Consider the urban transit "problem." In the 1960s the problem was declining transit patronage. Finances received little discussion because the industry was essentially self-supporting; operating costs were so low that passenger revenues covered costs. In the 1990s "problem" has a whole new...

The enormous jump in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reported by the 1990 U.S. Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) caused a great deal of concern among planners and policy analysts. Such a jump seemed to portend an era of ever increasing travel, pollution and energy consumption. This...

In the Spring of 1993 California and the EPA faced-off over the EPA's new mandates for checking auto emissions. The California Senate asked the University of California Transportation Center to provide a "blue ribbon" evaluation of the issues. This article tells what we discovered. The final...

In 1987, most states raised the speed limit from 55 to 65 mph on portions of their rural interstate highways. There was intense debate about the increase, and numerous evaluations were conducted afterwards. These evaluations share a common problem: they only measure the local effects of the...

Our current alarm about traffic congestion stems in large part from perception of trends: thirty years ago traffic flowed smoothly; today it crawls. If this trend continues, congestion will become gridlock. These perceptions lead to statements such as: "There is no point to building highways,...

Standard economic theory states that regulation by price is more efficient than regulation by command and control. Exceptions may arise of regulators have good knowledge of the supply curve. In practice, though, governments usually regulate by command and control, and do so when there is...