Student: Drew Williamson
Graduation date: May 2017
Type: Concentration (single major)
Date approved: November 2014
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Summary
The face of personal transportation has already begun to shift significantly in the last couple decades. As one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases—constituting 28% of emissions in the United States—the transportation juggernaut is a topic that will potentially come under increasing scrutiny as regulations designed to limit human-induced climate change are brought forward (US EPA 2014). Although the entire transportation sector includes planes, trains, boats and more, the bulk of our use comes in the form of personal trips made in privately owned vehicles (Weiner 2008). Furthermore, given the rapid urbanization of the world that has been occurring in the last century, cities have grown continuously and the majority of people are largely concentrated in cities that we have built (Brown 2009). However, as humanity’s mobility has improved, significant sprawl has been the main result seen in our cities. This potentially increases threats to air & water quality as well as biodiversity, due to increased travel-based emissions (White & Ernst 2003). During this time, the US government has invested hundreds of billions in highway and road systems, but has given far less consideration to alternative (read: non-auto) transit modes for individuals–to include bicycling, buses, light and heavy rail, and walking. (Winston 2006). This perhaps unprecedented swelling has left us with several issues we now face in getting around our urban landscapes—insufficient infrastructure which cannot be maintained or improved at the rates we need and a commuter culture resulting in huge resource consumption as well as significant traffic congestion—bringing with them a variety of subsequent direct and external social impacts, including economic and personal health effects, air pollution, and safety hazards (Gwilliam 2002, Dodson 1969).
From this background, I plan to situate this concentration in a variety of developed metropolitan settings that are not extremely dense (for my purposes defined as less than 10,000 people/sq. mile). These cities generally consist of a large population (at least half a million) and relatively significant economic and political influence in the world. These characteristics necessitate a high level of transportation availability, yet the lack of density (or sheer population number) tends not to support large-scale alternative transportation, due to much higher suburbanization and proliferation of sprawl. Ideally, I will come to understand more the ways in which our current situation has been created by both the structures and the sociology regarding our built cities and how we get around them. I would also like to begin to understand how to create effective means of conveyance, accessible to all, in places that are not simply filled with high-rises, through some combination of planning, policymaking, and implementation. By looking at a broad context of urban environments, the goal is to learn more about various policies that have been, or are in the process or being enacted in cities around the world addressing the future of transportation and what results have been seen in these places. This will help me to both truly engage with the concepts, and to find sociological connections between what has worked and where, why it has come to be, and how we can best approach individual transportation in urban settings in the future.
References
Brown, L. R. (2009). PLAN B 4.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization. WW Norton & Company. Retrieved from http://www.earth-policy.org/images/uploads/book_files/pb4book.pdf
Dodson, Edward N. 1969. “Cost-Effectiveness in Urban Transportation.” Operations Research 17 (3): 373–94.
Gwilliam, K. M. (2002). Cities on the move: a World Bank urban transport strategy review. World Bank Publications.
US EPA, Climate Change Division. 2014. “Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Transportation Sector Emissions”. Overviews & Factsheets,. Accessed October 17. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/transportation.html.
Weiner, E. (2008). Urban Transportation Planning in the United States. New York, NY: Springer New York. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-0-387-77152-6
Winston, C. (2006). Promoting the General Welfare : New Perspectives on Government Performance. (E. Patashnik & A. Gerber, Eds.). Brookings Institution Press.
White, Patricia A., and Michelle Ernst. 2003. “Second Nature: Improving Transportation without Putting Nature Second.” Road Ecology Center, April. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/45b3r257.
Questions
- Descriptive:
What are the types and usages of current transportation systems? How have cities of varying densities developed strategies for meeting various personal transportation needs? What are specific issues that arise from current transportation methodologies? What choices are currently being made in cities faced with these transportation issues? How has the need for transportation in urban areas grown or changed in the last century (or even just the last 20 years)? How has the mode share of transportation options changed over the past century? - Explanatory:
How has the built environment and urban planning in the past impacted the development of today’s cities, and how has this “creation” impacted current urban transportation policy? To what extent does the built environment affect public interest in alternative transportation modes? What cities of lower density have seen significant successes in developing alternative transportation, and why? - Evaluative:
What social costs or benefits arise as a result of current transportation policy in sprawled out cities? To what extent do the various modes of transportation contribute to healthier societies? What external impacts are seen from the various modes of transportation, particularly carbon/GHG emissions? Can society’s transportation needs be met via alternative transportation means in the midst of sprawl? What barriers might stand in the way? How have medium-density cities with a higher degree of alternative urban transportation benefited, if at all? - Instrumental:
How do planners and politicians work with limited resources and the current built environment in non-dense landscapes to still create effective transportation networks? How should we prioritize transportation alternatives to influence change in society? Is mass transportation something that should be implemented before simply improving quality of basic transit options?
Concentration courses
- USP 313 (Urban Environmental Issues, 4 quarter/2.67 semester credits), winter 2016. This course examined the origin and implications of environmental problems in urban life. Transportation policy and how people get around (normative vs alternative) is a major focus of urban environmental and public health discourse, as an attempt to achieve balance between social, economic, and ecological factors of cities. Other issues discussed in the course included water supply and runoff management, energy/food consumption and related waste disposal, and public/green space. (Offered at PSU)
- USP 456 (Urban Transportation: Problems and Policies, 3 quarter/2 semester credits), spring quarter 2016. This class looked at the history and politics of transportation policies, and explored the resultant forms of the built environment coming from various modes of transport over time, particularly since industrialization. This inquiry essentially began with streetcar suburbs--the first mechanized travel mode which allowed the city to begin spatially expanding--and continued to modern travel (mainly via the privately owned automobile). We broadly covered how transportation policies impact urban growth and change, with a focus on Portland's experience as a frame of reference. (Offered at PSU)
- ECON 332 (Urban Economics, 4 credits) Fall 2015. This course covered the economics of urban patterns such as land use, taxation, congestion and sprawl, it was useful to my understanding economic aspects and explanations of how shared resources (i.e travel networks and transportation patterns) in cities work--starting with housing choice in proximity to workplace, neighborhood choice and segregation, and transportation choice.
- SOAN 282 (Pacific Rim Cities, 4 credits) Spring 2016. This course looked at a broad context of cities and patterns of urban life in both the west and the far east that helped me quantify differences in societal outlook towards the viability of various transportation options and alternative perspectives on/patterns of urban development, as well its influence on the growth of Asian megacities. Ideas introduced in the course included world-city theory, place promotion, identity, social division, and landscapes of power vs. periphery, many of which took a central role in the development of my thesis.
- ENVS 499 (Independent Study, 2 credits) Spring 2016. This course was designed to explore additional background as I developed my thesis, focusing on the social implications of development of modern light rail networks in the city of Strasbourg, France. Significant honing of ideas to research more specifically with the limited time afforded me while studying abroad in France established a solid base upon which my thesis is built.
- L3 Dynamiques urbaines contemporaines (Contemporary & Dynamic Cities), Fall 2016. This course was taken at the University of Strasbourg while studying abroad in France. It gave me insight into the historical context of how cities in France have grown, including substantial investigation into the social and political (legal) forces that have helped shape their development into the 21st century. This knowledge assisted me in developing more concrete takeaways from my thesis, which focused on Strasbourg's tram network, and how and why the existing built environment supported such efforts.
- HIST 239 (Constructing the American Landscape, 4 credits) Spring 2017. An examination of political, social, economic forces that create the built environments we see in our world today. Particularly, this course was useful for me because it contextualized the unique features that have been coded into urban landscapes in America, the reason for legacy infrastructures, and the challenges that creates for city planners (or anyone else) concerned with achieving more equitable and efficient patterns of development.
Arts and humanities courses
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- FREN 321 (Intro to Literary Studies, 4 credits) Spring 2016. In this course, I obtained a baseline understanding of social perceptions and realities in Francophone culture regarding alternative transportation, and immersed myself in non-academic French writing. This was useful for my study abroad semester in Fall 2016 where I conducted thesis research by immersing myself in Strasbourg-local newspaper and other written documents to inform my thesis' storyline. I used the independent project to explore more thoroughly the role of alternative transportation in culture, and how it can be communicated through spoken word.