Qing Shen Archives - Page 6 of 6

Paratransit Services For People With Disabilities In The Seattle Region During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Lessons For Recovery Planning

Abu Ashour, Lamis; Dannenberg, Andrew L.; Shen, Qing; Fang, Xun; Wang, Yiyuan. (2021). Paratransit Services For People With Disabilities In The Seattle Region During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Lessons For Recovery Planning. Journal Of Transport & Health, 22.

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Abstract

Introduction: Along with all public transit services, paratransit services for people with disabilities experienced substantially reduced demand and an increased need to provide equitable services while protecting their clients and staff's safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Paratransit services provide a lifeline for their clients' essential mobility needs, including access to medical appointments and grocery stores. In the absence of pre-existing pandemic response plans, examining transit agencies' responses to provide paratransit services during the pandemic can help inform planning for post-pandemic recovery and future disruptive events. Methods: In September 2020, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 decision-makers, planners, and drivers working for the primary transit agency in the Seattle region - King County Metro - and its paratransit contractors. Interview questions were designed to identify current services, policy gaps, and critical challenges for recovery planning and post-pandemic paratransit services. Interview transcripts were analyzed using NVivo software to obtain essential themes. Results: The interviewees provided insights about (1) paratransit service changes in response to the pandemic, (2) anticipated impacts of a returning demand on paratransit service efficiency, equity, and quality during the recovery period, and (3) innovative approaches for maintaining post-pandemic equitable paratransit services while balancing safety measures with available resources. Conclusions: Study findings suggest that paratransit service providers should consider (1) developing guidelines for future disruptive events, (2) examining alternative methods for food delivery to clients, (3) planning scenarios for delivering equitable services in the post-pandemic recovery period, and (4) increasing resilience possibly by establishing partnerships with transportation network companies.

Keywords

Paratransit; Mobility; Equity; Covid19 Pandemic; Scenario Planning; Recovery

Transport Impacts of Clustered Development in Beijing: Compact Development Versus Overconcentration

Yang, Jiawen; Shen, Qing; Shen, Jinzhen; He, Canfei. (2012). Transport Impacts of Clustered Development in Beijing: Compact Development Versus Overconcentration. Urban Studies, 49(6), 1315 – 1331.

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Abstract

This research aims to inform the compact city discussion with a case study of Beijing, where urban planning has emphasised clustered suburban development in the past half-century. It uses three decades of census data to describe Beijing's spatial development trajectory and a household survey to assess its transport impacts. The research reveals an overconcentration of urban activities as a result of the featureless expansion of the central built-up area and the absorption of the suburban clusters; and, a lengthened commuting time stemming from the observed spatial development pattern. Beijing's experience adds to the existing literature by informing the search for good city forms in urban areas of high density. It is essential to differentiate compact development from overconcentration when combating sprawling development. Developing and maintaining suburban nodal characteristics around public transit can reduce travel in high-density urban areas.

Keywords

Jobs-housing Balance; Commuting Patterns; Urban; Growth; City; Towns

Exploring Partnership Between Transit Agency And Shared Mobility Company: An Incentive Program For App-based Carpooling

Shen, Qing; Wang, Yiyuan; Gifford, Casey. (2021). Exploring Partnership Between Transit Agency And Shared Mobility Company: An Incentive Program For App-based Carpooling. Transportation, 48(5), 2585 – 2603.

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Abstract

How should public transit agencies deliver mobility services in the era of shared mobility? Previous literature recommends that transit agencies actively build partnerships with mobility service companies from the private sector, yet public transit agencies are still in search of a solid empirical basis to help envision the consequences of doing so. This paper presents an effort to fill this gap by studying a recent experiment of shared mobility public-private partnership, the carpool incentive fund program launched by King County Metro in the Seattle region. This program offers monetary incentives for participants who commute using a dynamic app-based carpooling service. Through descriptive analysis and a series of logistic regression models, we find that the monetary incentive to encourage the use of app-based carpooling generates some promising outcomes while having distinctive limitations. In particular, it facilitates the growth of carpooling by making carpooling a competitive commuting option for long-distance commuters. Moreover, our evidence suggests that the newly generated carpooling trips mostly substitute single-occupancy vehicles, thus contributing to a reduction of regional VMT. The empirical results of this research will not only help King County Metro devise its future policies but also highlight an appealing alternative for other transit agencies in designing an integrated urban transportation system in the era of shared mobility.

Keywords

Shared Mobility; Public-Private Partnership; App-based Carpooling; Incentive Fund; Transit Agencies; Incentives; Commuting; Public Transportation; Mobility; Regression Analysis; Regression Models; Partnerships; Vehicles; Car Pools; Private Sector; Occupancy; Transportation Systems; Mass Transit; Transportation Planning; Empirical Analysis; Urban Transportation

Jan Whittington and Qing Shen funded for project examining lessons learned from high-speed rail innovation

This year, the Washington State Legislature allocated $4 million to continue work on a Cascadia Corridor high-speed rail and another $150 million to use as matching funds over the next six years to leverage federal funds available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Now that there is a significant funding commitment, how can an effort in Cascadia take the lessons learned and build on the success of others? That’s what a new Mobility Innovation Center project will examine, led…

Qing Shen’s proposal among those selected for funding by PacTrans

The Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) announced in January 2021 the project proposals selected for funding. Qing Shen, Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning is among those selected for project funding. Shen is working alongside Co-Principal Investigator Catherine (Casey) Gifford–Innovative Mobility Senior Planner–on the applied research project titled “Supplementing fixed-route transit with dynamic shared mobility services: a marginal cost comparison approach”. The project goal is to address a…

PhD in the Built Environment

The College of Built Environments consists of five departments that together provide one of the country’s few comprehensive built environment programs within one academic unit: Architecture, Construction Management, Landscape Architecture, Real Estate, and Urban Design and Planning. Together, this combination of departments enable faculty and students to engage almost the entire development process, from economic and environmental planning, real estate, regulatory processes, siting and design, through actual financing and construction, to facility management and adaptive reuse in subsequent stages. Thus, the college is inherently multi-disciplinary, not only in terms of the dimensions of reality that it treats, but also in regard to the specialized disciplines, methods, and practices that it employs: history, theory, cultural criticism, engineering, design, planning, urban design, energy sciences, acoustics, lighting, environmental psychology, ecology, real estate analysis, statistics, management, horticulture, soil science, law, public policy, and ethics. In addition, because of the College’s focus on comprehensive analysis and practice concerning the built environment and its interrelation with society, it is substantially engaged in interdisciplinary work with other units on campus and outside of the campus, including mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering; with public policy and the health sciences; with art and art history; with textual interpretation in the humanities; with many of the computing and digitization activities that range from digital arts to the information school and technical communications; with education and social studies and services; with sustainability and ecological programs, including urban ecology, geography, the College of Forest Resources (especially urban horticulture and urban forestry), and Ocean Science and Fisheries; with environmental and land use law.

The College’s interdisciplinary character is a good fit with the emerging trends in today’s complex world, where only a pluralistic and collaborative approach will generate the necessary learning and teaching, research, and service. If we are to provide, in the end, both disciplinary and professional means to promote environmental well-being, the diverse environmental specializations must be fully integrated. Thus, working outside traditional disciplinary and departmental categories, the College’s faculty will advance solutions to problems that demand interdisciplinary perspectives and expertise. Other UW units bring much to bear on the built environment and students are wholeheartedly encouraged to explore possible cross-campus connections both in obvious and seemingly unlikely places. The Technology and Project Design/Delivery specialization especially connects with Psychology, the Information School, Technical Communication, Computer Science and Engineering, and Industrial Engineering; the Sustainable Systems and Prototypes field with Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, the Information School, Technical Communication, the College of Forest Resources (especially Eco-System Science and Conservation, Urban Horticulture and Urban Forestry), the Evans School of Public Affairs, Geography, Public Health, Ocean Science and Fisheries, and Social Work, Urban Ecology, and perhaps Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes and Nanotechnology; the area of History, Theory, and Representation with Textual Studies, Art History, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at Tacoma, and Comparative History of Ideas.

Urban Design & Planning Interdisciplinary PhD

The Urban Design & Planning Interdisciplinary Ph.D. at the University of Washington is one of 39 Ph.D. programs in urban and regional planning in North America, and one of the oldest, founded in 1967.

This program brings together faculty from disciplines ranging from Architecture to Sociology to focus on the interdisciplinary study of urban problems and interventions. Covering scales from neighborhoods to metropolitan areas, the program addresses interrelationships between the physical environment, the built environment, and the social, economic, and political institutions and processes that shape urban areas. The breadth of this program permits students to pursue doctoral studies in the various aspects of urban design and planning as well as in a number of related social science, natural resource, and engineering areas.

The Program seeks to prepare scholars who can advance the state of research, practice, and education related to the built environment and its relationship to society and nature in metropolitan regions throughout the world. The program provides a strong interdisciplinary educational experience that draws on the resources of the entire University, and on the laboratory provided by the Seattle metropolitan region and the Pacific Northwest. The program emphasizes the educational values of interdisciplinarity, intellectual leadership and integrity, and the social values of equity, democracy and sustainability. It seeks to promote deeper understanding of the ways in which public decisions shape and are shaped by the urban physical, social, economic, and natural environment. The program envisions its graduates becoming leaders in the international community of researchers, practitioners and educators who focus on improving the quality of life and environment in metropolitan regions.

Northwest Center for Livable Communities

The Northwest Center’s mission is to enhance the livability of communities in the Pacific Northwest through applied research and outreach in the areas of land use planning, policy, and design; healthy communities; food security; and public participation and democracy.

The Center is a research and policy center focused on issues of environmental and economic sustainability, quality of life, and responsible governance using Washington as a model. Recognizing that the term “livability” has many different definitions and interpretations, the Center’s programs are focused on how the fields of urban planning and design, landscape architecture, and architecture work within this broader context to address livability factors.

The Center operates from the belief that the university should, in cooperation with state agencies, local governments, and community leaders, seek to improve existing social and environmental conditions through research and innovative policy development. It advocates development strategies that focus on smart and efficient land use, strong communities, high-wage, low waste jobs and economic development and public participation and accountability in government.

Center for Asian Urbanism

The Center for Asian Urbanism was established to promote and undertake interdisciplinary and collaborative research of urban conditions and processes in Asia and the “Global Pacific”, for example, the relevance of cities and city-regions in Asia to each other, to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., and to the world at large.

The Center integrates research and action-oriented activities in the field to develop new knowledge and inform policy, decision-making and professional development. It provides a platform locally and internationally for critical discussion of urban issues in Asia and beyond.

The Center serves as a platform to explore the intersection of architecture, construction, landscape architecture, and urban design and planning. It is also the goal of the collaborative to establish the University of Washington as a national and international leader in the field of urban research in Asia. The College, together with other units at the University of Washington, including especially the Jackson School of International Studies, the Asian Law Center and the Foster School of Business’s Global Business Center, currently has one of the strongest concentrations of scholars on Asian cities and urbanization in the United States.

Qing Shen

Qing Shen is Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair and Director of the University of Washington Graduate School’s Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning. He holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning from University of California, Berkeley. Professor Shen’s primary areas of interest are urban economics and metropolitan transportation planning and policy. Author of numerous scholarly publications, he has developed methodological frameworks for analyzing urban spatial structure, examined the social and environmental consequences of automobile-oriented metropolitan development, and investigated the differential impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) on various population groups. A primary focus of his current research is on the opportunities and challenges created by mobile ICT-enabled new mobility services. Exploring the paths toward more efficient, equitable, and environmentally responsible urban transportation, he is working with colleagues and graduate students to conduct innovative research on travel behavior and its connections with shared mobility services, built environments, and transportation demand management policies.

Professor Shen’s scholarly work has gained wide recognitions, which include a Horwood Critique Prize given by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), an Emerging Scholar Paper Award in spatial analysis and modeling specialty given by the Association of American Geographers (AAG), a Chester Rapkin Award given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), and a Best Paper Award by the World Society for Transportation and Land Use Research (WSTLUR). A highly active member of the academic community, he has served on the editorial boards of seven academic journals, including the Journal of the American Planning Association (since 2000; Associate Editor since 2020) and the Journal of Planning Education and Research (since 2006).

Professor Shen was educated in China (Zhejiang University) and Canada (University of British Columbia) before coming to the United States. He started his academic career at MIT as an assistant professor in 1993 and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. That was followed by his tenured faculty appointment in 2000 at the University of Maryland, College Park where he also served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He joined the University of Washington as Professor and Department Chair in 2009. In addition, he has served as a visiting professor at several leading universities in China. In 2005, he was appointed by the President of Nanjing University as the first holder of Siyuan Chair Professorship, an endowed visiting position. In 2009, he was appointed as a visiting Tongji Chair Professor at Tongji University. In 2014, he was appointed by the President of Southwest Jiaotong University as the Oversea Dean of the School of Architecture and Design, a visiting advisory position. He was a primary founder and former Chairman of the International Association for China Planning (IACP).