Students in Organic Chemistry for Majors were required to write a paper as the culminating course assignment. Prior to completing this assignment, students could attend a library instruction session covering relevant databases and resources. Upon submission of their papers, bibliographies from 53 students were collected. Calculations were made to attempt a holistic account of costs associated with completing the assignment. Factors such as the cost of journals, databases, and librarian time were all included in the overall cost estimate, totalling $7,189.22 for this single assignment.

There is a need for indicators of transportation-land use system quality that are understandable to a wide range of stakeholders, and which can provide immediate feedback on the quality of interactively designed scenarios. Location-based accessibility indicators are promising candidates, but indicator values can vary strongly depending on time of day and transfer wait times. Capturing this variation increases complexity, slowing down calculations. We present new methods for rapid yet rigorous computation of accessibility metrics, allowing immediate feedback during early-stage transit planning, while being rigorous enough for final analyses. Our approach is statistical, characterizing the uncertainty and variability in accessibility metrics due to differences in departure time and headway-based scenario specification. The analysis is carried out on a detailed multi-modal network model including both public transportation and streets. Land use data are represented at high resolution. These methods have been implemented as open-source software running on commodity cloud infrastructure. Networks are constructed from standard open data sources, and scenarios are built in a map-based web interface. We conclude with a case study, describing how these methods were applied in a long-term transportation planning process for metropolitan Amsterdam.

Public transit systems have been identified as a critical component to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with the transportation sector to mitigate future climate change impacts. A unique aspect of public transit is its use almost always necessitates environmental exposure and the design of these systems directly influences rider exposure via rider ingress, egress, and waiting. There is a tension between policies and programs which promote transit use to combat climate change and the potential impact an uncertain climate future may have on transit riders.

In the American Southwest, extreme heat events, a known public health threat, are projected to increase between 150 and 840% over the next decade, and may be a health hazard for transit riders. There are opportunities to incorporate rider health risks in the overall planning process and develop alternative transit schedules during extreme heat events to minimize these risks. Using Los Angeles Metro as a case studies, we show that existing transit vehicles can be reallocated across the system to significantly reduce exposure for riders who are more vulnerable to heat while maintaining a minimum level of service across the system. As cities continue to invest in public transit it is critical for them to understand transit use as an exposure pathway for riders and to develop strategies to mitigate potential health risks.