Ph.D. in Bike/Ped Transportation - Suggestions?

[JoeTown244GL]

Could any of you learned schollars relate your opinions on finding a good Ph.D. program that relates to bike/ped issues. I have a BS (Geography), MA (GIS-Geography) and an AICP in Urban Planning as well as ten years of work in the field. I'm eager to take my education to the next level and really jump into this field with both feet. Any advice is welcome.

[genec]

I would venture a guess that something in traffic engineering is needed... and of course as it is a PhD, perhaps your own peer review and a thesis.

I really don't know, but wish you all the luck in the world.

[lrzipris]

Here's what I learned when I did my Ph.D. (in American Lit, from SUNY-Buffalo) 25 years ago: as you are already working in the field of urban planning, you should be able to find a department known to be flexible and receptive to "alternative" ideas in the areas of transportation, development, energy, etc. In such a program, you would more likely find compatible spirits and supportive faculty. Has any urban planning scholar written about cycling and other alternative means of transportation? Or another area in which you have an interest? If so, where do they teach? Are you more likely to find such support in a warm, cycling-rich climate (speaking literally and figuratively), say, like Southern California? A flesxible department might also be a better bet to allow you to develop a "non-traditional" theory in your work.

Two more suggestions from my experience.

1. You want a dissertation committee that will support your work and basicvally leave you alone to do it but offer the help and guidance *you* want, need, ask for. Thus, when you pick your committee, make your chair the professor with whom you work most closely and who is most supportive of your ideas. This is the obvious part. But then, choose your outside reader and the two other committee members from faculty who will allow you to work out your own theories, and not urge/force/encourage you to develop theirs. That is, who will leave you alone to do the eowrk. Nothing is as distracting and wasteful as being pulled in different directions by professors who all want to you do this or that, not because it flows from your work but from theirs.

2. Don't mistake your dissertation for your book. That is, get the dissertation done, get your degree, and get on with your life-work. Too many people get bogged down writing, re-writing, revising--that comes later, when you want to publish.

[ofofhy]

I remember seeing a program about an urban planning program at MIT that focused on integration of pedestrians and bicycles. The guy that was featured on the program seemed to be a common sense guy who took joy in the little things that walking/cyclig provided the urban commuter.

[tulip]

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has an Institute for Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety. You might check into it.

[sggoodri]

You could pursue a Ph.D. in civil engineering, with a focus on the science of traffic engineering and traffic safety, and you could do a good job at improving transportation systems for safer and more efficient cycling.

Alternatively, you could get a Ph.D. in urban planning, and learn all about "bikeway planning" which has little to do with the safety and efficiency of cycling and more to do with improving convenience for motorists (its historical foundation) and catering to social taboos about cycling for the purpose of luring novices onto bicycles (the current state of the art).

The best designers of facilities for cycling tend to have engineering backgrounds, given the physics and kinematics of vehicle travel and the rich amount of engineering literature on the systemantic study of transportation safety. On the other hand, urban planners tend to be well prepared to study the demographics and travel habits of existing bicycle commuters and why they choose to ride.

-Steven Goodridge Ph.D.
Member, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society
Webmaster, http://humantransport.org

[billh]

Where does Forrester teach? Wherever it is, STAY . . . AWAY . . . from there. Please.

[sggoodri]

Two very helpful experts who can give you professional advice and have written about bicycle planning:

Paul Schimek earned his Ph.D. in transportation planning at MIT and held the position of bicycle program manager for the city of Boston. Also he is the author of "The Dilemmas of Bicycle Planning"
http://danenet.wicip.org/bcp/dilemma.html
schimek@volpe.dot.gov
schimek@bicycledriving.com

and

Richard Moeur, PE
Member, NCUTCD
http://www.richardcmoeur.com/
http://www.richardcmoeur.com/bikestuf.html
rcmoeur@aol.com

[JoeTown244GL]

Thank you all for your assistance. I want my research to focus on retrofitting auto-centric Midwestern mid-to-small population cities back to a bike-ped friendly environment through a urban planning package concept that the politicians will buy into. I don't know what form it will eventually take, but I have enough Don Quixote in me for 3 city planners. ;)