ACCESS 10, Spring 1997
Martin Wachs
This is the tenth issue of ACCESS, and the University of California Transportation Center will soon reach its tenth anniversary. Such milestones call for celebration, congratulations, and contemplation of the future.
Donald Shoup
Ask anyone to define a livable city. Some will say clean air and safe streets. Others will mention good restaurants, affordable housing, pleasant parks, or less traffic congestion. But, chances are, they'll all agree on one thing - plenty of free parking.
Lewison Lee Lem
This year Congress will draft legislation to authorize more than $120 billion in federal spending for highways, transit, and other surface transportation programs for the next six years. A critical issue is how to divide among the fifty states the Federal Highway Trust Fund revenues, which come from federal gasoline taxes and other transportation-related taxes. For the past forty years, apportioning trust fund revenues has been analogous to dividing a transportation pie among the states. With the Interstate highway program completed, Congress must now determine how much each state should receive from the trust fund, compared to what it pays in.
Evelyn Blumenberg and
Paul Ong
In 1995, 13.6 million people nationwide received welfare benefits totaling $22 billion. Critics have considered this sum unnecessary and the welfare program inefficient. With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, welfare reformers established time limits for receiving benefits, hoping to speed the transition from public assistance to employment.
Pnina Ohanna Plaut
The functions of transportation and communication systems overlap. Both bridge the gaps between geographic locations, the one by moving physical objects, the other by moving information.
Ilan Salomon and
Patricia Mokhtarian
Telecommuting promises to benefit everyone. Employees can avoid time-consuming trips to work, permitting a more flexible, family- and community-oriented lifestyle. Employers can reduce their costs of expensive office space, while drawing on a larger and more diverse labor pool. Air quality may improve with reduced automobile trips.
Charles Lave
Despite opposition from many nation safety groups, in November 1995 Congress gave the states permission to raise speed limits. Opponents had testified that raising speed limits would cause and additional 4,400 to 6,000 deaths per year. Fortunately, it didn’t work out that way.