Transportation Theory Midterm Exam

In general, high automobile use tends to

reduce demand for alternatives

Exurban developments are defined by

a rapid growth of distant towns not continuous to primary built up urban area

US cities dedicate up to _ of available space to the road supply

35%

Negative societal damages traffic congestion can cause are

wasted worker productivity, reckless driving, and has a net social cost of 2-3% of the GDP

Government tax policies incentivize car use by

subsidizing the cost of owning a automobile compared to the net social cost imposed on society

Cars are between _ faster than transit, making mass transit less attractive to the average person

2-23%

Air pollution from cars can cause

impaired visibility, dirty buildings, and higher cases of respiratory illness

The transportation sector accounted for _ of primary energy use between 1973 and 1990, and still continues to be the largest carbon footprint of any household

25%

3 Categories of people who can’t own cars in an auto-dependent city-scape are

Poor People, Old People, and Young people

In suburban areas, _ is worsened by hypermobility and economic inequalities are reinforced

racial segregation

There is no technology that can address

the social inequalities inherent in a sprawling landscape

Both the US and Europe are trending towards

increased car ownership and more decentralized communities

Car ownership has increased dramatically in

Eastern and Southern Europe, as well as Africa and Asia

Despite car ownership increasing in the US and Europe, American cities tend to remain more car oriented than their European counterparts because European cities keep  

maintenance of inner city and government control of housing and real estate being more frequent in Europe

An individual movement with origin and destination is called

a trip

The metropolitan and aggregate movement is called 

flow

The characteristics of flow at a metropolitan level include

vehicle volumes, tonnage of goods, and passenger volume

The characteristics of urban flow include

trip purpose, trip time, choice of travel time, distribution of trip length, spatial patterns of trip

Sources of information for a information related to urban flow include

housing surveys, transportation surveys, metropolitan household surveys, and impact studies

80% of all trip generations have a destination at

home

Peak flows in the temporal distribution of trips occur during the peak hours of 

7-9 AM and 4-6 PM

Utility in the context of transportation theory is a measure of 

desirability of a good or service

The utility of travel depends on

trip purpose and characteristics compared to time, cost, and distance

Spatial patterns of trips depend on the

spatial structure of cities and spatial configuration of transportation systems

An advantage of a grid network pattern compared to a non-grid network pattern is that 

there are more through streets in grid such that drivers have more choice and traffic is more evenly distributed

The 1956 Highway Defense Act authorized the

construction of the US highway interstate system, which connected all cities containing a population above 100k, primarily for national defense purpose of moving troops and ordanance

Neighborhood oriented transit developments require

disaggregate analysis

The Highway Trust Fund (1956) created the

Highway Trust Fund, which collected fuel and vehicle taxes to pay for building and maintaining the Interstate Highway System without using general federal taxes

In order to understand localized variations in travel access across space and time, it is necessary to examine

disaggregate travel flows

Demand theory states that

people travel primarily to consume goods or services

Disaggregate travel is studied through 

regression analysis, with observations for households and individuals 

Dependent variables in a travel study are

trip generation, mode choice, and distance or time traveled

Independent variables in a travel study are

travel behavior regression, land use variables, and sociodemographics

The three key factors (three D’s) influencing travel behavior and land use are

density, diversity, and design

The two sources that data for land use comes from are

survey data and land use data

Elasticities reflect

How sensitive travel demand is to changes in factors like price, income, or travel time

Tolls often

divert trips rather than reduce them

_ of all trips generated are for work

1/6

The increase of commuting spends while average commute distances have remained stagnant can be explained by

expansion of the peak period and even more decentralized land use

In the colonial area up to the start of the industrial revolution, Jeffersonian ideals stated cities were seen as centers of 

corruption and inequality, as well as filth and disease

Suburbanization is defined as the

growth of edges faster than the developed interior, with each high speed transit breakthrough increasing the distance

The 4 stages of movement technology are

1. Walking/Horsecar (1800-1890) 2. Streetcar (1890-1920) 3. Recreational Automobile (1920-1945) 4. Freeway (1945-present) 

The streetcar and freeway era are unique in that they lead to 

irregular and non-circular development patterns around cities

The first examples of mass transit in NYC were 

horse drawn street cars

During the recreational automobile era, some of the first adopters were

farmers and rural people, who needed them to access more services

In the 1920s, suburban growth rates began to

surpass cities as well as create homogenous suburban social geography

Deconcentration of the metropolis, which eliminated the benefit of the central business district (CBD) was primarily driven by the

freeway system

Most modern cities today are

polycentric with multiple realms, including cities like Los Angeles

The 5 stages of the freeway era were

1. Bedroom Community 2. Independence (first wave of industrial and office parks) Stage 3. Catalytic growth (hotels and restaurants)  4. High rise/technology (research and education) 5. Mature urban centers

One noticeable sociodemographic shift brought on by the recreational automobile era (1920-1945) was 

the movement of black people from the South into the inner city in search of better industrial employment 

The development of highways usually forms in _ around the city

belts

The first progress in national transport was the invention of the _, which connected the Mississippi

steamboat

Union and Central Pacific were both chartered to build the first 

intercontinental railway

The Good Road movement advocated for

better, paved roads to improve rural transportation and connect farmers to markets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

The Federal Highway Act of 1921

established a national highway system and provided federal funding to states for road construction and improvement.

In 1936, GM and Standard Oil bought and dismantled most trolley lines in order to replace them with 

motored buses and roads

Jane Jacobs was one of the first thinkers to suggest the auto centric lifestyle

put a strain on people and the environment

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1992 was created to

modernize U.S. transportation by supporting highways, transit, biking, and walking, gave states and local governments more control over funding, and and encouraged planning for efficient, environmentally friendly mass transit systems 

The goal of the modern urban planner is to

provide information to decision makers on the consequences of alternate plans 

The 3 stages of the urban transportation planning process are 

1. Inventory Phase where data on travel patterns, land use, and transportation systems are collected

2. Forecasting Phase where future travel demand is predicted  based on growth and policies

3. Plan Selection Phase where planners develop and evaluate alternative plans to choose the best one

Aggregate models describe the

movement of groups or people

Disaggregate models describe the

movement of individuals or households

Home based trips comprise _ of trips

80%

The 4 Step Urban Transportation Model System includes 

1. Trip Generation

2. Trip Distribution 

3. Mode Choice 

4. Trip Assignment

Transportation systems should seek to maximize

economic productivity of workers as safely and environmental efficient as possible

Market Theory suggests that

Suggests that transportation services are allocated efficiently when supply and demand interact freely,

Activity Theory suggests that 

Suggests that travel occurs as a result of people needing to participate in activities

Public goods are

nonexclusive and nonrivalous services that benefit everyone

Public transportation exists as a

quasi-public good, since access to certain modes is rivalrous

Predictive models were made to

maximize predictive accuracy even if it does not reflect the real world

Explanatory models were made to

represent the real world as close as possible

Parsimony is the

principle of keeping models as simple as possible while still accurately describing reality

User optimal principle suggests that

at equilibrium, no traveler can reduce costs by changing routes

Econometric models use

statistical models to estimate relationship between transportation variables

Agent based models simulate

individual traveler decisions in order to understand how personal decisions affect the overall transportation system

The Gravity Model states that

travel between two places increases with their population size and decreases with the distance or travel cost between them

An Impact Analysis seeks to

evaluate the effects of a transportation project on traffic, environment, economy, and communities before it is implemented

The Post-Analysis project seeks to

evaluate alternatives, decision making, implantation and monitoring

Transportation economists advocate for effects like

higher productivity, stability, lower emissions, and safety in any transit project

Program performance measures

how well a finance mechanism can meet political accessibility

System performance measures 

how well a transportation project operates based on the budget

The most common transportation source of funding and the easiest to administer is the

motor fuel tax

Residential streets and sidewalks are funded by

property taxes

Transportation spending can only help the economy in the long term through

increased productivity

The effect were construction worker salaries can stimulate local economies is called the 

multiplier affect

A more efficient method to create jobs in the short term rather than a large and new capital project is to 

subsidize current transportation systems 

Freeway revolts in the 1970’s and interest and concern in the environment led to 

the creation of the EPA and other environmental laws

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that

federal agencies must perform environmental impact studies that list mitigation solutions in good faith to any project tied to federal money

16 states have their own mini version of NEPA, including California’s

CEQA

In the long term, NEPA tends to

slow down the time it takes to deliver transportation projects and does not limit environment degradation by itself

The Clean Air act forces states to

maintain a state implementation plan to reduce pollutants, and no federal funding is given unless EPA approves

The Endangered Species act provides

protection for habitats of animals facing extinction

Habitat fragmentation is the

breaking up of natural habitats into smaller, isolated patches, often caused by roads or urban development, which can harm wildlife and ecosystems

Cars contribute up to _ of tailpipe pollution

30-40%

Despite motor fuel taxes, the average motorist does not pay the full

costs they impose on society

Fuel taxes constitute _ of all highway revenue

60%

The 1916 Federal Road act was passed to

provide a connected national road system, with mail routes in mind

The 1973 Federal Aid Act was when the

state governments could use federal highway funds for public transit projects

The 1982 Surface Transit Act created a

public transit trust fund, which was folded under the road trust fund that could be used for transit projects, and empowered local MPO’s

The 2009 TIGER funds was done to

allocate 1.5 billion in funds to support surface transportation acts in order to stimulate jobs