We believe that true sustainability goes well beyond the performance of an individual building. Entire neighborhoods and districts—when working as an integrated ecosystem—can reduce our consumption of natural resources and strengthen the social fabric of communities. The result is a higher quality of life and an exceptional urban experience. The Sustainable Communities Lab is researching how best to integrate ecological frameworks into urban infrastructure, and how to measure and benchmark performance at the district scale.
Many transportation projects require developing street segment geometries for the aggregation of related data at a level useful to local clients and policy makers. A system of bus routes may share some street segments and not others, and we want to precisely understand the extent of shared street segments – this requires a systematic segmentation... Read more »
This research incubator explores the concept of flexible streets championed by leaders in the planning and mobility industries, including our own colleagues at Nelson\Nygaard, to establish a “flex street” definition that planners and urban designers can use to communicate with communities and local officials. In establishing this flexible street definition, we looked to recent street... Read more »
The Bus Map Design Guideline project provides an empirically informed design guide and template for bus map production, one of Nelson\Nygaard’s core capabilities. By surveying map viewers and producers on the broad goals and specific practices common to bus map design, we identified key audience priorities and preferences that map designers should take into account.... Read more »
The Bus Delay Analysis Tool (BDAT) is a set of software and analysis procedures Nelson\Nygaard has been developing for our transit agency clients. Through the Innovation Incubator we developed the new and improved Project & Treatment Module, which enables our clients to sketch bus transit speed & reliability improvements. Additionally, using the tool to document... Read more »
This research project proposes a Framework and Toolkit to create a holistic, incremental approach to gas station adaptation & transformation. Given the current policy timeline of phasing out production of combustible-engine vehicles by 2035 in California and transition to a carbon-free economy nation-wide by 2050, the adaptation scenarios focus on tangible strategies for a near-term... Read more »
As extended reality technologies become better, more seamless, and more available, our virtual space and physical space will tend to merge into one hyperreal space. When this hyperreality emerges, it will fundamentally transform our human habitat at every scale. This transformation doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Ubiquitous XR activation may actually improve the... Read more »
This research project proposes both an expanded set of “socialized” metrics to complement the physical neighborhood metrics typically used for TOD projects, and a new data visualization methodology for extracting and visualizing neighborhood metrics consistently and dynamically. With the addition of socialized metrics, designers will be better equipped to have conversations with clients and stakeholders... Read more »
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are a near future reality and the implications of AVs on city development and urban form, while potentially widespread and dramatic, are not well understood. This report describes the first order impacts, or the broad ways that the form and function of cities are already being impacted by forces of change including—but... Read more »
This study is an initial design exercise that seeks to understand the changing landscape of freight delivery, and evaluates two emerging delivery technologies: drones (air) and robots (autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs), or droids) on the built environment. Given that this is a high-level exercise, the sole purpose of this document is to highlight emerging trends... Read more »
We are experiencing a technologically-driven shift in the transportation industry, which is transforming the way we move and live in cities. While new mobility options have the potential to profoundly change the way that we plan, design, and build transportation infrastructure, the impacts of these technologies on livability and urban design are not well understood This study aimed... Read more »
RB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 832: State DOTs Connecting Specialized Transportation Users and Rides, Volume 2: Toolkit for State DOTs and Others assists agencies and organizations with the process of designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating linkages that connect customers of specialized transportation services and programs with rides. The stand-alone toolkit directs lead agencies and partners through the decision process for their state, region, or county, and factors in budget limitations. Design decisions and evaluation criteria tailored to each functionality level are also provided.
