Community and Regional Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations Copyright (c) 2013 Boise State University All rights reserved. http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs Recent documents in Community and Regional Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations en-us Tue, 28 May 2013 07:40:18 PDT 3600 Telecommuting, Household Commute and Location Choice http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs/3 http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs/3 Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:51:49 PDT Previous empirical studies have made contributions to the understanding of the impact of telecommuting on individual travel patterns. There has been much less research that has examined the impact of telecommuting on commute travel at the household level. Using data from the 2001 and 2009 US National Household Travel Surveys, this study focuses on one-worker and two-worker households and investigates how telecommuting affects household one-way commute distance and duration. The results show that telecommuting increases the commute distance and duration for both one-worker households and two-worker households. It is also found that, in two-worker households, the telecommuting status of one worker does not increase the commute distance and duration of the other worker. These findings suggest that telecommuting (two-worker) households tend to choose locations involving a longer total one-way commute than non-telecommuting households, and this difference is largely due to the longer commute of their telecommuting members.

]]> Pengyu Zhu Wayfinding in Boise http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs/2 http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs/2 Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:21:30 PST This document reviews the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of wayfinding within the Boise and downtown areas. This project was done in coordination with the City of Boise Parks & Recreation (Boise P&R) Department as an in-class Service Learning component of the Community and Regional Planning course “CRP 503 Plan Making and Implementation” at Boise State University.

The purpose of this project is to develop a quality set of findings and recommendations that adhere to accepted planning processes and sound methodology. The goal from the onset is to develop content that is broad-based, all-inclusive, and will be helpful to Boise P&R in the future development of a detailed wayfinding plan.

This document identifies major destinations in the city and recommends designated routes to reach these destinations. Recommendations are also made in regards to the location and design of signage, the potential uses of technology within a wayfinding system, and the next steps to take in working toward the implementation of a wayfinding system.

This project referenced and incorporated wayfinding-related work already done by Boise P&R. This included what they see as their key assets, most popular recreation destinations, and typical park -user demographics. Incorporating existing plans allows for a better understanding of what had been considered by Boise P&R as well as what had worked and not worked in regards to wayfinding efforts in the past. While wayfinding can be designed for and used by major transit such as automobiles, this project sets out to focus on non-motorized users such as pedestrians and cyclists. Further consideration could be given to identify ways to improve wayfinding on a larger scale within the city to assist motorists.

One of the major findings of this project indicates that early and consistent communication among various stakeholders would be essential to developing a successful wayfinding system. Multiple agencies should have roles in the design and implementation. It is important that these organizations feel they have a place at the table to discuss their ideas and opinions. The Boise downtown area is in need of an integrated wayfinding system.

This project is a step forward in the development of a successful wayfinding system in the City of Boise.

]]> Thomas Wuerzer et al. Donor States and Donee States: Investigating Geographic Redistribution of the US Federal-Aid Highway Program 1974-2008 http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs/1 http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/planning_facpubs/1 Thu, 31 May 2012 12:01:34 PDT In 2009, the US government spent more than $42 billion on the federal-aid highway program. Most of this money was raised from motor vehicle taxes, whose proceeds are deposited in the highway trust fund. Federal motor vehicle user taxes flow into the fund and aid expenditures flow out from it to build and maintain highways and other transportation infrastructure. With so much money at stake it should be no surprise that expenditure decisions are the subject of intense political debate. Chief among these debates is the conflict between donor states, whose residents pay more in highway user taxes than the state receives in federal highway aid and donee states, whose residents pay less in highway user taxes than the state receives in highway aid. While this geographic redistribution has been masked recently by infusions of general fund revenue into the trust fund, the debate nevertheless continues. This paper attempts to understand why some states are donors and others are donees by simultaneously testing four hypotheses about the geographic redistribution of federal highway dollars that relate to a state’s highway need, economic condition, level of urbanization, and representation on the key Congressional oversight committees. The analyses show that redistribution does not favor states with larger highway systems, more highway use, or lower median incomes, all of which are different indicators of need. Instead, states that are less urban and better represented on the four key Congressional committees generally benefit from redistribution. These findings indicate that the user tax revenues are not used in places where they are most needed. Thus they provide little empirical support for any compelling policy argument for continued geographic redistribution of federal highway user tax dollars.

]]> Pengyu Zhu et al.