Localism, Self-Interest, and the Tyranny of the Favored Quarter: Addressing the Barriers to New Regionalism

This article argues that our nation\u27s ideological commitment to decentralized local governance has helped to create the phenomenon of the favored quarter. Localism, or the ideological commitment to local governance, has helped to produce fragmented metropolitan regions stratified by race and income. This fragmentation produces a collective action problem or regional prisoner\u27s dilemma that is well-known in the local governance literature

Investigating the Feasibility of Integrating Pavement Friction and Texture Depth Data in Modeling for INDOT PMS

Under INDOT’s current friction testing program, the friction is measured annually on interstates but only once every three years on non-interstate roadways. The state’s Pavement Management System, however, would require current data if friction were to be included in the PMS. During routine pavement condition monitoring for the PMS, texture data is collected annually. This study explored the feasibility of using this pavement texture data to estimate the friction during those years when friction is not measured directly. After multi0ple approaches and a wide variety of ways of examining the currently available data and texture measuring technologies, it was determined that it is not currently feasible to use the texture data as a surrogate for friction testing. This is likely because the lasers used at this time are not capable of capturing the small-scale pavement microtexture. This situation may change, however, with advances in laser or photo interpretation technologies and improved access to materials data throughout the INDOT pavement network

Inside Magazine, December 2009

Iowa Department of Transportation Newsletter. INSIDE Magazine is developed to help keep all Iowa DOT employees informed about critical issues affecting them, recognize DOT employees for their excellent service and share interesting aspects in the lives of our co-workers

A proposed risk model and a GIS framework for hazardous materials transportation

This paper presents a Geographical Information System (GIS) based risk assessment model for road transportation of hazardous materials (hazmat). Existing and proposed risk models are applied to truck shipments of hazmat through the road network of Istanbul. Our empirical analysis on the Istanbul road network points out that different risk models usually select different routes between a given origin-destination pair. In this study, we propose a new risk assessment model named as ldquotime-based risk modelrdquo for hazmat transportation. We speculate that the proposed model is the most suitable one for the city of Istanbul and alike

Highways and Bi-Ways for Environmental Justice

The purpose of this essay is to discuss the past, present, and future of the environmental justice movement as illustrated by the highway between Selma and Montgomery in Alabama and the highway system surrounding the City of Atlanta in neighboring Georgia. The essay is divided into three parts. The first part describes environmental justice, seeking both to place it in a broader historical perspective and to discuss how it relates to civil rights law and environmental law. The second part undertakes a closer examination of the challenges presented by efforts to fashion positive law to address environmental justice norms. This discussion considers why it has proven so difficult for both civil rights and environmental law to evolve in a responsive fashion. Particular attention is paid to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which has been an area of emphasis for many in the environmental justice movement. Finally, the essay speculates on where progress is more likely to be made in the future in terms of securing legal bases for the promotion of environmental justice objectives. The essay concludes that the two highways that bookend the essay suggest possible bi-ways to environmental justice based on both environmental and civil rights laws

Angle Parking on Iowa's Low Volume Primary Extentions in Small Towns, January 2003

On-street parking has been considered problematic by engineers for many years. In fact, numerous studies have concluded that diagonal or angle parking in particular is potentially more of a safety concern than parallel or no parking at all. It is a common position of many states, including Iowa, to discourage or completely prohibit angle parking on primary road extensions in urban areas. However, with the acceptance of “context sensitive design” and traffic calming techniques, policies for on-street parking are receiving re -consideration in many agencies including the FHWA. This study was undertaken to analyze operational and safety histories in the state of Iowa where various types of on-street parking have existed for many years, concentrating in particular on smaller communities. Specifically of interest was a comparison of diagonal parking locations to other types with regard to related crash histories. If possible, it was intended to develop guidelines to assist Iowa Department of Transportation designers in the consideration of parking requirements for road improvements through small communities. In this regard, several criteria were analyzed to determine possible contribution to crash history including road width, clearance to parked vehicles, traffic volumes, community population, and length of parking area. None of these factors, with the possible exception of population, displayed a clearly definable relationship to crash history. However, when average crash rates for various parking types were compared for non-intersection crashes, differences in rates between areas with diagonal parking and those with parallel parking were almost negligible. In fact, those observed rates were less than sample locations with no parking at all. These results seem to indicate that indeed there may exist no compelling justification for blanket prohibition of angle parking along Iowa’s primary extensions in all urban areas. Rather, a case-by-case investigation with each project design of the most applicable parking type would seem appropriate in smaller communities

Transportation and infrastructure, retail clustering, and local public finance: evidence from Wal-Mart's expansion

Transportation ; Retail trade ; Finance, Public

Transportation and Infrastructure, Retail Clustering, and Local Public Finance: Evidence from Wal-Mart's Expansion

The author examines the role highway infrastructure and local property tax rate variability play in retail agglomeration in Indiana from 1988 through 2003. To account for data errors and the potential endogeneity of taxes and infrastructure on retail agglomeration, he introduces a unique identification strategy that exploits the entrance timing and location of Wal-Mart stores in Indiana. Using a time-series cross-sectional model of Indiana’s 92 counties from 1988 through 2003, he estimates the impact highway infrastructure, property taxes, and big-box competition have in creating regional agglomerations. Among two separate specifications and a full and rural-only set of the data, the author finds considerable agreement in the results. In the full sample, he finds no relationship between property tax rates or highway infrastructure and retail agglomeration. Within the non-metropolitan statistical area (MSA) counties, this relationship is very modest, though it possesses considerable statistical certainty. Highway impacts within the non-MSA counties are significant and positively related to retail agglomeration, with the presence of highways explaining about 10 percent of total agglomeration variability. (JEL R11, R53)Infrastructure; endogeneity; taxation; Wal-Mart