This paper documents the short-term response to Arizona's metropolitan travel reduction programs. The Phoenix (Maricopa County) and Tuscon (Pima County) programs were initiated in 1988. Their legislation, specifications of travel reduction, initial actions, and achievement to date of travel reduction objectives are presented. The Tucson program reports that major employers achieved an average 20.2 percent alternate mode usage by their employees for the program's first compliance year (1990). Preliminary findings from the Phoenix program indicate a 4.7 percent reduction in single occupant vehicle trips in this program's first compliance year (1991).

This paper documents the current efforts of transportation planning and air quality policies to reduce traffic congestion in metropolitan Phoenix. In metropolitan Arizona, the weakness of adopted land use controls, preference for single occupant commuting, and the importance of regional water and air quality issues guide transportation planning.

Adopted transportation and employee trip reduction measures include a 1985 metropolitan Phoenix referendum approving a one-half cent sales tax for construction of a 231-mile freeway addition and preparation of a metropolitan rapid transit plan, defeated on March 28, 1989. The 1988 Arizona Legislature Omnibus Air Quality bill mandates employee commuter distance and mode baseline studies yearly, completed employer trip reduction plans and a reduction of five percent of the average vehicle miles traveled in each of the next two years.

A pre-test survey documents potential problems with the current analysis approach. The employee baseline survey relies on stated or perceived distance which may not accurately measure average vehicle miles traveled. Analysis of a survey of 400 Arizona State University students compared their stated commuting distance with the actual distance as measured by straight-line and grid measurements.

Both technical problems and the lack of broad-based support for alternatives to single occupant commuting suggest that current metropolitan Phoenix planning efforts to reduce traffic congestion by regulating employee travel will be part of a long-term learning process.

This paper reports on part of a study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to evaluate whether individual transportation demand management (TDM) measures differentially affect salaried men and women in various household situations. Working women with children are the least able to make drastic changes in their daily activities but may be the most affected by employer sanctions and financial penalties. The study found that in Tucson, Arizona, women are (a) substantially more dependent on he private car driven alone than are comparable men, (b) far less likely to have switched to alternative modes, and (c) more likely to have chosen different alternative modes when they did switch. Moreover, there were differences between the sexes in travel time and distance to work, none of which could be explained by income or occupation. When workers were asked how effective various TDM strategies would be in increasing their use of alternative modes, women were more likely to see all potential strategies in a favorable light. Moreover, women were more responsive to strategies that addressed their domestic responsibilities (for example, their need to transport children or respond to family emergencies). Ultimately, while being more favorably disposed to TDM measures, women were less likely to give up driving alone because travel modes that are slower and less flexible than the private car may severely affect their working and family lives. These findings show the need to identify the equity consequences of specific TDM requirements, to target appropriate individual measures to working women, and to develop ways to offset the negative impacts on working mothers.

A study was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor to analyze the differential impact of mandatory trip reduction programs on employed men and women in different family situations. Travel demand management (TDM) programs can be expected to have a direct impact on working women with young children, who compose the largest component of the growth in the use of the car in the last two decades. The study found that in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, men and women had different travel patterns, even when controlling for marital status and the presence of children of various ages, as well as income and occupation. Having children had far more impact on working mothers than on comparable working fathers. Women with children were more likely to drive to work at all income levels than were comparable men or other women. The younger their children and the more children they had, the more likely women were to drive to work alone. Conversely, the more and the younger their children, the less likely working women were to use alternate modes. The findings indicate how dependent working mothers are on the car to balance their domestic and child care obligations and the need to identify the equity consequences of specific TDM requirements, to develop sets of TDM measures that respond to the time and cost constraints of working women, and to develop ways to offset the negative impacts on working mothers.

Metropolitan Phoenix is an international exemplar of a low-density, automobile-dependent city where car travel is required to conduct daily activities (Newman and Kenworthy 1989). Population growth, political pressure for new highway construction, and efforts to manage travel demand for air quality improvement purposes coexist. The paper focuses on how people and institutions have created this distinctive urban travel landscape and on some of its key consequences for travel behavior.

James E. Vance, Jr., (1960) showed that a community's character evolves as metropolitan intraurban transportation and local employers' labor needs change. Commuting patterns define a community's laborshed, the area from which employees are drawn, and employment field, the area in which residents work. This Tempe, Arizona, study demonstrates the applicability of Vance's concepts to present-day inner suburbs in Southwestern metropolitan areas using two modern procedures, a geographic information system analysis and sampling from employee commuting surveys collected by the metropolitan travel reduction program. While data availability may limit comparative studies, Tempe's 1990 extensive laborshed and smaller employment field reveal that this suburb is both a bedroom community and a satellite employment center.

Travel demand management policies are the focus of a national debate on ways to limit the growth of local highway congestion and improve urban air quality (Bae, 1993; Orski, 1989). One innovative approach, trip reduction programs, requires changes in individual travel behavior, usually in journey to work trips. While precise local goals and requirements vary, major trip reduction programs focus on large employers who must persuade drive-alone employees to increase vehicle occupancy, limit miles traveled, and eliminate travel (Ferguson, 1990).

Geographic information systems (GIS) are an innovative technical method with the potential to assist trip reduction marketing, education, and travel analysis activities. Geographic information systems are best understood as a computer-based information technology with five related components: locational data, hardware, software, personnel, and operating procedures (Epstein, 1991). This paper provides a case study of implementation success and failure in a pilot GIS application for the Arizona State University trip reduction program.

This study examines early trip reduction progress achieved by the Maricopa County Regional Travel Reduction Program in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. This study's findings are compared with selected findings about the first year progress of the South Coast Air Management District Regulation XV program in metropolitan Los Angeles.

In Phoenix, non-school employees, by far the largest commuter group, reduced their percentage of single occupant vehicle trips by 3.9%, but their total savings in average single occupant vehicle miles travelled per week was small. School employees reduced their percentage of single occupant vehicle trips by 3.6%, while students reduced this percentage by 13.4%. Both groups contributed at a higher rate to air pollution reduction through average single occupant vehicle miles reduced than non-school employees.

Two inexpensive measures, a guaranteed ride home and prize drawings, were statistically related to a reduced percentage of single occupant vehicle commutes for non-school employees. Both measures were found to be statistically related with trip reduction in metropolitan Los Angeles.

Similar studies conducted in other metropolitan areas are needed to provide additional program comparisons and address the large questions of initial and continued trip reduction progress and urban air quality improvement.

Implementation problems limit the contribution of new methods to transportation planning practice. This case study documents the introduction of geographic information systems (GIS) to a large employer's trip reduction program. This paper's comparative approach outlines six organization conditions for a successful match of client expectations and GIS performance, describes the Arizona State University (ASU) trip reduction effort, and uses the six conditions to evaluate this application. When technical and administrative problems prevented a quick contribution to measurable trip reduction, GIS effort lost employer support.