Week 11/12 - Walkability, Intercity Transportation, Passenger Rail, and HSR Flashcards
What are the different meanings of walkability?
- the conditions that may support walking, enabled through compact, safe, traversable space (the means)
- the outcomes/performance of such places: lively, sociable, providing transportation option
- the proxy for better urban places: either measurable or as part of holistic solution for various urban issues
What are motivations for walking?
- transportation
- exercise
- recreation
- stress reduction
- incidental (on the job)
- indoors (malls)
What are the theories behind walking motivation?
- urban design: physical features make people want to walk
- health: focus on individual behaviours with urban design being incidental
- ex. research showed that those living in walkable areas were more than twice as likely to use AT or transit and were healthier than those in non-walkable areas
When exploring transp interventions, what do we need to understand?
Interplay b/w:
- built environment;
- programming, policy, pricing;
- other characteristics, like income, preferences, cultural values, weather
What are the key take aways from Forsyth’s walkability research?
- appreciate diversity of walkable enviros
- range of definitions that reflect biases/assumptions
- key challenges or transport vs. rec
- not all walking purposes addressed effectiveyl in literature
What is inter-city transportation?
Typically non-commuting transp b/w distinct cities or regions. B/w cities that is greater than 50-100km and to ranges beyond 1000km (can be international and use variety of modes)
- responsibilities: policy/planning
For inter-city transportation demand, who does travelling and for what purpose?
- dominated by non-business travel
- ex. visiting family and friends or vacation/tourism
- considers domestic, NA, and intl differences
For inter-city transportation supply, which modes used?
- road dominates (cars), followed by air, bus, and rail
- distance of destination and duration of stay influences choice of mode
- ex. domestic vs. intl; same day vs. overnight; level of market demand
What is important to recognize when making modal decisions for inter city travel?
- considerable variation in characteristics of modes of intercity transp and prominence in respective nations
- considerations of distance, density, demand, and to some extent political will at influence
- regulation of intercity modes important and complex consideration
What are the planning considerations at intl/regional scale vs. local scale?
Intl/Regional:
- fits in network of passenger/freight air transport services, points of convergence w/ regional services, and gateways to intl destinations
Local:
- easily reached
- airports located at fringe
- alleviate problem by integrating airports into highway and rail systems to give high level of local access
What are modal option considerations?
- role/importance of intercity transp: economic development, competitiveness/community vitality, tourism
- tension b/w ridership and coverage: set budget/resources, so do you focus on high frequency but few routes or vice versa?
Give a brief history of rail in the Canadian context
- Industrial Revolution: first railway 1836
- new technology, expensive
- massive investment and difficult to generate enough profit
- govt agrees to fund construction of any line over 120km in length (first transp subsidy
- people realized advantages of having rail run through town
- fierce competition b/c too many railways held charters for same geographic area (from lack of proper planning) - Emergence of modern transp:
- first transcontinental line completed 1885, followed by 2 others but severely underused
- Canadian govt buys fialing railways and created CN in 1919
- mass settlement in west - Post WWII
- steady decline of passenger rail, so VIA rail created 1978 as crown corp
- abandoned uneconomical routes in 1989-90, which lost 45% of ridership
- mainly tourist oriented service today
What is the summary of rail evolution?
- to understand today’s transp system and current debates, historical context needed
- govt involvement central to providing public goods (building infrastructure, operating systems, etc.)
- intercity rails future: arguably at cross roads b/c competing modes/providers
Explain the German example of HSR
Keys to success
- established passenger rail tradition to build on
- higher density urban system with spatial evenness
- priority over freight and operator of freight system
- integrated system of mobility options
- diverse fare and requency of services
What are some HSR considerations?
- will not reduce need for infrastructure funding for other modes
- not viable w/o substantial input of public funding (opportunity costs and political will)
- HSR project represents high financing risk for each party involved
- case for utilization of cost benefit analysis
