Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

University of California, Los Angeles | UCLA · Department of Urban Planning

In recent decades, homelessness has become an increasingly major challenge in the U.S., reaching about half million unhoused people. Many of them seek shelter in settings such as freeways, underpasses, and rest areas. State departments of transportation (DOTs) are responsible for the health and safety of these settings and their occupants, housed a...

This article focuses on national and local anti-homeless ordinances and investigates emerging spatial banishment strategies and their impacts on unhoused folks’ basic freedoms. First, we review debates on co-existing geographies of punishment and care through theoretical and legal lenses. Focusing on sixteen cities in the United States, we examine...

California’s freeways have come under increasing scrutiny for their disproportionately adverse impacts on low-income populations and populations of color. This study uses empirical research to not only understand but also quantify and describe in detail the historical impacts of freeways on communities of color in four California cities and areas:...

Buses, bus stops, trains, and train platforms represent sites of shelter for many of the over 500,000 Americans who are unhoused every night. This study seeks to understand how transit agencies are responding to them. Based on interviews with staff members and partners at 10 different transit agencies and on program performance data, where availabl...

In recent decades, homelessness has become an increasingly major challenge in the U.S. Of the half million unhoused people in the U.S., many seek shelter in settings under the auspices of state departments of transportation (DOTs), such as freeways, underpasses, and rest areas. DOTs are responsible for the health and safety of these settings and of...

More than half a million individuals experience homelessness every single night in the United States. The limited capacity of shelters to meet their needs is forcing many to turn to transit vehicles, bus stops, and transit stations for shelter. The pandemic only exacerbated the homelessness crisis. Fear of infection in shelters and reduced capacity...

Contributions by urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, architects, and landscape architects on the role and scope of urban design in creating more just and inclusive cities. Scholars who write about justice and the city rarely consider the practices and processes of urban design, while discourses on urban design often neglect concerns abou...

Contributions by urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, architects, and landscape architects on the role and scope of urban design in creating more just and inclusive cities. Scholars who write about justice and the city rarely consider the practices and processes of urban design, while discourses on urban design often neglect concerns abou...

Contributions by urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, architects, and landscape architects on the role and scope of urban design in creating more just and inclusive cities. Scholars who write about justice and the city rarely consider the practices and processes of urban design, while discourses on urban design often neglect concerns abou...

Contributions by urban planners, sociologists, anthropologists, architects, and landscape architects on the role and scope of urban design in creating more just and inclusive cities. Scholars who write about justice and the city rarely consider the practices and processes of urban design, while discourses on urban design often neglect concerns abou...

Residential displacement impacts the quality of life, health, and economic outlook for households. Yet, there is little evidence on how housing policy works to prevent displacement. This literature review examines how 12 housing policies, encompassing household/neighborhood stabilization, affordable housing preservation, and housing production, mit...

More than 500,000 people experience homelessness in the United States, and many turn to transit vehicles, stops, and stations for shelter. We present findings from a survey of 115 U.S. and Canadian transit operators that inquired about homelessness on transit systems. We find that homelessness is broadly present, though more concentrated on central...

This concluding chapter presents a summary of the research findings in the previous chapters, along with some reflections for each of the five themes of the book and a discussion of necessary future responses (post-pandemic or in the event of a new pandemic) and topics that require further exploration. The pandemic brought into sharp relief pre-exi...

Problem, research strategy, and findings We examined land use and design controls in three municipalities in Los Angeles County (CA)—Alhambra, Arcadia, and San Gabriel—that have experienced a recent influx of Asian residents. We drew from archival research of newspaper articles, planning documents, city council and planning commission meeting minut...

This article investigates the potential for intergenerational public space in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Through a series of site observations, focus groups, interviews, thick mapping, and participatory design exercises, we work with 43 youth and 38 older adults (over 65), all residents of Westlake, to examine their public space use,...

Significant scholarship has focused on accommodating diverse age groups in urban public environments. However, intergenerational approaches emphasizing engagement between generations represent an emerging area of research and practice. This review synthesizes literature from urban planning and cognate fields on the need for and benefits of intergen...

More than half a million people in the U.S. experience homelessness every day. Lacking other options, many turn to transit vehicles, stops, and stations for shelter. Many also ride public transit to reach various destinations. With affordable housing scarce and the numbers of unhoused individuals often surpassing the capacities of existing safety n...

This article examines the incidence of an omnipresent but underreported crime in transit environments: sexual harassment. More specifically, it presents the findings of a global comparative study that surveyed 11,710 college students from 18 cities in six different continents, to inquire about their victimization experiences with verbal, physical,...

How can we alleviate the plight of older people during COVID-19? This chapter takes stock and assesses the effectiveness of the efforts against the pandemic in the US, particularly for people over 60. It argues that this age category is often an afterthought for policy makers. The consequences of oversight, the fear of death, increased stigma and d...

COVID-19 is an invisible threat that has hugely impacted cities and their inhabitants. Yet its impact is very visible, perhaps most so in urban public spaces and spaces of mobility. This international volume explores the transformations of public space and public transport in response to COVID-19 across the world, both those resulting from official...

Introduction Older adults represent the fastest-growing population segment in the US and many other cities of the Global North (United Nations, 2019), thanks to longer life spans and advancements in medicine. But along with the longer life expectancy come also challenges. Deteriorating physical health, death of a spouse or partner, and living alone...

Resilience is a framework that drives cities’ responses to climate change, evidenced by the increasing number of resilience plans that cities have adopted. Resilience plans can offer insights on how cities conceptualize resilience. We undertake a content analysis of 38 resilience plans of US cities to understand how they define resilience, conceptu...

As settings planned and designed with children in mind, playgrounds have a lot to offer to children's physical, social and educational development. However, US playgrounds are often underutilized by middle-school children, as they become upstaged by electronic and computer games. This article explores the reasons for playground underutilization in...

Mobility and technology can facilitate in-person and virtual social participation to help reduce social isolation, but issues exist regarding older adults’ access, feasibility, and motivation to use various forms of mobility and technology. This qualitative study explores how a diverse group of low-income, urban-living older adults use mobility and...

Transit settings represent sites of visible homelessness, especially since the advent of COVID-19, for many of the over 500,000 Americans unhoused each night. This report seeks to understand the scale of homelessness on transit and how transit agencies are responding to the problem. Part I describes the extent of homelessness on transit in several...

Book description (cited from the website) " Spatial Implications and Planning Criteria for High-speed Rail Cities and Regions evaluates the varied experiences that HSR systems have brought about to different station-cities and their regional territories around the world, with an eye towards better future planning and policy of such systems. This e...

This study reports variation in safety perceptions in transit environments, based on samples of university students in 18 cities on six continents who responded to an identical 45-question survey (N= 13,323 university students). We explore potential links between students' fears and sexual victimization and conclude that sexual harassment affects t...

More than half a million individuals experience homelessness every night in the U.S. With the scale of the crisis often surpassing the capacities of existing safety nets—all the more so since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic—many turn to transit vehicles, stops, and stations for shelter. Many also use transit to reach destinations such as workpla...

Evaluating patterns of sexual violence against young people across the world in the era of the #MeToo movement presents great opportunities for research and practice but also challenges. The aim of this article is to critically assess an internet-based methodology employed in a comparative study conducted with university students in 18 different ci...

As both scholarly literature and experience on the ground indicates, good station-area planning is a very important prerequisite for the eventual successful operation of a high-speed rail (HSR) station. In addition to facilitating the mobility of travellers, good station-area planning can also trigger opportunities for economic development in the s...

This study presents findings from a survey with 1,284 students at three Los Angeles area universities, exploring their experiences with sexual harassment in transit environments, and how these differ by gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. It finds that sexual harassment is a common occurrence, forcing precautionary behaviors. Neverthele...

Underprivileged urban communities often have less parks than wealthier communities. Even when new parks are built and are physically accessible to such communities, park design and programming is often undertaken without community input and may result in psychologically inaccessible parks. To address this problem, the California Department of Parks...

In this chapter we draw from the results of the empirical work in the 18 case study cities to propose recommendations on how to respond to sexual harassment and sexual assault in transit environments. We first synthesize and critically review some of the key findings to set out a new research agenda, then outline a series of suggestions on how to a...

The chapter defines the scope of the book and structure. The aim of the book is to characterize the dynamics of transit crime, in particular sexual harassment and violence, from the perspective of those who are most targeted by these offences, namely young people. The book focuses on women but also adopts a more holistic approach by considering the...

Original, action-oriented humanist practices for interpreting and intervening in the city: a new methodology at the intersection of the humanities, design, and urban studies. Urban humanities is an emerging field at the intersection of the humanities, urban planning, and design. It offers a new approach not only for understanding cities in a global...

The #MeToo movement has brought much attention to crimes of sexual harassment in the workplace, but less attention has been given to such crimes taking place in transit environments. Reviewing international literature on sexual harassment, assault, and rape in transit environments, this article explores questions that relate to the nature, frequenc...

Essa apresentacao introduz um modelo de análise em ambientes de percurso, como ponto de onibus, estacoes de trem e a caminho deles. Depois, baseado num esforco coletivo e de cooperacao com colegas em 5 continentes eu apresento os resultados de um estudo global de assédio sexual e crimes sexuais contra jovens em ambientes de percurso em 18 cidades...

To explore how access to transportation and technology/social media influence social connectivity among an ethnically diverse group of vulnerable low-income older adults, six focus groups were conducted (N=48) in English, Spanish, and Korean at a senior services agency. Qualitative thematic analyses revealed overarching themes that fit within the W...

Problem, research strategy, and findings: People older than 65 are the most rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population, yet our cities and transportation systems are not age friendly. Low-income, minority, older adults residing in inner-city neighborhoods are largely transit dependent, rely significantly on walking for transportation, and thus...

Gentrification impacts commercial areas in various ways, bringing new businesses and displacing old ones. Recent studies have found links between gentrification and transit-oriented development (TOD) around stations. But little is known about how gentrification affects pedestrian and cyclist safety. This study analyzes collision patterns around 81...

An examination of the neighborhood transformation, gentrification, and displacement that accompany more compact development around transit. Cities and regions throughout the world are encouraging smarter growth patterns and expanding their transit systems to accommodate this growth, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and satisfy new demands for mobil...

This introduction to the Special Issue on the Spatial Implications and Planning Criteria for High-speed Rail Cities and Regions attempts to distinguish its short- and long-term impacts described in the literature, classifying them into regional and inter-urban effects, urban effects and wider economic impacts. Articles composing this Special Issue...

The documented under-representation of ethnoracial minority population in peri-urban parks can be considered an environmental justice issue. This exploratory qualitative study examined the outreach efforts and challenges faced by a large state parks agency in attracting underserved and under-represented visitors from low-income and ethnoracial mino...

What determines park use by minority groups, and how can park equity be increased? To answer these questions, the study reviews the literature on the equitable use of parks, and analyzes the outreach strategies of 11 exemplary open space organizations with success in increasing park use by underprivileged groups. It finds that park suppliers can in...

This paper discusses challenges to and promising practices for making infrastructure improvements that enable persons with disabilities and all system users to safely reach public transportation stations and stops to access fixed-route transit options. Although tremendous strides have been made in national transit system accessibility since the 199...

Major gaps exist in the literature regarding the link between open space and physical activity promotion for older adults. This study conducted a systematic review on older adults, open space, and physical activity to identify their needs and preferences in and near parks. We identified 48 peer-reviewed journal articles. All articles focused on old...

Neighborhood change is a complex phenomenon that may result in a range of physical, demographic, and economic changes in a locality. Using four case studies of transit neighborhoods in Los Angeles, this study utilizes a mixed-methods approach to examine a particular aspect of neighborhood change—gentrification. The article also compares and contras...

In this paper, the non-motorized traffic safety concerns in and around three university campuses are evaluated by comparing police-reported crash data with traffic safety information sourced from the campus communities themselves. The crowdsourced traffic safety data comprise of both self-reported crashes as well as perceived hazardous locations. T...

Scholarly interest in the relationship between public investments and residential displacement dates back to the 1970s and the aftermath of displacement related to urban renewal. A new wave of scholarship examines the relationship of gentrification and displacement to public investment in transit infrastructure. Scholarship has generally conflated...

As a burgeoning literature on high-speed rail development indicates, good station-area planning is a very important prerequisite for the eventual successful operation of a high-speed rail station; it can also trigger opportunities for economic development in the station area and the station-city. At the same time, “on the ground” experiences from i...

This paper applies a gendered lens on transport and mobility. It provides an overview of the literature from both the Global North and the Global South to discuss the issues and challenges affecting women's unobstructed movement around the city, both historically and at present. It also draws from feminist theory to discuss why mobility patterns ar...

Over the last four decades, comparative urbanism has flourished, triggered by a desire to identify, compare, contrast, or juxtapose parallel phenomena that happen in multiple sociospatial contexts and likely influence one another. Starting in the 1970s, a number of scholars began touting the need for comparative urban research that opens the eyes t...

Persons with disabilities can achieve a greater degree of freedom when they have full access to a variety of transit modes, but this can only be achieved when the pathways to transit – the infrastructure and conditions in the built environment – allow full access to transit stops, stations, and vehicles. Since passage of the Americans with Disabili...

As a means for neighbourhood improvement, cultural urban revitalisation seeks to draw business growth and investment by attracting a creative class of young urban professionals. Though criticisms abound that these strategies benefit the wealthy and displace low-income communities, there is little research focusing on how the efforts of social actor...

Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of nearly 1000 Louisiana residents and damaged about 80% of the building stock in New Orleans. Unequal protection from the hurricane and uneven recovery patterns have left some communities (predominantly low-income and black) with few options to rebuild their homes. These factors have created a high demand for ho...

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Parks provide important physiological and psychological benefits to seniors, improving their quality of life; they are particularly important for low-income, inner-city seniors who lack access to open and green space. However, seniors do not often use parks partly because park design and programming are not...

The original goal of high-speed rail (HSR) was to link large metropolitan regions 400– 600 km apart. Recently, however, intermediate 'ex-metropolitan' HSR stations have also been created in suburban areas/cities within metropolitan regions (up to 100 km from the metropolitan centre). This study takes a close look at nine such 'ex-metropolitan' stat...

Recent scholarship suggests that the urban design profession is flourishing with many newly created urban design departments, programmes and certificates. Within this context, this paper suggests that urban design education should explore how urban designers can acquire a deeper understanding of the larger socio-economic processes which have an imp...

Decades of research have contributed to the development of standards and models to guide pedestrian-friendly transit station designs, although it is not at all clear from the literature how these tools are collectively used in practice. To address this, we interviewed 15 experts in transit station design. Based on the themes identified in these int...

Although informality is typically associated with developing countries, this article argues that informal activities are an integral part of U.S. cities and should be addressed in planning curricula. It focuses on planning education and suggests a possible course, which includes a seminar covering academic literature on informality in both developi...

High-speed rail (HSR) has emerged as one of the most revolutionary and transformative transportation technologies, having a profound impact on urban-regional accessibility and inter-city travel across Europe, Japan, and more recently China and other Asian countries. One of HSR’s biggest advantages over air travel is that it offers passengers a one-...

Public transit networks around the world, including bus, tram, and train systems and their stops and stations, have been targets for terrorist attacks. These systems are vulnerable to attack because they must remain openly accessible and disseminate information about their services widely in order to serve society and because complex screening of p...

P.E. classes are often the only opportunity for inner-city youth to engage in physical activity, but budget cuts and pressure to perform well on standardized tests has made P.E. an afterthought for many school administrators. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a new P.E. curriculum in five Los Angeles inner-city schools. Interviews were cond...

Fear of victimization and crime is quite widespread among women. Fear of crime surveys report that women are more fearful of crime than men (Gordon and Riger, 1989). The fear of rape is prominent among women, but feminist scholars also argue about a continuity of violence that concerns women, and may include intimidation, groping, sexual comments,...

The original goal of high-speed rail (HSR) was to link large metropolitan regions 400–600 km apart. Recently, however, intermediate ‘ex-metropolitan’ HSR stations have also been created in suburban areas/cities within metropolitan regions (up to 100 km from the metropolitan centre). This study takes a close look at nine such ‘ex-metropolitan’ stati...

Street vending represents a vital and growing aspect of the urban informal economy that is often the subject of municipal regulatory efforts that seek to control, confine or extinguish it. In the People's Republic of China, recent developments and discussions on vendor rights and regulation underscore important socio-political and economic changes...

Transit planners often place light rail station platforms in the middle of freeways to avoid land acquisition costs and neighborhood opposition. However, waiting for the rail at these platforms is unpleasant and may present a health risk. The study measures, compares, and contrasts noise levels at such “freeway stations” with noise levels encounter...