Dan Hennessey, P.E., T.E., PTOE, PTP, RSP1

The SIF Roadway Capacity Plan, adopted in December of 2020, included more than 1,100 projects on which the collected SIF can be spent. Based on the fee collection rate set by City Council and the assumed growth over the next ten years, the projects will not be fully funded by the SIF. Additionally, the Texas Local Government Code requires the City to be split into service areas no larger than six miles across, necessitating 17 service areas for SIF Implementation in Austin. Money collected in… Show more

The SIF Roadway Capacity Plan, adopted in December of 2020, included more than 1,100 projects on which the collected SIF can be spent. Based on the fee collection rate set by City Council and the assumed growth over the next ten years, the projects will not be fully funded by the SIF. Additionally, the Texas Local Government Code requires the City to be split into service areas no larger than six miles across, necessitating 17 service areas for SIF Implementation in Austin. Money collected in each service area must be spent in that service area. As a result, the 1,100+ projects were split into 17 lists and a methodology was established to prioritize the planning and potential spending on projects as fees are collected.

The Project Development team gathered metrics and ranking criteria, obtained feedback from internal City stakeholders, and established potential criteria for scoring projects. Criteria for scoring and ranking the projects were centered on public input from the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan (ASMP). During that plan development, the community helped the Austin Transportation Department (ATD) create a list of eight Mobility Goals, prioritized as follows:

Affordability
Commuter Delay
Travel Choice
Health and Safety
Sustainability
Placemaking
Economic Prosperity
Innovation

The Project Development Program team created a list of values inspired by the ASMP Mobility Goals by which to score and rank projects. The scoring matrix uses the available metrics to reflect the following values:

Affordability
Safety
Equity
Access/Connectivity
Reliability
Mobility
Sustainability/Resiliency

More than 80 metrics were considered for inclusion, and 16 were ultimately chosen for inclusion. The initial scoring matrix reflects the projects that will be included in the first year of the project development process, not necessarily where money will be spent as other funds become available or as priorities change over the span of the SIF program. Show less

The City of Austin is considering the adoption of a street impact fee program, which would change the manner in which developers take responsibility for paying for their portion of growth on the City’s transportation network. In developing this program, the City split Austin into seventeen zones by which to determine the maximum impact fee that can be charged per state law. Using a day’s worth of vehicle trip data from connected vehicle data company Wejo, each zone’s vehicle miles traveled… Show more

The City of Austin is considering the adoption of a street impact fee program, which would change the manner in which developers take responsibility for paying for their portion of growth on the City’s transportation network. In developing this program, the City split Austin into seventeen zones by which to determine the maximum impact fee that can be charged per state law. Using a day’s worth of vehicle trip data from connected vehicle data company Wejo, each zone’s vehicle miles traveled (VMT) data were assessed to determine the average length of trips during the morning commute period, evening commute period, and overall daily trip lengths.

The purpose for these analyses was to determine if certain areas of the city showed drastically different VMT patterns than others and what that impact might be on street infrastructure. We found that specific zones characterized by low amounts of employment and housing, typically on the periphery of the city, consistently generated the highest average VMT, whereas central zones had the lowest average VMT.

This ability to evaluate real-world data on travel patterns allows the City of Austin and other jurisdictions to consider VMT as a criterion for evaluating development, including the imposition of street impact fees. When developers choose to build in high impact zones (high average VMT), it may be appropriate for them to pay a higher proportion towards growth mitigation than low impact zones (low average VMT), depending on the jurisdiction’s priorities and the type of growth they hope to incentivize. Show less

The transit desert concept serves as an important launching point for the conversation on equity and
access in transportation, but it lacks a mechanism to directly address those issues. A transit desert is an
area where transit demand exceeds transit supply, identified by census data and an inventory of local
infrastructure. The concept, first coined by Dr. Junfeng Jiao, does well to identify where gaps in transit
service are most impactful – but attempting to fill the gaps is not… Show more

The transit desert concept serves as an important launching point for the conversation on equity and
access in transportation, but it lacks a mechanism to directly address those issues. A transit desert is an
area where transit demand exceeds transit supply, identified by census data and an inventory of local
infrastructure. The concept, first coined by Dr. Junfeng Jiao, does well to identify where gaps in transit
service are most impactful – but attempting to fill the gaps is not an easy process. Transit stops and routes are difficult to relocate in the short-term, often requiring months of planning and a system overhaul before a change can be made. However, with the emergence and popularity of dockless vehicles, there may be a flexible solution to address the gaps in transportation access identified by the transit desert concept.

This paper takes as a foundation the transit gap methodology first introduced by Todd Steiss (Steiss, 2006) and expanded by Junfeng Jiao (Jiao, 2017), and tweaks it to better fit the userbase of dockless scooters and bicycles. Because this process is based on publicly available data, dockless providers can mimic the process to place their vehicles where they are most needed anywhere in the United States.

This paper examines the deployment strategies of the major dockless providers in Austin through the lens of equity. With cities only beginning to plan for this new vehicle type, there is still room to learn from existing efforts while using public data to develop new methods. Show less

TNCs rapid adoption and growth is a disruptive influence at nearly every U.S. airport. As a result of TNCs proliferation, airport parking garages and parking lots don’t achieve previous revenue levels. The net effect is very congested curbside pick-up and drop-off areas – with less revenue to provide the excellent passenger journey that airport administrators desire.

Trip generation estimates for specific land uses are traditionally gathered from data included in the most
current version of a handbook entitled Trip Generation Manual, produced by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Data collected to develop these rates have typically been collected at suburban, single-use, freestanding sites. These defining characteristics limit their applicability to development projects in urban settings.

From a collection of planning studies and… Show more

Trip generation estimates for specific land uses are traditionally gathered from data included in the most
current version of a handbook entitled Trip Generation Manual, produced by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). Data collected to develop these rates have typically been collected at suburban, single-use, freestanding sites. These defining characteristics limit their applicability to development projects in urban settings.

From a collection of planning studies and impact analyses done in the last two years within the City of
Austin, BIG RED DOG Engineering examined existing data to show that vehicle trip generation estimates to and from new development have been overestimated during the peak hours by more than 50 percent.

To remedy this overestimation, BIG RED DOG Engineering developed a vehicle trip generation model
specific to the City that accounts for specific characteristics of the development, availability of non-auto
modes, and the demographic profile of the surrounding area. Aside from the traffic count data, the BIG
RED DOG team used readily available information as variables for the model, both for calibration and
validation as well as for use in developing new forecasts.

The results of this analysis have implications for engineers and planners that continue to design the City for vehicles, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of vehicle congestion. As the City moves toward a more multimodal vision while wrestling with their responsibility to those in vehicles, the use of the national rates create an undue burden on the engineers and planners championing that multimodal vision. Show less

Interim Design and Tactical Urbanism should be considered as tools to provide real world tests of designs in three-dimensions. As most Interim Design and Tactical Urbanism projects evolve from a more permanent, higher-cost design proposal, these tools can both test the community's long-term vision for a project and ensure that the community's needs are addressed in the near-term. Some Interim Designs will reduce or remove the clear recovery zone, which should be discussed with local engineers… Show more

Interim Design and Tactical Urbanism should be considered as tools to provide real world tests of designs in three-dimensions. As most Interim Design and Tactical Urbanism projects evolve from a more permanent, higher-cost design proposal, these tools can both test the community's long-term vision for a project and ensure that the community's needs are addressed in the near-term. Some Interim Designs will reduce or remove the clear recovery zone, which should be discussed with local engineers to ensure the modifications are appropriate to the context. Similarly, consideration must be given to the duration of a design. The City prepared full construction drawings for the Interim Design solution, consisting of a stamped set of striping and signing plans. They detailed the spacing and location of landscape planters, soft hit posts, colorized curb extensions, and other striping. Show less

The three primary objectives of this project were to: (1) conduct research on existing bicycle and pedestrian safety programs and guidelines in the U.S. and internationally, (2) obtain and analyze existing data related to pedestrian and bicycle safety in California, and (3) assist in developing methodologies for producing safety action plans, identifying and selecting projects, conducting education campaigns, and targeting enforcement campaigns. To meet these objectives, SafeTREC developed a… Show more

The three primary objectives of this project were to: (1) conduct research on existing bicycle and pedestrian safety programs and guidelines in the U.S. and internationally, (2) obtain and analyze existing data related to pedestrian and bicycle safety in California, and (3) assist in developing methodologies for producing safety action plans, identifying and selecting projects, conducting education campaigns, and targeting enforcement campaigns. To meet these objectives, SafeTREC developed a set of resources and tools for use in California. These resources make information and data on pedestrian injuries and fatalities in CA accessible to practitioners, researchers, and anyone else interested in obtaining information and improving conditions for pedestrians. The deliverables are individually summarized and included as appendices. These resources should be further developed and maintained to remain useful and appropriate. Show less

This work was done as part of an Undergraduate Thesis project.

Campus buses at The Ohio State University were fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) units, which determine latitude and longitude coordinates of the receiver at a given time – and, therefore, the coordinates of the bus on which the receiver is installed – by triangulating among a series of signals transmitted from a set of satellites. The various location and time points can be organized to produce bus trajectories… Show more

This work was done as part of an Undergraduate Thesis project.

Campus buses at The Ohio State University were fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) units, which determine latitude and longitude coordinates of the receiver at a given time – and, therefore, the coordinates of the bus on which the receiver is installed – by triangulating among a series of signals transmitted from a set of satellites. The various location and time points can be organized to produce bus trajectories, which can be plotted in what is known as a space-time diagram. Speeds can be analyzed to determine what effect time has on speed (i.e. time of day, day of week, month of year), what effect space has on speed (looking at speeds within context of surrounding roadway infrastructure), and the simultaneous impact of time and space. It was found that while the time of day has less impact on the speed than the location, there are patterns throughout both the day and along the route. It was also found that the time and space factors do not always act independently. Also, many of the patterns could be explained by examining the surrounding infrastructure including stop lights and signs and bus stops, but some could not. The speed information extracted and the patterns identified could be beneficial in several ways. First, they could be used for better off-line transit planning including route and schedule design. Second, if the data is collected in real-time, the results could be useful for real-time bus control and the provision of bus travel time and arrival information to passengers. Finally, the results could complement information extracted from other sensors for the purpose or real-time management of overall transportation networks including private automobile, commercial vehicle, and public transit flows. Show less