TCRG BrownBag Speaker Series: Wednesday, August 12, 12:00 Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Topic: Destinations Count: Access to Destinations Research
Featured Speaker: David Levinson, University of Minnesota
Where: Wilder Foundation, Room 2610
451 Lexington Pkway (at University Ave)
Saint Paul, MN 55114
For a map see the TCRG website at http://www.TwinCitiesResearch.org
Event is free — parking in Wilder’s parking lot is free — bring your own
brown-bag lunch.
Access to Destinations is a multi-year effort by University of Minnesota
researchers to analyze and model transportation networks in the context of urban
and regional economics. “The issue is what you can reach,” says David Levinson,
“not how fast you can go.”
Levinson presented the keynote presentation at a May 2009 conference of 300
transportation planners, engineers and researchers. He’ll join us at TCRG’s
August 12 Brown-Bag to share his presentation with TCRG and answer questions.
“All of the great cities have congestion. Congestion is an indicator of economic
success; the fact that roads are crowded with people going about their daily
business shows that the city is providing what they need.” Creating access
induces people to travel and participate in the economy. This activity leads to
higher land values, which encourage developers to build housing and commercial
properties, creating new destinations and higher levels of accessibility.
For more background, Levinson’s research is described at
http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/CTSReport/2009/07/AccesstoDestinations.html