Amped Up

Theory & Practice: Wes Marshall on Why We Design Streets the Way We Do

Join Ellen Zavisca, AMPO’s transportation planning manager, for a conversation with Wes Marshall, professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado in Denver, where he holds a joint appointment in urban planning and directs the CU Denver Human-Centered Transportation program and the Transportation Research Center at CU Denver. Wes is a licensed Professional Engineer with a PhD in Civil Engineering, and he is the author of the 2024 book “⁠Killed by a Traffic Engineer⁠ [https://islandpress.org/books/killed-traffic-engineer#desc].” You can check out Wes’s new podcast here: ⁠ [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/look-both-ways-with-david-wes/id1827364420]https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/look-both-ways-with-david-wes/id1827364420 [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/look-both-ways-with-david-wes/id1827364420]

Paved Paradise: How Parking Shapes Transportation

Season two episode four of Amped Up is now available! In this episode, AMPO Transportation Planning Manager, Ellen Zavisca, chats with Tony Jordan of the Parking Reform Network about what led him to the fairly niche field of parking reform and how parking policies effect walkability, transit access, and transportation planning in general. A few helpful links related to the conversation: * The Parking Reform Network [https://www.mwcog.org/transportation/data-and-tools/modeling/data-requests/] * The High Cost of Free Parking [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235359727_The_High_Cost_of_Free_Parking] by Donald Shoup * Smart Growth American on how parking influences travel behavior [https://smartgrowthamerica.org/how-parking-influences-travel-behavior/] * PSRC’s strategies for parking reduction [https://www.psrc.org/asset/parking-reductions-71] * Portland’s Transportation Wallet [https://www.portland.gov/transportation/wallet] * Austin’s Residential Permit Parking program [https://www.austintexas.gov/department/residential-permit-parking]

Paving a Low-Carbon Future: Transportation & Climate Policy in Minnesota

Ellen chats with the friendly folks of Minnesota about the state’s greenhouse gas regulations [https://www.dot.state.mn.us/sustainability/ghg-legislation.html]that are just starting to have an effect on transportation projects across the state. Her guests are: Jonathan Ehrlich, Senior Manager of Transportation Research with the Metropolitan Council, the MPO for the Twin Cities region; Stephanie Halford, Executive Director of the MPO in Grand Forks, ND, which is a bi-state MPO in both MN and North Dakota; and Chris Berrens, GHG Impact Assessment Director with Minnesota DOT. The podcast mentions Colorado’s GHG law [https://www.codot.gov/programs/environmental/greenhousegas], which predates Minnesota’s by a couple of years. Learn more about ActivitySim [https://research.ampo.org/activitysim], the open-source, activity-based model that the Met Council is moving toward. For even more about travel demand modeling, register for AMPO’s June 5 webinar on the topic [https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZApdeyrqj4qGNRr8ygPfiODdPR9McX-oUw9#/registration].

The Road Ahead: Scenario Planning in Oregon

AMPO Transportation Planning Manager, Ellen Zavisca, chats with Adam Argo from the Oregon DOT about how the state uses scenario planning to face an uncertain future, and how it engages MPOs along the way. Helpful links: Oregon Transportation Plan:⁠ [https://www.oregon.gov/odot/planning/pages/plans.aspx]https://www.oregon.gov/odot/planning/pages/plans.aspx⁠ [https://www.oregon.gov/odot/planning/pages/plans.aspx⁠]; and State of the System dashboard:⁠ [https://www.oregon.gov/odot/state-of-the-system/Pages/default.aspx]https://www.oregon.gov/odot/state-of-the-system/Pages/default.aspx⁠ [https://www.oregon.gov/odot/state-of-the-system/Pages/default.aspx⁠] Adam references the book Scenario Planning for Cities and Regions: ⁠ [https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/books/scenario-planning-cities-regions/]https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/books/scenario-planning-cities-regions/⁠ [https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/books/scenario-planning-cities-regions/⁠] He also mentions the VisionEval scenario planning tool:⁠VisionEval · VisionEval [https://visioneval.github.io/]

Ballots & Budgets: A Review of 2024 Transportation Referenda with Yonah Freemark

AMPO Transportation Planning Manager, Ellen Zavisca, talks with Yonah Freemark from the Urban Institute to get his take on why some transportation ballot measures succeeded and other failed. Learn more about Yonah here: ⁠ [https://www.urban.org/author/yonah-freemark]https://www.urban.org/author/yonah-freemark⁠ [https://www.urban.org/author/yonah-freemark⁠] Check out his Bluesky threads on 2024 ballot measures: ⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laeg52565z2n]https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laeg52565z2n⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laeg52565z2n⁠] ⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laeg52565z2n]https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laeg52565z2n⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laeg52565z2n⁠] ⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laer73onwc2r]https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laer73onwc2r⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/yfreemark.bsky.social/post/3laer73onwc2r⁠] Streetsblog also has a summary of local transportation initiatives: ⁠ [https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/11/11/at-least-local-transit-initiatives-won-big-in-tuesdays-election]https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/11/11/at-least-local-transit-initiatives-won-big-in-tuesdays-election⁠ [https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/11/11/at-least-local-transit-initiatives-won-big-in-tuesdays-election⁠] Yonah mentions a couple groups studying high infrastructure costs, including the Transit Costs Project (⁠ [https://transitcosts.com/]https://transitcosts.com/⁠ [https://transitcosts.com/⁠] ) and Eno's Project Delivery Resources Hub (⁠ [https://projectdelivery.enotrans.org/]https://projectdelivery.enotrans.org/⁠ [https://projectdelivery.enotrans.org/⁠] ).