Planning for our regional transportation future (virtual task force meeting)

Here is the chat stream from our meeting today in which NCTCOG's Tom Bramonte and Ford's Madeline Shepherd held forth on transportation planning for a new era. They got us thinking about some deeply held assumptions that go into planning. Should it be more about vehicles or people? Are we extending sprawl but putting more dollars into new lanes, less into maintaining what we already have? Are we "done" with micromobility?

To measure congestion, do you measure vehicle throughput or person throughput?

How is "congestion" defined?

So congestion is about vehicles, not people?

Since we know that we can't build ourselves out of congestion, is NCTCOG consistently challenging how we can accommodate congestion while creating a financially sustainable transportation network?

Do recent climate change models predict growing repair costs in out years (i.e. heat impact on concrete, etc.)

(Dallas and Atlanta appear to have very different values on building more roads versus maintaining them) How is Atlanta thinking differently?

Asked of Tom: How has your thinking shifted in terms of road-buiding and the assumption of automobility as the prime mover of people and goods?

Are the unfortunate land use decisions driven mainly by developers and cities? Are politics driving the focus on congestion (lack of public interest in improving land use, public desire to make convenient long trips)?

What do you think the impact of COVID 19 will be on future transportation demand? Will the affects be short-term or long-term?

Should Safety and climate be elevated as factors?

(What) we really need to do is elevate it with the elected officials which means, their constituents need to be reaching out to them about more than congestion.

Under goals, what about system reliability?

Can't crashes be one of the performance measures?

Safety is one of the performance measures.

How does connected and automated vehicles factor into congestion?  What is the expectation as its contribution to easing or creating congestion?

Tom, on about impacts of AVs: The current wisdom is that AVs are likely to increase VMT/congestion unless (a) there is a shift to shared rides (e.g., UberPool) or (b) there is a shift to smaller vehicle form factors (e.g., pods) that allow greater vehicle throughput on our streets.

Congestion is multi-faceted issue that is enabled by individual prioritizations, and land ownership and use decisions that contribute to urban sprawl, desire for better schools systems, affordable housing,..obtaining the American dream. People weigh the pros and cons and act accordingly.  When it becomes unbearable (value of time), they adjust – they move closer to their jobs, go to and from work earlier or later, telecommute, change jobs, use transit, if available.

Excellent points about demand and congestion--which aint all bad if it "drives" new consumer choices

Thomas Bamonte to Everyon…from Inrix's congestion expert: "In the medium- and long-term, congestion can positively impact a city by incentivizing land use changes and driving investment in high-efficiency modes of transport (public transport, biking, walking). These investments reinforce agglomeration economics, amplifying their impact."

INRIX, 2019 Global Traffic Scorecard

Transit agencies have not been able to or receptive to changing their mode of operations to meet the customer needs. It's even more challenging for them because their is no longer a clearly defined CBD.  People traveal suburb to suburb..  It's built on a model to accomodate work and not the needs of women generally to travel for other reasons -- grocers, doctor appointments, school. Thei

Will micromobility come in the form of a service provided by private sector (e.g., Bird) or public sector (e.g., DART) or will consumers buy vehicles such as scooters just as they do cars today and cities will provide street and docking infrastructure?

I would encourage you to read the book, Invisible Women, by Caroline Criado Perez.

Are people using scooter to travel to and from work or for other essential needs or for fun?

Madeline:  I think we'll see evolutions in the business model, including the possibilities you mention

Tom: Scooter use depends on the market, but in mature markets there are plenty of work and other "real" trips. But "fun"

Madeline: (Thanks) for the recommendation! I think you've made some very good points. I can only speak to what we've seen with Spin, but trips to essential destinations has gone up, indicating trips aren't just for fun. In dense urban areas where people live and work where they live, we see them used for work commute.