Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act Research Articles

Impediments to and Methods for Evaluating Safety Management Systems

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) mandates that individual states develop six transportation infrastructure management systems. One of these systems, the safety management system (SMS), focuses on reducing the number of roadway traffic accidents, injuries, and fatalities by considering the safety needs of the driver, vehicle, and roadway. This necessitates cooperation among state, city, and county roadway agencies as well as diverse public and quasi-public agencies. States have made significant advances toward implementing SMSs. The safety community recognizes that it is time to coordinate safety activities and responsibilities. Even if it is not mandated by Congress, as recent actions indicate, a large number of states are expected to implement elements of their SMS work plan. With this implementation comes the need for the evaluation of SMS's effectiveness in increasing traffic safety and ultimately reducing the number and severity of accidents. The challenge in evaluating SMS effectiveness is that many of the activities undertaken will not be directly quantifiable by accident statistics. Discussed here are some of the impediments, concerns, and design issues in an evaluation of SMS effectiveness in increasing traffic safety. Knowledge of these impediments and determination of an appropriate experimental design will enable the prior planning required to perform valid effectiveness evaluations.

Challenges and opportunities for transportation: Implementation of the clean air act amendments of 1990 and the intermodal surface transportation efficiency act of 1991

The Federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) may be the most powerful of all environmental laws affecting transportation. They are intended to significantly affect transportation decision-making, not only to achieve air quality goals but also to affect broader environmental goals related to land use, travel mode choice, and reductions in vehicle miles traveled. The CAAA require greater integration of transportation and air quality planning, and assign a greater responsibility to transportation plans and programs for reducing mobile source emissions. By expanding the requirements for determining the conformity of transportation plans, programs, and projects with State Implementation Plans for air quality, and by expanding the use of highway funding sanctions to enforce those requirements, the CAAA ensure a continuing linkage between transportation and environmental goals.

The Electric Trolley Bus: A Neglected Mode in U.S. Transit Planning

Abstract The 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and the 1990 Clean Air Act have created a new transportation policy environment. Transportation planners are now analyzing a wider range of transit modes in order to meet stringent air quality standards, reduce single occupancy vehicle trips, and improve transit efficiency. In this context, the electric trolley bus is one transit mode that has been largely neglected. This article reviews the advantages and disadvantages of the electric trolley bus as experienced by the five American transit systems that have maintained this transit mode. The article concludes that the trolley bus option deserves greater consideration' by transportation planners.

A Broader Context for Transportation Planning: Not Just An End In Itself

The end of the Interstate era, marked by the passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), signaled a move toward healthy and sustainable transportation systems. This article explains the philosophy that led planners to vast, but separate, transportation systems and the proposed changes in direction that will create a multi-modal system that is flexible and encompasses environmental and social concerns. Transportation goals that support a sustainable society as well as goals of a sustainable transportation system are listed. New investment strategies will begin with planning and end with the incorporation of economic, social, and environmental factors. Governments will seek out and involve interest groups to set priorities, shifting attention from mobility to accessibility.

ISTEA: A New Direction for Transportation Policy

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991 is likely to be remembered as one of President Bush's most significant contributions to government decentralization and the ideals of New Federalism. It is a landmark piece of legislation that makes wholesale revisions in the federal government's role in transportation policy, providing state and, especially, local policymakers with an unprecedented opportunity to determine the future direction of the nation's surface transportation programs. However, at the same time it decentralized authority over project selection, it continued to expand the number of crossover sanctions attached tofederal transportationfunding and preempted state authority over truck weights and lengths. This underscores recent research findings that suggest that federalism principles are important tofederalpolicymakers but not necessarily more important than other competing values that emanate from different political, social, and economic views.

Peak period tolls: Precepts and prospects

This article presents the economic rationale for road pricing and provides some scale on the magnitude of peak period tolls that might be justified. It discusses the impacts of such tolls on congestion, air quality and economic development and suggests a long term strategy towards areawide implementation of peak period pricing. It discusses current trends which are increasing the likelihood for implementation of congestion pricing and toll roads in the future. In particular, it discusses some aspects of the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) which will eliminate some of the current restraints on congestion pricing and toll highways.