KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES: RADIAL VS. MULTIDESTINATIONAL TRANSIT IN DECENTRALIZING REGIONS

Ever more dispersed travel patterns in modern U.S. urban areas raise questions about appropriate policy for fixed-route public transit, particularly rail transit. It has been argued that fixed transit routes should be radial, serving only regional central business districts and adjoining inner-city neighborhoods; however, others argue that fixed routes should be reconfigured as networks to serve only many regional destinations. This paper evaluates these 2 approaches with an examination of transit performance indicators in 9 urban regions, tabulated annually from time series data for 1983-1998. The public transit route configuration in 6 of the 9 regions follows the first approach. The configuration in the other 3 regions is multidestinational. Results of this examination, controlled for population, show that the multidestinational approach is more effective, and more equitable than the best of the radial approaches.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/4626214
• Corporate Authors:

  American Planning Association

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  Chicago, IL  United States  60603-6107
• Authors:
  • Thompson, G L
  • Matoff, T G
• Publication Date: 2003

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 296-312
• Serial:
  • Journal of the American Planning Association
  • Volume: 69
  • Issue Number: 3
  • Publisher: American Planning Association
  • ISSN: 0194-4363
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjpa20/current

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Fixed routes; Radial travel; Rail transit; Regional development; Regional transportation; Transportation planning; Travel behavior; Travel patterns; Urban areas; Urban transit
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00960680
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, ATRI
• Created Date: Jul 29 2003 12:00AM