General Information Sources...
General Information Sources...
The
UT Engineering Library provides a wonderful page of transportation
resources available in the library or on-line. This is the place
to start!
The website of the Transportation
Planning Division of the American Planning Association has information
on publications and useful links. Another good source is the Planning
Advisory Service Reports, available in the Architecture Library; use the
subject
search at the APA's website to find what you're looking for.
TransAct
is maintained by the Surface Transportation Project and provides links
to the websites of a wide variety of advocacy groups as well as reports
and information on current transportation issues:
- Quality of Life Campaign
- Reports and resources
- Links to other organizations and resources
- "Tool of the Month" for public education
Search
the TRIS database online
to find articles and research reports on all kinds of transportation topics.
The best way there is to find current transportation research!
The
official website for the Transportation
Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21) provides just about everything
you wanted to know about TEA-21. The Fact
Sheets and the Summary
are especially helpful. The Authorization
Table lays out all of the spending for each year by category.
If you want to access TEA-21 as it appears in the U.S.
Code itself, try this easy to use site.
The
U.S. DOT's
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
homepage provides links to a number of useful pages. Several are
listed below:-National Transportation Library
-State and Local Information
-Transportation Studies
-Geographic Information Services
-American Travel Survey
-Databases
-Pocket Guide to Transportation (downloadable)
-State and Local Information
-Report on Bicycle and Pedestrian Data: Sources, Needs, and Gaps (downloadable)
The
Transportation Research Board, a branch of the National Academy of
Sciences, has been encouraging research and innovation in transportation
for 75 years:
- Publications and bibliographic database
- Bookstore and electronic catalog
- Links to other transportation sites ---- especially to other organizations
The
Victoria Policy Insitute published a widely-cited study on the full
costs of transportation and promotes efficiency, equity and clarity in
transportation planning. See especially their links
to other transportation resources on topics including sustainability and
equity.
The
Energy
Aware Planning Guide from the California Energy Commission is a wonderful
catalog of ideas on energy-sensitive community design, with examples and
resources from around the country.The
Livable
Communities web site describes the federal government's program
for sustaining prosperity, improving our quality of life, and restoring
a sense of community. The site provides a downloadable report (June
1999) describing the Clinton-Gore Administration's plan for strengthening
communities in the 21st Century.Link
to the U.S. Department of Energy's Center
of Excellence for Sustainable Development website contains useful information
about planning within the context of energy sustainability:- General Principles
- Land Use Planning
- Transportation
- Measuring Progress
- Rural Issues
The
Sierra
Club website describes the organization's Sprawl
Campaign and provides information on Livable
Communities, Transit
and Roads,
and various other resources
to help.The
Center
for Neighborhood Technology believes in "promoting public policies,
new resources and accountable authority which support sustainable, just,
and vital urban communities." Learn about Location
Efficient Mortgages here. "Sprawl of
Shame," new report from the Colorado Public Interest Research Group
(CoPIRG) idenitfies ten of the worst development projects from about the
state for their impacts on open space, traffic congestion, and overall
quality of life.
The
Association
of Bay Area Governments provides interesting idease about "making
better communities by linking land use and transportation."
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main
Street Resource Center offers guidance on how to achieve commercial
center revitalization through historic preservation and economic development.
Eichler
Homes were built mostly in the 1950s and 1960s in the rapidly growing suburbs
of California. The modernist design of these houses is the
antithesis of the current New Urbanism craze, yet their owners love them
and have even set up an Eichler
Network. Eichler neighborhoods will soon qualify
for desgination as historic districts.
Here's
a chapter from "Real Towns: Making Your Neighborhood Work" on the
citizen planner.
The
Congress
for the New Urbanism has created an international movement promoting
better design from the block level, to the neighborhood level, to the regional
level. Take the "tour" of New Urbanism to learn more.
Here are some developments in the Austin region that promote their new
urbanist characteristics:
- Bradfield Village
Check
out these interesting new developments, mostly variations on the new urbanism
theme:
- Prairie Crossing, Grayslake Illinois
Here's
an important new report from the Urban Land Institute: Ten
Principle's for Reinventing America's Suburban Strips. Also from
the Urban Land Institute: Urban
Infill Housing: Myth and Fact
Here's
a helpful overview of the gentrification problem from the Brookings Institution:
Dealing
with Neighborhood Change: A Primer on Gentrification and Policy Choices
The
Robert Woods Johnson Foundation has published a report on Healthy
Places, Healthy People: Promoting Public Health and Physical Activity
Through Community Design.
The
Energy
Aware Planning Guide from the California Energy Commission is a wonderful
catalog of ideas on energy-sensitive transportation design, with examples
and resources from around the country.
Here's a report
from Time on Segway, the "human transporter" that its inventor says
will revolutionize our cities. Here's a diagram
of Segway.
State Farm Insurance publishes an annual list of the 10
Most Dangerous Intersections in the U.S. as a part of a program to
improve traffic safety. Did you know that 30% of all accidents occur
at intersections?
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued "Kids
Walk-to-School," a guide to help indiviudals and organizations encourage
walking to school. The Michigan Land Use Institute has an article
on locating
schools so that kids can walk again.
See
the Federal Highway Administration's Pedestrian
Safety Roadshow for lots of good ideas about enhancing the environment
for pedestrians. The homepage for FHWA's Bicycle
and Pedestrian Program is also helpful. Here are some important
on-line reports:
- "Improving Conditions for Bicycling and Walking: A Best Practices Report"
- "Accomodating Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel: A Recommended Approach"
- "Guidebook on Methods for Estimating Non-Motorized Travel"
The
Federal Highway Administration also has a comprehensive site on Traffic
Calming.
The
website for the National Center for Bicycling
and Walking is designed to support the activities and initiatives of
people working across the country, in their professional work and private
lives, to make America a better place to walk and to bicycle. See
their:
- Bicycle Guide: Implementing Bicycle Improvements at the Local Level (downloadable report)
- Pedestrian Guide
- Ideas on establishing a program to improve Walkways
- Ideas on establishing a program to put in Curb Ramps
The
Pedestrian
and Bicycle Information Center
provides lots of good technical information on the design of bicycle
facilities and pedestrian
facilities.
The
Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) is an international educational
and scientific association. ITE members are "traffic engineers,
transportation planners and other professionals who are responsible for
meeting society's needs for safe and efficient surface transportation through
planning, designing, implementing, operating and maintaining surface transportation
systems worldwide."
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
- Traffic Calming for Communities:- Traffic Calming Measures;
- Traffic Calming Seminar;
- "Traffic Calming: State of the Practice";
- other traffic calming links
The
Local
Government Commission has published a series of fact
sheets on pedestrian and bicycle issues.
The
North Carolina Department of Transportation has developed Traditional
Neighborhood Development Guidelines that specify acceptable design
criteria for streets and other transportation infrastructure.
For
the latest on Light Rail Transit (LRT), check the LRT News, published by
the Transportation Research Board:
- LRT News - December 1999 issue
- LRT News - Back issues (scroll down to the LRT News and Newsline sections)
The
Victoria Policy Institute has a helpful overview page on Transit-Oriented
Development in its TDM Encyclopedia, including an evaluation of the
effectiveness of TOD in increasing transit use and reducing automobile
use. For more on land use strategies that support light rail and
other forms of transit, check out the Transit-Focused
Development website.
The
Natural
Resources Defense Council provides a transportation
links page with lots of useful links to sites on alternative fuels
and emerging vehicle technologies consistent with sustainability goals.
To
find out more about the federal Enhancements Program and what it funds,
check out the FHWA
Final Guidance, Transportation Enhancement Activities, 23 U.S.C.
and TEA-21.
Florida
is generating some interesting work on access management, including model
land use regulations to promote access management and a nifty little
guide to "Ten Ways to Manage Roadway Access in Your Community."
Here's
a place to find out more about Roundabouts.
Check out the report "Roundabouts:
A Direct Way to Safer
Highways."
Fort Collins, CO, has a cool web site complete with animated simulation
describing its own roundabout project,
Useful
sites on TRAFFIC CALMING include:
- City of Portland's Traffic Calming Program (includes technical information on speed humps and traffic circles)
- ITE'sTraffic Calming for Communities page; see especially their seminar materials and "Traffic Calming: State of the Practice"
- PTI's "Slow down, you're going to fast: the community guide to traffic calming.
Don't
forget to think about the arguments against traffic calming, as compiled
by Americans Against Traffic
Calming, including a discussion of the problems
with traffic calming devices.
The
Congress for the New Urbanism has a series of "Transportation
Tech Sheets" describing a variety of transportation strategies.
Here
are some good sites on car-sharing:
- The home page for the Car-Sharing Network that provides links to various programs around the U.S.
- A paper by researchers at UC Davis on "Car Sharing and Mobility Services: An Updated Overview"
- A site for the Westwood Business Park in the U.K. that provides information about car-sharing programs in Europe
- The home pages for Seattle's Flex-Car program and for Trononto's AutoShare program.
- The home page for a car sharing program in Traverse City, Michigan.
Station
Cars programs, a specific form of car-sharing, are also growing in number.
See the National Station Car Association's
web page for more information, including a description of the Bay
Area's demonstration program. Carlink
II, a new station-car program was recently launched at the Palo Alto
Caltrain stations.
Personal
Rapid Transit (PRT) has been the subject of renewed attention as a possibly
promising alternative to traditional transit. A site at the University
of Washington provides useful links to other PRT sites. University
of West Virginia actually has one of these systems.
Monorail
is not just for Disneyland! See what the proponents of monorail
in Seattle have to say.
Here's
a site on Innovative
Transportation Technologies - personal rapid transit, suspended vehicles,
monorail, and others.
Explore
the potential of Light
Electric Vehicles.
Take
a look at Honda's
Intelligent Community Vehicle System.
The
City of Portland's Office
of Transportation combines functions typically separated between planning
and public works. Take a look at their innovative Transportation
System Plan, developed to fulfill the state's Transportation
Planning Rule. Check out Portland's Pedestrian
Master Plan and their Pedestrian
Design Guidelines. Portland also has a Bicycle
Master Plan. And don't forget to look at the city's Traffic
Calming Program and Neighborhood
Traffic Program. See also the Central
City Transportation Management Plan. And look for all kinds
of other interesting programs and policies related to transportation and
neighborhoods.
Of course, not everyone believes that Portland is getting it right - here's a site that says Portland's development patterns are similar to Atlanta's.
Here's a guide from Clallam County, Washington, on rural
road design.
Did you know there's a website for those of you living without cars, or
hoping to: Carfree
Times
A
link to the City
of Austin's Neighborhood Planning Home Page and to the Corridor
Planning Project. The Community
Registry site is an easy way to find the neighborhood associations
for your area.The
City of Austin now has its Transportation
Criteria Manual on-line. Here's where to look if you want
to find current standards for street design in the city.
The
mission of the City
of Austin's Transportation Division is to continually improve the quality
of the City's transportation network, providing our citizens with the safest
and most efficient transportation system possible. Find information
here on the speed
humps and the Neighborhood
Traffic Calming Program,
The
purpose of Austin's Bicycle
and Pedestrian Program is to integrate bicycles and walking into the
transportation system of the City of Austin. housed in the Department of
Public Works.
"The Citizens' Tramsportation Guide to the Austin
Metropolitan Region" provides a
useful overview of how transportation planning works in the Austin region.
The
web page for the Capital
Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) provides meeting schedules
and agendas for the Policy Advisory Committee as well as reports on current
issues and links to traffic count data in the Austin region.
The web page for the Capital
Metropolitan Transit Agency (Capital Metro) provides bus schedules,
schedules and agendas for Board meetings, and information about proposed
projects, including Light Rail Transit.
The
Austin/Travis
County Safe Communities website provides statistics about traffic related
injuries and the causes of traffic accidents in Travis County.
S. Handy
University of California Davis
Last modified on November 12, 2002