Transportation Policy & Planning – Page 3

Equity as a Factor in Surface Transportation Politics

Alan Altshuler

By far the largest federal infrastructure grant program in the United States is for highways and urban mass transportation, totaling $60 billion in 2011 alone. Two of the three most recent multi-year authorizations for surface transportation programs, enacted in 1998 and 2005, featured equity in their formal titles. Many states argued that, to be equitable, federal highway aid should mirror revenue flows from each state into the federal Highway Trust Fund. In contrast, few argued for equity on behalf of the poor and disabled. Download the PDF.

2018-02-14T22:56:30+00:00Categories: ACCESS 42, Spring 2013|Tags: Equity in Transportation, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Opportunities and Challenges for TODs in Southern California

Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

When the concept of transit-oriented development (TOD) first appeared in the 1980s, many planners and academics enthusiastically endorsed it as a way to increase transit ridership and mitigate sprawl. But actual implementation of TOD projects in Southern California was slow to follow. Developers and funding institutions worried about TODs viability in a region married to the car. Download the PDF.

2018-02-12T23:09:15+00:00Categories: ACCESS 42, Spring 2013|Tags: Design‚ Development‚ and Housing, Transportation Policy & Planning|

New Automobile Regulations: Double the Fuel Economy, Half the CO2 Emissions, and Even Automakers Like It

Nicholas Lutsey

No industry, let alone the auto industry, asks to be regulated. And if just five years ago you told automotive insiders—industry executives, environmental advocates, and California regulators—that this is how it would turn out, nobody would have believed it. Download the PDF.

2018-02-14T23:10:21+00:00Categories: ACCESS 41, Fall 2012|Tags: Environment, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Two-Way Street Networks: More Efficient than Previously Thought?

Vikash V. Gayah

One-way streets in downtown areas are receiving a critical look. City officials and urban planners have started a movement to convert downtown street networks from their traditional one-way operation to two-way operation. This effort seems to be largely successful—many cities (e.g., Denver, CO; Dallas and Lubbock, TX; Tampa, FL; Des Moines, IA; Salina, KS; Kansas City, MO; Sacramento, CA) have either recently made or are in the process of making such conversions. These conversions are intended to improve vehicular access and reduce driver confusion. Many additional factors go into this decision, but the general premise is clear: travelers and residents prefer two-way streets for a variety of economic and livability reasons, while traffic engineers and transportation planners believe that one-way streets serve traffic more efficiently. Download the PDF.

2018-02-14T23:18:23+00:00Categories: ACCESS 41, Fall 2012|Tags: Congestion, Design, Design‚ Development‚ and Housing, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Transit and the “D” Word

Erick Guerra and Robert Cervero

Without high patronage, new rail investments incur large deficits and fail to deliver promised environmental and social benefits. A system with few passengers and a high price tag is, by most accounting, a poor investment economically, environmentally, and socially. Comparing the costs and the number of passenger-miles traveled for 54 American rail transit investments since 1970, we found wide variation in cost-effectiveness. The worst-performing system costs nearly 50 times more per passenger-mile than the best-performing. What factors distinguish the most successful transit investments?

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2018-02-14T23:29:10+00:00Categories: ACCESS 40, Spring 2012|Tags: Transit, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Political and Public Acceptability of Congestion Pricing: Ideology and Self-Interest in Sweden

Björn Hårsman and John Quigley

Thirty-five years ago, economist John Kain proposed several simple pricing mechanisms for roadways that would "improve urban transportation at practically no cost." At about the same time, Nobel laureate William Vickrey championed a number of likeminded ideas, especially in New York City, that would reduce traffic congestion and improve the efficiency of the transport sector. Some of these proposals would also involve "practically no cost," even using the technology of the 1960s. For example, Vickrey proposed varying the tolls on New York's George Washington Bridge with the time of day, which would make rush-hour driving more expensive and reduce traffic congestion.

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2018-02-14T21:06:03+00:00Categories: ACCESS 38, Spring 2011|Tags: Congestion, Transportation Finance & Pricing, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Transportation, Jobs, and Economic Growth

Martin Wachs

American politicians are bitterly divided on many matters of public policy, yet they seem to agree that spending on transportation programs creates jobs and thus constitutes a path out of the nation's long and deep recession. Infrastructure investments are prescribed to stimulate the economy in the short term by creating construction employment, and to foster longer-term economic growth by making the transportation system more efficient and reliable. Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, rural and urban elected officials—all seek funding for roads and transit projects in their districts, asserting repeatedly that these expenditures will create jobs. President Obama vigorously sought to create jobs through transportation spending in the recent economic stimulus package. This seemed familiar: in 1991, when signing the historic Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), President George H.W. Bush stated that the value of the bill "is summed up by three words: jobs, jobs, jobs."

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2018-02-14T21:09:30+00:00Categories: ACCESS 38, Spring 2011|Tags: Equity in Transportation, Jobs‚ Economy‚ and Transportation, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Cash for Clunkers? The Environmental Impact of Mexico’s Demand for Used Vehicles

Lucas W. Davis and Matthew E. Khan

Over the last two decades private vehicle ownership in the developing world has increased at an unprecedented pace. Between 1990 and 2005 the total number of registered vehicles in developing countries rose from 110 million to 210 million, and by some estimates it is forecast to reach 1.2 billion by 2030. Rising incomes explain a large share of this growth; as people get richer, they can afford the personal mobility that an automobile confers. Some of this demand for automobiles is satisfied when people in poor countries buy new vehicles. But another important, yet rarely discussed, factor is international trade in used vehicles. High-income countries export large numbers of used vehicles to low-income countries, and this trade will probably grow.

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2022-10-11T19:33:31+00:00Categories: ACCESS 38, Spring 2011|Tags: Environment, Transportation Policy & Planning|

On-Street Parking Spaces for Shared Cars

Andrea Osgood

In addition to their many advantages, cars also cause problems: traffic congestion, air pollution, energy consumption, and even reduced mobility for those who don’t own a car. Carsharing is a new form of vehicle ownership that can help address these problems. Membership in a carsharing organization increases access to cars but also encourages judicious use of them. In essence, carsharing converts the high fixed costs of owning a car (purchase price, insurance, taxes, and maintenance) into smaller units—the per-hour or per-mile price of driving a car. By spreading the fixed costs of a car over many users, carsharing makes automobile travel an option for those who cannot afford to buy their own vehicle. But because users pay a high marginal cost for every hour or mile they drive, carsharing also gives members a strong incentive to drive less. In this way, carsharing can both increase mobility for people who might otherwise be carless and also reduce auto travel among members who previously owned their own car. This reduction in auto travel carries a host of benefits to society, from reducing local traffic congestion to slowing global climate change.

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2018-02-14T21:48:25+00:00Categories: ACCESS 36, Spring 2010|Tags: Parking, Transportation Policy & Planning|

Moving Los Angeles

Paul Sorensen

People often complain about traffic in Los Angeles, and with good reason. The Texas Transportation Institute publishes annual traffic statistics for metropolitan areas across the United States, and the greater Los Angeles region routinely tops the list for such measures as total congestion delays and congestion delays per peak-period traveler. Against this backdrop, RAND was recently asked to evaluate and recommend near-term strategies that could meaningfully reduce LA’s traffic within a period of five years or less. Note that this timeframe precludes land use policies, which take longer to bear fruit, and major infrastructure investments. In addressing this question, we found it helpful (a) to review general insights from the transportation literature on the causes and potential cures for traffic congestion, and (b) to diagnose the specific local conditions that contribute to the notoriously severe congestion in Los Angeles.

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2018-02-07T23:10:55+00:00Categories: ACCESS 35, Fall 2009|Tags: Congestion, Transportation & Land Use, Transportation Finance & Pricing, Transportation Policy & Planning|