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Digital Governance in Rural Chengdu, China: Its Potential for Social-ecological Resilience

Wu, Shuang, Abramson, Daniel B., & Zhong, Bo. (2022). Digital Governance in Rural Chengdu, China: Its Potential for Social-ecological Resilience. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 4.

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Abstract

In this study, we echo the call from the UN to interpret Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their regional context—in this case, the linpan (wooded lot) landscape of the Chengdu Plain, in Sichuan, China, where the shocks and stresses of recent, rapid administrative-economic urbanization are testing the resilience of some of the world's most sustainably productive and long- and densely-settled agrarian environments. In recent years, fine-grained information and communications technology (ICT) governance tools in Chengdu, such as “grid management”, present opportunities to sustain and scale up the collection of data necessary to validate and refine indicators of landscape resilience, and use them to regulate development, in accordance with SDG goal 11 to enhance legislation, governance, and capacity via information gathering and sharing. ICT-based governance in combination with traditional place-based knowledge can play a critical role in ensuring the resilience of urban-rural co-development. To realize this potential, however, ICT-enabled governance needs to incorporate greater transparency and more local feedback loops and enable greater participation from older farmers and women, to inform household and community-level land-use choices and initiatives. It also needs to link regulatory functions with marketing and pricing functions so that farmers may benefit from the sustainable practices they are encouraged to adopt.

 

Integrating Health Considerations into Local Level Recovery Planning: An Exploration of Florida’s Recovery and Redevelopment Plans

Archer, Megan, Pedersen, Katherine, Kennedy, Mallory, & Errett, Nicole A. (2022). Integrating Health Considerations into Local Level Recovery Planning: An Exploration of Florida’s Recovery and Redevelopment Plans. Journal of Disaster Research, 17(7), 1150–1157.

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Abstract

Objective: Disasters result in impacts to the health and wellbeing of members of affected communities, as well as damage to healthcare infrastructure. These impacts are not experienced equally, and often disproportionately affect those facing higher health, social and economic risks even before a disaster strikes. Recovery planning provides an opportunity for pre-emptive consideration of how to address pre-existing health vulnerabilities and disparities, as well as insufficient and/or inequitable access to healthcare, with the resources and momentum that often come following a disaster. After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, Florida began requiring coastal jurisdictions to plan for recovery. This study sought to identify if and how Florida jurisdictions have integrated health-sector restoration and revitalization strategies into local disaster recovery planning. Design: Plans were collected and coded using content analysis methods. Setting: Florida, USA. Participants: 16 county-level disaster recovery and post-disaster redevelopment plans. Results: While nearly three-quarters of plans described actions to address both short-term healthcare and behavioral health needs, the majority of recovery plans lacked long-term health-sector recovery activities and approaches to collect and analyze data to guide health-related recovery efforts. Moreover, plans did not explicitly call for evaluating health-sector recovery strategies. Conclusions: Additional resources are necessary to ensure local jurisdictions integrate short- and long-term health-sector strategies into disaster recovery planning.

Keywords

Disaster; Recovery; Planning; Health promotion

Mediating Role of Walking between Perceived and Objective Walkability and Cognitive Function in Older Adults

Kim, Boeun, Barrington, Wendy E., Dobra, Adrian, Rosenberg, Dori, Hurvitz, Philip, & Belza, Basia. (2022). Mediating Role of Walking between Perceived and Objective Walkability and Cognitive Function in Older Adults. Health & Place, 79.

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the role of walking in explaining associations between perceived and objective measures of walkability and cognitive function among older adults. The study employed a cross-sectional design analyzing existing data. Data were obtained from the Adult Changes in Thought Activity Monitor study. Cognitive function and perceived walkability were measured by a survey. Objective walkability was measured using geographic information systems (GIS). Walking was measured using an accelerometer. We tested the mediating relationship based on 1,000 bootstrapped samples. Perceived walkability was associated with a 0.04 point higher cognitive function score through walking (p = 0.006). The mediating relationship accounted for 34% of the total relationship between perceived walkability and cognitive function. Walking did not have a significant indirect relationship on the association between objective walkability and cognitive function. Perceived walkability may be more relevant to walking behavior than objective walkability among older adults. Greater levels of perceived walkability may encourage older adults to undertake more walking, and more walking may in turn improve cognitive function in older adults.

Keywords

Built environment; Cognitive function; Walking; Mediation analysis; Older adults

UW Urban Design and Planning lead study on post-pandemic commuting in downtown Seattle

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how people connected to work. Some were able to telework, others had to be at a jobsite. While remote and hybrid work have emerged as common practice, it’s unclear what these trends mean for downtown Seattle commuting. To help businesses and transportation agencies understand the “new normal,” academic expertise from Urban Design and Planning were tapped to develop and lead a study that gains better insights. Launched by the Mobility Innovation Center, in partnership with Commute…

Impact of a Light Rail Transit Line on Physical Activity: Findings from the Longitudinal Travel Assessment and Community (TRAC) Study

Saelens, Brian E., Hurvitz, Philip M., Zhou, C., Colburn, T., Marchese, A., & Moudon, Anne Vernez (2022). Impact of a Light Rail Transit Line on Physical Activity: Findings from the Longitudinal Travel Assessment and Community (TRAC) Study. Journal of Transport & Health, 27.

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Abstract

Increasing transit infrastructure could increase transit use and result in higher physical activity if users actively travel to access transit. Few studies have rigorously examined transit use and physical activity change from before to years after among residents living close versus farther away from new transit options.Methods: An initial sample (n = 722) of residents living either close (1 mile network distance; unexposed) from future new light rail transit (LRT) stops in the Seattle/King County area were recruited and assessed prior to LRT opening and again 1-2 and 3-4 years later. At each assessment timepoint, residents wore an accelerometer and GPS data logger for 7 days and completed a 7-day travel log and demographic and attitudinal survey. Difference-in-difference analyses examined longitudinal change between those exposed versus unexposed to LRT in physical activity, walking (both utilitarian and recreational), and transit-related walking, and transit use.Results: There was no differential change by LRT exposure in overall physical activity (including or not including light intensity physical activity), recreational walking, or utilitarian walking, with most decreasing significantly in both exposure conditions through follow-ups. There was a differential change in transit-related walking, with those exposed to LRT slightly increasing such physical activity to the most distal follow-up, but the difference from the unexposed condition was modest (<2 min/day). There was no substantial differential change over time in transit use by LRT exposure.Conclusions: Exposure to a new light rail line did not markedly change the frequency of transit use of nearby residents, but did result in a small increase in transit-related walking relative to those unexposed. This did not differentially change the amount of overall physical activity or time spent walking compared to residents living farther away from the new LRT.

Keywords

Public Transit; Accelerometer Data; Built Environment; Behavior; Walking; Transportation; Neighborhood; Time; GPS

Street Environments and Crime around Low-income and Minority Schools: Adopting an Environmental Audit Tool to Assess Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)

Lee, Sungmin, Lee, Chanam, Won Nam, Ji, Vernez Moudon, Anne, & Mendoza, Jason A. (2023). Street Environments and Crime around Low-income and Minority Schools: Adopting an Environmental Audit Tool to Assess Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). Landscape and Urban Planning, 232.

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Abstract

• CPTED principles have been applied in school neighborhood safety. • Multiple crime types had significant associations with CPTED principles. • The cleanliness of streets and visual quality of buildings can reduce crime. • Being adjacent to multi-family housing and bus stops can increase crime. • The findings add to the evidence supporting the effectiveness of CPTED initiatives. Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) suggests an association between micro-scale environmental conditions and crime, but little empirical research exists on the detailed street-level environmental features associated with crime near low-income and minority schools. This study focuses on the neighborhoods around 14 elementary schools serving lower income populations in Seattle, WA to assess if the distribution of crime incidences (2013–2017) is linked with the street-level environmental features that reflect CPTED principles. We used a total of 40 audit variables that were included in the four domains derived from the broken windows theory and CPTED principles: natural surveillance (e.g., number of windows, balconies, and a sense of surveillance), territoriality (e.g., crime watch signs, trees), image/maintenance (e.g., graffiti and a sense of maintenance/cleanness), and geographical juxtaposition (e.g., bus stops, presence of arterial). We found that multiple crime types had significant associations with CPTED components at the street level. Among the CPTED domains, two image/maintenance features (i.e., maintenance of streets and visual quality of buildings) and two geographical juxtaposition features (i.e., being adjacent to multi-family housing and bus stops) were consistently associated with both violent and property crime. The findings suggest that local efforts to improve maintenance of streets and visual quality of buildings and broader planning efforts to control specific land uses near schools are important to improve safety in marginalized neighborhoods near schools that tend to be more vulnerable to crime. Our research on micro-scale environmental determinants of crime can also serve as promising targets for CPTED research and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords

CPTED; Crime; Environmental audit; Micro-scale environment of Crime; Street environments

Evaluation of Hazard Brochures Using Topic Viewing Durations: Application to Tsunami Evacuation Brochures

Lindell, Michael K; Jung, Meen Chel; Prater, Carla S; House, Donald H (2023). Evaluation of Hazard Brochures Using Topic Viewing Durations: Application to Tsunami Evacuation Brochures. Risk Analysis.

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Abstract

This study describes a novel method of assessing risk communication effectiveness by reporting an evaluation of a tsunami information brochure by 90 residents of three Pacific coast communities that are vulnerable to a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami—Commencement Bay, Washington; Lincoln City, Oregon; and Eureka, California. Study participants viewed information that was presented in DynaSearch, an internet‐based computer system that allowed them to view text boxes and tsunami inundation zone maps. DynaSearch recorded the number of times each text box or map was clicked and the length of time that it was viewed. This information viewing phase was followed by questionnaire pages assessing important aspects of tsunami hazard and sources of tsunami warnings. Participants gave the longest click durations to what to do in the emergency period during earthquake shaking and in its immediate aftermath before a tsunami arrives—topics that should be displayed prominently in tsunami brochures and emphasized in talks to community groups. The smallest adjusted click durations were associated with advance preparations for a tsunami—topics that can be posted on websites whose URLs are printed in the brochures.

Keywords

DynaSearch; hazard awareness brochure; Protective Action Decision Model

Incorporating Ride-sourcing Services into Paratransit for People with Disabilities: Opportunities and Barriers

Ashour, Lamis Abu; Shen, Qing. (2022). Incorporating Ride-sourcing Services into Paratransit for People with Disabilities: Opportunities and Barriers. Transport Policy, 126, 355–363.

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Abstract

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires public transit agencies to provide an equivalent transportation service for people with disabilities, known as ADA paratransit service. As the U.S. population continues to grow and age, the demand for paratransit service keeps rising, posing many challenges for transit agencies due to its high operational cost. In response, a growing number of transit agencies are looking to incorporate alternative paratransit services by forming partnerships with transportation network companies (TNCs) to provide what is known as same-day service (SDS). However, most of these partnerships are still in the pilot phase, and scant research investigates the opportunities and barriers of SDS or provides guidelines and measures for transit agencies interested in such partnerships. Considering both the characteristics of paratransit trips and riders and the operational norms of TNCs, this paper explores different conditions under which SDS trips are most appropriate and estimates potential trip diversion from conventional paratransit to SDS operated by TNCs. Trip diversion conditions include (1) trip length, which is impacted by the subsidy amount for SDS and the dynamic pricing of TNC trips, (2) level of service, which depends on the level of mobility assistance required by paratransit riders, and (3) the operational efficiency of conventional paratransit. Different settings and combinations of these conditions help transit agencies explore the potential trip diversion of SDS while considering significant barriers to the service. Using 2019 ridership data of Access paratransit, the ADA paratransit services in the Seattle region, this research finds that without an excessive subsidy amount, transit agencies can divert up to 18% of paratransit trips to SDS. This percentage can drop to as low as 11% of paratransit trips if transit agencies further limit the SDS service area to ensure the efficiency of conventional ADA paratransit. This paper concludes that although SDS provides many benefits, significant barriers inherent to TNC business models and paratransit users should be carefully examined when pursuing ADA paratransit-TNC partnerships.

Keywords

ADA Paratransit; Transportation network company (TNC); Ride-sourcing; Transportation equity; Public-private partnership

A Latent Class Analysis to Understand Riders’ Adoption of On-demand Mobility Services as a Complement to Transit

Wang, Yiyuan; Shen, Qing. (2022). A Latent Class Analysis to Understand Riders’ Adoption of On-demand Mobility Services as a Complement to Transit. Transportation.

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Abstract

On-demand app-based shared mobility services have created new opportunities for complementing traditional fixed-route transit through transit agencies’ efforts to incorporate them into their service provision. This paper presents one of the first studies that rigorously examine riders’ responses to a pilot aimed at providing such a transit-supplementing service. The study conducts latent class analysis on riders of the Via to Transit program, a mobility pilot in the Seattle region where on-demand service was offered to connect transit riders to light rail stations. The analysis identifies three distinct rider groups with heterogenous responses to the on-demand service: (1) riders who previously used private cars or ride-hailing; (2) riders who were pedestrians and bikers but switched likely because of safety concern; (3) mostly socio-economically disadvantaged riders who previously relied on the bus, but switched to the new service for the convenience and speed. These results point to rich transportation policy implications, which can inform decision-making by public transit agencies as they are exploring alternative ways to deliver the mobility services.

Keywords

Public transit; On-demand shared mobility; Latent class analysis; Heterogeneous travel behavior responses; Built environments