Class 02 - 6 February 2006 - What Data, Tools, and Methods Do We Need?

The purpose of this class is to discuss the data, tools, and methods that our respective disciplines suggest that we need to assess the ring road concept. 

Click here for the results of assignment 01.

Notes from today's class discussion:

• Cook: lack of literature in transportation field on what it is and how to measure. Environmental, social, economic: These seem to be across disciplines about how sustainable transportation is defined.
• Dixon: How do we measure sustainability? What are some of the indicators?
• Cook: There are no absolute measures; there is only more or less than.
• Bill M: It is social construct.
• Walter: We drive because of time constraints, even in relatively short trips that we have in Moscow. I drive because of economic viability.
• Bill M: It is life style issue; how much do we do during the day. Not just moving people rapidly. It is a social definition.
• Nick: There are diverse needs and belief systems, in looking at the discussion between Walter and Bill. What are we willing to give up to get what we think we value.
• Bill M: If a community thinks through what it wants to be, and how this is realized in the layout of the community, this could give us more choices on how we travel.
• Steve: Sustainability deals with the flow of resources: can the flow of resources be maintained or sustained over time: the use of fuel, the use of construction and operation resources, emissions or waste that have to be absorbed back into the system. Can inputs and outputs be sustained over the long term? How do we measure these?
• Hua: Sustainable transportation design has to relate to what society wants? If we move too fast, we will get resistance from the community. Meeting community’s needs in both short term and long term.
• Walter: From 1727: relating to or using resource so that it is not permanently damaged. Is this a code word, without further defining it.
• Steve: Much of the environmental community has given up on using the word sustainability.
• Bill M: Can we go back to Steve’s inputs/outputs concept. Can we measure against a benchmark that our impacts are as small as possible? Can we minimize the impacts, since we can’t truly not have an effect?
• Nick: We don’t have a sustainable system. Gas and materials come from the outside. Labor may come from the outside. What is the scale and time frame that we are asking the sustainability system? If we are building a road to attain some shared vision of the future, it must be a part of a larger view of the community.
• Steve: The reality of an auto based culture, and one that is based on fossil fuel economy and system. The goal is to be more sustainable because we aren’t, but rather more or less compared to the benchmark Walter: More efficient, not sustainable.
• Phil: Transportation is a tool, it is about mobility and access. So is the real question, the future vision for the community, geographic vision and over what time frame. Transportation is tool to help us get there, to meet this vision. There are a set of goals that we expect that ring road to help us get there.
• Bill: How do we frame the question? Quality of life. Community development. Efficiency of moving people around. There are all sorts of different ways to frame the question. Common theme in Moscow: life style issue. Smallness, special place, clean air quality, not much crime. As we grow, how do we grow but still keep these values or things that we all hold to be important.
• Barb: Transportation is a tool, one tool in the mix when we talk about urban design. It is only one part of the mix in urban design. Physical design of community. “Natural step” for communities purposes guidelines that help us think about sustainable transportation.
• Bill: Moscow context sensitive transportation. This may be more of what we are trying to do here. There are some approaches that will fit Moscow and some that will not. Where we locate new development is a contextual issue.
• Walter: What can we do now to preserve land until such time as it’s needed?
• Phil: Important to preserve corridor. What I want to see is a corridor, not for sure what is going to be used for, but at least we are preserving the corridor, for some future transportation purpose. We don’t know what the system looks like, but we want to preserve future options.
• Bill: Example in Boulder, that had the foresight to purchase a corridor, leased back to farmers, but as appropriate transferred the use to transportation. Also consider the corridor for other uses, for the future.
• Bill: Maybe we should realize that the ring road should be around both Moscow and Pullman, not just around Moscow.
• Steve: Proposed definition: a sustainable Moscow [see email from Steve].
• Phil: What if: large future growth, high fuel prices, other alternative scenarios?
• MK: Its interesting what we come back to are some basic concepts about our community’s future: what do we want our community to look like, what is the transportation system that supports this vision?
• Bill: What other concepts were considered besides a ring road? What concepts were thrown away?
• Mike D: We are caught on the definition of sustainability. Maybe we should discuss how we would treat our own land. Ideas in development: Open, proactive, goal/objective oriented, keep peace in the family, driven by all members of tribe. Flexible position that maintains or reaches our tribal values. In the case of this swath of land,
• Amanda: How does the county preserve corridors? We don’t have measures to do this now. We can’t just preserve corridors, there are not tools to do this. The county doesn’t have money to do this.
• Steve: Get into plan, then zone accordingly.

Assignment: What two questions should we answer this semester?