Department of City and Regional Planning
The Department of City and Regional Planning is more than fifty years old, and among its faculty are researchers of international repute. They are authors of landmark monographs, journal articles and working papers focused on several subfields especially community and economic development, transportation, environmental policy and growth management, and urban design and development.
67 results
Search results
Publication Arts-Based Third Spaces for Youth(2024-05-18) Srivastava, VanyaThis thesis project aims to explore the role of arts-based third spaces in promoting equitable urban development and positive youth outcomes in Philadelphia. Third spaces, defined as informal environments outside of home and school settings, provide crucial platforms for youth expression, identity exploration, skill development, and community engagement. The study seeks to investigate the current state of arts-based third spaces for Philadelphia youth, identify the challenges and barriers to their accessibility, and explore elements that contribute to their effectiveness, both physically and socially. The research recognizes the spatial dimension of the issue, acknowledging that access to third spaces represents a spatial equity challenge. Physical barriers such as distance, transportation infrastructure, and built environment features, as well as social and cultural factors like perceptions of safety and belonging, can impede youth from accessing these spaces, particularly those from marginalized communities. Through spatial analysis and qualitative interviews and focus groups, this thesis endeavors to provide insights into planning for equitable urban environments that meet the diverse needs of adolescents.Publication Bus Network Redesigns: a 21st Century attempt to save mass transit(2024-05-18) Zisk, JonathanThis thesis project is focused on the practice of bus network redesigns in the United States between 2014 and 2023. After introducing the concept of bus network redesigns in Chapter I, in Chapter II I summarize the existing academic, historical, and gray literature on bus network redesigns. I observe that network redesigns are used to adapt transit networks to changes in urban development and travel patterns. I also find that academic literature on bus network redesigns has focused primarily on modeling their accessibility impacts, including for the ways redesigns can improve riders’ access to jobs and health care services. Following, I consider the robust gray literature on bus network redesigns, including writing on individual blogs, reports by advocacy groups, and policy case studies. I conclude that there has been no comprehensive study on the quantitative impacts of bus network redesigns, and also observe that much of the work being done to shape network redesigns comes from the professional, not academic side of the field. In Chapter III I summarize my key findings from a series of interviews conducted with active transit planners who have worked on bus network redesigns. Those planners observe that bus network redesigns distinguished themselves from existing transit planning methods in the mid-2010s. They also demonstrate how bus network redesigns are spread in a variety of ways, oftentimes proposed by one of a few prolific consulting firms, but also developed internally by transit agencies, or municipal governments. Finally, I detail the way that community engagement has become an increasingly robust component in bus network redesign projects, especially as redesigns have grown in scale. In Chapter IV, I establish a framework for measuring the effects of bus network redesigns that can be added to as more data becomes available for treated networks. I use National Transit Database data to measure changes in yearly ridership and vehicle operating hours at transit agencies. I cluster agencies with their peers using a k-means clustering technique and assess treatment effects via an OLS linear regression, first with time as a binary variable, then with time as a panel variable. I find no statistical differences between treated and untreated networks, although I do observe weak positive associations with operational performance metrics over time in treated networks. I also calculate difference in difference effects for treated networks from their peers. I find slight associations with operational efficiencies, albeit with large standard errors that suggest diverging trends among treated networks. To conclude the thesis, I suggest that, regardless of their quantitative effects, bus network redesigns are intrinsically valuable for transit agencies because of how they facilitate wholistic, network-scale thinking about how transit can serve our cities.Publication “Citizens with a Special Training”: Henry Stern Churchill and Democratic Ideals in Planning and Urban Renewal(2022-05-01) Johnson, MaxwellThe story of American urban renewal is frequently reduced to a struggle between autocratic supporters of mass urban clearance and the admirable individuals and communities who resisted. Henry Stern Churchill (1893-1962), the focus of this thesis, was an early advocate and practitioner of urban renewal, who, by the end of his career, became a staunch critic of the practice. Churchill, therefore, upsets the dominant narrative of renewal, showing that it is not purely a story of good vs. evil, but rather one with dynamic figures who evolved over their careers. Churchill demonstrated a lifelong commitment to planning as a democratic practice. This manifested itself in numerous ways, from his work for the Roosevelt Administration’s Greenbelt Towns program to his housing reform advocacy with New York’s Housing Study Guild to, in the late 1950s, advising a community planning effort in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood. Throughout Churchill’s career, he was in close contact with important figures in planning. Henry Mayer, Albert Wright, and Churchill were founding members of the Housing Study Guild, and they served in the same Greenbelt project. In New York, Churchill engaged in a public dispute with Robert Moses, accusing the latter of racial prejudice in the pages of The New York Times. In Philadelphia, to which he moved in the early 1950s, Churchill was the chief planner for the Eastwick renewal project. Finally, he corresponded with Jane Jacobs, offering advice and support as she fought against urban renewal in the West Village. Churchill, despite his liberalism, had a perspective that was, at times, exclusionary. In his community planning, he considered the community’s interest to be that which was represented by the leaders of its institutions, such as private schools, giving no place to the common resident. Moreover, Churchill, in his renewal consulting, exhibited racial bias in the identification of sites that he thought should be cleared. Henry Stern Churchill embodies the complexity of planning past and present. As such, his story provides instruction and caution to a discipline in continual evolution.Publication How Does the Built Environment Influence Car and Motorcycle Ownership and Use in Metro Manila?(2022-05-01) Uy, WesleneMetro Manila is the Philippines’ political and economic capital. With 20 million inhabitants and a land area of only 550 sq. miles, it is Southeast Asia’s most densely populated megacity. In many ways, Metro Manila’s urban development mirrors the challenges faced by rapidly urbanizing cities: economic opportunities are disproportionately concentrated in the capital, rising land values in the urban core have pushed residents towards the fringes, weak planning and enforcement have resulted in unchecked development, and unreliable public transportation coupled with a growing middle class have increased motorization rates. To address these challenges, cities have turned to land use strategies, which have the potential to influence travel and ownership behavior. While several studies have explored this relationship, research on how the built environment’s effect varies across private motorized modes remains limited. To fill this gap, I sought to answer the following research questions: What is the relationship between the built environment and car ownership and use in Metro Manila? How does this relationship differ for motorcycle ownership and use? Using data from the 2015 Metro Manila Urban Transportation Integration Study Home Interview Survey, I find that the built environment influences vehicle ownership and use differently. Population, job, and intersection densities as well as the land use mix influence car ownership, while population and job densities and distance to the central business district are correlated with motorcycle ownership and use. Proximity to a railway station and diverse land uses influence both motorcycle and car use. These findings could help inform strategies for reducing motorization rates and shifting towards more sustainable transportation in Metro Manila.Publication University Expansion in the Post-World War II Era: A Case Study on the University of Virginia(2021-05-01) Ghazzawi, AdamThis thesis explores the University of Virginia’s (UVa) rapid enrollment growth and physical expansion between 1945 and 1980. Despite the university’s contentious and increasing presence in Charlottesville, this time period at UVa remains largely unstudied by scholars. Expanding upon existing research on universities in the postwar era, this study uses a range of quantitative, qualitative, and spatial methods to examine university intent and impacts on the surrounding community. UVa’s post-World War II expansion emerged from a period where university leadership sought to maintain the insularity of Jefferson’s academical village through the exploitation of Black labor. To grow the university and increase its national standing, Colgate Darden, Jr., UVa’s new president in 1947, pursued a series of calculated building investments that departed from prewar development patterns. As student enrollment increased at an unprecedented rate, UVa leadership became increasingly reliant on the private housing market, resulting in the studentification of the surrounding area. Community members became increasingly resentful of the university as it transformed Charlottesville’s built environment and encroached upon their neighborhoods. Although UVa largely grew its footprint within the confines of its existing land holdings, the university’s prioritization of prestige and the mixed socioeconomic outcomes that resulted is consistent with broader themes in the literature on postwar university expansion. This thesis lays the groundwork for future mixed-methods research and discussions of equity with regard to universities and anchor institutions more broadly.Publication Plights of a Pandemic: The Disconnect Between Migration, Policy, and Practice in Kuwait(2021-05-01) Jafar, NourLabor laws within the State of Kuwait are in need of reform. The country’s labor and residency policies create legal loopholes for exploitation, abuse, and human trafficking. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened living conditions for low-income migrant communities, exacerbating these and related problems. Lockdowns forced migrants to stay at home for long periods of time with no income, food shortages, constant threats of eviction from landlords, and higher infection rates. This research uses semi-structured interviews and policy analysis to trace how labor and residency policies within Kuwait impact migrant communities, particularly in the context of the pandemic. Interviews are conducted with experts from different governmental agencies, while policy examination highlights what discrepancies exist. What effects have policies and governance in Kuwait had on human rights relating to workforce development within migrant communities during the covid 19 pandemic? How does the kafala system function to provide basic social services to migrant workers? How do Kuwait’s policies influence the actions of labor brokers? How do labor policies function between the private and public sector? What social services has the government introduced to protect the migrant community during the pandemic? This paper identifies the flaws of labor policies that have allowed for visa trafficking and exploitation to occur, such as the lack of protection of private sector workers, as well as corruption leading to senior officials within different governmental entities engaging as visa traffickers.Publication Does COVID-19 Mark a New Era for Bike Share? A Study on Indego Bike Share Usage Before and After the COVID-19 Outbreak(2021-05-01) Qiao, HanBike share usage patterns and its impact on people’s travel behavior have been widely studied in recent years. In the past, researchers have focused on understanding spatial and temporal patterns of bike share usage, differences of bike share usage among different demographic and socio-economic groups and factors influencing bike share ridership. However, since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, people have changed their lifestyles and travel needs significantly with the start of working from home, reducing recreational activities and avoiding taking public transit. Therefore, this research looks into the change of bike share usage before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, using Philadelphia Indego bike share as a study context. This study adopted a multilevel mixed-effect linear regression model that incorporates demographic, built environment, meteorological and temporal factors to compare the effects of these factors before and after the COVID-19 outbreak in determining bike share ridership. Three key results were found in this study: 1) trip purpose and spatial distribution have shifted from commuting to residential recreational trips, 2) bike share gained more popularity during warm weather, and 3) bike friendly infrastructure became more important than before in determining bike share ridership. Findings of this study are useful to bike share providers, urban planners, and local officials for understanding the differences in recreational biking and utilitarian biking and how bike share programs can better address the needs of residents during the pandemic and in a post-pandemic world.Publication Public Transportation in Ski Towns: An Analysis for the Ski Town Workforce and Visiting Populations(2021-05-01) Schaffner, PerrySkiing has grown rapidly in popularity within the past six decades as resorts have recorded record numbers of visitors. Ski towns are now flooded with additional residents and visitors. Ski towns are now busy year-round as resorts have transitioned to four-season operations. Public transit in ski towns currently struggles to meet the needs of all population groups, but mainly the needs of service industry workers. Public transportation alternatives must be considered as a viable option to support the transportation needs of local year-round residents and transient populations. This study seeks to address the questions: What are the main transportation challenges that ski towns face? How is planning for ski town transportation systems different from those in other recreation areas? What role do the ski resorts play in public transportation systems? What are some of the most necessary transportation interventions for ski towns in the Western United States? This study will examine whether and how a ski town can successfully implement public transportation options that serve local residents, the workforce and visitors. This is a comparative case study analysis that examines public transportation systems in the three ski towns of Park City, Utah, Vail, Colorado, and Truckee, California. This study’s methods include a survey of public perceptions regarding transportation in ski towns, interviews with transportation planning professionals, and an analysis of transportation plans. These three methods support final recommendations for ways these towns might seek to improve their public transportation offerings to better serve both the environmental and financial wellbeing of their towns. Public transportation has been a hot topic in the planning world, and planning for niche transportation systems, such as those in tourism-based destinations presents a set of challenges that needs to be better addressed and researched. Extensive research exists on tourism-based transportation and the funding of transportation systems, but few studies have focused on ski towns and those aspects that make this type of tourism transportation different. Getting visitors out of their cars solves many problems like driving accidents, reducing the often-gridlocked traffic, and navigating in the snow.Publication Examining Mobilities of Care: Perceptions and Practices of Philadelphia Parents and Children Using Transit(2021-05-01) Tiley, GillianTransit spaces are not uniformly experienced by their users. Closer inspection of individuals’ journeys reveals unique barriers corresponding with race, gender, age and ability, signifying that the mobility of certain groups may be less accessible than that of more privileged groups. Using the frameworks of a “politics of mobility” (Cresswell 2010) and “mobility injustice” (Sheller 2018), this paper examines the transit needs and experiences of female caregivers and youth populations whose mobilities are frequently challenged. I engage with the following questions: How do mothers and children in Philadelphia conceptualize accessibility of transit infrastructure? What are the differences and similarities between the concerns of mothers and their children regarding mobility practices? How do transit agencies currently account for the mobility needs of mothers and children? How do mothers, children, and transit officials conceptualize a family-friendly transit system? How can robust community engagement enhance transportation planning practices in the future? I find that the experiences of mothers and children navigating transit spaces center around the themes of safety, comfort and convenience. In particular, mothers’ express challenges regarding street safety, gendered treatment in public space, and inconvenience of travelling with young children. Children underscore their concerns about safely navigating their neighborhoods in light of reckless driving, issues of poor sanitation and the presence of strangers, and the desire to make transportation spaces sites of play and fun. Mothers and children also expressed clear ideas about how to improve transportation infrastructure to better meet their needs. While planning initiatives and engagement strategies that mitigate certain challenges faced by mothers and children do exist, work is needed to enhance the user experience. Community engagement is a vital component to the creation of not just a family-friendly transportation system, but also one that is accessible to all.Publication Evaluating Accessibility of Female Caregivers in Philadelphia from a Safety Perspective(2021-06-01) Boggan, CamilleTransportation networks in major U.S. cities are built and managed around a very narrow subset of transit riders: able-bodied, solo men traveling to and from a white-collar job in the city center. Despite the evidence of women as primary users of public transportation, the U.S. planning field has lagged in incorporating this knowledge into practice. This thesis attempts to address this gap in transportation accessibility planning by evaluating the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) public transportation network in Philadelphia in terms of personal safety. The study employs a geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to illustrate how safety metrics could be incorporated into accessibility measurements as a practical method of evaluating transit networks from a female-centered perspective.