Research

Wired quotes Dr. John Renne

An article that was published on September 14, 2018 in Wired, “WHEN IT’S TIME TO EVACUATE, CITIES STRUGGLE TO HELP THOSE WHO CAN’T DRIVE,” features Dr. John L. Renne’s research on evacuating vulnerable populations and provides a link to a recent paper he published.

This work, which compares evacuation planning for vulnerable populations in the UK and US was made possible through support and affiliation from the Transport Studies Unit (TSU) in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. Last spring we had TSU Director and Professor Tim Schwanen speak at FAU and I visited Oxford again in May to conduct interviews for a book I’m writing. Tim and I are also working on an MOU between Oxford and FAU to continue our collaborations.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

“When you’re trying to plan for vulnerable populations, it’s really a local sort of activity,” says John Renne, who studies urban planning and disaster management at Florida Atlantic University. “It’s really hard to do that from a federal or state level. It’s not something you can do on a moment’s notice. These sorts of things take time.”

The issue, he says, is that many local governments feel ill-equipped to do that work. In one recent paper, published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, Renne interviewed emergency managers in the UK and in five major American cities, and found even those in big metros like Miami, New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans were “realistic about the shortcomings of their plans.”

While national agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide technical assistance and funding, and state governments often invest resources into robust emergency planning, Renne has found that many local governments don’t know to take advantage. Meanwhile, scientists project that storms are only getting worse, with climate change creating slower-moving monstrosities that will dump more rain. And the carless population is only set to grow in the coming years, as more than 70 million baby boomers age out of driving.”

Read the full article

Meet PhD Student Andrea Ramos

Andrea Ramos is pursuing her Ph.D. in Public Administration. She received a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Florida Atlantic University and a Masters of Science in Public Health from the University of Miami. Read more

Dr. Renne chairs Broward Transit Development Plan Advisory Committee

Broward County TransitJohn L. Renne, PhD, has joined the Broward County Transit (BCT), Transit Development Plan (TDP), Advisory Review Committee, serving as the Chair of the Committee.

The Broward County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) provides a public transportation program through Broward County Transit (BCT) that includes 35 fixed‐bus routes, 3 limited‐stop routes, 6 express routes, 42 community buses, and an advanced reservation paratransit service (called TOPS) within its service area. BCT improves the quality of life for Broward County residents and visitors by offering services in a cost‐efficient and readily‐accessible manner while delivering an intermodal means of travel. This study was initiated by Broward County to update BCT’s Transit Development Plan (TDP) for the 10‐ year period including Fiscal Years (FY) 2019–2028. This TDP represents BCT’s vision for public transportation in its service area during this time period and, at the same time, functions as the strategic guide for public transportation in the community. A major TDP update also allows transit agencies to outline actions to be taken in the following year and to set goals for subsequent years. As a strategic plan, the TDP will identify needs in an unconstrained fashion and for which currently there is no funding.

TRB to develop Technologies Guidebook for State DOTs

Dr. John Renne will join the convening of the Transportation Research Board’s Expert Panel Workshop for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 08-117 – Impact of Transformational Technologies on Land Use and Transportation on August 16, 2018 at the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences & Engineering, Irvine, California.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this research is to develop a guidebook providing a template or procedure for practical assessment by state department of transportation (DOT) and other transportation-system decision makers of the likely impact of transformational technologies on future activity centers, land use, and travel demand, with examples illustrating application of the template to address issues encountered by these decision makers.

BACKGROUND

Many observers suggest that rapidly evolving technologies in a number of fields will have transformational impacts on land use and transportation in settings ranging from rural to intensely urban. For example, changes in telecommunication have fostered telecommuting and development of on-demand delivery and transportation services that in turn may be changing patterns of work and home locations, vehicle ownership and use, demand for parking facilities, and utilization of curb space in urban centers. Similarly, expanding applicationof 3-D printing, E-commerce, and unmanned aerial systems (UASs, popularly referred to as drones) together seem poised to shift industrial supply chains and utilization of warehouse space, leading to changes in freight transportation patterns and demand for investment in intermodal transfer facilities. State departments of transportation (DOTs), metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), local government authorities, and other public-sector decision makers are increasingly confronted with questions of how to ensure that communities recognize the potential consequences that transformational technologies may have on their economic activity and land use and that public investments in transportation facilities and services are managed to maintain economic vitality and high quality of life.

For the purposes of this research, transformational technologies (TTs) are any of a broad range of evolving new applications of science, engineering, and societal organization that have the potential to transform how people and institutions use land and transportation systems to support economic and social activity. Examples of TTs—many are discussed in technical and popular media—include wireless telecommunications, shared vehicles, connected vehicles, automated vehicles, alternative-fuel vehicles, smart cities and communities, big data analytics, internet-of-things, as well as UASs, 3-D printing, and more. These TTs, individually and together, are already influencing on how businesses and individuals using rights-of-way, curb space and ancillary transportation facilities (for example, parking and intermodal transfer facilities), and the land and structures accommodating activities that are travel-demand intensive. Continued development and application of TTs seem likely to accelerate such impacts. Research is needed to provide guidance to assist DOT and other public-sector decision makers responsible for considering how TTs will affect travel behavior and demand for and use of land influencing transportation infrastructure and services.

Elsevier’s TRD Journal annouces new section on Disasters and Resilience

Elsevier announces the formation of a new section of the international journal Transportation Research D focusing on Disasters and Resilience. This section will be edited by Karl Kim (University of Hawaii), John Renne (Florida Atlantic University) and Brian Wolshon (Louisiana State University).

This section of Transportation Research D will build on the special capabilities and interests of transportation researchers, coming from multiple disciplines, worldwide, to address the critical ways in which transportation science and the supporting theories, methods, and tools can be applied to increase societal resilience against all hazards, both natural and man-made. In addition to the wide range of natural hazards including both geo-physical and hydro-meteorological, the section will also cover industrial accidents, cascading events (where one hazard such as an earthquake can trigger a release of toxins and harmful substances into the environment), and intentional acts of sabotage or terrorism. In each of these disasters and emergencies, transportation plays a significant role. Core concepts such as travel demand modeling, rare event forecasting, activity-based analyses, system performance monitoring, optimization across time and space, mode choice, network analysis, geospatial modeling, and many other methods are appropriate topics for this section.

Interested authors are encouraged to contact section editors or submit manuscripts through EVISE: https://www.evise.com/profile/#/TRD/login

Incubating Solutions to Community Challenges

Owl Research & Innovation Fall 2017

CUES director John Renne was featured in the Fall 2017 issue of Owl Research & Innovation (page 39). In partnership with the Florida Center for Environmental Studies (CES), CUES invited the cities of Hollywood and West Palm Beach to participate in the inaugural FAU Incubator for Resilient & Sustainable Communities to address the challenges of climate change and aging infrastructure.

CUES faculty John Renne and assistant professor Louis Merlin were named as leading researchers in the field of transportation (page 20) along with Eric Dumbaugh, associate director of the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety, co-directing the National University Transportation Center with the goal of improving road safety (page 17).

FAU Incubator article in Owl Research Fall 2017 |  Access the full magazine