Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Street Smart PDF full book. Access full book title Street Smart by Gabriel Roth. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Gabriel Roth Publisher: Transaction Publishers ISBN: 1412815789 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 584
Book Description
The poor health of today's roads--a subject close to the hearts of motorists, taxpayers, and government treasurers around the world--has resulted from faulty incentives that misdirect government decision-makers, according to the contributors to Street Smart. During the 1990s, bad government decision-making resulted in the U.S. Interstate Highway System growing by only one seventh the rate of traffic growth. The poor maintenance of existing roads is another concern. In cities around the world, highly political and wasteful government decision-making has led to excessive traffic congestion that has created long commutes, reduced safety, and caused loss of leisure time. Street Smart examines the privatization of roads in theory and in practice. The authors see at least four possible roles for private companies, beyond the well-known one of working under contract to design, build, or maintain governmentally provided roads. These include testing and licensing vehicles and drivers; management of government-owned facilities; franchising; and outright private ownership. Two chapters describe the history of private roads in the United Kingdom and the United States. Contemporary examples are provided of road pricing, privatizing, and contracting out are evident in environs as diverse as Singapore, Southern California, and Scandinavia, and cities as different as Bergen, Norway, and London, England. Finally, several chapters examine strategies for implementing privatization. The principles governing providing scarce resources in free societies are well known. We apply them to such necessities as energy, food, and water so why not to "road space"? The main obstacle to private, or semi-private, ownership of roads is likely to remain the reluctance of the political class to give up a lucrative source of power and influence. Those who want decisions about road services to be controlled by the interplay of consumers and suppliers in free markets, rather than by politicians, will have to explain the need for change. Street Smart makes a powerful case for the need for change and sheds light on the complex issues involved. Gabriel Roth is a transport and privatization consultant and a research fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California.
Author: Gabriel Roth Publisher: Transaction Publishers ISBN: 1412815789 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 584
Book Description
The poor health of today's roads--a subject close to the hearts of motorists, taxpayers, and government treasurers around the world--has resulted from faulty incentives that misdirect government decision-makers, according to the contributors to Street Smart. During the 1990s, bad government decision-making resulted in the U.S. Interstate Highway System growing by only one seventh the rate of traffic growth. The poor maintenance of existing roads is another concern. In cities around the world, highly political and wasteful government decision-making has led to excessive traffic congestion that has created long commutes, reduced safety, and caused loss of leisure time. Street Smart examines the privatization of roads in theory and in practice. The authors see at least four possible roles for private companies, beyond the well-known one of working under contract to design, build, or maintain governmentally provided roads. These include testing and licensing vehicles and drivers; management of government-owned facilities; franchising; and outright private ownership. Two chapters describe the history of private roads in the United Kingdom and the United States. Contemporary examples are provided of road pricing, privatizing, and contracting out are evident in environs as diverse as Singapore, Southern California, and Scandinavia, and cities as different as Bergen, Norway, and London, England. Finally, several chapters examine strategies for implementing privatization. The principles governing providing scarce resources in free societies are well known. We apply them to such necessities as energy, food, and water so why not to "road space"? The main obstacle to private, or semi-private, ownership of roads is likely to remain the reluctance of the political class to give up a lucrative source of power and influence. Those who want decisions about road services to be controlled by the interplay of consumers and suppliers in free markets, rather than by politicians, will have to explain the need for change. Street Smart makes a powerful case for the need for change and sheds light on the complex issues involved. Gabriel Roth is a transport and privatization consultant and a research fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, California.
Author: Mark Garrett Publisher: SAGE Publications ISBN: 148334651X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 2000
Book Description
Viewing transportation through the lens of current social, economic, and policy aspects, this four-volume reference work explores the topic of transportation across multiple disciplines within the social sciences and related areas, including geography, public policy, business, and economics. The book’s articles, all written by experts in the field, seek to answer such questions as: What has been the legacy, not just economically but politically and socially as well, of President Eisenhower’s modern interstate highway system in America? With that system and the infrastructure that supports it now in a state of decline and decay, what’s the best path for the future at a time of enormous fiscal constraints? Should California politicians plunge ahead with plans for a high-speed rail that every expert says—despite the allure—will go largely unused and will never pay back the massive investment while at this very moment potholes go unfilled all across the state? What path is best for emerging countries to keep pace with dramatic economic growth for their part? What are the social and financial costs of gridlock in our cities? Features: Approximately 675 signed articles authored by prominent scholars are arranged in A-to-Z fashion and conclude with Further Readings and cross references. A Chronology helps readers put individual events into historical context; a Reader’s Guide organizes entries by broad topical or thematic areas; a detailed index helps users quickly locate entries of most immediate interest; and a Resource Guide provides a list of journals, books, and associations and their websites. While articles were written to avoid jargon as much as possible, a Glossary provides quick definitions of technical terms. To ensure full, well-rounded coverage of the field, the General Editor with expertise in urban planning, public policy, and the environment worked alongside a Consulting Editor with a background in Civil Engineering. The index, Reader’s Guide, and cross references combine for thorough search-and-browse capabilities in the electronic edition. Available in both print and electronic formats, Encyclopedia of Transportation is an ideal reference for libraries and those who want to explore the issues that surround transportation in the United States and around the world.
Author: Publisher: ISBN: Category : High occupancy vehicle lanes Languages : en Pages : 112
Book Description
This report describes research sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to develop a decision-support tool to aid in evaluating key issues related to converting a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane to a high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lane. The tool includes three broad categories of factors to consider, including facility considerations, performance considerations, and institutional considerations. Finally, the research incorporates simple trade-off tools to allow TxDOT and local entities to assemble all relevant factors into an analysis to aid decision makers in evaluating the available options. The analysis tool was developed in Visual Basic.Net®. the program is called the High-Occupancy/Toll STrategic Analysis Rating Tool (HOT START), and it is designed to be easily tailored to local needs. The report also provides an application of the tool to a hypothetical freeway.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Highways and Transit Publisher: ISBN: Category : Contracting out Languages : en Pages : 144
Author: Robert W. Poole Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 022655760X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 376
Book Description
A transportation expert makes a provocative case for changing the nation’s approach to highways, offering “bold, innovative thinking on infrastructure” (Rick Geddes, Cornell University). Americans spend hours every day sitting in traffic. And the roads they idle on are often rough and potholed, with exits, tunnels, guardrails, and bridges in terrible disrepair. According to transportation expert Robert Poole, this congestion and deterioration are outcomes of the way America manages its highways. Our twentieth-century model overly politicizes highway investment decisions, short-changing maintenance and often investing in projects whose costs exceed their benefits. In Rethinking America’s Highways, Poole examines how our current model of state-owned highways came about and why it is failing to satisfy its customers. He argues for a new model that treats highways themselves as public utilities—like electricity, telephones, and water supply. If highways were provided commercially, Poole argues, people would pay for highways based on how much they used, and the companies would issue revenue bonds to invest in facilities people were willing to pay for. Arguing for highway investments to be motivated by economic rather than political factors, this book makes a carefully-reasoned and well-documented case for a new approach to highways.
Author: Gabriel Roth
Author: Gabriel Roth
Author: Mark Garrett
Author: 
Author: 
Author: 
Author: 
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Author: William L. Garrison
Author: United States. Congress. Joint Economic Committee
Author: Robert W. Poole