OJS at Oregondigital.org (Oregon State University / University of Oregon)
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The Impact of Driving Knowledge on Motor Vehicle Fatalities
Get PDFThis paper analyzes the influence of driving knowledge on highway safety by estimating regression models on U.S. state-level data over six years (2005 through 2010). The models incorporate a representative set of motor vehicle fatality determinants. Driving knowledge—as measured by performance on the GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test—has a statistically significant life-saving effect. Negatively related to the motor vehicle death rate and statistically significant are: real per capita income, precipitation, seat belt use, and a linear trend. Statistically significant positive associations with the rate are found for: the ratio of rural to urban driving, temperature, the percentage of young drivers, the percentage of old drivers, and alcohol consumption
Welfare Measures to Reflect Home Location Options When Transportation Systems are Modified
Get PDFTransportation system improvements do not provide simply travel time savings, for a fixed trip table; they affect trip destinations, modes, times of day, and, ultimately, home and business location choices. This paper examines the welfare (or willingness-to-pay) impacts of system changes by bringing residential location choice into a three-layer nested logit model to more holistically anticipate the regional welfare impacts of various system shifts using logsum differences (which quantify changes in consumer surplus). Here, home value is a function of home price, size, and accessibility; and accessibility is a function of travel times and costs, vis-à-vis all mode and destination options. The model is applied to a sample of 60 Austin, Texas, zones to estimate home buyers’ welfare impacts across various scenarios, with different transit fares, automobile operating costs, travel times, and home prices. Results suggest that new locators’ choice probabilities for rural and suburban zones are more sensitive to changing regional access, while urban and central business zone choice probabilities are more impacted by home price shifts. Automobile costs play a more important role in residential location choices in these simulations than those of transit, as expected in a typical U.S. setting (where automobile travel dominates). When generalized costs of automobile travel are simulated to rise 20%, 40%, and 60% (throughout the region), estimated welfare impacts (using normalized differences in logit logsum measures) for the typical new home buying household (with 56,000, -132,000, respectively. In contrast, when auto’s generalized costs fall everywhere (by 20%, 40%, and then 60%), welfare impacts are very positive (+172,500, and $320,000, respectively). Such findings are meaningful for policymakers, planners, and others when anticipating the economic impacts of evolving transportation systems, in the face of new investments, rising travel demands, distance-based tolls, self-driving vehicles, and other changes
The Role of Stories in Library Marketing and Communications
Get PDFThe complex, evolving, 21st-century library is not just about books or resources; it’s not just about buildings and spaces. Despite providing a wide range of services, materials, unique programs and collections, subject area expertise, research assistance, and access to both print and online resources, libraries often struggle with effectively communicating all that they offer. Additionally, the ability of libraries to communicate their value and garner financial support is increasingly important when faced with shrinking budgets and competing needs.
When considering how to develop a strategic marketing and communications plan, it is helpful to conceptualize the work of libraries in terms of human interest stories that illustrate their impact on their patrons. Marketing in libraries is about building community and cultivating relationships. Thinking in stories offers library employees a framework for understanding all of their outreach, marketing, and communication efforts, while simultaneously humanizing the “marketing” work they need to do.
By using stories focused on library patrons to reach library supporters, libraries can shift the focus away from the need for them to “sell” themselves, and can instead begin thinking deliberately and thoughtfully about their users and their users’ needs. This, in turn, should prevent the development of communication silos and the proliferation of disconnected piecemeal marketing activities, and enable libraries to develop cohesive mission-driven marketing and communications strategies
Learning as We Go: Communicating with Library Staff In the Digital Age
Get PDFRecognizing that our library’s internal communication practices haven’t kept pace with changes in the world around us, Multnomah County Library created an internal communications specialist position to understand and address these issues. Since last fall, that person has been busy gathering input, listening to staff describe challenges and constraints, and looking for ways to help our library do a better job communicating to and with staff. We’re still early in this process, but what we’ve learned is valuable. We can address some issues immediately, and others will take longer than we’d like.
At Multnomah County Library, we’re at the beginning of the learning process when it comes to structured internal communications. But we know the benefits are worth the journey. So as you write that next project plan or staff e-mail, I hope you’ll find value in the ideas presented here, build on them, create better ones and share them. We’re still learning too
Safety Evaluation of Shoulder Bypass Lanes at Unsignalized Intersections on Rural Two-Lane Roadways Using Cross Sectional Analysis
Get PDFConstruction of bypass lanes at rural intersections has typically been considered a low-cost highway safety improvement by the transportation community. However, this needs to be quantitatively evaluated so that the decisions could be made on whether to continue with adding bypass lanes. Highway safety analyses utilize two common approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of a geometric treatment: before-and-after study and cross-sectional study. This paper explains the results using a cross-sectional study approach, where intersections with bypass lanes were compared to intersections with no bypass lanes for which crash data were obtained for more than 1,100 intersections in Kansas. Both 3-legged and 4-legged intersections were taken into consideration separately by looking at intersection-related crashes and crashes within an intersection box. According to the results, the number of crashes and crash severities were lower at 3-legged intersections with bypass lanes compared with 3-legged intersections without bypass lanes, even though these reductions were not statistically significant at 95% level. When considering a 300-ft. intersection box, statistically significant crash reductions were observed at 4-legged intersections, for all considered crash and crash rate categories. When considering 90% level, crash reduction at 3-legged intersections was also statistically significant when considering a 300-ft. intersection box. Crash modification factors (CMFs) calculated to evaluate safety effectiveness of bypass lanes at unsignalized rural intersections in Kansas showed values less than 1.0 for almost all cases, indicating safety benefits of bypass lanes. Accordingly, it is beneficial to continue with the practice of adding shoulder bypass lanes at rural unsignalized intersections on two-lane roads where the traffic volumes are relatively low
#Why Membership? Professional Associations in the Millennial Age: A Call to Action through Mentorship
Get PDFLibrary Services and Spaces: Addressing the Needs of a Changing Campus
Get PDFThe OHSU Library has undergone many changes in the last two years to serve its users better. With the opening of the Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB), a joint venture between OHSU, PSU and OSU, there was an opportunity to design a library space from the ground up. With changes in the MD curriculum and changes in library operations, there was a chance to redesign existing library space in the Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC) to better fit the current and future needs of the OHSU community