Construction and operation of cross-boundary transportation infrastructure is a challenge at the local, state, and international levels. Trends in travel patterns show increases in travel demand in both the United States and Europe resulting in greater attention to cross-boundary infrastructure and services. In the United States, this challenge has arisen most frequently in provision regional transit services and infrastructure while Europe is faced with a challenge of connecting its member-states. One question that remains unknown is whether when governments are faced with providing cross-boundary infrastructure or services, do they develop similar organizational arrangements when meeting these challenges regardless of what level of government is involved? This research asks whether governments at all levels of governance develop similar organizational solutions in the construction and operation of transport infrastructure. This question is answered through an examination of regional transit provision in seven U.S. metropolitan areas, six commuter rail systems in the United States, a series of bi-state river highway bridges in the United States, and five cross-border segments of the Trans-European Transport Network in the European Union, three similar organizational arrangements types were found to govern cross-boundary provision of transportation infrastructure and/or services. These three types, an independent entity, an intergovernmental agreement or contract, or direct financial payment, were found at all levels of governance. The research suggests that there is a relationship between the complexity of the service involved the level of financial control indicating that more complex operations such as network of services requiring day-to-day operation tend to be arranged as independent entities with various levels of public and/or private financing.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a relatively new mode with a wide range of applications that are still not well understood. Its explosive growth in developing and developed countries has increased its exposure but has led to mostly experimental implementation with mixed results. Therefore, better understanding about the reasons behind BRT implementation success and shortcomings is needed. The objective of this thesis is to evaluate the state of BRT planning under different contexts by assessing how background theory and practical implementation of BRT systems compare. The scope is limited to current a detailed evaluation of 13 case studies in the United States, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador chosen to represent some of the most succesful and established systems in the world. Data was obtaiend from previous research as well as direct reporting from agencies. The evaluation is performed through qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods classify BRT systems by characteristics and assess the relationship between their implementation and performance using the criteria defined in the literature. Quantitative methods build upon the previous analysis to more precisely assess their performance from both the users' and the transit providers' perspectives. This research found that BRT as a public transit mode has a large room of improvement in terms of design and implementation, since there is a significant variability in performance under similar conditions and a considerable gap between planning best practices and implementation. Also, that planning guidelines are still in an early stage of development and difer in scope and application to a particular context. It also found that its success is not conscribed to developing countries, but that its wide range of applications need to be better adapted to the context they should serve. The findings are significant because they dispel myths about the real potential of BRT and partially identify the reasons behind successes and failures of current systems, such as understimation of implementation times and lack of knowledge about component integration. Further research should approach these issues mainly in two complementary directions. First, it should focus on expanding the case study approach to the newer systems in operation once better data is available. Second,it should further advance the development of theoretical framwork for better operational design based on urban form, as well as an evaluation framework that puts more emphasis on user experience and sustainability. Finally, the findings reinforce that BRT is a distinct mode so that systems that do not meet its criteria should not be named as such.

Transportation funding is critical to maintaining the assets that provide mobility for the movement of Georgia's people and goods. Currently, most of Georgia's transportation revenue is provided by the motor fuel tax. Inflation and recent increases in fuel economy have decreased fuel tax revenue in Georgia and weakened the Georgia Department of Transportation's (GDOT)'s ability to maintain and expand its transportation network. This thesis synthesizes factors from literature that affect motor fuel tax revenue. These include demographic, economic, technological, and environmental forces that influence travel behavior and vehicle fuel economy. A model was then created that incorporated these factors to model GDOT's 2009 fuel tax revenue and then project revenue in 2020 and 2030. The model uses an input/output structure that segments the fleet into personal, freight, and transit categories. User inputs, historical data, and projections are linked via relationships and feedback loops to project travel and fuel tax revenue forward. Because a near-infinite number of scenarios exist, conservative and aggressive scenarios were created for 2020 and 2030 scenarios that output revenue on an absolute, per-mile, and per-capita basis for comparison with more recent revenues. The model outputs predict marginal declines in revenue by 2020 and significant declines by 2030. In response to these declines, the thesis evaluates methods of increasing transportation revenue. These methods include increasing the fuel tax, incorporating a VMT-fee, and widespread tolling measures. After evaluation, a policy recommendation is provided for how to best implement revenue strategies.

The Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS) set the standard for urban transportation planning during its original 1955-61 genesis years. This study examined CATS' planning methodology during these years and its 1962 regional transportation plan for the Chicago metropolis which had a planning target year of 1980. The subject focus of this study was on expressway planning while the temporal focus was from the late 1950's to circa 1980. The findings of this study revealed four key reasons why CATS' 1962 expressway plan was largely never implemented. These reasons include the inconsistency of some of CATS' 1962 projections for 1980 versus actual 1980 data, the apolitical orientation of CATS, increased urban environmentalism, and rising expressway infrastructure costs. Yet despite the lack of plan implementation, the literature supports the conclusion that CATS did set the standard, at least in its methodology or planning approach. / Department of Urban Planning

This dissertation examines unequal outcomes of urban transportation policies in the neoliberal era. It focuses on inequalities in the Portland, Oregon metro area between 1994 and 2011 as measured in three key areas: 1) access to public transit; 2) the journey-to-work; and 3) "household-serving" trips. Growing concern over the harmful impacts from an increasing dependence on cars has led planners in the U.S. to encourage a modal shift from private car to public transit, bicycling, and walking. The required policies to make this modal shift possible, however, might inadvertently be benefiting "choice" riders at the cost of transport disadvantaged groups. Other contributing factors to this unequal benefit appear to be the suburbanization of poverty, an ongoing gentrification of central areas, and market forces that make it difficult for low income groups to afford housing in transit-rich neighborhoods. The Oregon Household Activity and Travel surveys are used to answer the three major research questions in this dissertation: what has been the effect of neoliberalism on access to public transit?, how do gender, race/ethnicity, and income inequality affect the journey-to-work in Portland?, and how do household-serving trips vary by gender in Portland? Six hypothesis are tested in answering these questions. Those related to access to transit draw on Fred Block's theory of the capitalist state and the "urban growth machine" concept, both of which predict spatially unequal outcomes from neoliberal ideology. Hypotheses about the journey to work draw on a rich body of literature around social relations in the household and the job market, as well as residential location. The final question, about household-serving trips, draws on theories of gender socialization. Findings showed that: (i) individuals in the Portland metro area had less access overall to bus public transit in 2011 than in 1994; (ii) impoverished dependent riders have lost access to transit service over time, whereas choice dependent riders increased their access to public transit; (iii) low income groups have been "forced" into greater car-ownership, in part due to the lower access to public transit; (iv) women in Portland have shorter journey-to-work trips than men; (v) Blacks have longer journey-to-work trips than Whites and Latinos; (vi) low-income individuals have shorter journey-to-work trips than higher income individuals; and (vii) women with children make more household-serving trips than men in similar family structures.

This professional report examines the degree to which the perception of safety shapes travel behavior in Austin, Texas, using Huston Tillotson University (HT) students as our case study. Focus groups are used to explore and identify what elements of the public transit experience are considered safe and unsafe. The report explores what “frightens” HT participants away from using the bus. A quantitative study is then used to measure environmental variables and their relation to bus stops and perceptions of safety. Austin crime data are used to locate bus stop crimes and develop a real context for bus riders’ perceptions of crime. After describing the conditions of bus stops based on physical, environmental, and criminal attributes, the study develops scenarios for the study areas. This report closes by summarizing the empirical findings and gives design and policy recommendations for transportation planners, agencies, and policy makers. / text

Over the last 100 years technological improvements in urban travel in terms of reliability and speed, has meant increased mobility for residents. This was accelerated with the advent of the automobile. It allowed many to move to the suburbs that were typified by less expensive lower density housing, and commute longer distances to their place of work. Today, in urban areas, cars are the main means of urban transport. The problem arises in major urban areas across North American when everyone tries to travel at the same time (usually during to trip to and from work). Urban areas are faced with problems of congestion (during rush hour) along with the lack of attractive transit alternatives. One aspect of this problem is examined in terms commuting habits. The purpose of this exercise is to examine the commuting habits of Justice Institute employees whose place of work moves from the West Side of Vancouver to New Westminister. In the postmove period employees made a number of decisions regarding their modal-type and residential location. These decisions may have a significant impact on their activities and travel patterns in the city. The goal is to collect data that would indicate the place of residence of employees before and after the Justice Institute move. It should also include employee modal-type in the pre and postmove periods of the move. Such information is important in the understanding the changes' employees make regarding their residential location and modal-type and the reasons for these changes. As well, employee characteristics such as income can influence these decisions. Such decisions are based on employee's preferences, likes and dislikes regarding their neighbourhood and modal-type. Within this framework, it is the goal of this analysis to understand how employees make trade-offs between where they live and the time they spend commuting to and from work. The correlation parameter may describe the tendency for some commuters to locate themselves close to their employment. The analysis of the survey results will help planners understand more about the urban transport problem. Within this framework, planners can learn why people choose to travel by car instead of transit. This may be related to choice of neighbourhood. It may be that employees choose neighbourhoods that they like to live in regardless of their place of work. Thus, to understand more about the transport problem planners need to know what kinds of neighbourhoods attract people. If the quality of neighbourhoods is an important factor regarding employees' choice of residential location, any transport plan must include land-use initiatives that attempt to create neighbourhoods that attract people. The idea is to bridge the two; otherwise conflicting land-use policies could easily undermine any transport plan. Within this framework, policy must be geared to bring home and places of work closer together. This means creating vibrant neighbourhoods that contain a variety of land-use that could create more employment opportunities closer to home. Neighbourhoods should not only create just residential uses alone. That would mean people would have less distance to travel. This would also mean creating pedestrian and transit friendly neighbourhoods. Less emphasis would be given to the car and more to alternative methods of transport. Such policies can go along way in reducing the dependence on the car.

Indian cities are currently facing various transportation issues like congestion, pollution, urban inequity, high fatality rate due to accidents etc. because of an increase in the ownership of private motor vehicles and their usage. This has prompted many policy makers to search for alternate modal options that are more sustainable than motorized modes. Non Motorized Transport (NMT), which includes mainly walking and cycling in an urban context, do not produce many of the issues associated with motorized modes like congestion, pollution, fatal accidents etc. But, promotion of NMT requires a clear-cut planning strategy, with a lucid understanding of various strategies and their effect on the NMT usage. Present study tries to answer certain pertinent questions, particularly with respect to walking and cycling, which can arise while preparing a plan for promoting NMT in Indian cities. The following are the questions that the author seeks to answer in the present study. 1) Which are the areas inside a city that a planner shall target for promotion of NMT?2) Where shall a planner locate the infrastructures for NMT in these areas?3) What may be the possible impacts of providing these NMT facilities?4) What may be the possible effect of built environment factors on the choice of NMT? Providing NMT infrastructures requires knowledge of location characteristics such as the trip distance of NMT. Present study tries to elicit the existing distance characteristics of walking and cycling in terms of an acceptable trip distance. The household travel data of Bangalore city, for the year 2009, are used in the study. First, a description and a statistical analysis of the walking and cycling trip distances across the subcategories of socio-demographic and regional factors is done. Secondly, the acceptable distance is computed from the cumulative trip length distribution based on the results of the statistical analysis. The socio-demographic and regional factors used in the study include purpose, age, gender, educational level, occupational status, and motor vehicle ownership. The major results include a significant difference between the mean trip distances on foot for the subcategories of variables such as gender (z value, 4.94), whether the respondent owned a private vehicle (z value, -21.2), and whether the trip was made inside the Central Business District (CBD) (z value, -3.93). One of the major implications of this study pertains to requirement of a footpath around main activity centers like bus stations, at least up to a distance of 1385 meters (maximum value for walking as the main mode) and around the bus stops, at least up to a distance of 750 meters (maximum value for walking as the access mode). Next, the present study analyzes the influence of built environment factors –density and diversity -on the mode choice and trip distance of the residents in the Bangalore city. The built environment factors are analyzed, for their marginal effects in the presence of various socio-demographic and alternative attributes, for the two segments -respondents owning at least a personal vehicle and respondents not owning any personal vehicle. The density used is the total density, which was the sum of population density in a zone and employment density in a zone. The diversity index, which was an explainer of the land-use mixture, was set such that, when a zone with small area had employment opportunities comparable with its population, the diversity index would be high. When tested on a holdout sample other than the ones used in the estimation of the mode choice model, for the vehicle-owning group, the model estimated produced a validation accuracy of 93% and 91% respectively for two-wheelers and walking. For the vehicle non-owning group, the prediction success rate was highest for walking (97%), and lowest for public transit (84%). For the vehicle non-owning group, an increase in the density increased the trip distance (parameter values of 0.016 for total density at origin and 0.002 for total density at destination) and decreased the NMT usage (parameter values of -0.036 and 0.038 respectively for cycling and walking for total density at origin, and -0.092 and 0.073 respectively for cycling and walking for total density at destination), but for the vehicle-owning group, the inverse was true. The results for the vehicle non-owning group highlighted the requirement of a policy framework to control the employment and housing location of them in order to reduce their trip distance. In the mode choice model for the personal vehicle-owning group, the similarity between the parameters of the built environment factors across the two-wheeler and NMT reflected the need for adopting policies that would change the attitude of people towards NMT. Also, the trip distance model determined that females preferred a shorter working distance, with a parameter value -0.109 for the vehicle-owning group and -0.04 for the vehicle non-owning group, when compared with males. Lastly, the study develops a methodological framework to determine the sustainability impact on providing NMT infrastructures using a Composite Sustainability Index (CSI). More specifically, the study develops a methodological framework to determine the variation in the CSI on providing NMT -walking and cycling – infrastructure. The methodology establishes a link between the proposed NMT infrastructures and the CSI using two explanatory indicators: 1) number of motorized vehicles and 2) vehicle-kilometers travelled by the motorized modes. The main components of the framework include the estimation of a mode choice model for a study area, calculation of the explanatory indicators for the scenarios before and after providing NMT infrastructures, and determination of the sustainability impact. The proposed framework, along with the acceptable distance determined in the earlier step, is then used to determine the sustainability impact on providing NMT facilities, for a future scenario, inside the CBD of Bangalore and around the bus stops carrying trips to the CBD. Three case studies are presented with the first one considering only intra zonal (CBD) trips, the second one considering only inter zonal trips having CBD as destination, and the third one considering both above mentioned the trips. The results of all the three case studies found an increase in the CSI (0.002 for the first case study, 0.076 for the second case study, and 0.100 for the third case study) for the peak-hour trips inside the CBD, on providing NMT infrastructures. This increase showed an improvement in the sustainability. Further, for the case study 1, which consisted of high percentage of short distance trips, the major beneficiaries of the NMT infrastructures were the low-income group. There was a reduction in public transport trips, of which the main contributors were the low-income group, from 142706.2 to 96410.2.

Over the last 100 years technological improvements in urban travel in terms of reliability and speed, has meant increased mobility for residents. This was accelerated with the advent of the automobile. It allowed many to move to the suburbs that were typified by less expensive lower density housing, and commute longer distances to their place of work. Today, in urban areas, cars are the main means of urban transport. The problem arises in major urban areas across North American when everyone tries to travel at the same time (usually during to trip to and from work). Urban areas are faced with problems of congestion (during rush hour) along with the lack of attractive transit alternatives. One aspect of this problem is examined in terms commuting habits. The purpose of this exercise is to examine the commuting habits of Justice Institute employees whose place of work moves from the West Side of Vancouver to New Westminister. In the postmove period employees made a number of decisions regarding their modal-type and residential location. These decisions may have a significant impact on their activities and travel patterns in the city. The goal is to collect data that would indicate the place of residence of employees before and after the Justice Institute move. It should also include employee modal-type in the pre and postmove periods of the move. Such information is important in the understanding the changes' employees make regarding their residential location and modal-type and the reasons for these changes. As well, employee characteristics such as income can influence these decisions. Such decisions are based on employee's preferences, likes and dislikes regarding their neighbourhood and modal-type. Within this framework, it is the goal of this analysis to understand how employees make trade-offs between where they live and the time they spend commuting to and from work. The correlation parameter may describe the tendency for some commuters to locate themselves close to their employment. The analysis of the survey results will help planners understand more about the urban transport problem. Within this framework, planners can learn why people choose to travel by car instead of transit. This may be related to choice of neighbourhood. It may be that employees choose neighbourhoods that they like to live in regardless of their place of work. Thus, to understand more about the transport problem planners need to know what kinds of neighbourhoods attract people. If the quality of neighbourhoods is an important factor regarding employees' choice of residential location, any transport plan must include land-use initiatives that attempt to create neighbourhoods that attract people. The idea is to bridge the two; otherwise conflicting land-use policies could easily undermine any transport plan. Within this framework, policy must be geared to bring home and places of work closer together. This means creating vibrant neighbourhoods that contain a variety of land-use that could create more employment opportunities closer to home. Neighbourhoods should not only create just residential uses alone. That would mean people would have less distance to travel. This would also mean creating pedestrian and transit friendly neighbourhoods. Less emphasis would be given to the car and more to alternative methods of transport. Such policies can go along way in reducing the dependence on the car. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The goal of the thesis is to give reader a detailed description of the Czech electronic toll system with emphasis to the potential future system development and infrastructure toll extension. The National Transportation Policy, legislative framework concerning the infrastructure tolling, and particular European toll systems are described in the first part of the thesis. Within the other part of the thesis, the reader is given a simplified cost-profit model of future toll extension efficiency to evaluate the optimal outcome of the toll extension.