ACCESS 05, Fall 1994 – ACCESS Magazine

Introduction

Lydia Chen

In this issue of ACCESS, we examine how land use considerations can improve transportation planning. Transportation planners have traditionally sought to maximize mobility by supplying better roads and common carriers, thus making it easier to move around. Seldom have they sought to improve the characteristics of destinations. That’s been the responsibility of city planners and land developers. But, say our authors, that separation of land use and transportation planning is no longer good enough.

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2017-05-19T22:58:04+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|

Highway Blues: Nothing a Little Accessibility Can’t Cure

Susan Handy

I recently moved from Berkeley to Austin, the “Berkeley of Texas.” Although there are similarities, and Austin is certainly as close to Berkeley as Texas gets, there are plenty of things I miss about Berkeley. I miss the hills and the bay. I miss good Chinese food and Thai food, Super Burritos, and cheap, expertly made caffe lattes. Most of all, I miss having my favorite restaurants, a copy shop, a bike shop, a pet store, a bookstore, and a supermarket, all within a short and pleasant walk from home.

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2022-09-28T23:11:03+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|Tags: Transportation & Land Use|

Transit Villages: From Idea to Implementation

Robert Cervero

One of the more disappointing transportation trends of the 1980s was mass transit's declining market share of metropolitan trips throughout the United States. Despite the infusion of tens of billions of dollars in public assistance for constructing new facilities and supporting bus and rail operations, transit's nationwide share of total commute trips fell from 6.4 percent in 1980 to 5.3 percent in 1990. In California, while transit journeys rose in absolute numbers during the 1980s (one of the few states where this was the case), transit's share of commute trips fell in the state's four largest metropolitan areas, despite their new rail systems: greater Los Angeles–5.4 to 4.8 percent; San Francisco Bay Area– 11.9 to 10 percent; San Diego–3.7 to 3.6 percent; and Sacramento –3.7 to 2.5 percent.

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2022-09-28T23:09:11+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|Tags: Design‚ Development‚ and Housing, Transit|

A New Tool for Land Use and Transportation Planning

John Landis

Transportation planners have traditionally considered land use policy to be outside their purview and have generally accepted existing (or proposed) land use policies and patterns as a given. That attitude changed, however, with the passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 and the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. For the first time, the law required planners to explicitly consider the effects of alternative land use policies on local land use patterns and thus on transportation system performance.

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2022-09-28T20:52:42+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|Tags: Tools of the Trade: Practice‚ Measuring‚ and Models, Transportation & Land Use|

It Wasn’t Supposed to Turn Out Like This: Federal Subsidies and Declining Transit Productivity

Charles Lave

Consider the urban transit "problem." In the 1960s the problem was declining transit patronage. Finances received little discussion because the industry was essentially self-supporting: operating costs were so low that passenger revenues covered costs. In the 1990s "problem" has a whole new meaning: financial deficits. Today, most transit revenue comes from governments, not passengers, and the result is continual fiscal crisis-the search for money to continue the subsidies.

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2022-09-28T19:14:20+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|Tags: Planning History, Transit, Transportation Finance & Pricing|

The Marriage of Auto and Transit: How To Make Transit Popular Again

Melvin M. Webber

They've made it possible for most of us to leave the old urban centers and move into decent houses in the spacious suburbs. They permit most of us to live where we choose and then to accept jobs located at any compass point from our homes. We're free to go wherever we wish and whenever we wish, freed from the rigid schedules of common carriers.

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2022-09-28T17:57:38+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|Tags: Technology & Innovation, Transit, Transportation Policy & Planning|

THE ACCESS ALMANAC: The CAFÉ Standards Worked

Amihai Glazer

Cars manufactured in the United States have become increasingly fuel efficient in the past two decades, and many people attribute that to rising gasoline prices. From 1975 to 1985, following the 1973 oil embargo, the fuel efficiency of new cars increased by more than 60 percent. What's surprising, however, is that fuel efficiency continued to remain high even when gasoline prices declined, even falling below prices in 1970. Why didn't we see a return of the gas guzzlers?

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2018-02-07T23:40:46+00:00Categories: ACCESS 05, Fall 1994|