Is Sprawl by Another Name Any Greener?

Suburban neighborhood developers want a piece of the "green" market. They're building sprawling neighborhoods far from city centers and declaring them "green and sustainable" by virtue of the fact that the National Association of Home Builders says they are.

For example, the 95-acre "The Lakes of Orange" outside of Cleveland, Ohio boasts that it is "Ohio's FIRST Green Certified Residential Community." That means that it satisfied the requirements set by the NAHB's Green Building Program. But if you live there, and happen to work in downtown Cleveland, it's a 19-mile drive each way. There's a bus stop a 15-minute walk from the neighborhood entrance, but since the bus doesn't use the interstate, it takes three times as long to get downtown. It's also a purely residential and recreational development, so you have to drive to buy groceries or meet a friend for lunch. Is this really green living?

As Angie Schmitt points out in her blog, mixed-use developments like "Saxony" outside of Indianapolis are an improvement over the bedroom community model. But sprawl is sprawl. And so long as public policy makes it cheaper to build on farmland than in-fill locations in urban centers, these new developments will funnel more cars onto our already choking highways.

How to Transform Transportation in a Hurry

I often think it would take generations for Atlanta to build a world-class transportation system, one that includes a comprehensive network of roads, bike lanes, bus, and rail. But then I see examples of places that are making great strides quickly.

One such example is Boston, which Bicycling Magazine named one of the "Worst Biking Cities" three times from 1999 to 2006 (New York Times 2009). The city hired a former Olympic cyclist as "bike czar" and by 2011 had installed 50 miles of bike lanes and made other bike-friendly changes. The League of American Bicyclists now gives Boston a "Silver" (third) level award and ranks Massachusetts as the ninth most "Bicycle Friendly State" in the country. Not bad considering not a single East Coast community earned a "Platinum" (first) or "Gold" (second) level award.

Another impressive example is Medallin, Columbia. Two decades ago, it was the poster child of drug-related violence and earned the notorious ranking of most dangerous city in the world. Today they have shed their violent image and are becoming known for their sustainable transportation system.

"Over the last decade, Medallin has worked hard to change its image. The local government is investing in education and social programs, and the city recognizes the importance of providing an integrated public transportation system as the backbone of these projects."

See a video of Medallin transportation transformation.

How have these cities done this? By committing to sustainable transportation from the top down. One of the striking things you will see in the video about Medallin is just how bought-in to the idea of alternative transportation every government official is. I would love to see that kind of commitment here.

Changing Travel Behavior: Punishment vs. Reward

Being in the business of finding ways to change travel behavior, I have dabbled in both reward and punishment. Charging for parking as a tool to get employees not to park in on-street spaces is a form of punishment, while giving out iPods to those who carpool a certain number of days each month is a reward. I have never thought that one might be more effective than the other until I read Eric Jaffe's piece, "Should We Pay People to Drive Off Peak," in Atlantic Cites Place Matters.

He writes about a group of researchers led by Taede Tillema of the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, who recently designed a study to compare the effects of congestion pricing (punishment) to a Dutch program called "Spitsmijden," or "peak avoidance" (reward).

"In an upcoming issue of the journal Transport Policy, Tillema and colleagues report that a reward system like "Spitsmijden" may indeed be more effective than punishments."

The researchers combined data from a previous study and a previous survey and found that paying people not to drive during peak times changed behavior 37% of the time, whereas boosting tolls during peak times changes behavior only 15% of the time. A nagging question, as the author points out, is if paying people not to drive during peak times works best, who will pay them?

Ranking the Most Livable, Innovative Cities in America

Is your city among the smartest in terms of urban planning and policy making? Zipcar, Inc. this week released its "Future Metropolis Index," a ranking of highly populated cities in five categories: innovation, sustainability, vibrancy, and creativity-efficiency-livability-optimism (a combo category).

Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Boston top the "innovation" category. Tuscon, Portland, and San Francisco are most "sustainable." El Paso, NYC, and San Diego are most "livable."

Read the details

The ranking drew the attention of Urban Land Magazine.

Zipcar commissioned the study by KRC Research. The study contends that cities that rank high on "optimism" will fare better economically.

Federal Funding of Public Transit Takes Potential Turn for the Worse

The debate in Washington over federal funding for surface transportation programs is heating up, so I thought I would update you with regard to where everyone stands.

The House Republican proposal to fund surface transportation programs for five years was approved three weeks ago by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The full House is expected to consider the American and Energy Infrastructure Jobs Act later this month.

Sponsors describe the measure as “the largest transportation reform bill since the Interstate Highway System was created in 1956.” The bill aims to eliminate earmarks and to stabilize the Highway Trust Fund, sponsors say.

Read the Republican's position on the bill.

However, this proposal threatens funding for the nation’s transit systems, according to the American Public Transportation Association. A headline from an APTA release reads, “House Plan Puts Public Transit Projects in Jeopardy – Nearly 50 Percent of Revenue Currently Dedicated to Public Transit To Be Diverted.”

The "American Conservative Center for Public Transportation" joined the APTA in a joint statement today lamenting the potential undoing of 30 years of bipartisan support for public transit.

Finally, this past week the president released his own budget, which is "loaded with transportation funding." Actually, the president's proposal would improve the current 80-20 ratio of highway to transit funding to 75-25, with the Livable Communities program receiving $27 billion over six years.

Read about the President's transportation budget here.

Peer-to-Peer Car Sharing the Next Big Thing

When I decided to experiment with going car-less over a year ago, I was afraid to get rid of my car completely by selling it, so I decided to rent it to a friend for six months with the caveat that I could use it in case of an emergency. Little did I know I was at the forefront of a movement.
Peer-to-Peer car sharing is different from traditional car sharing like Zipcar in that it allows people to rent out their own vehicles to others at rates set by the car owners themselves. An article in Time this week explores the present state of peer-to-peer car sharing in particular the impact on the auto industry and traditional car sharing.
Author's note: Lanier Parking Solutions is a partner with Zipcar in the Atlanta market.

Managing Mixed-Use Parking Facilities Calls for TDM

I came to Lanier Parking 10 years ago to help take the company and the industry Beyond Parking by getting clients to see parking as one component of a much larger transportation system. A recent trade magazine story that I am quoted in clearly illustrates how we have done this. Case in point is Atlantic Station, the 138-acre mixed-use facility where Lanier has managed parking and transportation since it opened in 2005. Success has required far more than managing the massive, 7,200-space underground parking deck. Our Transportation Demand Management (TDM) programs have included alternative transportation, data collection, and structured pricing.

Read the NPA magazine story.

The story questions whether a TDM approach to parking management is good for the parking company's bottom line. I can testify that TDM is a key differentiating factor that helps Lanier get and keep clients.

Parking Lots: Possibilities Beneath the Surface

It is often said that the lowest and worst land use is surface parking. So why does the US have so much of it, and could it be used for something other than just parking? These are some of the questions that Michael Kimmelman asks in a New York Times article Paved, but Still Alive.

"There are said to be at least 105 million and maybe as many as 2 billion parking spaces in the United States. A third of them in parking lots, those asphalt deserts that we claim to hate but that proliferate for our convenience."

He goes on to explain that, at the very least, we should take these spaces more seriously, architecturally, and use them as public spaces. Kimmelman writes about Parking Day, a global event started around 2005 that invites anybody and everybody to transform metered spaces. For me it brings to mind Cyclovia, a world wide effort to turn streets into part-time passive parks part of the time.

In a competition to adaptively reuse shopping malls, Kimmelman cites one planning firm's approach to parking lots:

"Interboro noticed that the parking lot was quietly being used as a depot and stop by bus lines. A hot dog truck had set up shop there. Patrons at a drive-through McDonald’s ate in their parked cars. Truckers slept there overnight. The Fishkill flea market took over on weekends, and a graphic design firm and a couple of banks and a post-office processing center converted vacant mall stores into offices. In short, said Daniel D’Oca, one of Interboro’s partners, 'what looked dead wasn’t, but you would have missed it if you just passed by it with a predisposed idea about sprawl.'"

Undoing the Damage Done by Urban Freeways

The effort to remove or re-purpose existing freeways and heal the wounds they inflicted on cities continues with the near completion of park Madrid Rio in Madrid, Spain. Madrid Rio sits atop a six-mile stretch of tunnels that now house the old M-30 Freeway.

From yesterday's New York Times:

"All around the world, highways are being torn down and waterfronts reclaimed; decades of thinking about cars and cities reversed; new public spaces created."

New York City master planner Robert Moses famously drove freeways right through neighborhoods until urban activist Jane Jacobs stood up to him. Now, one of his creations, the Sheridan Expressway through the South Bronx, is closer to being torn down.

Shopping Malls Using High Tech to Help You Find a Parking Space

During the holiday season, I start thinking a lot about retail parking. It is only during this time of year when the sea of asphalt around most malls and shopping centers fills up.

Meandering through a parking deck or lot trolling for a space wastes gas, causes pollution, and diminishes the shopping experience. With shopping centers earning 40% of their annual sales during the six weeks leading to Christmas, they have a strong incentive to make sure customers have a parking space when they arrive.

Malls are now using electronic signage, smart phone apps, and even Twitter to ease the pain of trying to find a spot.

Read about it in the Wall Street Journal.

Mass Transit Incentive to be Cut While Parking Incentive Stays the Same

Obscured in the debate over whether to extend the payroll tax cut is the possible loss of an incentive to take mass transit. If Congress takes no action (and it appears it won't), the tax-free fringe benefit for taking mass transit will be cut in half, while the benefit for driving to work stays the same. That sends a bad message.

Currently, your employer can give you up to $230/month pre-tax to cover your mass transit costs, the same as they can give you to pay to park your car. The transit benefit is set to go back down to $120 on January 1. That's where it was before the stimulus bill increased it to its current level. Granted, a monthly subway pass in many cities is less than $120 ($95 in Atlanta, $104 in New York City), but the monthly expense for commuter trains like the Long Island Railroad can run hundreds of dollars. The bottom line is cutting a benefit for commuting while leaving the parking benefit the same sends exactly the wrong message when policies should be encouraging people to leave their cars at or near their home.

How to Win Converts to Paid Parking

I, like many transportation consultants, spend a great deal of time trying to convince people that it is in their best interest, and that of their community, to charge for parking. Paid parking encourages all types of positive behavior including employees staying out of customer spaces, the use of alternative transportation, and the funding of needed infrastructure.

In a recent issue of Atlantic Cities, Emily Badger interviews Jeff Tumlin, a transportation consultant, about what it takes to sell paid parking. “Somebody who’s screaming about ‘parking needs to be free!’ I can sit down with them for 20 minutes and get them to understand,” he says. “But it takes a full 20 minutes. And in a world where everything has to be distilled into 15-second sound bites, it’s really hard to convince people on a large scale.”

Jeff goes on to say that new technology and services are making it easier to charge for parking. "The advent of pay-by-credit card technology allows cities to raise the price of parking to where enough people are turned away onto alternate forms of transportation, without upsetting the people who are now paying more. That’s the trick of credit cards (and a lesson plenty of other businesses have long understood): People don’t mind paying more for something when they don’t actually have to hand over that difference in cash (or coins)." I have often said that if you take something (i.e money to park) you have to give something (i.e. new ways to pay, better level of service).

But, one of the hardest arguments to overcome is the question as to wether or not paid parking charges are a burden on the poor? Well Jeff goes onto explain that,"The poorest people, he’s found, aren’t looking for parking because they don’t own cars. But among the rest of this demographic, he says surveys show that poor people also place an extremely high value on their time. They too often say they’re willing to pay a little more for parking if it means they don’t have to waste time looking for it."

Read the full story here.

A New Transportation Funding Paradigm

Leaders throughout the country are recognizing the limitations of federal aid and turning to voters to voluntarily increase their taxes or institute additional fees to improve the quality of their transportation networks. Will voters go along?

An article in "The Transport Politic" takes a close look at Seattle and Atlanta, each in the midst of its own effort to raise taxes and fees. In Atlanta, a regional initiative supported by political and business leaders across a ten-county area will advance a 1% sales tax to the ballot next November. Over half of the billions in locally raised funds is to be transferred to capital and operational programs. In Seattle, an enthusiastic mayor is articulating a grand, citywide strategy to bring high-quality transit to his city as quickly as possible. If approved by voters, a significant increase in the vehicle registration fee could mean rapid streetcars and more bus rapid transit."

The article goes on to discuss what it takes to pass such a tax/fee. The article reports on Mineta Transportation Institute's study examining eight case studies and determined that the importance of consensus among business, elected and environmental interest groups and a well orchestrated and savvy, well funded media message is critical to success.

Check out the article here.

When Should Property Owners Install Electric Car Charging Stations

A year ago, I never got questions about electric charges. Today, I get several inquiries from our clients each week. When a client asks whether or not they should install a charger, I first ask, "What are you trying to accomplish?" If they say, "I want to meet demand and maybe make some money," I explain that there is no demand yet, and the only reason they should install a charger today is for the PR purposes of being a first adopter. Or perhaps the client can take advantage of the tax breaks before they expire. I go on to say, "You do not want to install more than a couple chargers, but you may want to build in the infrastructure to expand later on if it takes off."

A recent article "Charging Stations Multiply But Electric Cars Are Few" in the Wall Street Journal explains why electric chargers are multiplying much faster than the plug-in vehicles that can use them. While the federal subsidies help, some in the business community believe that the chargers will attract customers.

"Charging equipment is popping up largely because of subsidies. As part of a $5 billion federal program to subsidize development of electric vehicles and battery technology, the U.S. Energy Department over the past two years provided about $130 million for two pilot projects that help pay for chargers at homes, offices and public locations."

Although the subsidies will not last forever, the cost of chargers will fall as production rises, meaning that if you wait, you will probably not pay much more than you would today with the subsidy.

Congestion Pricing Only True Road to Relief

How do you relieve traffic congestion? The assumption is that you either need to build more roads, more transit, or both. And most of the time, this pits transit advocates against road advocates. Well, maybe neither is necessary.

In a new study published in this month's American Economic Review and reported by Eric Jaffe for The Atlantic Cities called The Only Hope for Reducing Traffic, researchers contend that congestion pricing is the only solution to decrease congestion.

Two economists from the University of Toronto analyzed data and road capacity in U.S. cities from 1983 to 2003 and found that there is such an enormous latent demand for road space, they believe that whenever a new lane is built or a driver shifts onto public transportation, another driver quickly grabs the open space.

They believe congestion pricing programs are the only things that will decrease overall car use and delays during peak hours.

StreetFilms.org produced a video on congestion pricing in March:
http://www.streetfilms.org/mba-congestion-pricing/

The US DOT put out this report on congestion pricing in October 2008:
http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/fhwahop08039/cp_prim1_00.htm

Why Motorcycles Get to Use HOV Lanes

Have you ever wondered why they allow motorcycles in HOV lanes? [Find out the REAL reason at the bottom of this post] I just assumed it was because they pollute less than cars. Well, I caught a recent episode of the Disney Channel's "Mythbusters" and was very surprised to find out that the car pollutes less than motorcycle.

Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman collaborated with Kent Johnson, an assistant research engineer at the University of California at Riverside, to conduct the experiment:

"Three cars and three motorcycles, each built in either the 1980s, '90s or '00s, were fitted with tailpipe probes that measured the carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide emissions of each vehicle over a closed course... In the end, Mr. Johnson observed that while the motorcycles burn fuel more efficiently and produce lower levels of carbon dioxide than the cars, the noxious pollutants generated by the bikes exceeded the levels generated by cars. Insofar as the hosts sought to determine the greenest mode of transport, the car won by virtue of its lower pollution profile."

Read the full story here, Source: New York Times, September, 30, 2011.

The REAL rationale behind allowing motorcycles to use HOV lanes is that it is safer to keep two-wheeled vehicles moving than to have them travel in start-and-stop traffic conditions, but states can choose to override this provision of federal law, if they determine that safety is at risk.

Can Freeways be Saved from Themselves?

When you think about a freeway, you think of a wide expanse of pavement, imposing retaining walls, limited landscaping, and a myriad of steel and concrete crossings. Driving on an interstate freeway is not a particularly pleasant experience.

I guess that is why motorists drive as fast as they can with their windows up. Can this experience be transformed into a more positive, memorable experience for the driver as well as the community that the freeway surrounds?

Atlanta leaders think so. They have created the Connector Transformation Project to explore ways to transform a five-mile stretch of Interstate 75/85 that bisects Midtown and downtown Atlanta. This effort will look at bringing art, vegetation, lighting and sustainability to what some consider a very unforgiving place.

Video about the project
Article about the Project
Project Facebook Page

Below are examples of other communities around the globe who have made an effort to beautify their freeways.
Houston, TX
Seattle, WA
Los Angeles, CA.

Bike and Pedestrian Funding Facing the Budget Ax

In a few days, the U.S. Senate may vote on a measure to eliminate the primary sources of funds for all dedicated federal bike and pedestrian projects. Opponents of the funding say during these tough times, all of our precious transportation dollars should go to roads.

The pro-bike and pedestrian group "Transportation for America" is encouraging like-minded folks to tell their senators to "oppose any mvoe to eliminate the Transportation Enhancement (TE) program."

NPR aired a story about the controversy on Thursday.

What do you think? Let your voices be heard.

Will Car Drivers Fight Efforts to Make Transit Fashionable?

So, you're driving down the road and you spot a person traveling on foot, or perhaps a cyclist in business attire. Maybe someone waiting for the bus. What is your perception of that person? Do you feel sorry for them? Or are you irritated by their smug sense of superiority? Or both? Can you feel both of these things at the same time?

I'm reminded of a piece in Planetizen last December in which Brian Ladd describes how transit is appealing more to riders of choice, contradicting the belief, often reinforced by politicians, that public transit is for people who have no choice.

When a Los Angeles bus rider asked presidential candidate George W. Bush about transit improvements in 2000, Bush responded, "My hope is that you will be able to find good enough work so you'll be able to afford a car." Bush was undoubtedly sincere. Like many Americans—probably most—he saw a bus (like a bicycle) as a nothing more than a pathetic substitute for a car.

How we feel about people who use alternative forms of transportation affects policy and ultimately the resources we spend on them. Ladd worries that as alternative transportation becomes more fashionable, car drivers will adopt a bunker mentality and try to demonize policies that favor bikes, trains, and buses.

Just remember, for every person you see on foot, on a bike, or waiting for a bus, that represents one car that is NOT in your way.

What to Do About a Lack of Crosswalks: Prosecute Pedestrians?

The issue of providing safe crossing for pedestrians has been front and center ever since the national media took notice of the Raquel Nelson story in Atlanta. Ms. Nelson was convicted of vehicular homicide because her four-year-old son was hit and killed as the family crossed a four-lane road. There were no crosswalks nearby.

From Atlanta to Mumbai, the transportation infrastructure has deemed cars a far higher priority than pedestrians. The result is soaring pedestrian death rates.

The Times of India reports "nearly 78% of road fatalities are pedestrians," a result of the country's focus on widening roads to accommodate the surge in cars.

Policies in most American cities aren't that different, with transportation and transit planners' single purpose being to move as many cars through an area as fast as possible. The solution isn't how to eliminate the cars but how to slow them down to accommodate other modes.

Ben Welle, assistant project manager of Health and Road Safety at EMBARQ, says “The thing to remember is that the one thing that is always involved in a car crash is a car, so slowing them down through good design and shifting trips through high quality mass transit, walking and biking facilities can really reduce risk.”

To read more about Raquel Nelson's story and the issues they have raised check out the following links:
Pedestrian Infrastructure Essential to Safer Roads Worldwide - The CityFIX

Georgia Mom Convicted of Vehicular Homicide For Crossing Street With Kids

Prosecuting the Victim, Absolving the Perpetrators