Areas of Practice 4

Question 1

Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)

Answer 1

Lists all projects for which federal funds are anticipated, along with non-federally funded projects that are regionally significant.

Represents transportation improvement priorities of a region and is required by law.

Shows estimated costs and schedules by project phase.

Question 2

Average Annual Daily Traffic

Answer 2

Amount of traffic on a roadway in a 24 hour period, averaged over a year.

Question 3

Grid Network

Answer 3

Invented by the ancient Greeks.

Advantages
Ease of laying out streets and lot lines.
Wayfinding.

Disadvantages
maximum number of four-way intersections, can create conflict.
Tangent standards are not always met.
Results in maximum pavement and utility line costs.
Can cause cut-through traffic during rush hours.
Can be monotonous and boring.

Question 4

Safe Growth

Answer 4

Term for building environments that are safe for current and future generations, protecting buildings, infrastructure and the natural environment from damage.

Question 5

Disaster Mitigation Act

Answer 5

2000
Amends the Stafford Act.
Requires local governments to prepare and adopt hazard mitigation plans. Focuses on prevention.

Question 6

Transportation Demand Management

Answer 6

Covers all strategies to make transportation system more efficient.

TDM Strategies

• Car Sharing
• Flextime
• Guaranteed Ride Home
• Public Transit
• Park-and-Ride
• HOV Lanes
• Telecommuting
• Transit Oriented Development
• Commute Trip Reduction: incentives to reduce vehicle trips, particularly during peak commute hours.

Question 7

Carrying Capacity

Answer 7

The maximum population size of a species that can be sustained indefinitely within the environment, given availability of resources.

Applied to planning, refers to the maximum population and employment that could be carried within a particular community. Could relate to amount of developable land available, infrastructure, capacity, etc.

First used in 1845 by the then US Secretary of State James Buchanan. Ian McHarg wrote about the concept of carrying capacity in his book Design with Nature.

Question 8

Road Design history

Answer 8

The origin of most of our current roadway standards can be traced to Federal Highway Administration studies following World War II. Definitions of “good” standards were based on “new” subdivision designs. Through frequency and repetition, rather than by proven effectiveness, these guidelines evolved into our modern standards. In most cases, these standards are too wide for most local streets, and are most advantageous if there is a lot of traffic and no off-street parking.

Question 9

Emergency

Answer 9

Defined as “any occasion or instance for which, in the determination of the president, Federal assistance is needed to supplement State and local efforts and capabilities to save lives and protect property and public health and safety, or lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in any part of the United States.” as defined in the Stafford Disaster Relief Act.

Question 10

Trip Generation

Answer 10

Refers to the number of trips that a site is likely to generate.
Byproduct of land use and intensity of use.
Propensity to make trips is also dependent on characteristics of the journey, trip purpose, and demographics.

Question 11

Concurrency

Answer 11

Practice that requires infrastructure to be in place and at a specified level of service before new development can occur.

Question 12

Daylighting

Answer 12

Practice of placing windows, or other transparent media, and reflective surfaces so that natural light provides effective internal illumination during the day.

Also describes the conversion of an enclosed drainage system to a more natural and open system.

Question 13

Resilience

Answer 13

Refers to the ability of a community to return to its original form after it has been changed. Often resiliency is used to refer to a community’s ability to recover from a natural hazard, economic shock, or other major event.

Question 14

Seasonal Hour Volume

Answer 14

Peak hour volumes during different seasons.

Question 15

Substantial Damage

Answer 15

Damage of any origin sustain by a structure whereby the cost restoring the structure to it before damage condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value or replacement cost of the structure before the damage occurred

Question 16

National Flood Insurance Act

Answer 16

1994.

Established the National Flood Insurance Program.

Question 17

Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA)

Answer 17

1991

First act to provide funding for transit, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities in addition to highways.

Question 18

Major Disaster

Answer 18

Defined as “any natural catastrophe (including any hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, tsunamis, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought), or, regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or explosion, in any part of the United States, which in the determination of the President causes damage of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance under the Stafford Disaster Relief Act.

Question 19

Complete Streets

Answer 19

A complete street is a safe, accessible, and convenient street that everyone can use regardless of age, ability or mode of transportation. This means that motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders have sufficient infrastructure for safe access.

Question 20

Street Gradients

Answer 20

Regarding street gradients, the minimum gradient in most areas is 0.5%. In areas with cold winters the maximum gradient is 5%; it is 8% for areas with mild winters.

Question 21

Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21)

Answer 21

first long-term highway authorization enacted since 2005 (SAFETEA-LU)

Question 22

Modal Split

Answer 22

AKA Mode Share
The percentage of travelers using a particular type of transportation or number of trips using said type (car, bike, walk, bus, etc.)

Question 23

Federal-Aid Highway Act

Answer 23

1944.
Designated a 65,000-km national system of interstate highways. These highways were to be selected by the state highway departments. While this act authorized the highway system, it did not provide any funding.

1952
The Federal-Aid Highway Act authorized $25 million for the construction of interstate highways and another $175 million two years later.

1956
However, major funding did not come until the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, which authorized $25 billion between 1957 and 1969.

1962
Federal-Aid Highway Act created federal mandate for urban transportation planning in the US. Urbanized areas with populations over 50,000 required to use urban transportation planning process of “continuing, comprehensive, cooperative” planning process.

Question 24

Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)

Answer 24

Measure of vehicular mobility obtained from travel inventories.

Function of many factors, including: topography, population density, travel distances, availability of transit.

Question 25

Origin-Destination Survey

Answer 25

Method of determining trip generation

Handed out to motorists at roadblocks on major routes within the cordon area (imaginary line that denotes study area for a particular project).

Become less valid as data ages. When local surveys are unavailable due to time or monetary constraints, published rates are used to derive estimates.

Question 26

Carrying Capacity

Answer 26

The maximum population size of a species that can be sustained indefinitely within the environment, given availability of resources.

Applied to planning, refers to the maximum population and employment that could be carried within a particular community. Could relate to amount of developable land available, infrastructure, capacity, etc.

First used in 1845 by the then US Secretary of State James Buchanan. Ian McHarg wrote about the concept of carrying capacity in his book Design with Nature.

Question 27

Community Rating System

Answer 27

1990.
Established incentives for improving local floodplain management. The CRS program encourages communities to integrates land use practices to minimize flood loss.

CRS offers incentives, in forms of premium reduction to policyholders, for communities to perform a series of point-garnering activates that are assumed to strengthen local floodplain management. Under the floodplain management-planning category, Communities can receive points for:

· Organizing and preparing a plan

· Involving the public

· Coordination with other agencies

· Assessing the hazard

· Assessing the problem

· Setting goals

· Reviewing possible activities

· Drafting an action plan

· Adopting the plan and implementing, evaluating and revising the plan

Question 28

Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO)

Answer 28

Allows local governments to deny or delay new developments if existing services (water, sewer, roads, schools, fire, and police) cannot support it.

Ensures that public services are not overburdened. Places burden on developers instead.

Used to manage the pace of growth in conjunction with other tools, such as a capital improvements program.

Question 29

Adaptation

Answer 29

The adjustment of human and natural systems in response to actual or expected effects of climate change.

Question 30

Design Hour Volume (DHV)

Answer 30

Roadway capacity

Question 31

Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21)

Answer 31

1998
Authorized the Federal surface transportation programs for highways, highway safety, and transit for the 6-year period 1998-2003.

Followed by Transportation Equity Act 3 (TEA3)
Followed by Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act (SAFETEA)

Question 32

Traffic Calming

Answer 32

According to the Institute of Transportation Engineers, traffic calming “involves changes in street alignment, installation of barriers, and other physical measures to reduce traffic speeds and/or cut-through volumes, in the interest of street safety, livability, and other public purposes.”

Question 33

Typical Trip Generation Rates

Answer 33

• 11 daily trip ends for each 1,000 square feet of general office space
• 9.6 daily trip ends per single family residential dwelling
• 6.6 daily trip ends per apartment unit
• 43 daily trip ends per 1,000 square feet of shopping center space
• 7 daily trip ends per 1,000 square feet of light industrial development

Question 34

Traffic Assignment

Answer 34

Uses network models to predict the distribution of traffic for each roadway by the hour. Compares peak volumes to DHV to see if roads are over-capacity.

Question 35

Metropolitan Planning Organizations

Answer 35

Work on regional transportation planning issues.

Created due to requirements from the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962.

In 1965, the Bureau of Public Roads (now FHWA) required creation of planning agencies to carry out the required transportation planning process.

Question 36

Cross Tabulation Models

Answer 36

Method of estimating trip generation

Based on land use, purpose, or socioeconomic characteristics.

Question 37

Triple Bottom Line

Answer 37

First coined in 1994 by John Elkington, his argument was that companies should be preparing three different bottom lines, corporate profit, people, and planet. These three P’s aim to measure the financial, social and environmental performance of the corporation over a period of time.

Question 38

Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act

Answer 38

1988
Constitutes the authority of the federal government, FEMA, to respond post disaster.

The Stafford Act outlines four primary components of a state hazard mitigation plan, outlined in section of 409 or the act:

· An evaluation of the natural hazard in the designated area

· A description and analysis of the state and local hazard management policies, programs, and capabilities to mitigate the hazards in the area

· Hazard mitigation goals and objective and proposed strategies, programs, and actions to reduce or avoid long-term vulnerability to hazard

· A method of implementing monitoring, evaluating, and updating the mitigation plan, such evaluation is to occur at least on an annual basis to ensure that implementation occurs as planned, and ensure that the plan remains current

Question 39

Hazard Mitigation

Answer 39

Defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as “any action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards.”

Question 40

Parking Requirements

Answer 40

The Dimensions of Parking, published by the Urban Land Institute and National Parking Association, provides estimates on parking requirements for different land uses.

A standard parking stall is 9 feet by 18 feet.

Question 41

Blue Infrastructure

Answer 41

Refers to water based infrastructure. Includes stormwater management.

Question 42

Sustainable Development

Answer 42

Balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that the present and future population’s needs can be met. Includes environmental, social, and economic components.

Question 43

Peak Hour Volume

Answer 43

Hourly traffic during the peak period.

Question 44

Green Infrastructure

Answer 44

Originated in US in mid-1990s and highlights the importance of the natural environment in decisions about land use planning.

Removing harmful pollutants from air and water.
Reducing heat urban heat island effects.
Improve property values.
Reduce grey infrastructure costs.
Promote healthy lifestyles and environmental justice.

Question 45

Substantial Improvement

Answer 45

Any reconstruction, rehabilitation addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the start of construction of the improvement.

Question 46

Highway Capacity Manual

Answer 46

Published by Transportation Research Board (TRB).

Provides concepts, guidelines, and procedures for computing highway capacity and quality of service based on road type.

Question 47

Public Roads Administration (PRA)

Answer 47

Responsible for implementing the highway system.

In 1947, the PRA designated 60,640 km of interstate highways.

Question 48

Street Gradients

Answer 48

Regarding street gradients, the minimum gradient in most areas is 0.5%. In areas with cold winters the maximum gradient is 5%; it is 8% for areas with mild winters.

Question 49

Gravity Model

Answer 49

Rather simple tool that attempts to quantify the rather complex trip generation relationships. It provides trip estimates based directly on the proportional attractiveness of the zone and inversely proportional to the trip length.

Question 50

Trip Distribution

Answer 50

Examines where people are going.
A region is divided in Traffic Analysis Zones.
Trip distribution provides information on how many trips occur between zones.
Also provides information on trip distances, time and cost, the nature of the trip, socioeconomic characteristics, and the nature of the transportation system.

Question 51

Level of Service

Answer 51

A: free flow
B: reasonably free flow
C: stable flow, at or near free flow
D: approaching unstable flow
E: unstable flow, operating at capacity
F: forced or breakdown flow