This paper reviews land use and transportation planning policies and practices in California and assesses issues raised by various strategies being utilized to address congestion problems.

Shrinking revenues, escalating costs, and concerns about social and environmental impacts have combined to constrain state highway building; financial problems and difficulties in attracting riders have deterred transit expansion. Consequently, local governments are having to shoulder greater responsibility for transportation. Three approaches are increasingly being used: developer exactions and impact fees; transportation systems management programs and ordinances which encourage trip reduction and the use of alternative modes; and general plan subdivision control, and zoning revisions.

Few local governments are well equipped to carry out these new tasks. Planning departments have few staff members with training in transportation planning and analysis, and have left these matters largely to engineering departments. But engineering departments also lack expertise in the areas of demand management and land use-transportation coordination. Methodological and data shortcomings further limit the ability of local planners and engineers to tackle land use and transportation planning issues. Finally, the highly politicized circumstances under which many traffic mitigation efforts take place thrust planners into roles for which many have little training or experience: developing compromises between pro- and anti-growth interests, carrying out negotiations with developers and community groups, and preparing development revenue forecasts and financing plans.

These findings suggest a need for additional research on methods to coordinate transportation and land use; more rigorous requirements and incentives for local transportation-land use coordination; greater cross-training of planners and engineers; and greater exposure of planning and engineering students to the techniques and issues of project evaluation, negotiation, and the political process.

Concerns about environmental quality, social equity, economic vitality, and the threat of climate change have converged to produce a growing interest in the concept of sustainable development. Efforts are being made all over the world to increase the sustainability of development patterns. In nations with more advanced economies, particular attention is being paid to the critical roles played by transportation, land use, and activity systems. This paper reviews current thinking about sustainable transportation as part of a broader strategy of transportation and land use planning for sustainability.

Strategies for increasing transportation sustainability include demand management, operations management, pricing policies, vehicle technology improvements, clean fuels, and integrated land use and transportation planning. In the past, planning and implementation of such strategies has been slow and spotty, deterred by the complexities of the underlying issues along with uncertainties about the magnitude and timing of impacts, the efficacy of available courses of action, and the consequences of action or inaction. Recently, however, a new interest in actively pursuing these strategies has emerged. Regional planners are increasingly being asked to take a leadership role in these planning efforts, applying their expertise to analysis of the issues and creating forums for discussion, conflict resolution, and joint undertakings.

This paper concludes with an identification of topics deserving additional research, as well as a detailed bibliography on sustainable development topics.

Transit operators across the nation are looking for ways to improve the quality of service they offer and increase customer satisfaction. One way they are doing this is to match services to markets. For many services, smaller vehicles are worth a try.

Many sources provide good information on Intelligent Transportation Systems concepts and applications. However, some of these sources are highly technical and others are lengthy treatments of the subject. The summaries presented here are designed for the busy, non-technical reader who: wants to find out what a particular ITS application is intended for - ramp metering, for example; is looking for ways to address a particular problem - e.g., how to improve pedestrian safety; wants to find examples of ITS implementation; and/or simply wants an update on what changes are taking place in transportation technology.

Planners are called upon to promote equity in their work, to assure fairness in their procedures and secure justice through their plans and programs. Equity, fairness, justice - what exactly do these terms mean in planning? In this essay I shall use them essentially as synonyms, although there are nuances.

In 1999, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District Board, in California, adopted a policy creating a framework for BART system expansion that placed new emphasis on cost-effectiveness, ridership generation, multimodal access, transit-oriented development, local partnerships, and the use of appropriate transit technologies. The board directed staff to develop criteria and a detailed process for implementing these goals. The resulting expansion planning process and criteria for the BART system, adopted by the BART board in December 2002, are described along with the method used to develop the criteria and process. Some of the implementation issues that have arisen are assessed. The process uses a strategic opportunities assessment as an initial sketch-planning evaluation tool and then applies criteria and a rating system to evaluate preliminary proposals as well as project alternatives that proceed to environmental review and beyond. The rating system also indicates to local jurisdictions the kinds of access and land development that would support a BART investment. As part of the process, localities are encouraged to prepare a ridership development plan that puts in place transit-supportive plans, zoning, infrastructure, and services. Extensive consultation with the board and other stake holders helped build understanding of the issues and solid board support for the new planning process and criteria. Application of the new process has led to transit-supportive plans and zoning changes in several local jurisdictions. Some jurisdictions are not prepared to make the land use changes needed for a “high” project rating and are considering lower-cost transit alternatives.

Nearly 18 per cent of US GNP is spent on transportation, with about one-half of that amount accounted for by cars and related equipment and infrastructure. This is down slightly from its 20 per cent GNP share held over most of the period following the Second World War, a reduction that has been attributed principally to recent economic deregulation of the for-hire industries. Transportation also constitutes a major part of business investments, representing about 13 per cent of total expenditure on new plant and equipment. In addition, transportation is a major consumer of other industries' products, accounting for some 70 per cent of the rubber, 64 per cent of the petroleum, and a quarter of the steel and cement produced (TPA, 1988; see also Deakin and Garrison, 1986).

Trends in mileage since 1982 have been mixed. Airways have grown to some 381,084 miles; highways have also increased, more slowly, to 714,255 miles in the federal-aid classifications. Intercity bus routes have been cut back sharply, while urban transit services have been trimmed in some areas but expanded elsewhere for little net change. Petroleum pipeline mileage decreased somewhat, and inland waterway mileages have grown only marginally. The rail system lost another 17,000 miles, bringing its mileage to less than two-thirds of that in 1945 (TPA).

Significant accomplishments in air pollution emissions control have occurred over the past twenty years. Emissions have been substantially reduced by both industrial and transportation sources; over the ten year period 1977-86, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports improvements in each of the six air pollutants for which health-based national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) exist -- lead, sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulates.

Toll financing is emerging as a major means of paying for new highways in the United States. Some 1200 miles (1900 km) of new toll facilities are under study, design, or construction, with some thirty-five projects in seventeen states. While toll roads are not new to the US - a number were constructed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and those built in the 1940s and 1950s serve today as the major interregional highways in many states - the current crop of projects will add as much toll mileage as the total opened in the previous thirty years (Sandlin, 1989). Furthermore, the new interest in toll roads has led Congress to life a seventy-year prohibition against the use of federal funds for toll road construction; federally-assisted 'demonstration projects' in several states are now being planned.

Some observers believe the new toll roads are the wave of the future, offering a way out of financing binds facing most highway programmes. In addition, proponents note, toll roads offer a pathway for the introduction of new technologies, including tolling based on automatic vehicle identification and utilizing computerized billing systems. Because such systems would make it possible to implement both congestion pricing and weight-distance pricing, the toll roads are seen as a route to lasting relief from congestion problems and highway maintenance difficulties.

The new toll roads do incorporate a number of innovations. Whereas the US toll roads of earlier decades were almost all state government initiatives, many of the new projects involve private sector organizations as key players in finance, implementation, and operation. A variety of arrangements sharing responsibilities for the facilities among land developers, state and local government, engineering firms, and financial institutions are being devised. New technologies being implemented on some of the new toll roads will provide for more efficient toll collection (non-stop toll assessment collected via a monthly bill), and possibly will open the way for more sophisticated road pricing.

The toll roads are not without their detractors, however. Some question whether toll facilities make sense in other than very limited circumstances. Others question whether they are equitable, or are conveniences for the well-to-do that leave the transportation troubles of the less favoured unaddressed. When the toll roads are implemented through public-private partnerships, concerns about whether the public is getting a fair exchange or subsidizing special interests sometimes arise. When toll roads are built through special fast-track procedures that omit environmental reviews and public comment, their broader social acceptability comes under criticism.

The potential of toll roads as a transportation strategy thus is very much a matter deserving further consideration. This paper reviews the new toll road projects and assesses the pros and cons concerning their proliferation. The paper begins with a brief review of US toll road policy, then examines the renewed interest in toll road development. Concerns raised about tolls are examined next, followed by a discussion of possible future directions for toll road policy.