Education
Susan Handy Seminar: Driving by Choice or Necessity
 Americans drive more each year, with the average American household logging more than 31,000 miles in 2001. Often, drivers insist that owning a car and driving is a necessity, but some researchers are exploring whether driving is done by choice or necessity.
Susan Handy, a professor of environmental science and policy at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California-Davis, addressed the topic at a Sept. 27 seminar at NDSU. The seminar was sponsored by SURTC and the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. Nearly 30 students and staff members attended.
"Why are we driving so much?" Handy asked. "Because we have to or because we want to?" She noted that if researchers could make a distinction between the two, there would be significant public policy implications. "If we're driving by necessity, then everyone benefits if we reduce the need to drive. If we're driving by choice, do we discourage driving to reduce externalities or do we accommodate driving to increase utility?"
In their research, Handy and her colleagues found that drivers engage in "excess driving" by taking extra trips, choosing longer routes, picking more distant destinations and choosing the car over other possible travel modes. Why? Because they like to drive, they enjoy other activities while driving, or they chose driving out of a desire for variety or out of habit, laziness, and poor planning. "But the driving that people want to eliminate is the driving they need to do rather than the driving they choose to do," Handy notes.
She noted transportation planning has traditionally focused on making it easier to drive. Wider highways with controlled access or traffic lights timed to ease traffic flow are examples. Another approach is to discourage driving through congestion pricing on tollways or the addition of emission taxes.
Handy noted that an alternative approach is being used by a number of urban areas: making it easier to drive less. Examples include enhanced bike trails and walking paths, added transit options and routes, urban planning that includes plans to services and retail businesses closer to residential neighborhoods while incorporating transit and other alternatives.
Events Calendar
- TRB - 86th Annual Meeting, Jan. 21-25, 2007, Washington, DC
- TRF - 2007 Annual Forum, Mar. 15-17, 2007, Boston, MA
- APTA - 2007 Bus & Paratransit Conference, May 6-9, 2007, Nashville, TN
- CTAA - EXPO 2007, May 19-25, 2007, Reno, NV
- ITS America - 2007 Annual Meeting & Exposition, Jun. 4-6, 2007, Palm Springs, CA
- APTA - Annual Meeting & EXPO 2007, Oct. 7-10, 2007, Charlotte, NC
- APTA - Transportation & University Communities Conference, TBA
Please check www.surtc.org for updates.
Turtle Mountain and Rolette County Transit Development Plan
SURTC researchers recently completed a transit development plan for the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation and Rolette County in north central North Dakota. The plan was requested by tribal officials and prepared with support from the North Dakota Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration.
 "The plan addresses significant challenges including a high unemployment rate and a lack of transportation alternatives that are available to many local residents. The area's closest regional center, Minot, is 120 miles away," noted Jon Mielke, the SURTC researcher who directed the effort.
The final report presents a wide array of recommendations and implementation strategies that are designed to improve the personal mobility of people living on the reservation and elsewhere in Rolette County. Implementation strategies prioritize each recommendation and identify potential funding sources. Short term priorities include coordinating the services of existing service providers, expanding service hours, standardizing fares, and undertaking an aggressive marketing campaign to increase public awareness of available services. Long term priorities include the initiation of local fixed route services to augment existing dial-a-ride services and to connect the area to its regional center via daily intercity bus service.
The plan was developed with extensive input from a steering committee comprised of local transit operators, human service and employment agency representatives, tribal and local officials, representatives of the local medical community, tribal college personnel, and state and federal agencies. Many of these entities would also be represented on a transit advisory board recommended by the study.
Tribal officials adopted the final report and used it as the basis for soliciting tribal transit funds that became available for the first time when Congress enacted the SAFETEA-LU highway bill. The tribe's application was submitted in mid-October. The Federal Transit Administration expects to announce successful recipients in early 2007.
SURTC researchers and tribal officials believe that implementing the plan's recommendation will significantly increase transit ridership on the reservation and elsewhere in Rolette County and greatly enhance the personal mobility of area residents. A copy of the plan is available on SURTC's website at www.surtc.org.
 SURTC is working with the NDDOT to complete a North Dakota State Transit Management Plan. The plan will reflect state and federal requirements for transit agencies and for the use of public funds designated for transit.
"The plan will be condensed considerably from the previous plan, making it easier for agencies to read and apply to their operations," says Dustin Ulmer. The new plan will include changes introduced in the new Federal Transportation Bill. As part of the development process, Ulmer and DOT officials reviewed plans from other states to consider approaches that could be incorporated into a workable plan for North Dakota.
The plan will be a guide for funding application processes and timelines, minimum requirements, selection criteria, and reporting and monitoring requirements.
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