Welcome back to TheCityFix Picks, our series highlighting the newsy and noteworthy of the past week. Each Friday, we’ll run down the headlines falling under TheCityFix’s five themes: integrated transport, urban development and accessibility, air quality and climate change, health and road safety, and communications and marketing.

Integrated Transport

Chengdu, China is planning to build an elevated ring road with a bus rapid transit system to ease the burden of congestion. BRT passengers will pay their fare on the ground level and pass through the gates to escalators that will take them to the second level.

Mercedez Benz launched its City Bus in Chakan, India. The Indian bus market is the second largest in the world with 46,000 buses sold in 2011. The head of Daimler buses explained that the new buses will be targeted to State Transport Authorities across India, especially with bus rapid transit systems becoming a mainstay in major cities in India.

Here is an interview the Hindu conducted with NYC Transport Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan on how to improve public transportation and make cities work better.

The Maryland Department of Transportation announced that it will dedicate $2.5 million in funding to connect a bike route to Montgomery County transit stations. This bike initiative is one of 20 for the state and it is an effort to meet the requirements that ask that a portion of federal highway funds be spent on bike and pedestrian programs.

Urban Development + Accessibility

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced the new equal access housing rule, which clearly and unequivocally demands that “LGBT individuals and couples have the right to live where they choose.” Donovan also said that denying HUD housing to people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity is discrimination. “You are breaking the law, and you will be held accountable,” Donovan added.

The Asian Development Bank signed a tripartite agreement with the Centre and Government of Assam for an $81 million loan agreement. The loan will go to the Tranche 1 of Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program to upgrade wastewater treatment and urban transportation infrastructure. The program is estimated to benefit the 350,000 residents of Guwahati city.

China’s real estate market is booming at an accelerated speed, where a 30-story building went up in two weeks. Experts say this is possible because most of the works is done in factories and the foundation is laid ahead of time.

Air Quality + Climate change

The Environmental Protection Agency tentatively approved Colorado’s State Implementation Plan for Regional Haze. The plan intends to greatly reduce statewide pollution in order to boost health and environmental quality.

Hong Kong’s environmental protection department began publicly releasing hourly measurements of the tiny pollutants known as PM2.5, a month and a half after Beijing released theirs.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), along with other state agencies, is conducting a survey of California residents’ travel behavior to improve mobility, job access and air quality. The comprehensive survey is a partnership among Caltrans, the California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, and local transportation planning agencies and is intended to inform decision-makers on ways to improve the travel options available to Californians.

Health + Road Safety

Since 2000, the share of traffic fatalities linked to speeding increased 7 percent. Over three-quarters of the surveyed state highway offices cite “public indifference to speeding” as the biggest obstacle to reducing speed-related traffic deaths.

Volvo is introducing the world’s first airbag for pedestrians. The device is fitted to the all-new V40, which was unveiled this week at the Geneva Motor Show. The airbag is activated through a series of sophisticated sensors fitted to the front bumper.

Communications + Marketing

Verizon is focusing a new marketing campaign on young, tech-savvy apartment residents and they’re doing it by reaching these young professional in places where they spend a great deal of time, like gyms, restaurants, pubs and transit centers.

Gabrielle Rodriguez, Manager of Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Travel Information Center, won the national Call Center Challenge competition sponsored by the American Public Transportation Associaton. Rodriguez was crowned public transportation’s best telephone customer information agent at APTA’s 2012 Marketing and Communications Workshop in Miami on February 28.

Canadian cities are getting new transit apps to better inform commuters. A few new ones include Calgary, Toronto, and Laval.

Mexico City has been experiencing a rise in its bicycle culture. Photo by Dani Simons.

Welcome back to TheCityFix Picks, our series highlighting the newsy and noteworthy of the past week. Each Friday, we’ll run down the headlines falling under TheCityFix’s five themes: integrated transport, urban development and accessibility, air quality and climate change, health and road safety, and communications and marketing.

Integrated transport

Lima’s Metropolitano BRT system celebrated its 100 millionth passenger this week. At the end of 2010, the BRT system was carrying an average of 220,000 passengers daily. Today, the daily passenger rate is at 360,000 individuals. The goal for December 2011 is to transport half a million passenger per day.

Mexico City is seeing a rise in bicycle use among its middle and upper classes, according to news from USA Today. Local cycling initiatives started in 2006 in Mexico City under the leadership of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. Since then, cycling has become a fashionable transport mode. The local environment secretariat estimates that there are 100,000 cycling trips made daily in the city.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a $75 million federal funding to improve the oldest and slowest active commuter rail line in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The funding is estimated to bring employment opportunities to 260 people.

Urban Development + Accessibility

Real estate agents in Cape Town, South Africa report that the implementation of MyCiTi Bus Rapid Transport system in the city’s West Coast corridor has had a positive impact on the property market. The efficiency of the public transport system halved the time properties remain on the market.

Mayor Bloomberg announced a $20 million gift to the city’s famous High Line park from the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation. Previously, the High Line needed $85 million to finish the design and implementation of the park and maintain it for three million visitors every year.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is calling on state legislature to approve a proposal that would allow local municipalities to raise vehicle licensing fees to a rate between $40 and $120. The raised rates would bring in between $300 million and $1 billion for infrastructure and transit projects in Michigan.

Air Quality + Climate Change

Louisville, Ky. is losing its trees and not replacing them, says a report from the Courier Journal. Invasive pests, neglect and age are destroying the city’s urban forestry and it goes beyond aesthetics. Trees can produce millions of dollars in energy savings and pollution reductions.

Exxon Mobile reported a quarterly profit of 41 percent, or $10 billion. The profits come at a time of a 7 percent fall in oil production.

The Jakarta, Indonesia administration unveiled a draft budget for 2012 that focuses heavily on public transportation improvements and flood mitigation efforts.

Health + Road Safety

New York has been conducting long distance bus inspections during September and early October. The inspections resulted in the suspension of 116 bus drivers and 95 buses, Governor Cuomo’s office says. The inspections come in the wake of a fatal accident that took place in the Bronx that killed 15 people. The state’s motor vehicle department will continue its efforts on cracking down bus services using facial recognition technology.

Travel on U.S. roadways reached its lowest level since 2003, reports the Department of Transportation. In the first eight months of this year, travel went down by 1.3 percent, or 26 billion vehicle miles.

A new study out of Temple University Fox School of Business found that individuals who view their car as an extension of themselves have stronger aggressive driving tendencies. The study also found numerous relationships between character traits, world view and aggressive driving, one of which is how increased materialism, or the importance of one’s possessions, is linked to increased aggressive driving tendencies.

Communications + Marketing

Daimler’s Car2Go car-sharing program is ready to expand. Until now the program was working only in four cities; one in the United States, one in Canada and two in Europe. The company says that it will now expand to 40 to 50 cities in Europe and add several new locations in the United States. Car2Go is different from its competitor, ZipCar, in that it allows one-way rentals.

Lunar Europe Green City e.V., a Munich-based design firm, and the University of Wuppertal joined forces to create a new mobility sharing system, called Mo.  Mo is a way to access car-sharing, bike-sharing and transit all with one card. Users can rack up points with bicycling and earn free car-sharing time or transit value. The system also functions as a social network.

After 12 months of operation, London’s bikesharing outfit Barclays Cycle Hire boasts roughly 6 million logged bike trips.Photo by Donald Macleod.

Welcome back to TheCityFix Picks, our series highlighting the newsy and noteworthy of the past week. Each Friday, we’ll run down the headlines falling under TheCityFix’s five themes: integrated transport, urban development and accessibility, air quality and climate change, health and road safety, and communications and marketing.

Integrated Transport

After 12 months of operation, London’s bikesharing outfit Barclays Cycle Hire boasts roughly 6 million logged bike trips.

Car2Go, the flexible carsharing service, is looking to expand to Washington, D.C. with 300 cars as soon as this fall. Car2Go is already operating in Austin, Vancouver, and Hamburg and Ulm.

The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released a transportation bill outline, which appears to lack any funding dedicated to bicycling and pedestrian projects.

The New York City Department of Transportation launched an information gathering and response system to curb traffic congestion in Midtown Manhattan.

Urban Development + Accessibility

Global grid energy storage spending will reach more than $22 billion over the next 10 years, according to a new report from Pike Research.

Walk Score reached the milestone of more than 10,000 real estate websites featuring its online resources. Walk Score supports real estate providers by illustrating the location, nearby amenities and “walkability score” of real estate properties.

New survey results reveal that Zipcar has resulted in decreased driving and increased public transportation use, plus increased exercise and improved quality of life for its members in Baltimore, Md.

In the wake of Japan’s devastating earthquake, Panasonic, Japan’s largest appliance producer, is shutting down 20 percent of its factory facilities and converting the land into “smart towns,” which will reportedly feature solar panels, energy-efficient refrigerators and rechargeable batteries.

Air Quality + Climate Change

Toyota unveiled M2LFh (mesoporous two-line ferrihydrite), a material for use in cars with the capability of removing 95 percent of ozone from the air.

Fifty all-electric Nissan LEAFs were added to New York City’s fleet of police vehicles as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative.

In São Paulo, 160 city buses will now run on renewable diesel fuel derived from sugarcane.

California extended its clean vehicle purchasing incentive program for a third year. The $40 million program was approved by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) and includes providing consumer rebates of up to $2,500 toward the purchase of zero-emission or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Chicago embraced its first public electric vehicle charging stations, as 350Green, the company commissioned to produce the stations, completed six of the 73 stations planned for the city.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $50 million to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, a project aimed at ending coal power production and transitioning to clean energy sources.

Health + Road Safety

Canada’s national road safety week proceeded last week, with police charging roughly 15,500 Toronto motorists with various offenses.

Serious crimes in the Washington, D.C. metro system are down by more than a third, reported Metro General Manager Richard Sarles.

New York City MTA officials announced that 464 buses will receive improved bus shields by the year’s end, as a response to bus driver safety concerns.

Communications + Marketing

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority launched the first on-train all-4G WiFi network. “As the transit provider of Silicon Valley, it is most appropriate that VTA be the first in providing our passengers with the best, high-speed WiFi technology on the market at absolutely no charge,” board chair Margaret Abe-Koga said.

Washington, D.C.’s Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) expanded its public communications efforts by hiring a social media manager.

To showcase Copenhagen’s bicycle culture, Copenhagenize Consulting, in association with the Danish Foreign Ministry’s Public Diplomacy Office, created a photo exhibition called Monumental Motion to travel the world.

Volvo India is accepting nominations for its inaugural “Volvo Sustainable Mobility” award. The objective of the award is to highlight and support sustainable urban transport initiatives.

Evidence of land development impacts of BRT has been noted in other countries (like around Bogota's Transmilenio, above); now we know that BRT can boost property values here in the U.S. as well. Photo by pattoncito.

Many transit advocates agree that bus rapid transit (BRT) can provide high-quality, efficient transportation at a fraction of the cost of rail. However, a common concern about BRT is that routes are not as permanent as tracks – in theory, they could be moved if land use patterns change – so BRT has a limited ability to attract transit-oriented development. But recent research shows that BRT can spur development around its lines and stations. With new BRT systems opening up across the United States, this finding can help guide development and transportation policy.

Until now, there had been no quantitative modeling studies on the property value impacts of BRT in the U.S. Research has focused on the impacts of rail modes on property values, finding positive, but relatively small, impacts from nearby rail transit.  (Property values are used as a proxy for the desirability of land.)

But a recent paper from the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute and the University of South Florida’s Center for Urban Transportation Research shows that BRT can have similar impacts to rail transit on property values. The authors examined the effect of distance to the nearest BRT station on assessed property values, controlling for other measurable factors that influence values. Their study was focused on the Pittsburgh East Busway, which serves downtown Pittsburgh, the eastern side of the city and the eastern suburbs.

THE CLOSER THE BETTER

The study found that closer proximity to a BRT station increases property values. The effects on property values are stronger nearer to stations. For instance, moving from 101 feet to 100 feet away from a station (1 foot closer) increases a property’s value by approximately $19.00, while moving from 1,001 to 1,000 feet away from a station (also 1 foot closer) increases value by approximately $2.70.

Another study from the Breakthrough Technologies Institute examined the attitudes of developers and city planners toward development near BRT lines. Through surveys of twelve developers and seven transit/planning agencies, the author found that developers had positive opinions about BRT’s impact on their properties, and that transit/planning agencies believed that development around BRT stations would be comparable to development around rail transit.

Developers indicated that the proximity of BRT had strong positive impacts on the market potential of development sites and their ability to attract financing. It also helps raise property values and boost the overall appeal of a site to tenants/purchasers. The developers also noted the importance of the “permanence” of transit infrastructure, and rated the permanence of BRT very high. Dedicated runningways, sizeable ridership, streetscape improvements and station quality contribute most to permanence in respondents’ minds.

The study provides supporting evidence from Cleveland, Ohio and Boston, Mass. in the United States, as well as Brisbane, Australia and Ontario, Canada. For detailed case studies of how BRT impacted property values in these cities, check out the Breakthrough Technologies Institute’s report, Case Studies on Transit Oriented Development around Bus Rapid Transit Systems in North America and Australia.

As more BRT systems begin operation, these studies should be expanded. Findings like these are crucial to building the virtuous circle around BRT and land use. Transit-oriented development around BRT can facilitate access to busways, increasing ridership and in turn strengthening demand for nearby real estate. With the knowledge that the market will likely respond, cities can encourage this process by implementing policies to encourage BRT-centered development, such as tax incentives, density bonuses, streamlined development application processes, and targeted land use planning and zoning.

The EPA's new report asks whether the U.S. real estate market is making a fundamental shift toward more urban living. Photo by Willamor Media.

Residential construction in urban neighborhoods has accelerated over the past two decades, says a new report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The 2010 edition of Residential Construction Trends in America’s Metropolitan Regions foresees a fundamental shift in the real estate market driven by changing demographics, increased demand for homes in walkable communities and lower crime rates in central cities.

Specifically, the report found that, in several regions, there has been a dramatic increase in the share of new construction built in central cities and older suburbs. The analysis utilized U.S. Census data showing residential building permits in the 50 largest metropolitan regions from 1990-2008. The number of permits issued by central cities and core suburban communities was compared to the number issued by suburban and exurban communities.

In roughly half of the metropolitan areas examined, urban core communities dramatically increased their share of the residential building permits issued in the region as a whole. In 15 metro areas, the central city more than doubled its share of permits. These increases have been particularly dramatic over the past five years. For example:

• New York City saw its share of regional residential building permits go from 15% in the early 1990s to 48% over the past six years.
• The City of Chicago’s share of regional permits rose from 7% to 27% over the same period.
• Portland, Ore. went from 9% to 26%.
• Even Atlanta, Ga. the poster child of sprawl, went from 4% to 14%.

The central city share of new residential construction in metro areas whose core communities saw a substantial increase. Graph: EPA.

However, the report stresses that these shifts in residential construction patterns are not occurring evenly across the country. A number of major cities, including Boston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis & St. Paul, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Atlanta, saw substantial increases in permits, but the central city still represented less than a fifth of regional permits. In other cities, like St. Louis, San Jose, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and San Diego, there was little change in the share of new construction taking place in the central city. Although urban core neighborhoods have doubled or tripled their share of residential construction since the early 1990s, they still account for less than half of all new residential units in most regions.

Interestingly, the data from 2008 (the most recent year available) shows the inward shift continuing during the economic downturn, even though the overall number of permits is down in nearly all jurisdictions. It will be interesting to see if this trend has kept up in 2009 and 2010, given a possible resurgence in suburban migration due to low housing and transportation costs. The authors also note that urban redevelopment projects are capital intensive, and the reduced availability of credit and municipal bonds may begin to reduce their pace.

The fledgling back-to-the-city trends reflected in the report have important implications for smart growth advocates. For one, medium-sized cities with advanced growth management and urban infill policies saw more dramatic shifts inward. Whether more city-centric development patterns continue through the recession or not, policymakers who want to encourage them should strengthen their smart growth programs and review the impacts of their land use and transportation policies and practices on where growth occurs. Local regulations and public infrastructure investment priorities can discourage large-scale redevelopment projects. For example, transit-oriented development often requires updates to zoning codes, more flexible parking regulations, assistance with land assembly or improvements to water, sewer and streets. Municipalities that do not attend to these issues may see continued suburban sprawl and will not meet the growing demand for walkable, transit-friendly living environments in the decades to come.

Transportation infrastructure projects are bringing higher land values - a sure sign that these are desirable amenities for Mumbaikers. Photo by calamur.

If property values are any indicator, access to high quality public transit is highly desired in Mumbai.

The city’s developers are cashing in on proposed infrastructure projects, even though the completion of these projects could be years away. After recent announcements of planned transportation investments, developers started boosting the prices of flats close to mega projects, assuming new transit will be a big selling point.

This is coming as a surprise to some house hunters. One apartment seeker, Ananya Shekdar, was caught off guard when a Wadala developer showed her the map of his residential building plans, emphasizing the site’s proximity to upcoming projects like the trans-harbor link, the Metro rail and the Monorail.

Some view these price increases as profiteering, but developers counter that buyers have been showing a lot of interest in the infrastructure projects. They want to be close to transit alternatives and less congested areas. Ultimately, access to these amenities will increase their bargaining power when they resell their flats.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority seems to recognize the value of land close to transit as well. It is now inviting bids – starting at 50,000 rupees ($1,096) per square meter – for a parcel of land in Wadala that will be connected with the southern parts of the city by the Monorail and will also house an interstate bus terminal. The land is slated for offices, shops, hotels, entertainment, sports facilities or homes.

Though consumers may not like the higher land prices, in some sense, this phenomenon is a positive sign. Rising property values near transport amenities mean that having access to those services is highly desirable. The population is showing its preference for proximity to quality transportation, and developers are simply responding with higher rents. However, it is important that the wealthy are not the only ones who can exercise that preference. Transportation investments must serve the needs of the entire population.

The government should respond to this market signal in several ways. It must recognize the widespread desire for better transit and provide more of it. Bringing demand more level with supply will cause prices to lower and ensure that more people have access to transportation amenities. Additionally, the government can invest in multi-modal transportation that caters to all needs and income levels. These options range from safe bicycling infrastructure to rail transit. And in order to implement a comprehensive, high quality and connective transportation system, the government must spend its money wisely, focusing on modes that bring the most benefit for their investment.