Rail in Multimodal Transit Systems: Concept for Improving Urban Mobility by Increasing Choices for Travel and Lifestyle

1997 ◽  
Vol 1571 (1) ◽  
pp. 208-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Schumann
Keyword(s):  
Central Business District ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Niche Markets ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Community Patterns ◽  
Rail Systems ◽  
Business District

Metro areas relying on automobile-based transport are increasingly congested. Some alternatives to gridlock are being implemented; others languish without political acceptance. Congestion is more than a suburban issue. Both intersuburban and radial travel woes are growing and must be addressed. Agencies should start with bus improvements, then add rail where appropriate. Experience shows that, unlike purely radial systems, transit networks with many transfer opportunities offer options to users in more travel markets and, as a result, attract more riders. In the United States, rail is often viewed as serving just the central business district (CBD) and being incapable of accommodating suburban trips. In fact, radial rail lines can provide attractive options for trips to new centers near suburban rail stations, in addition to CBD trips. Rail systems become regional connections, linked via timed transfers at transit centers with bus and paratransit feeders and circulators. Clock headways and integrated fares complete a seamless multimodal, multidestinational system serving the CBD as well as emerging regional centers. Such systems work best as part of a comprehensive program for sustainable urban development, consciously planned by committed, far-sighted political leaders who build public consensus to implement a regional vision for community patterns that encourage a rich variety of lifestyle and mobility choices. Key to effecting such transport systems are ( a) competent transit management that seeks out and serves a variety of niche markets, and ( b) coordinated transportation and land use decision making that values transit links to major destinations and compact communities.

Straight Streets in a Curvaceous Crescent: Colonial Urban Planning and Its Impact on Modern New Orleans

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-211
Author(s):  
Richard Campanella
Keyword(s):  
New Orleans ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Spanish Colonial ◽  
French Quarter ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Land Surveying ◽  
Historical Architecture ◽  
Business District

New Orleans is justly famous for its vast inventory of historical architecture, representing scores of stylistic influences dating to the French and Spanish colonial eras. Less appreciated is the fact that the Crescent City also retains nearly original colonial urban designs. Two downtown neighborhoods, the French Quarter and Central Business District, are entirely undergirded by colonial-era planning, and dozens of other neighborhoods followed suit even after Americanization. New Orleanians who reside in these areas negotiate these colonial planning decisions in nearly every movement they make, and they reside in a state with as many colonial-era land surveying systems as can be found throughout the United States. This article explains how those patterns fell in place.

Urban Inequality in the United States

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Policy ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Urban Inequality ◽  
Business District ◽  
Unequal Opportunities

Urban inequality is a multidisciplinary field that incorporates political economists, geographers, sociologists, anthropologists, and historians, who describe the existence of unequal opportunities in urban spaces. Inequality manifests in a growing gap between the rich and poor and the dominance of unequal opportunities and access across the urban landscape. Vulnerable communities, including the poor and racial and ethnic groups, can be the most impacted by inequality. While inequality exists everywhere, American urban inequality is traditionally understood as being more concentrated in spaces in proximity to a city’s central business district. Efforts toward privatization, increasing global investment, and urban redevelopment reflect trends in replacing social welfare with private capital, increasing the vulnerability of urban inhabitants, but also providing a glaring illustration of who is most effected. Given this, what has developed in urban spaces with cumulative racial, economic, and gendered disadvantages is a mix of cultural norms, but also survival strategies, networks, and resistance. Political economists and geographers are useful at describing how economic engines of cities influence urban policy, and in turn disproportionately negatively affect neighborhoods with less social capital. Sociologists, anthropologists, and historians are useful in recounting the specific historical processes by which segregation and deindustrialization, to name a few factors, led to the stigmatization of urban spaces. What develops are specific frames and connections to unequal spaces that result in new cultural norms and new relationships in city neighborhoods as they face transitions with increasing private development.

Paired-Line Hybrid Transit System in a Monocentric City with Exponential Demand Pattern

2019 ◽  
Vol 2673 (9) ◽  
pp. 614-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sida Luo ◽  
Yu (Marco) Nie
Keyword(s):  
Central Business District ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Trip Distribution ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Demand Pattern ◽  
Linear Relationships ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Trip Production ◽  
Business District ◽  
The City

This paper analyzes the design problem of a paired-line hybrid transit system in a monocentric city with a densely populated central business district (CBD). The trip production rate is assumed to decrease exponentially with increasing distance from the city center. As to the trip distribution, two different areas, the CBD and the rest of the city, are identified. Trips ending in each area are homogeneously distributed within that area but their proportions in the total trips are distinctive to model the heterogeneity in trip distribution. To address the challenge of estimating system costs analytically under the above exponential demand pattern, new approximation methods are proposed and validated using a Monte Carlo simulation. Results of numerical experiments show that the exponential demand pattern helps reduce the cost of paired-line hybrid transit systems in monocentric cities, with a saving up to 20% when both the trip production and distribution are heavily concentrated in the CBD. Furthermore, strong quadratic/linear relationships are found between the parameters controling demand concentration level and the system cost. The proposed model can guide the design of hybrid transit systems in monocentric cities with a demand pattern similarly structured as considered in this study.

Rail Transit in the Next Millennium: Some Global Perspectives

2000 ◽  
Vol 1704 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert S. Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Rail Systems ◽  
Per Capita

Worldwide rail transit is discussed, focusing on grade-separated metro and light rail systems. Systems are compared by continent and country, number of lines per urban area, line lengths, station spacing, rail kilometers per million persons, annual rides per capita, and riders per route kilometer. Nine countries—the United States, the former Soviet Union, Germany, Japan, France, China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Canada—account for 68 percent of all rail transit systems. Ridership per capita is generally lowest in North America and highest on systems in the former Soviet Union. Europe has the largest number of systems, the most rail kilometers per million persons, and the third highest level in annual rides per capita. Comparisons and trends suggest a need for additional rail transit in the next millennium, as urban areas throughout the world continue to grow.

scholarly journals A land-use clustering approach to capturing the level-of-service of large urban corridors: A case study in downtown Los Angeles

2020 ◽  
pp. 239980832095420
Author(s):  
Junseo Bae ◽  
Kunhee Choi
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Critical Time ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
The United States ◽  
Level Of Service ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Business District ◽  
Spatial Area

Level-of-service has been widely used to measure the operational efficiency of existing highway systems categorically, based on certain ranges of traffic speeds. However, this existing method is generic for investigating urban traffic characteristics. Hence, there is a crucial knowledge gap in capturing the unique traffic speed conditions during a certain temporal duration, in a common spatial area that includes different land use clusters. This study fills this gap by modeling the link between traffic speeds and land use clusters during certain time periods, along with the given level-of-service criteria. As a case study, this study adopted the central business district in Los Angeles in the United States. A total of 1780 traffic sensor speed data on Interstate 10 East adjacent to the central business district of Los Angeles was collected and clustered by the land use designated by the zoning regulations of the city of Los Angeles. The proposed traffic time–speed curve model that integrates different land uses in a large urban core was then developed and validated statistically, using historical real-world traffic data. Finally, an illustrative example was presented to demonstrate how the proposed model can be implemented to measure critical time periods and corresponding speeds per land-use cluster, responding to the designated level-of-service criteria. This study focused on making recommendations for government transportation agencies to employ an appropriate method that can estimate critical time periods affecting the existing operational status of a highway segment in different land-use clusters within a common spatial area, while promoting an effective application of a set of traffic sensor speed data.

scholarly journals Central Business District Proposal for Vasai Virar City

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1027-1031
Author(s):  
Dipesh J. Patil
Keyword(s):  
United States Of America ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
The United States ◽  
Metropolitan Region ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
The People ◽  
Job Opportunities ◽  
Central Business Districts ◽  
Business District ◽  
The City

Abstract: The concept of the Central Business District is somewhat new due to that there is a lack of Central Business Districts in India. In the early ages when the concept was introduced at that time this concept was mainly focused on the United States of America and the European countries which are developed now. To increase the development speed of the country Central Business Districts should be introduced to create more job opportunities which will help to decrease the unemployment rate of the country. In Vasai-Virar Municipal Area, there is a lack of commercial spaces, affecting the city's employment opportunities. The idea of the Central Business District will help to develop the city and increase the revenue of the municipality. Vasai-Virar Central Business District will soon be established as a strong alternative to Mumbai and an economically developed or developing city in terms of employment and will help create sustainable employment opportunities for the economically backward Vasai-Virar and the people living nearby. This project mainly focuses on the potential of Central Business District development in Vasai-Virar city to overcome the unemployment and revenue generation options for Municipality. Keywords: Central Business District, Unemployment, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Vasai-Virar city, Commercial and Trade activity

Aluminum/Stainless Steel Conductor Technology: A Case for its Adoption in the US

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. G. Forman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Stainless Steel ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Rail Systems ◽  
The Us ◽  
Economic Perspectives

Numerous technologies exist for providing electrical power to transit systems. Where overhead space is costly or where overhead structures may be deemed obtrusive, 3rd rail is a reliable and cost-effective way to provide considerable power to transit vehicles. Since the early years of railway electrification, 3rd rail conductors have evolved from steel to aluminum/steel composite to aluminum/stainless steel compositions. Aluminum stainless steel conductors are currently used in approximately 40% of the over 10,000km of 3rd rail systems worldwide. Adoption of this technology in the United States, however, stands at less than 5%. This paper examines aluminum/stainless steel 3rd rail technology from technical and economic perspectives. The author makes a case for its adoption in new and existing 3rd rail systems in the United States.

Transit-Focused Development and Light Rail Systems: The Lite Connection

1998 ◽  
Vol 1623 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas R. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
The Real Estate ◽  
Rail Systems ◽  
Transit Agencies ◽  
Environmental Goals ◽  
Business District ◽  
Heavy Rail

Building on a 19-region study of transit-focused development, some directions are suggested for evolving development opportunities associated with the light rail transit systems built and planned in recent decades. Transportation and land use planners continue to propound the concept of transit-focused development that can increase use of transit systems, reduce dependency on automobiles, create desirable living and working environments, and help to meet environmental goals. In their expectations of achieving a substantial amount of transit-focused development, however, planners must recognize the realities of the real estate markets, public policy trends, and the nature of rail lines themselves. Especially along the light rail lines that provide service in many regions, development opportunities will be influenced by changes in the development industry and its primary markets, increasing deference to neighborhood and community groups in decision making regarding development, and the generally lower intensity of use of suburban rail stations compared with many stations along heavy rail lines. Successful development around light rail stations, as with heavy rail systems, will require a timely confluence of market demand with supportive public policies and actions. Unlike experience with heavy rail systems, however, noncentral-business-district stations on light rail lines are more likely to attract relatively small, uncomplicated projects. Transit agencies and local governments will be required to invest more time and energy in nurturing these kinds of projects.

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