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PARTICIPATION: A MODEL OF INDIVIDUAL WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PROCESS
Title
PARTICIPATION: A MODEL OF INDIVIDUAL WILLINGNESS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PROCESS.
Creator
Neidhart, Michael, Lawther, Wendell, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This study sought to identify the key determinants that lead individuals to participate in the transportation planning process. Two models of participation, one for the short-term and another for the long-term, were developed to test whether the key internal and external determinants are responsible for influencing a person's willingness to participate. The data for this study came from a mail-back survey that was administered to a random sample of 570 individuals throughout the State of...
Show moreThis study sought to identify the key determinants that lead individuals to participate in the transportation planning process. Two models of participation, one for the short-term and another for the long-term, were developed to test whether the key internal and external determinants are responsible for influencing a person's willingness to participate. The data for this study came from a mail-back survey that was administered to a random sample of 570 individuals throughout the State of Florida for a response rate of 37.37 percent. The results indicate that the internal motivational determinants exert more influence on a person's short-term willingness to participate as compared to a person's long-term willingness to participate. In addition, the external social capital determinants exert more influence on a person's long-term willingness to participate as compared to a person's short-term willingness to participate. However, only one of the three external citizenship orientation variables, participatory citizenship orientation, was found to be influential in determining a person's short-term willingness to participate. Recommendations were made for public managers to work collaboratively with the public as a participative facilitator, thereby opening up the decision-making process to the general public. One suggested course of action is for public managers to use existing civic organizations as a base for widening an agency's long-term planning outreach programs. In addition, suggestions for future research propose that qualitative studies delve in-depth into the positive/negative feelings related to participation, as well as look at how different public participation techniques may affect a person's willingness to participate, especially as it relates to different time frames.
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Date Issued
2005
Identifier
CFE0000452, ucf:46400
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000452
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN TRANSPORTATION: AN EMPERICAL TEST FOR AUTHENTIC PARTICIPATION
Title
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN TRANSPORTATION: AN EMPERICAL TEST FOR AUTHENTIC PARTICIPATION.
Creator
Figueredo, Jorge, Wang, Xiaohu, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
This dissertation examines the public participation activities of State Departments of Transportation (SDOTs) in the United States. A review of existing literature and legal frameworks suggests that an "authentic" public participation results when dimensions of representativeness, use of public inputs, interactiveness, and quality of citizen inputs have been achieved. The study sought to identify conditions that serve as measurements that must presumably be satisfied for authenticity to exist...
Show moreThis dissertation examines the public participation activities of State Departments of Transportation (SDOTs) in the United States. A review of existing literature and legal frameworks suggests that an "authentic" public participation results when dimensions of representativeness, use of public inputs, interactiveness, and quality of citizen inputs have been achieved. The study sought to identify conditions that serve as measurements that must presumably be satisfied for authenticity to exist in public participation. The result was a Model of Authentic Public Participation that served as the basis for creation of a new four-tiered methodology to assess the performance of these districts relative to authenticity requirements. This study also sought to identify the key determinants that lead districts to achieve Authentic Public Participation in District public involvement programs. A Predictor Model for Authentic Public Participation was created to test whether the key internal and external determinants are responsible for districts achieving authenticity in their public participation programs. The data for this study came from a mail-back survey that was administered to senior district administrators in 380 State Departments of Transportation districts in the United States. A total of 233 surveys were returned for a response rate of 61.3 percent. The results of the study suggest that most SDOT districts struggle to implement public participation programs that achieve high levels of authenticity. The increased use of public participation tools, specifically those active tools that allow for increased interaction between district staff and the public, can assist districts in achieving higher levels of authenticity in their programs. Of key importance to achievement of authenticity is the willingness of district staff to adopt new ideas and innovation learned from dealings with the public. District public participation programs benefit from training that increases the individual's acceptance of public participation as a valid mechanism for serving the public. Recommendations were made for SDOTs to work toward: • The creation of increased opportunities for the occurrence of Authentic Public Participation • The creation of individual ownership of authenticity in public participation • The creation of community partnerships to foster authenticity in public participation
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Date Issued
2005
Identifier
CFE0000585, ucf:46479
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000585
Macroscopic Crash Analysis and Its Implications for Transportation Safety Planning
Title
Macroscopic Crash Analysis and Its Implications for Transportation Safety Planning.
Creator
Siddiqui, Chowdhury, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Abdel-Aty, Mohamed, Uddin, Nizam, Huang, Helai, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Incorporating safety into the transportation planning stage, which is often termed as transportation safety planning (TSP), relies on the vital interplay between zone characteristics and zonal traffic crashes. Although a few safety studies had made some effort towards integrating safety and planning, several unresolved problems and a complete framework of TSP are still absent in the literature. This research aims at examining the suitability of the current traffic-related zoning planning...
Show moreIncorporating safety into the transportation planning stage, which is often termed as transportation safety planning (TSP), relies on the vital interplay between zone characteristics and zonal traffic crashes. Although a few safety studies had made some effort towards integrating safety and planning, several unresolved problems and a complete framework of TSP are still absent in the literature. This research aims at examining the suitability of the current traffic-related zoning planning process in a new suggested planning method which incorporates safety measures. In order to accomplish this broader research goal, the study defined its research objectives in the following directions towards establishing a framework of TSP- i) exploring the existing key determinants in traditional transportation planning (e.g., trip generation/distribution data, land use types, demographics, etc.) in order to develop an effective and efficient TSP framework, ii) investigation of the Modifiable Aerial Unit Problem (MAUP) in the context of macro-level crash modeling to investigate the effect of the zone's size and boundary, iii) understanding neighborhood influence of the crashes at or near zonal boundaries, and iv) development of crash-specific safety measure in the four-step transportation planning process.This research was conducted using spatial data from the counties of West Central Florida. Analysis of different crash data per spatial unit was performed using nonparametric approaches (e.g., data mining and random forest), classical statistical methods (e.g., negative binomial models), and Bayesian statistical techniques. In addition, a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) based application tools were utilized for spatial data analysis and representation.Exploring the significant variables related to specific types of crashes is vital in the planning stages of a transportation network. This study identified and examined important variables associated with total crashes and severe crashes per traffic analysis zone (TAZ) by applying nonparametric statistical techniques using different trip related variables and road-traffic related factors. Since a macro-level analysis, by definition, will necessarily involve aggregating crashes per spatial unit, a spatial dependence or autocorrelation may arise if a particular variable of a geographic region is affected by the same variable of the neighboring regions. So far, few safety studies were performed to examine crashes at TAZs and none of them explicitly considered spatial effect of crashes occurring in them. In order to understand the clear picture of spatial autocorrelation of crashes, this study investigated the effect of spatial autocorrelation in modeling pedestrian and bicycle crashes in TAZs. Additionally, this study examined pedestrian crashes at Environmental Justice (EJ) TAZs which were identified in compliance with the various ongoing practices undertaken by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and previous research. Minority population and the low-income group are two important criteria based on which EJ areas are being identified. These unique areal characteristics have been of particular interest to the traffic safety analysts in order to investigate the contributing factors of pedestrian crashes in these deprived areas. Pedestrian and bicycle crashes were estimated as a function of variables related to roadway characteristics, and various demographic and socio-economic factors. It was found that significant differences are present between the predictor sets for pedestrian and bicycle crashes. In all cases the models with spatial correlation performed better than the models that did not account for spatial correlation among TAZs. This finding implied that spatial correlation should be considered while modeling pedestrian and bicycle crashes at the aggregate or macro-level. Also, the significance of spatial autocorrelation was later found in the total and severe crash analyses and accounted for in their respective modeling techniques.Since the study found affirmative evidence about the inclusion of spatial autocorrelation in the safety performance functions, this research considered identifying appropriate spatial entity based on which TSP framework would be developed. A wide array of spatial units has been explored in macro-level crash modeling in previous safety research. With the advancement of GIS, safety analysts are able to analyze crashes for various geographical units. However, a clear guideline on which geographic entity should a modeler choose is not present so far. This preference of spatial unit can vary with the dependent variable of the model. Or, for a specific dependent variable, models may be invariant to multiple spatial units by producing a similar goodness-of-fits. This problem is closely related to the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem which is a common issue in spatial data analysis. The study investigated three different crash (total, severe, and pedestrian) models developed for TAZs, block groups (BGs) and census tracts (CTs) using various roadway characteristics and census variables (e.g., land use, socio-economic, etc.); and compared them based on multiple goodness-of-fit measures.Based on MAD and MSPE it was evident that the total, severe and pedestrian crash models for TAZs and BGs had similar fits, and better than the ones developed for CTs. This indicated that the total, severe and pedestrian crash models are being affected by the size of the spatial units rather than their zoning configurations. So far, TAZs have been the base spatial units of analyses for developing travel demand models. Metropolitan planning organizations widely use TAZs in developing their long range transportation plans (LRTPs). Therefore, considering the practical application it was concluded that as a geographical unit, TAZs had a relative ascendancy over block group and census tract.Once TAZs were selected as the base spatial unit of the TSP framework, careful inspections on the TAZ delineations were performed. Traffic analysis zones are often delineated by the existing street network. This may result in considerable number of crashes on or near zonal boundaries. While the traditional macro-level crash modeling approach assigns zonal attributes to all crashes that occur within the zonal boundary, this research acknowledged the inaccuracy resulting from relating crashes on or near the boundary of the zone to merely the attributes of that zone. A novel approach was proposed to account for the spatial influence of the neighboring zones on crashes which specifically occur on or near the zonal boundaries. Predictive model for pedestrian crashes per zone were developed using a hierarchical Bayesian framework and utilized separate predictor sets for boundary and interior (non-boundary) crashes. It was found that these models (that account for boundary and interior crashes separately) had better goodness-of-fit measures compared to the models which had no specific consideration for crashes located at/near the zone boundaries. Additionally, the models were able to capture some unique predictors associated explicitly with interior and boundary-related crashes. For example, the variables- 'total roadway length with 35mph posted speed limit' and 'long term parking cost' were statistically not significantly different from zero in the interior crash model but they were significantly different from zero at the 95% level in the boundary crash model.Although an adjacent traffic analysis zones (a single layer) were defined for pedestrian crashes and boundary pedestrian crashes were modeled based on the characteristic factors of these adjacent zones, this was not considered reasonable for bicycle-related crashes as the average roaming area of bicyclists are usually greater than that of pedestrians. For smaller TAZs sometimes it is possible for a bicyclist to cross the entire TAZ. To account for this greater area of coverage, boundary bicycle crashes were modeled based on two layers of adjacent zones. As observed from the goodness-of-fit measures, performances of model considering single layer variables and model considering two layer variables were superior from the models that did not consider layering at all; but these models were comparable. Motor vehicle crashes (total and severe crashes) were classified as 'on-system' and 'off-system' crashes and two sub-models were fitted in order to calibrate the safety performance function for these crashes. On-system and off-system roads refer to two different roadway hierarchies. On-system or state maintained roads typically possess higher speed limit and carries traffic from distant TAZs. Off-system roads are, however, mostly local roads with relatively low speed limits. Due to these distinct characteristics, on-system crashes were modeled with only population and total employment variables of a zone in addition to the roadway and traffic variables; and all other zonal variables were disregarded. For off-system crashes, on contrary, all zonal variables was considered. It was evident by comparing this on- and off-system sub-model-framework to the other candidate models that it provided superior goodness-of-fit for both total and severe crashes.Based on the safety performance functions developed for pedestrian, bicycle, total and severe crashes, the study proposed a novel and complete framework for assessing safety (of these crash types) simultaneously in parallel with the four-step transportation planning process with no need of any additional data requirements from the practitioners' side.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004191, ucf:49009
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004191
Community Participation and Travel Choice: An Analysis of Central Florida New Urban and Conventional Suburban Residents
Title
Community Participation and Travel Choice: An Analysis of Central Florida New Urban and Conventional Suburban Residents.
Creator
Mikovsky, Laura, Korosec, Ronnie, Hawkins, Christopher, Knox, Claire, Beitsch, Owen, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description
Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between the built environment and social and transportation outcomes when comparing traditional and conventional suburban neighborhoods, but much remains to be learned about whether New Urbanism can produce similar results. Among studies where new urban neighborhoods have been assessed, most have centered on regions with highly-utilized public transit systems and with climates that are amenable to utilitarian physical activity. This research...
Show morePrevious research has demonstrated a relationship between the built environment and social and transportation outcomes when comparing traditional and conventional suburban neighborhoods, but much remains to be learned about whether New Urbanism can produce similar results. Among studies where new urban neighborhoods have been assessed, most have centered on regions with highly-utilized public transit systems and with climates that are amenable to utilitarian physical activity. This research sought to build on the existing research base through direct comparison of new urban and conventional suburban neighborhoods in central Florida, a region with an under-developed transit system and a climate that renders utilitarian physical activity impractical. Further, this research sought to lend greater insights into neighborhood selection factors across neighborhood types.(<)p(>)(<)p(>)A mixed-methods, single-case design was utilized to evaluate one new urban and one conventional suburban neighborhood in the central Florida region. Regional new urban neighborhoods were subjectively rated for adherence to tenets of the Charter of the New Urbanism, with the neighborhood (Celebration, in Osceola County, FL) found to most closely adhere to these tenets selected as the experimental group for the study. A socio-demographically comparable conventional suburban neighborhood (Sweetwater, in Seminole County, FL) was selected as the control group. Quantitative methods consisted of a household survey issued to 250 randomly- and convenience-sampled addresses in each neighborhood, followed by regression analysis to evaluate study hypotheses. Qualitative methods employed analysis of open-ended survey responses, detailed case studies of selected neighborhoods, and resident interviews. The household survey yielded net response rates of 15.79 percent and 25.50 percent for experimental and control neighborhoods, respectively, and a mean cross-neighborhood response rate of 20.64 percent. Twenty resident interviews (10 per neighborhood) were conducted. Quantitative and qualitative findings were compared to collectively address research questions.(<)p(>)(<)p(>)Regression results indicated no statistically significant difference between neighborhoods in attitudinal and behavioral components of community participation, in vehicle miles driven per week, or utilitarian physical activity frequency. However, results indicated that new urban residents had more positive attitudes toward utilitarian physical activity than conventional suburban residents and that attitudes toward community participation and utilitarian physical activity were positively correlated with associated behaviors. Qualitative findings provided substantial individual- and environmental-level insights to factors impacting evaluated attitudes and behaviors, and supported some quantitative findings while not aligning with others. Neighborhood selection factors were found to be quite different across neighborhoods: Celebration residents identified neighborhood social atmosphere and connection to the Walt Disney Company brand as top contributors to their selection decision, while Sweetwater residents expressed that access to quality schools was the most important factor in their selection decision. Qualitative findings indicated that car culture and climate within the central Florida region diminished both attitudinal and behavioral components of utilitarian physical activity across neighborhood types.(<)p(>)(<)p(>)This research expanded the understanding of the social and transportation outcomes of New Urbanism, particularly with respect to the central Florida region. While case and quantitative limitations may have impeded the ability of this study to draw decisive conclusions about research questions, distinctive themes regarding social and transportation outcomes were identified. Findings of this research supported those of some prior studies while contradicting others, indicating that further exploration is needed to establish a firm understanding of the capabilities of new urban development to achieve desired outcomes, and of regional characteristics that may influence these outcomes.
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Date Issued
2012
Identifier
CFE0004413, ucf:49376
Format
Document (PDF)
PURL
http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004413