The next generation of air quality models demands a better understanding of medium- and heavy-duty vehicle activities and the relationship between these activities and emissions. Understanding fleet characteristics and their associated impact, therefore, is critically important. Data collected in a 1996 commercial vehicle trip survey for the Atlanta region are presented and analyzed. A survey data collection effort undertaken in 1996, which included the collection of data related to spatial, temporal, cargo, land use, and vehicle characteristics, is described. The results of a series of statistical analyses are reported and discussed. The results of geographic information systems analyses, which provide a spatial picture of commercial vehicle activity, are presented. The spatial analysis combines vehicle, cargo, and land use characteristics with spatial and temporal data within the study area. The results of this study provide a compelling snapshot of commercial vehicle activity in the Atlanta area.
For two decades, the city of Atlanta, Georgia, has used special public interest districts (SPIDs) to attract new development to and improve transit ridership around Midtown rail transit stations operated by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Buildings locating inside SPIDs need not provide any parking facilities and can be developed more intensively than buildings located outside SPIDs. Buildings constructed outside SPIDs must have at least two parking stalls for every 1,000 ft2 (92.9 m2) of gross leasable area and are limited to about 30 floors. The extent to which these policy objectives have been fulfilled by Atlanta’s parking supply policies as they are applied around Midtown MARTA stations is analyzed. Findings are mixed. Development was attracted to SPIDs, and transit ridership among employees working within SPIDs was substantially higher than among those working outside SPIDs. On the other hand, new parking has proliferated throughout Midtown with some evidence to suggest that transit ridership has fallen as a result. It is concluded that without areawide parking supply efforts, policies patterned after Atlanta’s SPID program will have limited success in improving transit ridership.
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