Current Projects

Current Projects

With the drop-down below, you can access current projects sorted by subject area.

• Commuting Patterns in the New York Metropolitan Region
• Does a Maximum Parking Requirement Reduce Off-Street Parking Supply in London
• Does Street Cleaning Encourage Car Usage?
• Information Technology and Transportation
• Interstate Highway Toll Financing: Saving America from a Road to Ruins
• Metro Map Design and Congestion Mitigation in the Washington DC Subway
• Tracking the Evolution of Manhattan's Economy

Commuting Patterns in the New York Metropolitan Region

Mitchell Moss, Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management
Additional Researchers: Carson Qing

This research identifies Manhattan workers' commuting trends over the past decade. In order to pinpoint these trends, researchers examine Census data for Long Island, Westchester, the five boroughs and surrounding counties in order to determine where workers live, gauge their commutes and ascertain whether there is a significant "non-local workforce," (those who live outside the region in places such as Boston and Philadelphia). Additionally, researchers examine isolated demographic information such as income level and occupational description when identifying workers commutes and household locations.

Does a Maximum Parking Requirement Reduce Off-Street Parking Supply in London

Zhan Guo, Research Director and Assistant Professor or Urban Planning and Transportation Policy
Additional Researchers: Ruai Ren
Sponsored by University Research Challenge Fund, NYU

Government regulation requires that developers must provide a minimum amount of off-street parking spaces on a particular site. The objective of this regulation is to prevent developers from overexploiting the free on-street parking provided by government.  Because this minimum requirement is often set up based on the peak demand over a year, it has often been criticized as over-supplying off-street parking and contributing to increased traffic congestion, auto dependency, urban sprawl, degraded urban space and reduced housing affordability. Those who oppose minimum parking requirements tote maximum off-street parking requirements as an alternative policy which will help remedy the above perceived ills. However, with the exception of a few sporadic studies on individual developments, no communities in the United States have attempted to implement such a regulation. Therefore, scholars have yet to prove that a switch to maximum requirements would eliminate excessive off-street parking. In contrast, London in UK switched from a minimum to a maximum standard after 2000. This research will collect the minimum and maximum requirements from the 33 boroughs in London, the level of government where parking policies are made, plus building permits for new residential developments from 2004 to the present. Researchers will then match the parking requirement to the new development and identify if there is a gap between “actually supplied” and the “maximum requirement”. The goal of the proposed research is to prove or disprove the effectiveness of a maximum parking requirement in eliminating excessive off-street parking.

Does Street Cleaning Encourage Car Usage?

Zhan Guo, Research Director and Assistant Professor or Urban Planning and Transportation Policy
Additional Researchers: Peiyi Xu

Street cleaning is often a heated topic due to its impact on street parking, particularly in dense urban neighborhoods. In 2011 in New York City, three bills which aim to reduce street cleaning will be voted on by the City Council. Supporters of these bills assert that street cleaning forces residents to use their vehicles more often, contribute to increased traffic and air pollution. However, there is no evidence to support such argument. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate the impact of street cleaning on travel behavior. Researchers at Wagner Mobility and the Rudin Center hypothesize that households with off-street parking tend to drive less on street cleaning days but households with only on-street parking tend to drive more on street cleaning days. Researchers will conduct a survey in which households will report their travel behavior. Some will report on street-cleaning days, while others (the control group) will report their behavior on non-street cleaning days. The households themselves will decide if they will fill out the travel survey on street cleaning or non-street cleaning day, therefore providing the researchers with a random sample.

Information Technology and Transportation

Mitchell Moss, Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management
Additional Researchers: Carson Qing, Josh Mandell

Researchers focus on mobile technology and its relationship and potential relationship to transportation in metropolitan regions.  Primary emphasis is given to the various ways new mobile technologies can provide cost efficient solutions to current challenges in transportation, particularly through smartphones and mobile apps, Near Field Communications (NFC), mobile commerce, open data initiatives. Researchers examine issues of wireless and user/developer demographics across major U.S. metro areas in considering how these new technologies may provide solutions to transportation challenges in the United States.  

Interstate Highway Toll Financing: Saving America from a Road to Ruins

Mitchell Moss, Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management
Additional Researchers: Alan Lightfeldt

Much of America's highway construction and maintenance is funded by the federal fuel tax, which has not been increased since 1993. This project explores the challenges that lie ahead in highway finance and highlights the strengths of a flexible pricing model on the Interstate Highway System to maintain long term solvency for the highway account. 

Metro Map Design and Congestion Mitigation in the Washington DC Subway

Zhan Guo, Research Director and Assistant Professor or Urban Planning and Transportation Policy
Additional Researchers: Dan Suraci

A metro map is a diagram that shows the relative location, length, and direction of stations and lines in a subway system. It often displays a distorted rather than an accurate spatial layout. Such a map should be able to effect passengers’ decisions on which line to choose, path to take, at which station to transfer, and subsequently the performance of a subway system. This research investigates whether different map designs can help shift riders from one line to another, and mitigate the bottleneck problem in the Washington DC subway system. The DC subway system crosses Potomac River at two locations: Rosslyn Tunnel and 14th Street Bridge.  Rosslyn Tunnel serves Orange Line and Blue Line and is currently at capacity. However, the planned Silver Line (under construction) will pass Rosslyn Tunnel, which will create a bottleneck at this location.  The transit agency, WMATA, intends to shift 30 percent of the Blue line capacity to 14th Street Bridge lines. The proposed study will test an alternative solution that redesigning the subway map, making the 14th Street Bridge path (between Pentagon and L’Enfant Plaza) appear shorter on the map in order to “mis-guide” riders away from the Rosslyn Tunnel.  The various map designs will be shown to recruited participants who will be asked to choose the best path for pre-selected origin-destination pairs. The path choices of the participants in these focus groups will help answer the research question, can a distorted metro map influence passengers’ travel decisions.

Tracking the Evolution of Manhattan's Economy

Mitchell Moss, Director, Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management
Additional Researchers: Carson Qing

The purpose of this research is to identify changes in the economic makeup of Manhattan's diverse neighborhoods over the past decade, from the Financial District to Washington Heights. Researchers are interested in how these neighborhoods have evolved economically since 9/11 attacks (2002 to 2010). Researchers will explore and determine if the industries that have become the namesakes of certain neighborhoods (e.g. Financial District, Theater District, Meatpacking District, etc.) are still the driving economic force of those neighborhoods today. Further, researchers examine the "clustering" of industries in Manhattan's neighborhoods, and whether neighborhoods are becoming more concentrated or more diversified in economic makeup.