Urban Transportation Planning and Policy
Examines transportation policymaking and planning; its relationship to social and environmental justice; and the influences of politics, governance structures, and human and institutional behavior. Explores the pathway to infrastructure, how attitudes are influenced, and how change happens. Examines the tensions and potential synergies among traditional transportation policy values of individual mobility, system efficiency, and "sustainability." Explores the roles of the government; analysis of current trends; transport sector decarbonization; land use, placemaking, and sustainable mobility networks; the role of "mobility as a service;" and the implications of disruptive technology on personal mobility. Assesses traditional planning methods with a critical eye, and through that process considers how to approach transportation planning in a way that responds to contemporary needs and values, with an emphasis on transport justice.
Fall 2016 · Urban Transportation Planning
Topics
- Course Overview and Introduction
- Urban Transportation History and Institutions
- Boston’s Highway Revolt: Anatomy of a Pattern Break?
- Transportation Finance and Legislation: Economic Development and Externalities
- The Battle for the Space Between Buildings: Street Design and the Politics of Urban Mobility
- Transportation Planning Methods and Measures: The 4-Step Model (and Other Traffic Models)
- Congestion and Solutions
- Project Evaluation and Environmental Impacts of Transportation
- The Other Battle for the Space Between Buildings: Parking
- Transportation Planning Methods and Measures: Access to Destinations
- Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Transportation
Readings
- WEEK: 1: Course Overview and Introduction · READINGS: No readings
- Chapter 2: “City-Transportation Relationship” in Vuchic, Vukan R. Transportation for Livable Cities . 1999. ISBN: 9780882851617.
- Chapter 1 in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Chapters 1,2 in Warner, Sam Bass. Streetcar Suburbs: The Process of Growth in Boston, 1870-1900 . Harvard University Press, 1978. ISBN: 9780674842113.
- Chapter 2 in Pucher, John, and Christian Lefevre. The Urban Transport Crisis in Europe and North America. Springer, 1996. ISBN: 9780333655511.
- Chapter 2 (sections 2.2-2.4) and Chapter 3 (sections 3.0-3.1) in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Most, Doug. The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway. St. Martin’s Press, 2014. ISBN: 9781250061355.
- Gakenheimer, Ralph A. Transportation Planning as Response to Controversy: the Boston Case. MIT Press, 1976. ISBN: 9780262070652.
- Salvucci, Frederick P. “Some Observations on the Recent 25-year History of the Metropolitan Boston Transportation System, the Legacy of the 1970 Boston Transportation Planning Review: What We Should Expect from ISTEA, and Some New Directions Which May Prove Interesting.” Paper prepared for the Boston Conference on Shaping the Accessible Region. Undated.
- Lupo, Alan, Frank Colcord, and Edmund P. Fowler. Rites of Way: The Politics of Transportation in Boston and the U.S. City . Little Brown & Co. 1971. ISBN: 9780316536707.
- Taylor, Brian D. “The Geography of Urban Transportation Finance” in Hanson, Susan, and Genevieve Giuliano, eds. The Geography of Urban Transportation. Guilford Press, 2004. ISBN: 9781593850555.
- Chapter 9 (section 9.3) in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Powers, Martine. “A Cyclist’s Mecca, with Lessons for Boston.” The Boston Globe. Sept. 22, 2013.
- Bain, Robert. Toll Road Traffic and Revenue Forecasts . Self-published, 2009. ISBN: 9780956152718.
- Chapter 5 (sections 5.0-5.1, 5.4) and Chapter 7 (7.0-7.2) in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Downs, Anthony. Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion. Brookings Institution Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780815719236.
- Gomez-Ibanez, Jose. “The Political Economy of Highway Tolls and Congestion Pricing.” Transportation Quarterly 46: 3, July 1992.
- Chapter 8 (sections 8.1-8.4) in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Chapter 3 (pages 26-45, 59-72) in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Krieger, Alex. “The Costs - and Benefits? - of Sprawl.” in Saunders, William S., ed. Sprawl and Suburbia: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader . Vol. 2. U of Minnesota Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780816647552.
- Chapter 1 in Shoup, Donald. The High Cost of Free Parking . APA Planners Press, 2011. ISBN: 9781932364965.
- Chapter 3, sections 3.1-3.2 in Block-Schacter, David, Michael Kay, Francesca Napolitan, and Tegin Teich. “Sustainable Transport @ MIT: Final Report.” May 21, 2007.
- Chapter 6 (section 6.0-6.2) in Meyer, Michael and Eric Miller. Urban Transportation Planning . McGraw-Hill. 2000. ISBN: 9780072423327.
- Banister, David. “Reducing CO2 by 60% in 2030: The Impossible Challenge for Transport?” Presented at the 11th World Conference on Transport Research, Berkeley, CA, June 2007.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2016
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.