Abstract Several studies in the last two decades have investigated the role of built environment on walking. Studies that investigated the role of built environment on walking to transit analyzed the role of various destinations in proximity to the stations. However, few studies have investigated the role of these destinations on walking trip generation at the origin of the trip. Moreover, none of these studies have investigated the role of availability of public services on walking to transit. This study identifies the urban services at the origin of walking trips of the tri-rail commuters in the West Palm, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties of South Florida. The number of pedestrian users of tri-rail stations and the available urban service were aggregated per Traffic Analysis Zones and analyzed using standard Poisson regression. Findings indicate that availability of urban services such as public education and public recreation have a positive effect on walking to commuter-rail. Implications of this study include the identification and development of Capital Improvement Projects such as libraries to be located in close proximity to schools and colleges. New and proposed train stations should be located in proximity to urban services such as school, colleges, and libraries to encourage pedestrian users.

Abstract In the present work, an attempt has been made for material removal rate and surface roughness by response surface optimization techniques in Electrical discharge machining. Electrical discharge machining, commonly known as EDM, is a process that is used to remove metal through the action of an electrical discharge of short duration and high current density between the work piece and too. This work presents the results of a mathematical investigation carried out to the effects of machining parameters such as current, pulse on time, pulse off time and lift time on material removal rate and surface roughness in electrical discharge machining of 17-4 PH steel by using copper electrode. Response surface methodology and ANOVA techniques are used for data analysis to solve the multi-response optimization. To validate the optimum levels of the parameter, confirmation run was performed by setting the parameters at optimum levels. Material Removal Rate during the process has been taken as productivity estimate with the objective to maximize it. With an intention of minimizing surface roughness is been considered as most important output parameter. It is found that the good agreement of that current is most significant parameter for material removal rate and less for surface roughness followed by pulse on time and lift time.