VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Sanchez, Thomas W."

Browsing by Author "Sanchez, Thomas W."

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Alternative Fuels: Incompletely Addressing the Problems of the Automobile
Shasby, Benjamin Matthew (Virginia Tech, 2004-05-25)
The inordinate reliance of the United States on the automobile for transportation causes a number of problems for the nation. Finite supplies of petroleum imported from volatile parts of the world place the economy at risk from price spikes and eventual depletion. Pollution from motor vehicle exhaust has public health and environmental consequences. Many politicians, automotive interest groups, and others advocate for the use of alternative fuels to replace fossil fuels. This paper investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the following: Natural Gas, Ethanol, Biodiesel, Hydrogen Fuel Cells, and Hybrid Gasoline Electric Systems. The paper concludes with a discussion of the problems associated with the automobile that will not be addressed through a movement towards alternative fuels: urban sprawl, transportation equity, environmental degradation, and public health.
Assessing Nonprofit Websites: Developing an Evaluation Model
Kirk, Kristin Cherish (Virginia Tech, 2018-04-23)
Nonprofit organizations are pivotal actors in society, and their websites can play important roles in aiding organizations in their socially-beneficial missions by serving as a platform to present information, to interact with stakeholders and to perform online transactions. This dissertation analyzed nonprofit websites in the United States (U.S.) and in Thailand in a series of three articles. The first developed a website evaluative instrument, based on an e-commerce model, and applied it to nonprofit websites through a manual decoding process. That article's findings suggested that Thai websites are not considerably different than U.S. nonprofit websites, except more American websites offer online transactions. The second article analyzed two different types of nonprofits in Thailand using the same model to assess website development in an emerging market. That analysis suggested local Thai nonprofits' websites lagged significantly behind those of internationally connected nonprofit organizations in the country in the features they offered. The third article compared the adapted model employed in the second analysis, which used manual decoding for website examination, to a commercially available, automated evaluation service. That analysis highlighted the differences between the two assessment tools and found them to be complementary, but independently insufficient to ensure robust nonprofit website evaluation.
Assessing the Effectiveness of the Microcredit and Integrated Asset Building as a Social Approach to Poverty Reduction in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
Mbeky, Morgan (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-05)
In recent years, the concept of poverty has shifted away from a narrow definition—caloric intake based poverty—to a much broader one that places emphasis on a variety of factors, such as health, education, income, and powerlessness. Most researchers agree that eliminating poverty requires a holistic approach that is attentive to promoting pro-poor growth, creating opportunities for employment, ensuring that the fruits of growth reach impoverished communities, and protecting vulnerable segments of the impoverished population. This study looks the role of microcredits, which has received increasing attention as a means to combat poverty. The advent of neoliberalism led to advances in autonomous markets, commodification, market-led growth, and the dissolution of the Keynesian welfare state. Microcredit growing out of a neoliberal shift plays a powerful role as an instrument to fight poverty, especially in the age government and state failure, entrepreneurial expansion and self-employment income-earing opportunities. Microcredit programs are of great interest to governments, non-governmental organization, and banks because of their potential for reducing poverty. Critics of the microcredit movement argue that microcredit does little besides replacing existing informal credit arrangements to fund subsistence activity, which they view as having little or no prospect of growth. They argue that support of microcredit may over anticipate its benefits, such as the alleviation of poverty and female empowerment. This study assesses the effectiveness of microcredit combined asset building as a pro-growth approach to reduce poverty sustainably in Kinshasa. The recent crises of over-indebtedness in several markets and Kinshasa have fueled growing concern that microcredit may be getting borrowers into trouble. However, my study findings show that assets, specifically microcredit, can stem the poverty cycle and better enable individuals to "stand on their own two feet"socio-economically if combined with other innovative programs. This study uses the test of significance to assess the effectiveness microcredit integrated asset building.
Assessing Working Models' Impact on Land Cover Dynamics through Multi-Agent Based Modeling and Artificial Neural Networks: A Case Study of Roanoke, VA
Nusair, Heba Zaid (Virginia Tech, 2024-05-30)
The transition towards flexible work arrangements, notably work-from-home (WFH) practices, has prompted significant discourse on their potential to reshape urban landscapes. While existing urban growth models (UGM) offer insights into environmental and economic impacts, There is a need to study the urban phenomena from the bottom-up style, considering the essential influence of individuals' behavior and decision-making process at disaggregate and local levels (Brail, 2008, p. 89). Addressing this gap, this study aims to comprehensively understand how evolving work modalities influence the urban form and land use patterns by focusing on socioeconomic and environmental factors. This research employs an Agent-Based Model (ABM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN), integrated with GIS technologies, to predict the future Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) changes within Roanoke, Virginia. The study uniquely explores the dynamic interplay between macro-level policies and micro-level individual behaviors—categorized by employment types, social activities, and residential choices—shedding light on their collective impact on urban morphology. Contrary to conventional expectations, findings reveal that the current low rate in WFH practices has not significantly redirected urban development trends towards sprawl but rather has emphasized urban densification, largely influenced by on-site work modalities. This observation is corroborated by WFH ratios not exceeding 10% in any analyzed census tract. Regarding model performance, the integration of micro-agents into the model substantially improved its accuracy from 86% to 89.78%, enabling a systematic analysis of residential preferences between WFH and on-site working (WrOS) agents. Furthermore, logistic regression analysis and decision score maps delineate the distinct spatial preferences of these agent groups, highlighting a pronounced suburban and rural preference among WFH agents, in contrast to the urban-centric inclination of WrOS agents. Utilizing ABM and ANN integrated with GIS technologies, this research advances the precision and complexity of urban growth predictions. The findings contribute valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers and underline the intricate relationships between work modalities and urban structure, challenging existing paradigms and setting a precedent for future urban planning methodologies.
Benefits, Burdens, Perceptions, and Planning: Developing a New Environmental Justice Assessment Toolkit for Long Range Transportation Plans
Homer, Allison Kathleen (Virginia Tech, 2016-10-24)
This research presents a new environmental justice assessment toolkit, the Equitable Environmental Justice Assessment Toolkit 2016 (EEJAT 2016). The purpose of this toolkit is to enable urban planners to more effectively measure whether environmental justice populations (low-income, non-white, Limited English proficiency, disabled, or elderly persons) are disproportionately burdened by long-range transportation plans. This toolkit is based on the concept that effective assessment of environmental justice (EJ) in transportation planning requires assessment frameworks that methodologically unify three sometimes divergent interests: those of federal and state bodies enforcing EJ assessment requirements, those of metropolitan planners who face capacity constraints and need guidance on how to conduct these assessments, and, most importantly, those of the protected populations themselves. This thesis involved analysis of current requirements, exploration of existing environmental justice assessment tools, case studies, decision theory, and principles of equity, and stakeholder engagement through surveys, interviews, and public meetings, all towards the development of the toolkit designed for the Roanoke Valley Transportation Planning Organization (RVTPO)'s Constrained Long-range Multimodal Transportation Plan 2040 (CLRMTP 2040) released in 2016. The resulting toolkit is a multi-step framework. The first step is a GIS map-based EJ Index, structured by normalized population distributions for each EJ demographic, and mapped by block group compared to regional (MPO) averages. This z-score based mapping was done in lieu of Roanoke's former linear model in effort to more systematically compare effects, and to more accurately represent the data, and by extension, the people. Second, the Community Profile expands upon the EJ Index to include documentation of community elements and social and economic systematic injustices in the area. Next, a Benefits and Burdens matrix guides planners to an appropriate model or method of assessment for each EJ effect for the project at hand, based on project scale and type, data availability, and skillsets of the assessor. The results of these assessments of each EJ effect are compiled for an overall Project Impact Assessment. Checks on assessor bias based on stakeholder feedback and decision theory are incorporated into this Project Impact Assessment. Cumulatively, the toolkit is designed to incorporate equity as a defining element of both processes and outcomes, to be flexible in order to be applicable to multiple projects, and to be usable by practitioners.
Country Ain't Country No More: A Typology of the Nation's Fast-Growing Peripheral Counties
Gough, Meghan Zimmerman (Virginia Tech, 2003-06-30)
This study uses data on the fast-growing peripheral counties located in the 50 largest metropolitan areas to test the null hypothesis that counties located on the metropolitan fringe are demographically homogenous. Using multivariate analysis, the analysis statistically identifies distinct groups of counties in the metropolitan fringe. In contrast to much of the standard literature, the research rejects the null hypothesis and suggests that more than one exurbia exists. This study also explores the varying pressures and demands faced by the different exurban county types in response to massive and compounding growth stresses, recognizing the complexity of managing growth in the fringe and the implications for planners. It is expected that counties identified as "similar" will experience common-responses to different programs and policies addressing growth pressures. Similar counties should therefore use these results to facilitate information exchange concerning successful or unsuccessful strategies.
Crafting the Public: Grid-Group Cultural Theory and the Mechanisms of Public Participation
Smith-Walter, Aaron M. (Virginia Tech, 2015-09-08)
Requirements regarding participation by the public in planning and decision making functions of Metropolitan Planning Organizations have become more detailed over the past several decades by adding more groups and individuals to the list of those who should be included in agency planning efforts. This increased emphasis on public participation in MPOs makes the design and selection of particular participation mechanisms by MPO planning staff an important subject for study. The extant literature on public participation takes a view of the planner as one who is able to interpret the existing technical, social, and political requirements of a planning task and match them with the appropriate public participation mechanism. However, this view of the planner overlooks his or her own understanding of the role of the public in agency decision making. This dissertation employs Grid-Group Cultural Theory to explore how a planner's worldview impacts their selection of particular public participation mechanisms. Data were collected using an online survey instrument and analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. Findings indicate that those planners who held a hierarchist worldview were less likely than egalitarians and individualist planners to select mechanisms that are more intensive (in their requirements for communication). In addition, the research finds that factors internal to the MPO including the budget, project schedule, political priorities, the type of projects, safety issues and agency priorities also have an impact on the mechanisms for public participation selected by MPO planning staff.
Does New Urbanist/Neo Traditional Designs Deliver On Promises to Affect Modal Choice and Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled
McCann, Jessica Hulse (Virginia Tech, 2003-04-19)
This paper investigates Neo-Traditional Designâ s ability to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and effect modal choice by examining the aspects of the design, mixed-use, density, and accessibility. This examination uses three case studies to gain a clearer picture of mixed-use, density, and accessibilityâ s interaction with modal choice and VMT. The three case studies test the hypothesis of Neo-Traditional Designâ s ability to reduce VMT and change modal choice. Case study #1 tests the hypotheses from the perspective of mixing uses. Case study #2 tests the hypothesis from the perspective of densityâ s effect on VMT and modal choice. Case study #3 studies accessibilityâ s effect on VMT and changes in modal choice. These case studies represent a variety of localities in terms of age, size, and location. The conclusions indicate mixed uses (case study #1), density (case study #2), and accessibility (case study #3) reduce VMT and change modal choice. Comparing case studies that employ different methodologies, while arriving at similar conclusions, strengthens the legitimacy of the findings in particular and the concept of neo-traditional urban design in general. The similarity of the conclusions in all three case studies suggests that NTD will influence modal choice and reduce vehicle miles traveled. Neo-traditional designs appear to deliver on promises to reduce VMT and change modal choice by mixing uses, creating densities, and increasing accessibility to the urban form. Newer NTD communities will achieve the same results only if the level of mixed use, density, and accessibility rises to that found in the cases studied.
Emotional Agents: Modeling Travel Satisfaction, Affinity, and Travel Demand Using a Smartphone Travel Survey
Le, Huyen Thi Khanh (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-28)
This dissertation seeks to understand travel satisfaction, travel affinity, and other psychological factors in relation to travel demand, such as the desire for trip making, willingness to spend time traveling, and choice of travel mode. The research was based on the Mood State in Transport Environments survey of 247 Android users (about 6,000 completed trip surveys) in the Blacksburg-Roanoke, VA, Washington, DC, and Minneapolis, MN metropolitan areas from fall 2016 to spring 2018. Respondents answered an entry survey, tracked their travel for 7 days, and answered a trip survey associated with each trip. The dataset provides opportunities to examine travel and activities during travel at the within- and between-person levels. Three studies in this dissertation examined three measures of the positive utility of travel and their relationship with travel behavior. I quantified (1) the desirability of trip making, (2) the ideal travel time related to different travel characteristics, and (3) the effect of satisfaction on commute mode choice. The first study examines the patterns of travel affinity with various travel modes, trip purposes, and activities during the trip. Travel affinity was measured by asking the willingness to forgo a trip when there is an opportunity to do so. I found that this is a valid and strong measure of the positive utility of travel. Travelers were more willing to make trips when they traveled on foot or bicycle, talked with someone during the trip, and took shorter trips. Additionally, commute trips were less likely to be enjoyed as compared to other, non-commute trips. The second study focused on (1) testing the validity of the "ideal travel time" measurement and (2) measuring factors associated with the willingness to spend time traveling. I found that although ideal travel time was a strong measure of the positive utility of travel, it was very weakly associated with the desirability of trip making and satisfaction with trips. Although few people wanted zero commute time (3%), the number of trips that had zero ideal travel time was much higher (16%), indicating that the desired travel amount may vary across different trip and environmental characteristics and purpose. Ideal travel time was longer for active travel trips, leisure trips, when conducting activities during trips (e.g., talking, using the phone, looking at the landscape), when traveling with companions and during the weekend. The third study investigated the role of travel satisfaction and attitude in mode choice behavior. This is one of the very few studies that have considered the role of these psychological factors in multimodal mode choice based on revealed preference data. I found that satisfaction and attitude toward modes and travel played a significant role in the choice model; it also modified the role of travel time in the models. However, the perception of travel time usefulness was insignificant in the model. Scenario analyses based on the model results showed that it is optimal to invest in active transportation and public transit at the same time in order to shift car drivers to these sustainable modes. These studies contribute to the small but growing body of literature on the positive utility of travel and transrational decision making in transportation. It is the only study that employed a smartphone survey with a repeated measure of trips over the course of 1-2 weeks. The third study is among the earliest attempts to include satisfaction and attitude together into mode choice models. This dissertation has several implications for research and practice. First, it calls for better measurements of well-being and satisfaction. Second, models with appropriate psychological factors would more realistically resemble actual travel behavior. Including satisfaction in the choice model changes the coefficient of travel time (and potentially cost), which modifies the value of travel time savings, a basis of most benefit-cost analyses in transportation planning and engineering. Better mode choice and trip generation models will generate more reliable predictions of future infrastructure use and investment. Third, studies of travel affinity (positive utility of travel) have implications for demand modeling and management practice. Practitioners should reevaluate the effectiveness of travel demand management strategies aimed at reducing travel time and trips, such as congestion pricing (e.g., tolls), online shopping, and telecommuting.
An Equity Analysis of the U.S. Public Transportation System Based on Job Accessibility
Jeddi Yeganeh, Armin (Virginia Tech, 2017-05-09)
Background: Access to quality public transportation is critical for employment, especially for low-income and minority populations. This research contributes to previous work on equity analysis of the U.S. public transportation system by covering the 45 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and their counties. Objective: This study analyzes job accessibility of transit commuters in the 45 largest MSAs to assess the existing differences in accessibility between Census-defined socioeconomic status (SES) categories. Method: 2014 Census demographic data were matched to a previously published 2014 dataset of transit job accessibility at the Census Block Group level. Transit equality and justice analyses were performed based on population-weighted mean job accessibility and SES variables. Results: The findings suggest that within individual MSAs, the low-income populations and people of color have the highest transit job accessibility. However, in certain MSAs with high job accessibility, such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Houston, there is a significantly disproportionate access to public transportation based on income. Variables such as income, and the use of personal vehicle, are found to have a statistically significant negative impact on job accessibility in almost all MSAs. The percentage of White workers has a significant impact on job accessibility in upper-mid-density MSAs and high-density MSAs. The percentage of the population with limited English speaking ability is not a significant determinant of job accessibility except in lower-mid-density MSAs. Disparities by income are greater than disparities by race. Racial disparities increase by MSA size and density controlling for income. The findings suggest that planning for public transportation should take into account risks, benefits, and other equally important aspects of public transportation such as frequency, connectivity, and quality of service.
Essays in Transportation and Electoral Politics
Harmony, Xavier Joshua (Virginia Tech, 2024-03-01)
Abstract 1 – The Importance of Transportation Policies in Local Elections Building and maintaining transportation systems is one of the most important functions of local government. It is a subject that concerns local residents, jurisdictions spend a lot of money on, and local politicians use to their political advantage. This study helps us understand how transportation issues feature in local elections. Through evaluating a dataset of 542 candidates from 219 local election races from 2022, this study explores which candidates for local office are more likely to have transportation policies, what kind of content is included in these policies, and what are the factors that make including different transportation content more or less likely. The analysis primarily uses website campaign content and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to answer these questions. I find a variety of factors affect the inclusion of transportation issues at the local level such as variations in governance, partisanship, and regional characteristics like a jurisdiction's size and transportation behavior. It was also evident that defining transportation issues was more common than proposing transportation policy solutions. Overall, this research provides more insight into how transportation policies are included in local elections. Abstract 2 – Saliency of Transportation Policies in State Legislative Elections: The Case of Virginia Transportation systems are expensive and directly impact important issues like climate change, equity, and quality of life. However, it is not clear how important transportation policies are in state-level elections. Using the Virginia 2021 state legislative election, this research uses candidate website data, Twitter data, and data about Virginia House of Delegates districts to answer three questions: which candidates are more likely to have transportation polices, what issues or transportation modes are included, and what factors make candidates more or less likely to focus on certain issues. Using descriptive statistics, and regression methods, this research found transportation issues varied by political party with top overall issues including transportation funding as well as expanding or improving transportation systems. Public transportation was the top non-car mode. Candidates were more likely to include transportation issues if district households had higher car ownership or a lower percentage of single occupancy vehicle commuters. Finally, differences in transportation issues could be partly explained by political party, incumbency, population density, and transportation habits. These results will be helpful for understanding how state government transportation agendas change, can better inform transportation advocacy efforts, and could help transportation professionals better understand the impact of their work. Abstract 3 – Does Voting Affect the Provision of Bus Service? Inequalities in the distribution of bus services are important to understand. This chapter adds to previous literature by exploring why inequalities exist. Specifically, does voting for elected officials affect inequalities in the delivery of bus services? This study explores this question using a quantitative approach as part of a quasi-experimental research design focusing on GoRaleigh in North Carolina and the Milwaukee County Transit System in Wisconsin. The analysis provides evidence of a relationship between voting behavior and bus service. This finding is observed across cities and elections with the relationships holding even when controlling for factors associated with a bureaucratic explanation for changing bus service, like changes to population or jobs. However, the strength of the relationship can change between elections, the type of elected official, and cities. Overall, this work provides more evidence of the politics behind transit service planning, especially the political influences of voting behavior in representative democracies.
Evolving Technologies Shaping Public Transit
Epanty, Efon Mandong (Virginia Tech, 2024-02-01)
The transit industry is changing rapidly due to technology, which in turn changes business models, ridership, travel patterns, and the transit workforce. As transit agencies introduce new technology systems, research is needed on how these systems impact demand for paratransit and on-demand mobility services. This research addresses this topic by studying the impact of technology on demand-responsive transportation and urban mobility. Over the past two decades, this sector has been transformed by cloud computing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, ridesharing, and mobility-on-demand. This dissertation explores the adoption of new technology by transit agencies and service providers, focusing on implementing app-based dynamic technologies for dispatching and scheduling demand-responsive transportation modes such as microtransit services, on-demand transit, and paratransit. Although studies on technological changes in other sectors have been conducted, public transit agencies need a more systematic approach to adopting new technology. Current literature on technology adoption in public transit focuses on the benefits and outcomes of technology adoption, with limited discussions of the challenges faced in adopting and implementing technologies. Comprehensive research on the emerging and evolving transit technological landscape is essential to bridge this gap. This research examines how transit agencies react to internal and external technological changes as their operational, tactical, and strategic operating conditions evolve. The aim is to enhance the current comprehension of the topic by providing a comprehensive overview of the technology adoption methodology and to offer practical planning and policy recommendations where possible. A mixed-methods approach was applied to explore the research questions. Transit practitioners and managers in the Washington DC region were surveyed, and the analysis techniques employed included cross-tabulation and descriptive statistics. This dissertation focuses on gaining insight into adopting real-time dynamic dispatching and scheduling, on-demand transit, and microtransit technologies, including the opinions of transit practitioners and policymakers involved in facilitating technology adoption. Specifically, the study aims to: 1) understand the impact of adopting emerging paratransit technologies; 2) investigate on-demand transit system performance outcomes under ridership, on-time performance, and operating costs, using a survey and expert interviews; and 3) investigate the use of a multicriteria decision-making approach to evaluate accessibility considerations in microtransit adoption planning and design strategies. The results suggest that current technology adoption approaches in transit can significantly enhance decision-making and transit outcomes while addressing the equity and accessibility needs of the community and maintaining coverage and route frequency. The Socio-Technical-Systems (STS) approach was applied to help understand the adoption of new technology in demand response transit. This approach provides insights into technology, accessibility, decision-making, functionality, and interchangeability, enhancing our understanding of social complexity. Additionally, this research introduces a multi-level decision-making framework to measure service performance and provides insights into the impact of transportation technology on planning, policy, and decision-making processes.
Exploring the Relationship between Combined Household Housing and Transportation Costs and Regional Economic Activity in Virginia
Sanchez, Thomas W. (MDPI, 2021-07-15)
Transportation is the second-largest expenditure category for households, accounting for nearly 20 cents of every dollar spent annually across the U.S. Only housing costs exceed transportation, and combined they represent a substantial burden on households. A primary economic connection between housing and transportation costs is related to the tradeoffs that households make in terms of residential location and what they have left of their household budget to spend on other needs. Families are forced to spend thousands of dollars annually on owning and operating private vehicles, forego wealth creation, and the ability to enjoy other benefits of homeownership. This analysis examines combined housing and transportation costs at the state level to regional economic performance. It contributes to the literature by testing the geographic scope of household expenditure burdens at this scale. Along with previous literature, this analysis provides evidence about the connection between the local and regional economic vitality and the burden of the combined effects of housing and transport on households. Overall, the results suggest that, from 2008 to 2018, these household cost burdens were a function of economic activity, household characteristics, and location in the state of Virginia.
Frames of Digital Blackness in the Racialized Palimpsest City: Chicago, Illinois and Johannesburg, South Africa
Woodard, Davon Teremus Trevino (Virginia Tech, 2021-08-16)
The United States and South Africa, exemplars of "archsegregation," have been constituted within an arc of historical racialized delineations which began with the centering, and subsequent overrepresentation, of European maleness and whiteness as the sole definition of Man. Globally present and persistent, these racialized delineations have been localized and spatially embedded through the tools of urban planning. This arc of racialized otherness, ineffectively erased, continues to inform the racially differentiated geospatial, health, social, and economic outcomes in contemporary urban form and functions for Black communities. It is within this historical arc, and against these differentiated outcomes, that contemporary urban discourse and contestation between individuals and institutions are situated. This historical othering provides not just a racialized geo-historical contextualization, but also works to preclude the recognition of the some of the most vulnerable urban community members. As urbanists and advocates strive to co-create urban space and place with municipalities, meeting the needs of these residents is imperative. In order to meet these needs, their lived experiences, and voices must be fully recognized and engaged in the processes and programs of urban co-creation, including in digital spaces and forums. Critical to achieving recognition acknowledging and situating contemporary digital discourses between local municipalities, Black residents, and Black networks within this historically racialized arc is necessary. In doing so, explore if, and how, race, specifically Blackness, is enacted in municipal digital discourse, whether these enactments serve to advance or impede resident recognition and participation, and how Black users, as residents and social network curators, engage and respond to these municipal discursive enactments. This exploratory research is a geographically and digitally multi-sited incorporated comparison of Chicago, Illinois, and Johannesburg South Africa. Using Twitter and ethnographic data collected between December 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020, this research layers digital ethnographic mixed methods and qualitive mixed methods, including traditional ethnographic, digital ethnographic, grounded theory, social change and discourse analysis, and frame analysis to explore three research goals. First, explore the digital discursive practices and frames employed by municipalities to inform, communicate with, and engage Black communities, and, if and how, these frames are situated within a historically racialized arc. Second, identify the ways in which Black residents, in dual discursive engagements with local municipalities and their own social networks, interact and engage with the municipal frames centering on Blackness. Third, through ethnographic narratives, acknowledge the marginalized residents of the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa as "agents of knowledge," with critical and valuable knowledge claims which arise from their lived experiences anchored within racialized place and space. In doing so, support the efforts of these residents in recentering the validity of their knowledge claims in the co-creation of urban place and space. Additionally, in situating the city within a historically racialized arc develop novel frameworks, the racialized palimpsest city and syndemic segregation, through which to explore contemporary urban interactions and engagements.
The Implications of Human Mobility and Accessibility for Transportation and Livable Cities
Sanchez, Thomas W.; Ye, Xinyue (MDPI, 2023-10-12)
Understanding human movement and transportation accessibility has become paramount in shaping the very fabric of our communities [...]
Inclusive Management in Action: An International Study of Public Engagement
Offenbacker, Beth S. (Virginia Tech, 2010-06-29)
The purpose of this study is to define and apply an engagement framework built upon Inclusive Management theory to examine the practice of participation as understood by administrators, elected officials, NGO leaders and public participation practitioners across multiple countries and to illustrate the framework through three case studies. Specifically, it asks how does Inclusive Management guide us in understanding participation as practiced by managers/leaders with responsibility for this work? It also considers the potential connections between management and participation as demonstrated in the data, and further, it seeks to identify how IM as a theory may be enriched or empirically elaborated as a result of this examination. This research examines the observation of phenomena identified by study participants ordinarily not considered a consequence of efforts that engage the public. Using inclusive management theory, the resulting engagement framework includes clusters of outcomes, continuous events and capacity-building as its core elements. The framework shows inclusive management in action and offers a different way of knowing (Feldman, Khademian, Ingram, & Schneider, 2006; Gomez, Bouty, & Drucker-Godard, 2003; Nicolini, Gherardi, & Yanow, 2003) participation in government decision making than generally is depicted in the public participation literature or characterized anecdotally. The engagement framework also corresponds in several ways to the techniques of dialogue, deliberation and appreciative inquiry. As the data will demonstrate in this dissertation, the engagement framework may draw upon these techniques, and moreover, that the relational, informational and stewardship dimensions of engagement reinforce one another. This dissertation also addresses a longstanding gap in the participation literature, in that it provides strategies that connect management theory and practice with participatory principles.
Inequality in Transport [Book review]
Gebresselassie, Mahtot; Sanchez, Thomas W. (Routledge, 2019-08-17)
Innovations and Development in Urban Planning Scholarship and Research
Sanchez, Thomas W. (Cogitatio, 2021-02-24)
Urban planning is characterized by involving a wide range of experts from a variety of fields. Therefore, planning research draws upon each of these fields in how it interprets an examines the natural and built environment as elements of human settlement activities. As a small professional and academic discipline incorporating aspects of design, policy, law, social sciences, and engineering, it is understandable that research outcomes are published in a broad range of academic outlets. It is useful for us to reflect on our research intentions, processes, and outcomes, which is also referred to as ‘research about research,’ with a focus on the scholarly products of urban planning academics. We can do this by examining our methodologies, subdomains, application of research to practice, research impact, and bibliometrics. The purpose of reflecting on our research helps us better understand research processes and the resulting body of urban planning research and scholarship as a whole.
Intra-Regional Economic Connectivity: The Role of Industry Clusters in Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide
McFarland, Christiana K. (Virginia Tech, 2020-04-14)
This research explores an alternative path for economic development via local connections to regional economies. It presents new analysis of the potential and circumstances under which county level industry clusters can be strengthened by connecting to regional clusters – networks of businesses, labor pools, etc., whose linkages cross local and even state jurisdictional boundaries. Specifically, this analysis examines how different types of industry clusters and types of urban and rural communities within regions respond to intra-regional connectivity. Independent-samples t-tests are conducted to assess whether significant differences in the annualized county-cluster employment growth rate (2010-2016) exist between connected and not-connected county-clusters overall, in different types of communities (metropolitan, micropolitan, rural adjacent and rural remote) and across types of industry clusters. The results suggest that intra-regional economic connectivity has a strong, positive association with county-cluster employment growth. These results are particularly pronounced for more rural communities but are present across county types, including metropolitan. The magnitude of the economic impact derived from connectivity with the regional economy varies by industry cluster. The results suggest an alternative approach to cluster-based economic development strategies that more strategically accounts for and bolsters connectivity. Policy recommendations for how to apply an intra-regional connectivity framework to narrow the urban-rural divide, as well as several regional profiles, are offered.
The landscape and evolution of urban planning science
Haghani, Milad; Sabri, Soheil; De Gruyter, Chris; Ardeshiri, Ali; Shahhoseini, Zahra; Sanchez, Thomas W.; Acuto, Michele (Elsevier, 2023-05)
The science of urban planning has drawn on a wide range of disciplines and research perspectives. This makes it challenging to define the boundaries and directions of the field. Here, nearly 100,000 articles on urban planning are analysed to objectively determine divisions, temporal trends and influential references and actors of urban planning. In terms of the structural composition, four broad divisions are identified: (1) governance and policy, (2) economics and markets, (3) housing and (4) built and natural environment. In terms of the temporal evo-lution, the earliest trends were related to "welfare economics", "agglomeration economies", "urban economics", and "urban growth machine". During the 1980s and 1990s, the focus moved towards "regional policy and development", "social welfare", and "urban renaissance". This trend continued during the 2000s and 2010s, heading to "urban morphology", "participatory planning", "urban sociology", "global cities", and "political economy". The field has recently headed towards areas of "resilience", "smart cities" and "urban green space". These transitions have been derivative, and the paradigm shifts have been very gradual. Another key observation is a notable increase in author connectivity and international collaboration. The results provide objective insights into how the science of urban planning has historically transitioned and where it is headed.

Browsing by Author "Sanchez, Thomas W."

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