New priorities for old roads : re-thinking roadway preservation

Most of the roads built over the last century in the US were built assuming that efficient mobility for drivers was most important without considering impacts to the natural or built environment. Urban neighborhoods were severed, ecologically sensitive areas were disrupted, and pedestrian, bicycle and transit accommodation was ignored. Public offense at this approach to road-building led to new policies and practices for more open, locally-based decision-making. Road construction is now subject to a higher level of scrutiny, yet investment is preserving existing roads is assumed with little public discussion even though preservation represents the majority of transportation expenditures. As public priorities shift toward favoring sustainable development and transforming out of auto-dependency, road preservation can be either a barrier or an opportunity. This study examines whether and how road preservation investments support these new priorities. I use the Maryland State Highway Administration (MSHA) as a case study. As a national leader in context-sensitive solutions and in commitment to sustainable development, MSHA is expected to exhibit innovative use of system preservation expenditures to support local plans for more balanced, less auto-intensive transportation systems. I find that rather than integrate context -sensitivity and sustainability into all transportation programs, Asset Management-based preservation programs focus almost exclusively on cost-efficiency while alternate programs are created to address broader concerns.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Sylvester, Kathleen R. (Kathleen Rynn)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ralph Gakenheimer.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50120

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/50120