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theses

In recognition of its commitment to commuter safety, The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, a transit agency serving the Philadelphia metropolitan region, implemented a severe weather policy during the 2009 – 2010 winter season unlike any other in its storied history. In so doing, the unprecedented decision to shut down its systems due to heavy snowfalls revealed the agency’s reluctance and inability to continue to manage the costs of weather-related damage to its equipment (e.g., buses, rail cars, etc.) and infrastructure (e.g., railroad, bridges, sub-power stations, etc.). Furthermore, it signaled the start of a new era in hazard risk management as well as climate change adaptation for a transit agency whose managers face uncertain financial and environmental futures. This case study recognizes that metropolitan places, their peoples, and their social and economic development are threatened by regular and protracted transit disruptions. Its purpose was to explore the future of extreme weather management and climate change adaptation for a metropolitan transit agency through the examination of its resource and decision-making challenges, constraints and opportunities. The study incorporates content analyses, GIS mapping, and semi-structured interviews with executive-level managers employed by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Important insights on adaptation planning and policymaking for transit systems in general and the managerial and operational circumstances surrounding extreme weather management for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in particular. Research results show that: (1) transit systems are underappreciated in adaptation planning and policymaking efforts and (2) adaptation’s complexity is revealed through managerial (in)decisions pertaining to organizational philosophy, organizational stressors, transit infrastructure location and condition, and capital resources. The research findings have important policy implications. They show the need for (1) intentional and more aggressive efforts to integrate state, municipal and transit agency adaptation planning and policymaking efforts; (2) the incorporation of socioeconomic vulnerability assessments into existing hazard risk assessments and climate change adaptation strategies; (3) adaptation plans and policies that are written in appreciation of the historical, institutional, physical, social, economic, political and environmental circumstances in which the agency operates from community to community; (4) safety net policy and practice interventions that address the shortcomings of weather resilience strategies; and (5) public education programs centering on the management and adaptation of transit systems for weather extremes.

ETD_5239

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Mark Barnes

doi:10.7282/T32V2D76

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.