Transportation Investment Research Articles

Bus Rapid Transit: A Viable Alternative?

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) presents a significant opportunity for the public transit industry to enhance the set of transportation investment options that can be brought to bear on the mobility problems experienced by urban areas across the country. As new Census data are released, the picture of strong population growth in dispersed patterns, growing congestion levels, and stubbornly modest transit use levels emerges. This paints a compelling picture that merits serious consideration by transportation planners with regard to the full range of transportation investment options available for urban areas.This article addresses several specific characteristics of BRT that differentiate it from other public transit modes and supports the explicit consideration of BRT as an alternative in Major Investment Studies (MIS). Clearly, the high cost of rail transit limits the possible role it can play in urban mobility even under radical changes in modal spending priorities. The pursuit of more moderate costing infrastructure transit options increases the chances of public transit being able to make more meaningful contributions to urban mobility. A key characteristic of BRT is the prospect that it can offer a lower-cost method of providing better performing public transit service (not yet fully verified) that is able to both retain current and attract new customers as well as garner political and taxpayer support. Evidence provided by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) in its recent report on BRT indicated that the BRTprojects reviewed cost less to build than the light rail transit (LRT) projects reviewed, on a per-mile basis. In addition, the GAO also points out that ridership was comparable between the BRT and LRT systems reviewed and that five of the six BRT projects had higher overall system operating speeds than the LRT projects.This article also addresses the definition of BRT and the implications of the various definitions on branding of the mode. An interesting perspective on the BRT branding is offered by looking at it from the perspective of various user groups. In addition, the article explores the prospects of BRT becoming attractive to the public transit industry and with customers, decision-makers, and taxpayers. It continues by addressing certain aspects of BRT that differentiate it from LRT and the comparative impacts on land use by BRT and LRT. The article concludes by offering thoughts regarding the opportunities presented by BRT concept.

Cities Can Lead the Energy Employment Transition … but They Must Plan for It

Cities are well positioned to lead the process of successfully transitioning employment away from fossil fuel production and use, and toward sustainable energy systems and related products and services. Cities have more diverse and flexible labour markets. And while over half of direct fossil jobs are located in cities, the skills and qualifications associated with those urban fossil fuel positions are highly transferable to other roles. Cities will also be at the forefront of investments in public transportation, retrofitted and energy-efficient buildings, and other infrastructure, which will create many opportunities for new, sustainable work. For all these reasons, cities have the opportunity to lead a successful and fair transition in employment as the energy revolution continues. To fulfill this potential, however, that transition must be planned in advance and supported with a range of measures that assist fossil fuel workers in moving to a wide range of different alternative opportunities. This article considers the elements and best practices of successful transition planning, stressing how engaging the full range of labour market adjustment channels (including retirement, retraining, and relocation), this transition could be completed without involuntary layoffs or undue dislocation.

A Composite Index of Public Transit Accessibility

Measuring ease of access to transit services is important in evaluating existing services, predicting travel demands, allocating transportation investments, and making decisions on land development. A composite index to assessing accessibility of public transit is described. It involves use of readily-available methods and represents a more holistic measure of transit accessibility, integrating developer, planner, and operator perspectives. The paper reviews previous and current methods of measuring accessibility and selects three methods for application in a case study in Meriden, Connecticut. Inconsistencies are noted across the methods, and a consistent grading scale is presented to standardize scores. Finally, this paper proposes weighting factors for individual methods to formulate a composite measure based on individual accessibility component measures. The approach aims to provide a robust and uniformly applicable measure that can be interpreted easily by planners to identify shortcomings in service coverage and promote equity in transit accessibility in the community.

Applying AHP and Clustering Approaches for Public Transportation Decisionmaking: A Case Study of Isfahan City

The main purpose of this paper is to define appropriate criteria for the systematic approach to evaluate and prioritize multiple candidate corridors for public transport investment simultaneously to serve travel demand, regarding supply of current public transportation system and road network conditions of Isfahan, Iran. To optimize resource allocation, policymakers need to identify proper corridors to implement a public transportation system. In fact, the main question is to adopt the best public transportation system for each main corridor of Isfahan. In this regard, 137 questionnaires were completed by experts, directors, and policymakers of Isfahan to identify goals and objectives in the field of urban transportation. In the next step, objectives were prioritized by a multi-criteria decisionmaking method. Afterward, for the main 35 corridors of the city, available information, including trip demands toward main destinations of studied corridors derived from Isfahan comprehensive transportation studies and number of passengers of bus lines, were collected. Finally, 3,906 taxi passengers were interviewed at the end points of each corridor. The role of each policy in improvement of the objectives was assessed by expert choices, and suitable public transportation policies in studied corridors were defined by clustering parameters and converting them into weighted criteria. Mass transportation and implementation of road space rationing policies had the most influence on achieving prospected objectives in the city’s urban transportation system. Findings of this paper present a general evaluation of each implemented policy for the studied corridors.

Perceived liveability, transport, and mental health: A story of overlying inequalities

IntroductionThis paper examines the links between perceived liveability and mental health, questioning the role transport-related variables and features of the built environment play in the relationship between the two concepts. By exploring a topic not often tackled from the perspective of transport and health studies, the paper positions the concept of perceived liveability as a mechanism to capture the subjective interpretations of the built environment by residents of different socioeconomic backgrounds and mobility behaviours. MethodsThe paper uses Cali, Colombia as an example of a rapidly growing city in the global South. We analyse data collected from an online participatory planning instrument where over 300 participants responded to questions on their mental health and their perceptions of the built environment, urban design, access to leisure facilities, and so forth. We use a Structural Equations Model that incorporates mental health and perceived liveability as latent variables. The paper also draws from secondary data to map both the spatial distribution of the various determinants of perceived liveability as well as the scores of the two latent constructs analysed. ResultsWe demonstrate that perceived liveability can be expressed as a latent variable, causing scores and correlations in measured variables associated with the urban form, the environment, access to transport, and fear of crime. On the whole, higher liveability scores are linked with higher mental health scores, and car users tend to score higher in both perceived liveability and mental health scores. ConclusionsThere are meaningful links between perceived liveability and mental health influenced by transport-related drivers such as mode choice. Findings concerning car users suggest that transport investments in cities like Cali tend to accommodate already socio-economically advantaged residents. When testing our hypothesis that proximity to mass transit infrastructure could increase liveability, the results were inconclusive, which suggests a limited “liveability footprint” of public transport infrastructure.

Pythagorean Fuzzy Based AHP-VIKOR Integration to Assess Rail Transportation Systems in Turkey

Rail transit systems, one of the important public transportation (PT) systems, are widespread in large cities to satisfy passengers or commuters for their daily trips. However, rail transportation (RT) investments are costly, and the budgets are minimal. Thus assessing RT systems in big cities play a crucial role in deciding on the best RT investment. In this study, for the first time, a two-stage fuzzy set is used among the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) studies in the area of transportation. The proposed method is a unique technique integrating the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) techniques with an extension of Pythagorean fuzzy sets. In this manner, datasets from the observations of three rail lines in Antalya, one of the largest cities in Turkey, are applied to the proposed method. Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP), a commonly used MCDM method, is used to weighting four main criteria and thirteen sub-factors. AHP is strengthened by interval-valued Pythagorean fuzzy numbers (IVPFNs). The Fuzzy VIKOR (FVIKOR) approach is then applied for the prioritization of three rail line alternatives. Results are achieved by analyzing not only real RT service observations, also actual RT expenditures or costs. Consequently, the uncertainty in results is thus minimized. Outcomes of the case study reveal the most serviceable RT line in the city evaluating the main criteria, namely economy, comfort, environment, and safety. Therefore, the proposed approach methodologically contributes to adopting a new insight into the integration of MCDM methods with fuzzy set.

The bus is arriving: Population growth and public transportation ridership in rural America

The U.S. is known for having a low rate of public transportation use, especially in its rural areas. Some argue that because rural America has such a low population density, public transportation is unnecessary. Indeed, investments in public transportation have been made in the United States in recent years, but these investments have largely been concentrated in cities. However, is public transportation really unnecessary when some rural areas in the United States experience population growth? To study this question, we use national population survey data in the 2010s to examine effects of population growth on commuting patterns in modern rural America. Using a two-way fixed effects model, we find that population growth has a positive effect on the rate of public transportation commuting even in the “most rural areas” of the U.S. The main results are robust to changes to the definition of rural area, sample, and specification. We further find that changes in public transportation ridership has no correlation with commuting times.

Impacts from transportation measures in national appraisal guidelines: coverage and practices

Transportation appraisal has a potential important role in prioritization of transportation investment projects and other transportation measures. Appraisal practices vary much over countries and time, but these differences are not fully known. More knowledge on the variation in practices may contribute to smoother knowledge exchange between countries and more informed choices in the further development of each national practice. In this paper, we present both an updated mapping and a meta-analysis of impact coverage in national appraisal guidelines for transportation measures and spatial measures more generally. Our updated mapping of impact coverage covers 18 national and regional guideline sets and 44 sorts of impact. It shows rather similar overall impact coverage in the reviewed guide-lines for economic, social and environmental impacts. The most advanced appraisal practices are found in Northern and Western Europe and Oceania. We find that supplementary quantitative analyses are most common for economic impacts, while multi-criteria analyses are most common for environmental impacts. Our meta-analysis covers ours and 15 earlier impact mappings, jointly covering 42 countries and regions. In this examination, we show how impact cover-age in appraisal practices has improved over time, particularly for environmental, user and wider economic impacts. The meta-analysis also reveals that Western and Northern European and Oceanian countries and dependencies have had the widest impact coverage from 1998 to 2020, both in CB and overall. To examine what characterize countries with broad and narrow impact coverage, we have applied econometric regression models that are linear (i.e. linear least squares), quasi-linear (i.e. Tobit) and fractional response-based (i.e. fractional probit and fractional logit). In these regression analyses, we control for study-specific characteristics and clustering the standard errors on countries. Our results show that the CB impact coverage tends to increase with economic wealth, equality and population size in developed countries, while we find no such patterns for overall impact coverage.

Identification and Evaluation of Risks Encountered in BOT Type Transportation Projects in Turkey: Case Studies

Yap-İşlet-Devret modeli (YİD) ile kamu hizmetlerinin sağlanmasında dünyada öncü ülkelerden olan Türkiye’de, giderek artan kentsel nüfusa bağlı olarak özellikle ulaştırma yatırımlarına olan ihtiyaç artmaktadır. YİD modelleri, bünyesinde projenin başarısını etkileyen çok sayıda riski barındırmaktadır. Bu risklerin tanımlanması; tanımlanan risklere yönelik yanıtların geliştirilerek doğru risk paylaşımlarının yapılabilmesi için önem arz etmektedir. Çalışmada, Türkiye’de YİD modeliyle gerçekleştirilmiş üç güncel ulaştırma projesinde karşılaşılan risklerin tanımlanması ve tartışılması amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmanın sonucunda; üç projede ortak olarak, finansman temini ile ilgili ve fizibilite çalışmalarının yetersizliğinden kaynaklanan problemler nedeniyle projelerin kapsamında ve tarafların risk paylaşımlarında değişikliklere gitmek durumunda kalındığı anlaşılmıştır. Yaşanan problemlere rağmen projelerin kararlılıkla hayata geçirilmesi, ülkede YİD projelerine yönelik güçlü bir politik desteğin olduğunu göstermektedir. Ancak, YİD projeleri için en kritik risk faktörü olan “öngörülen piyasa talebine ulaşılamaması”, bu projelerde de söz konusu olmuştur. Yol projelerinde, geçiş ücretleri ve farklı alternatiflerin bulunması talebi etkilemiş olup; projeler tamamlandıktan kısa süre sonra ortaya çıkan Covid-19 salgınına bağlı dünya genelindeki kapanmaların, beklenen gelirlerin sağlanamamasının esas nedeni olduğu düşünülmektedir. Türkiye’deki YİD ulaştırma projelerinin fizibilite aşamasında çevresel, teknik ve ekonomik açılardan kapsamlı olarak değerlendirilmesi; yapım ve işletme süresince karşılaşılan problemlerin minimuma indirilmesinde temel teşkil etmektedir.

When do public transport investments really matter? A CGE analysis for Türkiye

In this study, the economic impact of public transport investments which have been extensively used as an investment policy tool in Türkiye is analysed from different fiscal policy and financing perspectives by employing a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The impact of public transport investments on key economic performance indicators of real GDP growth and unemployment and macroeconomic vulnerability indicators were investigated in alternative scenarios involving such different financing mechanisms as tax revenues, external borrowing, and public–private partnerships. The results assert that public transport investments stimulate economic growth and employment. Nevertheless, the financing mechanism is an essential factor that determines the level of the impact, its sustainability and in some cases its direction.

Assessment Methods from Around the World Potentially Useful for Public Transport Projects

The financial crisis in 2008/2009 has made many countries aware that public funds need to be managed better. A logical step is to identify methods that thoroughly assess the impacts of infrastructure and service investment. The authors argue that assessments should both identify and use performance indicators related to the ‘triple bottom line’, i.e. economic, social and environmental impacts.This paper provides an overview of assessment methods used to evaluate public transport investments. Positive and negative aspects of various assessment tools are identified and discussed. Some developing world examples appear to be more elaborate and appropriate, than developed world examples, including examples from the United States (U.S.). Although the authors conclude that all methods/tools have challenges, they are of the opinion that a broad and inclusive assessment of public transport investment projects is a must and that the narrowly analyzed and ad-hoc investments witnessed around the world should be avoided.

Surge in Economic Growth of Pakistan: A Case Study of China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is considered a massive investment that can change the economic scenario of Pakistan. The purpose of the study is to examine the contribution to the economic growth of the sectors where CPEC is investing. This research uses time-series data for 31 years to investigate the impact of macro-economic variables like foreign direct investment (FDI), human capital investment (HCI), transport investment, and information communication technology (ICT) on the economic growth of Pakistan. The results of Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square Regression Specification (FMOLS) show a positive nexus between FDI, HCI, and economic growth while economic growth and ICT show a negative relationship. The results for the impact of transportation infrastructure on economic growth are statistically insignificant. This research suggests that an increased focus on building knowledge, expertise, and skillset of human resources will help in reaping the benefits of CPEC’s investment. Future researchers can increase the period of the study to ascertain the implicit or explicit impact of CPEC on economic growth. The results also suggest that policymakers and researchers should focus on developing human capital to reap the investment benefits of CPEC.

Public-Private Partnership Transportation Investment and Low-Carbon Economic Development: An Empirical Study Based on Spatial Spillover and Project Characteristics in China

As the most widely used investment mode of transportation infrastructure in China, PPP has been regarded as an effective institutional tool by the Chinese government for the construction of efficient and sustainable transportation infrastructure, promoting high-quality economic development. In order to evaluate the economic sustainability of PPP, this paper innovatively takes the low-carbon economy as the research perspective and uses 276 cities of China from 2006 to 2018 as samples to comprehensively investigate the impact of transportation PPP investment on the low-carbon economy from the diversified dimensions of the overall effect, spatial effect, mediating effect, heterogeneous effect, lagged effect, and PPP project-level characteristics. The results show that: (1) transportation PPP investment markedly promotes low-carbon economic development in China, which is manifested as the dual improvement effects of benefits and efficiency; (2) transportation PPP investment has a positive spatial spillover effect that can promote the low-carbon economic development of neighboring cities; (3) transportation PPP investment can promote low-carbon economic development by promoting the upgrading of industrial structures, and furthermore has a spatial transmission mechanism; (4) impacts of transportation PPP investment in different subsectors are significantly heterogeneous; (5) transportation PPP investment has a continuous and stable impact on promoting the low-carbon economy in China; (6) the participation of state-owned enterprises and listed companies in PPP projects has a significant positive impact, and state-owned capital is more effective in projects with relatively large scale. All these provide reliable evidence for the far-reaching significance and practical value of transportation PPP investment on sustainable low-carbon economic development.

The Risk Model of Traffic Engineering Investment and Financing by Artificial Intelligence.

This study aims to analyze the influencing factors and mechanisms of investment and financing risks in transportation projects so that regions do not restrict the transportation investment and financing risk models in all areas to achieve intelligent transportation financial risk assessment. Firstly, the investment and financing modes are studied and analyzed. According to the analysis of intellectual investment and the financing report of traffic engineering infrastructure, a traffic engineering investment and a financing model based on intelligent computing is established, which is based on artificial intelligence (AI) big data analysis technology. Secondly, the investment and the financing risk model of traffic engineering is established based on multimodal learning. Finally, the urban traffic engineering of Xi'an is taken as the research object. Based on its investment and financing data in the construction of urban roads, the risk assessment is carried out. Combined with risk influencing factors, the accuracy of the intelligent calculation in the risk assessment model is calculated. Different grades of urban transportation projects have different risks in the investment and financing of transportation projects. The results show that different levels of urban transport projects have different risks in the investment and financing (IAF) performance of transport projects. Among them, the risk index of the first-class project is the highest, reaching 0.55. The risk index of the second-class project is 0.49. The results before and after using the flow engineering IAF risk model are compared. In the test results of traffic engineering risk, all target risks did not increase after the AI-based traffic engineering IAF is tested. The model test results for credit risk and financial risk are the highest at 70 and 60, respectively. Combined with the actual urban development situation, this study can provide investment and financing risk models for urban transportation projects in different regions and provide a reference for the resource control of transportation projects. This study uses AI to learn and analyze traffic engineering investment and financing data and more accurately provide data references for traffic engineering investment and financing risk models.

The TROLLEY Study: assessing travel, health, and equity impacts of a new light rail transit investment during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted life in extraordinary ways impacting health and daily mobility. Public transit provides a strategy to improve individual and population health through increased active travel and reduced vehicle dependency, while ensuring equitable access to jobs, healthcare, education, and mitigating climate change. However, health safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic eroded ridership, which could have longstanding negative consequences. Research is needed to understand how mobility and health change as the pandemic recedes and how transit investments impact health and equity outcomes.MethodsThe TROLLEY (TRansit Opportunities for HeaLth, Livability, Exercise and EquitY) study will prospectively investigate a diverse cohort of university employees after the opening of a new light rail transit (LRT) line and the easing of campus COVID-19 restrictions. Participants are current staff who live either < 1 mile, 1–2 miles, or > 2 miles from LRT, with equal distribution across economic and racial/ethnic strata. The primary aim is to assess change in physical activity, travel mode, and vehicle miles travelled using accelerometer and GPS devices. Equity outcomes include household transportation and health-related expenditures. Change in health outcomes, including depressive symptoms, stress, quality of life, body mass index and behavior change constructs related to transit use will be assessed via self-report. Pre-pandemic variables will be retrospectively collected. Participants will be measured at 3 times over 2 years of follow up. Longitudinal changes in outcomes will be assessed using multilevel mixed effects models. Analyses will evaluate whether proximity to LRT, sociodemographic, and environmental factors modify change in outcomes over time.DiscussionThe TROLLEY study will utilize rigorous methods to advance our understanding of health, well-being, and equity-oriented outcomes of new LRT infrastructure through the COVID-19 recovery period, in a sample of demographically diverse adult workers whose employment location is accessed by new transit. Results will inform land use, transportation and health investments, and workplace interventions. Findings have the potential to elevate LRT as a public health priority and provide insight on how to ensure public transit meets the needs of vulnerable users and is more resilient in the face of future health pandemics.Trial registrationThe TROLLEY study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04940481) June 17, 2021, and OSF Registries (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/PGEHU) June 24, 2021, prior to participant enrollment.

Driving Forces behind Land Use and Land Cover Change: A Systematic and Bibliometric Review

This paper is based on reviewing the literature in the past 10 years on the drivers of land use and land cover change (LULCC) in urban areas. It combines quantitative and qualitative keyword analysis of papers drawn out from the Scopus database. The analysis is primarily based on the number of mentions of keywords in the titles and abstracts of the papers, in addition to the number of keywords appearing in the papers. On the basis of content analysis, a three-level structural categorization of the driving factors was developed. These are presented in a schematic diagram, where the contextual factors are shown as influencing economic and financial factors and policy and regulation, which in turn influences transportation investments and availability, and industrial and residential location choices. Transportation availability was seen as the most frequent factor identified in the literature. This research contends that LULCC is mostly determined by interactions among these four themes in a three-level structure, and on this basis, a model is presented that illustrates LULCC drivers based on local circumstances across the globe.

Toward equity-driven planning typologies: Using accessibility and individual constraints to guide transportation investments

Planners require definitions of transportation accessibility that combine physical connectivity with the interlocking socio-spatial constraints that shape how potential travelers (especially lower income travelers) differentially access the benefits of the transportation system. We propose a framework that modifies physical accessibility - traditional impedance-based accessibility measures - with experienced accessibility reflective of individual constraints related to social, demographic, and economic variables. Our methodology begins with measuring key non-linear correlations between accessibility and constraints that ultimately drive a k-means cluster analysis to comprehensively group census tracts by constraint variables. We then juxtapose the clusters against empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDFs) of their accessibility to develop an equity-driven planning framework that defines key areas for transport intervention. This approach provides greater insight into the constraints individuals face, their true ability to engage with the transportation system, and the effect that interventions would have on their access to the needs of daily life.

China’s Transport Land: Spatiotemporal Expansion Characteristics and Driving Mechanism

The literature about changes in land use includes many studies of global sustainable development goals, while studies of transport land expansion have been relatively scarce. In this paper, we present an analysis of the spatiotemporal characteristics of transport land expansion in China’s 31 provinces from 2009 to 2017, applying the spatial Dubin model to identify the factors that influenced changes in per capita transport land area (PCTLA). The eastern and western regions have continued to lead the nation in terms of the total area dedicated to transport land. The expansion speed of transport land in the central and western regions, however, has been faster than in the eastern and northeast regions. As for PCTLA, the western region had the greatest amount and the central region the least. Further, PCTLA showed significant spatial autocorrelation. Economic development, government regulations, industrial structure, and the extent of opening up and urbanization had significant positive impacts on PCTLA, while the development of railway freight had a negative impact. This paper concludes with some policy suggestions for optimizing transport investment, accelerating the adjustment of industrial structure and transport structure, and implementing high-quality urbanization. The results should be of interest to those involved in the sustainable development of transport systems.

Associations between Light Rail Transit and physical activity: a systematic review

ABSTRACT Investment in public transport is on the rise as many cities around the world aim to reduce their carbon footprint and improve population health. One such investment is building or extending Light Rail Transit (LRT). Focusing on studies in the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, this paper reports the results of a systematic review on the associations between LRT and physical activity. This systematic review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Twenty studies were identified through a search of five bibliographic databases (Web of Science, Transport Research International Documentation (TRID), Scopus, Medline, and SPORTDiscus) (n=5,866) and a systematic Google search (n=446). At least two reviewers conducted the search and reviewed the titles and abstract of each identified article to include in the review. Standardized data extraction forms were used to document information from each selected article. The forms included a risk of bias assessment tool. Two reviewers completed the Effective Public Health Practice Project (EPHPP) Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. Our findings show that moderate certainty of evidence exists for the relationship between LRT and walking behaviour. Here, all studies, most of which were natural experiments (n = 6), found a positive association between LRT and walking behaviour, with LRT leading to an increase of 7–40% in walking in most studies (n = 7 out of 8). A positive relationship between LRT and moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) and between LRT and cycling was also often identified; however, results were inconsistent, and certainty of evidence is low for MPVA, and very low for cycling. Further, some studies (n = 3) identify differences in physical activity participation at different LRT stations, suggesting that station design, surrounding land use, and built environment play important roles in promoting physical activity around LRT. Given this, practitioners can be relatively confident that LRT investments will result in increased walking behaviour.

Nurturing urban innovation and knowledge in the ongoing COVID-19 world

Amidst the catastrophe of COVID-19, segments of the population globally experienced changes in their perspectives on life and the desire to live a more fulfilling life. The study here examines this emergent trend with secondary data available as published survey reports and personal observations using the inductive-reflective method of understanding and theorizing. The findings support the identification of five facets of this new mindset, namely, rise in altruism, growing community-mindedness, increasing focus on health and financial security, searching for work-life balance, and increasing experiences with nature. To channel this emergent mindset, this study proposes five categories of urban innovations: (1) revival of neighborhoods; (2) expansion of parks and nature; (3) investment in urban transportation and greenspaces, (4) incentivizing entrepreneurs for ecology and local “maker economy,” and (5) staging community projects for collective good. The study describes the benefits of these innovations to general population and sets an agenda for urban planners, city managers, and social agencies as citizens begin their ongoing COVID lives. The study closes by advancing ten research proposals for future social science contributions in innovation and knowledge