Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item From the mountain to the valley: the flows and frictions of commuting in a resort geography(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Otto, Elise Lodge; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Julia Hobson HaggertyThis research examines the commuting experiences of laborers who travel upwards of 60 miles to work in the resort town of Big Sky, Montana, USA. Using semi-structured interviews with commuters and an ethnographic approach, this case study describes the phenomenon of rapid luxury amenity growth with a focus on how on workers experience the commuting burdens of endemic housing shortages. The analysis draws on concepts from resource geography, urban planning, and transportation studies to elucidate the relationship between the spatial footprint of the resort economy, commuting and the subjective well-being of workers. To categorize a wide range of subjective descriptions of the commute, the study offers the framework of flows and frictions. A focus on commuting provides a new way to understand how costs externalized by the resort economy are adapted to, and absorbed by, workers. As wealth inequality continues to create demand for high end tourism and real estate, these results are an important contribution to understanding the associated social and spatial costs that accrue to resort laborers.Item Ex-urban development in the Rocky Mountain West : consequences for native vegetation, wildlife diversity, and land-use planning in Big Sky, Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2000) Oechsli, Lauren MarieItem Montana's evolving urban system : a geography of economic linkages, 1869-1914(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 1991) Halberg, James RobertItem Landscapes, architecture(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2010) McGrane, Kurt Ryan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ralph JohnsonContinued population growth is inevitable to Montana's future. This can be seen as a source of great alarm or great opportunity. If suburbanization of Montana's agricultural and wild mountain landscapes continues, eventually that which makes Montana so appealing - its open space - will disappear. Future growth should be seen as an opportunity to densify and enrich Montana's existing urban centers. However, prevailing attitudes of what it means to live in Montana as well as economic and infrastructural constructs, currently promote a gradually expanding low density sprawl. As important as open landscapes and nature are to the identity and appeal of Montana, continued population growth means man-made structures are increasingly becoming the dominant presence on the land. Perhaps instead of pressing low density architecture outward over the landscape, the landscape can be drawn into the architecture. By providing an urban park of densely layered activity but defined by a spacial characteristic of openness, a surrounding urbanity can be made possible which still retains Montana's defining character and appeal. This project will be a proactive architectural act, an urban catalyst for change. It will utilize the concepts of Landscape Infrastructure, Terrain Vague, and The Fold to give a sense of ambiguity and slipperyness to the program and allow it to relate to both urban and ecological frameworks. This ambiguity will allow for the interpretive freedom necessary for the assertion of individual identity to occur, as well as give the project an ability to adapt to future changes in the urban (and rural) fabric. Individual programs will be defined based on local needs, and where these separate (and perhaps strikingly disparate) programs intersect, nodes of unpredictable excitement can manifest. Introducing a public, open ended, multi-layered program designed with both specificity and ambiguity will provide an answer to the western conflict between freedom of the individual and the shared environmental responsibility of land stewardship.Item A travel demand model for rural areas(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Engineering, 2012) Berger, Aaron Damien; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Patrick McGowenGallatin County has experienced dramatic population growth over the past decade. The Sonoran Institute has been developing land use planning tools to help address the issues arising from this high growth. One of the most serious impacts of high population growth is increased vehicle traffic, typically measured through vehicle miles traveled. The Sonoran Institute's land use planning tools were used to develop two future growth scenarios, one representing growth following current trends and the other representing a higher population density and higher employment/residential mix of development. The project task was to predict the total daily vehicle miles traveled for the two future scenarios using a travel demand model. The project goals were to develop a travel demand model that was simple to run, accurate, sensitive to changes in urban form, and could output daily vehicle miles traveled for future land development scenarios. The project used a literature review to determine expected effects of changes in urban form on travel behavior, and the sensitivity of current travel modeling methods to changes in urban form. For simplicity, the travel modeling method known as the fourstep process was selected for the project with modifications to add sensitivity to urban form. Current literature almost entirely states that the basic four-step model is not sensitive to urban form. One source did indicate that the four-step process might have some sensitivity to changes in urban form, but this sensitivity was not quantified. A basic four-step process model was run for a base year and the two future scenarios. The results indicated that the high density/high mix scenario reduced daily vehicle miles traveled by about 13%. This shows that the basic four-step model is sensitive to urban form. This sensitivity was analyzed through a series of idealized land development scenarios, and the sensitivity of the process to changes in urban form was quantified. The results were then incorporated into a now modified four-step model that produced a 16% reduction in daily vehicle miles traveled between the future scenarios while also providing better comparative accuracy between the two scenarios. This method met the initial objectives of the project.