Smart Surface Transportation

Telecommuters Outnumber Transit Commuters In 27 of the Largest 50 US Cities
Technology is doing what transit planners have been unable to do for decades – get people out of their cars. A new Reason Foundation study finds that telecommuting already tops mass transit commuting in 27 of the nation’s 50 largest cities. In areas with rail transit, telecommuters already outnumber rail commuters in 18 of 23 cities.

» Full Study: Telecommuting's Impact on Transportation and Beyond (.pdf)
 » Policy Summary (.pdf)

Shift Carpool Lanes to Toll Lanes To Gain "Virtual" Busways
Cities can reduce traffic congestion and greatly improve mass transit service by turning existing carpool lanes into toll lanes that serve as the virtual equivalent of exclusive busways, according to a new Reason study. "It's time to rethink America's overemphasis on carpooling and revisit the advantages of buses," said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies at Reason and co-author of the report.

» Full Study (.pdf)
 » Summary (.pdf)

 

Reason Public Policy Institute is a public policy think tank promoting choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress. Here is the link to their July 2003 surface transportation newsletter: 

http://www.rppi.org/surfacetransportation10.html

Other pertinent articles:

A Congestion-free Alternative. (2/25) A new report recommends giving commuters the option of a congestion-free trip by transforming existing carpool lanes into a network of toll lanes that would guarantee drivers and buses at least one lane moving at the maximum speed limit, at all times, on every urban freeway. Full text

Busway vs. Rail Capacity: Separating Myth from Fact. Supporters of rail regularly argue that it has higher capacity that buses. According to Reason Adjunct Scholar Peter Samuel, this rhetoric is based on false comparisons and distorted data. In this Policy Update, Samuel separates fact from fiction in the capacity debate and demonstrates that high-performance bus systems beat rail. In nearly every case, they are more cost-effective, more flexible, and enable better service to riders than rail. Full text.
Is Carpooling a Flop? Bob Poole thinks so. The recently released journey-to-work figures from the 2000 census reveal what many of us have long suspected: carpooling is indeed a flop. Despite the expenditure of billions of dollars adding carpool lanes to congested freeways, carpooling declined from 13.4% of work trips in 1990 to 11.2% in 2000. Full text.

Tollway Alternative to Expanding 101 Freeway in Los Angeles (5/27) Elevated toll express lanes on the 101 Freeway would offer a host of benefits including added capacity, no homes or businesses destroyed, and no additonal cost to taxpayers. Full text.

For Relief, Try Taking HOT Lanes. (6/19) Instead of adding high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to highways, metro Atlanta should construct a network of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. Buses and van pools would travel free and unimpeded on dedicated lanes funded in part by motorists willing to pay a variable price by electronic toll to escape the congestion. Full text

Which Comes First: Highways or Growth? Across the country, the folks at the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) and other advocates of "smart growth" oppose major roadway projects as sprawl-inducers. Their implicit premise is that if the transportation infrastructure is not built, the growth will not occur.

This premise has been subjected to a detailed econometric analysis in Ohio. University of North Carolina-Charlotte researcher David Hartgen headed a project team that looked at residential growth in all 20 of Ohio's urbanized areas between 1990 and 2000. They used a geographic information system (GIS) database of census tracts, urbanized areas, and counties to organize information for a variety of regression analyses. In particular, they wanted to see if there was a statistically significant relationship between "major road improvements" (added Interstate or freeway lane-miles, new or widened major arterials, new freeway exits, etc.). What they found was that the main determinant of growth is prior growth-i.e., growth goes where there is room for it. In a few urban areas, there was some correlation of growth and major transportation improvements. But most of the growth took place in places without such projects. Only 10% of the tracts had road improvements during the 1990s, but growth in the no-improvement tracts was more than twice as much as in the ones with road projects.

Like any such empirical work, this study does not answer every question. But it's a detailed piece of work, with its methodology clearly laid out. Those who proclaim that preventing highway improvements will stop growth need to grapple with such research instead of just asserting their premise.
You can download the complete 62-page study from its sponsoring organization,
the Buckeye Institute, at
http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/Adobe%20Files/PolicyNote/February%202003Third.pdf.)