Sunday 2 August 2015

Car Cult Country


Reproduced below are relevant pages from Department of Main Roads official Ken Dobinson's report on his study trip to North America in 1979. They include some comments on Miami and very perceptive observations on contemporary opinions on the end of the freeway building culture, perceptive comments on social inequality and poverty, and the role of the fuel price rise, consequent on Khomeini's ascent in 1979 Iran and the dominance of OPEC.

These factors were driving Jimmy Carter's presidency, and despite fuel prices remaining high until about 1985, Reagan and the Republican Right instilled a very different philosophy within America. The restraint of car culture, the emphasis on fuel economy and environmental issues (and international human rights) were all replaced by an unabashed worship of the "American way of life". The Carter approach was widely hated and the Reagan presidency was, consequently, popular.

In summary, the Dobinson report was one which represents much of the thinking in 1979,  later rejected during the Reagan era and which has only partially been restored by Barack Obama.


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Dobinson, K.W. Car Cult Country: being report on tour of North America, 4 August – 2 September 1979: final report. Sydney, Traffic Section DMR, September 1979 

2. The Transport Scene in North America 

2.1 An Overview 

The U.S.A. has about 20 times the population of Australia in a similar land area. It is an affluent country with sufficient capital to solve community problems of all types - health, social and transport. The Americans display the incentive to pursue solutions to their problems with vigor and they have the national pride to see solutions are carried to fruition. Mistakes are made but work is done and again the country has the capital to correct most errors. 

A similar resolve extends to the U.S. neighbour of Canada. However, with only 10% of the population of the U.S.A. and a large land space the Canadians need to be more careful in their allocation of capital. Mexico appears as the poor relation to the U.S.A. but again major works are being achieved and national pride prevails. 

Social Structure and Problems 

There appears a greater disparity in wealth of citizens in U.S.A. than with Australians which seems to give rise to more significant social stresses. There are areas of extreme wealth, for example, Fifth Avenue in New York and Beverly Hills in Los Angeles that would have no counterpart in Australia. At the other extreme we are fortunate not to have the ghettos of very poor people, generally coloured, that were a feature of nearly every major city visited, for example, Harlem in New York and Watts in Los Angeles. 

Unexpectedly, the Americans appear to fail to come to grips with the social problems of these poor areas until they exacerbate out of all proportion. For example, little was done in the depressing Watts suburb of Los Angeles until riots erupted and buildings were burnt. Only then were massive amounts of capital channelled into a major redevelopment scheme with new housing and new community structures and which were implemented in an extraordinarily short period. 

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Expenditure on Commercial Development: 

In contrast to this apparent reluctance to face up to expenditure to meet social problems there is massive expenditure on commercial development in most cities - New York was the exception. This commercial development spreads into the suburban areas and extends into the rural zones with little apparent control. Although it was appreciated that a demand existed it was disconcerting to see the entire beach front in Miami and Honolulu taken up with high rise hotels and apartments. At Honolulu the beach environment has necessitated the construction of a concrete wall in the surf area to obviate beach erosion. (Photo 1). 


Photo 1. Beach frontage at Honolulu 

Even more disconcerting was the spread of development over the 150 odd kilometres of natural island in Florida. Keys with apparently only one or two of the multitude of islands set aside to remain completely undeveloped. 

Expenditure on Transport: 

Again in contrast to the failure to meet social costs, the affluence of the North American has in part prompted the construction of the extensive freeway system that covers the entire country and extends into most of his cities. These freeways provide an excellent facility for moving people and goods around the country. However, they have had a detrimental effect on the city downtown areas where they have been 

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established in chasing the insatiable demand for commuter movement. This extends to the dispersion of the city development and the despoiling of the city environment - socially, visually and from the ever present smog. (Photo 2). 


Photo 2. Downtown Los Angeles 

Again the affluence of the North American allows him to “buy” his way out of some of the downtown problems – rebuild the town centre – the solution proposed in Miami at a cost of $US 2 billion. 

This affluence has also enabled the Americans to embark on the establishment of subway systems in the major cities or on the extension of existing subways where they previously operated. San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal and Washington have all invested in subway construction in recent years while Miami and Los Angeles have subways proposed for early commencement. The subways require massive expenditures of capital, invariably operate at a loss and make only a small contribution to easing the commuter movement: one exception is the Metro in Montreal discussed below. It seems in most instances the subways have been established as an over reaction to an abundance of freeways and to the paucity of public transport in the cities rather than in response to a need established by comprehensive study or justified by cost effectiveness.

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The Concern for Fuel: 

There is a real national concern for the shortage of fuel. This has resulted in a concerted national effort to save fuel, to find alternative supplies and to develop alternative fuels, particularly for the motor car. The "odd-even" refueling system still operates in California and few service stations in the city centres open at weekends. At the personal level this concern is not so well portrayed. Even those who express a genuine concern do not appear to be making a real effort to reduce trips while others are disregarding the problem viewing it as yet another conspiracy by the multinationals to lift oil prices. However, after the initial panic buying from the scarcity of petrol traffic volumes in California have shown an overall 4-6% reduction. 

The Predominance of the Car: 

The reliance on the car was the predominant characteristic of the Americans’ Culture. The car is used for almost any and every movement between one place and another. “In Las Angeles the free man gets into his free car and drives it wherever he feels like. He decides the route of his soul” (B. Stein – 1979). The predominance of the car even effects airport terminal layouts which are generally sprawling and conducive only to movement by car. 

Ease and Investment in Parking: 

It is easy to park in the cities and usually relatively inexpensive. Numerous surface car lots are dispersed over each city centre. These however, spread the development and make it less pleasant and long in distance to walk about. With the predominance of the car there is little public transport in the city centre and where it exists the service is poor. The American answer to this problem, which he recognises, is to construct a "downtown people mover” – a light rail system with closely spaced stations - in the city centre. These are proposed in Los Angeles and Miami: the 3 km system in Miami will cost $67 million ($US 75 million). 

It is of interest in the downtown city scene that the surface car lot in U.S.A. is a viable investment. This is because local taxes are levied on the improved capital of the site not on the unimproved as in Australia. This also explains the recent wealth of the Miami City Council which as a consequence of extensive building development has enjoyed huge increases in tax revenue. 

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The Future of Freeways in Cities and Rural Areas: 

Freeway construction has halted in the inner area of most cities in North America. It is accepted in Los Angeles that there will be no more freeways built in that city for the next 20 years, except for two minor extensions to render the system comprehensive. Los Angeles however, has 1,100 km of its planned 2,500 km freeway system in service to serve 9 ½ million people. This is illustrated in Fig. 2. 


Fig. 2. Los Angeles Freeway System 

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Likewise , although Florida still believes in freeways, that State recognises that there will be no more freeway construction in the Miami area this century: but again Miami, which has a population of about 1½  million, has in service all 150 km of freeways it determined it would need by the year 2000. 

Toronto and Montreal in Canada and San Francisco in U.S.A. also expect few, if any, further freeways to be built near downtown in the foreseeable future. These cities also have well developed freeway systems although generally they lack some in the downtown area that are considered vital to provide a comprehensive system: invariably these links have been withheld as a consequence of public outcry. 

This situation is in marked contrast to that in Sydney where there are virtually no freeways compared to the American cities - jut over 50 km in fragmented lengths in the Sydney metropolitan area of 3 million people.

Freeway construction outside the city areas to link the cities and complete the interstate system seems to be proceeding unrestrained. At many locations missing links were being constructed and at others, freeways were being widened to accommodate increased demand. There were also locations at which sections of older freeway were undergoing major reconstruction with even bridges being replaced. 

Overall, it is understood that the freeway effort in North America has declined over recent years due to the lesser highway funds available and the more comprehensive study required of environmental effect. This again must be put in perspective with New South Wales - California, which has five times the population of New South Wales in a similar land area, has invested $13,500 million ($US 15 billion) in freeway construction to date compared with $266 million in New South Wales to date. 

 2.2 City Planning 

City Planning /Transport Planning Interaction:

Transport planners and town planners seem generally to be each pursuing their independent conflicting courses in North America as in Australia. Transport planners continue to view the city plan, as developed by town planners, as fixed and immutable and to which they must simply use their transportation models to determine the transport system necessary. Town planners view the transport system as something that the transport planners must devise to make the city plan work but which at the same time must not adversely affect important parts of the city as a freeway does! There was only limited evidence of genuine effort to integrate land use and transport planning. 

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In the past it seems the transport planners view has prevailed. Extensive city freeway construction proceeded to the benefit of movement in the metropolis but to the detriment of the downtown area of the city as referred to earlier. 

Also freeways have not prevented peak period congestion. Severe congestion occurs on the freeways in Los Angeles in peak periods in approach to the downtown area and extends onto the surface street system. Even in Miami, which as indicated has completed its freeways for the year 2000, the freeways in approach to the downtown area were oversaturated at 8.30 a.m. on a weekday. (Photo 3) 


Photo 3.  Freeway in approach to downtown Miami at 8.30 a.m. on a weekday

It now seems that the town planners view is predominant with freeways stopped or curtailed in many city centres. There is an increasing emphasis, as indicated above, on subway construction, but especially on traffic systems management to optimise the use of existing transport resources of all types 

The Influence of Transport on City Shape: 

City planners are conscious of the spread of their cities where freeways or subways or both have been extended from the city centre into the outlying low density suburbs. These transport facilities have improved access for many people to the low density residential areas which has probably improved their residential lifestyle. However, transport demand resulting from the many longer trips by commuters is now greater than before the transport facilities were provided. 

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This is the consequence of the BART subway system in San Francisco. Similarly, the freeways and subway in Toronto have caused a rapid spread of the city outwards placing the freeway constructed as a by-pass within the suburban development. The extensive freeway development in Miami has also accentuated the residential sprawl. So the improved residential living has been at the expense of longer commuter trips on oversaturated transport systems. 

City Planning and Transportation Modelling: 

The U.S. Department of Transportation is conscious of the trends outlined above. It is also aware of the deficiencies in the conventional transportation model to determine the cities transport needs, which model is still used for this purpose in Sydney. This is because the conventional transportation model assumes a static relationship between the spacial location of population, job location and the transport system. Urban structure is much more complex and any significant change in structure, as represented by a major transport facility, will have a variety of effects geographic, social, economic - to mention a few. This was the case in San Francisco, Toronto and Miami where the transport system designed to meet demand did not do so but simply caused a spread in the spacial location of the population. 

The experience of cumbersome planning processes that have not provided an answer to city planning or to the transport needs of the city has led the United States Federal Administration to establish a small, high level, expert group to develop an alternative land use/transport modelling process. This is the most significant project in hand in the area of city transport planning and is intended to yield a process for rapid assessment of the consequences of proposed transport systems and urban structure alternatives.

The group is a partnership of the United States and West German Governments and the World Bank. The Transport Road Research Laboratory in the United Kingdom has been invited to join. I have received a similar invitation concerning Australia's involvement as a consequence of the project I am undertaking at the Environmental Centre at Macquarie University. 

Interesting and generally unexpected initial findings of this work, concerning travel parameters are:- 

·         Households allocate a proportion of their income to travel which is relatively stable both between cities and over time.

·         Trip makers tend to have a daily door-to-door travel time budget which is stable both between cities and over time.

·         Trip makers endeavour to maximise their daily travel distance within constraints of household money budget and their own time budget, i.e. they maximise their spacial opportunities. 

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Also the U.S. Department of Transportation is studying “The effect of beltways on land use”. Beltways are freeways which encircle the city: examples exist in Toronto and Washington D.C. There is a concern for the spread of the city by their construction and also from the development of shopping centres adjacent to them with high level access to large sections of the population which is causing a decline in the city centre commercial zone. 

It appears that city planning and transport planning are gradually moving towards the interactive basis. In some cities town planners and transport planners were discussing their proposals with each other as their respective plans were being developed: this was the case in Miami. In others there appeared little interaction: this appeared so in Toronto even though the two parties were part of the one authority and town planners had planned major regional centres in the suburbs to ease transport demand. 

This interaction has extended to interaction with the public through public participation programmes. In fact, it is now a statutory requirement with regard to transport projects. These public participation programmes vary in impact depending upon whether or not the authority involved sees it as enabling a better plan to be produced or simply as a requirement thrust upon it, as is evident in some quarters in New South Wales. Miami claims to have the most successful public participation programme in U.S.A. A copy of that city's programme is attached as Appendix I . This programme certainly has resulted in the development of a comprehensive plan for Dade County, Miami, embracing population and land use, environment and social interaction, utilities and transportation. Fig. 3 is an outline of the programme in action for developing a plan for just one station in the proposed rapid transport system. 




 Fig. 3. Programme for Development of Transit Station in Miami
(Source: Regional Profile, Metropolitan County…)

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It is of interest to also note that in Miami the Government is taking the lead in the redevelopment of the city by major investment in Government (Federal, State and Local) office buildings in the downtown area. 
One evident result of the failure of adequate public consultation was at Niagara Falls. Here there was a conflict between the use of a delightful park overlooking Niagara Falls and the parkway (freeway) linking Fort Niagara and Buffalo which bisected the park. The result was the closure of the freeway across the park even though this interrupted the continuity of the freeway and required vehicles to divert to the surface street system over the intervening length. (Photo 4). 



Photo 4.  Parkway closed through Niagara Falls Park


Lessons for New South Wales: 

The social and environmental structures of cities in various countries are different and it is dangerous to merely transfer the experiences of cities in North America to New South Wales.  

However, there are lessons in city planning to be learnt from North America for Sydney and other cities in New South Wales. Most important is that transport is highly significant in city planning. Sydney has a well developed suburban rail system and an extensive bus system but has barely scratched the surface in the provision of a comprehensive road system which must include freeways. Similarly, Newcastle and Wollongong have rail and bus systems operating but no compatible road system.

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The important lesson from North America in the future planning of these cities is the need to provide for integrated development of land use and transport with the single objective of better meeting the needs and desires of the people in the city concerned as determined from soundly based public consultation schemes. Biased approaches by town planners, by transport planners, by public transport enthusiasts and by car lobbyists must be avoided if this is to be achieved. 

2.3 Transport Planning and Funding 

The Trend to Balancing Needs of all Modes of Transport:
Planning for provision of transport facilities in North America as in New South Wales must allow for more extensive consideration of environmental effect than some years ago. At the same time the disparity between the transport authorities assessed needs and funds available widens year by year, as in this State, making it essential that the limited funds be used to the greatest advantage. 

The competition for funds by public transport protagonists and freeway supporters is much the same in North America as in Australia. However, there is a more noticeable trend in North America than in Australia of the acceptance of the need for a balanced transport system in which each mode plays its part and for an amelioration of any adverse environmental effect. 

The balancing of transport needs and of transport with laud use is generally by committee similar to URTAC. In North America these committees suffer as in this state from each authority largely pursuing its own interests rather than striving to generate a fully integrated scheme. 

This attitude of comprehensive or balanced transport is reflected in the U.S. Department of Transportation (Federal Highway Administration Division) permitting the use of the former exclusive Federal Highway Funds to be applied to subway schemes, bus extension programmes, bus lane schemes, park and ride facilities, pedestrian and bicycle facilities and in fact to all transport systems management projects whether or not they are highway related. Appendix II indicates the range of transport systems management projects to which Federal Aid Highway Funds may be applied. 

Transport Tax:
Tax is levied on petroleum at Federal, State and County levels. In California this was a total of 11 cents per U.S. gallon, comprising 4½ cents Federal, 3½ cents State and 3½ cents County tax. Funds collected from road users are utilised for general purposes in North America as in Australia. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.

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The Typical Motorists Annual Tax Contribution 


Fig  4. The Typical Motorists Annual Tax Contribution
and Dispersment in California
(Source: Highways: the Social Dimensions.
Automobile Club of South California, 1978.) 

The Automobile Club of Southern California (the largest automobile club in U.S.A.), like the N.R.M.A., campaigns actively against the diversion of road funds for other than road purposes. However, unlike the N.R.M.A. this club, and it is alleged in common with automobile clubs in U.S.A., supports the use of road funds for transport purposes other than roads where the road user benefits indirectly, e.g. on park and ride terminals, busways and car pool schemes which reduce vehicles on the road and hence the delay to other road users.

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The Application for New South Wales:

The freeway continues to be the most efficient and safest means by which to move people and goods by road and the car is still the mode preferred by most people for personal travel. This particularly applies to movement between cities and explains the continued emphasis on completing the interstate freeway systems between cities in North America. 

However, in cities, while the freeway is efficient for the movement of people and goods throughout the city, it has not satisfied the commuter demand as highway planners thought. It is in this area that it is most important that a balanced or integrated approach be taken to transport as practised by CALTRANS in California with the highest priority being given to optimising usage of existing facilities. 

2.4 Public Transport 

The extent of work on new subway construction and in extending existing ones over recent years in North American cities warrants special mention of these facilities. As previously indicated this was the situation in almost every major city visited. 

However, as also indicated in every case, except one, the subway system is heavily subsidised and it has not made the contribution to easing commuter movement that the planners expected. This is attributed largely to the system being designed as a transport planning and engineering exercise rather than as a marketing one. 

BART in San Francisco: 

For example, Bart the San Francisco system (Photo 5), provides fully automated, speedy air-conditioned rail cars with every comfort passengers could desire and with free spacious parking areas at every rail station. However, it is located under one street at the edge of the downtown area and it skirts the suburban areas it aims to serve. Also long lengths of rail system, including stations, are located in the freeway median. BART runs only three services per hour to suburban stations but there is no fixed timetable. Thereby a suburban dweller must travel to the freeway by car to join the subway train which leaves at an uncertain time and expect to use a bus at the other end of his journey. The alternative is to continue on the freeway in his car right to his work destination - the choice is obvious. 

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Photo 5. BART in San Francisco 

In San Francisco and also in Toronto the subway has been extended into the low density suburban areas. This has contributed to suburban sprawl in these cities which has further increased demand for movement between the suburbs and the downtown area. Thus while the subways have contributed to the transport system in their cities by carrying large numbers of passengers they have done so at increased cost to the community at large to subsidise the transport system and they have exacerbated the commuter problem rather than eased it. 

The Montreal METRO: 

The one exception is the Metro subway system in Montreal. It is truly exceptional as it is claimed that it operates at a profit. The subway is an ultra-modern automated system providing an excellent service with attractive comfortable rail cars on rubber tyres (Photo 6). It is also an excellent piece of transport marketing. Its basic success is attributed to it positively catering for the needs and desires of its customers - in this sense it provides a transport facility more attractive than travel by private car.