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Showing papers on "Metropolitan area published in 2007"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors assesses the extent to which the construction of new limited access highways has contributed to central city population decline, using planned portions of the interstate highway system as a source of exogenous variation.
Abstract: Between 1950 and 1990, the aggregate population of central cities in the United States declined by 17 percent despite population growth of 72 percent in metropolitan areas as a whole. This paper assesses the extent to which the construction of new limited access highways has contributed to central city population decline. Using planned portions of the interstate highway system as a source of exogenous variation, empirical estimates indicate that one new highway passing through a central city reduces its population by about 18 percent. Estimates imply that aggregate central city population would have grown by about 8 percent had the interstate highway system not been built.

1,038 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors utilized satellite images of 77 metropolitan areas in Asia, US, Europe, Latin America and Australia to calculate seven spatial metrics that capture five distinct dimensions of urban form.

528 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present three characteristics of urban goods movements in major European cities: goods movements are largely indifferent to the internal structure of cities, the provision of appropriate urban logistic services is slow in emerging despite growing needs, and urban policies targeted on freight mobility appear to be quite inefficient.
Abstract: In this article, I wish to present three characteristics of urban goods movements in major European cities: (1) Goods movements are largely indifferent to the internal structure of cities. (2) Urban policies targeted on freight mobility appear to be quite inefficient. (3) The provision of appropriate urban logistic services is slow in emerging despite growing needs. These features have been observed over the last five or six years through working with large metropolitan transport authorities, as well as with the French national research program on “Goods in Cities” and the “Best Urban Freight Solutions” European network. These observations draw a picture of the urban freight industry, which can appear quite critical. Indeed, many initiatives have emerged to make this industry less routine and more efficient, especially regarding its environmental impacts as well as its level of quality of service. However, changes are slow, and on the whole, it appears as though none of the stakeholders are willing to make fast progress: on the one side, city governments expect business to set up new logistic services fit to the emerging needs of the customers and retailers as well as beneficial to the environment; on the other side, logisticians are waiting for municipalities to initiate (and subsidize) new services before starting businesses which could prove poorly profitable and highly risky. Despite this tendency for status quo in the urban freight industry, some solutions can be identified, which I present in the concluding chapter of this paper.

509 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between patenting activity and the population size of metropolitan areas in the United States over the last two decades (1980-2001) and find a clear superlinear effect whereby new patents are granted disproportionately in larger urban centers, thus showing increasing returns in inventing activity with respect to population size.

357 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how urbanization is accommodated by increases in numbers and in sizes of cities and found that the overall relative size distribution of cities worldwide is unchanged over the time period.

260 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A survey of residents in the metropolitan areas of these cities that gauged their perception of their own vulnerability to the heat, as well as their knowledge of heat warnings and the activities recommended to be undertaken to help mitigate the effects of the heat.
Abstract: To examine the efficacy of municipal heat watch warning systems, a thorough evaluation of the heat mitigation plans of four North American cities - Dayton (Ohio, USA), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA), Phoenix (Arizona, USA), and Toronto (Ontario, Canada) - was undertaken. In concert with this evaluation was a survey of residents in the metropolitan areas of these cities that gauged their perception of their own vulnerability to the heat, as well as their knowledge of heat warnings and the activities recommended to be undertaken to help mitigate the effects of the heat. In total, 908 respondents participated in the telephone survey. Some of the key results indicate that knowledge of the heat warning was nearly universal (90%), and likely due to pervasive media coverage more than any other means. Though knowledge of the event was widespread, knowledge of what to do was less common. Only around half of all respondents mentioned that they changed their behavior, and despite the diversity of information available on mitigating heat vulnerability, most respondents stated that they merely “avoided the outdoors” at all costs. Though air conditioning was nearly ubiquitous among respondents, over a third mentioned that economic factors of energy costs were considered in terms of how long or whether the air conditioner was turned on.

244 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a descriptive analysis of spatial trends in six U.S. metropolitan areas and find that generalized job dispersion is a more common spatial process than subcentering during the 1980s and 1990s when jobs continued to decentralize from the metropolitan core to the suburbs.
Abstract: This paper presents a descriptive analysis of spatial trends in six U.S. metropolitan areas. The results show that generalized job dispersion was a more common spatial process than subcentering during the 1980s and 1990s when jobs continued to decentralize from the metropolitan core to the suburbs. Three distinctive patterns of spatial development were found. Job dispersion was predominant in Portland and Philadelphia, whereas the polycentricity of Los Angeles and San Francisco was further reinforced. New York and Boston with large and long-established CBDs were less prone to decentralization. Each metro seems to have developed a unique pattern of decentralization in light of their histories and circumstances, which has limited the growth of commuting times.

221 citations


Posted Content
David Levinson, Ajay Kumar1
TL;DR: A threshold density is suggested at which the decrease in distance is overtaken by the congestion effects resulting in a residential density between 7,500 and 10,000 persons per square mile (neither the highest nor lowest) with the shortest duration auto commutes.
Abstract: This paper evaluates the influence of residential density on commuting behavior across U.S. cities while controlling for available opportunities, the technology of transportation infrastructure, and individual socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The measures of metropolitan and local density are addressed separately. We suggest that metropolitan residential density serves principally as a surrogate for city size. We argue that markets react to high interaction costs found in large cities by raising density rather than density being a cause of those high costs. Local residential density measures relative location (accessibility) within the metropolitan region as well as indexing the level of congestion. We conduct regressions to predict commuting time, speed, and distance by mode of travel on a cross-section of individuals nationally and city by city. The results indicate that residential density in the area around the tripmaker's home is an important factor: the higher the density the lower the speed and the shorter the distance. However, density's effect on travel time is ambiguous, speed and distance are off-setting effects on time. The paper suggests a threshold density at which the decrease in distance is overtaken by the congestion effects, resulting in a residential density between 7,500 and 10,000 persons per square mile (neither the highest nor lowest) with the shortest duration auto commutes.

213 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This study presents a spatial and temporal examination of commuting inequality between cars and public transit in the San Francisco Bay Area and indicates that greater job accessibility was significantly associated with shorter commuting time for driving alone as well as for public transit, but the degree of this association was considerably greater for public Transit than for Driving alone.
Abstract: Equity in access to opportunities is increasingly recognised as an essential component of sustainable development and transport. This study presents a spatial and temporal examination of commuting inequality between cars and public transit in the San Francisco Bay Area. Results visualised in the maps show considerable inequality and temporal changes in job accessibility and commuting time between cars and public transit as well as among locations within the metropolitan area. Results from OLS and spatial regression models indicate that, in both 1990 and 2000, greater job accessibility was significantly associated with shorter commuting time for driving alone as well as for public transit, but the degree of this association was considerably greater for public transit than for driving alone. Urban and transport development that enhances mobility and accessibility for public transit relative to cars should be strongly encouraged.

203 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Huq et al. as discussed by the authors pointed out that cities are key players both in the generation of greenhouse gases and in strategies to reduce this generation, especially in reducing our dependence on carbon-based fuels, and most of the cities that face the highest risks from the negative effects of climate change are those with almost negligible contributions to atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Abstract: The lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people will be affected by what is done (or not done) in cities with regard to climate change over the next 5–10 years. As the paper by Patricia Romero Lankao points out, cities are key players both in the generation of greenhouse gases and in strategies to reduce this generation, especially in reducing our dependence on carbon-based fuels. Cities also concentrate a large proportion of those most at risk from the effects of climate change. While the need for city governments and civil society groups to act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is well established – and with many city governments in Europe and North America already acting on this – the need to act to reduce vulnerability to climate change is not. In addition, most of the cities (and nations) that face the highest risks from the negative effects of climate change are those with almost negligible contributions to atmospheric greenhouse gases. Take, for instance, Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, with around one million inhabitants, whose vulnerability to climate change is described in the paper by Krystel Dossou and Bernadette Glehouenou-Dossou. In 2004, average emissions of carbon dioxide per person in Benin were around one-fi ftieth that in highincome nations – or one-eightieth that in the USA.(1) Like many cities on the coast of West Africa, large parts of Cotonou’s economy and residential neighbourhoods are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise and storm surges. Some roads, beaches and buildings have already been destroyed by the regression of the coastline in the last 10 years. Many other cities in Africa are also at risk from sea-level rise and storm surges. Half of the continent’s 37 “million cities” are either within or have parts that are within the low elevation coastal zone. Banjul, Lagos and Alexandria are among the cities most at risk, although many others are also likely to face much increased risks from storms and fl ooding – but because of the lack of local analysis, the scale of these risks has yet to be documented.(2) Many Asian cities are also particularly at risk. Asia has many of the world’s largest cities/ metropolitan areas that are in the fl oodplains of major rivers (e.g. the Ganges–Brahmaputra, the Mekong and the Yangtze) and cycloneprone coastal areas (the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, Japan and the Philippines).The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has emphasized how river deltas are among the world’s most valuable, heavily populated Saleemul Huq, Hannah Reid and David Satterthwaite are at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); Saleemul Huq and Hannah Reid with the Climate Change Group, David Satterthwaite with the Human Settlements Group. Sari Kovats is with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Saleemul Huq, Sari Kovats and David Satterthwaite also contribute to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Working Group II.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a case study on the application of UrbanSim, a detailed land use simulation model system, and its integration with a regional travel demand model in the Greater Wasatch Front area of Utah.
Abstract: In current practice, very few Metropolitan Planning Agencies attempt to capture the effects of transportation system changes on land use, and the consequent feedback effects on transportation system performance, despite substantial evidence that these effects may be significant. In this paper, we present a case study on the application of UrbanSim, a detailed land use simulation model system, and its integration with a regional travel demand model in the Greater Wasatch Front area of Utah. Like several other metropolitan areas, this region has recently been confronted with legal challenges to proposed highway projects, drawing substantial scrutiny to the land use-transportation connection. We describe the UrbanSim model specification, results from model estimation, and sensitivity analyses conducted with the combined land use and travel model system. The results of the sensitivity analysis suggest that accounting for the land use effects of a regional transportation plan may produce significant shifts in key transportation evaluation measures such as vehicle miles traveled, vehicle hours traveled, and hours of congestion delay.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a nonparametric method for identifying subcenters in US metropolitan areas is proposed, which yields greater accuracy with regard to both urban and suburban centers compared with other approaches, and provides better data for the numerous topics that depend on the spatial accounting of employment within metropolitan areas.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a collection of theme issue papers on metropolitan processes in post-communist states is presented, identifying and discussing five key significant socialist-era legacy aspects that con...
Abstract: This study introduces a collection of theme issue papers on metropolitan processes in post-communist states. We first identify and discuss five key significant socialist-era legacy aspects that con ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use the 1990 Massachusetts census data to test four mechanisms at the microgeographic levels, in the Boston metropolitan area labor market, and conclude that knowledge spillovers are very localized within a micro-geographic scope in cities that they call, “Smart Cafe Cities.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a method of identifying subcentres in suburban areas is presented, which is then applied to the question of whether sub-centres exist on the periphery of medium-sized European cities and if so, what kind of activities are located there.
Abstract: New models of urban structures have emerged based on the assumption that metropolitan areas are increasingly decentralized, central business districts becoming less important in terms of employment and new subcentres emerging at the edge of cities. This article presents a method of identifying subcentres in suburban areas. This method is then applied to the question of whether subcentres exist on the periphery of medium-sized European cities and, if so, what kind of activities are located there. This is done by empirically describing and explaining the spatial structure of four urban regions in Belgium. Several spatial analysis techniques are used at different levels of data aggregation. Local autocorrelation is particularly appropriate for detecting clusters of employment, while shift-and-share analyses are useful for looking at the developmental trends. We show that, despite an overall trend to decentralization, polycentrism is still weak.

01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: The case of public spaces in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona is discussed in this paper, where the authors discuss the politics of sustainability in the context of economic, social, and urban change.
Abstract: Krueger, Gibbs, Introduction: Problematizing the Politics of Sustainability. Swyngedouw, Impossible "Sustainability" and the Postpolitical Condition. Keil, Sustaining Modernity, Modernizing Nature: The Environmental Crisis and the Survival of Capitalism. Buckingham, Microgeographies and Microruptures: The Politics of Gender in the Theory and Practice of Sustainability. Gibbs, Krueger, Containing the Contradictions of Rapid Development?: New Economy Spaces and Sustainable Urban Development. Jonas, While, Greening the Entrepreneurial City?: Looking for Spaces of Sustainability Politics in the Competitive City. Pares, Sauri, Integrating Sustainabilities in a Context of Economic, Social, and Urban Change: The Case of Public Spaces in the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona. Batchelor, Patterson, Political Modernization and the Weakening of Sustainable Development in Britain. Raco, Spatial Policy, Sustainability, and State Restructuring: A Reassessment of Sustainable Community Building in England. Evans, The Spatial Politics of Conservation Planning. Pincetl, Katz, The Imperial Valley of California: Sustainability, Water, Agriculture, and Urban Growth.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on cross-city differences in commuting times as a potential explanation for the variation in the labor supply of married women across cities, and they start with a model in which commuting times introduce non-convexities into the budget set.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the factors that contribute to and affect efforts to improve the public bus transit service in Indian cities, and suggest a disaggregated approach based on the needs and motivations of different groups in relation to public transit, along with improved operating conditions and policies to internalize costs of personal motor vehicle use.
Abstract: Maintaining and enhancing public transit service in Indian cities is important, to meet rapidly growing mass mobility needs, and curb personal motor vehicle activity and its impacts at low cost. Indian cities rely predominantly on buses for public transport, and are likely to continue to do so for years. However, the public bus transit service is inadequate, and unaffordable for the urban poor. The paper explores the factors that contribute to and affect efforts to improve this situation, based on an analysis of the financial and operational performance of the public bus transit service in the four metropolitan centres and four secondary cities during the 1990s. Overall, there were persistent losses, owing to increasing input costs and declining productivity. The losses occurred despite rapidly increasing fares, and ridership declined. The situation, and the ability to address it, is worse in the secondary cities than the metropolitan centres. We suggest a disaggregated approach based on the needs and motivations of different groups in relation to public transit, along with improved operating conditions and policies to internalize costs of personal motor vehicle use, to address the challenge of providing financially viable and affordable public bus transit service.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a modeling study aimed at quantifying the potential effects of extensive changes in urban land cover in the New York City (NYC), USA metropolitan region on surface meteorology and ozone (O3) concentrations is presented.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the extent to which workers living in sprawl areas commute farther to work than those living in higher density areas and found that workers commuting from sprawl to urban areas experience a longer commute in terms of time as well as mileage, though this varies when workplace and home locations are taken into account.
Abstract: Among others, one commonly identified negative consequence of urban sprawl is an increase in the length of the journey to work. However, there has been more discussion of this than serious scrutiny, hence the relationship between urban sprawl and commuting patterns, especially at the intraurban level, remains unclear. Using the 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package (CTPP) data for two Southeastern metropolitan areas, this research investigates the extent to which workers living in sprawl areas commute farther to work than those living in higher density areas. The analysis of variance confirms that workers commuting from sprawl areas to urban areas experience a longer commute in terms of time as well as mileage, though this varies when workplace and home locations are taken into account. However, multivariate statistical results suggest that there are limits to the utility of sprawl as a predictor of travel behavior compared to workers' socioeconomic characteristics, as other factors appear to be equally or more important.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the metropolisation of the European economic territory with regard to the increasing specialisation of Europe's major urban regions on knowledge-intensive economic activities.
Abstract: The development of Europe's economic territory today can be characterised as a process of metropolisation of economic development potentials and innovation capacities. “Metropolisation” is a paraphrase for the selective concentration of research-intensive industries and knowledge-intensive services on metropolitan regions and major urban agglomerations. On this basis the metropolitan regions and urban agglomerations are functioning as the “motors” of the European economy. In this article the metropolisation of the European economic territory is being analysed with regard to the increasing specialisation of Europe's major urban regions on knowledge-intensive economic activities. Particular emphasis is being put on the different sectoral profiles and development paths of the European urban agglomerations' and metropolitan regions' knowledge-intensive economy. The result of this analysis is a differentiated representation of the developmental dynamics in the European Union urban system which allows ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Gender, race/ethnicity, and family income functioned differentially across the 3 county types as predictors of youth marijuana use during the past year and dispels the notion that substance abuse is only an urban problem and provides information useful in developing and implementing interventions that consider the unique characteristics of rural residents.
Abstract: Context and purpose This study examines the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use among adolescents and adults in 3 types of counties: "rural" (nonmetropolitan counties with urban population less than 20,000), "urbanized nonmetropolitan" (nonmetropolitan counties with urban population 20,000 or higher), and "metropolitan" (counties in metropolitan areas). Methods Data from the 2002-2004 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health are used to compare residents of the 3 county types. Descriptive findings and a multivariate model of marijuana use among adolescents are presented by county type. Findings Past year illicit drug use is generally similar among adolescents in rural, urbanized nonmetropolitan, and metropolitan counties, except that Ecstasy use is higher among youth in metropolitan and urbanized nonmetropolitan counties than rural counties, while rural youth have a higher prevalence of stimulant and methamphetamine use than metropolitan youth. Gender, race/ethnicity, and family income functioned differentially across the 3 county types as predictors of youth marijuana use during the past year. Rural adults had generally lower rates of illicit drug use than metropolitan adults, but adults in rural and urbanized nonmetropolitan areas had higher rates of methamphetamine use than those in metropolitan areas. Rural youth had a higher prevalence of past month use of tobacco and alcohol. Rural adults had higher rates of tobacco use but lower rates of alcohol use. Conclusions This study dispels the notion that substance abuse is only an urban problem and provides information useful in developing and implementing interventions that consider the unique characteristics of rural residents.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined spatial relationships between modeled criteria air pollutants and sociodemographics in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona and found that lower-income and ethnic-minority residents are disproportionately exposed to higher levels of criteria air pollution.
Abstract: Objectives. Our objective is to examine spatial relationships between modeled criteria air pollutants (i.e., nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, and ozone) and sociodemographics in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Modeled air pollution offers environmental justice researchers a new and robust data source for representing chronic environmental hazards. Methods. We used multiple regression equations to predict criteria pollution levels using sociodemographic variables at the Census block group level. Results. We find that Census block groups with lower neighborhood socioeconomic status, higher proportions of Latino immigrants, and higher proportions of renters are exposed to higher levels of criteria air pollutants. Proportion African American, however, is not a significant predictor of criteria air pollution in the Phoenix metro area. Conclusions. These findings demonstrate clear social-class and ethnic-based environmental injustices in the distribution of air pollution. We attribute these patterns to the role of white privilege in the historical and contemporary development of industrial and transportation corridors in Phoenix in relation to racially segregated neighborhoods. Although all people are implicated in the production of criteria pollutants, lower-income and ethnic-minority residents are disproportionately exposed in metropolitan Phoenix.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Land Suitability Index is used to evaluate the impact of municipal urban plans in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region and a high degree of coincidence with previous, independent, studies as regards connectivity is shown.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an empirical model of residential housing demolitions and the redevelopment process in the Chicago metropolitan area supports the theoretical prediction that the sales price of teardown property is approximately equal to its land value.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a study of urban and rural temperature trends in proximity to the most populous metropolitan areas of the US, and find the mean decadal rate of change in the heat island intensity of large US cities between 1951 and 2000 to be 0.05 °C and further show a clear division in temperature trends between cities situated in the northeastern and southern regions of the country.
Abstract: This paper presents a study of urban and rural temperature trends in proximity to the most populous metropolitan areas of the US. As data from urban meteorological stations are typically eliminated or adjusted for use in continental and global analyses of climate change, few studies have addressed how temperatures are changing in the areas most vulnerable to the public health impacts of warming: large cities. In this study, temperature data from urban and proximate rural stations for 50 large US metropolitan areas are analysed to establish the mean decadal rate of change in urban temperatures, rural temperatures, and heat island intensity over five decades. The results of this analysis find the mean decadal rate of change in the heat island intensity of large US cities between 1951 and 2000 to be 0.05 °C and further show a clear division in temperature trends between cities situated in the northeastern and southern regions of the country. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this article, the development of suburbanization in Prague and Brno metropolitan areas in the Czech Republic is reviewed with particular attention paid to specific features of suburbanisation in post-communist cities.
Abstract: In this chapter, we review the development of suburbanization in Prague and Brno metropolitan areas in the Czech Republic with particular attention paid to specific features of suburbanization in post-communist cities. Residential deconcentration brought about the spatial redistribution of the population within metropolitan areas while the overall population stagnated. The suburbanization of non-residential functions in the form of out-of-town greenfield developments has been more dynamic, influenced by the massive inflow of foreign investments expanding on new markets. Employment in core cities is shrinking while it is expanding in suburban areas, particularly in retail, warehousing, and — in Brno— also in the industrial sectors.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that congestion pricing on freeways will have the greatest chance of political success if the revenue is distributed to cities, and particularly to cities through which the freeways pass.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify employment centers and describe spatial trends in the pattern of employment inside and outside these centers, and find that a remarkable degree of stability in the system of centers, an increase in the average distance of jobs from the traditional core; the emergence and growth of employment centers; and the rapid growth of dispersed employment in outer suburbs.
Abstract: Are contemporary metropolitan regions becoming more dispersed? There are theoretical arguments for both concentration and dispersal. The purpose of our research is to establish an empirical base that can help us to understand the evolution of metropolitan spatial structure. Using data for the Los Angeles region from 1980, 1990, and 2000, we identify employment centers and describe spatial trends in the pattern of employment inside and outside these centers. We find: (1) a remarkable degree of stability in the system of centers; (2) an increase in the average distance of jobs from the traditional core; (3) the emergence and growth of employment centers; (4) the rapid growth of dispersed employment in outer suburbs. These trends appear to defy simple models of urban evolution and call for a more nuanced portrayal of contemporary regions and the dynamics underlying spatial organization.