Emerging Themes in Transportation Policy

Urban transportation policy is under review by federal, state, and local governments, and by the private sector. The political role of transport investments, techniques by which planners model and evaluate transportation programs, funding mechanisms for public and private transportation, and relationships between accessibility and urban form are being reconsidered more seriously today than at any time since the emergence of the automobile as the major mode of movement. While it is impossible to probe all of these questions deeply in a single journal issue, the six articles which comprise this symposium capture rather well the spirit of criticism, questioning, and change which today pervades the American community of transportation planners.