THE IMPACT OF ACCESS MANAGEMENT ON BUSINESS VITALITY

The impact of retrofit access management projects on the vitality of existing businesses along the improvement corridor is a continuing source of concern for business owners, city officials, chambers of commerce, and transportation professionals. As part of a major research, education, and outreach project, conducted for the Iowa Department of Transportation's Access Management Task Force, a variety of secondary data sources and analytic methods were used to assess the impact of completed access management projects on local business activity and vitality. Methods developed and used included: (1) Community-level business market share "pull factors" and business survival rates developed using original source data made available by the Iowa Department of Revenue and Finance (IDRF); (2) Detailed "before and after" business profiles along access management project corridors developed using R.L. Polk city directories as well as local government data, including plat maps, tax assessment records, and aerial photos; and (3) Detailed retail sales trends for selected businesses along access management project corridors developed with the assistance of the IDRF staff. These methods and data sources were used in combination with the results of surveys of business owners and customers conducted by a team from the University of Northern Iowa to assess business vitality impacts of selected access management projects. The results strongly suggest that the impact of access management projects on business vitality is at worst neutral, and may in fact be beneficial in a number of cases. Still, business owners and managers are very skeptical of access management and must be convinced projects will be worthwhile and not damaging to their business prospects if they are to be successfully implemented. One way this can be done is through early involvement of the business community in project planning and development, including education about the benefits and impacts of access management.

• Record URL:
  http://www.teachamerica.com/accessmanagement.info/pdf/AM98.pdf
• 
• Supplemental Notes:
  • The conference proceedings are on the CD-ROM, "Access Management CD Library" - Version 1.0 - January 2000.
• Corporate Authors:

  Federal Highway Administration

  Office of Technology Applications, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Plazak, D
  • Chao, P
  • Gupta, P
  • Sanchez, T
  • Stone, K
• Conference:
  • Third National Access Management Conference
  • Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
  • Date: 1998-10-4 to 1998-10-7
• Publication Date: 2000-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures;
• Pagination: p. 339-344
• Monograph Title: THIRD NATIONAL ACCESS MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA, 1998. CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Access control (Transportation); Before and after studies; Businesses; Impact studies; Market share; Retail trade; Surveys; Trend (Statistics)
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00808562
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 6 2001 12:00AM