Browsing by Author "Brown, Anne"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14
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    Anti-Displacement Policy in Transportation Planning: A Plan Analysis
    (University of Oregon, 2023) Bedrosian, Sarah-Anne; Schlossberg, Marc; Brown, Anne; Shoop, Casey
    Cities in the United States have an extensive history of displacement of marginalized communities, specifically during the 1950s and 60s. This displacement was primarily caused by federally funded urban renewal programs, meant to improve aging infrastructure and build an entirely new transportation system to meet the demands of the growing automobile industry. The interstate freeway system was the primary result of these programs, but not without a cost, as marginalized communities were primarily the ones displaced. This thesis explores how transportation planners today consider this history of displacement from transportation investments, through the inclusion of anti-displacement policy in their published planning documents. This study made use of a typology rating system and qualitative analysis to perform an overall plan analysis of 10 U.S. cities. Each of these cities was chosen based on their bicycle infrastructure. The plan analysis found an overall poor inclusion of anti-displacement policy and/or language in the cities’ transportation and comprehensive plans. These findings indicate the necessity for greater inclusion of this policy in city planning documents to recognize displacement history more effectively and prevent future displacement as a result of transportation investments.
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    Connecting Troutdale: Options for Future Transportation Choices
    (University of Oregon, 2021-06) Josephson, Brian; Brown, Anne; Haley, Clare
    Sustained population and employment growth in the City of Troutdale have benefited the city in a variety of ways. However, this growth has amplified demand on the city’s transportation system and impacted people’s ability to get around. The class proposed several possible solutions to address these issues. For example, the City could paint crosswalks more clearly, stripe bike lanes, and ensure that sidewalks are continuous in their construction. This provides pedestrians and bicyclists with more certainty and comfort as they navigate the city. In addition, the class recommended different ways to connect downtown to the rest of the City via a shuttle or trolley. After assessing both options, it was concluded that a shuttle could provide a better replacement for personal vehicle trips to the downtown area. The class also recommended a golf cart zone be added to augment the shuttle in low speed zones and offer even greater flexibility in transportation choices. An additional system of electric bicycles and scooters throughout the City could also offer new and exciting methods of transportation for many residents, tourists, and commuters. These scooters could be paired with a multi- use path near a bus stop to transport workers to and from the Amazon and FedEx facilities in the Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park. Finally, in order to facilitate the movement of goods and people in the City center, a system of three different loading/ unloading zones could be implemented during certain hours of the day to maintain space for deliveries and drop offs without obstructing the flow of traffic. These recommendations offer diverse alternatives to help improve and increase opportunities to get around within the City of Troutdale.
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    Current and Future Mobility Needs Assessment for the Cities of Cottage Grove and Creswell
    (University of Oregon, 2020) Connor, Emily; Brown, Anne
    The purpose of this report is to provide recommendations to the cities of Cottage Grove and Creswell based on the current and future transportation needs as informed by professional insight and community input. The first half of the report analyzes results from interviews taken from professionals in the area as well as the results from an online survey given to residents of the communities. Current and future identified needs focused on the following themes: • The perceptions of Route 98 and how that perception varied between LTD, professional insight, community input, and data analysis. • Physical connectedness of the transportation systems in Cottage Grove and Creswell and barriers that might hinder transportation such as bus stop infrastructure. • Programmatic connectedness between transportation systems in Cottage Grove and Creswell and how accessible they are to the communities they serve. • Various technology and financial availabilities of the communities and how they shape the transportation options that can be considered for Cottage Grove and Creswell. The second half of the report discusses new transportation mode options that could be used to address the transportation needs in Creswell and Cottage Grove. Modes such as bike share, paratransit, ride hail partnerships, and mobility on demand (MOD) (including analysis on Cottage Grove’s pilot MOD project) were considered. The various case studies on these modes can be found in the appendix. Between identifying some of the various needs that these two small cities have, students made recommendations for the cities’ current transportation networks as well as some suggestions for what to consider when looking at new modes and how the cities’ needs. Students made several recommendations to help address the current and future needs of these two communities.
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    E-Scooters in Eugene, Oregon: Recommendations for Regulations
    (Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management, University of Oregon, 2019) Mason, Karen; Brown, Anne
    The first e-scooter appeared on the streets of Santa Monica, California in September 2017. As of May 2019, scooters operate in 97 American cities in 28 states, and around the world. Transportation planning officials in Eugene, Oregon are currently laying the groundwork to launch an e-scooter pilot program of their own. This report contains a set of recommendations for the City of Eugene to consider while building a regulatory framework for e-scooters. Recommendations were developed through content analyses of shared-mobility program regulations and by interviewing city officials, e-scooter vendors, and active transportation advocates in four west-coast case study cities.
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    Exploring Barriers and Solutions to Active Travel to School: A Case Study of River Road/El Camino del Río Elementary Students in Eugene, OR
    (University of Oregon, 2024) Staben, Alex; Brown, Anne
    Active travel, or transportation modes requiring physical movement, builds physical activity into daily life, and for young children, much of their travel is to and from school. Active travel to school (ATS) improves physical, mental, and social health, as well as classroom behavior and attendance rates. However, since the 1970s, ATS has rapidly declined as more students ride to school in a vehicle. Transportation is inherently place-based; hence, this study focuses on Spanish-English dual immersion elementary school River Road/El Camino del Río (RRECDR) in the Eugene (OR) 4J school district. Like schools across the nation, very few RRECDR students use ATS. To understand why, I distributed a survey and completed follow-up interviews with parents of RRECDR students assessing 1) the barriers that factor into transportation choices and 2) what needs to change for ATS to increase among RRECDR students. Results indicate the need for a diverse multi-sector sustainable leadership team focused on ATS, increased ATS encouragement through group activities such as walking school buses (WSBs), and infrastructural improvements including crosswalk enhancements and advisory bike lanes in specific locations. Findings also suggest further research into the complex relationship between ATS and accessibility of heritage language immersion education and ATS (and active travel more generally) and the housing crisis.
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    Finance, Economics, and New Mobility: 21st Century Transportation Challenges and Solutions for Troutdale, Oregon
    (University of Oregon, 2021-06) Keough, Nick; Brown, Anne
    The following report reviews and synthesizes work completed by University of Oregon students regarding potential transportation polices for the city of Troutdale, Oregon. Students focused on three categories: transportation finance, transportation economics, and new mobility options. TRANSPORTATION FINANCE Students investigated transportation finance in Troutdale, which included current funding mechanisms used by Troutdale such as the State of Oregon Highway Trust Fund and a local gas tax. Students reflected on why there is a need for municipalities to start exploring other funding mechanisms and ultimately recommended pricing parking, implementing payroll taxes, increasing the current system development charge rates, raising the local gas tax, and enacting a street utility fee to enact more secure and sustainable transportation funding for Troutdale. TRANSPORTATION ECONOMICS Students researched transportation economics specific to alleviating congestion in Glenn Otto Park. Students began by reviewing the current conditions at Glenn Otto Park, analyzing congestion management literature, and highlighting existing parking pricing approaches at similar recreation areas. Students advocate for a tiered parking fee that has varying rates for residents and non-residents. Specific dollar amounts of the fees are suggested, with Troutdale staff encouraged to make modifications to the pricing structure based on demand. In doing so, students hope this approach will not only reduce congestion in the park, but will help the city raise funds for transportation maintenance and improvements. NEW MOBILITY OPTIONS Students turned their attention tothe ways new mobility options will impact cities, specifically suburban cities like Troutdale. The catgory defines and provides background on three key areas in new mobility: (1) autonomous vehicles, (2) micromobility, and (3) ride-hailing. A discussion of the major trends in new mobility and the impact that new mobility options will likely have on municipal policy follows. Recommendations include an autonomous vehicles corridor, an autonomous goods delivery service, a bikeshare program and hybrid micromobility system, and an expansion of ride-hailing, among other options. While all three categories consider different transportation challenges for Troutdale, there is a significant amount of crossover between the three topics suggesting that different areas of transportation policy do not operate independently. This highlights that transportation solutions will likely need to be multi-faceted as well as suggests that collaboration will help bring about transformative transportation change in Troutdale.
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    How Are Uber/Lyft Shaping Municipal On-Street Parking Revenue?
    (Social Science Research Network, 2020-11-02) Clark, Benjamin Y.; Brown, Anne
    Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will impose challenges on cities that are currently difficult to fully envision yet critical to begin addressing. This research makes an incremental step toward quantifying the impacts that AVs by examining current associations between transportation network company (TNC) trips—often viewed as a harbinger of AVs—and parking revenue in Seattle. Using Uber and Lyft trip data combined with parking revenue and built environment data, this research models projected parking revenue in Seattle. Results demonstrate that total revenue generated in each census tract will continue to increase at current rates of TNC tripmaking; parking revenue will, however, start to decline if or when trips levels are about 4.7 times higher than the average 2016 level. The results also indicate that per-space parking revenue is likely to increase by about 2.2 percent for each 1,000 additional TNC trips taken if no policy changes are taken. The effects on revenue will vary quite widely by neighborhood, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all policy may not be the best path forward for cities. Instead, flexible and adaptable policies that can more quickly respond (or better yet, be proactive) to changing AV demand will be better suited at managing the changes that will affect parking revenue.
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    Inequality in Shared Micromobility: Global, National, and Local Perspectives
    (University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) Meng, Sian; Brown, Anne
    Shared micromobility systems, such as shared bicycles and e-scooters, have seen substantial global growth over the past decade. Although these systems offer affordable, flexible, and environmentally friendly transportation options, their rapid proliferation has raised significant equity concerns. The unequal distribution of shared micromobility services may limit access for the transportation disadvantaged, which could exacerbate the inequalities in the existing transportation system. This dissertation examines inequalities in shared micromobility through three studies at global, national, and local scales. The global-level study utilized world city theory to analyze the establishment and expansion of shared micromobility companies worldwide and employed mixed methods to explain what leads to the inequality in system distribution across cities. This study reveals that shared micromobility industries are associated with the world cities of ride-hailing, advanced producer services, and startups. Factors such as low demand for shared micromobility, unfriendly regulatory environments, and negative public and governmental attitudes towards shared micromobility are the major barriers to the adoption of shared micromobility systems at the city level. The national-level study examines the effects of policies aimed at equalizing resources and opportunities on vehicle and trip inequalities within shared micromobility systems in the US. Resource-equalizing policies for shared micromobility aim to equalize the distribution of shared micromobility vehicles, which directly alleviates inequalities in vehicle distribution and indirectly lessens trip distribution inequalities. In contrast, opportunity-equalizing policies subsidize people with less capability to use shared micromobility, such as low-income, unbanked, and non-tech-savvy people. However, policies for equal opportunity are less effective in addressing inequalities in shared micromobility. The local-level study investigates the impact of introducing shared e-scooters on existing transportation modes—bikeshare, railway, bus, taxi, and ride-hailing—in Chicago’s transportation equity priority areas, where residents face increased mobility barriers. The introduction of shared e-scooters results in distinct effects on different transportation modes between equity priority and non-equity priority areas. In the equity priority area, shared e-scooters significantly boost bikeshare usage and reduce taxi usage. In contrast, in the non-equity priority area, shared e-scooters notably reduce trips by bikeshare, railway, and taxis, but increase ride-hailing trips.
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    Micromobility, Macro Goals: Aligning scooter parking policy with broader city objectives
    (Elsevier, 2021-12-03) Brown, Anne
    Dockless electric scooters challenge cities seeking to regulate them amidst broader goals such as universal access. Cities are particularly concerned with improper scooter parking, which can impede access by other travelers. Despite an important role that scooter parking plays in both regulations and public discourse, no comprehensive view of current scooter parking regulations exists, nor is it clear how regulations align with broader city objectives. This research asks: how have U.S. cities regulated scooter parking to date and what issues do parking regulations aim to address? Data from 37 U.S. cities show that while areas of widespread agreement exist— nearly all (95%) cities allow scooters to park in the furniture zone—a wide range in scooter parking requirements exists. About three quarters of cities allow scooters to park at bike racks (78%) and against buildings (70%), while fewer than two-thirds allow scooters to park either on landscaping (62%) or against signs (60%). Even among cities with similar regulations, however, considerable nuance exists. Interviews with staff from six U.S. cities and existing research highlight motivations for scooter parking regulations. The regulations employed—and the high degree of variability across cities—yield implications for scooter parking policies, as well as scooters’ role in advancing broader city objectives. Scooter parking regulations play an important role in access, but cities should approach regulations as just one piece within a broader agenda of reclaiming streets for people and promoting mobility, sustainability, and access for all.
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    Multilevel Impacts of Emerging Technologies on City Form and Development
    (Urbanism Next, 2020-01) Howell, Amanda; Tan, Huijun; Brown, Anne; Schlossberg, Marc; Karlin-Resnick, Josh; Lewis, Rebecca; Anderson, Marco; Larco, Nico; Tierney, Gerry; Carlton, Ian; Kim, James; Steckler, Becky
    Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are a near future reality and the implications of AVs on city development and urban form, while potentially widespread and dramatic, are not well understood. In addition, there are other fundamentally disruptive technological forces undergoing simultaneous rapid development and deployment, including the introduction of new mobility technologies and the associated paradigm shift to thinking of mobility as a service, as well as the continued growth of e-commerce and the related rise in goods delivery. The purpose of this report is to examine how these forces of change are impacting, or will likely impact transportation, land use, urban design, and real estate, and what the implications may be for equity, health, the economy,the environment, and governance. Our aim was to identify key research areas that will assist in evidence-based decision making for planners, urban designers, and developers to address this critical paradigm shift. We identified key research questions in land use, urban design, transportation, and real estate that will rely on the expertise of these disciplines and lay the foundation for a research agenda examining how AVsand new mobility may impact the built environment. This report describes the first order impacts, or the broad ways that the form and function of cities are already being impacted by the forces of change identified above.
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    A New Future for the Sisters Elementary School Site
    (University of Oregon, 2022) Betros, Rosemary; Rola, Katherine E.; Banks, Megan; Brown, Anne; Knudson, Kaarin; Schlossberg, Marc; College of Design, University of Oregon
    Over fall term 2022, Community and Regional Planning graduate students worked with the City of Sisters to design a research based redevelopment proposal for the Sisters Elementary School and Sisters School District administration building site. Students analyzed potential opportunities and challenges of revitalizing these two adjoining properties through three different lenses: 1) age friendly neighborhoods; 2) adaptive reuse of preexisting structures, and 3) a community and recreation center. Despite different focus areas, as the teams moved through the planning process, they sought to incorporate what they understood to be community values: connection, livability, accessibility, equity, and safety. With their focus areas and these values in mind, they organized their proposals around the overarching themes of connectivity, built spaces (especially housing), and open and green spaces. The teams imagined the site in a way that would sustain Sisters’ strong sense of pride and community as the city continues to grow in the future. They also wanted to encourage healthy lifestyles for Sisters’ residents and ensure that people of all ages, incomes, and abilities could access the site safely. This report describes the information that the teams gathered and analyzed to create their designs, details each team’s site proposal, and offers ideas for implementation.
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    The Overlook: Affordable Housing in Downtown Troutdale
    (University of Oregon, 2021) Irsfeld, Brendan; Arroyo, John; Brown, Anne; Sandoval, Gerard; Knudson, Kaarin
    Graduate students in the University of Oregon’s Community and Regional Planning program collaborated inthree research groups to propose an affordable housing development on a parcel of land close to downtown Troutdale. The parcel is designated as Opportunity Site 7 (referred to as the Overlook Tract) in the City’s recent Town Center Plan. Each proposal examined affordable housing from a specific topical lens: climate justice, racial justice, and housing instability. Due to the restrictions in place resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the three teams worked mainly in a virtual environment under the guidance of a faculty advisor. Students presented three forward- thinking proposals for developing affordable housing on the site. The groups incorporated many similar elements while also distinguishing each proposal by introducing unique recommendations. Using a mixed-use design to support future residents emerged as a predominant theme of each proposal. Commercial space can serve as a place that provides community services and introduces vibrancy to the area when incorporated with housing space. Another similarity among each proposal was to improve Troutdale’s downtown transportation network to better accommodate pedestrians and biking. To conceptualize their proposals, students employed a variety of research methods, including quantitative analysis, content analysis, a literature review, case studies, and participating in a virtual design charette led by faculty at the University of Oregon. This research period allowed each team to form a comprehensive understanding of Troutdale as a place and community. Teams envisioned affordable housing with an understanding of the socioeconomic and demographic shifts within the context of local housing markets, with particular emphasis on living spaces for low-income individuals. Efforts were concentrated on the potential of the parcel to provide affordable housing, in addition to residual benefits for the future growth of the downtown area, a vital concern to Troutdale’s city officials. Of the key recommendations from each group, notable features also include: • Utilizing open space within the development for community- supportive activities, such as maintaining a community garden. • Providing first-floor commercial space to introduce jobs and amenities to the area close to downtown Troutdale. • Creating connections between existing built infrastructure and the site, in addition to downtown neighborhoods in Troutdale. • Incorporating placemaking elements, such as public art and community centers, to reflect the cultural diversity of Troutdale’s citizenry. This report briefly presents the central themes, notable highlights, and key recommendations contained within each group’s proposal for an affordable housing development on the Overlook Tract.
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    Planning for a New Mobility Future
    (University of Oregon, 2019) Crum, Carol; Brown, Anne
    With advances in technology, new forms of mobility are emerging and entering our cities. These new modes are driving the need for plans and policies that direct how they will operate in cities, where they can operate and park, and who can use them. The cities of Eugene and Gresham would like to prepare for these new modes of mobility. Transportation Planning students were tasked with gathering data on current parking and micro-mobility usage and infrastructure, analyzing these data, and issuing recommendations to address new mobility. Students also researched how other U.S. cities are addressing issues such as high parking occupancy, bicycle infrastructure, the emergence of transportation network companies (TNCs) like Lyft and Uber (also known as ride-hailing services), and new forms of micro-mobility such as e-scooters. Taking into consideration research from other U.S. cities and the goals of Eugene and Gresham, students recommended the following policy approaches.
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    Shared Scooter Parking: The Role of Parking Density and Land Use in Compliance and Demand
    (University of Oregon, 2024-03) Meng, Sian; Brown, Anne; Klein, Nicholas; Thigpen, Calvin; Haydu, Brandon; Stout, Nicole
    The findings of this report attempts to address the planning questions of how much parking is needed, and how a city can navigate the many challenges to installing a dense network of parking spaces while considering that parked shared micromobility vehicles can at times obstruct sidewalks, storefronts, and pedestrian ramps. Drawing on data provided by Lime from a dozen cities in the US and Europe, the study provides three key planning and policy recommendations for cities to consider as they work to make scooters a part of the overall transportation system.