Nitc final Report Prepared by Shima Hamidi and Philip Stoker

Methods

• 
  Interviews: Students conducted interviews with professional planners in their study regions. Planners were identified based off of job titles and contacted prior to the student’s travel. The students conducted the interviews in person and utilized a semi-structured interview approach. Students took detailed notes during the interview, and following the interview wrote the notes into cohesive passages. These passages were then returned by e-mail to the interviewees in order for the interviewee to review the accuracy of the notes.
  

• 
  Urban Design Audits: We employed an established and validated urban design instrument to quantify the characteristics of urban design adjacent to TOD stations. Students randomly selected 10 street segments within ½ mile of the selected stations to audit. Once in the field, students walked up and down the street segments recording urban design qualities. In addition, the students counted the pedestrians on each street segment as a measure of walkability. These audits provided measures of imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity. See Appendix A for a copy of the audit.
  

• 
  Questionnaires: The instructors developed a questionnaire to administer at the selected TOD stations to capture the views, opinions, and preferences of passengers. The questionnaire was tested on a sample population in Salt Lake City prior to student field visits. In the field, the students worked in pairs to administer the survey to passengers waiting at the stations. All persons over the age 18 who were near the station terminal were asked to participate. The survey instrument is included in Appendix A.
  

• 
  Quantitative measurement of D variables: Prior to field visits, students calculated D variables, i.e. Density, Design, and Diversity for ½ mile around their selected TOD stations. These measures were derived using an accepted methodology and are presented in each of city sections. Data was gathered from publically available sources such as the U.S. census as well as proprietary databases on road network density.
  

• 
  Qualitative observations: The students were encouraged to make qualitative observations as they visited the different field sites. We encouraged students to make observations about the land use around stations, station characteristics, as well as what stores and people were within ½ mile of the selected stations. Students also took photographs to supplement their qualitative observations. These observations were used to inform each of the student chapters.