Citation

Wachs M. Transp. Res. Circular 2001; (E-C026): 37-43.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, U.S. National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this keynote address the author comments on what he sees to be five themes or trends that he believes will be the dominating concerns of transportation analysts and data managers over the first decade of the new century. These five themes are: (1) Transportation in the new century will be to a far greater degree integrated with telecommunications and the flow of information; the use of data and the need for data will have to quickly change to reflect this. (2) In part because of the new relationship between telecommunications and travel, new patterns will emerge in the relationship between transportation and urban form and these will suggest new forms of data collection and new forms of analysis. (3) One of the major transportation problems facing policymakers in the early part of the new millennium will be goods movement. The understanding of patterns of goods movement must be improved and better integrated with our analysis of people movement. (4) One of the most pressing policy issues facing transportation analysts, and one for which current data collection systems and analysis capabilities are ill prepared, is in the realm of sustainability. Transportation and global warming will have to be looked at more closely, and data and analytical capabilities will have to be built that will enable plausible evaluations of alternative transportation policies on the basis of sustainability. (5) Equity will be one of the major themes in transportation policy for the coming decade. Current tools of analysis must be sharpened and data support systems need to be created for more penetrating analyses of equity in transportation policymaking.