Who We Are
 The Victoria Transport Policy Institute is an independent research
organization dedicated to developing innovative and practical solutions
to transportation problems. We provide a variety of resources
available free at this website to help improve transportation
planning and policy analysis. We are funded primarily through
consulting and project grants. Our research is among the most current
available and has been widely applied. It can help you:
- Identify better solutions to transportation problems,
including some approaches that are frequently overlooked or misunderstood.
- Identify the full benefits, costs and equity impacts
of alternative transportation policies and programs.
- Compare and evaluate alternatives.
- Create a bridge between theory and practice.
Click here for Planetizen Blogs:
Good Planners: Bad Outcomes. How Structural Biases Can Lead to Unfair and Inefficient Results. Some planning practices are structurally inequitable. They can result in unfair and wasteful outcomes, such as destruction of vibrant, accessible, minority urban communities for the benefit of more affluent suburban motorists. We can do better!
The Roadway Expansion Paradox. Motorists want expensive roadway expansions provided that somebody else foots the bill, but when required to pay directly through tolls, the need for more capacity often disappears. What should planners do?
Smart Growth Loves Heatmaps. Smart growth can provide many important benefits that are easy to see using informative and beautiful heatmaps—our complex world as viewed by all-knowing gods.
Other Blogs and Webinars
An Unglamorous Malahat Congestion Solution: Frequent, Low-Cost Bus Service This Times Colonist newspaper column argues that the best way to improve Vancouver Island transportation is to provide frequent and affordable bus transit services between Victoria and Nanaimo, plus pedestrian and bicycle improvements to access bus stops, and commute trip reduction programs to encourage travellers to choose public transit when possible.
Not So Fast: Why Slower Is Often Better - Streetsblog. To create more affordable, healthy, equitable, accessible, and resource-efficient communities, planners must reform the way we value speed relative to other community goals.
Planning for the New Mobilities, Meeting of the Minds. As we consider incorporating transportation innovations into our communities, there are good reasons to be cautious. New technologies and services can provide benefits, but often impose large and unfair costs. It is important to use comprehensive analysis when planning for new mobilities.
AI (artificial intelligence) and You, episodes 61 and 62. Peter Scott interviews Todd Litman about his report Autonomous Vehicle Implementation Predictions: Implications for Transport Planning
Pneumatic Tube Trains and AVs to the Rescue? Smarter Planning for New Mobility, The City Fix blog. New modes and mobility services have tantalizing potential, but also impose significant costs and risks. We need comprehensive analysis to determine how – and how not – to incorporate these new technologies.
Newsletters
VTPI NEWS Fall 2021, Vo. 21/4
VTPI NEWS Summer 2021, Vo. 21/3
New Mobilities Book Update
VTPI NEWS Spring 2021, Vo. 21/2
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Newest Resources
New Mobilities: Smart Planning for Emerging Transportation Technologies (Planner Press 2021)
This new book by Todd Litman critically evaluates twelve emerging transportation technologies and services that may affect our lives and communities. It systematically analyzes their benefits and costs, and how they affect affordability, safety, social equity goals, and contagion risk, and provides guidance for optimiizing their implementation.
Book Publicity
* Goodreads New Mobilities page. Information and reader reviews.
* Pneumatic Tube Trains and AVs to the Rescue? Smarter Planning for New Mobility: The City Fix. New modes and mobility services have tantalizing potential, but also impose significant costs and risks. We need objective and comprehensive analysis to determine how – and how not – to incorporate these new technologies.
* Todd Litman: Five Predictions on New Mobility: Viewpoint Vancouver. This “chatbox” with Gordon Price explores conclusions from the book, New Mobilities, including predictions about emerging transportation technologies , and the Litman-Glamour/Benefits-Inverse-Relationship.
* Which New Mobilities are Good for Your Community? This Greenbiz Magazine, article discusses New Mobilities.
Evaluating Transportation Equity: Guidance for Incorporating Distributional Impacts in Transport Planning
Equity refers to the fairness with which impacts (benefits and costs) are distributed. Transportation planning decisions can have large and diverse equity impacts. This report provides guidance for transportation equity analysis. It describes various perspectives and impacts, and practical ways to incorporate transportation equity goals into planning.
Comprehensive Transport Emission Reduction Planning. Guidelines for Evaluating Transportation Emission Reduction Strategies.
This study critically evaluates the methods used to develop transportation emission reduction plans. It finds that the process is often biased in ways that exaggerate the benefits of clean vehicles such as electric cars, and undervalue vehicle travel reduction strategies. The results suggest that to be efficient and equitable, transportation emission reduction plans should rely at least as much on vehicle travel reductions as on clean vehicle strategies, with particular emphasis on “quick win” strategies.
Evaluating Transportation Equity. Guidance for Incorporating Distributional Impacts in Transport Planning
This article, submitted for publication in the ITE Journal, provides guidance for evaluating transportation equity. It defines various types of equity, equity impacts and objectives, and describes practical ways to incorporate equity evaluation into transportation planning.
The Business Case for Post-Covid Public Transit
This report investigates the roles that public transit plays in an efficient and equitable transportation system, and how the Covid pandemic affects these roles. This analysis indicates that well-planned transit improvements can continue to provide large benefits. This is a technical report for the Pairagraph debate, What Is the Future for Transit After COVID?, between transit critic Randal O'Toole and Todd Litman concerning the future of public transportation.
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