Department of City and Regional Planning
University of California at Berkeley
CP C114–Fall 2008
Jonathan Mason & James Rubin
CP C114/CEE154: INTRODUCTION TO URBAN AND REGIONAL
TRANSPORTATION PLANNING
CCN: 13439, 3 UNITS, M W 11 – 12:30, 106 WURSTER
INSTRUCTORS: Jonathan Mason Email: jimason@berkeley.edu Office Hours: Mondays from
12:30pm to 1:30pm and by appointment James Rubin Email: jcrubin@berkeley.edu Office
Hours: Wednesdays from 9:00am to 10:00am and by appointment Office Hours Location: The
University of California Transportation Center (UCTC),2614 Dwight Way at Bowditch Street,
Room 200 (first room on the right on the second floor)COURSE
DESCRIPTION: Transportation systems connect people, goods, places, and ideas.
Transportation networks shape cities and regions and constitute a very large proportion of our
built environments. A good transportation system aids our ability to get to work, school,
recreation and health care. Efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation systems are essential
to the social, economic, and environmental well-being of cities and regions.
This course introduces concepts, policy issues, and study findings on a range of themes
related to urban and regional transportation planning. The focus is on multi-modal ground
transportation (autos/highways, mass transit, paratransit, and non-motorized transport) at
multiple geographical scales (neighborhoods, corridors, cities, and regions).
The course concentrates on contemporary policy issues and problems (e.g., traffic
congestion, air pollution, sustainability), and methods for addressing current problems. The
course includes attention to the institutional and political environment that governs
transportation planning and practice. We will also discuss the ways in which transportation
systems shape and change metropolitan areas and their physical form. We will examine the
evolution of transportation in the United States, look at attributes of travel demand in regions,
review the formal transportation planning process, and address core policy issues: congestion,
the environment, energy consumption, social equity, and transportation finance.
Each student will participate in a team exercise that is intended to familiarize you with the
transportation system in the environment in which it functions. This exercise will require you
to2work with other students in the course and to go into the field to observe the transportation
system.
COURSE FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS: Most sessions will follow a lecture and discussion
format with ample time for class discussion. There are five course requirements: (1) attendance
and participation in class sessions with all required readings completed, (2) a five-page paper,
(3) a team project, (4) a midterm exam, and(5) a final exam. The midterm and the final
examination will be based upon both readings and materials presented in class. The final
examination will cover material presented and readings assigned over the entire semester.
Grades will be weighed according to the following:
Attendance, Preparation, and Class Discussion
Five-Page Paper
Midterm Examination
Group Project
Final Examination
10%
10%
20%
30%
30%
The midterm exam will take place during regularly scheduled class time (11:00am to
12:30pm)on Wednesday, October 29th. The final exam will be administered on Thursday,
December 18thfrom 12:30pm to 3:30pm at a location to be determined. There will be no makeup exams. The five-page paper is due in hard copy (not via email) at the beginning of class on
Monday, October 20th. Late papers will not be accepted. Each group project team will make a
presentation in class on either December 3rd or 8th. Specific time slots will be assigned at a
later date. In addition, each team is expected to submit a project summary paper, which is due
at the beginning of the last class on December 10th.COURSE WEBSTIE Course documents,
some readings and other on-line material are located on the course website, which is part of the
university-wide bspace site. UC Berkeley’s bspace site can be accessed
athttp://bspace.berkeley.edu with your CalNet ID and password. If you are enrolled in the
course, a tab labeled “CIV ENG C154 LEC 001 Fa08” should automatically appear and clicking
on it will give you access to the course website. If you are enrolled and can’t access the site,
send an email to one of the instructors. Do not use your drop box to submit assignments on the
course website without checking with one of the instructors beforehand.
READINGS: You are expected to complete required readings before the class session for which
they are assigned. All readings are listed in this syllabus. Readings may be found in the course
textbook, the course reader, the course website or other internet sites. The location of each
assigned3reading is indicated on the course outline (T=TEXT, R=READER, B=BPSACE,
I=INTERNET).Additional readings may be assigned and distributed in class. A copy of the
textbook and the reader are on reserve at the College of Environmental Design library, which is
located on the second floor of Wurster Hall. Textbook: Susan Hansen and Genevieve Giuliano,
eds., The Geography of Urban Transportation (New York: Guilford Publications, 3rd Edition,
2004).Reader: On sale at Krishna Copy Center at 2595 Telegraph Avenue at Parker Avenue
(six blocks south of campus). Krishna’s phone number is 510-549-0506.RESOURCESFor
additional resources in transportation, visit the Institute of Transportation Studies Library in
McLaughlin Hall on the fourth floor or the College of Environmental Design library at Wurster
Hall on the second floor. The Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and
Association of Bay Area Association of Governments near downtown Oakland also have a
fantastic transportation and city planning library. They are located at 101 Eighth Street, which is
across the street from the Lake Merritt BART station (see the MTC website at www.mtc.ca.gov
for directions).The Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) maintains a web site
(http://www.its.berkeley.edu/)with news articles on Bay Area transportation issues. There are
also links to other transportation sites. You are encouraged to check the ITS website regularly
for current information, policy debates, and relevant news stories. UCTC also maintains a
helpful website (http://uctc.net) that provides direct access to numerous transportation reports
and to UCTC’s very informative publication, Access
(http://www.uctc.net/papers/papers.html).Also available is an email service, called the San
Francisco Bay Area Transportation News(BATN), that collects articles from local newspapers on
Bay Area transportation issues. Reviewing these materials is a good way to learn about local
transportation issues; they also might provide ideas and information for the group projects. You
can sign up to receive this news at http://www.egroups.com/group/GBATN or by emailing
BATN-subscibe@egroups.com. Visit the MTC’s web site at http://www.mtc.ca.gov. For Bay Area
data, see the “maps and data ”section at http://www.mtc.ca.gov/maps_and_data. Also, see the
Transportation and Land Use Coalition’s website for an advocacy perspective
http://www.transcoalition.org/ as well as its links to numerous other groups,
http://www.transcoalition.org/about/about_groups.htmlA good site for access to data at a
national level is the Bureau of Transportation Statistics:http://www.bts.gov. Available from the
BTS web site is the TRIS (Transportation Research4Information Service), the free transportation
literature search engine of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Visit http://ntl.bts.gov/link.cfm
for access to the National Transportation Library and links to any and everything related to
transportation. For a national transportation advocacyperspective, check out the web site of the
Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) athttp://www.transact.org.For European transport
data, check out http://ec.europa.eu/transport/index_en.html. If you’reinterested in transportation
in developing countries (with a strong sustainability focus), visit theweb sites of the Institute of
Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) athttp://www.itdp.org, the World Transport Policy
and Practice group athttp://www.ecoplan.org/wtpp, or consider joining the Sustainable
Transportation (SUSTRAN)discussion list/forum at
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/2853.ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR THE
COURSEA paper or report that bears your name is assumed to be your own original work.
Team membersare jointly responsible for their collective work and for meeting this standard. In
courses and inyour future professional work, failure to adhere to this rule will have severe
consequences.There is a conventional distinction between scholarship and plagiarism. You may
use wordswritten by others in their publications or on their web sites, but only with proper
attribution. Ifyou are quoting from a published source or from a web site and the quotation is
short - up to asentence or two - place it in quotation marks and cite the source in a footnote or in
parentheses.If you employ a longer passage from a publication or web site, please indent it and
use singlespacing, and cite the source in a footnote or in parentheses.The following UC
Berkeley Library online resource provides information and examples of howto cite sources:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Style.html. If you areunsure about
source citation, please ask the instructor.The midterm and final examinations will be taken
without books or notes. Suspected incidentsof cheating will be dealt with harshly.COURSE
OUTLINE AND READING ASSIGNMENTSI. Setting the Scene08/27 Introduction to
Course09/03 Contemporary Themes and DebatesSusan Hanson, 2004, “The Context of Urban
Travel: Concepts and Recent Trends,”Chapter 1 in The Geography of Urban Transportation, 3rd
Edition, pp. 3-29. [T]Michael Meyer and Eric Miller, 2001, “Urban Transportation Planning:
Definition andContext,” Chapter 1 in Urban Transportation Planning, 2nd Edition, pp. 1-13.
[R]5Robert Cervero, 2001, “Transportation Planning,” in the International Encyclopedia ofthe
Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier, Oxford, Vol. 23, pp. 15873-15878. [R]09/08 History:
Up to WWIIPeter Muller, 2004, “Transportation and Urban Form: Stages in the Spatial Evolution
ofthe American Metropolis,” Chapter 3 in The Geography of Urban Transportation, 3rdEdition,
pp. 59-85. [T]09/10 History: WWII to PresentJames Vance, 1964, “Geography and Urban
Evolution in the San Francisco Bay Area,” inthe San Francisco Bay Area: Its Problems and
Future, Volume II, Institute ofGovernment Studies, University of California, Berkeley. [R]Brian
Taylor, 1993, “Why California Stopped Building Freeways,” in Access, No. 3. [B]09/15 Film:
Subway, the Empire beneath New York's Streets, 1998, A&E Home VideoT. C. Clarke, 1892,
“Rapid Transit in Cities,” in Scribner's Magazine, No. XI, pp. 568-578 and 743-758. [B]09/17
ParkingMichael Manville and Donald Shoup, 2004, “People, Parking, and Cities,” in Access,
No.25, pp. 2-8. [B]Donald Shoup, 1999, “Instead of Free Parking,” in Access, No. 15, pp. 8-13.
[B]Douglas Kolozsvari and Donald Shoup, “Turning Small Change in to Big Change,” inAccess,
No. 23, pp. 2-7. [B]Rebar, PARK(ing) Day website at http://www.parkingday.org. [I]09/22
Characteristics and Nature of TravelThomas Leinbach, 2004, “City Interactions: The Dynamics
of Passenger and FreightFlows,” Chapter 2 in The Geography of Urban Transportation, 3rd Ed.,
pp. 30-58. [T]John Pucher and John Renne, 2003, “Socioeconomics of Urban Travel: Evidence
fromthe 2001 NHTS,” in Transportation Quarterly, Vol. 57, pp. 49-78. [B]Bureau of
Transportation Statistics, 2008, “Pocket Guide to Transportation.” [B]David Schrank and Tim
Lomax, 2007, “2007 Urban Mobility Report,” pp. 1-49. [B]609/24 Transportation Data Collection
and MeasurementUS Census, 2001, “Introduction to Census 2000 Data Products,” pp. 1-4.
[B]Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 2002, “Bay Area Travel Survey 2000: FinalReport,”
pp. 1-8. [B]Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 2008, “American Community Survey
2006:San Francisco Bay Area: Data Highlights,” pp. 1-80. [B]Donald Shoup, 2002, “Roughly
Right vs. Precisely Wrong,” in Access, No. 20, pp. 20–25. [R]Cambridge Systematics, “Travel
Survey Manual” available
atftp://ftp.camsys.com/temp/outgoing/Travel_Demand_Survey_Manual/sect5.htm. [I]09/29 What
Is Sprawl and Is It a Bad thing?Genevieve Giuliano, 2004, “Land Use Impacts of Transportation
Investments: Highwayand Transit,” Chapter 9 in The Geography of Urban Transportation,
3rdEdition, pp. 237-273. [T]Jonathan Levine, 1999, “Access to Choice,” in Access, No. 14,
Spring. [B]Robert Bruegmann, 2006, “How Sprawl Got a Bad Name,” in The American
Enterprise,June. [R]Peter Hall, 2007, “Beyond the Automobile,” in Access, No. 30, Spring.
[B]Transportation Research Board, 1998, “The Costs of Sprawl – Revisited,” TransitCooperative
Research Program Report 39, National Academy Press, available
athttp://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_rpt_39-a.pdf. [B]2. Transportation Planning and
Politics10/01 The Urban Transportation Planning ProcessRobert Johnson, 2004, “The Urban
Transportation Planning Process,” Chapter 5 in theGeography of Urban Transportation, 3rd
Edition, pp. 115-140. [T]Ken Deuker, 2002, “A Critique of the Urban Transportation Planning
Process: thePerformance of Portland’s 2000 Regional Transportation Plan,” in
TransportationQuarterly, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 15-21. [R]7Don Pickrell, 1992, “A Desire Named
Streetcar: Fantasy and Fact in Rail TransitPlanning,” in the Journal of the American Planning
Association, Vol. 58, No. 2, pp. 158-176. [R]Martin Wachs, 1986, “Technique versus Advocacy
in Forecasting: A Study of Rail RapidTransit,” in Urban Resources, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 23-30.
[B]10/06 Regional Transportation Planning and PoliticsMartin Wachs, 2004, “Reflections on the
Planning Process,” Chapter 6 in theGeography of Urban Transportation, 3rd Edition, pp. 141162. [T]Mark Solof, 1998, “History of Metropolitan Planning Organizations,” North
JerseyTransportation Planning Authority, Newark, pp. 1-34. [B]Steve Heminger, 2001, “Growing
Pains for Metropolitan Planning,” in TransportationQuarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3, pp. 7-9. [R]Todd
Goldman and Elizabeth Deakin, 2000, “Regionalism through Partnerships?Metropolitan
Planning Since ISTEA,” in The Berkeley Planning Journal, Vol. 14, pp. 46-75. [B]Robert Puentes
and Linda Bailey, 2003, “Improving Metropolitan Decision Making inTransportation: Greater
Funding and Devolution for Greater Accountability,”Washington, DC, Metropolitan Policy
Program, Brookings Institution. [B]10/08 Transportation Finance and LegislationBrian Taylor,
2004, “The Geography of Urban Transportation Finance,” Chapter 11 inThe Geography of
Urban Transportation, 3rd Edition, pp. 294-331. [T]Jeffrey Brown, 2001, “Reconsider the Gas
Tax: Paying for What You Get,” in Access,No. 19, Fall. [B]Martin Wachs, 2003, “Local Option
Transportation Taxes: Devolution as Revolution,”in Access, No, 22, Spring. [B]Paul Sorensen
and Brian Taylor, 2005, “Paying for Roads: New Technology for an OldDilemma,” in Access, No.
26, Spring. [B]10/13 Planning for Automobiles: Supply and Demand StrategiesC. Kenneth Orski,
1998, “TDM Trends in the United States,” in IATSS Research, Vol.22, No. 1, pp.25-32.
[R]Robert Dunphy, 2004, “Conflicted over Congestion,” Urban Land, May, pp. 81-87.
[R]8Anthony Downs, 2004, “Why Traffic Congestion is Here to Stay… and Will Get Worse,”in
Access, No. 25, pp. 19-25. [B]Brian Taylor, 2002, “Rethinking Traffic Congestion,” in Access,
No. 21, pp. 8-16. [B]Genevieve Giuliano and Susan Hanson, 2004, “Managing the Auto,”
Chapter 14 inThe Geography of Urban Transportation, 3rd Edition, pp. 382-404. [T]10/15 Transit
PlanningJohn Pucher, 2004, “Public Transportation,” Chapter 7 in the Geography of
UrbanTransportation, 3rd Edition, pp. 199-236. [T]Bill Valentine, 2004, “Transit First,” in Urban
Land, May, pp. 26, 29. [R]Michael Meyer, 1992, “Public Transportation in the 21st Century,” in
PublicTransportation, 2nd Edition, pp. 636-653. [R]American Public Transportation Association,
2007, “Transit Fact Book,” pp. 1-87. [B]10/20 Transportation EquityDevajyoti Deka, 2004,
“Social and Environmental Justice Issues in UrbanTransportation,” Chapter 12 in The
Geography of Urban Transportation, 3rd Edition,pp. 332-355. [T]Shannon Cairns, Jessica Greig,
and Martin Wachs, 2003, Environmental Justice &Transportation: A Citizen’s Handbook,
Institute of Transportation Studies, Universityof California, Berkeley. [B]Margaret Waller and
Evelyn Blumenberg, 2003, “The Long Journey to Work: A FederalTransportation Policy for
Working Families,” Washington, DC, Metropolitan PolicyProgram, Brookings Institution.
[B]Robert Garcia and Tom Rubin, 2004, “Crossroad Blues: The MTA Consent Decree andJust
Transportation,” in Running on Empty: Transport, Social Exclusion, andEnvironmental Justice,
Bristol, the Policy Press. [R]3. Transportation and the Environment10/22 Transportation and Air
QualityChang-Hee Christine Bae, 2004, “Transportation and the Environment,” Chapter 13
inThe Geography of Urban Transportation, 3rd Edition, pp. 356-381. [T]9Daniel Sperling and
Eileen Claussen, 2004, “Motorizing the Developing World,” inAccess, No. 24, Spring. [B]Jennifer
Dill, 2004, “Scrapping Old Cars,” in Access, No. 24, Spring. [B]10/27 Transportation and Energy
ConsumptionDavid Greene, 2004, “Transportation and Energy,” Chapter 10 in the Geography
ofUrban Transportation, 3rd Edition, pp. 274-293. [T]Daniel Sperling, 1995, “Bringing Electric
Cars to Market,” in Access, No. 6, Spring. [B]Timothy Lipman, 2000, “Power from the Fuel Cell,”
in Access, No. 16, Spring. [B]Christie-Joy Brodrick, Daniel Sperling, and Harry A. Dwyer, 2001,
“Clean Diesel:Overcoming Noxious Fumes,” in Access, No. 19, Fall. [B]Joan Ogden, 2005, “The
Transition to Hydrogen,” in Access, No. 27, Fall. [B]Timothy Lipman, 2005, “Hydrogen
Highways,” in Access, No. 27, Fall. [B]Kenneth Small and Kurt Van Dender, 2007, “If Cars Were
More Efficient, Would WeUse Less Fuel?” in Access, No. 31, Fall. [B]10/29 Midterm Exam4.
Topics in Urban and Regional Transportation11/03 High Speed Rail in CaliforniaPeter Hall,
1994, “Time Again for Rail?” in Access, No. 4, Spring. [B]Adib Kanifani, 1994, “No Rush to
Catch the Train,” Access, No. 4, Spring. [B]David Levinson, 1995, “Rail Reinvented?: A Brief
History of High Speed GroundTransportation,” available at
http://rational.ce.umn.edu/Papers/RailReinvented.pdf. [I]Explore the “High Speed Rail in
California” Hot Topic website athttp://igs.berkeley.edu/library/htHighSpeedRail.htm. [I]11/05
Transit Oriented DevelopmentCalifornia Department of Transportation, 2002, “Factors for
Success in California’sTransit-Oriented Development,” Statewide TOD Study, pp 1-12.
[B]10Jeffrey Tumlin and Adam Millard-Ball, 2003, “How to Make Transit-OrientedDevelopment
Work,” in Planning, May, pp. 14-19. [R]Center for Transit-Oriented Development, 2004,
“Executive Summary” in Hidden inPlain Site: Capturing The Demand For Housing Near Transit,
pp. 6-8. [B]Dena Belzer and Gerald Autler, “Transit-Oriented Development: Moving from
Rhetoricto Reality,” A Discussion Paper Prepared for The Brookings Institution Center on
Urbanand Metropolitan Policy. [B]11/10 Bus Rapid TransitFederal Transit Administration, 2004,
“Characteristics of Bus Rapid Transit for DecisionMaking,” US Department of Transportation,
Washington, DC, pp. E5-1 to E5-8. [B]US Government Accounting Office, 2001, “Mass Transit:
Bus Rapid Transit ShowsPromise,” Washington, DC, pp. 1-34. [B]Lloyd Wright and GTZ, 2005,
“Bus Rapid Transport,” in Sustainable Transport: ASourcebook for Policymakers in Developing
Cities, pp. 10-24 and 59-60. [R]Aaron Golub, 2004, “Brazil’s Buses: Simply Successful,” in
Access, Spring, No. 24, pp.2-9. [B]11/12 Non-Motorized TransportationGian-Claudia Sciara,
2003, “Making Communities Safe for Bicycles,” in Access, pp. 28-33. [B]John Pucher and Lewis
Dijkstra, 2003, “Promoting Safe Walking and Cycling to ImprovePublic Health: Lessons from the
Netherlands and Germany,” in the American Journal ofPublic Health, September 2003, Vol. 39,
No. 9, pp. 1509-1516. [R]“Today’s China, in a Rush, Has No Time for Bikes,” New York Times,
Sept. 6, 2002. [R]Dan Burden, 2001, “Building Communities with Transportation,” Presented at
theTransportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. [R]Elizabeth
MacDonald, “Building A Boulevard,” Access, Spring, No. 28, pp. 2-9. [B]Robert Cervero, 2003,
“Green Connectors: Offshore Examples,” in Planning, May 2003,pp. 25-29. [R]11/17 Planning
and Design of Passenger Terminals11Transit Cooperative Research Program, 2003, “Stop,
Station and Terminal Capacity,”Chapter 7 in Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual,
2nd Edition,Transportation Research board, Washington, DC, No. 100, pp. 7-1 to 7-68. [B]A. J.
Horowitz and N. A. Thompson, 1994, “Principles of Facility Location,” Chapter 3in Evaluation of
Intermodal Passenger Transfer Facilities, US Department ofTransportation, Washington, DC,
pp. 41-57. [R]Brian Edwards, 1997, “Design Types,” Chapter 2 in New Approaches to
RailwayArchitecture, E & FN Spon, London, pp. 21-57. [R]Alan Horowitz and Nick Thompson,
1994, “Generic Objectives for the Evaluation ofIntermodal Passenger Transfer Facilities,”
Presented at the 74th Annual TransportationResearch Board Meeting in Washington, DC, pp. 113. [R]11/19 Intelligent Transportation Systems and Personalized Rapid TransitSteven
Shladover, 2000, “What If Cars Could Drive Themselves?” in Access, No. 16,Spring. [B]Nova
Episode: “The Great Robot Race,” available online athttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/darpa. [I]5.
Megaprojects11/24 Megaprojects TheoryAlan Altshuler and David Luberoff, 2003, “Overview:
Four Political Eras,” Chapter 2 inMega-Projects: The Changing Politics of Urban Public
Investment, BrookingsInstitution Press, 2003, pp. 8-44. [R]Bent Flyvbjerg, 2007, "Policy and
Planning for Large-Infrastructure Projects: Problems,Causes, Cures," in Environment and
Planning B: Planning and Design, Vol. 34, pp. 578-597. [B]11/26 Film: PBS Great Projects
Series – the Big Dig12/01 The BART SFO Airport ExtensionBent Flyvbjerg, 2007, "Cost
Overruns and Demand Shortfalls in Urban Rail and OtherInfrastructure," in Transportation
Planning and Technology, Vol. 30, No. 1, February,pp. 9-30. [B]126. Course Summary12/03
Student Presentations12/08 Student Presentations12/10 Transportation and Sustainability:
Course SummaryVukan Vuchic, 1999, Chapter 1 in Transportation for Livable Cities, Center for
UrbanPolicy Research, New Brunswick. [R]William Black, 2005, “Sustainable Transport:
Definitions and Response,” in IntegratingSustainability into the Transportation Planning Process,
Transportation ResearchBoard, Washington, DC, pp. 35-43. [R]Martin Wachs, 2005, “What are
the Challenges to Creating Sustainable Transportation?How can Transportation Systems
Become More Sustainable?,” in IntegratingSustainability into the Transportation Planning
Process, Transportation ResearchBoard, Washington, DC, pp. 44-52. [R]