Metro is analyzing new geolocational data to look beyond conventional understandings of travel behavior.

Adam Rogers reports on efforts at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to better understand how people travel and the ways bus service could be revamped to meet these needs and entice people to switch modes.
Using locational data from cell phones, Conan Cheung at Metro found the expected morning and afternoon peaks related to schools and work. But the data also showed a third peak, one that is not commute related, says Rogers:
That was new. "What we know from traditional surveys is, people remember their biggest trips," [Anurag] Komanduri says. "But what people forget is 'I'm picking up the laundry,' 'I'm stopping to grab coffee.' We see more of these data captured by cell phones." Those trips, the futzing around of daily life, tend to happen in off-peak hours—from midday into the evening, 8 or 9 o'clock.
A closer look at these short trips compared transit and driving trip times. "Some 85 percent of trips could be taken on mass transit, but fewer than half were as fast as driving," writes Rogers. And when more comparisons were made using fare card data, Cheung discovered that on routes with the same travel time, only 13 percent of that travel happened on transit.
The challenge, says Rogers, is figuring out how to use and balance the incentives for transit use and the disincentives for driving—the carrots and the sticks. Improving transit service, increasing housing density, and implementing congestion pricing are all strategies that can help get people out of their cars.
But he also argues that Los Angeles needs to take bold steps to stop designing the city around driving. "This is the baller move: Stop making cars easy and everything else hard. Tear down some freeways. Make retail districts pedestrian-only. Strew commercial corridors with curbside parklets, protected bike lanes, scooter-share services, and apartment buildings with first-floor retail and no parking. Make it illegal to park on the street—on every street. Put buses and trains everywhere."
FULL STORY: LA’S PLAN TO REBOOT ITS BUS SYSTEM—USING CELL PHONE DATA

In Most U.S. Cities, Archaic Laws Limit Roommate Living
Critics argue laws preventing unrelated adults from living in the same home fail to understand the modern American household.

Ten Signs of a Resurgent Downtown
In GeekWire, Chuck Wolfe continues his exploration of a holistic and practical approach to post-pandemic urban center recovery, anchored in local context and community-driven initiatives that promote livability, safety, and sustainability.

Off-Peak is the New On-Peak
Public transit systems in major U.S. cities are starting to focus on non-rush hour travelers as pre-pandemic commuting patterns shift and transportation needs change.

Tacoma Coalition Calls for ‘Tenants’ Bill of Rights’
The group wants to put more power in the hands of tenants, but the city has its own, competing proposal for addressing the housing crisis.

New Power Transmission Line Approved in the Southwest
The proposed transmission line will transfer wind-produced power from New Mexico to cities in Arizona and California.

The Limitations of ‘Reconnecting Communities’
The Biden administration has pledged to correct the damage imposed on communities by highways and infrastructure, but many projects are only committing to minor improvements, not transformative changes.
Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission
Code Studio
TAG Associates, Inc.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Montrose County
Knox County
Wichita-Sedgwick County Metropolitan Area Planning Department
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.