JTLU Volume 9, No. 1 (2016)

Persistent link for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/181559

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Journal of Transport and Land Use enters year nine, pp. 1-7

Viewpoint: Quantifying residential self-selection effects: A review of methods and findings from applications of propensity score and sample selection approaches, pp. 9-28

Line structure representation for road network analysis, pp. 29-64

Shape grammars overview and assessment for transport and urban design: Review, terminology, assessment, and application, pp. 65-96

A multiscale classiﬁcation of urban morphology, pp. 101-130

Accessibility and the choice of network investments in the London Underground, pp. 131-150

Development of rail infrastructure and its impact on urbanization in the Randstad, the Netherlands, pp. 151-170

Toward a spatial-temporal measure of land-use mix, pp. 171-186

Assessing built environment walkability using activity-space summary measures, pp. 187-207

Active accessibility: A review of operational measures of walking and cycling accessibility, pp. 209-235

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Introduction: The Journal of Transport and Land Use enters year nine
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Levinson, David M.
With this issue, the Journal of Transport and Land Use enters its ninth volume (and many articles from volume 10 can be found online under Forthcoming). Since our last update (Levinson 2013), JTLU has continued to grow and expand. Many of the articles in the issues in this and next volume were selected from papers presented at the 2014 World Symposium on Transport Land Use Research in Delft. We look forward to many more years of continued research and publication in this field.
Viewpoint: Quantifying residential self-selection effects: A review of methods and findings from applications of propensity score and sample selection approaches
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Mokhtarian, Patricia L.; van Herick, David
The phenomenon whereby individuals self-select into their residential environment based on previously determined preferences for how to travel is known as residential self-selection (RSS). Numerous studies have investigated the influence of RSS on the estimated effect of the built environment on travel behavior. However, surprisingly few have actually quantified its effect in terms of partitioning the total influence of the built environment (BE) on travel behavior into a component attributable to RSS and one attributable to the built environment itself. This paper reviews 10 analyses (found in seven studies) that have quantified the proportion of the total influence of the built environment that is due to the BE itself (which we call the BEP), using either propensity-score or sample-selection approaches to control for RSS. After first outlining the basics of each approach, we then explain the various methods used to compute the BEP, followed by a discussion of the empirical results. The estimated BEPs vary widely, ranging from 34 percent to 98 percent. A number of reasons for these disparities are suggested, but there is considerable divergence in estimates even when many of these factors are held constant. Additional research is called for to better understand the circumstances under which the BEP is higher or lower.
Line structure representation for road network analysis
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Marshall, Stephen
Road hierarchy and network structure are intimately linked; however, there is not a consistent basis for representing and analyzing the particular hierarchical nature of road network structure. This paper introduces the line structure—identified mathematically as a kind of linearly ordered incidence structure—as a means of representing road network structure and demonstrates its relation to existing representations of road networks: the “primal” graph, the “dual” graph, and the route structure. In doing so, the paper shows how properties of continuity, junction type, and hierarchy relating to differential continuity and termination are necessarily absent from primal and dual graph representations but intrinsically present in line structure representations. A new property indicative of hierarchical status—“cardinality”—is introduced and illustrated with application to example networks. The paper concludes by highlighting newly explicit relationships between different kinds of road network structure representation.
Shape grammars overview and assessment for transport and urban design: Review, terminology, assessment, and application
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Vitins, Basil Janis; Axhausen, Kay W.
Shape grammars for urban design have attracted much interest in research and practice. Transport and urban planners increasingly deploy shape grammars, especially in simulations and procedural models. Shape grammars have multiple advantages due to their interdisciplinary and straightforward approach and low computational requirements. In addition, a rule-based design method and underlying fundamental research knowledge can potentially support future planning and design guidelines for handbooks and norms. However, little is known about the effectiveness of shape grammars in transport networks and urban environments. The proposed methodology aims at a future development of a robust and effective language for sustainable urban development. The theory of different fields is consolidated for a general grammar definition. Grammars require specified and corresponding objectives and application specifications for enhanced implementation. The proposed methodology for grammar rule assessment is based on elasticities to gain more insights in the effect of the rules. Elasticities allow comprehensive comparisons and verification between grammar rules. The paper reviews and highlights the key achievements and applications of shape grammars in cognate fields of science. Terminology sheds light on the definitions of most relevant terms including a general definition for grammar rules embedded in the language context. The paper differentiates methodological approaches in grammar design assessment and emphasizes a standardized approach for shape grammar definitions. The paper concludes with a detailed example for grammar rule assessment and potential future research.
A multiscale classiﬁcation of urban morphology
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Schirmer, Patrick M.; Axhausen, Kay W.
Various studies in the field of urban planning and design have given recommendations for "good urban forms," suggesting that specific spatial characteristics inform the quality of an urban landscape and the way people perceive and behave in them. When modeling spatial behavior in the form of location choice models or hedonic prices, we should reflect these spatial characteristics through the integration of quantitative attributes such as model variables, which is currently only done in a very limited way. The increasing availability of disaggregated geodata enlarges the options to characterize urban morphology in the form of such attributes. The question for the researcher is which attributes are most useful to reflect characteristics of urban morphology and how can they be processed from the given data. In this paper, we want to address this issue and give an overview of quantitative descriptions of urban morphology. We base our work on a data model that is simple enough to allow for reproducibility in any study area. These attributes are classified in multiple scales to reflect different perceptions of urban morphology. In a case study on the canton of Zurich, we furthermore prove how these characteristics allow for the definition of urban typologies at different scales.
Accessibility and the choice of network investments in the London Underground
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Levinson, David M.; Giacomin, David; Badsey-Ellis, Antony
In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway of what came to be known as the London Underground successfully opened as the world's first subway. Its high ridership spawned interest in additional links. Entrepreneurs secured funding and then proposed new lines to Parliament for approval, though only some were actually approved. While putative rail barons may have conducted some economic analysis, the final decision lay with Parliament, which did not have modern transportation, economic, or geographic analysis tools available. How good were the decisions that Parliament made in approving Underground lines? This paper explores the role accessibility played in the decision to approve or reject proposed early London Tube schemes. It finds that maximizing accessibility to population (highly correlated with revenue and ridership) per expenditure largely explains Parliamentary approvals and rejections.
Development of rail infrastructure and its impact on urbanization in the Randstad, the Netherlands
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Kasraian, Dena; Maat, Kees; van Wee, Bert
Long-term, large-scale empirical studies on the simultaneous development of transport infrastructure and the built environment are scarce. This paper provides a long-term study of the development of the railway network and its impact on the built-up area—and vice versa—using the case study of the Randstad in the Netherlands between 1850 and 2010. The analysis is both qualitative and quantitative. We describe the shares of the built-up area in concentric buffers of 1-kilometer intervals from railway stations and estimate binomial logit models to predict the likelihood of new stations being built based on the amount of the preceding and subsequent built-up area and the likelihood that a new station might have encouraged further growth. Results show that during the early days stations followed existing urbanization patterns. But as time went by, new stations were more likely to be located in undeveloped areas and less likely to be located within the established built-up areas, which were already serviced by existing stations. Moreover, they prompted further growth, increasing the likelihood of more urbanization in their vicinity.
Toward a spatial-temporal measure of land-use mix
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Gehrke, Steven R.; Clifton, Kelly J.
Urban planning and public-health research has long been interested in the connection between land-use mix and travel. Interest from urban planners stems from the potential of transportation efficiency gains achieved by an increased land-use mix and subsequent shortening of trip lengths; whereas, public-health research advocates an increased land-use mix as an effective policy for facilitating greater physical activity. Yet, despite the transportation, land-use, and health benefits related to improving land-use mix and the extent of topical attention given by researchers, no consensus has been reached regarding the magnitude of its effect on travel. This absence of agreement may largely be attributed to the theoretical and methodological failings persistent in present attempts to accurately reflect land-use interaction and operationalize its quantification within a defined spatial extent. To better evaluate the impact of land-use mix on travel behavior and assess more temporal policies, a robust mix measure accounting for these two elements of land-use interaction and geographic scale as well as a temporal element of land-use mixing—missing from present specifications—must be introduced. This paper establishes the research agenda for a spatial-temporal land-use mix measure by (1) identifying the conceptual and methodological faults inherent to current land-use interaction and geographic-scale representations and (2) describing strategies and practical benefits of representing the temporal availability of land-use mixing in guiding innovative transportation/land-use policies.
Assessing built environment walkability using activity-space summary measures
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Tribby, Calvin P.; Miller, Harvey J.; Brown, Barbara B.; Werner, Carol M.; Smith, Ken R.
There is increasing emphasis on active transportation, such as walking, in transportation planning as a sustainable form of mobility and in public health as a means of achieving recommended physical activity and better health outcomes. A research focus is the influence of the built environment on walking, with the ultimate goal of identifying environmental modifications that invite more walking. A key issue is determining the spatial units for walkability measures so that they reflect potential walking behavior. This paper develops methods for assessing walkability within individual activity spaces: the geographic region accessible to an individual during a given walking trip. Based on objective walkability measures of the street blocks, we use three summary measures for walkability within activity spaces: i) the average walkability score across block segments, ii) the standard deviation, and iii) the network autocorrelation. We assess the method using data from an empirical study of built environment walkability and walking behavior in Salt Lake City, Utah. We visualize these activity-space summary measures to compare walkability among individuals’ trips within their neighborhoods. We also compare summary measures for activity spaces versus Census block groups, with the result that they agree less than half of the time.
Active accessibility: A review of operational measures of walking and cycling accessibility
(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Vale, David S.; Saraiva, Miguel; Pereira, Mauro
Active travel is enthusiastically promoted in the Western world due to its clear and demonstrated individual and collective benefits. While active travel has been shown to be associated with features of the built environment such as density and land-use mix, it is also associated with walking and cycling accessibility—which we designate as active accessibility. However, the measurement of active accessibility is not straightforward and it can represent significantly different features of the built environment. This paper presents an extensive review of published research that measures active accessibility. We classified the literature into four categories based on the methodology used: distance-based, gravity-based or potential, topological or infra- structure-based, and walkability and walk score-type measures. A fifth category was created to classify outliers consisting of distinct methodological approaches or hybrids of the four main categories. We argue that almost all of these methods have conceptual and computational limitations, and that there are inconsistencies in the use of concepts and terms. Furthermore, no sensitivity analysis was carried out on the selected parameters. We conclude by presenting some guidelines that might improve the value and clarity of active accessibility research, theory, and practice.