Call for Papers for Annual Meeting

[Stephanie Dock]

Friends and Members of the TRB Major Cities Committee (ABE30),

Our committee has posted four Calls for Papers. The calls and paper submission instructions can be found on the TRB website at the links below and on our website (https://sites.google.com/site/trbabe30/calls-for-papers-and-presentations). Paper submission is open from June 1 to August 1. Papers submitted in response to these calls will be reviewed by our members and friends and used to shape the sessions we sponsor at the upcoming 2015 Annual Meeting.

Applications of "Big Data" in Addressing Urban Transportation Issues
http://pressamp.trb.org/CallForPapers/CFPDetail.asp?cid=1845
Never before have transportation agencies had access to the amount of data available today and at low cost. Each day, terabytes of data are automatically collected on numerous transportation systems including freeways, arterial streets, and transit vehicles. Additionally, manual data collection can shed light on freight movement, safety, and other critical areas. We are soliciting papers that highlight innovative ways cities are using their data including, but not restricted to, the following subject areas:

• Improving the planning process for new infrastructure or new transit routes
• Setting goals and measuring progress in strategic planning
• Using real-time data in traffic and transit operations
• Improving safety, especially of non-motorized modes
• Public communication and transparency

Goods Movement in Active Urban Communities co-sponsored with ANF10-Pedestrians, ANF20-Bicycle Transportation, and AT025-Urban Freight Transportation
http://pressamp.trb.org/CallForPapers/CFPDetail.asp?cid=1798
Previously, in many cities, wide motor-vehicle focused roadway designs and sprawling development patterns separated residential and freight activities and truck and non-motorized movements. However, emerging infill and mixed-use developments and multimodal urban streets now generate ever-increasing interactions between non-motorized travelers and commercial vehicles. The modes must compete for access to limited urban road and curb space, leading to delays, accidents, and expensive parking and moving violations.

While disparate vehicle sizes make commercial vehicles and non-motorized modes very incompatible from a safety perspective, these modes are also codependent; travelers without a personal vehicle must rely on access to goods from local businesses or via direct-to-home deliveries. New approaches to safely accommodate last-mile goods movements on densely developed, multi-use urban streets are essential to support the quality of life and economic vitality of these communities.

We are seeking papers that investigate this issue, focusing in areas including but not limited to:

• Characterizing residential and commercial freight demands in mixed-use areas;
• Identifying freight industry accessibility challenges in livable communities;
• Examining policy and curb regulation approaches to accommodate multimodal activities;
• Examining policy and city logistics approaches to reduce freight externalities for non-motorized travelers;
• Examining the compatibility of innovative non-motorized urban street infrastructure for commercial vehicle movements.

Livable Arterials: An Oxymoron or Urban Elixir? co-sponsored with ANB20-Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation, ANF10-Pedestrians, and ANF20-Bicycle Transportation
http://pressamp.trb.org/CallForPapers/CFPDetail.asp?cid=1799
The AASHTO functional classification system specifies that arterials should provide for high mobility and low access. Arterials in urban contexts often fail to fit nicely into this categorization because they provide for both high mobility and high access. This paper call is looking for research that seeks to better understand this mismatch - and the positive and negative implications of violating the standard functional classification system - with respect to issues such as road safety, multimodal transportation, urban vitality, economic development, and livability. Papers demonstrating the use of evolving and new data sources for safety and mobility to empirically demonstrate these tradeoffs are encouraged.

Understanding the Gender Gap in Urban Bicycling co-sponsored with ABE70-Women's Issues in Transportation and ANF20-Bicycle Transportation
http://pressamp.trb.org/CallForPapers/CFPDetail.asp?cid=1797
Many cities in the United States have seen an exponential growth in bicycling over the last decade. That being said, most of the growth has occurred among men as the share of bicycle trips taken by women in the US fell from 33% to 24%, and bike mode share by women remained at 0.5%. For men, bike mode share rose from 1.2% to 1.6%. As cities and urban areas across the U.S. begin to focus their efforts on increasing bicycle mode share, it is important that they address the gender gap in bicycling, enabling the bicycle mode share growth to be present and accessible to a diverse population.

We are seeking papers that investigate this issue, focusing on areas including, but not limited to:

• Identifying the underlying issues that contribute to the current gender gap in urban biking;
• Examining programs and factors which can reduce the current gender gap in urban biking;
• Review of international and domestic municipal policies and programs put in place to reduce the gender gap and whether they have proven successful;
• Using and exploring available bicycling data to create a more nuanced picture with regards to gender and urban biking;
• Exploring sources of bias in bicycle data collection and surveys.

Please share these calls with anyone who might be interested. Submitting a paper in response to a call is a great way to get involved in the committee and contribute to advancing the state of the practice in our field.

Happy writing,

Stephanie Dock
ABE30 Committee Communications Coordinator