Urbanism Next Reports

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https://hdl.handle.net/1794/25159

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Open Access
AVs in the Pacific Northwest: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Time of Automation, Baseline Report
(University of Oregon, 2018-08) Larco, Nico; Howell, Amanda; Lewis, Rebecca; Steckler, Becky; Clark, Joanna; Corey, Evan; Hurley, Peter
The University of Oregon conducted research for the cities of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver to understand how the deployment of autonomous vehicles may impact greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Based on the range of possible outcomes, the cities hope to better understand the policies and programmatic choices available to mitigate negative impacts of AVs and ensure that they can accomplish the goals stated in their climate action, land use, and transportation plans. By working together, each city hopes to learn from each other—as well as cities from across North America—to achieve their climate-related goals. This report is the first of a two-phase project, both funded by the Bullitt Foundation. The Bullitt Foundation provided a grant to CNCA/USDN and subsequently to the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon to fund research related to the impact of AVs on the Cities of Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver and their ability to successfully implement their climate action plans to reduce GHG emissions. Phase II is supported by a grant directly to the Urbanism Next Center and builds on Phase I to examine in greater detail a limited number of strategies and actions that the Cities could incorporate into their new mobility1 strategies.
Open Access
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.
Open Access
Autonomous Vehicles: A Guide for Cities
(University of Oregon, 2023-11) Bellows, Story; Ricks, Karina; Clark, Erin; Bridgford, Camron; de Uquijo, Carolina; Larco, Nico; Götschi, Thomas
While autonomous vehicles are still experimental and nascent in many corners of the U.S., the same kind of unguided tectonic shift seen with the introduction of the automobile nearly a century ago is possible. Autonomous Vehicles: A Guidebook for Cities was created in response to cities seeking to manage and influence autonomous vehicle (AV) pilots and deployments happening on their streets, as well as cities trying to prepare for these pilots. The Guidebook offers considerations, tools, and examples of various ways to manage effectively autonomous vehicle deployments.
Open Access
Accessing Opportunities for Household Provisioning Post-COVID-19
(Transportation and Research Education Center (TREC), 2022-10) Clifton, Kelly; Carder, Paula; Nonnamaker, Max; Howell, Amanda; Currans, Kristina; Abou-Zeid, Gabriella
In this project, we used a mixed-methods study to collect critical information to evaluate the extent to which people modified their shopping behavior, either by choice or necessity, to meet their provisioning needs during the COVID-19 crisis and the following recovery. First, four waves of a cross-sectional survey were administered online to a representative sample of households in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington. This longitudinal, comparative study responded directly to a critical research gap and advanced behavioral science by providing a rich survey dataset to support and test theories of behavioral change and technology adoption. Second, focus groups were conducted with older adults in Oregon to discuss their arc of technology adoption for grocery shopping. Focus groups were also conducted with two sets of mentors who provide assistance to family members and friends with online food purchases to understand what kinds of interventions might be necessary to broaden access to e-commerce and delivery platforms for vulnerable populations. This report presents high-level descriptive statistics from these surveys comparing results by wave and/or by state. The findings from the focus groups with older adults and mentors are also described. The findings of this research are critical for emergency planning but also for understanding the ever-changing mechanism used to access retail and service opportunities (whether in-person vs. online), and the opportunities for future interventions to remedy barriers to accessing food that are relevant after the pandemic recovery.
Open Access
COVID-19 - Impacts on Cities and Suburbs: Key Takeaways Across Multiple Sectors
(University of Oregon, 2020-09) Kaplowitz, Grace; Larco, Nico; Howell, Amanda; Swift, Tiffany
How is the COVID-19 pandemic changing urban living? In this paper, we explore the landscape of COVID-19 disruptions to date on land use and real estate, urban design, building design, transportation, e-commerce and retail, and goods delivery. We also highlight the longer-term questions and potential ongoing impacts COVID-19 might have on the built environment.
Open Access
COVID-19 Impacts on Cities and Suburbs: Impacts to the Urbanism Next Framework
(University of Oregon, 2020-09) Kaplowitz, Grace; Larco, Nico; Howell, Amanda; Swift, Tiffany
Before the pandemic, Urbanism Next developed a framework organizing the disruptions to cities caused by emerging transportation technologies on land use, urban design, building design, transportation, and real estate. COVID-19 has disrupted the trajectory of these emerging technologies and will, in turn, change some our original assumptions. This paper revisits the original Urbanism Next framework, taking into account the cascading impacts of the pandemic. This report is one of two reports completed by Urbanism Next on the impacts of Covid-19.
Open Access
Policy Brief: Shared Mobility, Autonomous Vehicles, and GHG Emissions
(University of Oregon, 2022-08) Steckler, Becky; Hess, Rachel; Larco, Nico
This policy brief summarizes some of the key findings from a comprehensive literature review (submitted for publication) on the impact of shared mobility services and GHG emissions.
Open Access
Piloting sidewalk Delivery Robots in Pittsburgh, Miami-Dade County, Detroit, and San Jose
(University of Oregon, 2022-08) Howell, Amanda; Steckler, Becky; Larco, Nico; Knight Autonomous Vehicle Initiative
The Knight Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Initiative is a multi-year collaborative effort between the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon, Cityfi, the cities of Detroit, Pittsburgh, and San José, and Miami-Dade County (the “cohort”) to pilot and learn about automated mobility technologies today to shape the future of deployment tomorrow. This cohort partnered with Kiwibot to learn more about a new technology—sidewalk delivery robots. Through this partnership, Kiwibot tested different use cases and collaborated on community engagement opportunities in each locale. Given the proliferation of bills being passed by state legislatures legalizing deployment of personal delivery devices (PDDs) or sidewalk robots, and the increased delivery demand due to the pandemic, the pilots were well timed to able to meaningfully inform the cohort cities about the potential benefits and challenges of sidewalk delivery robots.
Open Access
The Future of Public Spaces and Placemaking: Summary of Findings from the Knight + Urbanism Next Portland Workshop
(University of Oregon, 2020-06) Crowther, Jean; Howell, Amanda; Larco, Nico; Reid, Ted; Ross, Lynn; Stewart, Mary; Stoll, Matthew; Surguine, Marsie
The Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon, in partnership with Alta Planning + Design, Spirit for Change, and Metro hosted the Future of Public Spaces and Placemaking workshop on January 24th, 2020. This one-day workshop, supported by the Knight Foundation, brought together a wide range of community activists, government officials, policymakers, urbanists, planners, designers, technology representatives, and other professionals to share ideas and concerns, and to discuss emerging technologies such as new mobility, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), autonomous vehicles (AVs), and e-commerce, and their impacts on urban space and placemaking. The workshop concluded with a site-specific charrette aimed at investigating how communities can best prepare for these changes and adapt their public spaces to create places that are resilient, dynamic, equitable, and sustainable.
Open Access
Perfecting Policy with Pilots: New Mobility and AV Urban Delivery Pilot Project Assessment
(University of Oregon, 2020-04) Steckler, Becky; Coia, Juliette; Howell, Amanda; Kaplowitz, Grace; Stoll, Matthew; Yang, Huajie
The purpose of this study is to go beyond cataloging pilot projects to determine the lessons learned, emerging trends and considerations, and examples of promising practices from pilot projects in the United States and Canada. Researchers assessed 220 pilot projects and 11 case studies. Based on that assessment, they recommend 10 actions for pilot projects generally. The study resulted in 31 lessons learned organized by pilot goals, evaluation, implementation, outcomes, and policy and infrastructure implications.
Open Access
New Mobility in the Right-of-Way
(University of Oregon, 2019-03) Howell, Amanda; Larco, Nico; Lewis, Rebecca; Steckler, Becky
This report categorizes and summarizes efforts that are already underway in cities across the world to rethink curb management, to outline the key takeaways from the one-day workshop that involved city staff from Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, and to identify major research gaps.
Open Access
Potential Impacts of Autonomous Vehicle Deployment on Parking and Development
(University of Oregon, 2023-02) Larco, Nico; Howell, Amanda; Leavitt, Mason; Carlton, Ian; Kim, James
An often-claimed benefit of autonomous vehicle (AV) deployment has been its reduction on parking demand and the potential impact this could have on development. If demand for parking is drastically reduced by the deployment of AVs, the logic is that developers would need to build far less parking than is required today by code and/or is deemed necessary to serve users, freeing up land for development and making projects financially viable. Using San Francisco as a case study, researchers at the Urbanism Next Center and ECONorthwest explored this idea in depth, modeling the potential impacts that AVs could have on development. To inform our analysis, we first conducted a literature review of modeled/predicted reductions of parking demand based on the deployment of AVs. Efforts to estimate the potential impact of AVs on parking demand have produced varied results ranging from as much as a 90% decrease in demand in some scenarios to an overall increase in demand in others. The inconsistency in results underscores the complexity of the topic and the difficulties that are associated with trying to model future demand. Model results are dependent on the parameters and assumptions made about factors such as fleet mix (e.g., shared vs. individually owned AVs), market penetration/adoption rate, the percentage of rides that are pooled, and more.
Open Access
Older Adults, New Mobility, and Automated Vehicles
(University of Oregon, 2021-02) Fraade-Blanar, Laura; Larco, Nico; Best, Ryan; Swift, Tiffany; Blumenthal, Marjory S.
The premise that autonomous vehicles will address older adults’ immobility is not a given. As argued in the Public Policy Institute’s publication Universal Mobility-as-a-Service, public- and private-sector actors need to come together to create a set of supportive circumstances that enable us to harness emerging technology for individual and societal benefit. This paper and associated framework lays out the myriad and interconnected factors that all stakeholders in this space should be thinking about so that the promise of autonomous vehicles and new shared-use mobility opportunities can be realized. The framework can be used as a checklist of design considerations for AV pilot testing, and it also may inform research and development programs. Moreover, it can provide an easy-to-consult reference for policymakers as they define roles and responsibilities among public- and privatesector actors whose actions can enable equitable access—or result in greater inequity. This research reveals a perennial flaw in our technology adoption process, at least in the mobility arena: the current default of designing for a broad clientele of mobile individuals is insufficient. The framework identified in this report is an important but only preliminary step to ensuring that the needs of harder-to-serve populations, such as frail older adults and people with mobility disabilities, are met. Additional, more tailored activity is needed. AARP looks forward to advancing this work.
Open Access
A Framework for Shaping the Deployment of Autonomous Vehicles and Advanced Equity Outcomes: Knight Autonomous Vehicle Initiative
(University of Oregon, 2021-01) Steckler, Becky; Howell, Amanda; Larco, Nico; Kaplowitz, Grace
Just a year or so ago, it seemed that fleets of autonomous vehicles (AVs) would soon be deployed on city streets providing a robo-taxi service like Uber and Lyft—just without a driver. The timeline for commercial deployments of AVs has been significantly delayed by the technological challenges associated with safely deploying driverless vehicles, as well as by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even during the pandemic, however, automakers and technology companies continued to conduct research and test a range of autonomous vehicles—freight trucks on freeways, passenger vehicles on city streets, and smaller vehicles transporting goods on streets, in bike lanes, and on sidewalks—to develop commercial use cases and prepare for deployment. AV technology has the potential to have major impacts on cities, both positive and negative. AVs could increase safety and help reduce congestion and pollution, but they could very well exacerbate existing inequities if they are simply layered on to the problematic and car-dependent transportation ecosystems that exist today. Chances are that AVs will be deployed eventually, and many states are already enacting legislation that preempts local decision making. As a result, communities across the United States understand that they need to plan for AVs before they arrive in order to maximize the potential benefits. The current moment provides an opportunity for the public sector to be proactive in shaping the deployment, applying lessons learned from the deployment of transportation network companies (TNCs), e-scooters, and other new mobility technologies. With support from the Knight Foundation, the cities of Detroit, Pittsburgh, San Jose, and Miami-Dade County in Florida—the “cohort”—are actively working to understand how AVs can be deployed in ways that reflect community input and meet local needs. They are working with residents, employees, and business and community leaders to better understand mobility needs and how AV deployment can help achieve community goals.
Open Access
Witness Testimony: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation & Infastructure, Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Hearing: The Road Ahead for Automated Vehicles
(2022-02-02) Larco, Nico
Chair Norton, Ranking Member Davis, and Subcommittee Members, thank you for this opportunity to testify on the future of automated vehicles and the impacts they could have on communities throughout the country. My name is Nico Larco and I am a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design as well as the Director of the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon. Urbanism Next is a crossdisciplinary center focused on understanding the impacts that emerging technologies such as automated vehicles (AVs), new mobility, and e-commerce are having and will continue to have on communities. Our focus is not on the mechanics of the technologies, but rather on their impacts on land use, urban design, building design, transportation, and real estate, and why these impacts matter for equity, health, safety, the environment, and the economy. We work extensively on these topics with cities and states throughout the country, as well as with private sector partners who are developing or deploying emerging technologies, professional organizations, other research organizations, and foundations. We have found a tremendous interest, across all these organizations, in understanding AVs’ impacts and how to shape the deployment of emerging technologies to help achieve equity, sustainability, and economic goals.
Open Access
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.
Open Access
How Will Autonomous Vehicles Change Local Government Budgeting and Finance? Case Studies of On-Street Parking, Curb Management, and Solid Waste Collection
(Portland State University, 2019-05) Clark, Benjamin Y.; Transportation Research and Education Center, Portland State University
The challenges that Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will impose upon cities are both currently difficult to fully envision and critical to begin to address. This report makes an incremental step toward quantifying the impacts that AVs will have and provides insight on how cities may be able to adjust policies to avoid mistakes made in with changes to the transportation modalities in earlier eras. This report is an examination of parking, curb zones, and government service changes in the context of AVs. Given that there are very few actual AVs on the road, the analysis in this report is an attempt to project what we might see, using the current phenomenon as starting points. The report uses a mix of econometric modeling, cost accounting, and case studies to illustrate these projections.
Open Access
Emerging Technologies and Cities: Assessing the Impacts of New Mobility on Cities
(National Institute for Transportation and Communities, 2020-01) Steckler, Becky; Lewis, Rebecca
The purpose of this report is to analyze potential impacts and offer recommendations for the cities of Gresham and Eugene, OR, to understand the potential impacts of new mobility technologies—with an emphasis on autonomous vehicles (AVs)—and prepare a policy and programmatic response. While Gresham and Eugene are case studies, it provides mid-sized communities information on how new mobility services could impact their communities and what they can do about it, from broad strategies to specific policy responses. While this work focuses on the various new mobility and goods delivery services that currently exist, the framework that is discussed here is also applicable to emerging technologies that haven’t yet been introduced, such as autonomous vehicles (AVs).
Open Access
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.
Open Access
Navigating New Mobility: Policy Approaches for Cities
(Urbanism Next, 2019-10) Steckler, Becky
This purpose of this report is to help the cities of Gresham, Oregon and Eugene, Oregon understand the potential impacts of new mobility technologies—with an emphasis on autonomous vehicles (AVs)—and prepare a policy response. While Gresham and Eugene are case studies, it provides communities of all sizes information on how new mobility services could impact their communities and what they can do about it, from broad strategies to specific policy responses. While this work focuses on the various new mobility and goods delivery services that currently exist, the framework that is discussed here is also applicable to emerging technologies that haven’t yet been introduced, such as AVs.