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Title:

The Hierarchy of Roads, the Locality of Traffic, and Governance

Accession Number:

01338292

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

This study investigates the usage of road networks both within and outside of home jurisdictions (city (or town) and county of residence) by analyzing global positioning system (GPS) data collected in the Minneapolis - Saint Paul metropolitan area, which tracked volunteers' travel behavior to determine which roads (and thus which class of roads) users chose to accommodate their travel needs. More than half of the travel on county roads and city streets occur outside of one's home city, but most travel is within one's home county. The average share of travel distance in the home county is more than 70% for both county and city streets. The high share, which does not even account for non-residents destined for the county to work or shop, e.g., implies that the free rider problem on city and county streets at the county level is minimal. Of particular concern is travel on city roads in cities other than one's own. To the extent that this is to go to a destination in that city, that travel is also local. However, because city and county roads are typically funded by those jurisdictions from land-based sources such as property taxes, through trips with neither end in the city through which they are traveling are in a very real sense free riders, and pose a problem. With growing trip lengths and emerging economies of scale in road management, it may be appropriate to consider moving more roads from township, town, or city level to the county level of government.

Supplemental Notes:

The DVD lists the title of this paper as: Hierarchy of Roads, Locality of Traffic, and Governance.

Monograph Accession #:

01329018

Report/Paper Numbers:

11-0317

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Levinson, David M
Zhu, Shanjiang

Pagination:

17p

Publication Date:

2011

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

DVD

Features:

Figures; Maps; References

Uncontrolled Terms:

Nonresidents

Subject Areas:

Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-0317

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Feb 17 2011 5:23PM