Over the past decade, the popularity of regional bus services has grown in large North American cities owing to more people living in suburban areas and commuting to the Central Business District to work every day. Estimating journey time for regional buses is challenging because of the low frequencies and long commuting distances that typically characterize such services. This research project developed a mathematical model to estimate regional bus travel time using artificial neural networks (ANN). ANN outperformed other forecasting methods, namely historical average and linear regression, by an average of 35 and 26 seconds respectively. The ANN results showed, however, overestimation by 40% to 60%, which can lead to travellers missing the bus. An operational strategy is integrated into the model to minimize stakeholders’ costs when the model’s forecast time is later than the scheduled bus departure time. This operational strategy should be varied as the commuting distance decreases.

This thesis jointly models the 24 hour work trip timing and mode choice decisions of commuters in the Greater Toronto Area. A discrete-continuous specification, with a multinomial logit model for mode choice and an accelerated time hazard model for trip timing, is used to allow for unrestricted correlation between these two fundamental decisions. Statistically significant correlations are found between mode choice and trip timing for work journeys with expected differences between modes. Furthermore, the joint models have a wide range of policy sensitive statistically significant parameters of intuitive sign and magnitude, revealing expected differences between workers of different occupation groups. Furthermore, the estimated models have a high degree of fit to observed cumulative departure and arrival time distribution functions and to observed mode choices. Finally, sensitivity tests have demonstrated that the model is capable of capturing peak spreading in response to increasing auto congestion.

This thesis jointly models the 24 hour work trip timing and mode choice decisions of commuters in the Greater Toronto Area. A discrete-continuous specification, with a multinomial logit model for mode choice and an accelerated time hazard model for trip timing, is used to allow for unrestricted correlation between these two fundamental decisions. Statistically significant correlations are found between mode choice and trip timing for work journeys with expected differences between modes. Furthermore, the joint models have a wide range of policy sensitive statistically significant parameters of intuitive sign and magnitude, revealing expected differences between workers of different occupation groups. Furthermore, the estimated models have a high degree of fit to observed cumulative departure and arrival time distribution functions and to observed mode choices. Finally, sensitivity tests have demonstrated that the model is capable of capturing peak spreading in response to increasing auto congestion.

Cette recherche a été financée par le Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture du Québec et le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines. L’auteur a de plus reçu le support financier du programme de remboursement des frais de scolarité des forces armées canadiennes. Les cartes ont été produites grâce au logiciel ArcGIS (ESRI). / Ce mémoire fait l’état des lieux des projets de transport du Plan Nord du gouvernement du Québec. Son but est de déterminer si les infrastructures de transport prévues s’inscrivent en continuité avec le développement territorial du Québec sur le plan du design, du positionnement et de la planification. L’étude s’articule autour de quatre étapes. Tout d'abord une revue de littérature du Plan Nord, du développement du Nord québécois et méthodologique est réalisée. Ensuite, une analyse de design des infrastructures de transport est produite par le biais des schémas d'aménagement et documents de planification. Troisièmement, des entrevues réalisées avec les principaux acteurs concernés permettent de déterminer la composante du positionnement. Finalement, les projets du Plan Nord sont vérifiés par une méthode de planification stratégique hybride SWOT-PESTEL. L’étude démontre que bien que certains projets soient en adéquation sur les trois plans étudiés, d’autres s’inscrivent mal dans la démarche de planification stratégique. / This thesis contains a situation report about the transportation projects proposed within the Quebec Government’s Plan Nord. The objective is to verify if the planned transport infrastructures are coherent with the historical territorial development of Quebec, specifically design, positioning and planning. Firstly, we conduct a literature review on the Plan Nord, Quebec’s northern development, and methodological practices. Secondly, an analysis of the design behind the infrastructure projects is done with the various development plans produced by Quebec’s counties and regions. Thirdly, we verify the positioning of the projects relative to the answers given by multiple stakeholders during interviews. Lastly, the transport projects of the Plan Nord are analysed through a hybrid SWOT-PESTEL strategic planning method. The results unveil that while some transport projects fit with the patterns obtained, others doesn’t fit and should not be put forward.

Les transports artisanaux servent souvent à combler un vide laissé par les transports publics (organisés par l’État) dans les pays du Sud global. En prenant le cas de Hanoi (Vietnam), ce mémoire aborde le rôle de la mototaxi dans les habitudes de mobilité, ainsi que son potentiel à agir comme complément modal au transport public actuel et à venir. Cette recherche met en exergue la relation entre transport public et mototaxi, basée sur des observations directes, des entretiens et une enquête auprès d’usagers du transport public. On y découvre que les usagers du transport public ne les intègrent que sporadiquement à leurs pratiques intermodales et multimodales, en raison de prix trop élevés et de manquement à la sécurité. Parallèlement, des compagnies de mototaxi, récemment fondées et qui promettent des services plus sécuritaires et une tarification claire (grâce à l’utilisation de compteurs), prospèrent à Hanoi, alors que les mototaxis indépendantes voient leur clientèle diminuer. Ces compagnies doivent leur succès à leur capacité à offrir des services bien adaptés aux conditions locales (rues étroites, circulation dense, etc.) et aux besoins des hanoiens (en terme de sécurité, notamment) et ouvrent de nouvelles opportunités dans les pratiques intermodales et multimodales. / Informal transport often fill a gap left unfilled by formal transport in many cities of the Global South. Using the case of Hanoi (Vietnam), this thesis explores the role played by mototaxis in the urban mobility behaviors as well as its potential to complement formal public transit. This research sheds light on the relationship between public transit (formal) and mototaxi (informal), based on direct observations, interviews and a transit user survey. We find that public transit users only sporadically integrate them in intermodal and multimodal journeys. This is due to negative perceptions regarding safety and cost of mototaxi services and feelings of being swindled on the price. We further find that as freelance mototaxi drivers are seeing their market decrease, newly established mototaxi companies (promising safer services and using meters) thrive in Hanoi. These companies’ success (with both transit and non-transit users) is due to their ability to offer a service well adapted to local conditions (narrow streets, traffic jams, etc.) and to users’ needs with regard to mobility and safety. This innovation in informal transport calls for greater attention from planners and policy makers as is opens new opportunities to encourage intermodal and multimodal behaviours.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Huston John Gibson / Informed and robust stakeholder participation in the transit-planning process gives residents and communities a remarkable opportunity to take ownership of the shaping of their city’s future form and function, and allows planners to design transit networks that serve the full range of citizen needs. Therefore, the degree to which citizens are permitted to participate in the formation of a city’s transit plan has a significant influence on both its final design and its subsequent adoption by civic and political leaders. Concurrent with the influence of citizen input is the role of political strategy, since many urban transit plans must meet voter approval and a poorly-run political campaign can sink even the most substantial of transit plans. In seeking to analyze both the role of public participation and the role of campaign strategy, this study employs descriptive historical research and stakeholder surveys to assess the impact and perceived importance of inclusive design practices, as well as the political impact of a transit campaign’s general strategy, on the voter approval of transit-related ballot initiatives in Kansas City, Missouri. There are two central implications of this project. One is that the failure of transportation planners and civic activists in Kansas City to accommodate the wishes and input of diverse groups of residents and community leaders in the planning process has led to repeated defeats whenever said plans are presented to Kansas City voters for approval. The other is that urban politics and campaign strategies play a larger role in selling transit proposals than many leading figures in Kansas City have realized, and that the city’s unique political and geographic structure requires a more nuanced and technologically-diverse approach to voter persuasion than has been applied thus far. It can be theorized that reversing both of these trends will increase the likelihood of future voter approval of transportation initiatives. In addition to a political and historical analysis of transit in Kansas City, this study seeks to examine whether deliberate public participation in the transportation planning process has a direct impact on citizen support for transportation-related ballot initiatives in Kansas City.

Ce travail débute par le constat d’apparition récente de la question des ‘transports’ en urbanisme et son remplacement rapide par celle de la ‘mobilité’. Observation étonnante étant donné les liens évidents entre la ville et les ‘transports’ ou la ‘mobilité’ : infrastructures, réseaux, espaces de circulation, déplacements des personnes et des biens, etc. Constat également étonnant à la lecture des auteurs fondateurs de la discipline, dont les écrits démontrent qu’ils abordent tous ces questions. Où était donc passé le transport pendant le XXᵉ siècle pour les urbanistes ? Première piste d’explication, plusieurs auteurs traitent des années 1920-1930 comme d’un moment charnière dans la constitution d’une pensée techniciste, notamment face à la menace automobile. Cette période se soldera par la naissance de l’ingénierie du trafic, à qui est confiée la mission d’adapter la ville à des impératifs de circulation. Cette injonction est sous-tendue par des arguments exprimés dans les termes validés par l’époque et à ce titre, impossible à remettre en cause sans proposition théorique qui correspond aux impératifs épistémologiques. L’urbanisme n’en a-t-il donc pas ? Que dit et comment se positionne l’urbanisme naissant sur ces enjeux, en tant que discipline qui revendique le statut de science dès la deuxième moitié du XIXᵉ siècle ? C’est par l’entrée du ‘mouvement’ — en tant qu’ensemble composé de techniques, de pratiques et de représentations — que ce travail aborde la question, étant donnée la charge culturelle et axiologique associée à la technique, mais aussi celle des concepts de ‘transport’ ou de ‘mobilité’. Et c’est aux discours textuels que ce travail s’intéresse, comme contenant d’expression de la norme et du sens, pour pénétrer l’univers épistémologique du rapport que la discipline entretient avec le mouvement. L’hypothèse de ce travail a d’abord été celle de la place théorique centrale de la question du mouvement dans les propositions de l’urbanisme naissant, qui cherche les objets et les outils qui le forgeront comme science. Ensuite, on soupçonne que les propositions théoriques des urbanistes, ancrées dans un univers de sens constitué sur le temps long, font preuve de trop de prudence et de nuance pour un contexte emprunt de positivisme et de solutions La proposition théorique est testée par l’analyse du discours de dix-sept ‘textes normatifs en urbanisme’ datant de 1849 à 1916 et une étude historiographique parallèle dont on a déduit cinq grands moments de placement du sens situés entre le XVIIᵉ siècle et les années 1930. Il ressort de l’analyse que le mouvement occupe une place centrale dans le discours de l’urbanisme naissant entre les années 1849 et 1916 : les références au mouvement sont omniprésentes dans les textes, elles constituent l’occasion de discussions autant sur les méthodes autant que sur les objets de la science naissante. Des traces des moments de placement du sens sont de plus observables dans les textes à travers les représentations. Ils apparaissent à ce titre comme des témoins de ces sens du mouvement qui fondent beaucoup d’évidences et de normes et qui ne lui permettent pas, dans une certaine mesure, d’exprimer de solution claire et épistémologiquement valables face aux problèmes urbains du début du XXᵉ siècle. / This research started as the result of an observation: a recent appearance of the question of 'transportation' in the context of urban education and its rapid replacement by that of 'mobility'. This is a surprising observation, especially given the obvious links between the city and ‘transportation’ or ‘mobility’ issues: infrastructures, networks, circulation spaces, transport of people and goods, etc. Surprising to a greater degree when reading the founding authors of the discipline; their writings show that they all address these matters. Therefore, I wonder: where did ‘transportation’ go during the 20th century? A preliminary assumption is that the period of 1920 was a pivotal moment in the creation of a technicist thought, especially in the face of the automotive threat. This period will lead to the birth of traffic engineering which is given the task to adapt the city to circulation necessities following theoretical propositions that conform with the epistemological imperatives. Does Urban Planning not have any? As a discipline that longs for a science status since the second half of the 19th century, what does the emerging Urban Planning realm say about ‘transportation’ and where does it stand in this regard? This research tackles the previous question through the concept of ‘movement’, which is understood as technics, practices and representations to avoid the cultural and axiological baggage associated not only with ‘technic’, but also with the concepts of ‘transportation’ or ‘mobility’. Therefore, this work focuses on the textual discourses as being the place where norm and meaning are expressed, the point being to enter the epistemological realm that establishes the relationship between Urban Planning and ‘movement’. The purpose of this research was first, to theoretically position the question of ‘movement’ in the emerging Urban Planning discipline. Second, I suspected that the theoretical propositions of the first ‘urban planners’ where embedded in deep epistemological references about movement. Discourse analysis was used on seventeen ‘normative texts in Urban Planning’ written between 1849 and 1916. In addition, a historiographic study was conducted, through which five moments are revealed. These moments are associated with different meanings of movement between the 17th century and the 1930s. The result of this analysis leads to the fact that ‘movement’ clearly occupies a central place in the Urban Planning discourse between 1849 and 1916 : it prompts discussions about methods as well as the essence of this emergent science. The selected texts also appear like witnesses of the changing meaning of ‘movement’ through traces of former identified moments. To some extent, the analysis also concludes that Urban Planning does not convey a clear and epistemologically valid solution to the 20th century’s urban problems : early urban planners have proved to be very prudent and full of nuances in a positivist and technicist context. This constitutes a clue as to why the planning propositions could not compete with the traffic engineering solutions.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Richard L. Hoag / Abstract On October 6, 2006 President Bush signed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act (PETS Act, Pub. Law No. 109-308). The Act ensures that state and local emergency preparedness operational plans address the needs of individuals with household pets and service animals following a major disaster or emergency (The Library of Congress, 109:H.R. 3858, 2006). This thesis identifies nineteen indicators to be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the PETS program in the areas of economics and public health. This report gives specific examples of how each indicator can be used to measure, assess, guide, and monitor the outcomes of evacuating pets in state or local emergency preparedness operational plans.

But La diminution du transport actif scolaire est une problématique préoccupante dont les déterminants sont encore mal connus. Nous nous sommes donc penchée sur la question suivante : Quelle est la contribution de l’environnement bâti pour le choix d’un mode de transport actif pour les déplacements scolaires des enfants demeurant à proximité de leur école ? Méthodologie Pour répondre à cette question, nous nous sommes basée sur le cadre conceptuel de Tracy McMillan. Nous avons caractérisé le voisinage de trois écoles en milieu urbain et de trois écoles en milieu suburbain de la région de Montréal. Également, nous avons analysé les données du Groupe de recherche Ville et mobilité concernant les comportements des enfants ainsi que les comportements et perceptions des parents. Résultats Quatre des cas à l’étude se démarquent en raison de leur forte proportion de transport actif scolaire, soit les trois milieux urbains et un milieu suburbain. Les points communs de ces quatre cas sont la perméabilité du réseau viaire pour les piétons et les cyclistes et la perception favorable des parents vis-à-vis le transport actif scolaire. Conclusion Les environnements suburbains génèrent des comportements de transport actif uniquement chez les enfants alors que les environnements urbains génèrent systématiquement des comportements de transport actif chez les adultes et les enfants. Ce faisant, nous pouvons penser que les caractéristiques de l’environnement bâti des milieux urbains influencent les perceptions et les comportements des parents en faveur du transport actif scolaire. / Purpose The proportion of children actively commuting to school has decreased significantly but few studies have investigated factors that might affect school mobility. This research examines the influence of a wide range of factors (such as urban form characteristics, parent’s travel behaviours and parental perceptions) on school travel behaviour for children who live near school. Methods The Tracy McMillan’s conceptual framework of an elementary-aged child’s trip to school was used. We objectively measured environmental attributes of three urban neighbourhoods and three suburban neighbourhoods in Montreal metropolitan area. Data of the Groupe de recherche Ville et mobilité regarding children trips to school, parental perceptions and parents’ travel behaviours were analysed. Results A high proportion of children are actively commuting to school in the three urban neighbourhoods and in one suburban neighbourhood. Connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists and positive parental perception of school active transportation are positively associated with high proportion of walking and biking to school in these four neighbourhoods. Conclusion Suburban neighbourhoods support active transportation only for children whereas urban neighbourhoods support active transportation for children and parents. Attributes of built environment in urban neighbourhoods seem to have a positive effect on parental perceptions and behaviours regarding walking and biking for school trips.

But La diminution du transport actif scolaire est une problématique préoccupante dont les déterminants sont encore mal connus. Nous nous sommes donc penchée sur la question suivante : Quelle est la contribution de l’environnement bâti pour le choix d’un mode de transport actif pour les déplacements scolaires des enfants demeurant à proximité de leur école ? Méthodologie Pour répondre à cette question, nous nous sommes basée sur le cadre conceptuel de Tracy McMillan. Nous avons caractérisé le voisinage de trois écoles en milieu urbain et de trois écoles en milieu suburbain de la région de Montréal. Également, nous avons analysé les données du Groupe de recherche Ville et mobilité concernant les comportements des enfants ainsi que les comportements et perceptions des parents. Résultats Quatre des cas à l’étude se démarquent en raison de leur forte proportion de transport actif scolaire, soit les trois milieux urbains et un milieu suburbain. Les points communs de ces quatre cas sont la perméabilité du réseau viaire pour les piétons et les cyclistes et la perception favorable des parents vis-à-vis le transport actif scolaire. Conclusion Les environnements suburbains génèrent des comportements de transport actif uniquement chez les enfants alors que les environnements urbains génèrent systématiquement des comportements de transport actif chez les adultes et les enfants. Ce faisant, nous pouvons penser que les caractéristiques de l’environnement bâti des milieux urbains influencent les perceptions et les comportements des parents en faveur du transport actif scolaire. / Purpose The proportion of children actively commuting to school has decreased significantly but few studies have investigated factors that might affect school mobility. This research examines the influence of a wide range of factors (such as urban form characteristics, parent’s travel behaviours and parental perceptions) on school travel behaviour for children who live near school. Methods The Tracy McMillan’s conceptual framework of an elementary-aged child’s trip to school was used. We objectively measured environmental attributes of three urban neighbourhoods and three suburban neighbourhoods in Montreal metropolitan area. Data of the Groupe de recherche Ville et mobilité regarding children trips to school, parental perceptions and parents’ travel behaviours were analysed. Results A high proportion of children are actively commuting to school in the three urban neighbourhoods and in one suburban neighbourhood. Connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists and positive parental perception of school active transportation are positively associated with high proportion of walking and biking to school in these four neighbourhoods. Conclusion Suburban neighbourhoods support active transportation only for children whereas urban neighbourhoods support active transportation for children and parents. Attributes of built environment in urban neighbourhoods seem to have a positive effect on parental perceptions and behaviours regarding walking and biking for school trips.