Kara Luckey recently presented her work on housing affordability in transit-accessible areas of the Denver metro in a session at this year's Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. The session, organized by the Environmental Justice Committee, focused on issues of transportation and gentrification. Kara joined two other speakers, Dr. Karen Chapple (UC-Berkeley) and Peter Tatian (Urban Institute). Kara's presentation slides are available here. 

The findings of the research about parking at Sporting Events Stadiums in Denver were broadcast at different news channels including the University of Colorado CU Newsroom, 9 News, and the National Science Foundation NSF news. The original research was presented by Alejandro Henao and Dr. Wes Marshall at the 92nd TRB Annual Meeting and published at TRR: Journal of the Transportation Research Board in 2013. 

Alejandro Henao is one of the twelve PhD students that have been selected to be part of the Bridge to the Doctorate program funded by the National Science Fundation. Scholars are from diverse STEM PhD graduate programs at CU Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus, including Mathematical and Statistical Science, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Computer Science and Information Systems, Bioengineering, Integrative & Systems Biology, and Biomedical Sciences. The award comes with a $30K stipend, plus $10K towards tuition and fees for the first two years, after which students are fully supported by their graduate program.

Alejandro Henao has been selected to receive a 2014 Dwight David Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship. The objective of the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program (DDETFP) is to attract qualified students to the field of transportation and research, and advance transportation workforce development.

Kara Luckey has been selected as a 2014-2015 Eisenhower Fellow by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The fellowship will support Kara as she works to complete her dissertation in the coming year. This is the second Eisenhower Fellowship awarded to Kara. She presented an overview of the work she pursued under the 2013-2014 fellowship at the 2014 Transportation Research Board, which can be found here.

Dan Piatkowski, PhD is a recent graduate of the University of Colorado Denver Design and Planning PhD program and presented a portion of his dissertation research at the Transportation Research Board's Annual Meeting. The work was co-authored by Dr. Wesley Marshall and addresses challenges in promoting walking and bicycling in US cities. 

The research tests the effectiveness of "Carrots" aimed at promoting walking and bicycling against "Sticks" aimed at discouraging driving. Weighing the effectiveness of these two opposing types of transportation interventions against implementation challenges for practitioners. 

ABSTRACT
Influencing city-scale travel demand frequently involves a combination of carrots aimed at encouraging desirable mode choices and sticks meant to discourage undesirable mode choices. The interplay of such carrots and sticks depends heavily on existing conditions such as infrastructure, land uses, congestion, and multi-modal options. To encourage bicycling and walking – non-motorized modes (NMT), US cities focus almost entirely on carrot interventions to improve infrastructure or social norms regarding NMT, but how effective are carrots alone at impacting mode choice? This research asserts that carrots have been only modestly effective at promoting NMT in the US, and this is in large part due to a lack of sticks to discourage alternatives to NMT, namely driving. Existing literatures provides case studies of European cities that employ a combination of carrots and sticks and also boast NMT mode shares far beyond that seen in the United States. Similar research is lacking in the US because of a lack of available sticks to study. Combining quantitative and qualitative studies, we answer two research questions: (1) are carrots or sticks more effective at influencing NMT, and (2) what is the difference in terms of ease of implementation between carrots and sticks? Findings indicate that sticks may be most effective at changing behavior, but raise transportation equity concerns while also facing the greatest opposition to implementation. Combining carrots and sticks, while more challenging than implementing carrots alone, may be the most appropriate strategy for realizing significant mode shifts toward walking and bicycling.

 

Kara Luckey was awarded "Best Poster" at the U.S. Department of Transportation Dwight D. Eisenhower Fellows Showcase held at the 93rd Annual Transportation Research Board meeting in D.C.  Kara was invited to present in the showcase as part of her 2013-14 Eisenhower Fellowship, which supports top graduate students in transportation. Kara's poster, "Promoting socially-equitable transit and transit-oriented development: What are the key planning and policy levers?," provides an overview of her dissertation work, which is currently underway. This research focuses on identifying the ways in which cities and regions are maximizing the benefit of regional rail transit for low- and moderate-income families through planning and policies, and assessing the effectiveness of those interventions.  Her work complements existing case studies by undertaking a systematic cross-case comparison of 20+ U.S. metropolitan areas. Kara's poster can be downloaded here. 

Kara Luckey presented work she co-authored with Dr. Marshall on measuring the 'level of integration' between transit stations and the fabric of the community at the 93rd Annual Transportation Research Board in Washington, D.C in a session focused on "Light Rail: International and National Perspectives" sponsored by the Light Rail Transit Committee (APO75)  The concept of 'Level of integration' accounts for three components: built environment factors, transit service characteristics, and accessibility to amenities.  The work presented at TRB explores how different components of integration relate to four travel outcomes among station-area residents in Denver, Colorado.  Kara and Dr. Marshall's paper can be downloaded here.