Browsing by Subject "Commuters"

Now showing 1 - 16 of 16
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    The ABC Parking Ramps in Minneapolis: A Unique Past. A Visionary Future.
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2019-03) Douma, Frank; Cao, Jason; Corcoran, Heidi; Fan, Yingling; Lari, Adeel; Rohde, Barbara; Alarcon, Frank; Dame, Rachel; Karner, Kevin
    In 1992 the ABC Ramps were completed in downtown Minneapolis as part of the I-394 construction project. The purpose of the ramps is to have programs that support efforts to reduce congestion and improve air quality by reducing SOV trips from the I-394 corridor. At the time the ramps were built, the ramp goals were aligned with the city of Minneapolis' parking system goals and the I-394 Corridor Management Plan. Since that time, however, the transportation modes, technologies, and plans surrounding the ramps have changed as well as the travel behaviors of the users. As the ramps reach the midpoint of their design life, this study examined the programs, policies, and goals developed for the ramps to ensure they continue to address current transportation challenges and align with regional stakeholder's goals and emerging trends, behaviors, and technology. The project culminated in a series of recommendations with implementation strategies for the ABC ramp management to improve its practice towards reducing congestion and improving air quality in downtown Minneapolis through innovative programming and marketing.
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    Environmental Pricing Policies for Transportation: A Distributional Analysis of the Twin Cities
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 1995-02) Kanninen, Barbara J.
    As the cost of transporting people increases, questions about paying for the accompanying air and noise pollution increase. This report investigates the distribution impacts of environmental pricing policies on groups in the Twin Cities. The study uses data on travel behavior in the Twin Cities to examine the distributional impacts of three types of environmental pricing policies: a $.65 optimal downtown, peak period congestion fee; a 10 percent gasoline tax; and a 50 percent transit fare reduction. It evaluates each policy in terms of aggregate welfare costs, revenues, emissions reductions, and cost-effectiveness and looks at distributional impacts by using four groupings--income, region, gender, and age. The study found that the congestion fee and gasoline tax are regressive, with the burdens of these taxes increasing with income and decreasing as shares of income. The transit subsidy, on the other hand, disproportionately benefits low-income individuals. Other findings show the advantages and disadvantages to urban and suburban commuters and noncommuters and senior citizens.
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    eWorkPlace Phase III Final Report
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-02) Lari, Adeel; Elabbady, Mona; Valenti, Alicia
    After enjoying significant success in the first two phases of eWorkPlace, the goals of eWorkPlace Phase III were to recruit 1,000 new teleworkers and eliminate 900 peak-hour trips per day, using the 35W@94 project in particular as an opportunity to promote telework among local employers. This report summarizes the goals and outcomes of the two prior phases of eWorkPlace and provides a detailed overview of the goals, outcomes, successes, and challenges of eWorkPlace Phase III. This report also captures the efforts of the eWorkPlace team to promote and help implement telework through events, training, and online resources. Though results from the Commuter Calculator Tool do not indicate that Phase III achieved all of its goals, the eWorkPlace team expects that promotion and implementation of telework as a result of eWorkPlace extended far beyond what was captured through the calculator. Finally, this report summarizes lessons learned from Phase III of eWorkPlace for consideration in any future phases of the project.
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    Hiawatha LRT Potential Commuters.
    (2006) Minnesota 3-D
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    Interstate 394 Commuter Patterns.
    (2006) Minnesota 3-D
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    Light Rail Transit Ridership Survey: Cedar Riverside Station
    (2006) Rohrer, Amanda; Farah, Ifrah; Mok, Kitman
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    The Minnesota Bicycle and Pedestrian Counting Initiative: Implementation Study
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2015-06) Lindsey, Greg; Petesch, Michael; Hankey, Steve
    The Minnesota Bicycle and Pedestrian Counting Initiative: Implementation Study reports results from the second in a series of three MnDOT projects to foster non-motorized traffic monitoring. The objectives were to install and validate permanent automated sensors, use portable sensors for short duration counts, develop models for extrapolating counts, and integrate continuous counts into MnDOT traffic monitoring databases. Commercially available sensors, including inductive loops, integrated inductive loops and passive infrared, pneumatic tubes, and radio beams, were installed both as permanent monitor sites and used for short-duration counts at a variety of locations in cities, suburbs, and small towns across Minnesota. All sensors tested in the study produced reasonably accurate measures of bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Most sensors undercounted because of their inability to distinguish and count bicyclists or pedestrians passing simultaneously. Accuracy varied with technology, care and configuration of deployment, maintenance, and analytic methods. Bicycle and pedestrian traffic volumes varied greatly across locations, with highest volumes being on multiuse trails in urban areas. FHWA protocols were used to estimate annual average daily traffic and miles traveled on an 80-mile multiuse trail network in Minneapolis. Project findings were incorporated in a new MnDOT guidance document, “DRAFT Bicycle and Pedestrian Data Collection Manual” used in statewide training workshops. A major challenge in implementing bicycle and pedestrian traffic monitoring is data management. Years will be required to institutionalize bicycle and pedestrian traffic successfully.
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    Smartphone-Based Interventions for Sustainable Travel Behavior: The University of Minnesota Parking Contract Holder Study
    (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2020-10) Fan, Yingling; Becker, Andy; Ryan, Galen; Wolfson, Julian; Guthrie, Andrew; Liao, Chen-Fu
    Innovative mobility apps have the power to transform the relationship between transportation networks and travelers. Capitalizing on the recent advancement in smartphone technology, this project develops a smartphone-based behavior intervention tool—named Daynamica—to provide customized, user-centered messages and graphics for promoting travel mode shifts from driving to more sustainable modes. The project tests the effectiveness of the intervention tool among University of Minnesota (UMN) parking contract holders. For each car trip made by a participant, the tool provides a mode shift plan based on the exact trip origin and destination. The tool also provides information describing the environmental impacts of the specific car trip and the personal benefits of switching to the alternative mode. The findings show that although 92 percent of participants are interested in trying alternative modes, in general, when it comes to specific trip considerations, only 36 percent of the car trips are considered reasonable alternative modes. There is ample interest among the most car-dependent population—parking contract holders—to explore alternative mode options; however, their interest is tempered by the limited alternative mode offerings in the region. Thus, it is recommended that transportation practitioners and policy makers improve these offerings. Furthermore, this research generates useful data to identify factors influencing mode shifting. Housing ownership, being male, making stops during the trip, and a late departure time for the morning commute are negatively associated with participants' receptiveness toward mode shifting. Finally, the report includes a novel analysis exploring the activity/trip chaining behaviors of the study participants.
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    Social Networks and ICT in Location Choice
    (University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, 2009-08) Tilahun, Nebiyou; Levinson, David
    Humans are social animals. We routinely interact with others learning about one another, about places, where to go and what places to avoid. Our activities are coordinated with others; sometimes because we explicitly seek to physically meet with those we know personally, other times the coordination is systemic because of norms and requirements of when those activities can take place (e.g. shopping when the shops are open etc.). With those personally known, interactions serve to exchange information, form social bonds and to create social support systems. With in the transportation realm, the social dimension comes into play in different ways. Two or more people who want to meet face to face have to select a meeting location and travel to that destination. People can also learn about short-term activity locations, or about residences and workplaces through others and make location decisions based upon them. These two areas of social contacts' influence in the location choice is the topic of this report. The report looks into how job search methods can impact home and work location patterns at the aggregate level. It also investigates the role job search methods and their outcomes play in subsequent relocation and residential location decisions at the individual level. A third element that will be considered is the relationship between home, work and activity locations for social meetings. The roles of social networks are explored in work finding, residential location choice, and choices of meeting locations.
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    Value of reliability: actual commute experience revealed preference approach.
    (2010-07) Carrion, Carlos
    This research investigates the value placed by travelers on HOT lanes because of improvements in travel time reliability. This value depends on how the travelers regard a route with predictable travel times (or small travel time variability) in comparison to another with unpredictable travel times (or high travel time variability). For this purpose, commuters were recruited and equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and instructed to commute for two weeks on each of three plausible alternatives between their home in the western suburbs of Minneapolis eastbound to work in downtown or the University of Minnesota: I-394 HOT lanes, I-394 General Purpose lanes (untolled), and signalized arterials close to the I-394 corridor. They were then given the opportunity to travel on their preferred route after experiencing each alternative. This revealed preference data was then analyzed using mixed logit route choice models. Three measures of reliability were explored and incorporated in the estimation of the models: standard deviation (a classical measure in the research literature); shortened right range (typically found in departure time choice models); and interquartile range (75th - 25th percentile). Each of these measures represents distinct ways about how travelers deal with different sections of reliability. In all the models, it was found that reliability was valued highly (and statistically significantly), but differently according to how it was defined. The estimated value of reliability in each of the models indicates that commuters are willing to pay a fee for a reliable route depending on how they value their reliability savings. Furthermore, a meta-analysis is performed in order to explain the differences across valuation ratio estimates across studies. The results indicate differences are significant across regions, choice dimension (e.g. mode choice), travel time unit (e.g. data collected at AM or PM), and year of study.
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    Work schedule flexibility and parking preferences
    (Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2017) Ng, Wei-Shiuen
    The flexibility of work schedule affects the number of commute trips made per week and the number of hours spent at work, which can influence congestion and transportation emission levels. Understanding the linkages between the flexibility of work schedule and travel behavior will provide insights for policies targeted at transportation and parking demand management. This study uses the University of California (UC) Berkeley campus as a study site. UC Berkeley is one of the largest employers in the San Francisco Bay Area with over 11,000 employees, leading to a wide range of employment type, job characteristics, and varying levels of work schedule flexibility. A total of 86 one-on-one interviews were conducted with UC Berkeley employees. This study explores common factors that contribute to UC Berkeley employees’ parking preferences and considers how academic discipline or employment type could affect work schedule, which in turn influences travel behavior. Driving is the most popular choice across employment type and job categories. However, not all employees who drive alone have the same parking location preferences. The flexibility of work schedule is one of the key factors that influences parking preferences at the workplace, especially when there are alternative parking locations.