William L. Garrison

TRAVEL, WORK, AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS: A VIEW OF THE ELECTRONICS REVOLUTION AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPACTS

In considering the possible impacts of information technologies and other electronics innovations on transportation, many studies have focused on substitution effects and especially on opportunities for telecommunications to replace, or dramatically reduce the length of, physical commuting to work. This paper argues that transportation will be affected in much more fundamental ways than have been considered in the substitution framework. Electronic technologies are facilitating structural changes in production and consumption, which in turn may lead to basic reorientation in the nature of work and the use and organization of time. These changes are likely to have profound economic and social effects which, while much larger than the transportation question, may necessitate rethinking the function of transportation systems.

Lean Vehicles: Strategies for Introduction Emphasizing Adjustments to Parking and Road Facilities

This paper concentrates on the evolution of a pathway facilitating testing of the General Motors Lean Machine in markets. Results are presented from analyses of ways parking and road facilities might be adjusted to accommodate the vehicle; roles for IVHS technologies are noted.

Airports and the air transportation system: Functional refinements and functional discovery

Abstract This paper examines the technological development of the airport and the air transportation system in order to identify opportunities for increased growth and development. The paper identifies two approaches to accomodating growth, which it terms functional refinement and functional discovery. The former refers to incremental improvements, the latter to the discovery of new technological forms and functions. Functional refinements condition and frequently constrain efforts towards functional discovery. For example, efforts to advance “demand management” may not be beneficial for the exploration of new uses for air transportation technology. The paper examines how efforts towards functional refinement might be reoriented towards fostering functional discovery, identifies parallels between the air transportation system and other infrastructure systems, and examines how efforts towards functional refinement that lock out functional discovery run counter to powerful social pressures for flexible, specialized production.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES

The life cycle concept has long been used by technologists and managers of research and development, and it is increasingly used by managers of firms and policy analysts (Ayres and Steger, 1985). It applies to products, and it uses a biological language. A product is conceived as an idea and birthed as a prototype. With subsequent refinement, it begins to be adopted by markets. Eventually, a rather standardized product saturates the market, senescence is boded when sales are mainly replacement ones or when competing products begin to nibble away markets.

BASIC RESEARCH ON TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES

F Moavenzadeh discussed guideway facility research needs relating to material and construction. The objective of the author is to complement Moavenzadehs work by treating facility research needs at systems scales. The discussion deals with the infrastructure problem resulting from failures to develop practical insights from basic understanding of transportation systems. The problem of guideway location is also examined. For article by Moavenzedeh, F, see IRRD 287440. (TRRL)

Nonincremental change in the automobile-highway system

Abstract A three-component—roads, vehicles and operations—structure of the automobile-highway system is analyzed. The decision rules among and within components have yielded a stable, S-shaped growth dynamic for the system. Access increases have driven performance improvements; market congestion or saturation has dampened improvements. Innovations sharply shifting the growth trajectory of the system are discussed.

Research Commentary: Increasing the Flexibility of Legacy Systems

Flexibility is what people seek when striving to increase or expand economic and social choices, equity, and technological innovations. Flexibility provides the robustness needed to adjust to changes such as those arising from a warmer/colder world, and the actions required when managing threats from and results of social strife, economic downturns, environmental catastrophes, infrastructure disruptions, and war. Flexibility is easy to praise at the level of principle, if allowed that a bit of stability and resistance to change does have merit. At the level of practice or operations the concept is most illusive, and explaining what flexibility means, why it is thwarted, and how it might be obtained is a challenging task. This paper begins by contrasting views of systems and their behaviors. Alternative explanations for behaviors thwarting flexibility are identified. Consequences of inflexible, locked-in development paths are illustrated using examples from transportation and similar systems. Suggestions for increasing flexibility are made after examining system behaviors in dynamic contexts. Academic, government, and industry experiences inform and color interpretations.

Living With and Loving a No-Win Situation

“Values of Regional Science” was the title of my 1W Presidential Address, a title not unlike those of several other early presidential addresses to the fledgling Regional Science Association. I shall summarize the 1964 address and then speculate about what seems to be a paradox. Regional science has the right sort of values, yet has achieved only limited success in claiming homes in academia. How can this be? “Values” and “success*’ are the key words here, and the following incorporates and extends beyond those words. After briefly revisiting the 1964 paper, which dealt with values using an insideloutside scheme, I will take a personalized detour that suggests where I am coming from. Then, I will explore a structure, behavior, and performance scheme, partially at a personal-experience level. Academic-like values are included in the discussion where appropriate, but they seem not so much at issue. The structure of regional science may not mandate the need for departmental homes in universities. If “winning” is defined as the creation of departments, regional science may have to live with a “no-win” situation, which might not be so bad. There may be other successful styles for competing in the evolving world of ideas and their practice.

Technology Considerations in Urban Systems Analysis

System analyses of urban areas usually include certain features of technologies: the inputs required, steps to transform inputs to outputs and the stochastic properties of those transformations, costs, risks and so forth. But the processes of technological change are not ordinarily incorporated in analysis, and their omission can lead to forecasting errors. More serious matters are the lack of attention to policies influencing technical change and system development and the overlooking of sources of critical problems and inefficiencies.