First-Class Areas to Site a Vertiport? MTI has Tool for Best Selection

The Mine­ta Trans­porta­tion Insti­tute (MTI), a research and train­ing unit in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Lucas Col­lege and Grad­u­ate School of Busi­ness at San José State Uni­ver­si­ty (SJSU), recent­ly pub­lished a research report that employed a sys­tem­at­ic approach for iden­ti­fy­ing the best-locat­ed ver­ti­port sites, based on a case study of the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area.

This report has estab­lished “a frame­work for a sys­tem­at­ic approach to ver­ti­port site selec­tion and rec­om­men­da­tions for how a region might plan their Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) net­work using Geo­graph­ic Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems (GIS),” states a report sum­ma­ry. “This approach offers con­sis­ten­cy in AAM site selec­tion for a region while remain­ing flex­i­ble enough to allow for oth­er local con­sid­er­a­tions that may dif­fer between regions such as zon­ing or com­mu­ni­ty pref­er­ences.”

It con­tin­ues, “The study area encom­passed the greater San Fran­cis­co Bay Area, which for this study includ­ed Alame­da, Con­tra Cos­ta, San Fran­cis­co, San Mateo, and San­ta Clara Coun­ties. This broad region was cho­sen to ensure the inclu­sion of a vari­ety of dif­fer­ent urban forms and built envi­ron­ments with­in a region that would like­ly have broad imple­men­ta­tion of AAM where there is an air, rail, and tran­sit net­work.”

The Gold­en Gate Bridge in San Fran­cis­co Bay Area (Cred­it: Max Whit­tak­er)

And goes on, “With the poten­tial for fre­quent low alti­tude UAM flights, long-range plan­ning must demon­strate aware­ness, knowl­edge, and util­i­sa­tion of geo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion sci­ence to select safe and just ver­ti­port loca­tions. This study sum­maris­es the AAM lit­er­a­ture and offers plan­ners a set of stake­hold­er-informed para­me­ters to use in a no-cost pre­lim­i­nary GIS analy­sis when applied to urban, sub­ur­ban, and exur­ban site suit­abil­i­ty mod­els.”

The report then says, “Para­me­ters for this case study were iden­ti­fied under the con­sid­er­a­tions of safe­ty, access, and equi­ty for ver­ti­port place­ment and giv­en a high, medi­um, or low pri­or­i­ty lev­el to deter­mine site suit­abil­i­ty. The goals of this study are to estab­lish a frame­work for the sys­tem­at­ic approach to ver­ti­port site selec­tion and to pro­vide rec­om­men­da­tions for how a region might plan its AAM net­work, reg­u­la­tions, or best prac­tices.”

And adds, “The approach estab­lished by this frame­work would ensure gen­er­al con­sis­ten­cy in AAM land use plan­ning for a region while remain­ing flex­i­ble enough to allow for oth­er con­sid­er­a­tions that may dif­fer between regions, such as local zon­ing or state reg­u­la­tions. The study also high­lights the impor­tance of inte­grat­ing a focus on land use plan­ning when imple­ment­ing AAM.”

Please Read This Impor­tant Research Report

https://transweb.sjsu.edu/sites/default/files/2122-RB-Wei-Land-Use-Analysis-Vertiports-San-Francisco-Bay-Area.pdf

https://transweb.sjsu.edu/sites/default/files/2122-Wei-Land-Use-Analysis-Vertiports-San-Francisco-Bay-Area.pdf

For more infor­ma­tion

https://transweb.sjsu.edu/research/2122-Land-Use-Analysis-Vertiports-San-Francisco-Bay-Area

(Top image: MTI)