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More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and projections indicate that urban areas will account for 60% of global population by 2030. Cities are growing in number, population a...

Drawing upon a case study of regional transit in Denver, Colorado, this article describes and accounts for the emergence of the global infrastructure public-private partnership (GIP3) as a novel extra-territorial mechanism for financing and delivering transportation infrastructure projects across large metropolitan regions in the United States (US). Unlike traditional locally-funded public-private partnerships, a GIP3 involves a global (i.e. extra-territorial) consortium of private sector construction firms and investors which enters into a long-term contract with a regional public agency to finance, operate, maintain and deliver strategic investments in transportation infrastructure. In 2004, Denver region voters approved a sales tax increase to fund the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD)’s US$4.7 billion FasTracks programme, a 122-mile extension of light and commuter rail along six corridors. Faced with a shortfall in regional funding, the Denver RTD subsequently entered into a contract with a GIP3 consortium to finance and deliver the Eagle P3 project, a major component of the FasTracks system to Denver International Airport. The article argues that future research on GIP3 contractual agreements needs to consider the local control of infrastructure assets and the integrity of supporting regional collaborative governance arrangements.

This chapter chronicles Denver’s efforts to reintroduce rail transit and change its urban development trajectory from low-density automobile-oriented decentralized growth to higher-density transit oriented urban centres. Since the mid-1990s, there has been a considerable amount of transit oriented development (TOD) activity in Denver, especially in the downtown area, but the overall effect of TOD on urban form has been slow to emerge. Recent studies have shown increased shares of commercial and multifamily residential land use in urban centres and along transit corridors in comparison to the rest of the metro area. Yet, as of 2014, only 10 per cent of housing and 36 per cent of employment were located in an urban centre, while transit mode share for commuting in the region has remained low (4 per cent) and driving alone increased to 76 per cent. Transit mode share for commuting to downtown Denver, however, is much higher (41 per cent) and exceeds that for driving alone (38 per cent).

Airports have evolved over time from simple airfield facilities to multifunctional centres of aviation and related activities at both the airport site itself and the surrounding environs. Commercialisation and privatisation of airports have accelerated these developments as well as increased recognition that the global accessibility of air transport provides locational advantages to a variety of business activities that are drawn to the airport area. Land uses around airports have intensified and diversified over time through a series of stages as urban areas have grown outward. Most recently, concepts such as the airport city and the aerotropolis have captured the imaginations of political leaders and economic development officials through their claims that airports are becoming the centres of urban regions, and that future growth will revolve around air transport and airports. Whilst air transport has grown and become a more important form of global connectivity with increased development at and around airports, the aerotropolis model is overstated and has been subject to a range of pointed economic, environmental, and social critiques. Three of the most well-known airport-oriented developments, located near airports serving Seoul, Dubai, and Amsterdam, are profiled in this chapter, noting their successes and shortcomings.

One of the goals of constructing and operating an extensive rail transit system in the Denver metro region since 1994 has been growth and development of land use along the rail transit system. This paper analyzes the trend of land use growth and development around the rail transit system mostly from 2000 to 2010. Primarily land parcel data collected from the assessor's office of several counties in the metro region have been used to determine change in the amount of different types of land use namely commercial, mixed, industrial, multi-family residential and single-family residential near and far from the rail transit system. Change has been analyzed in terms of total square footage of the building areas as well as land use density. Statistical significance tests (Wilcoxon/Kruskal–Wallis test) have been conducted to understand if the amount of change taking place near the rail transit system is greater than away from the system. The growth of commercial land use was significantly higher near the rail transit system. More growth in multi-family residential land use has also occurred near the rail transit system, but was not significantly greater than areas away from the system. Single-family residential land use has noticeably increased in places away from the rail transit system. The other types of land use have not shown any consistent pattern in their growth either near or away from the system. Overall, a noticeable amount of land use change, especially commercial land use, has taken place around the rail transit system from 2000 to 2010. However, this change in land use cannot necessarily be attributed to the construction and operation of the rail transit system. Other factors may have influenced the growth of land use around the rail transit system more than the presence of the rail transit system itself.

Since the 1980s, significant investments have been made in urban rail transit across the United States, particularly using light rail technology. Most of these light rail systems have been built in Sunbelt cities which no longer had legacy rail systems. As a result, they were constructed using a building blocks approach, being funded corridor by corridor. Most research, however, on urban rail performance has taken place at the system-wide level, leaving a significant gap at the level of the transit corridor. This research examined nineteen urban rail corridors in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Portland. A performance score was constructed for each corridor based upon ridership per mile, ridership growth, capital costs, and the cost of ongoing operations. These scores were then compared with the geographic profile of each corridor studied. Corridors in each city ranked high and low, with no city emerging as a clear frontrunner. More centrally-located corridors in each city registered the highest performance scores, while longer corridors in more peripheral locations had lower performance scores. Headways, population density, job density, walkability, and percentage renter occupied housing units were found to have a statistically significant relationship with high corridor performance, largely in line with previous studies, though median income, bus connections, and park and ride spaces were not found to increase performance in this study.

Transit development is one planning strategy that seeks to partially overcome limitations of low-density single use car oriented development styles. While many studies focus on how residential proximity to transit influences the travel behaviors of individuals, the effect of workplace proximity to transit is less understood. This paper asks, does working near a light rail transit station influence the travel behaviors of workers differently than workers living near a station? We begin by examining workers’ commute mode based on their residential and workplace proximity to transit station areas. Next, we analyze the ways in which personal travel behaviors differ between those who drive to work and those who do not. The data came from a 2009 travel behavior survey in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area, which contains 8000 households, 16,000 individuals, and nearly 80,000 trips. We measure sustainable travel behaviors as reduced mileage, reduced number of trips, and increased use of non-car transportation. The results of this study indicate that living near a transit station area by itself does not increase the likelihood of using non-car modes for work commutes. But if the destination (work) is near a transit station area, persons are less likely to drive a car to work. People who both live and work in a transit station area are less likely to use a car and more likely to take non-car modes for both work and non-work (personal) trips. Especially for persons who work near a transit station area, the measures of personal trips and distances show a higher level of mobility for non-car commuters than car commuters – that is, more trips and more distant trips. The use of non-car modes for personal trips is most likely to occur by non-car commuters, regardless of their transit station area relationship.

After 50 years of experience with high-speed rail (HSR) development in Asia and Europe, there are important lessons that can be derived to inform future efforts to introduce HSR. This paper identifies and explores three strategic models of HSR development: (1) exclusive corridors (e.g., Japan), (2) hybrid networks—both national (e.g., France and Germany) and international (e.g., European Union), and (3) comprehensive national networks (e.g., China and Spain). Evaluations of these models yield outcomes that range from generally positive assessments of the corridor and national hybrid models to more concerns and uncertainties about the international hybrid and comprehensive national network models. When applying these lessons to the United States, contextual differences can make direct applications problematic. At the same time, though, certain elements of these three models that have been proven to be successful elsewhere may be adaptable to the U.S. and other newcomers to HSR development.

Because the United States has taken steps in recent years to invest significant funds to implement high-speed rail, it is important to consider how high-speed rail has developed elsewhere since its original deployment between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, in 1964. The three models of highspeed rail development that have emerged over the past 50 years are (a) the exclusive-corridor strategy exemplified by Japan, (b) the hybrid-corridor strategy found in France and Germany, and (c) the comprehensive national network strategy pioneered by China. The relevance of these three models to high-speed rail development in the United States is conditioned by several factors, including previous attempts to develop high-speed rail in the country, the institutional organization of the existing U.S. freight rail industry, and external market dynamics. Although the U.S. railroad industry has evolved differently and moved apart from rail operations in many other countries, external market dynamics such as growing urban populations and increased demand for passenger rail transportation appear to be converging with those in the rest of the world. Accordingly, several lessons are drawn for the United States from global high-speed rail experience: (a) a higher degree of relevance and higher ease in knowledge transfer would occur from following the exclusive-corridor model, (b) less difficulty in knowledge transfer but less relevance would arise in adopting the hybrid-corridor model, and (c) more relevance but more difficulty of knowledge transfer accompanies pursuit of the comprehensive national network model.

The rise of the city-region concept has focused attention on the nature of territorial politics underpinning city-regionalism. This paper investigates the relationship between territorial politics, city-regionalism and the collective provision of mass transport infrastructure in the USA. It deploys a case study of the Denver region, examining the state and governance structures driving forward FasTracks, a long-term project to expand the Denver Regional Transportation District’s light and commuter rail system. FasTracks represents a programme to retrofit the Denver city-region for integrated mass transit but its funding has fostered tensions around new regionalist governance arrangements. The paper uses the findings of the case study to reflect upon the balance of bottom–up versus top–down geopolitical forces shaping the landscape of city-regionalism in the USA. It emphasises the variety of ways in which struggles around infrastructure provision shape the emergence of new city-regionalist structures inside the competition state.

During the post-war era in the United States, the low-density suburban sprawl model has been the dominant paradigm of urban growth. In recognition of the significant economic, social and environmental costs of sprawl, a new smart growth paradigm of higher-density, mixed-use and transit-oriented urban centres has emerged in many metropolitan areas. A case study of Denver, Colorado, shows that the smart growth approach has been more effective than previous initiatives to change the development pattern and address the costs of sprawl. With many new urbanist projects and an aggressive transit-oriented development programme, Denver is offering a different urban alternative to its sprawling past. A broader coalition of support, especially including the development community, has characterised smart growth efforts in contrast to previous growth control initiatives. New forms of regional collaboration have contributed to a stronger regional identity, less jurisdictional infighting and greater consensus on issues of regional importance.

As large cities seek to expand their transit systems to accommodate increasing travel demand, provide alternatives to growing road traffic congestion, and improve accessibility, more research attention has been focused on the land use effects of transit, most notably in the form of transit-oriented development (TOD). Many cities in the USA are starting or expanding rail transit systems with objectives that include more focused economic development near transit stations and along transit corridors. Denver, Colorado is one of the cities that is aggressively expanding its rail transit system and encouraging high-density, mixed-use development in the station areas. This study analyzes TOD data from the Denver Regional Transportation District and the Denver Regional Council of Governments for 0.5-mile areas around current and proposed rail transit stations. Early evidence indicates that the scope of transit-oriented development in Denver is considerable, resulting in nearly 18,000 residential dwelling units, 5.3 million square feet of retail space, 5.4 million square feet of office space, and 6.2 million square feet of medical space within one-half mile of existing or planned transit stations from 1997 to 2010. As one of the critical elements of the regional land use and transportation plan, the rail transit system and the emphasis on transit-oriented development is contributing to an increase in the average density of the Denver urbanized area.

Contents: The geographies of air transport: an introduction, Lucy Budd and Andrew R. Goetz. Part I Thematic Approaches: The historical geographies of air transport, Lucy Budd The geopolitics of air transport, Keith G. Debbage The economic geography of air transport, John T. Bowen, Jr Social and cultural geographies of air transport, Peter Adey and Weiqiang Lin Environmental externalities of air transport, Tim Ryley The role of airports in air transport, Anne Graham and Stephen Ison Global cities and air transport, Ben Derudder and Frank Witlox The sustainability of air transport, Christopher Paling, Paul Hooper and Callum Thomas. Part II Regional Approaches: Geographies of air transport in North America, Sean Tierney Geographies of European air transport, Frederic Dobruszkes Air transport geographies of the Asia-Pacific, Kevin O'Connor and Kurt Fuellhart Geographies of Latin American air transport, Gustavo Lipovich Geographies of Middle Eastern air transport, Khaula Alkaabi Geographies of air transport in Africa: aviation's 'last frontier', Gordon Pirie Conclusion, Andrew R. Goetz and Lucy Budd. Index.

Among the reasons the light rail system in Denver has been built is to reduce traffic congestion. A temporal and spatial analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) data from 1992 to 2008 on the highways in Denver has been conducted to determine if that objective has been fulfilled after the initial light rail service began in 1994. Temporal analysis provides an insight into the changes in the level of highway traffic before and after the opening of three segments (Central, Southwest, and Southeast Corridors) of the light rail system. This part of the analysis also compares the traffic levels of highways affected by light rail with those not affected by light rail. Spatial analysis examines whether the changes have taken place uniformly throughout all the highways, or whether they have been concentrated on particular highways. Results indicate that light rail has reduced level of traffic along some of the adjacent highways for a short period of time. Overall, the three light rail corridors in operation have succeeded in lowering the rate of increase in the level of traffic on highways within the rail transit influence zone as compared to highways outside the influence zone.

Recent viewpoints concerning the state of research in transport geography have touched on the issue of insularity and the need to bridge the divide between the largely spatial–analytical or quantitative research in transport geography and the critical or qualitative research prevalent in urban, economic, and most other subfields of human geography. Transport geography has been criticized by some for being a quiet corner of our discipline that has lost its centrality largely because it remains within the analytical framework of the 1960s. This article explores these sentiments by reexamining recent transport-oriented research in highly cited geography journals to assess the degree to which the qualitative–quantitative divide exists within transport geography and between transport and other subfield in human geography, as well as to explore issues of productivity and centrality of transport-oriented research in geography. Results indicate that geographical research involving transport topics is much more pr...

The US airline industry was deregulated in 1978 and has undergone significant changes in industry structure, profitability, employment, passenger volume, and patterns of service and fares, among other characteristics. This paper sets out to make three contributions to the literature as related to the story of airline deregulation. First, discussion of economic theory will provide the context for an updated overview of the positive, negative, and really negative results of US airline deregulation, summarized in the form of “the good”, “the bad”, and “the ugly”. Second, this paper provides a periodization of the 30-year history of US airline deregulation that is important in understanding the cycles of change as reflected in the industry’s financial performance and other relevant data. Third, this paper contributes to the renewed debate about the efficacy of deregulation and liberalization policies, particularly at a time when the global financial crisis has cast a harsh spotlight on the (un)desirability of these policies. Some of the good results during the 30 years of airline deregulation, from the industry and consumer perspective, include higher passenger volumes, more service to the most popular destinations, and lower fares on average. Bad results include financial and employment instability, diminution in the quality of airline service overall, and fewer flights and higher fares to smaller places. The recent 2000–2005 period has been particularly ugly, as the airline industry has lost over $30 billion, and several high-profile carriers, such as United, Delta, Northwest, and US Airways, were forced into bankruptcy.

This research examines gated communities in the Denver‐Boulder area to better understand the phenomenon at the metropolitan scale. To gain some insight into why they have proliferated, we examine the characteristics of gated communities and the areas in which they are located, as well as residents’ motivations for moving into one. The Denver area has most of the types of ownership‐based gated communities prevalent across the United States. We also studied rental gated communities. Ownership‐based communities are located in the suburban, exurban, and prestigious inner urban areas of Denver. Prestige, privacy, and maintenance are among the most important reasons for moving to a gated community, but the gates per se were among the most important considerations only for those residents who had previously lived in such a community. Spatial distribution within the area leads to the conclusion that competition among developers may help explain the clustering of these communities.

Against a context of international crisis in the air transport industry, this paper examines the implications of the ways in which strategies developed by key air transport stakeholders, as well as the contemporary dynamics of the globalized, liberalized market place, impact directly on sustainability issues. More specifically, the paper has two objectives. First, it discusses the policy ramifications of the interrelationships between the concepts of globalization, liberalization, and sustainability within the air transport industry. Second, the paper explores the import of these interrelationships as they interconnect with stakeholder strategies in the differing geopolitical contexts of the US and EU. Particular attention is given to airline network and frequency strategies. The paper concludes that while the financial sustainability of the airline industry is the overwhelming concern today, if this is essentially the short-term crisis that the airline industry claims it to be, the longer-term predictions of air transport growth will again bring environmental sustainability issues to the fore.

Current problems in the US airline industry such as increasing industry consolidation, fortress hub dominance, predatory behavior, and high fare “pockets of pain” have their roots in the flaws of the theories that supported airline deregulation in 1978. Contrary to pre-deregulation expectations, the industry is characterized by large economies of scale, large barriers to entry, and a lack of contestability in airline markets. These inexorable economic forces are producing increased levels of monopoly and oligopoly control over city-pair markets resulting in a larger share of travelers paying higher fares. Additional mergers and acquisitions will exacerbate the problem. As these trends continue, the US Congress and the US Departments of Transportation and Justice will be under increasing pressure to take serious corrective actions.

With the enactment of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act in 1991, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) became more important institutions for planning and funding regional transportation systems. This study attempts to assess the success of MPOs in four fast-growing areas- Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Phoenix, and Seattle-in meeting regional transportation needs. The research identifies the criteria that distinguish more successful from less successful MPOs-effective leadership, staff competence and credibility, quality public involvement, development of a regional ethos, streamlined and efficient processes, cooperative relationships with the state DOT, land-use coordination, and accountability to members-and offers suggestions for improving transportation planning. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

This book is part of an Edward Elgar series on Transport Economics, Management, and Policy, edited by Kenneth Button. Several of the books in this series focus on freight transportation, and this b...

The first impression most geographers may have about the study of transport terminals is that their relevance outside of the transportation field would be very limited. To the contrary, transport terminals are at the very center of critical issues in economic, political, urban, and other geographic subfields, and deserve much more attention. One cannot fully appreciate how globalization works without understanding how seaports, airports, rail terminals, and truck terminals operate as the linchpins of the global economy. Transport terminals represent some of the most critical parts of the physical infrastructure that makes possible the increased volume of passenger and freight movements around the world. As such, funding for new and expanded infrastructure is a central concern for local, regional, national, and supranational authorities. Since much of this infrastructure must be in or near major urban areas, issues involving the positive and negative externalities of port and terminal location can come to dominate public discourse at the local level.

Current approaches to transportation planning have yielded, at best, inconsistent results. Numerous projects, based on the traditional rational-comprehensive model, have failed to achieve their original objectives. Although scholars have, for decades, identified the weaknesses of this model and proposed new alternatives, it continues to dominate transportation planning. The case of Denver International Airport illustrates its weaknesses and the need to adopt more flexible alternative approaches that incorporate elements of robustness, corrigibility, hedging and resilience. For airport planning specifically, the new, highly volatile environment created by deregulation and increased public sensitivities needs to be recognized and new guidelines incorporating findings such as these should be designed and promulgated by the FAA.

The U.S. domestic airline industry was deregulated in 1978 as part of a regulatory reform movement that has transformed the banking, telecommunications, energy, and transportation industries. A geography of deregulation has emerged conforming to a core-periphery structure in which industries are increasingly controlled by fewer firms through their major headquarters and operations centers. As a consequence of industry consolidation and the shift to“hub-and-spoke” network service structures, strong domestic“hubs” (e.g., Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta) and international gateway cities (e.g., Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco) have emerged as the core control centers of the air-transport system, while“spoke” cities have become peripheralized in the process. The group of core centers has benefited more than the periphery from increased air transportation employment, frequency of service, passenger flow, and lower fares, except in cases where hubs were dominated by one or two airlines, where fares rose. The latte...

Megaprojects continue to play a prominent role in promoting economic development, and have proliferated rapidly worldwide. But, as they have grown larger in number, size, and complexity, their planning, implementation and ultimate success become increasingly problematic. Most encounter unexpected difficulties and seldom achieve their original objectives. This article addresses the reasons for this state of affairs by focusing upon the relevance of the Rational model of decision making to the case of the new Denver International Airport. It traces its evolution and considers the extent to which the Rational model explains the major events. It concludes that this model has only limited explanatory power because it does not incorporate political elements which play a major role in megaprojects. The Rational model can be successfully applied to an entire project only where the political system permits a powerful agency to design and implement the project. This condition is rarely met in democratic societies, especially in the U.S. Furthermore, its applicability is limited by the new environment in which planning takes place, an environment that is marked by the emergence of new actors and increasing turbulence and uncertainty. Accordingly, recognition of the role of power suggests that the utility of the Rational model is limited and that alternative planning approaches that emphasize consensus building and flexibility need to be developed for megaproject planning.

This paper describes how the relationship between transportation and economic growth has a long history. However, the exact nature of this relationship is not altogether clear. Theoretically, transport infrastructure is expected to have both direct and indirect impacts on economic activity. Direct impacts come in the form of increased employment in transportation construction activity, travel time and cost savings that accrue to businesses and travelers, and the reduction in the number of accidents from improvements in transportation infrastructure. Indirect impacts are the secondary effects that result from improved transportation infrastructure, including: increased trade activity; new businesses, residences, and other development activity; and multiplier effects from expanded economic activity. The connection between transportation and economic growth also has intermediate linkages in the form of accessibility and cohesion. Improvements in transport infrastructure should increase the levels of accessibility between places, thereby facilitating an increase in spatial interaction and economic activity. As cities, regions, and states are brought closer together as a result of improved transport, these places should also become more cohesive across political, social, and cultural dimensions. The paper shows how the increased cohesiveness may also lead to a greater economic impact.

The relationship between transportation and urbanization at the national scale is revisited by focusing upon the role that air passenger transportation has played in the post-war evolution of the U.S. urban system. Theory suggests that major transportation innovations have exhibited profound and prolonged interdependencies with patterns of growth in national or regional urban systems. As the most recent major intercity transportation innovation, it should be expected that utilization of air transportation should bear some relationship to patterns of growth in urban places. This paper documents this relationship by using FAA and U.S. Census data to correlate volumes of air passenger flows per capita with changes in population and employment for the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The expectation that higher volumes of air passenger flow per capita exhibit a positive correlation with both previous and subsequent growth is confirmed by the analysis. More detailed examination of both high and low air passenger index cities suggests functional and regional consistencies with the central hypothesis. The implications of these results for air transportation and airport planning include at least some justification for increased attention to provision of air service and adequate airport infrastructure as well as reiteration of the importance of air transportation in economic development.

Transportation geography is the study of the spatial aspects of transportation. It includes the location, structure, environment, and development of networks as well as the analysis and explanation of the interaction or movement of goods and people (Black 1989). In addition it encompasses the role and impacts—both spatial and aspatial—of transport in a broad sense including facilities, institutions, policies and operations in domestic and international contexts. It also provides an explicitly spatial perspective, or point of view, within the interdisciplinary study of transportation. There has been substantial progress in the development of the transportation geography subfield over the last ten years. In 1993, the Journal of Transport Geography was started in the UK, providing the subfield with its own eponymous journal. Several second editions of key textbooks were published, including The Geography of Transportation (Taaffe et al. 1996), The Geography of Urban Transportation (Hanson 1995), and Modern Transport Geography (Hoyle and Knowles 1998). The Transportation Geography Specialty Group (TGSG) instituted the Edward L. Ullman Award for scholarly contributions to the subfield; recipients have included Edward Taaffe, Harold Mayer, Howard Gauthier, William Garrison, William Black, James Vance, Susan Hanson, Morton O’Kelly, Bruce Ralston, Donald Janelle, Thomas Leinbach, Brian Slack, and Kingsley Haynes. The specialty group also began honoring students who have written the best doctoral dissertations and masters theses each year, and a TGSG web page was created. The University of Washington Department of Geography instituted the Douglas K. Fleming lecture series in transportation geography at AAG annual meetings. Finally, transport geographers have played prominent roles in a Geography and Regional Science Program organized joint National Science Foundation/European Science Foundation initiative on Social Change and Sustainable Transport (SCAST) (Leinbach and Smith 1997; Button and Nijkamp 1997). This initiative led to the development of the North American-based Sustainable Transportation Analysis and Research (STAR) network led by geographer William Black as a counterpart to the European-based Sustainable Transport in Europe and Links and Liaisons with America (STELLA) network. Together, these initiatives and research networks offer significant opportunities for geographers to contribute to a growing body of literature on the environmental, economic, and equity implications of transportation systems.

A review of the second edition of the book "The Geography of Transport Systems," by Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Claude Comtois, and Brian Slack is presented.

We assessed the practice of freight and passenger intermodal planning at seven state departments of transportation Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas through analyses of previous studies, long- and short-range plans, organisational structures, surveys, and interviews. Results indicate that these states have altered their organisational structures and have produced plans that increasingly reflect an intermodal orientation, but that Florida and Louisiana were rated somewhat higher. Specific intermodal projects, public participation, and coordination among agencies tended to be rated more highly, while funding for and state DOT attitudes toward transit, bicycle/pedestrian, and intermodal connectors were rated much lower.