Slow Streets and Dockless Travel: Using a Natural Experiment for Insight into the Role of Supportive Infrastructure on Non-Motorized Travel

This research project will implement a before/after, experimental-control group study of slow street infrastructure to examine the role that supportive non-motorized infrastructure can play in non-motorized travel. Several cities implemented slow street programs during the pandemic, closing streets to car traffic, opening traffic lanes to non-motorized uses, or slowing car travel. The researchers will study the programs in the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and Portland. The purpose will be to use the slow street programs in four major cities to study how planning programs that reduce auto traffic and speeds can encourage increases in non-motorized travel. This research will take advantage of the opportunity to study the effect of large programs that turned over street space to non-motorized modes—exactly the kind of intervention that many urban planners have been advocating, but an intervention that has not been observed at the scale implemented during the early days of the pandemic. The research team will leverage a partnership with a national dockless bicycle and scooter provider, Lime, to get data on travel along street blocks before and after the slow street program. That will allow the team to implement a before/after, experimental-control group study of the effect of slow streets on dockless travel. The results will give insights into the effect of the slow street programs on non-motorized travel, and by extension, on the role that supportive non-motorized infrastructure can play in encouraging more non-motorized travel.

• Record URL:
  https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/slow-streets-and-dockless-travel-using-natural-experiment-insight-role-supportive

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $100773
• Contract Numbers:

  65A0686 Task Order 071

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  METRANS Transportation Center

  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90089-0626
• Project Managers:

  Iacobucci, Lauren

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  METRANS Transportation Center

  University of Southern California
  Los Angeles, CA  United States  90089-0626
• Principal Investigators:

  Boarnet, Marlon

• Start Date: 20220101
• Expected Completion Date: 20221231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Bicycling; Complete streets; Nonmotorized transportation; Scooters; Urban design
• Geographic Terms: Los Angeles (California); Oakland (California); Portland (Oregon); San Francisco (California)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01829702
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: 65A0686 Task Order 071
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Dec 9 2021 3:53PM