWL IN MID-SIZED CITIES OF MENA, EVIDENCE FROM YAZD AND KASHAN IN CENTRAL IRAN

Urbanization and Natural Disasters in the Mediterranean Population Growth and Climate Change in the 21st Century Case Studies on Izmit, Algiers and Alexandria

GATED COMMUNITIES: PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION OR SOCIAL DESTRUCTION TOOL?

URBAN SPRAWL IN IRANIAN CITIES AND ITS DIFFERENCES WITH THE WESTERN SPRAWL

MESSAGE FROM TRADITIONAL SETTLEMENTS FOR FUTURE CITIES

Cairo’s Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials

TRADITIONAL SHOPPING: A Syntactic Comparison of Commercial Spaces in Iran and Turkey

URBAN SPRAWL AND CLIMATIC CHANGES IN TEHRAN

A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO CAPABILITIES OF THE TRADITIONAL URBAN FORM IN PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION

Vehicle Miles Traveled and the Built Environment: Evidence from Vehicle Safety Inspection Data

By Mi Diao and Joseph Ferreira, Jr.

This study examines the linkage between household vehicle usage and their residential locations within a metropolitan area using a newly available administrative dataset of annual private passenger vehicle safety inspection records (with odometer readings) and spatially detailed data on the built environment. Vehicle miles travelled (VMT) and a set of comprehensive built-environment measures are computed for a statewide 250m*250m grid cell layer using advanced Geographic Information Systems and database management tools. We apply factor analysis to construct five factors that differentiate the built-environment characteristics of the grid cells and then integrate the built-environment factors into spatial regression models of household vehicle usage that account for built environment, demographics, and spatial interactions. The empirical results suggest that built-environment factors not only play an important role in explaining the intra-urban variation of household vehicle usage, but may also be underestimated by previous studies that use more aggregate built-environment measures. One standard deviation variations in the built-environment factors are associated with as much as 5,000 mile differences in annual VMT per-household. This study also demonstrates the potential value of new georeferenced administrative datasets in developing indicators that can assist urban planning and urban management.


more about urban travel behavior:

Residential Self-Selection and Its Effects on Urban Commute Travels in Iranian Cities Compared to US, UK, and Germany

MODELING THE TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IMPACTS OF MICRO-SCALE LAND USE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS

Determinants of Automobile Use: A Comparison of Germany and the U.S.

The influence of neighbourhood design on travel behaviour: Empirical evidence from North East England

Mobility biographies. A new perspective for understanding travel behaviour

Residential self-selection and travel: The relationship between travel-related attitudes, built environment characteristics and travel behaviour

Dynamic GPS-position correction for mobile pedestrian navigation and orientation