Category News&Updates
December 3, 2021, Posted in News&Updates
We are pleased to announce that Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities will resume publishing World Transport Policy and Practice. This highly regarded online journal was founded in 1995 by John Whitelegg in England. We are pleased that John has agreed to continue to serve on the editorial board. Please read more at worldtransportjournal.org.
Draft articles are currently being accepted for consideration; deadlines are January 15, 2022 for the Spring issue and June 30, 2022 for the Fall 2022 issue. Information on what and how to submit can be found here www.worldtransportjournal.org
As before, all unsolicited articles will be peer-reviewed to ensure high quality and relevant content.
We are also in need of volunteer peer reviewers...
April 8, 2021, Posted in News&Updates
This course is being taught by Jeff Kenworthy, an Emeritus Professor at Curtin University, Australia and a Guest Professor in Sustainable Cities, Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Germany.
A comprehensive course for those who are working with city planning or traffic planning on a strategic or practical level in municipalities, regions, public transport authorities, administrations or consultancies.
Learn from cities all around the world how to reduce dependence on the car and create a more sustainable, green and livable urban environment,
The course will run June 14 to 24, Monday to Thursday over a two-week period from 13:00 (1.00 pm) to 17:00 (5.00 pm) Central European Time.
For more information, visit: www.routledge...
October 2, 2020, Posted in News&Updates
We are pleased to announce that MTI has just published our research entitled Characteristics of Effective Metropolitan Areawide Public Transit: A Comparison of European, Canadian, and Australian Case Studies.
Ten metropolitan areas in Europe, Canada and Australia with highly effective regional transit systems were evaluated to identify commonalities that could contribute to their high public transit usage. This research focused on key characteristics from the perspective of the metropolitan area transit as a system, not the individual transit operators...
July 9, 2020, Posted in News&Updates
Join us for this free half-hour webinar on July 30 at 10:00 AM, sponsored by MTI as San José State University. Register at tinyurl.com. Michelle DeRobertis will briefly present findings from this research which focussed on ten metropolitan areas in Europe, Canada and Australia with highly effective regional transit systems.
Each area was evaluated to identify commonalities that could contribute to their high public transit usage. This research focused on key characteristics from the perspective of the metropolitan area transit as a system, not the individual transit operators...
January 28, 2020, Posted in News&Updates
Michelle DeRobertis will be moderator for the ITE webinar “Innovative Approaches to Multimodal Transportation Assessments”.
It will take place November 21, 2019 at noon Pacific time.
It will feature speakers from Washington DC DOT and San Francisco Planning Department.
Registration is available at this link: www.pathlms.com
August 6, 2019, Posted in News&Updates
June 18, 2020, Posted in News&Updates
Dear Friends,
Please note that the planned Symposium on Green Streets for Sustainable Communities Symposium, originally planned as an in-person day-long symposium in March 2020, has been transformed to a multi-day event for the fall.
We have decided to transform the in-person format to a series of three, connected interactive, information-rich three-hour sessions. Our streets are a crucial community resource, now more than ever. We hope that you will reserve the time and join for all three sessions.
Each day will begin at 8:30 am with an informal & optional networking time.
Each program will begin at 9 am and conclude by 12 noon.
Day 1 – Vision and Economics (Thursday, September 10, 2020)
Day 2 – Case Studies (Friday, September 25, 2020)
Day 3 – Funding Strategies (Thursday,&...
Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities is pleased to announce the latest issue of World Transport Policy and Practice (WTPP Issue 26.1) is now available at worldtransportjournal.com
This is a special issue to celebrate the work of Joe Kott, our main co-founder who died in February 2019. It highlights his career which made valuable contributions to sustainable transport and liveable streets. All of the articles are thought-provoking and were either written by Joe or reflect Joe’s influence directly or indirectly, ranging from Pedestrian Streets and Green Streets to Cars and Cities and the Freedom to Drive.
A few words about Dr. Joe Kott from our Board President:
I was fortunate to be on the Palo Alto City Council ...
November 19, 2019, Posted in News&Updates
On June 27 2019 Michelle DeRobertis gave a presentation at the Twelfth Global Studies Conference, held in Krakow, Poland. Her presentation was based on the abstract submitted by TCSC founder Joseph Kott, prior to his untimely death last February. His abstract was entitled:
Global Inspiration for US Urban Transport Innovation.
Joe’s vision was to present to the multidisciplinary conference how the global exchange of ideas has improved U.S. transportation and furthermore, such information exchanges are important to continue. His abstract is presented below.
Abstract:
Since the era of urban transport reform and focus on more sustainable
mobility in America began in earnest in the early 1990s, Americans have
looked abroad for inspiration. Americans have studied, then eventually
implemented, bi...
February 24, 2019, Posted in News&Updates, Uncategorized
We at Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities are deeply saddened to announce that our co-founder, vice chair, and exceptional friend, Dr. Joseph Kott, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on February 14 of heart failure. This has come as a shock to all of us as he was in good health and had a zest for life and for helping others that was contagious.
Joe initially conceived of the idea of founding this nonprofit organization to conduct needed studies in sustainable transportation that were not being addressed in typical RFPs and research. He recruited each of TCSC’s principals individually, and indeed, most of the Board. He was TCSC’s most ardent supporter, and its most important leader – in large measure, he was the glue that bound us together...
February 23, 2018, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute, a 501c3 corporation, is delighted to announce the election yesterday of Meghna Tare to our Board of Directors and the appointment of Dr. Chris Ferrell as Executive Director.
Ms. Tare is Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Global Impact at the University of Texas at Arlington and an experienced executive in public policy for sustainability in the Dallas, Texas metropolitan area. She holds three master’s degrees, in chemistry from the University of San Francisco, environmental studies from San Jose State University, and sustainable business management from Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco...
December 8, 2017, Posted in News&Updates
On September 27, 2013 California’s governor signed SB 743 into law, in part mandating the transition from a level of service (LOS)-based to a vehicle-miles traveled (VMT)-based transportation impact analysis for environmental impact review in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities (Consultant) has been hired by Changelab Solutions (Client) to perform a case study analysis of the ongoing efforts underway at a variety of local governments to comply with this change in the law...
June 5, 2017, Posted in News&Updates, Uncategorized
The following paper was published in the June 2017 issue of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal.
Enjoy!
Abstract
The convergence of many issues makes it timely to reassess the role of the urban arterial: environmental concerns, climate change, complete streets, sustainability, urban livability indices, and indeed less per capita driving. While some might say technology will save us, this paper purports that something more fundamental needs to change.
December 20, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Entering the ZTL portion of Piazza Vittorio Veneto in Torino, where LRT is also permitted.
Transportation Choices Principal Michelle DeRobertis has just published an article in the ITE Journal (December 2016) about Italy’s traffic-limited zones, or ZTL in Italian. Entitled Traffic-Restricted Zones in Italy: The Most Widespread Traffic Control Strategy You’ve Never Heard Of, the paper describes the distinctly Italian practice of prohibiting all but residents (and taxis and a few other special categories of vehicles) from driving within historic city centers. They are present in Italian towns with populations ranging from 2,300 to Rome, with 2.3 million. The evolution and implementation of over 270 ZTL since the 1980’s inspired Michelle to enroll in a Ph.D...
September 24, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal and Vice-President Dr. Joseph Kott has been awarded a non-profit organization conference registration scholarship to attend Rail-Volution, the annual national conference of rail passenger service advocates, planners, and researchers. This year’s Rail-Volution will be in San Francisco from October 9th through October 12th.
August 19, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Dr. Christopher Ferrell has joined Transportation Choices as a Principal. Dr. Ferrell has had a distinguished career of more than twenty years in sustainable transportation research, education, and practice. He holds a doctorate in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley and has been a Research Associate for the Mineta Transportation Institute since 2005.
June 14, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal Dr. Joseph Kott gave a presentation on June 13th on the failure, success, and prospects of pedestrian streets and districts in the United States at the International Conference on Transport and Health. The conference was hosted by the Mineta Transportation Institute on the San Jose State University campus.
Congratulations to Yoriko Kishimoto on her re-election as President, to Dr. Joseph Kott on his re-election as Vice President, to Dr. Richard Lee as incoming Treasurer, and to John Eells as incoming Secretary of the Board of Directors of Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities. Appreciation to Michelle DeRobertis on concluding her successful four years as both Board Treasurer and Secretary. Congratulations to Dr. John Renne and John Duncan on their re-election to four-year terms and to Celia Chung on her election to a four-year term on the Board of Directors.
December 12, 2015, Posted in News&Updates
July 21, 2015, Posted in News&Updates
May 5, 2015, Posted in News&Updates
December 15, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
June 6, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
The latest issue of the digital journal World Transport Policy and Practice is now available. The economic performance of investments in sustainable transport is the focus of this new issue:
worldtransportjournal.com
Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities is a funder of World Transport Policy and Practice through a generous grant from the Helen and William Mazer Foundation.
May 21, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute received a $40.250 grant from Wells Fargo to fund scholarships for sixteen students for four mentors, including Transportation Choices Principal and Vice President Dr. Joseph Kott, to attend World Energy Innovation Forum 2016 on May 4th and 5th at Tesla Motors in Fremont, California. The Forum featured some of today’s most influential thought leaders in sustainable energy and transportation, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu. For more information on this conference, visit http://worldenergyinnovationforum.com/.
May 13, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal and Vice-President Dr. Joseph Kott presented on Saturday, May 7th at Let’s Get Moving Silicon Valley! 2016 Summit on the topic of California’s effort in SB 743 to transform traffic impact analysis under CEQA to support sustainable transportation goals. The Summit, organized by the Bay Area transportation and land use reform group Transform, took place at the Microsoft campus in Mountain View, CA.
April 28, 2016, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal Michelle DeRobertis started a committee of the Institute of Transportation Engineers in spring of 2014 to conduct a State of the Practice review of how cities and other agencies across the U.S. and Canada are considering Public Transit in traffic impact studies.
A status of the committee work to day was recently published in the ITE Journal in June 2015.
Read it here.
July 2, 2015, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal Dr. Joe Kott was interviewed recently for SF Streetsblog on a controversial proposal to add freeway capacity for cars on Highway 101 south of San Francisco in suburban San Mateo County. The highway widening solution has a marked tendency to feed on itself, as Dr. Kott points out, in that after a great expenditure to “solve” traffic congestion it almost invariably leads to the appearance of even more cars. In turn this results in more car dependence and more auto traffic congestion, hence pressure for more highway widening!
Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute is pleased to announce Dr. Richard W. Lee’s election to the Board of Directors. Dr. Lee is a certified planner, transportation consultant and academic with a longstanding and wide-ranging interest in sustainable transport and human-scale cities. He has over 30 years of diverse experience in transportation and urban planning. His fundamental career aim is to integrate the best academic research into the practice of transportation planning. He holds a Ph.D. in City & Regional Planning as well as master’s degrees in both city planning and civil engineering from the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and a BA (History) from Carleton College...
May 2, 2015, Posted in News&Updates
ransportation Choices Principal Dr. Joseph Kott spoke about “The Emergence of Sustainable Transportation in America’s Communities” on April 30, 2015 at the 2015 Sustainable Enterprise Conference in Rohnert Park, CA. Dr. Kott illustrated the variety and creativity of efforts to reduce automobile dependence in communities as diverse at New York City, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and Portland, Oregon.
Dear Friends and Supporters of Transportation Choices,
Transportation Choices has had a successful year, one that included our being designated by the IRS as a 501c3 nonprofit for tax purposes. During the year conducted an important study of modal equity in San Francisco, co-authored an ITE Journal article on the need to make traffic impact studies truly multimodal, obtained a grant to support the distinguished journal, World Transport Policy and Practice, and made many presentations on sustainable transportation topics. These and other activities are highlighted in our 2014 Annual Report.
Please consider Transportation Choices in your end of year giving plans...
November 19, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Sandwich Symposium on Sustainable Transportation
Leveling the Playing Field for Sustainable Transportation: Reforming Traffic Impact Analysis to Support Mode Choice and Environmental Quality
Michelle DeRobertis, PE
Principal, Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute
Noon – 1 PM, Friday, December 5, 2014
Transform
436 14th St.
Oakland, CA 94612
The Sandwich Symposium on Sustainable Transportation is co-sponsored by Transform and Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute. For more information, visit http://www.transformca.org/ and http://transportchoice.org/
November 10, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principals Dr. Richard W. Lee and Dr. Joseph Kott have been appointed to the Multimodal Technical Advisory Committee for the Technology Transfer Program at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies.
October 31, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
We are pleased to present our report “San Francisco Modal Equity Study” which
compares the existing mode splits in San Francisco with how much roadway
space is dedicated to each mode and also evaluates the maintenance costs
by revenue source.
Among other findings:
Parking lanes in San Francisco constitute 15 % of the paved roadway area, representing a real estate value of between $8 and $35 billion.
Parking in San Francisco total 902 miles; 6 times the length of all the bike lanes (143).
75% of all bike lane miles were built since 2000;
Bicycling constitutes 4% of the mode split but only 1.4 % of the roadway space is dedicated to bicycle lanes
There are 36 lane miles of dedicated transit lanes vs 211 lanes miles of freeway lanes
October 25, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices has been awarded a grant from the Helen & William Mazer Foundation in the amount of £5,000 per year for three years. These funds will be passed through to the journal World Transport Policy & Practice to assist in their desktop publication expenses. World Transport Policy and Practice will acknowledge the support of Transportation Choices in each issue and provide space to promote any Transportation Choices workshop, symposium, or other activity.
October 19, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal Dr. Richard Lee gave a presentation on October 18th as a member of a panel moderated by Transportation Choices Principal Dr. Joe Kott at the annual Fall Symposium of the Urban Planning Coalition, an extracurricular group organized by the graduate students within the San Jose State University Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The Symposium theme this year was “Millennials and Boomers: Planning for Changing Demographics in the Bay Area”. Dr. Lee and Dr. Kott were part of the panel on “Life Beyond Privately-Owned Cars: Exploring Alternative Transportation Options to Create Multi-generational Communities”.
October 4, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal Dr. Joe Kott will moderate a panel entitled “Life Beyond Privately Owned Cars: Exploring Alternative Transportation Options to create multi-generational communities” at the San Jose State Urban Planning Coalition Fall Symposium. The Urban Planning Coalition is an extracurricular group organized by graduate students within the San Jose State University Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The Fall Symposium will take place on Saturday, October 18th, from 9 AM to 3 PM. at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library on the San Jose State campus.
This year’s theme is entitled “Millennials and Boomers: Planning for Changing Demographics in the Bay Area”. For more information and to register, follow the link below:
September 30, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices Principal Dr. Joe Kott lectured on “The Emergence of Sustainable Transportation in America’s Communities” at San Jose State University’s Department of Environmental Studies Departmental Symposium on September 23rd.
August 31, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
We are pleased to announce that Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute has been granted non-profit 501(c)3 non-profit status by the IRS as a public charity. As a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, Transportation Choices now qualifies for foundation and other grant funding that requires this IRS status and all donations are tax exempt in accordance with IRS regulations.
August 22, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Michelle DeRobertis’ proposal for a session at the ProWalk/ProBike/ProPlace conference in Pittsburgh PA in September has been accepted. The session is entitled: “Transportation Studies in the 21st Century” and continues on the theme of her recently published article in the ITE Journal “Changing The Paradigm Of Traffic Impact Studies: How Typical Traffic Studies Inhibit Sustainable Transportation”.
Michelle is very pleased to have three excellent speakers from three progressive cities on the panel to describe their city’s traffic study methodologies as well as the challenges these cities faced in incorporating the needs of sustainable modes into the Traffic Impact Studies and land development process: Peter Albert with the City of San Francisco CA, David Thompson with the City of Boulder C...
August 22, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
On July 16, 2014 Michelle DeRobertis spoke at the SPUR Luncheon on the topic of Seamless Transit. Michelle’s presentation highlighted the German concept of public transit coordination agencies, called verkehsrverbund.
http://www.spur.org/events/2014-07-16/seamless-transit
All major and medium-sized european cities have multiple transit providers, but what they have that we don’t have is an coordinating agency that is composed of transit agency representatives. The solution to transit fragementation in the Bay Area is coordination not consolidation.
Michelle also presented the same topic to SPUR’s transportation policy board that afternoon, where many members were familiar with verkehsrverbund, from their personal or profesional experiences in Germany.
May 2, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
The May 2014 issue of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Journal has published an article written by the four principals of Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities. Titled “Changing The Paradigm Of Traffic Impact Studies: How Typical Traffic Studies Inhibit Sustainable Transportation”, the article makes the case that the auto-focussed approach of conducting traffic impact studies of the last five decades has inhibited the planning and implementation of sustainable transportation modes i.e walking, biking and transit. We look forward to continuing reverse this trend in our future work.
If you are an ITE member you can see it at www.ite.org and read it in the hard copy edition of the ITE Journal...
April 1, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Professor Reid Ewing was elected to the Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute Board of Directors at the Board’s March 27, 2014 meting. Dr. Ewing is a Professor of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah, associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, and columnist for Planning magazine, writing the bi-monthly column Research You Can Use. Earlier in his career, he was director of the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University, research professor at the National Center for Smart Growth, state representative from northwest Tucson, and analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. He holds master’s degrees in Engineering and City Planning from Harvard University, and a Ph.D...
March 15, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Principal Dr. Joseph Kott gave the transportation keynote address at the 11th Annual North Carolina State University Urban Design Conference in Raleigh on March 7th. The title of this year’s conference was “Density in Place: Design Works.” Joe’s talk was entitled “Transforming Streets, Transforming Freeways: The Emerging Transportation System in America’s Communities and Metro Areas “. Dr. Kott called the movement to create sustainable, multi-modal, context sensitive roadways “the next new frontier for sustainable cities and sustainable transportation”. Joe observed that “America is beginning to reverse the decades-long journey to automobile dependence described so well by Clay McShane in his brilliant book, ‘Down the Asphalt Path’...
March 2, 2014, Posted in News&Updates
Dr. Richard (Rick) Lee has joined the Transportation Choices for Sustainable Communities Research and Policy Institute as a Principal. Dr. Lee is a certified planner, transportation consultant and academic with a longstanding and wide-ranging interest in sustainable transport and human-scale cities. He has over 30 years of diverse experience in transportation and urban planning. His consulting experience includes management of regional transportation plans, general plans, rail and bus transit projects, smart growth transportation studies, and a wide variety of traffic forecast studies. His fundamental career aim is to integrate the best academic research into the practice of transportation planning.
Dr. Lee holds a Ph.D...