Reviews Section

Journal Article Urban Transportation and Public Policy Get access Urban Transportation and Public Policy. By L. C. FITCH Et al. (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Co., 1964. Pp. vii + 279.)The Rural Transport Problem. By D. ST. JOHN Thomas. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963. Pp. xvi + 175. 25s.) Gabriel Roth Gabriel Roth London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 76, Issue 301, 1 March 1966, Pages 126–128, https://doi.org/10.2307/2229059 Published: 01 March 1966

Designing a public urban policy is a demanding process which requires both time and money with no warranty of its efficiency. It involves knowledge about the purpose of urban design, behaviors of users and needs in terms of mobility. We believe that in the near future, decision makers will have to react and more frequently adapt public policies, based on the huge amount of available data, feedbacks from both target users and stakeholders. In this paper, we propose a generic agent-based architecture to model and simulate urban policies, which could facilitate the co-design and assessment of public policies in a specific environment. Two agent-based models are coupled with a micromacro dynamic loop, and they can be adapted either by the system using reinforcement learning, or by the stakeholders using simulation results. A generic formalism is elaborated to represent urban policies, which can be instantiated in a co-design approach between the policymaker and our system. An experimentation is conducted on an urban mobility policy, related to the configuration of parking price system in downtown area. The agent's behavior and environment are developed to be as realistic as possible, based on a real-world source of modeling. However, our architecture has been designed to be generic, exploiting infrastructure data from any city using available community data (Open Street Map). The scenario of parking pricing shows that the system learns postpolicy behaviors and can propose some adjustments (e.g., specific actions to apply, when and how) to better meet the stakeholders' objectives (e.g., maximize parking gains). The policy maker can then choose to validate the provided policies, or modified them for additional simulations.

This paper analyzes the joint cost structure of electricity and natural gas distribution investments. Assessing the joint costs is critical for urban development and public policy regarding competition at the local level. The paper accounts for the urban and geographic factors at the local level, while the previous literature primarily used company-level data with a few or no site-specific variables in joint cost analyses. An empirical analysis of the multi-utility capital costs suggests that the local urban and geographic conditions affect such costs, with economies of scope present in electricity and natural gas both in terms of total costs and underground investment costs. Hence, the joint service provision makes economic and environmental sense for urban policy makers.

Some Research Wants to Be Free, Some Follows the Money: Bogus Journals Complicate the Open Access Movement

Urban public policies are required to reconcile targeted measures with more comprehensive measures promoting social diversity, and to arbitrate between conurbations, as well as neighbourhoods within conurbations. Localised data on tax and social income (Filosofi, Insee) are used to calculate segregation indicators to compare urban areas, their centre-cities, suburbs and outer suburbs ; by developing a fairly simple typology, it becomes possible to map out the neighbourhoods, rich or poor, that most contribute to social disparities. This article presents the resulting analyses for twelve metropolises. The level of segregation in them is higher in the centre-cities and suburban areas than on the periphery. It is more marked for high living standards. Segregation is the most pronounced in the urban areas of Lille, Paris and Aix-Marseille. Depending on the situations, segregation is more marked in the centre-city (Aix-Marseille, Strasbourg, Nantes) or in the suburbs (Paris, Lyon, Lille). These differences often stem from local urban history and housing policies.

Background With the rapid acceleration of urbanization in China, issues related to urban appearance and public environmental sanitation have become increasingly prominent, and the effectiveness and scientific rigor of relevant policies have attracted widespread attention. Given that China’s governance experience serves as a key reference for developing countries, the quantitative evaluation of these policies holds significant theoretical and practical significance. Methods This study aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis, spanning from semantic mining of policy texts in the quantitative assessment, by integrating the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Policy Modeling Consistency (PMC) methods. This approach provides a scientific tool for optimizing urban appearance and public environmental sanitation policies. First, the LDA model was applied to extract themes from policy texts of 159 cities, identifying five core themes: public management tools, governance of citizens’ behaviors, supporting measures, participating subjects, and policy targets. Subsequently, a PMC evaluation system, comprising 9 primary variables and 31 secondary variables, was developed to assign quantitative scores and conduct a visual analysis of policies in 9 representative provinces. Results The results showed that policy quality exhibited a “ladder-like disparity aligned with regional economic levels”: policies in international metropolises and economically vibrant regions mainly were of high quality (with scores ranging from 5.5 to 7.5), while those in less developed areas were generally of low quality (with all scores below 4.5), with a correlation coefficient of 0.82 (p<0.01) between policy quality and regional economic level. Meanwhile, the policy structure was characterized by four imbalances: prioritizing institutional frameworks over implementation details, hardware construction over ideological guidance, long-term planning over short-to-medium-term alignment, and administrative management over public participation. Conclusion The study indicates that the quality of urban appearance and environmental sanitation policies is significantly correlated with regional economic development, but constrained by structural imbalances. The integrated LDA-PMC approach can effectively support the full-chain analysis of policy texts. In the future, efforts should focus on enhancing inter-regional policy coordination, improving implementation safeguards, refining public participation mechanisms, and establishing a dynamic policy revision system to adapt to the development needs of new-type urbanization.

The 2021 AAAAI Foundation Faculty Development awardees

Este artigo aborda o escopo dos art. 182 e 183, do Capítulo II – Da Política Urbana da Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988, e da Lei nº 10.257, de 10/07/2001, do Estatuto da Cidade, em face da reiteração da questão urbana no Brasil. Apoiado em pesquisa teórica e documental, pontua características da urbanização brasileira, realçando a segregação socioespacial e a financeirização da moradia; identifica sujeitos políticos envolvidos na produção, disputas e ordenação do território, enfatizando a gestão estatal urbana; coteja os direitos à cidade e à moradia, explicitando elementos da contradição entre o desenho normativo desses direitos e a sua concretização mediante políticas públicas urbanas. Conclui que o recuo do Estado, assumindo preceitos neoliberais, de modo cada vez mais aprofundado e autoritário, manifesta o malogro do entendimento da cidade como construção pública e da moradia como um direito socialfundamental presente na retórica do constitucionalismo brasileiro.

Traffic simulation is a tool used by urban planners to assess the impact of new urban designs and public policies on mobility. Over the years, numerous traffic models have been proposed, each model offering different levels of details and performances. Multi-level model coupling is an interesting approach to combine the advantages of complementary representations while limiting their drawbacks. In this paper, we design and evaluate the performances of hybrid traffic models combining a microscopic model (IDM) with a mesoscopic model (event-driven and queue-based). The results show that microscopic models have more diversity in terms of behaviors but reduce the vehicle average speed and mesoscopic models are more efficient in terms of computational time but display a higher vehicle speed. Their hybridization then enables to find a balance between scalability and the variety of the observed behaviors.KeywordsTraffic simulationModel compositionGAMA platform

The quality of the urban environment is crucial for societal well-being. Yet, measuring and tracking the quality of urban environment, their evolution, and spatial disparities is difficult due to the amount of on-the-ground data needed to capture these patterns. The growing availability of street view images presents new prospects in identifying urban features. However, the reliability and consistency of these methods across different locations and time remains largely unexplored. We aim to develop a comprehensive index of urban quality and change at the street segment level using Google Street View (GSV) imagery. We focus on eight object classes that indicate urban decay or contribute to an unsightly urban space, such as potholes, graffiti, garbage, tents, barred or broken windows, discolored or dilapidated façades, weeds, and utility markings. We train an object detection model on a dataset of images from different cities and assess the performance of these urban indices. We evaluate the effectiveness of this method in various urban contexts over time and discuss its potential for urban planning and public policy. We demonstrate the use of these indices in three applications: the Tenderloin in San Francisco, the Doctores and Historic Center neighborhoods in Mexico City, and South Bend, Indiana.

This paper investigates the effect of urban public housing on the social capital and labor force activity of its tenants using cross-sectional survey data from the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality (MSCUI). A structural equation model of the hypothesized direct and indirect effects of public housing and neighborhood disadvantage on social capital and labor force activity is specified and fitted to these data. The modeling results suggest that urban public housing is strongly associated with neighborhood disadvantage but has little or no direct effect on either social capital or labor force activity. And while public housing may have indirect effects on social capital and labor force activity through neighborhood poverty, these indirect effects appear to be small. These findings have implications for the current emphasis in urban public housing policy on moving residents into the private housing market and reducing poverty concentration. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Urban Agriculture and Public Policy

Purpose: The study aims to analyze the contributions of the extension practice of Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid (UFERSA), in the elaboration of public policies aimed at urban planning in the city of Pau dos Ferros/RN. Methodology/Approach: This is exploratory-descriptive research that uses content analysis of qualitative information collected through the application of 10 semi-structured interviews with subjects who participated in this process. Findings: The empirical results point to the need to better adapt the practice to formal aspects and also to the need to implement systematization processes in the relationship with society, especially with political agents. Research Limitation/implication: Need for qualitative information, through structured interviews with the actors involved, in order to deepen the assessment regarding the contributions and aspects to be improved in this cooperation action between universities and society. Originality/Value of paper: The use of the criteria that guide the practice of territorial governance recommended in the Dallabrida model (2017) is intended to be a model of an analysis tool that helps public universities to identify in their extension practices the aspects that allow the assessment of good governance and, consequently, relationship with society.

Supported by federal funds, many eastern German cities have started to address their acute vacant housing problem, and the new strategies attempt to pursue revitalization in especially consistent and comprehensive forms. This article offers evidence that current policies are not meeting their main objectives. Very little is being done in the older, inner‐city neighbourhoods, although these have been given a top political priority in the planning process since they are perceived as one of the greatest economic and cultural assets of eastern Germany. Rather, the policies have been effective only in the large‐scale housing estates, where local administrations and city governments meet ‘big partners’ with resources for action. Further, it is argued that present policy strategies focus too tightly on housing market issues alone. Many housing problems cannot be solved using housing market policy tools alone as vacancy is caused by the general trends of depopulation and deindustrialization in the region.Avec l'aide de financements fédéraux, de nombreuses grandes villes est‐allemandes se sont attaquées à leur grave problème de logements inoccupés, et les nouvelles stratégies tentent une relance par des formules particulièrement vastes et cohérentes. Cet article démontre que les politiques actuelles n'atteignent pas leurs objectifs principaux. Très peu est fait dans les quartiers anciens déshérités, même si on leur a donné une priorité politique élevée dans le processus d'aménagement puisqu'ils sont en bonne place, dit‐on, dans le patrimoine économique et culturel de l'Allemagne de l'Est. En revanche, les politiques publiques n'ont été efficaces que dans les projets de logements à grande échelle lorsque les administrations locales et autorités de la ville rencontrent des ‘partenaires de poids’ ayant des ressources pour agir. De plus, les stratégies politiques présentes s'attachent trop aux seuls aspects liés au marché du logement. Bien des problèmes d'habitat ne peuvent être résolus à l'aide d'outils de politique de marché puisque la vacance tient aux tendances générales à la dépopulation et à la désindustrialisation de la région.

A wide-ranging and definitive interview with conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll, who is best known for works that transpose land art to urban contexts and to questions of public policy such as zoning and access to free Internet service. Carroll describes her practice in terms of “making architecture perform,” which she does through direct interventions in city streets, such as her rotation of a suburban house in prototype 180 (1999–ongoing) so that it's back façade was turned to the street, while it's front faced a public park at the back of the lot, or in Public Utility 2.0 (2015), which sought to provide broadband wireless through unused radio frequencies, otherwise known as Super Wi-Fi, to underserved communities, largely of color, in New Orleans. Carroll is a leading voice at the intersection of urban theory, public policy, and media art, and in this interview, she articulates the several complex layers of her most significant projects to date.