Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Despite years of legally mandated public engagement for transportation planning, there is often l... more Despite years of legally mandated public engagement for transportation planning, there is often little evidence that this results in more equitable processes or outcomes. Recently, there has been interest in improving engagement by having community-based or advocacy groups design, lead, and implement public engagement activities. This research examines two separate engagement processes—one led by a public agency, and one designed and carried out by community advocates—to understand the opportunities and barriers for community-led engagement in transportation planning. We assess how these processes differed in: (1) representation of equity-deserving groups in respondents, (2) conceptualization of equity and community needs, and (3) transportation priorities identified in the surveys. While neither process fully reflected city demographics, the community-led process was more representative of equity-deserving groups. We found key differences in priorities between the community- and ag...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
This research explores how the implementation of a single bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor affect... more This research explores how the implementation of a single bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor affected transit ridership change in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Key issues in measuring ridership change resulting from BRT include (1) understanding stop-level- rather than corridor-level change; (2) examining the ridership impacts of new infrastructure where there is no comparable pre-BRT infrastructure; and (3) assessing piecemeal implementation of BRT. To address these issues, we undertook a quasi-experimental study using agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC), propensity score matching (PSM), and t-tests with Cohen’s d to determine BRT’s causal ridership impact. The use of AHC and PSM in what we refer to as cluster-level modeling provided an improved method for measuring causal ridership change at the stop cluster level in areas with no pre-BRT stations. The results revealed no statistical evidence that BRT caused increased transit ridership for stop clusters directly along the BRT ...
Despite concerns about the privatization of urban planning practices, there is little known about... more Despite concerns about the privatization of urban planning practices, there is little known about the professional actors involved in this restructuring. Private-sector consultants, though beholden to the same professional standards as public-sector employees, face competing pressures of an entrepreneurial fee-for-service business model. This article examines the role of planning consultants in shaping public policy agendas, by analyzing the redevelopment of Downsview Park in Toronto, Ontario. Drawing from interview and archival data, I find that private-sector planning consultants had influence in prioritizing policy agendas by propagating the need for sped-up processes and allowing landowners to “pay for priority.” The fluidity of professionals between firms, sectors, and projects reinforced the perceived value and neutrality of consultant expertise. These strategies worked to erode the differences between public- and private-sector planning processes, resulting in a high degree o...
This research assesses how professional expertise is constructed and deployed by public and priva... more This research assesses how professional expertise is constructed and deployed by public and private sector practitioners. In-depth case studies of urban design projects in two cities with differing local government capacities are used to critically examine professional expertise. The study finds that the expertise of consultants was portrayed as more creative and innovative, less constrained by bureaucratic and political contexts, and more knowledgeable of market conditions. In contrast, descriptions of public employee expertise often focused on regulatory knowledge. This study analyzes the relationship between limited public sector capacity and these constructions of expertise—and the implications for professional practices.
Urban design plans offer a window into the values of the urban design profession, but we have lit... more Urban design plans offer a window into the values of the urban design profession, but we have little knowledge of how they have changed over time, and the implications for design practice. The study provides a critical evaluation of the vision, methods, and content of urban design plans in large North American cities and a comparison with earlier generations of plans. Contemporary plans display fewer types of methods, less analytical rigor, and less emphasis on participatory practices than previous generations of plans. They reveal a greater focus on sustainability, but less concern about diversity, equity, and economic development.
Building energy and Carbon emission calculation methods for regions are of limited use if appropr... more Building energy and Carbon emission calculation methods for regions are of limited use if appropriate input data cannot be economically generated. To enable a wider uptake of regional modelling methods an automated analysis system is required to replace or assist time-consuming and expensive manual surveys of building stock. Building age is an important parameter in estimating energy use and Carbon emissions. In this paper a number of methods to extract information about the built environment from digital maps and use that information to infer building age have been tested against a database of a known large urban region. The methods include different types of shape recognition of plan form and of identification of contextual geography; e.g. distance from entrance to the nearest road. Tested against samples containing several thousands of domestic buildings from a known region, it was found that the different methods were able to cluster buildings into different form “styles”, and t...
The Future of the Planning Profession: Planning With Many Changes, and for Many Challenges Gavin ... more The Future of the Planning Profession: Planning With Many Changes, and for Many Challenges Gavin Parker University of Reading, Reading, UK This Interface emerged from a symposium on the future of t...
Professional planners working in the private sector intersect with a complex sphere of business i... more Professional planners working in the private sector intersect with a complex sphere of business interests. Management consultants have a growing influence in many organizations, including private sector planning firms. Using a mixed-method approach to examine the strategies and priorities of management consultants, I find that management consultants view the “value” of planning as opening the door to future contracts and selling firm services. This has implications for understanding how practitioners reconcile professional values (such as autonomy, neutrality, and protection of the public interest) with market imperatives, and for the profession as one driven by societal, rather than entrepreneurial goals.
There has been the criticism that urban design is increasingly being used as an entrepreneurial s... more There has been the criticism that urban design is increasingly being used as an entrepreneurial strategy for cities, transformed into a tool for attracting investment. This article examines the evolution of urban design plans in Los Angeles to understand the relationship between urban design practices and growth. Rather than a clear break in orientation, both early and later design strategies are explicit in promoting urban design as a tool to encourage development. While the broad “purposes” of urban design are similar over the period examined, the type of catalyst that would create growth has fewer public benefits in later years.
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Despite years of legally mandated public engagement for transportation planning, there is often l... more Despite years of legally mandated public engagement for transportation planning, there is often little evidence that this results in more equitable processes or outcomes. Recently, there has been interest in improving engagement by having community-based or advocacy groups design, lead, and implement public engagement activities. This research examines two separate engagement processes—one led by a public agency, and one designed and carried out by community advocates—to understand the opportunities and barriers for community-led engagement in transportation planning. We assess how these processes differed in: (1) representation of equity-deserving groups in respondents, (2) conceptualization of equity and community needs, and (3) transportation priorities identified in the surveys. While neither process fully reflected city demographics, the community-led process was more representative of equity-deserving groups. We found key differences in priorities between the community- and ag...
Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
This research explores how the implementation of a single bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor affect... more This research explores how the implementation of a single bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor affected transit ridership change in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Key issues in measuring ridership change resulting from BRT include (1) understanding stop-level- rather than corridor-level change; (2) examining the ridership impacts of new infrastructure where there is no comparable pre-BRT infrastructure; and (3) assessing piecemeal implementation of BRT. To address these issues, we undertook a quasi-experimental study using agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC), propensity score matching (PSM), and t-tests with Cohen’s d to determine BRT’s causal ridership impact. The use of AHC and PSM in what we refer to as cluster-level modeling provided an improved method for measuring causal ridership change at the stop cluster level in areas with no pre-BRT stations. The results revealed no statistical evidence that BRT caused increased transit ridership for stop clusters directly along the BRT ...
Despite concerns about the privatization of urban planning practices, there is little known about... more Despite concerns about the privatization of urban planning practices, there is little known about the professional actors involved in this restructuring. Private-sector consultants, though beholden to the same professional standards as public-sector employees, face competing pressures of an entrepreneurial fee-for-service business model. This article examines the role of planning consultants in shaping public policy agendas, by analyzing the redevelopment of Downsview Park in Toronto, Ontario. Drawing from interview and archival data, I find that private-sector planning consultants had influence in prioritizing policy agendas by propagating the need for sped-up processes and allowing landowners to “pay for priority.” The fluidity of professionals between firms, sectors, and projects reinforced the perceived value and neutrality of consultant expertise. These strategies worked to erode the differences between public- and private-sector planning processes, resulting in a high degree o...
This research assesses how professional expertise is constructed and deployed by public and priva... more This research assesses how professional expertise is constructed and deployed by public and private sector practitioners. In-depth case studies of urban design projects in two cities with differing local government capacities are used to critically examine professional expertise. The study finds that the expertise of consultants was portrayed as more creative and innovative, less constrained by bureaucratic and political contexts, and more knowledgeable of market conditions. In contrast, descriptions of public employee expertise often focused on regulatory knowledge. This study analyzes the relationship between limited public sector capacity and these constructions of expertise—and the implications for professional practices.
Urban design plans offer a window into the values of the urban design profession, but we have lit... more Urban design plans offer a window into the values of the urban design profession, but we have little knowledge of how they have changed over time, and the implications for design practice. The study provides a critical evaluation of the vision, methods, and content of urban design plans in large North American cities and a comparison with earlier generations of plans. Contemporary plans display fewer types of methods, less analytical rigor, and less emphasis on participatory practices than previous generations of plans. They reveal a greater focus on sustainability, but less concern about diversity, equity, and economic development.
Building energy and Carbon emission calculation methods for regions are of limited use if appropr... more Building energy and Carbon emission calculation methods for regions are of limited use if appropriate input data cannot be economically generated. To enable a wider uptake of regional modelling methods an automated analysis system is required to replace or assist time-consuming and expensive manual surveys of building stock. Building age is an important parameter in estimating energy use and Carbon emissions. In this paper a number of methods to extract information about the built environment from digital maps and use that information to infer building age have been tested against a database of a known large urban region. The methods include different types of shape recognition of plan form and of identification of contextual geography; e.g. distance from entrance to the nearest road. Tested against samples containing several thousands of domestic buildings from a known region, it was found that the different methods were able to cluster buildings into different form “styles”, and t...
The Future of the Planning Profession: Planning With Many Changes, and for Many Challenges Gavin ... more The Future of the Planning Profession: Planning With Many Changes, and for Many Challenges Gavin Parker University of Reading, Reading, UK This Interface emerged from a symposium on the future of t...
Professional planners working in the private sector intersect with a complex sphere of business i... more Professional planners working in the private sector intersect with a complex sphere of business interests. Management consultants have a growing influence in many organizations, including private sector planning firms. Using a mixed-method approach to examine the strategies and priorities of management consultants, I find that management consultants view the “value” of planning as opening the door to future contracts and selling firm services. This has implications for understanding how practitioners reconcile professional values (such as autonomy, neutrality, and protection of the public interest) with market imperatives, and for the profession as one driven by societal, rather than entrepreneurial goals.
There has been the criticism that urban design is increasingly being used as an entrepreneurial s... more There has been the criticism that urban design is increasingly being used as an entrepreneurial strategy for cities, transformed into a tool for attracting investment. This article examines the evolution of urban design plans in Los Angeles to understand the relationship between urban design practices and growth. Rather than a clear break in orientation, both early and later design strategies are explicit in promoting urban design as a tool to encourage development. While the broad “purposes” of urban design are similar over the period examined, the type of catalyst that would create growth has fewer public benefits in later years.
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Papers by Orly Linovski