This Major Degree Project explores the concept of “complete streets” and the framing of an appropriate “complete streets” checklist for historic districts and character neighbourhoods in downtown contexts, attempting to learn especially from the case of Winnipeg’s Warehouse District Neighbourhood. A “complete streets” checklist is considered to include a combination of infrastructure and urban design considerations, such as sidewalks, bike lanes, intersections, transit stops, curb extensions, travel lane widths, and parking needs. It proceeds from the premise that if an individual street or system of streets is ‘complete’, individuals will be more likely to reduce the time spent using automobiles, and increase the time expended on walking, biking, or using other transit alternatives, while making travel on the streets safer and more enjoyable for all users. The MDP examines the current street-related infrastructure and uses within the Warehouse District Neighbourhood of Downtown Winnipeg and discusses the relevance of current or recent City of Winnipeg plans and proposals. Taking the form of a practicum, the research sought to inform and engage local planners, engineers and public officials regarding a “complete streets” approach to their work – primarily in terms of the recommended framing of a complete streets checklist as well as recommendations for future area improvements in the Warehouse District Neighbourhood, demonstrating the usefulness of the checklist.

Given the regional nature of freight movement, the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) is one of the most appropriate agencies to deal directly with this challenge. However, most metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) have little experience planning for freight. There is a need for a planning framework that MPOs can use to incorporate freight considerations into the planning process. The purpose of this research is to analyze the freight planning efforts of a number of MPOs and provide a conceptual framework for integrating freight into transportation planning. The methodology used to conduct this research was the case study approach. Information regarding the freight planning activities of several large MPOs were obtained both through collection of available on-line documents and, when appropriate, through direct contact with MPO representatives. Subsequently, this was reviewed and summarized into case studies that noted the nature of the freight planning activities, the process by which MPOs conducted studies, and the components of those studies. Finally, a conceptual framework for incorporating freight into transportation planning was developed based on the data collected and the case studies. As a result of these studies, it was concluded that MPOs are beginning to address freight movement concerns, but there are still deficiencies in their planning processes that the conceptual framework could highlight. These deficiencies are primarily in the areas of performance measure development, the implementation of freight programs, and the appearance of only nominal freight planning efforts. In addition to these deficiencies, there are certain obstacles that must be addressed and overcome. These include a lack of data, the level of sophistication found in freight modeling, the participation of freight stakeholders in the planning process, and the lack of freight-specific dollars for transportation investment.

Due to a lack of adequate funding for transportation projects, decision-makers are facing the challenge of selecting which projects are pursued and which have to be deferred. Project prioritization is widely used as a tool to evaluate and rank projects, but methods differ greatly across the nation. This thesis documents the methods used by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in the seventy-five largest metropolitan areas in the United States. The research was internet-based and focused on the material discussed in the long-range plan. This research is valuable in the development of the practice of project prioritization through the identification of common approaches and deficiencies. By understanding prioritization experiences, failures, and accomplishments, MPOs can adopt those approaches that best provide the information needed and desired by decision makers to establish project priorities.

Distance based vehicle insurance (sometimes know as “Pay as you drive,” “Pay by the mile” or “Pay per-km” insurance) has long been advocated by transportation planners as a transportation demand management (TDM) strategy. In addition to reducing congestion and greenhouse gas emissions, it also has the potential to meet a number of planning goals, such as health and equity improvements. Despite the wide interest in and predicted benefits of distance based insurance, there is little consensus on the detailed design of a system that could be implemented. Five main distance based pricing schemes have been proposed: a flat per-km rate, temporal or “time of day” pricing, road-type pricing, demographic pricing and “differential” pricing, which prices low mileages at a higher per-km rate. Each of these systems treats risk differently and thus results in different cross-subsidies between drivers. The proposal’s design thus has implications for an insurance system’s fairness and equity. This report examines the distribution of crash risk across time, across space, and across the different demographic groups. It then compares the current annual insurance system’s treatment of risk with that of various proposals for distance based insurance. It evaluates each proposal, considering its treatment of risk and its potential for increasing fairness and equity of costs and of mobility. It also examines each proposal’s other impacts, such as effectiveness in maintaining privacy and in reducing health impacts, greenhouse gas emissions and congestion. The recommended model is a flat per-km rate. Each driver would pay the same rate for every kilometer driven, regardless of time or place. However, individual drivers’ per-km rates would vary, depending on current insurance rating factors, such as residential location, type of car and driving record.

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Meyer, Michael; Committee Member: Garrow, Laurie; Committee Member: Guensler, Randall

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1991.

Thesis (M. Sc. (Urb. Plan.))--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1990.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Also available in print.

abstract: The growing use of synthetic population, which is a disaggregate representation of the population of an area similar to the real population currently or in the future, has motivated the analysis of its sensitivity in the population generation procedure. New methods in PopGen have enhanced the generation of synthetic populations whereby both household-level and person-level characteristics of interest can be matched in a computationally efficient manner. In the process of set up, population synthesis procedures need sample records for households and persons to match the marginal totals with a specific set of control variables for both the household and person levels, or only the household level, for a specific geographic resolution. In this study, an approach has been taken to analyze the sensitivity by changing and varying this number of controls, with and without taking person controls. The implementation of alternative constraints has been applied on a sample of three hundred block groups in Maricopa County, Arizona. The two datasets that have been used in this study are Census 2000 and a combination of Census 2000 and ACS 2005-2009 dataset. The variation in results for two different rounding methods: arithmetic and bucket rounding have been examined. Finally, the combined sample prepared from the available Census 2000 and ACS 2005-2009 dataset was used to investigate how the results differ when flexibility for drawing households is greater. Study shows that fewer constraints both in household and person levels match the aggregate total population more accurately but could not match distributions of individual attributes. A greater number of attributes both in household and person levels need to be controlled. Where number of controls is higher, using bucket rounding improves the accuracy of the results in both aggregate and disaggregates level. Using combined sample gives the software more flexibility as well as a rich seed matrix to draw households which generates more accurate synthetic population. Therefore, combined sample is another potential option to improve the accuracy in matching both aggregate and disaggregate level household and person distributions. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2012