Economics 4325
Additional Questions for Review
- What determines the pattern
of traffic for commuters?
- Why is the supply side of
interurban trips the public sector’s responsibility?
- Give three alternative
schools of thought with regard to the role of urban policy toward public
transportation.
- Why is the demand for
personal transit in urban areas so complex?
- Why should an urban
transportation system have to be tailored to each individual urban area?
- What are the effects of
changes urban form, incomes, automobile ownership, and suburbanization on
the relative importance of automobile versus public transit since WWII?
- In a modal choice model, what
four factors affect individual decisions? What are the two components of
transit cost?
- Why would more distant,
higher income households favor autos as the lower cost method of
journey-to-work trips?
- What would the be effects of
each of the following on the demand for auto versus bus transit choice:
(a) time savings in walking and waiting; (b) higher incomes; (c) higher
central city parking fees; (d) greater automobile congestion costs?
- Why is congestion pricing a
peak-load problem?
- Why is congestion viewed as a
negative external cost that is not fully paid by private automobile users?
- What happens to the short-run
efficiency of existing expressway capacity when a time of day congestion
toll is charged? What should be the amount of that toll?
- Evaluate the relative
effectiveness of the following forms of peak-load "pricing": (a)
stop lights regulating expressway entry; (b) gasoline taxes; (c) commuter
taxes; (d) higher central city parking fees; (e) express lanes for
carpools.
- Why is the amount of
additional capacity projected for investment in congested expressways
likely to be underestimated?
- How could investment that
lowers time cost of auto trips involve a tradeoff with pollution costs?
- How do threshold demand and
lower average cost with increased traffic density affect the choice among
private auto, bus, and fixed rail for urban transit use?
- How do urban poverty and
urban transportation system relate? Is this a transportation problem, a
housing problem, or job location problem?
- Make a recommendation
concerning an optimal use of urban streets for intraurban freight
transport.
- Give five reasons for the
cries of fiscal crisis by central cities in urban areas.
- Why are local public goods
and services not likely to be "pure" public goods? What does
this imply about the methods used to supply the goods and services?
- What is the Tiebout
Hypothesis? Does this result in the most efficient distribution of local
goods and services?
- How does the Tiebout solution
reduce the redistributive burden of poor households?
- How is the fiscal gain from
the Tiebout solution capitalized into the value of housing?
- What limits the welfare
efficiency of the Tiebout method of allocation?
- How does the Tiebout
mechanism influence the distribution of educational services?
- How do centralization,
vouchers, and privatization redistribute educational services more
equitably?
- Suggest some solutions to
closing down open air drug markets in urban areas.
- What are the two kinds of
regulation by local governments?
- How are amenities, rents,
wages, and location affected by pollution within urban areas?
- Why are the externalities of
urbanization likely to be more severe in developing countries than in
developed countries?
- Why are policies to restrict
primacy or excessive size of the largest metropolitan areas likely to be
beneficial in developing countries?
- What does the Kuznets curve
show for developing countries?
- What is the likely effect of
land reform to redistribute income in developing countries on the degree
of urbanization?
- Since developing countries
face a housing shortage with little filtering, what is likely to be the
geographic location low income squatter settlements? How is government
likely to respond to the problem of squatters?