Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

12-1996

Subjects

Transportation and state, Infrastructure (Economics), Highway planning -- Effect of urban growth on, Transportation -- Planning

Physical Description

11 pages

Abstract

This paper explores the changing role of state highway corridors in an era of continued urban growth and decentralization. Its primary focus is on the impact of exurban development on state highway corridors and on the policy of access management to control or limit those impacts. The role of access management in distributing the benefits and costs of access to public facilities is outlined. As urban areas expand at the fringe, it is important to clarify to what extent the public good of roadways is diminished by direct corridor access by the private sector. This work is timely and relevant because it deals with how to preserve infrastructure investment in an era of reduced funding and how to meet the need for transportation infrastructure at the urban fringe. Specifically, this paper seeks to answer the question: who (and to what extent) should bear the cost of access to highway corridors--a developer, municipality or the state?

The paper begins with a summary of the trends driving change in urban and regional form. This will include a discussion of changes in residential patterns, commercial and industrial activities, and travel behaviors. The role of demographic shifts and changes in work force participation will also be briefly discussed. Next, the paper will address various policy responses to these trends and to the role of access management within this larger picture. I hope to frame the issue in terms of benefits and costs of access, to whom they accrue and how access management is one essential tool in protecting public investment.

Description

Catalog Number DP96-8.

A product of the Center for Urban Studies, College of Urban and Public Affairs, Portland State University.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/17914

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