Category: Transportation

Bike Ped, Original Research, Transportation

The Chapel Hill Inventory of Resources for Bicycles (CHIRB)

By Eli Powell In May 2020, my supervisors on the Transportation Planning Team at the Town of Chapel Hill approached me about updating their bicycle parking inventory. It had not been touched since 2011 and the Planning Department wanted more current bicycle parking data in order to more thoroughly analyze how well developers were adhering to bicycle parking capacity requirements and design guidelines outlined in … Continue reading The Chapel Hill Inventory of Resources for Bicycles (CHIRB)

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Opinion, Transportation

The Potential Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Future U.S. Land Use

By Will Anderson The following is written under the assumption that by the year 2050, the United States will have completely converted to the usage of level 5 autonomous vehicles (AVs). This means that all vehicles will be fully automated and capable of performing all driving functions under any conditions. Innovations such as camera sensors, Lidar, Radar, ultrasound, and computer vision will enable AVs to … Continue reading The Potential Impacts of Autonomous Vehicles on Future U.S. Land Use

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Bike Ped, Transportation

Bike on a Budget: Affordable Solutions to Improve the Bicycling Experience

By: Pierce Holloway Making your bike more comfortable can shift your biking experience from granny to great – And many of these solutions can be done for $20, or even free! First step: bicycle fit. Perhaps the easiest way to improve your riding experience is to make sure your saddle (seat) is at the right height. To check the height, enlist a friend to stand … Continue reading Bike on a Budget: Affordable Solutions to Improve the Bicycling Experience

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Opinion, Transportation

When to Encourage a Monopoly: Uber and Lyft Are Killing Public Transit

By Evan King From an equity, economic, and common sense standpoint, the title of this post sounds terrible. Hear me out. Public transit is in trouble and has been for years. Transit ridership has been falling across the United States, and researchers have been coming closer and closer to attributing this to the rise of ride-hailing. Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft fulfill … Continue reading When to Encourage a Monopoly: Uber and Lyft Are Killing Public Transit

Carolina Planning Journal Board
COVID-19, Public Health, Transportation

Getting Around Getting Around: A Pandemic’s Impacts on Transportation

By Doug Bright Collectively, we’re doing a lot less moving these days. For many, including the UNC Chapel Hill community, the ongoing pandemic means that virtual meetings have replaced our daily commutes. Driven by both personal concern and government action in the form of stay-at-home orders, our non-essential trips have also been slashed in order to reduce interpersonal contact and infection rates. Some services, activities, … Continue reading Getting Around Getting Around: A Pandemic’s Impacts on Transportation

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Personal Reflections, Public Health, Transportation

COVID-19 and Our Futures

By Evan King When speaking about the role of public transportation in modern society, I often bring up this article published by the Foundation for Economic Education. In it, the author essentially argues that the proliferation of telecommuting has removed all need for public transportation. If you take this line of thought to its logical, extreme conclusion, then we must be on an unstoppable trajectory … Continue reading COVID-19 and Our Futures

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Original Research, Transportation

Master’s Project Research: Development of Curbside Management Strategy Typologies

by Tory Gibler As a resident of downtown Raleigh, I’ve seen an increased demand of curb access for delivery trucks, bike lanes, rideshare drop-off/pick-ups, and on-street parking. Riding my bicycle around downtown, it’s not uncommon to see a delivery truck using the bike lane as a loading zone, or see a rideshare drop off a passenger at a bus stop. Automobiles cruising for limited on-street … Continue reading Master’s Project Research: Development of Curbside Management Strategy Typologies

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Economic Development, Transportation

Mercedes, Nissan, BMW: How the Southeast Became the New Hub for Auto-Manufacturing

By: Brandon Tubby No place in America has deeper ties to the automotive industry than Detroit, Michigan. A close second could be the town of Smyrna, Tennessee. While much less known, Smyrna became a significant player in the automotive industry when Nissan opened a massive plant in this Nashville suburb in 1982. Its quick success and ascension to the most productive automotive factory in the … Continue reading Mercedes, Nissan, BMW: How the Southeast Became the New Hub for Auto-Manufacturing

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Education, International, Land Use and Environmental Planning, Original Research, Transportation

DCRP Master’s Project Preview

UNC’s top-ranked master’s program is designed to successfully prepare students for professional planning practice. A central component of the curriculum is a final capstone project, an ‘MP,’ which provides an opportunity for students to apply the skills and knowledge they’ve developed in the classroom and demonstrate their readiness for practice. But the MP is also a space for students to engage with pressing social and … Continue reading DCRP Master’s Project Preview

Carolina Planning Journal Board
Opinion, Transportation

A Few Words in Defense of Driving – But Only Against Autonomous Vehicles

“All that is left of the original impulse toward autonomy and initiative [of American suburbia] is the driving of the private motor car, but . . . clever engineers already threaten to remove the individual control by a system of automation.” – Lewis Mumford, The City in History, 1961 Carolina DCRP students, especially those who have taken courses on transportation, have been part of many … Continue reading A Few Words in Defense of Driving – But Only Against Autonomous Vehicles

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