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A burgeoning population seeking relatively affordable housing is placing high demands on outlying, auto-dependent residential markets. Simultaneously, public policies addressing housing, transportation, and land use aim to increase homeownership, decrease drive-alone travel, and harness outlying development. A relatively new mortgage lending procedure aims to address each of these public policy aims synergistically by allowing low- and moderate-income households the opportunity to purchase homes in transit-accessible neighborhoods that would otherwise be unobtainable because of cost. The goal of this research is to evaluate this initiative, as well as position it within the broader goals of smart growth, describe its application, and comment on its prospects. This report constitutes a primer of the current state of knowledge about these unique loan programs.

This report gives a brief overview of four related small research projects. The full papers resulting from the projects are included as appendices. The four projects were related by the theme of bicycling preferences and behavior with regard to bicycling facilities. The studies were also connected by the fact that they were all based on information from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. The four reports are: Effect of Trails on Cycling. Value of Bicycle Facilities to Commuters. Effect of Facilities on Commute Mode Share. Cycling Behavior Near Facilities. Generally speaking, the results support the notion that people value bicycle facilities, in that they are willing to incur additional time costs in order to use higher quality facilities. The presence of facilities also appears to be associated with higher amounts of riding, although the precise nature of the impact is still unclear..

Report #9 in the series: Access to Destinations Study. Conventional transportation planning is often focused on improving movement (or mobility) - most often by the automobile. To the extent that accessibility, a well-known concept in the transportation planning field since the 1950s, has been measured or used in transportation planning, such measures have also been auto-based. Broadening the scope of accessibility to include a wide array of destinations and non-auto modes such as walking, cycling, and transit has been previously proposed as a much needed aim among planning initiatives. A central issue is that to date, however, there have been few examples of measures draw from. When it comes to bicycling, walking, and transit measures of accessibility are an endeavor long on rhetoric but short on execution. This report discusses such hurdles, presents alternatives for overcoming them, and demonstrates how accessibility for walking, cycling, and transit - and for different types of destinations - can be reliably measured. We focus on explaining specific features of non-motorized transportation that complicate the development of accessibility measures, and offer solutions that conform to conventional transportation planning practice. In this research project, non-motorized measures of accessibility were developed for the entire seven counties of the Twin Cities (Minnesota, USA) metropolitan area. For purposes of this exposition in this report, we discuss the details of creating such measures using a sample application from Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA to demonstrate proof of concept for the endeavor.

As attention in transportation circles, increasingly focuses on encouraging pedestrian and bicycle travel, it is important that planning initiatives be informed about the safety aspects of these modes. However, recent research suggests a limited understanding of the features that affect the pedestrian and bicycle travel, particularly when it comes to safety. The report examines the information that is collected regarding pedestrian and bicycle crashes in Minnesota in comparison to other states and looks a new ways in which this data can be used increase knowledge of pedestrian and bicycle crashes. To do this exercise exploits a database of crash report information for all pedestrian and bicycle crashes in the State of Minnesota from 1998-2002. Our analysis examines general trends of pedestrian and bicycle crashes. In addition, we demonstrate that pedestrian crashes tend to occur in different locations than bicycle crashes. The final part of the paper focuses on developing a method to identify where pedestrian and bicycle crashes are more likely to occur, Poisson regression to identify the relationships between crashes and neighborhood attributes.

Report #6 in the series: Access to Destinations Study. This research aids in tackling one important part of accessibility metrics-measuring land use. It introduces complementary strategies to effectively measure a variety of different destination types at a highly detailed scale of resolution using secondary data. The research describes ways to overcome common data hurdles and demonstrates how existing data in one metropolitan area in the U.S.-the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul -can be exploited to aid in measuring accessibility at an extremely fine unit of analysis (i.e., the parcel). Establishment-level data containing attribute information on location, sales, employees, and industry classification was purchased from Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. The research process involved cleaning and tailoring the parcel dataset for the 7-county metro area and integrating various GIS datasets with other secondary data sources. These data were merged with parcel-level land use data from the Metropolitan Council. The establishment-level data were then recoded into destination categories using the 2 to 6-digit classifications of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The development of important components of this research is illustrated with a sample application. The report concludes by describing how such data could be used in calculating more robust measures of accessibility.

The functioning of the system of land use and travel networks in a region can be encapsulated into measures of the ease of reaching destinations from various locations, often referred to as accessibility measures. Regardless of the form used to specify accessibility, all measures require as inputs travel times between the zones of a region. For most transportation planning purposes, these travel time calculations are limited to motorized modes (auto and public transit), since these modes carry the bulk of all urban travel. In this research study, attention is focused on developing methods for calculating travel times by non-auto modes, including walking, bicycling and public transit. Unique networks for each mode are developed, accounting for the presence of special facilities such as pedestrian or bicycle trails and on-street bike lanes. A statistical model is estimated to identify the influence of special bicycle facilities on travel speeds, using GPS data collected from bicyclists in a real-world setting. These methods are demonstrated with an application to a section of the Twin Cities metropolitan region encompassing parts of the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul and Bloomington. The output of the application of these methods are a set of maps depicting travel sheds from various locations within the study area. The data are displayed for three points in time: 1995, 2000 and 2005. Changes to these travel sheds over time are demonstrated with maps that show the difference in travel time between each set of origins and destinations for each pair of years. The research concludes with some suggestions about the uses of the travel time data, such as the calculation of multimodal, multipurpose measures of accessibility.

Existing urban and suburban development patterns and the subsequent automobile dependence are leading to increased traffic congestion and air pollution. In response to the growing ills caused by urban sprawl, there has been an increased interest in creating more "livable" communities in which destinations are brought closer to ones home or workplace (that is, achieving travel needs through land use planning). While several reports suggest best practices for integrated land use-planning, little research has focused on examining detailed relationships between actual travel behavior and mean distance to various services. For example, how far will pedestrians travel to access different types of destinations? How to know if the "one quarter mile assumption" that is often bantered about is reliable? How far will bicyclists travel to cycle on a bicycle only facility? How far do people drive for their common retail needs? To examine these questions, this research makes use of available travel survey data for the Twin Cities region. A primary outcome of this research is to examine different types of destinations and accurately and robustly estimate distance decay models for auto and non-auto travel modes, and also to comment on its applicability for: (a) different types of travel, and (b) development of accessibility measures that incorporate this information.

The widespread implementation of automated vehicle location systems and automatic passenger counters in the transit industry has opened new venues in transit operations and system monitoring. Metro Transit, the primary transit agency in the Twin Cities, Minnesota region, has been testing various intelligent transportation systems (ITS) since 1999. In 2005, they fully implemented an AVL system and partially implemented an APC system. To date, however, there has been little effort to employ such data to evaluate different aspects of performance. This research capitalizes on the availability of such data to better assess performance issues of one particular route in the Metro Transit system. We employ the archived data from the location systems of buses running on an example cross-town route to conduct a microscopic analysis to understand reasons for performance and reliability issues. We generate a series of analytical models to predict run time, schedule adherence and reliability of the transit route at two scales: the time point segment and the route level. The methodology includes multiple approaches to display ITS data within a GIS environment to allow visual identification of problem areas along routes. The methodology also uses statistical models generated at the time point segment and bus route level of analysis to demonstrate ways of identifying reliability issues and what causes them. The analytical models show that while headways are being maintained, schedule revisions are needed to in order to improve run time. Finally, the analysis suggests that many scheduled stops along this route are underutilized and recommends consolidation them.

Cyclists confronted by disruptions to facilities (e.g., dedicated paths, designated lanes) experience disturbances that prompt them to select sub-optimal facilities to avoid disruptions. Cyclists who have ready access to such improved facilities often choose sub-optimal facilities. This project collected a variety of data to help gain a better understanding of commuter cyclist behavior using Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment to record cyclist movements and behaviors. Using GPS units for data collection provides significant data for analysis, however, a substantial and unexpected amount of effort went into determining the best operational use of the GPS units and verifying data collection protocols. Among important findings, results show that as perceived safety decreases, riders appear to be more cautious and move more slowly; however in situations of substantial perceived danger, riders go faster to spend as short a time in unsafe conditions. Cyclists choose these dangerous situations over alternatives because of lessened travel times. The research has been successful in establishing insightful relationships between commuter cyclist behavior and facilities. The methodological results are significant for future work.

Mn/DOT and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety are currently leading an initiative known as “Toward Zero Deaths” to reduce the number of traffic fatalities in the state. The U.S. Department of Transportation has established a goal of doubling bicycle and pedestrian use while simultaneously reducing by 10 percent the number of bicyclists and pedestrians killed or injured in traffic crashes.