TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

Transportation Planning



Transportation Planning

Q1: Home Rule or Dillon's Rule

The case in point is that the government has recently approved a plan to build a new city. The debate is raging for applying Dillon's rule or Home rule. I must say that Dillon's rule is better in this case. In the 1980s and 1990s, calls for home rule were no longer associated with efforts for stronger local government but rather with opposition to federal oversight and regulation. Funding for cities was reduced under the Reagan administration, even as a national wave of tax revolts undermined municipal finances (Teaford, 2004).

This exacerbated growing problems of inequity in cities, particularly along racial lines and in terms of employment and education. In the late 20th century, Dillon's rule made a dramatic resurgence in courts around the country as home rule statutes, city authority, and the success of local policies came into question in a new political environment. Often citing urban policy that led directly to inequity, failure to meet requirements for basic services, and the exclusion of minorities from the decision-making process, courts began to assign more responsibility to state governments for overseeing and supporting urban services including education and welfare. Nevertheless, the principle of home rule, rooted in the venerable tradition of American federalism, remained compelling, and the degree of local governmental autonomy became an important legal and political question (Teaford, 2006).

Home rule increased local discretion but did not liberate cities from state authority. In fact, the dominant trend of the 20th century was toward greater state supervision of municipalities and less local independence. In the 19th century state lawmakers sporadically curbed local autonomy in response to partisan concerns, but they failed to impose systematic state supervision over subordinate governmental units. In the 20th century, however, state administrative agencies exercised unprecedented oversight and attempted to ensure that cities and other local units operated efficiently and effectively.

Q2: Strategic Planning

The role transportation plays in the functioning of a community is often characterized in terms of accessibility and mobility. Accessibility is the ease of movement between places. It can be defined as the number of opportunities or the potential for interaction at a specific location. Mobility is the potential for movement or the ability to get from one place to another. These concepts are particularly important for specific subgroups of the population: non-auto owners, the elderly, the young, and those with impaired mobility (McGoldrick, 2007).

Understanding the complex interactions and resultant impacts of the transportation system on communities requires some understanding of the forces of urbanization in the twentieth century (Wiewel, 2002, 40). These include the growth in U.S. population, the decentralization of cities, the dominance of the automobile, rising incomes, improved telephone and electronic communication, the emergence of distributed entertainment locations, and the growth of highways. Since the first wave of suburbanization in the 1920s, our communities have become increasingly urbanized, aided by readily available mortgage finance, high employment, increasing automobile ownership, and the expansion of the highway system (McBain, ...