Peter J Haas

Understanding Transit Ridership Growth: Case Studies of Successful Transit Systems in the 1990s

During the economic boom of the late 1990s, transit ridership increased nationwide, but not all transit systems added riders in equal proportions. To examine agencies that were especially successful at increasing patronage during the late 1990s, in-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted with managers from 12 agencies that substantially increased ridership between 1995 and 1999. The transit agency managers reported a wide variety of factors that they believe influenced patronage on their systems. While it was initially hypothesized that transit managers would tend to cite factors internal to the transit system, such as policy changes or managerial initiatives, in explaining ridership growth, they actually most often cited factors external to their transit systems, such as population or employment growth, as the primary determinants of increased ridership. When reported, the internally developed programs most frequently cited were changes in fare structure and new transit pass programs.

Political Support for Regional Government in the 1990s Growing in the Suburbs

Regional government, in its various forms, has long been advocated as a necessary condition, for addressing the problems that plague modern urban areas with multiple jurisdictions. Political support for regional approaches has been scant, however, particularly among residents of suburban areas who ostensibly covet the political independence of their suburban municipalities. The authors present the results of a survey of likely voters in a suburban area, Santa Clara County in California, and find widespread support for regional governance. Support for regional approaches was consistent for both general and specific measures and did not vary considerably among demographic subgroups. The authors link this support to the perceived growth of urban problems in the vicinity, such as congestion and pollution.

A Comparison of Training Priorities of Local Government Employees and Their Supervisors

The training needs of non-supervisory personnel, as they perceive them, have been overlooked both by local governments and the public personnel literature. This article seeks to determine whether and in which ways the priorities of local government employees differ from those of their supervisors. Data from a survey of local government employees in Santa Clara County, California, are analyzed and suggest that whereas many employees view training as a means of acquiring technical skills, their supervisors may be more attracted to the potential for training in human development.

Measuring the Performance of Livability Programs

Livability programs seek to make communities better places to live for both current and future generations by influencing the structure and the uses of the land and built environment, including the transportation infrastructure. As such, livability programs explicitly link transportation, land use, the environment, and sustainability. This study explored how transportation and partner agencies should structure the performance measurement of metropolitan livability programs. Existing research suggested that a good performance measurement approach would help an agency achieve the objectives of the program and its customers by influencing agency and stakeholder decisions and actions. An analysis of the performance measurement approaches used by five mature metropolitan livability programs was provided. Four measurement types were identified by the agencies as particularly useful in supporting program decisions: delivery of project commitments (did the program get what was funded?), percentage of the regions development that occurs in targeted development areas (is the program developing where it wants to develop?), leveraged funding (did the program close the financing gap?), and transportation access factors such as induced ridership, cost per induced rider, and bicycle and pedestrian access (did the program achieve a transportation–land use link?). Results of the analysis suggested that good performance measurement in livability programs would require efficient, decision-oriented approaches that would reflect the full range of the objectives of the program and its customers, unconstrained by agency structure. Good performance measurement would require a balanced view across all livability objectives, incorporating both the volume and nature of development, affordability, and land value, and quantifiable and subjective goals.

Estimating Parking Utilization in Multifamily Residential Buildings in Washington, D.C.

The District of Columbia’s Department of Transportation and Office of Planning recently led a research effort to understand how parking utilization in multifamily residential buildings is related to neighborhood and building characteristics. Prior research has shown that the overbuilding of residential parking leads to increased automobile ownership, vehicle miles traveled, and congestion. Parking availability can affect travel mode choices and decrease the use of transportation alternatives. In addition, zoning regulations requiring supplies of parking that exceed demand can increase housing costs and inhibit the development of mixed-use, mixed-income, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. The primary research goal was to develop an empirical model for parking utilization in Washington, D.C., and to apply the model to an interactive web-based tool, named ParkRight DC, to support and guide parking supply decisions. A transparent, data-driven process for parking supply decisions may help relieve problems associated with over- or undersupply of parking. This paper outlines the data collection, model-development process, functionality of the resulting tool, and findings on key relationships and policy implications. The model and the associated tool rely on local information reflecting residential development and automobile ownership patterns drawn from a survey of multifamily residential parking use at 115 buildings covering approximately 20,000 dwelling units in the District of Columbia. The resulting model achieved an R2-value of .835, which indicates a strong model, given the complexity of the relationship being researched.

Voting Outcomes of Local Tax Ballot Measures with a Substantial Rail Transit Component: Case Study of Effects of Transportation Packages

This research explores the effect of transportation package characteristics, both qualitative and quantitative, on the outcome of tax ballot measures with a substantial rail transit component. Seventeen recent ballot measures, each occurring in 1995 or later, in 12 communities are examined with information generated through on-site and telephone interviews and written documentation. Key findings suggest that (a) failed campaigns may successfully be repeated with appropriate adjustments; (b) multimodal packages tend to be more readily approved by voters; (c) providing perceived geographic equity is both important and challenging, with one feasible approach involving decentralized planning; (d) involving influential representatives from the business community, environmental groups, and the political community in the planning process is important in building an effective supporting coalition, although developing a package acceptable to all these groups can be difficult, and (e) voters appear to be more sensitive to the tax expiration date than to the sales tax rate.

Estimating Workforce Needs for High-Speed Rail in California and the United States

This study assesses the overall impact of job creation associated with the anticipated construction of a high-speed rail (HSR) network in the United States, particularly in California, which was scheduled to begin construction as early as September 2012. Using variations of a bottom-up construction estimation technique, the study provides estimates of the quantity and type of workers needed during the design, construction, and operation of high-speed rail infrastructure, as well as education and training needs and level of this forecasted workforce. Given the high profile of state and national commitment to HSR initiatives, as well as its potential opportunity to generate employment, a comprehensive analysis that discusses the education, training, and attendant needs produced during the creation of HSR networks is timely. By using a refined bottom-up approach to estimate labor, education, and training needs required for the California HSR network, and with general application of this model across assessment of other corridors, this report seeks to identify the magnitude of workforce development challenges that lie ahead in the implementation of national HSR systems.

Introduction to the Symposium Performance Measurement: Can it Improve Performance?

Performance measurement has long been hailed as a potential means of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of government agencies. Performance measures are increasingly popular because they may provide a means to improve performance and to illustrate to the public that government works for them. A main goal of performance measurement is to move the focus of government from bureaucratic rules and regulations to more tangible results. Although performance measurement can assume many forms in many different types of agencies, many governments now tie budgeting decisions more or less directly to performance measurement systems. Although a great deal has been written about how to implement and/or improve performance measurement systems, relatively less is known about how well such systems actually work to achieve better performance. That is the general theme about which each of the articles in this symposium is addressed. The articles examine performance measurement from a variety of jurisdictions and settings, from nonprofit organizations to state and local government. Each finds some encouraging results as well as some reasons to be more cautiously optimistic about the prospects for performance measurement as a catalyst for improved performance. Christopher Mausolff and John Spence provide a straightforward and rigorous empirical analysis of the effectiveness of performance measurement among local nonprofit organizations in the Louisville area. Using a structural equation model on data collected by dozens of program evaluators, they are able to investigate both whether performance measurement enhances agency performance and if so, how such an impact is achieved. Their findings generally and strongly support the notion that performance measurement has a positive impact on organizational effectiveness, and also provide some support for theory that this effect may occur via organizational learning.

Affirmative action in municipal government: Political, structural and demographic determinants of alternative strategies

Abstract The 167 members of the California City Managers Association were surveyed regarding the affirmative action policies of their cities. The research sought to determine factors that influence affirmative action efforts. Affirmative action outcomes and policies were measured against the following: minority political power as reflected in the diversity of the city council, frequency of interaction regarding affirmative action between council members and administrators, the ethnic composition of the city, level of advocacy regarding affirmative action in the city and the personal values of the city manager. The finding support the thesis that affirmative action success in government varies directly with the diversity of the population served and the political representation of minorities. Also important was the relationship between managerial values and affirmative efforts. Council manager interaction was directly related to the percentage of minority supervisors and managers.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Transit Security Awareness Campaigns in the San Francisco Bay Area, California

Public involvement in alerting officials of suspicious and potentially harmful activity is critical to the overall security of a transit system. As part of an effort to get passengers and the public involved, many transit agencies have security awareness campaigns. The objective of this research is to learn how transit agencies seek to make security awareness campaigns effective and to explore how they measure the effectiveness of such campaigns, if at all. This research project includes data from case studies of five major agencies that provide transit service in the San Francisco Bay Area region of California. The case study data consist of descriptions of the types of security awareness campaigns the agencies have implemented, the goals of the campaigns, and how they seek to make their campaigns effective, as well as whether and how these agencies measure and determine the effectiveness of their campaigns. One positive finding of this research is the consistency with which Bay Area transit organizations address the need for passenger awareness as part of their overall security program. However, none of the five agencies analyzed for this study measures the effectiveness of their campaigns. Although they all have a similar goal—to increase passenger awareness about security issues—little evidence exists confirming to what extent they are achieving this goal. Suggestions are offered for using outcome measurements to provide a reasonable indication of a campaigns effectiveness by capturing the publics response to a campaign.