Many public transit agencies consider increasing fares when faced with budget shortfalls. This paper analyzes the Alameda-Contra Costa (AC) Transit District's five alternative fare proposals introduced for public discussion in March 2005. The proposals combined fare hikes, base fare reductions, eliminations of free transfers, and discontinuation of periodic passes. Using the agency's 2002 on-board survey data, the study assessed the impacts of individual fare proposals on different subsets of riders and evaluated if they were equitable; and estimated potential fare revenues, using alternative price elasticities to estimate changes in ridership due to changes in price. The analysis revealed that proposals that increased the cost of transfers or eliminated unlimited-use passes produced dramatically unequal impacts on certain riders. Proposals for flat fares per ride were found to be least equitable, even when the base fare was lowered, because lower income riders, youth, and minorities made more trips and transferred more frequently than their more affluent counterparts. Proposals that maintained existing pass instruments and allowed transfers for small fees were the most favorable. The paper demonstrates the utility of on-board surveys and details an approach that could be widely used for evaluation of equity in public transit and other areas.

Several manuals, handbooks, and web resources provide varied guidance on planning for and designing bicycle and pedestrian facilities, yet there are no specific indications which treatments in these guides work well for users. In this study, best practices are highlighted and program characteristics associated with high levels of nonmotorized travel are identified, with an emphasis on bicyclists and pedestrians in the California communities of Davis, Palo Alto, and San Luis Obispo, cities known for being bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Analyses of a user preference survey of more than 630 residents in the case study communities, interviews with operators, and review of related literature reveal several factors that matter most to stakeholders for creating bicycle-and pedestrian-friendly places. These factors include (a) acceptable bicycling and walking distances to desired activities, (b) direct routes, (c) good route connectivity, and (d) separation of motorized and non-motorized transportation modes. Recommendations are presented as key considerations for integrating bicycling and walking facilities into urban infrastructure and are arranged to correspond to the trip-making cycle, from the decision to engage in an activity through the choice of route to arrival at the destination. Findings indicate that bicyclists and pedestrians alike strongly desire automobile-separated facilities on streets. This finding suggests that these kinds of projects may merit priority over purely recreational paths. Although roadways may generally need to be friendly for bicycling and walking, the emphasis should be on linking activity locations and transit stations that are purposely placed to be within acceptable distances for these activities.

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There is a growing recognition of the negative effects of rapid suburbanization, also known as urban sprawl, that has dominated the development of urban areas for the last several decades. Many suburbs suffer from a lack of nearby services, a characterless urban form, and a dependence on automobiles for travel. To address these issues, urban planners, architects, developers, and policy makers have considered encouraging a new type of urban growth that focuses on including a variety of housing types and services in complete and compact neighborhoods. To create these communities, some urban planners are considering form-based codes to guide and regulate development. Form-based codes are a method of regulating development to achieve a specific urban form. Form-based codes create a predictable public realm by primarily controlling physical form, with a lesser focus on land use. This is in contrast to existing development regulations, known as zoning ordinances, which typically focus on land use with fewer controls on form.While form-based codes attempt to address urban sprawl and automobile dependency through land use regulations, urban planners also recognize the need to consider transportation policies in tandem with land use. Similar to how land use regulations impact how transportation decisions are made, transportation policies also impact the urban form. Since the 1920s, transportation policies have aimed to create infrastructure to support the automobile, including wide streets and large parking lots.Issues that are now widely acknowledged about transportation policies include the realization that minimum parking requirements result in an excessive parking supply that frequently is free. The abundance of free parking encourages automobile use and contributes to automobile dependency. Large parking lots deteriorate neighborhood character, increase the distance between origins and destinations, and decrease the viability of alternative transportation. Litman (2008) refers to these issues within the context of an automobile dependency cycle: "a generous parking supply is one component of a cycle that increases automobile dependency to the detriment of alternative modes of transportation" ( Figure 1). Form-based codes may provide an opportunity for a more appropriate parking supply by more accurately determining requirements by urban context and use. The "urban transect" (Figure 2) is a gradient of urban form ranging from natural and rural zones to urban core. Form-based codes commonly apply the urban transect to regulate development based on their context (Parolek,

For public transit operators in the U.S., neither fare increases nor fare reductions have been successful in boosting revenues. A different kind of strategy is needed, one that can produce more revenue for transit operators than it costs. This article argues that deep discount group pass (DDGP) programs can accomplish this goal. DDGP programs provide groups of people with unlimited-ride transit passes in exchange for a contractual payment by a group's employer or other organizing body. While previous research on DDGP programs has ignored their impact on operator revenues, this article addresses that gap by focusing on their revenue-increasing potential. The study estimated and compared before and after revenues earned by three transit operators to draw conclusions about the revenue-increasing potential of group pass programs. The universal DDGP programs analyzed consistently yielded either higher revenues per boarding than the system-wide average or higher total revenues from target markets with the program than without it, proving their potential as innovative instruments for increasing transit operating revenues. Employment-based DDGP programs yielded the highest net revenues to operators. When appropriately priced and carefully deployed, DDGP programs can increase transit revenues, make transit operators less reliant on external subsidy, and become powerful instruments of efficient fare policy in public transit.