METROPOLITAN AREAS AND ARTERIAL TRANSPORTATION NEEDS

In the study of new systems of urban transportation, the potential range of application of the system and its various identifiable components must be estimated. Such estimates are necessary for the evaluation of product markets when private funds are employed in system development and for the evaluation of the distributions of costs and benefits when public funds are so employed. However, the diversity and uniqueness which characterize the urban environments within the United States alone present obvious difficulties in the determination of such estimates. This paper describes a first step in the generation of estimates of total markets and social, economic and environmental impacts of new systems of arterial transportation such as automated roadways and certain types of personel rapid transit. This step is the comparative empirical investigation of the similarities and differences between metropolitan areas with respect to their arterial transportation needs and requirements. The approach is to explore these similarities and differences through the use of complementary multivariate statistical methods. A selected subset of metropolitan areas is classified into relatively homogeneous groups; the important latent relationships between the entire subset of areas, between the groups of areas, and between areas within each group are investigated; and the most representative areas in each group are identified as possible locales for case studies of new transportation systems. The subset of areas chosen is the eighty urbanized areas projected as being the nation's largest in terms of either population or land area in the 1980's time frame. The statistics upon which the analyses are based include a wide spectrum of data from published and unpublished sources, both governmental and private.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting, Transportation Research Forum, Brown Palace Hotel, Denver, Colorado, 8-10 November 1972.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  Brown Palace Hotel
  Denver, CO  United States 
• Authors:
  • Golob, T G
  • Canty, E T
  • GUSTAFSON, R L
• Publication Date: 1972

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue Number: 1

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Rapid transit; Urban transportation
• Subject Areas: Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00047959
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Forum
• Report/Paper Numbers: Proceeding
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 13 1974 12:00AM