Congratulations to UTTRI associated faculty, Professors Christopher D. Higgins and David A. Wolfe, who have been awarded Knowledge Synthesis Grants on mobility and public transit.
“An Integrated Approach to Transit System Evolution” – Christopher D. Higgins, Principal Investigator
Understanding the role of public transit in the wider transport-land use system of great importance for guiding effective policy and planning at all levels of government. While it is widely recognized that transit performs best when closely integrated with land use planning, recent transformational trends including new mobility technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic are fundamentally altering the way we think about transportation and land use interaction in cities. In response, this project seeks to conduct a targeted literature review and synthesis that revisits core theories, reviews recent research, and reinterprets the transportation-land use relationship in light of the challenges and opportunities that have occurred and are likely to occur over the next decade in Canadian communities.
“An Integrated Approach to Transit System Evolution” is supported by Co-PIs Professors Eric Miller, Steven Farber, Amer Shalaby, and Khandker Nurul Habib, and collaborators Professors Shauna Brail, Sara Diamond (OCAD U), Michael Widener, and Antonio Paez (McMaster).
“Integrated Mobility and the Governance of Urban Transit” – David A. Wolfe, Principal Investigator
Innovations in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector have begun to transform transportation supply and demand in cities worldwide. The rapidly expanding digital infrastructure across Canada is serving as the basis of emergent on-demand transit solutions and connected and autonomous vehicles. In our knowledge synthesis project, we want to help understand how and which public policies can be most effectively employed to ensure that the new digital infrastructure and associated mobility services are used to provide a higher quality integrated transit service going forward.
Assisting Professor Wolfe in this project is Dr. Elena Goracinova, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Munk’s Innovation Policy Lab.
About Knowledge Synthesis Grants
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) collaborated with Infrastructure Canada to launch a Knowledge Synthesis Grants competition on mobility and public transit in 2020 to examine and synthesize existing knowledge on mobility and public transit issues.
Knowledge syntheses are comprehensive analyses of literature and other forms of knowledge on a particular question or issue. Knowledge Synthesis Grants are intended to support the synthesis of existing research knowledge and the identification of knowledge gaps. This call was particularly focused on the state of research knowledge emerging over the past 10 years.
- Knowledge Synthesis Grants (Infrastructure Canada website)
- Knowledge Synthesis Grants Mobility and Public Transit December 2020 Competition (SSHRC website)