Urban Transport Policy, page 1
Nicholas Klein
Spring 2014
Urban Transport Policy (762:473), Spring 2014
Wednesdays, 10-12:30
Frelinghuysen Hall B5
Instructor
Office
Office Hours
Nicholas Klein, PhD (nick.klein@rutgers.edu)
Civic Square Building, Room 551
By appointment
Course overview
This course is offers an introduction to urban transportation in the United States. The course
combines readings and discussion of history and public policy with analysis of urban
transportation issues such as congestion, social equity, public transit, non-motorized travel,
parking and freight planning.
The course will require you to come prepared to each class having completed the readings and
ready to discuss the relevant issues. Your grade will be comprised of (1) in-class quizzes, (2) a
final exam, (3) a term paper, (4) an assignment and (5) in-class participation.
Required Text
There is one required book for this class:
Hanson, Susan, & Giuliano, Genevieve. (2004). The Geography of Urban Transportation
(3rd ed.). New York: The Guilford Press.
The book is available for purchase at the RU bookstore. If you buy it elsewhere or obtain it from
the library, be sure to purchase the 3rd edition (2004).
Term paper
Along with a partner, you need to write a case study of a transportation policy or project. You
will submit proposals subject to my approval. The purpose of the paper is to give you the time to
analyze a project detail and incorporate historical, theoretical and policy-related readings from
class. Projects based in the New Jersey / New York region are preferred, though others are
acceptable subject to approval. In order to help choose a topic, I strongly recommend that you
look at online sources of transportation-related news. Some examples include:
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The Atlantic Cities: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/
Streetsblog: http://www.streetsblog.org/
Human Transit: www.humantransit.org/
Reconnecting America: reconnectingamerica.org/news-center/the-other-side-of-the-tracks/
from Reconnecting America;
Everyone will list their possible paper topic interests on a Sakai site which will then be used to
find partners.
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Spring 2014
You and your partner will submit a jointly written, 7- to 10-page (2,000 to 3,000 word) paper,
with deadlines as follows:
 Feb 19th
draft two-page paper proposal
th
 Feb 26
Peer review of another student team proposal
 Marc 5th
Final proposal
th
 April 9
Draft paper
th
 April 16
Review of another student team
 April 30th
Final papers
I will provide more details on the paper assignment in the second class meeting.
Assignments
In addition to the paper, you will have to redesign an intersection. The purpose of this
assignment is to apply what you have learned about transportation to the redesign of a New
Brunswick intersection. Our focus is the intersection of Easton Avenue, Albany Street and
French Street.
This is a three part assignment consisting of (1) learning how to use Google Sketch-Up, (2)
writing a memo analyzing the existing intersection, how it works or does not work for various
users, and how your design addresses the existing problems (3) and a design for an improved
intersection created using Google SketchUp. More detail about the assignment will be provided
in class.
The first part of this assignment, demonstrating that you have learned Google Sketch-Up is due
Feb 19th. The following week, Feb. 26th, we will take a walk over to the intersection to make
observations. Your redesign is due the week after that, March 5th.
Weekly quizzes
Each class will begin with a short quiz based on the week’s readings. The quizzes account for the
largest portion of your grade. However, if you have done the readings, this will be easy. The
purpose is to ensure that you have completed the readings so that our classroom time can be
spent discussing and analyzing these readings instead of reiterating the content. Quizzes will be
given promptly at the start of class. I will drop the two lowest two scores on reading quizzes
(including absences which count as a zero, it is an excused absence) when calculating the grade.
Class participation
If you want to get an A in this class, you will need to actively participate in class. Participation
includes contribution to the classroom discussion with both relevant questions and comments on
the readings. Clearly this means attendance is critical.
To stay informed, you must check your Rutgers email and check our course Sakai site. I will
communicate with you via these mechanisms, and it is your responsibility to check them
regularly in order to ensure that you stay informed.
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Spring 2014
Grading and attendance policies
Grades for the class will be comprised of four components:
 Term paper
20 percent
 Final exam
20 percent
 Assignment
20 percent
 Weekly quizzes
30 percent
 Pparticipation
10 percent
The grade scale is as follows:
 A is 93 or higher
 B+ is 88-92
 B is 83-87
 C+ is 78-82
 C is 73-77
 D is 68-72; F is 67 or lower.
Attendance
I expect you to attend all classes; if you must miss class, use the University absence reporting
website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email
is automatically sent to me. Students can take 1 unexcused absence; after this, your grade will be
lowered.
Classroom Behavior
I expect you to respect the views, opinions, and experiences of your classmates. Everyone is
allowed equal opportunity to share his/her views in a non-threatening, non-insulting manner.
I expect you to be non-disruptive during class. Side conversations, verbal insults, reading nonrelated course material is distracting to other students and the instructor – and thus it is not
allowed in class. Students who actively disrupt the class will be dismissed and granted an
unexcused absence for the class session.
Laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices must be turned off and or put away in class.
(Exceptions can be given to students who contact me on the first day of class and justify their use
of their computer in class). I do expect you to take notes (by hand) as doing so greatly increases
retention of material presented in class.
Special Needs
If accommodations are needed for a disability, you should notify me during the first week of
class and provide me with a Letter of Accommodation (LOA) describing the accommodations
you need. You will also need to be registered with the Office of Disability Services
(http://disabilityservices.rutgers.edu). For more information, students should contact the Dean of
Students Office at their colleges.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism, cheating or copying each other’s work in any manner is not tolerated and will result
in a grade of 0 (zero) for the assignment in question. Please see the updated Academic Integrity
document up on the web - http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml Please read this
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Spring 2014
document, as ANY violations of this code will be handled as per University policy. All papers
submitted via Sakai will be automatically scanned via Turnitin for plagiarism.
A note on make-up examinations:
Make-up exams will only be given to students who miss the exam because of an official excused
university activity (e.g., sports, band, etc.). A written excuse from the director of the activity
must be provided at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled day of the exam. Students who miss
the exam for university approved personal reasons (e.g., personal illness or death in their
immediate family) must notify me via email at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled day of the
exam and provide written documentation within one week of the missed exam or assignment.
Those who missed exams for excused reasons can take a make-up exam during the next week –
but not during normal class meeting time.
1. INTRODUCTION (Jan 22): Overview; contemporary travel trends
Canceled - snow day
2. INTRODUCTION & HISTORY (Jan 22): Overview; contemporary travel trends
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Susan Hanson. 2004. The context of urban travel: Concepts and recent trends. Chapter 1 in
The geography of urban transportation, 3rd edition, edited by Susan Hanson and Genevieve
Giuliano. New York: The Guilford Press.
Transportation Research Board. 2009. Critical issues in transportation, 2009 update.
Washington DC: Transportation Research Board.
Kenneth Jackson. 1985. "The transportation revolution and the erosion of the walking city
(Chapter 2)"; "The time of the trolley (Chapter 6)" in Crabgrass frontier: The suburbanization
of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press.
Peter D. Norton. 2008. Blood, grief, anger. Chapter 1 in Fighting traffic: The dawn of the
motor age in the American city. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
2012. Seeing the back of the car. The Economist, Sept 22.
http://www.economist.com/node/21563280
3. PLANNING PROCESSES, Part 1 (Feb 5): The Federal, state and local processes
Rutgers librarian will lead the library research session, including citation management tools,
transportation-specific databases, and source organization.
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Robert Johnston. 2004. The urban transportation planning process. Chapter 5 in The
geography of urban transportation. (selected pages)
Martin Wachs. 2004. Reflections on the planning process. Chapter 6 in The geography of
urban transportation. (selected pages)
Robert Puentes. 2011. Move it! How the U.S. gets transportation policy wrong—and how to
get it right. The Wall Street Journal, May 23. http://goo.gl/MMkCE
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Gian-Claudia Sciara. 2012. Peering Inside the pork barrel. Access 41: 16-22.
DC Bike Sharing: Tom Vanderbilt. 2013. The best Bike-sharing program in the United
States. Slate.com, January 7.
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/doers/2013/01/capital_bikeshare_how_paul_
demaio_gabe_klein_adrian_fenty_and_other_dc_leaders.html
4. PLANNING PROCESSES, Part 2 (Feb 12): Social and political issues
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Devajyoti Deka. 2004. Social and environmental justice issues in urban transportation.
Chapter 12 in The geography of urban transportation.
Cotten Seiler. 2008. "So that we as a race might have something authentic to travel by:"
African American automobility and midcentury liberalism. Chapter 4 in Republic of drivers:
A cultural history of automobility in America. Chicago and London: The University of
Chicago Press.
Sandra Rosenbloom. 2005. Women's Travel Issues: The research and policy environment.
Chapter 13 in Gender and Planning. 235-55. Rutgers University Press.
Don Pickrell. 1992. A desire named streetcar: Fantasy and fact in rail transit planning. The
Journal of the American Planning Association 58 (2) 158- 176.
5. PLANNING PROCESSES, Part 3 (Feb 19): Transportation finance; megaprojects
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Brian Taylor. 2004. The geography of urban transportation finance. Chapter 11 in The
geography of urban transportation.
Martin Wachs. 2003. A dozen reasons for raising gasoline taxes. Public Works Management
and Policy 7 (4) 235-242.
Lisa Schweitzer and Brian Taylor. 2010. Just road pricing. Access 36: 2-7.
Karen Frick. 2008. The cost of the technological sublime: daring ingenuity and the new San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Chapter 12 in Decision-making on mega-projects: costbenefit analysis, planning and innovation. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA : Edward
Elgar.
Keith Bradsher. 2012. China opens longest high-speed rail line. The New York Times, Dec
26. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/business/global/worlds-longest-high-speed-railline-opens-in-china.html
6. MODAL PLANNING, Part 1 (Feb 26): Walking and cycling; traffic calming
Guest lecture by Professor Michael Smart
Observation of intersection for assignment
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John Pucher and Lewis Dijkstra. 2003. Promoting safe walking and cycling to improve
public health: Lessons from the Netherlands and Germany. American Journal of Public
Health39 (9) 1509-1516.
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Spring 2014
Susan Shaheen, Stacey Guzman, and Hua Zhang. 2012. Bikesharing across the globe.
Chapter 9 in City Cycling edited by John Pucher and Ralph Buehler. Cambridge: The MIT
Press.
Tom Vanderbilt. 2008. The Traffic Guru. The Wilson Quarterly.
http://www.wilsonquarterly.com/article.cfm?AID=1234
Jennifer Dill. 2009. Bicycling for transportation and health: The role of infrastructure.
Journal of Public Health Policy 30: S95-S110.
Sarah Goodyear. 2012. The invention of jaywalking. The Atlantic, April 24.
http://theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/04/invention-jaywalking/1837
Emily Badger. 2012. Dedicated bike lanes can cut cycling injuries in half. The Atlantic
Cities, Oct 22. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/10/dedicated-bike-lanes-cancut-cycling-injuries-half/3654
Jan Garrard, Susan Handy, and Jennifer Dill. 2012. Women and cycling. Chapter 10 in City
Cycling edited by John Pucher and Ralph Buehler. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
7. MODAL PLANNING, Part 2 (Mar 5): Public transportation
In class video: Taken for a Ride (1996)
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John Pucher. 2004. Public transit. Chapter 8 in The geography of urban transportation.
Slater, Cliff (1997). “General Motors and the Demise of Streetcars,” Transportation
Quarterly, 51(3): 45-66. located at: http://debunkportland.com/printables/TQOrigin.pdf
Aaron Golub. 2004. Brazil’s buses: Simply successful. Access 24: 2-9.
Martin Wachs. 2012. Planning for High Speed rail. Access 41: 38-41.
Lisa Schweitzer. 2011. Public transit's imperiled future. Progressive Planning 189 (Fall): 4-7.
8. MODAL PLANNING, Part 3 (Mar 12): The automobile; parking
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Genevieve Giuliano and Susan Hanson. 2004. Managing the auto. Chapter 14 in The
geography of urban transportation.
Donald Shoup. 1999. Instead of free parking. Access 15: 8-13.
Michael Manville and Donald Shoup. 2004. People, parking, and cities. Access 25: 2-8.
Donald Shoup. 2011. Ending the abuse of disabled parking placards. Access 39: 38-41.
Michael Cooper and Jo Craven McGinty. 2012. A meter so expensive, it creates parking
spots. The New York Times, March 15. www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/us/program-aims-tomake-the-streets-of-san-francisco-easier-to-park-on.html
Jeremy Nelson and Jason Schrieber. 2012. Smart parking revisted. Planning, May.
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9. POLICY TOPICS, Part 1 (Mar 26): Congestion
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Anthony Downs. 2004. Introduction; The benefits of peak-hour traffic congestion; How bad
is traffic congestion?. Chapters 1, 2 and 3 in Still stuck in traffic: Coping with peak-hour
traffic congestion. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.
David King, Michael Manville, and Donald Shoup. 2007. For whom the road tolls: The
politics of congestion pricing. Access 31: 2-7.
Tom Vanderbilt. 2008. (i) Why ants don't get into traffic jams (and humans do): On
cooperation as a cure for congestion. (ii) Why women cause more congestion than men (and
other secrets of traffic). Chapters 4 and 5 in Traffic (ibid).
John Markoff. 2012. Incentives for drivers who avoid traffic jams. The New York Times,
June 11. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/science/experimental-campaigns-pay-driversto-avoid-rush-hour-traffic.html
Taylor, Brian D. 2002. “Rethinking Congestion,” Access, 21: 8-16. Available on the Access
website.
10. POLICY TOPICS, Part 2 (Apr 2): Safety
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Tom Vanderbilt. 2008. Why dangerous roads are safer. Chapter 7 in Traffic (ibid).
Gian-Claudia Sciara. 2003. Making communities safe for bicycles. Access 22: 28-33.
Eric Dumbaugh. 2005. Safe streets, livable streets. Journal of the American Planning
Association 71 (3) 283-300.
J.L. Gattis. 2005. Counterpoint. Journal of the American Planning Association 71 (3) 298300.
Sarah Lyall. 2005. A path to road safety with no signposts. The New York Times, January
22. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/international/europe/22monderman.html
Elisabeth Rosenthal. 2012. To encourage biking, cities lose the helmets. The New York
Times, Sept 29. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/sunday-review/to-encourage-biking-citi
Alan Cowell. 1990. For women only: A train car safe from men. The New York Times, Jan
15. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/15/world/cairo-journal-for-women-only-a-train-carsafe-from-men.html
11. POLICY TOPICS, Part 3 (Apr 9): Transportation and land use
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Genevieve Giuliano. 2004. Land use impacts of transportation investments: Highway and
transit. Chapter 9 in The geography of urban transportation.
Jeffrey Tumlin and Adam Millard-Ball. 2003. How to make transit-oriented development
work. Planning (May) 14-19.
Marlon G. Boarnet, Kenneth Joh, Walter Siembab, William Fulton, and Mai Thi Nguyen.
2011. Retrofitting the suburbs to increase walking. Access 39: 2-7.
Martin Wachs. 2011. Transportation, jobs and economic growth. Access 38: 8-14.
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Adam Nagourney. 2012. Facelift project for Hollywood stirs divisions. The New York
Times, March 28. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/us/far-reaching-rezoning-plan-forhollywood-gains-key-support.html
12. POLICY TOPICS, Part 4 (Apr 16): Freight
 Thomas R. Leinbach. 2004. City interactions: The dynamics of passenger and freight flows.
Chapter 2 in The geography of urban transportation.
 Thomas Golob and Amelia C. Regan. Impacts of information technology on personal travel
and commercial vehicle operations: research challenges and opportunities. Transportation
Research C 9, no. 2 (2001): 87-121.
 Nikolaos Geroliminis and Carlos F. Daganzo. 2005. A Review of Green Logistics Schemes
Used in Cities Around the World. UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley Center for Future Urban
Transport: A Volvo Center of Excellence.
 Alana Semuels. 2010. Freight trains make big comeback in nation's transportation network.
The LA Times, Jan 3. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jan/03/business/la-fi-rail3-2010jan03
13. POLICY TOPICS, Part 5 (Apr 23): Environment and Climate Change
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Chang-Hee Christine Bae. 2004. Transportation and the environment. Chapter 13 in The
geography of urban transportation.
Eliot Rose, Autumn Bernstein, and Stuart Cohen. 2011. San Diego and SB 375: Lessons
from California’s first sustainable communities strategy. Oakland: ClimatePlan and
Transform.
Nic Lutsey. 2012. New Automobile Regulations: Double the Fuel Economy, Half the CO2
Emissions, and Even Automakers Like It. Access 41: 2-9.
Niharika Mandhana. 2012. 'Untamed motorization' wraps an Indian city in smog. The New
York Times, Dec 26. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/world/asia/indian-cityoverwhelmed-by-air-pollution-new-delhi-journal.html
Jennifer Dill. 2004. Scrapping old cars. Access 24: 22-27.
14. POLICY TOPICS, Part 6 (April 30): Technology and the future
Final Exam – In class
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Elizabeth Deakin, Karen Frick, and Alexander Skabardonis. 2009. Intelligent transportation
systems: Linking technology and transport policy to help steer the future. Access 34: 29-34.
Daniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon. 2009. In search of low carbon fuels. Chapter 4 in Two
billion cars: Driving toward sustainability. Oxford: Oxford University Press.