Todd Litman

Todd Litman is the executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute.

Member for
19 years 4 months

Contributed 446 posts

Full Bio

Todd Litman is founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative solutions to transport problems. His work helps to expand the range of impacts and options considered in transportation decision-making, improve evaluation methods, and make specialized technical concepts accessible to a larger audience. His research is used worldwide in transport planning and policy analysis.

Mr. Litman has worked on numerous studies that evaluate transportation costs, benefits and innovations. He authored the Online TDM Encyclopedia, a comprehensive Internet resource for identifying and evaluating mobility management strategies; Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis: Techniques, Estimates and Implications, a comprehensive study which provides cost and benefit information in an easy-to-apply format; and Parking Management Best Practices, the most comprehensive book available on management solutions to parking problems. Mr. Litman is a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops. His presentations range from technical and practical to humorous and inspirational. He is active in several professional organizations, including the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Transportation Research Board (a section of U.S. National Academy of Sciences). He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Transportation Research A, a professional journal.

Raise My Taxes, Please! Financing High Quality Public Transit Service Saves Me Money Overall

Most North American cities offer only basic public transit service, with limited coverage and frequency, modest speeds, unattractive waiting areas, poor land use integration, and few amenities. Such service is used primarily by people who lack alternatives. In such communities, riders tend to abandon public transit as soon as feasible.

Carfree Design Manual

As planners, one of our roles is to help stretch the scope of what is considered possible. For example, between 1950 and 2000 most development was highly automobile-dependent, based on the assumption that almost all travel would be by personal automobile and other modes were relatively unimportant. This pattern is so well established that many people have difficulty imagining anything different. It is useful to help people understand the full range of options available, from automobile dependency to carfree communities.

Accessibility, Mobility and Automobile Dependency

Let me wade into an ongoing debate among fellow Planetizen bloggers <a href="/node/42367">Samuel Staley</a> and <a href="/node/42323">Michael Lewyn</a> concerning the meanings of accessibility and mobility, and their implications for transportation and land use policy.

Report from TRB

Last week I attended the <a href="http://www.trb.org/AnnualMeeting2010/Public/AnnualMeeting2010.aspx">Transportation Research Boards (TRB)</a> 89th annual meeting, which attracted approximately 10,000 transportation professionals from around the globe to Washington DC. More than 2,000 papers were presented at more than 700 sessions, plus several hundred committee meetings took place. Let me share some highlights.

Fun With Research: Higher Fuel Prices Increase Economic Productivity

Last week I posted a blog, “<a href="/node/42026">Win-Win Transportation Emission Reduction Strategies: Good News for Copenhagen</a>” which described emission reduction strategies that also help achieve economic and social objectives. I’ve continued doing research on the subject and made some additonal discoveries that I can report on now.