All Bicycle Planning Courses
Economic Thinking for Planners: Cities, Externalities, and Governance
Through history, people have become better off as they urbanized. This course investigates how and why the quality of life has improved in cities.
Economic Thinking for Planners: Economics of the Environment
This course provides an introduction to environmental economics by exploring the economic effects of national and local environmental policies. By the end of the course, you'll understand market failure, externalities, and private and social costs, applying these concepts to issues like recycling, species preservation, and climate change.
Economic Thinking for Planners: Supply and Demand
"Supply and demand" is one of the most fundamental concepts of economic thinking. The familiar supply and demand curves are seemingly simple, but in reality, the relationship between supply in demand is complex.
Economic Thinking for Planners: Gains from Trade, Labor, and Immigration
This course focuses on the example of the Prisoner's Dilemma to illustrate the fact that gains from trade opportunities are lost if transactions and/or communications costs are high, property rights and contracting rules are not enforced, and levels of trust are low.
Economic Thinking for Planners: Overview
This course shows how "Economic Thinking" can inform our thinking on big questions like why some countries are rich while some are poor and how so many us have become so much better off than our ancestors.
Working with Census.gov 1: Background and Geography
This first of four courses on the Census -- Background and Geography -- will prime you to understand how the Census works, where the data comes from, as well as vital terminology and data sets you should be familiar with in the built environment.
Working with Census.gov 2: Topics, Programs, Products
This second of four courses delves deeper into the Census 'architecture'. In course 2 of "Working with Census.gov", Dr. Chris Williamson, a.k.a. Dr. Data, provides an overview on the federally mandated topics that lead to programs which ultimately produce products for the public. Course 2 also delves into such tricky topics as Census data table analysis and gives insider tips and goodies from a Census Bureau veteran.
Working with Census.gov 3: Interacting with the Data
This third of four courses takes you into a series of live demonstrations and in-depth explanations and visuals from the Census.gov and American FactFiner websites. The course covers a comprehensive navigation of the pages, tools and interactive databases that form the expansive Census website and publicly accessible data stores and produced information.
Working with Census.gov 4: Quality, Interpreting and Examples
Chris Williamson, A.K.A. "Dr. Data" completes the final episode in this four course series on the 'architecture' and 'analysis' of the Census Bureau and its many products. In course 4 students will go through a brief introduction to margin of error and a range of error and data quality analysis. Along with some examples and case studies, this course takes us into Dr. Data's own Ventura County, California for a look at some of the more challenging sampling and non-sampling errors many planners and demographers must wrestle with.
Introductory Population Analysis with Excel
Whether you're new to population analysis or just need a refresher, this course offers a comprehensive overview of the steps necessary to conduct analysis and develop projections using publicly available data. The course reviews Census data and builds skills, such as population projection, cohort survival, and concentration calculations that are essential for every professional in the planning and design community.
Introductory Urban Economics Analysis with Excel
Economic data is all around us. When we buy coffee or go to the movies, each of those actions involve an economic exchange or a trade of resources. This course teaches Microsoft Excel in applying the concepts of economics to the work of planners. By discussing data analysis techniques, such as sector analysis and economic base calculation with location quotient, you will gain the skills to work with economic data and become a more informed participant in the economic marketplace.