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The widespread availability of high spatial and temporal resolution public transit data is improving the measurement and analysis of public transit-based accessibility to crucial community resources such as jobs and health care. A common approach is leveraging transit route and schedule data published by transit agencies. However, this often results in accessibility overestimations due to endemic delays due to traffic and incidents in bus systems. Retrospective real-time accessibility measures calculated using real-time bus location data attempt to reduce overestimation by capturing the actual performance of the transit system. These measures also overestimate accessibility since they assume that riders had perfect information on systems operations as they occurred. In this paper, we introduce realizable real-time accessibility based on space–time prisms as a more conservative and realistic measure. We, moreover, define accessibility unreliability to measure overestimation of schedule-based and retrospective accessibility measures. Using high-resolution General Transit Feed Specification real-time data, we conduct a case study in the Central Ohio Transit Authority bus system in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Our results prove that realizable accessibility is the most conservative of the three accessibility measures. We also explore the spatial and temporal patterns in the unreliability of both traditional measures. These patterns are consistent with prior findings of the spatial and temporal patterns of bus delays and risk of missing transfers. Realizable accessibility is a more practical, conservative, and robust measure to guide transit planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) could change travel patterns of the population significantly and with the rapid improvements in AV technology, transportation planners should address AV impacts in regional plans and project evaluations for the mid-term and long-term horizons (10–15 years and beyond). There are multiple travel model components from demand generation to network assignments that need to be modified, updated, or added to fully capture the potential impacts of AVs on regional travel patterns. This paper describes how the features of AVs were incorporated in the regional Activity-Based travel demand Model developed for Columbus, OH, metropolitan region. The model modifications included multiple adjustments to the travel demand sub-models, network assignments, as well as an addition of a new sub-model for vehicle routing and parking that addresses such new phenomenon as empty AV relocation trips. Due to many factors of uncertainty associated with AVs, a scenario-based approach was adopted for evaluation of the potential impacts of AVs on the travel patterns. The emphasis of the scenario analysis was on multiple dimensions of travel behavior in addition to such aggregate regional measures as VMT, etc. The paper presents an analysis of potential impacts of AVs on accessibility measures, activity participation, tour formation, and mode choice. The scenario analysis applied to the Columbus region showed overall logical potential impacts of AVs with many insights useful for transportation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical food scholars have argued that activists' political ideologies and environmental values are important influences on their food justice projects. However, this body of work has given little attention to religion and spirituality even though religious studies scholars maintain that religious values affect environmental and social action. Bringing together these perspectives considers the way religious values and meaning making intersect with actions toward food justice outside of traditionally religious spaces. This paper draws on qualitative research, including a dozen interviews and 11 months of participant observation, at Franklinton Farms, a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio. I demonstrate that Franklinton Farms team members reference diverse religious values and practices when explaining the meaning and significance of their farming. In addition, I argue that they renegotiate their religious values in light of the injustices they see in the food system. By examining religion and spirituality within a secular food space, this paper sheds light on an underexplored influence on whether and how alternative food spaces realize food justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuous developments in automotive technology brought about the reality of having an increasing number of autonomous vehicles (AV) on roadways soon. However, this advancement comes with the uncertainty of how the interaction between the autonomous and non-autonomous (non-AV) vehicles will play out. Using traffic simulators to model both AVs and non-AVs, and studying the effect of AVs on roadway mobility can help researchers in learning what to expect in real life. In this paper, an open-source simulator called Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) was used to develop AVs by modifying Intelligent Driver Model (IDM) car following and LC2013 lane changing models. Then, three actual roadways in Columbus, Ohio were modeled, and 40 simulations were run for each traffic network. The first set of simulations focused on the impacts that AVs have on vehicle roadway mobility with non-AVs when all the AVs have the same autonomy level. The second set of simulations had mixed AV autonomy levels (SAE Level 2, 3 and 4) with mixed AV and non-AV traffic. The analysis revealed that mobility of AVs and non-AVs increased generally as autonomy level increased. When the AV autonomy levels were mixed, the non-AVs experienced lower average speeds and decreased roadway mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2007 financial crisis profoundly affected most American metropolitan areas. Over the past 10 years, Columbus, Ohio, has experienced a housing downturn, recovery, and subsequent increases. This allows to investigate the response of housing market in different periods of the recession. Ordinary and geographically-weighted regression (GWR) models were developed to examine global and local built-environment effects on home-price appreciations for the three periods while controlling for other physical and socioeconomic variables. The results found that home buyers showed an unchanged preference for residential privacy and amenity and avoided those features that might attract negative external effects from a period to another. The home-price appreciation rates showed different spatial patterns across the study region in the three periods. Nevertheless, the results suggested that suburban areas, particularly those in northern Columbus, better resisted, recovered from, and adapted to the recession. In the wake of the recession, a smaller house was preferred by home buyers. GWR models also provided some interesting findings. In the downturn, accessibility to a park or library helped sustain home prices in the northwest. Bus stop density had a positive effect in eastern Columbus in the recovery, most likely due to the high fuel price at that time. Neighborhoods with a higher income better retained their home value in the downturn, especially those in southern Columbus. Finally, this study found that the recession hit harder on minority neighborhoods in all three periods. This finding suggests that housing policies should focus on these neighborhoods with other social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In the United States, approximately 45% of persons living with HIV (PLHIV) are ≥ 50 years of age. Many older PLHIV have multi-morbidities that complicate HIV infection and/or interfere with, or are exacerbated by, antiretroviral treatment. Physical health symptoms and psychiatric disorders, particularly depression, can worsen life quality in older PLHIV.Methods: This study assessed associations among physical symptoms, indicators of HIV-related health status (i.e., time since diagnosis; ever diagnosed with AIDS; having attained viral suppression), depressive symptoms, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in older PLHIV. Regression analyses examined data from 296 PLHIV ≥ 50 years of age living in Cincinnati, OH, Columbus, OH, and New York City.Results: Depressive symptoms and physical symptoms, particularly those related to appearance and sexual functioning, most strongly predicted HRQoL. Indicators of HIV health status did not significantly predict HRQoL. Depressive symptoms were a particularly robust predictor of HRQoL, even when accounting for physical health symptoms.Conclusion: Findings suggest that symptom management is critical to HRQoL in older PLHIV, and symptoms related to physical appearance and sexual functioning should not be overlooked in this growing population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]