Course:VANT149/2022/Capstone/Arts/GroupD5

Research Proposal Presentation Title

Examining Flaws of the New York Transportation System

Research Question

How does Traffic Congestion in New York Affect Various Economic Classes Differently?

Student Researcher Names

Yuchi Xu & Harper Ma & Xinrui Ma

Project Proposal Summary

Our research is mainly to explore the response of each economic class in New York to awful traffic situations and the solutions adopted by each class to provide methods for reducing traffic congestion in New York. The motivation why we conducted this research is that we saw a news article about the complicated traffic in New York and the adverse effects of traffic on people, including harming their health, wasting time and hindering economic development etc., which made us realize the seriousness of traffic issues in this city, so we started with understanding the traffic in New York to do literature research. The method we will use in this research is the interview, which is a qualitative method. Our participants will randomly select 15 people from a company in New York. After interviewing each person, we will transcribe their responses and adopt the approach of thematic analysis to find common themes in the answers that are responded to by our participants and sort out the critical information that is useful to us, including the views on the traffic congestion in New York and the desired solutions of various economic classes. After this, we will classify the participants according to their economic situation through the professional method of judging class and roughly sum up the negative impact of traffic jams in New York by integrating their experiences to solve our research question.

Literature Review

We have analyzed and synthesized twelve academic articles, and we found that these academic papers mainly indicate that New York’s traffic congestion decreases people’s quality of life and impedes the economic development of the city. It also causes severe environmental pollution and is harmful to human health. Thus, it is necessary to alleviate this situation by implementing measures. Specifically, we found that two of these scholarly articles were written by Schaller (2010) and Baghetani et al. (2020) indicating that the traffic jams in New York hurt the economy and use congestion pricing to alleviate these adverse effects for building a sustainable city. At the same time, Lasstier (2016) utilizes an interview and its responses to show the advantages of congestion pricing experienced by respondents. Thus, the three articles discuss that New York has a solution to traffic jams called congestion pricing. Congestion pricing means charging vehicles in crowded sections of cities, and its purpose is to make use of people’s psychology of not being willing to spend extra money to reduce their dependence on cars. Furthermore, three of these scholarly articles point out that the air pollution caused by the increase in vehicles has led to harm to people’s health. In these papers, Turner (2020) and Buijak-Pietrek et al. (2016) indicate that this pollution will bring cancer to people. Carrington (2019) emphasizes the devastating impact of air pollution on the fetus. Additionally, two of these academic articles illustrate the advantages of improving the public transportation system. Alfredo et al. (2010) demonstrate that it can encourage people to reach public transportation to increase calorie consumption to keep healthy and reduce the unemployment rate of low-income people working at night. In comparison, Sanchez (2008) states that improved public transportation benefits reduce the unemployment rate of low-income people working at night.

Project Objectives and Contribution to Scholarship

However, we noticed that there is no article focusing on research on the methods to reduce the awful impacts on diverse classes of people by traffic congestion in New York and unique solutions, which is the research gap. At the same time, macroscopic New York’s economic obstruction caused by traffic troubles made us realize that it is essential to investigate people’s views of different economic levels on improving traffic and put forward solutions so that we can give ways to reduce the negative influences of traffic by combining participants’ life experiences. In addition, in the past studies, researchers extensively researched all the citizens of New York, which means that the research results and conclusions are not suitable for all people with different economic levels. However, in our research, we will learn about the different impacts and solutions of New York’s harmful traffic on people based on their various economic classes, which can make the conclusions applicable to diverse economic groups, avoid the effects of traffic problems and the incompatibility of the particular solution with people of disparate economic levels. Simultaneously, it makes research results will become more specific and fill the research gap.

Connection of Research Proposal to Sustainability

Moving to an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable transportation system is critical to combating climate change, creating livable places and a productive economy, reducing traffic congestion, and supporting improvements in the health and well-being of our communities. Basically, for most citizens, sustainable transportation refers to low- and zero-emission, energy-efficient, affordable modes of transport. There are three aspects that why transportation is important to sustainability.

1. Environment.

Reducing the environmental impact of transportation may be a strategy for sustainable development. Transportation contributes to harmful emissions, noise, and climate change.

2. Economy.

Transportation is a factor in economic growth, development, and employment. It requires materials for modes and infrastructure and energy for operations that can be used more efficiently.

3. Society.

Sustainable transportation should benefit society, it should be safe, it should not harm human health, and it should cause minimal disruption to communities.

References

Baghestani, A., Tayarani, M., Allahviranloo, M., & Gao, H. O. (2020). Evaluating the traffic and emissions impacts of congestion pricing in new york city. Sustainability (Basel, Switzerland), 12(9), 3655. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093655

Beirão, G., & Sarsfield Cabral, J. A. (2007). Understanding attitudes towards public transport and private car: A qualitative study. Transport Policy, 14(6), 478-489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2007.04.009

Bujak-Pietrek, S., Mikolajczyk, U., Kaminska, I., Cieslak, M., & Szadkowska-Stanczyk, I. (2016). Exposure to diesel exhaust fumes in the context of exposure to ultrafine particles. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 29(4), 667-682. https://doi.org/10.13075/ijomeh.1896.00693

Carrington, D. (2019, ). Air pollution 'as bad as smoking in increasing risk of miscarriage'. The Guardian (London)

Chronopoulos, T. (2012). Congestion pricing: The political viability of a neoliberal spatial mobility proposal in London, Stockholm, and New York City. Urban Research & Practice, 5(2), 187–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535069.2012.691617

Ha, S., Yeung, E., Bell, E., Insaf, T., Ghassabian, A., Bell, G., Muscatiello, N., & Mendola, P. (2019). Prenatal and early life exposures to ambient air pollution and development. Environmental Research, 174, 170-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.03.064

Lassiter, A. (2016). Congestion pricing: A step toward safer streets? examining the relationship between urban core congestion pricing and safety on city streets. Columbia University. https://doi.org/10.7916/d8zp467r

Mugion, R. G., Toni, M., Raharjo, H., Di Pietro, L., & Sebathu, S. P. (2018). Does the service quality of urban public transport enhance sustainable mobility? Journal of Cleaner Production, 174, 1566-1587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.052

Sanchez, T. W. (2008). Poverty, policy, and public transportation. Transportation Research. Part A, Policy and Practice, 42(5), 833-841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2008.01.011

Schaller, B. (2010). New york City’s congestion pricing experience and implications for road pricing acceptance in the united states. Transport Policy, 17(4), 266-273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2010.01.013

Scherer, G. (2005). Biomonitoring of inhaled complex mixtures – ambient air, diesel exhaust and cigarette smoke. Experimental and Toxicologic Pathology : Official Journal of the Gesellschaft Für Toxikologische Pathologie, 57, 75-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etp.2005.05.007

Sustainable transportation: The Geography of Transport Systems. The Geography of Transport Systems | The spatial organization of transportation and mobility. (2022, May 31). Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter4/transportation-sustainability-decarbonization/sustainable-transportation/

Turner, M. C., Andersen, Z. J., Baccarelli, A., Diver, W. R., Gapstur, S. M., Pope, C. A., Prada, D., Samet, J., Thurston, G., & Cohen, A. (2020). Outdoor air pollution and cancer: An overview of the current evidence and public health recommendations. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, 70(6), 460-479. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21632