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2016 | Buch

Urban Transportation Planning in the United States

History, Policy, and Practice

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In this new fifth edition, there is a strong focus on the increasing concern over infrastructure resilience from the threat of serious storms, human activity, and population growth. The new edition also looks technologies that urban transportation planners are increasingly focused on, such as vehicle to vehicle communications and driver-less cars, which have the potential to radically improve transportation. This book also investigates the effects of transportation on the health of travelers and the general public, and the ways in which these concerns have become additional factors in the transportation and infrastructure planning and policy process. The development of U.S. urban transportation policy over the past half-century illustrates the changing relationships among federal, state, and local governments. This comprehensive text examines the evolution of urban transportation planning from early developments in highway planning in the 1930s to today’s concerns over sustainable development, security, and pollution control. Highlighting major national events, the book examines the influence of legislation, regulations, conferences, federal programs, and advances in planning procedures and technology. The volume provides in-depth coverage of the most significant event in transportation planning, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which created a federal mandate for a comprehensive urban transportation planning process, carried out cooperatively by states and local governments with federal funding. Claiming that urban transportation planning is more sophisticated, costly, and complex than its highway and transit planning predecessors, the book demonstrates how urban transportation planning evolved in response to changes in such factors as the environment, energy, development patterns, intergovernmental coordination, and federal transit programs. This new edition includes analyses of the growing threats to infrastructure, new projects in infrastructure resilience, the promise of new technologies to improve urban transportation, and the recent shifts in U.S. transportation policy. This book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in transportation legislation and policy, eco-justice, and regional and urban planning.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
On October 23, 1962 President John F. Kennedy into law the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 More than 50 years have now passed since that act created the federal mandate for urban transportation planning in the United States. The act was the capstone of two decades of experimentation and development of urban transportation procedures and institutions. It was passed at a time in which urban areas were beginning to plan the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highway routes through and around their areas. The 1962 Act, combined with the incentive of 90 % federal funding for Interstate highway projects, caused urban transportation planning to spread quickly throughout the United States. It also had a significant influence on urban transportation planning in other parts of the world.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 2. Early Highway Planning
Abstract
Early highway planning grew out the need for information on the rising tide of automobile and truck usage during the first quarter of the twentieth century. From 1904, when the first automobiles ventured out of the cities, traffic grew at a steady and rapid rate. After the initial period of highway construction which connected many of the nation’s cities, emphasis shifted to improving the highway system to carry these increased traffic loads. New concepts were pioneered to increase highway capacity including control of access, elimination of at grade intersections, new traffic control devices, and improved roadway design. Transit properties were privately held were the purview of cities.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 3. Roots of Urban Transportation Planning
Abstract
By the mid-1930s many of the substandard rural roads in the nation had been improved. The planning of these rural had been based primarily on traffic counts and capacity studies. However, when attention then shifted to improving urban roads, these tools were considered inadequate for planning. Planning urban roads was more complicated with complex travel patterns in an intensely developed urban fabric. As traffic grew in these urban areas, congested was becoming more common and the need for new approaches to analyzing and planning road improvements was needed.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 4. Launching the Interstate Highway Program
Abstract
During World War II, regular highway programs stopped. Highway materials and personnel were used to build access roads for war production and military needs. With rationing of gasoline and tires, and no new automobiles being manufactured, the use of transit mushroomed. Between 1941 and 1946, transit ridership grew by 65 % to an all-time high of 23.4 billion trips annually (American Public Transit Association 1995) (Fig. 4.1).
Edward Weiner
Chapter 5. Urban Transportation Planning Comes of Age
Abstract
Urban transportation planning came of age with the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which required that approval of any federal-aid highway project in an urbanized area of 50,000 or more in population be based on a continuing, comprehensive urban transportation planning process carried out cooperatively by states and local governments. This was the first legislative mandate requiring planning as a condition to receiving federal capital assistance funds. The U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) moved quickly to issue technical guidance interpreting the act’s provisions.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 6. Improving Intergovernmental Coordination
Abstract
As the number and scope of federal programs for urban development and transportation projects expanded, there was increasing concern over the uncoordinated manner in which these projects were being carried out. Each of these federal programs had separate grant requirements which were often development with little regard to the requirements of other programs. Projects proceeded through the approval and implementation process uncoordinated with other projects that were occurring in the same area.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 7. Rising Concern for the Environment and Citizen Involvement
Abstract
During the decade of the 1960s, the growing concern for environmental quality put considerable pressure on the planning process and its ability to adapt to change. Public attention became focused on the issues of air and water pollution; dislocation of homes and businesses; preservation of parkland, wildlife refuges, and historic sites; and the overall ecological balance in communities and their capacity to absorb disruption. Moreover, citizens were concerned that changes were being made to their communities without their views being considered. The federal role in these matters, which had begun modestly in previous years, broadened and deepened during this period.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 8. Beginnings of Multimodal Urban Transportation Planning
Abstract
By 1970, there were 273 urbanized areas actively engaged in continuing urban transportation planning (Fig. 8.1). By then, however, the urban transportation planning process was receiving criticism on a number of issues. It was criticized for inadequate treatment of the social and environmental impacts of transportation facilities and services. The planning process had still not become multimodal and was not adequately evaluating a wide range of alternatives. Planning was focused almost exclusively on long-range time horizons, ignoring more immediate problems. And, the technical procedures to carry out planning were criticized for being too cumbersome, time-consuming, and rigid to adapt to new issues quickly. There was also concern expressed about their theoretical validity.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 9. Transition to Short-Term Planning
Abstract
As planning for the Interstate Highway System was being completed, attention turned to increasing the productivity and efficiency of existing facilities. In planning for major new regional transportation facilities, many urban areas had neglected maintaining and upgrading other facilities. However, environmental concerns, the difficulty of building inner city freeways, renewed interest in urban mass transit and the energy crisis gave added impetus to the focus on more immediate problems. Signs were becoming evident of the changing emphasis to shorter-term time horizons and the corridor level in transportation planning. Gradually, planning shifted towards maximizing the use of the existing system with a minimum of new construction. Further, the connection was strengthened between long-term planning and the programming of projects (Weiner 1982).
Edward Weiner
Chapter 10. Emphasizing Urban Economic Revitalization
Abstract
In the mid 1970s the country was feeling the effects of structural changes in the economy, high unemployment, inflation, and rising energy prices. Many of the problems had been developing for a number of years. The economy was in a transition from a predominantly manufacturing base to one that had a larger share concentrated in service, communication, and high technology industries. Jobs in the manufacturing sector were declining and new jobs were growing in the new sectors of the economy. People were moving to those areas of the country where the new jobs were being created, especially the South and the West. The older urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest were being affected most severely by these changes. But older central cities in all sections of the country were in decline as jobs and people migrated first to the suburbs and then to the newer urban areas where the economies were growing.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 11. Decentralization of Decisionmaking
Abstract
Through the decade of the 1970s there was a sharp increase in the range and complexity of issues required to be addressed in the urban transportation planning process. The combination of requirements and regulations had become burdensome and counter-productive. Organizations and techniques seemed unable to adapt with sufficient speed. It was becoming impossible to analyze all of the tradeoffs that were required. This problem was not confined to urban transportation but to most activities where the federal government was involved. It ushered in a new mood in the nation to decentralize control and authority, and to reduce federal intrusion into local decision-making (Weiner 1983).
Edward Weiner
Chapter 12. Promoting Private Sector Participation
Abstract
As the decade of the 1980s progressed there was a growing awareness that the public sector did not have the resources to continue providing all of the programs to which it had become committed. This was particularly true at the federal level of government. Moreover, by continuing these programs, governmental bodies were preempting areas that could be better served by the private sector. Governments and public agencies began to seek opportunities for greater participation of the private sector in the provision and financing of urban transportation facilities and services. In addition, the federal government sought to foster increased competition in the provision of transportation services as a means to increase efficiency and reduce costs. Changes in the transportation system were intended to be the outcomes of competition in the marketplace rather than of public regulation. This necessitated eliminating practices whereby unsubsidized private transportation service providers competed on an unequal basis with subsidized public agencies (Weiner 1984).
Edward Weiner
Chapter 13. The Need for Strategic Planning
Abstract
By the early 1990s, there were major changes underway that would have significant effects on urban transportation and urban transportation planning. The era of major new highway construction was over in most urban areas. On a selective basis gaps in the highway system would be closed and a few new routes would be constructed, but the basic highway system was in place. However, the growth in urban travel was continuing unabated. With only limited highway expansion possible new approaches needed to be found to serve this travel demand. Moreover, this growth in traffic congestion was contributing to degradation of the urban environment and urban life and needed to be abated. Previous attempts at the selected application of transportation system management measures (TSM) had proven to have limited impacts on congestion, providing the need for more comprehensive and integrated strategies. In addition, a number of new technologies were reaching the point of application, including intelligent vehicle highway systems (IVHS) and magnetically levitated trains.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 14. The Growth of Sustainable Development
Abstract
As the concern for the effects of transportation on living quality and the environment grew, broader approaches to transportation planning were being developed. This concern was being expressed not only in the United State but worldwide. The term “sustainable development” became popularized in 1987 when the World Commission on Environment used it to describe a process of economic growth with “the ability to ensure the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The global impact of transportation on the environment was reemphasized at the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992 which focused on global climate change.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 15. Expanding Participatory Democracy
Abstract
For most of the century, transportation decisions were made by engineers and planners in government organizations. With the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 and its successors, pubic officials participating on MPOs gained some control of transportation decisions within their urban areas. With the passage of ISTEA, other stakeholders and private citizens had to be given a reasonable opportunity to comment on the long range transportation plans and the shorter term transportation improvement programs. The regulations implementing the legislation required a formal proactive and inclusive public involvement process that provided ample opportunity for community participation.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 16. Moving Towards Performance Based Planning
Abstract
The new century ushered in a drive to preserve and effectively operate the transportation system, assure that expenditures achieved solid results, and find adequate resources to meet growing needs. Demand for transportation funds were increasing faster that resources could be provided. The 22 month battle over the passage of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act—A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) was emblematic of the need for additional resources and the limitation of new funding.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 17. Concern for Climate Change
Abstract
As evidence mounted on the effect of human development on global climate change, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions became a major consideration in the planning of transportation systems as well as other areas of human activity. California was the first state to set a limit on greenhouse gas emissions. Other states and metropolitan attempted to limit greenhouse emissions by reducing vehicle usage and shifting traffic to alternative modes including walking and biking. Some areas tackled spreading land development patterns that caused increased vehicle travel by implementing compact development with mixed uses. And the federal government issued guidance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 18. Era of Constrained Resources
Abstract
As the nation entered the second decade of the twenty-first century; the economy was in a slow growth mode. The nation’s GDP growth was low, unemployment was stubbornly high and the national debt had reached crisis proportions. In this environment adequate funding for transportation projects was difficult to obtain. The Congress enacted ten extensions to the SAFETEA-LU legislation because they could not reach agreement on the scale and composition of the next surface transportation bill and had no idea how to pay for the nation’s transportation programs.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 19. Infrastructure Resilience
Abstract
During October 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated the Northeast portion of the nation, particularly the coasts of New Jersey and New York. This storm followed the devastation to the Gulf Coast by Hurricanes Katrina and in 2013. These storms and other damage from storms and other natural disasters focused attention on the lack of resilience of urban development and facilities including transportation.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 20. Challenge of Funding
Abstract
For many months leading up to the passage of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, there was a major debate on how to fund future surface transportation programs. MAP-21 was extended 33 times since the original act concluded at the end of September 2008. The FAST Act provided a modest increase in funding compared to MAP-21 levels. Consequently many states still needed to raise additional revenues to meet their surface transportation needs.
Edward Weiner
Chapter 21. Concluding Remarks
Abstract
More than 50 years have elapsed since the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 initiated the continuing, comprehensive and cooperative urban transportation planning process. The 1962 act had followed the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962 which accelerated the construction of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. Since these acts were passed, there have been major changes in the nation and, to some extent, these acts enabled some of those changes. Transportation planning has evolved with the nation’s changing issues and concerns. It is remarkable how enduring the transportation planning process has been. The basic fundamentals identified in the 1962 Act are still relevant today.
Edward Weiner
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Urban Transportation Planning in the United States
verfasst von
Edward Weiner
Copyright-Jahr
2016
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-39975-1
Print ISBN
978-3-319-39974-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39975-1