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Professor Iseki Collaborates with Students on Electric Vehicle Readiness

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Professor Iseki Collaborates with Students on Electric Vehicle Readiness

Professor Hiro Iseki collaborated with his students on a paper on Electric Vehicle Readiness for local governments in Maryland. Please read the full report here.
During the Spring 2021 semester, a team of four students of the Urban Studies and Planning Program (URSP) in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (MAPP) at the University of Maryland conducted a project to assess the readiness of Maryland municipalities and provide policy and planning recommendations to increase their EV readiness. This project examines EV readiness across several municipalities and identifies challenges and opportunities, using a three-pronged strategy described in the next section.
The overarching questions answered in this project are:
  1. To what extent have local governments in Maryland planned and implemented EV readiness?
  2. In what ways can they increase their EV readiness using Best Practices from other jurisdictions facing similar challenges?
This document summarizes the project and its findings with a focus on highlighting the Best Practices from other jurisdictions across the country to provide practical policy and planning recommendations for municipalities in Maryland to consider. It includes a brief overview of the research methodology, followed by the major findings and recommendations.
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Nick FinioSep 16No Comments

NCSG’s “InPLACE” study in Ireland covered in Local Authority Times

NCSG and Irish research partner the ICLRD are embarking on a new study to assess how COVID-19 has changed commuting patterns and places in Ireland. Read more here.
Understanding the changing relationship between work and home Since early 2020, COVID-19 has been a major disruptor in all our lives. The global pandemic has dramatically changed the activity patterns of individuals and families, transforming everyday geographies, and the scale at which we live. It has created challenges and opportunities for local authorities, and for small and medium sized towns in particular. In the longer-term, the implications for places and communities are potentially profound. One of the areas where this is most clearly seen is the changing relationship between work and home. The enforced switch to home working significantly reduced commuting to work for many and has opened greater possibilities for hybrid or remote models of working in the future. Policies and practices in local and national government have begun to address the changing pattern in how we live and work, for example, with changing approaches to town and village renewal, digitisation and pedestrianisation in towns. Nationally, Our Rural Future and the National Remote Work Strategy strongly identify the need to support telecommuting and flexible working

Over the past fifteen years, the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) has been supporting local authorities and other actors to enhance their capacity to understand and implement strategies focused on place-making. The ICLRD is a north-south-USA partnership that involves Maynooth University, Ulster University and the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG). Its multidisciplinary team combines academic and practitioner expertise in spatial planning, geography, local and regional development and good governance. Together with University College Dublin and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, the ICLRD isleading a two-year action research programme investigating the impacts of pre- and post-COVID commuting on people and place. The study is titled ‘InPLACE: Investigating Place, Planning and Commuting.’

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Nick FinioAug 26No Comments

Prof. Knaap to speak on Cities of Tomorrow Panel

The Office for Science and Technology (OST) of the Embassy of France in the US is pleased to announce a fourth episode in the Cities of Tomorrow webinar series. It will take place on Wednesday, July 20th, 2021 between 11:00-12:30 (EST).

Register here: 

The OST will welcome the presence of Nacima Baron and Isabelle Gournay (Université Gustave Eiffel, UMD), Alain L’Hostis (Université Gustave Eiffel) and Gerrit Knaap (UMD, Smart Initiative), who will collectively talk about challenges and new approaches in the development of stations districts focusing on the greater DC area and France.

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Each webinar starts by short presentations (15-20 min each) by project leaders with a chance for registered participants to ask some questions and discuss with the experts. Other observers are encouraged to reach out to the OST for further information on the presentations or to connect with the experts afterwards.

This series of webinars will culminate in a French-American Innovation Day (FAID), a physical event in Washington, DC which will take place when possible in 2021 or in the beginning of 2022.

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Nick FinioJul 19No Comments