Transportation is changing due to funding limitations, rising costs, environmental concerns, and shifting demands. Smart transportation is an approach that links transportation investments and land use planning through collaboration, creativity, flexibility, efficiency, and choices to build sustainable communities. It requires PennDOT and other stakeholders to think beyond boundaries and work together through coordination, outreach, and understanding differing roles to manage mobility and land use holistically.
The presentation was used by UDOT Executive Director Carlos Braceras during the Infrastructure and General Government Appropriations Subcommitte meeting on September 12, 2013.
During the 2017 National Regional Transportation Conference, Dan Blankenship shared information about the Roaring Forks Transportation Authority's work to serve the mobility needs of the region, including through bus rapid transit and other innovations.
The presentation was used by UDOT Executive Director Carlos Braceras during the Infrastructure and General Government Appropriations Subcommitte meeting on September 12, 2013.
During the 2017 National Regional Transportation Conference, Dan Blankenship shared information about the Roaring Forks Transportation Authority's work to serve the mobility needs of the region, including through bus rapid transit and other innovations.
This is a PowerPoint presentation for the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association. Its intent is to education Louisiana citizens about transportation funding, the current state of infrastructure and give them an appreciation of why we need to spend more money on transportation.
U.S. Bus Rapid Transit: 10 High-Quality Features and the Value Chain of Firms...The Rockefeller Foundation
Bus rapid transit (BRT) is increasingly being considered in cities across the United States as a reliable and cost-effective public transit mode. A large part of the appeal of BRT is its flexibility, offering a choice of system features that can be adapted to each community’s needs and constraints. As more U.S. cities look to BRT, they will need to understand the value chain that provides the vehicles, technology, services and financing needed to create a high-quality BRT system.
Title: Not Your Grandfather's DOT: The FDOT District 5 and PennDOT Experiences
Track: Connect
Format: 90 minute moderated discussion
Abstract: Today's economic realities require the rethinking of conventional transportation approaches. Learn about how Florida and Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation are using new tools, policies, and guides to proactively plan multi-modal transportation solutions.
Presenters:
Presenter: Jane Lim-Yap Kittelson & Associates, Inc.
Co-Presenter: Steven Deck Parsons Brinckerhoff
Co-Presenter: Brian Hare PennDOT Program Center
Co-Presenter: Mary Raulerson Kittelson & Associates, Inc.
Multi-Modal Transportation in North Texas: Increasing Connectivity Between Jo...Rail~Volution
Where are living wage jobs? Where is high-quality, affordable workforce housing? What are the most pressing health issues and where are they concentrated? How well does the region’s transportation system connect the income, housing and health needs of individuals and families? How can multi-modal transportation make the region healthier, stronger and more resilient?
Join local and national experts on Regional Day for a lively discussion about these topics—including the potential of predictive analytics to help transportation systems become more efficient, safer and easier to use. At the end of Regional Day, meet with colleagues from your own communities to share your insights and plan next steps.
Moderator: Regina Montoya, Chair, Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty, Dallas, Texas
Jeffrey Tumlin, Principal, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, Inc., San Francisco, California
Craig Adelman, Director of Transit Oriented Development, Low Income Investment Fund, San Francisco, California
Melinda Pollack, AICP, Vice President, Enterprise Community Partners, Denver, Colorado
Dan Burden, Director of Inspiration and Innovation, Blue Zones, Minneapolis, Minnesota
John Fregonese, President, Fregonese Associates, Portland, Oregon
Karla Weaver, AICP, Program Manager, North Central Texas Council of Governments, Arlington, Texas
Elizabeth Sobel Blum, Senior Community Development Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Dallas, Texas
Michael Sorrell, Esq., President, Paul Quinn College, Dallas, Texas
Dr. Ruben Amarashingham, MD, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, Dallas, Texas
Walter Bialas, Vice President, Director of Research Dallas, JLL, Dallas, Texas
Larry Tubb, Senior Vice President, System Planning, Cook Children's , The Center for Children's Health, Fort Worth, Texas
Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, this ebook highlights a dozen of CityLab's favorite stories from the 2014 series on how Americans will travel tomorrow.
The Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments (UCPCOG) and its regional Broadband Task Force have received a $72,000 grant from the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) to conduct a project with partners to better understand and address broadband challenges and opportunities for under served communities in the Upper Coastal Plain five-county region.
Doug Hughes, UCPCOG Chairman
Robert Hiett, Executive Director
Ron Townley, Planning and Development Services Director
EPA Proposed “Waters of the United States” Ruleartba
EPA’s proposed “waters of the United States” rule extends federal authority too far and would lead to greater project delays, ARTBA explains to a joint House and Senate committees.
This is a PowerPoint presentation for the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association. Its intent is to education Louisiana citizens about transportation funding, the current state of infrastructure and give them an appreciation of why we need to spend more money on transportation.
U.S. Bus Rapid Transit: 10 High-Quality Features and the Value Chain of Firms...The Rockefeller Foundation
Bus rapid transit (BRT) is increasingly being considered in cities across the United States as a reliable and cost-effective public transit mode. A large part of the appeal of BRT is its flexibility, offering a choice of system features that can be adapted to each community’s needs and constraints. As more U.S. cities look to BRT, they will need to understand the value chain that provides the vehicles, technology, services and financing needed to create a high-quality BRT system.
Title: Not Your Grandfather's DOT: The FDOT District 5 and PennDOT Experiences
Track: Connect
Format: 90 minute moderated discussion
Abstract: Today's economic realities require the rethinking of conventional transportation approaches. Learn about how Florida and Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation are using new tools, policies, and guides to proactively plan multi-modal transportation solutions.
Presenters:
Presenter: Jane Lim-Yap Kittelson & Associates, Inc.
Co-Presenter: Steven Deck Parsons Brinckerhoff
Co-Presenter: Brian Hare PennDOT Program Center
Co-Presenter: Mary Raulerson Kittelson & Associates, Inc.
Multi-Modal Transportation in North Texas: Increasing Connectivity Between Jo...Rail~Volution
Where are living wage jobs? Where is high-quality, affordable workforce housing? What are the most pressing health issues and where are they concentrated? How well does the region’s transportation system connect the income, housing and health needs of individuals and families? How can multi-modal transportation make the region healthier, stronger and more resilient?
Join local and national experts on Regional Day for a lively discussion about these topics—including the potential of predictive analytics to help transportation systems become more efficient, safer and easier to use. At the end of Regional Day, meet with colleagues from your own communities to share your insights and plan next steps.
Moderator: Regina Montoya, Chair, Mayor’s Task Force on Poverty, Dallas, Texas
Jeffrey Tumlin, Principal, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, Inc., San Francisco, California
Craig Adelman, Director of Transit Oriented Development, Low Income Investment Fund, San Francisco, California
Melinda Pollack, AICP, Vice President, Enterprise Community Partners, Denver, Colorado
Dan Burden, Director of Inspiration and Innovation, Blue Zones, Minneapolis, Minnesota
John Fregonese, President, Fregonese Associates, Portland, Oregon
Karla Weaver, AICP, Program Manager, North Central Texas Council of Governments, Arlington, Texas
Elizabeth Sobel Blum, Senior Community Development Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Dallas, Texas
Michael Sorrell, Esq., President, Paul Quinn College, Dallas, Texas
Dr. Ruben Amarashingham, MD, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, Dallas, Texas
Walter Bialas, Vice President, Director of Research Dallas, JLL, Dallas, Texas
Larry Tubb, Senior Vice President, System Planning, Cook Children's , The Center for Children's Health, Fort Worth, Texas
Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, this ebook highlights a dozen of CityLab's favorite stories from the 2014 series on how Americans will travel tomorrow.
The Upper Coastal Plain Council of Governments (UCPCOG) and its regional Broadband Task Force have received a $72,000 grant from the US Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) to conduct a project with partners to better understand and address broadband challenges and opportunities for under served communities in the Upper Coastal Plain five-county region.
Doug Hughes, UCPCOG Chairman
Robert Hiett, Executive Director
Ron Townley, Planning and Development Services Director
EPA Proposed “Waters of the United States” Ruleartba
EPA’s proposed “waters of the United States” rule extends federal authority too far and would lead to greater project delays, ARTBA explains to a joint House and Senate committees.
A New Strategy for Sustainable Transportation
Learn more at: http://www.boozallen.com/insights/insight-detail/beyond-mobility-a-new-strategy-for-sustainable-transportation
On May 20, 2010, Mary Raulerson of Kittelson & Associates held a workshop in Portland, OR which introduced and illustrated best practices in the field of Complete Streets using case studies she has been directly involved with around the country. During the workshop, special attention was given to the obstacles that had to be overcome and the solutions that worked. The goal of this session was to help identify and tailor practices that will further strengthen the region’s move toward creating, connecting and complimenting great places with great multimodal rights-of-way.
This is the presentation Michael Skipper, Executive Director of the Metropolitan Planning Office, delivered to the Transit Citizen Leadership Academy of Septemb
Slide deck used in the Eastside Transportation Association's Legislator briefing held 7/18/2018 at the Master Builder's Association in Bellevue, WA. To watch the recording of the meeting, visit http://stop405tolls.org/2018/07/20/etameeting
Q Select a current transportation problem in Texas State. Briefly d.pdffunkybabyindia
Q: Select a current transportation problem in Texas State. Briefly describe the situation and the
problem. Indicate options available and the major impact of each option on the state.
Solution
Answer-
The current main transportation problem in texas is congestion.Given existing congestion in
Texas and the expectations we have for future growth, we obviously have very real
transportation-related problems.
First, keep in mind that everything about congestion is not bad, as congestion is a byproduct of
economic prosperity. Other cities have “solved” their congestion problem by tanking their
economies, an approach we certainly don’t want to follow.
Second, the Texas population will continue to grow, and the characteristics of that population are
changing—it is becoming more urbanized, older and more ethnically diverse.That the growth
and the changing characteristics of our population have profound impacts on the transportation
system.
Third, and not surprisingly, congestion in Texas is bad, is growing rapidly and will continue to
increase. In our largest cities the rate of growth in congestion is in excess of 8% per year. In
2012, the total cost of congestion—delay time and wasted fuel—exceeded $10 billion in Texas.
Over the past 40 years, our population has more than doubled – up by 125 percent. The number
of cars and trucks on the road has almost tripled. And the number of miles those cars and trucks
travel has more than tripled. Over the same time, our roadway capacity has grown only
modestly—by 19 percent. We have too much demand for roadway space and not enough supply
Texas could solve transportation problems-
Texas is uniquely poised to be an incubator for national transportation solutions.
We have an active network of entrepreneurs, technology industries and major universities with
top-tier transportation research centers, and we are facing some of the country’s most
challenging traffic congestion problems and mobility equity issues.But a substantial shift in
transportation options is upon us, thanks to technology.
For example, various technologies are advancing to market for connected and highly automated
vehicles. And there is a huge potential to harness these emerging technologies to address our
traffic congestion and mobility equity issues.
Take Austin. It’s challenged with urban sprawl, long commutes, affordability and equity issues,
and suburbanization of the poor.
All of these issues matter in how people get around. Lower-income people typically get pushed
out of the downtown core as housing prices rise, and then they can’t afford alternative
transportation because public transit often doesn’t reach the outskirts of town.The government is
becoming more proactive in engendering collaborative partnerships, including one U.S.
Department of Transportation program called the Smart City Challenge.The challenge will invest
money in one midsized city that can uniquely address transportation in a way that can be
replicated throughout the nat.
Building Sustainable Communities: Urban Planning in the Portland Metro Regi...South Fraser Blog
Presentation by Oregon Metro Councilor Collette in which she give a general overview of the Metro Portland region and the role of the elected Oregon Metro Council. She gives information on Metro’s role in land-use planning, the urban growth boundary, and the region’s long-term planning document: Region 2040. She focuses on the link between land-use planning and transportation plan, and how Portland is in the business of designing multi-modal transportation corridors today. She also outlines the region’s priorities for high-capacity transport or light rail, and other orders of public and active transit. There is a case study on Tigard.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
• What is SAP Fiori and why it matters to you
• How a better user experience drives measurable business benefits
• How to get started with SAP Fiori today
• How SAP Fiori elements accelerates application development
• How SAP Build Code includes SAP Fiori tools and other generative artificial intelligence capabilities
• How SAP Fiori paves the way for using AI in SAP apps
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...
Smart Transportation by PennDOT
1.
2. Why is transportation changing? What is smart transportation? How do we do this? 1 All photographs and images from PennDOT, Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, or public domain, unless otherwise noted. Content for Session 2 3
6. Photo Source: Used with permission from Orange County Regional History Center
7. Photo Source: Used with permission from Orange County Regional History Center
8.
9.
10.
11. change is imperative funding limitations rising costs environmental concerns shifting market demands energy crisis land constraints economic development quality of life community building
12. Photographer: penywise. Used through license agreement with morguefile.com Revenue sources for financing transportation projects are severely limited .
13. Nearly 25% of Pennsylvania’s bridges are structurally deficient , compared with just 12% in the U.S. Pennsylvania ranks last in the nation in this statistic.
14. Even if we did have the money, we can no longer afford the conventional approach to tackling transportation/ land use issues.
15. Hot Mix Asphalt: + 88 % Image Source: Used by license agreement from morguefile.com. Photographers (top to bottom): kevinrosseel, alvimann, ppdigital 2008 Numbers are from First Quarter of 2008 (PennDOT) From 2003 to 2008… Fabricated Structural Steel: + 156 % Concrete: + 53 %
16. Source: U.S. Department of Energy; Bureau of Labor Statistics Our families cannot afford it… 18% of an average household budget spent on transportation In automobile-dominated regions, this figure can exceed 30% - often more than a family spends on housing Jan 2003 June 2008 Increase Gasoline $1.41 $4.02 +185% Diesel $1.50 $4.72 +215%
17. Source: An Economic Plan for the Commonwealth, Brookings Institution, March 2008 A recent study of PA’s economy revealed that enhancing our infrastructure is one of four assets that matter for a strong, vibrant economic future Our economy cannot afford it…
18. Our environment cannot afford it… Photographer: rosevita. Used through license agreement with morguefile.com
23. Photographer: heyjude. Used through license agreement with morguefile.com What is Smart Transportation? 2
24. Smart Transportation is partnering to build great communities for future generations of Pennsylvanians by linking transportation investments and land use planning and decision-making.
30. lasting solutions “do-overs” More … Less… Photographer: ladyheart. Used through license agreement with morguefile.com
31. community sprawl More … Less… Photo Source: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Visualizing Density program. Authorized for use in public presentations.
32. Photographer: ladyheart. Used through license agreement with morguefile.com How do we do this? 3
33. Fundamentally, smart transportation is about linking land use & transportation decisions/investments.
41. 2,563 municipalities 3 rd most government entities in the U.S. Think Beyond Jurisdictional Boundaries.
42. Obviously, PennDOT cannot change transportation alone. We need to collaborate and coordinate with our community building partners.
43.
44. Image courtesy of: Steve Price, Urban Advantage. Historic Preservation Transit Agency Developers & Land Owners Local Municipality Public Works Business Owners/ Residents DOT Utilities Economic Development Parks & Rec
54. Smart Transportation means considering all of our safety options for all users of our system… not just building bigger roads for cars
55.
56. PennDOT is committed to working with our partners in community building to continue creating the world’s most efficient and sustainable transportation system.
Today, I am going to talk about one of PennDOT’s main priorities—integrating “Smart Transportation” into the way we do business, and the way we approach our new transportation challenges in the Commonwealth.
Transportation is changing today, just as it has throughout history…
Changes in transportation technology have allowed and encouraged different settlement patterns. How we move around has changed dramatically over the past century…. And as a result, the places and people that we are serving with our transportation facilities have changed tremendously.
The early patterns were based on walking as the primary transportation mode. Streets were narrow, uses were mixed, cities were compact. Many medieval cities simply stopped growing when they became too large for people to walk from the edges to the center.
The introduction of streetcars allowed people and businesses to spread out a little, as they could now travel further in the same amount of time. However, the form was still very compact.
The creation of the interstate highway system coincided with an explosion in the number of people owning cars. [Photos are of President Eisenhower and Senator Al Gore, Sr., who—ironically—was a leading champion in Congress for the highway system] This new transportation milestone proved to be the most dramatic in changing how our cities grew. In addition to greatly expanding mobility options, the interstate highway system also led to scars through our community centers, as well as through our natural landscapes. Can you imagine permitting these projects today?
These new highways allowed people to flee the “dirty” cities to new suburbs that were springing up across America. Suddenly, people could live and work anywhere they wanted. Communities across the country became more spread out, roads became wider, vast areas now only had a single use, and land development codes were changed to accommodate cars.
This is one of the first automobile-oriented suburbs: Levittown, PA (just north of Philadelphia). The Levittown model of mass-production techniques and single-use districts has now become the predominant development pattern in the U.S.
The dominance of the automobile as the primary mode of transportation led to development patterns that look the same in every corner of America: disconnected local streets, single-use districts, strip commercial development. However, this pattern has proven to be astoundingly expensive to build and maintain.
New financial, technological, environmental, and social contexts changed the way we developed transportation systems in past generations. This is happening again. For a variety of reasons, we know we cannot afford to continue the current pattern, and that we must adapt to a new world.
In the past, we have tried to widen roads and build more of them to “build our way out of congestion.” We are realizing now that this is increasingly becoming a less feasible option for managing our transportation needs. As we all know, our financial resources are very limited, at both the state and local levels
Just to provide some sense of the magnitude of the needs of our existing infrastructure, nearly one-quarter of our bridges are structurally deficient.
Costs of construction materials have also changed, and continue to rise every day. Even if we did have the funding now, we cannot afford the increased costs of materials. Due in part to this massive infrastructure spending in China, India, and elsewhere in the world, costs for raw materials are soaring.
It’s not just PennDOT feeling the squeeze right now—our families are also hurting in the current environment. The costs of automobile reliance has soared. When we prepared this presentation just a few months ago, the gas figure was only $3.50… we have to update this slide daily! Our transportation and land use patterns can no longer require every family to own multiple vehicles, as is the case in many of our communities today. The costs of relying on private automobiles as a sole means of transportation is now simply too high. Throughout the country, households are beginning to change their lifestyles in response to these prices—and we need to adjust our transportation priorities accordingly.
Brookings Institution recently released a report (Mar 2008) about strengthening PA’s economy. They identified 4 things that have to happen to improve our economy—and one of these 4 is enhancing our infrastructure.
Additionally, climate change is becoming a much more important issue to people across the globe, including Pennsylvania’s residents, businesses, and political leaders. One of the major contributors to global warming, according to most scientists, is ever-increasing automobile use. Sprawling land use patterns are also eating into Pennsylvania’s farmland, which is among the most productive in the nation. Many of our transportation decisions over the past several decades have exacerbated this trend towards sprawling out across the landscape. Pennsylvania is urbanizing more land per person than any other state except Wyoming. From 1990 to 2000, our population grew by 3.4%, but our urbanized land grew by 53.6%.
Many of our quality of life indicators are also in decline. We are seeing higher rates of depression, obesity, and time spent in traffic, all of which degrade our quality of life and the social capital in our communities. Many studies have linked these trends, at least in part, to the land use and transportation patterns that are now prevalent in the Commonwealth.
None of these trends are specific to Pennsylvania; our partner DOTs across the nation are also trying to address these concerns.
We have a new series of challenges, and need a new series of solutions. It’s not the old way was “bad” or “wrong”… it’s just that the world is changing rapidly around us, and we need to adapt to our new financial, environmental, physical, and social realities.
All of us in charge of building Pennsylvania must get our heads out of the sand and face this new reality!
Smart Transportation isn’t a temporary initiative or a “niche” category within PennDOT: this is integrated into the way the entire department is does all aspects of our business.
ST is also about doing “more with less” [ click through each individually, brief comments on each. Slides are self-explanatory. ]
So how do we do this? There isn’t a magic bullet that anyone can hand you to solve our serious transportation issues. The solution will come from everyday decisions on the part of those working at PennDOT and our other partners in the community.
Overall, ST boils down to linking our transportation and land use decisions and investments. We cannot make our transportation decisions in a vacuum, just as local communities cannot make land use decisions in a vacuum. The two deeply affect one another.
Here is an animation that shows what this cycle looks like. We have a historic village in the lower right, surrounded by farmland.
A couple of farmers go to the municipality and request a rezoning. They are approved by the local politicians, and then sell to a developer who builds homes on their land.
The commutes between the village and the new subdivision soon lead to a high level of congestion on the state roadway. PennDOT must now come in and widen the road to accommodate this new traffic.
After the road is widened, land values along the road increase. A couple more farmers now go to the municipality to ask for rezoning to commercial land uses. They make the argument “PennDOT just invested in this roadway; we should take advantage of that investment by increasing the township’s tax base with new commercial development.” The political pressure in this situation can be quite intense; it is extremely difficult for local elected officials to turn down this request.
Now, the level of congestion has increased further, and PennDOT has to widen the road AGAIN! Notice how the 6-lane arterial has harmed the “small-town” character of the historic village.
The remaining farmers now have a huge economic incentive to sell their land for development. The land values are too high, because of the access to the 6-lane road, to continue as agriculture. Local officials now have little political or legal choice but to grant re-zoning approval for these final pieces of land. We now have a place that looks like “Anywhere USA”
Eventually we hit the end of this cycle, and this is the road we have. You can see here that no parallel roadways were ever built; the entire community is dependent on the state arterial for access and mobility. (This particular example is Route 73 in Burlington County, NJ).
In PA, like almost every state, local governments have complete authority over land use decisions. The challenge of altering this vicious and unsustainable land use/transportation cycle is dependent on our ability to work beyond these arbitrary borders.
This is only a partial list of all the entities we need to partner with to change this cycle. Clearly, this is a big task that will require new ways of thinking about community-building.
This is only a partial list of all the entities we need to partner with to change this cycle. Clearly, this is a big task that will require new ways of thinking about community-building.
As an example, this image shows the vision created by a community in Virginia. [ click ] We can see that a single agency or entity cannot create a great place on their own. The various pieces must come together in a holistic, comprehensive manner, meaning we all must coordinate with one another.
PennDOT and local municipalities have very different roles. On paper, they are independent and seem unrelated. But in practice, every decision by the DOT affects land use, and every decision by local governments affects investments PennDOT has made. Therefore, we must focus on partnering with one another.
Here are some of the ways each entity can partner to ensure a more cohesive link between land use and transportation. Clearly this is an extraordinarily complex task, and will require a high level of commitment and focus on the part of both PennDOT and local governments.
Let’s look at an example of thinking differently using the roadway network. Using the earlier example, we now have a roadway that is over-capacity, and that cannot be widened because of physical, financial, or environmental realities. In the meantime, growth is still occurring and is actually being encouraged by local governments searching for new tax base. So how do we provide the infrastructure this growth needs, not to mention accommodate existing traffic?
The solution is to look beyond the conventional ways of solving a similar problem, such as expensive bypasses. These animations show the ability to incrementally add new network (compared with widening or building new interchanges or bypasses). We must look beyond the right-of-way to achieve this solution, as we need partnerships with landowners, developers, municipal leaders, and others. [ click through next 2 slides ]
Since land use helped create the transportation problem, land use should also be part of the transportation solution. You can see that our new network has allowed this community to accommodate new growth (and tax base!) but with a different pattern. Ideally, this more compact mixture of uses will reduce trip lengths and total number of trips, and would allow for pedestrian, bicycling, and transit to become viable alternatives. [ click for red arrows ]
Now this community is not reliant on a single state facility… there are route options and additional capacity was produced without widening a single road. But for this vision to be a reality, we have to learn to work beyond our jurisdictional boundaries and professional “silos”.
Smart Transportation also means focusing on transportation choice . Due to the multitude of factors discussed at the beginning of this presentation, transportation systems that are too imbalanced in favor of private automobiles are no longer sustainable.
However, just having transit in a community doesn’t really mean you’re providing “choice”. Making transit a real, viable option for all people (not just those with absolutely no other choice) requires coordination among a number of groups—the transit agencies, PennDOT, local governments, and private developers.
Finally, Smart Transportation also means that we must continue focusing on the most important aspect of our work: safety. However, all too often we have used “safety” as an excuse to build bigger, wider roads. We need to continue thinking about ways to make our transportation systems safer for all of our users.
The Smart Transportation Guidebook, which we produced in coordination with NJ DOT, was released in March 2008. This book provides the technical information needed to begin integrating Smart Transportation principles into our everyday business.
PennDOT is committed to working with our partners in ensuring that true integration between land use and transportation decisions occur.
Collaboration and listening…
Transit and mobility options for all of the people in our communities…
Taking care of our existing infrastructure…
Supporting sound land use principles, including preserving agriculture…
Providing people with the options of walking or biking in all of our communities…
… and creating a great communities in which out future generations can live, work, and play.
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your questions.