Talking about finance, geography, urban, ........just made me enthusiastic enough to do some research and dedicate this week's topic into Geographic Equity Role in Public Transportation policy.

   The geography of urban transportation in U.S. cities is deeply formed by the geography of urban transportation finance. And ‘financing/funding’ the urban transportation (from where taxes are collected and to where they are distributed) is managed by politicians, neither urban planners nor transportation experts. To focus on how this funding decisions are made, it should be necessary to draw a distinction between different distribution concepts; Individual, Group and Geographic.

    There are also hard debates over these equity concepts and the logic of distribution methods. In one hand, Finance scholars and activists are more interested on individual equity and group equity. They argue that funds have to be distributed with the respect of the number of ridership and patrons. In other hand, ‘Elected Officials’ are concerned most with geographic equity. Taylor argues that the reason for geography equity is that ‘representation in the United State is organized geographically into a hierarchy of jurisdictions’. Consequently, geographic equity allocates public transit funding in equal among jurisdictions, regardless how it is consumed or what the urbanized level of state is. For example, the ridership of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (N.Y.MTA.) is 900 times more than this number in Chapel Hill, NC but the latter city enjoyed federal transit subsidies for 400 percent more than New York for each trip!

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Why Geographic Equity Has a Role on Public Transportation Policy?

A- Hierarchy of jurisdiction that is geographical

Representation in congress and the majority of state legislatures matched the geographical distribution of voters rather than urban transit client.

B - Policy makers misunderstanding

   Boxer (1998) argues that when announcing federal funding of new transportation project to constitute, congress members cite the economic benefits such projects will bring to the affected district. He believes elected officials, were interested on capturing the federal funds for transit projects for the economic revitalization and job creation in depressed areas. Hence, transit funding by federal was pushed through geographic equity that seemed more ‘Popular’ rather than other distribution systems. Moreover, Taylors highlights the congress members reflect in summer 1998 to TEA-21 legislation and argues that they hailed TEA-21 as an engine for continued economic growth by job generating.

C - Public concern with worsening environment quality (started at 1970s),

Vanguard strategy and anti auto activists (Dunn, 1998)

D - The effect of transit investment on public

   Taylor believes that transportation public works (notably, rail system) are usually popular with voters and the people whom they elect. Because of this reason, policy makers (and who need voters) are interested on geography equity. Mark Garrett believes the combination of federal funds for transit and dedicated local and state funding programs often produce politically powerful action for transit, even in situations where it fails to satisfy either the usual social equity or economic efficiency rationales.

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1-      Hanson and Giuliano, chapter 11

2-      American public Transportation Association, 2003b

3-      Reconsidering social equity in public transit, Garrett, Taylor

4-      Fiscal Equity in Urban Mass Transit Systems: A Geographic AnalysisHodge

                5-      TRANSPORTATION NEEDS AND EQUITY

                6 -      Evaluating Transportation Equity, Guidance For Incorporating Distributional Impacts in 

                       Transportation Planning, Todd Litman                                                                

                7-      Addressing Urban Transportation Equity in the United States

                8-      Journal article by Robert D. Bullard; Fordham Urban Law Journal, Vol. 31, 2004

      9 -      Integrating geographic information systems into transit ridership forecast models

            10-  A Coverage Model for Improving Public Transit System Accessibility and Expanding Access 

The idea of income elasticity of demand (We can consider city size as demanded good) in city formation came from “the soccer field”. You push the ball, if you have enough power; otherwise, welcome to hell!

The same challenge happened in almost all poly-centric metropolitans. The traditional CBDs were not able to tolerate the demanded growth. People/government seeks alternatives and ended up in the poly-centric pattern, inevitably (Joel Garreau, Edge city life on the new frontier, 1991).

Yet, the question is how the optimal size of the city and economics correlated and how this correlation (if exists) interpreted by economic models. Surprisingly, all reading assignments of this week came from the Krugman’s school of thoughts. Paul Krugman (Economics Nobel Prize winner, 2008) analyzed the equilibrium and the optimal resource allocations in a mono-centric city under the exploitative competition of economic sub-sectors. He believes on the macro-economic impacts and always makes a comparison between the constant elasticity of substitution (CES) and the variable elasticity of substitution (VES).

Left to right; Becker, McFadden, and Krugman

On the other side, 
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Gary S. Becker brought the idea of micro-impacts of individuals in metropolitan areas; how mass population dictates the size of city and how the dynamic relation between macro and micro scales works (The Economic Approach of human behavior, 1976, University of Chicago, He won the Economics Nobel Prize sixteen years after publishing this book in 1992. Becker is judged by many to be the most influential economist alive). The idea of Becker has been followed by Daniel McFadden and his assistant Kenneth Train for almost two decades. (McFadden also received the Nobel Prize in 2000” For his development of theory and methods for analyzing discrete choice”). McFadden introduced the concept of “Macro-Micro-Hybrid” model. He argues that the size of an economy in general and city in particular (they consider city as economic target and the size of the city as demand) comes from not only the macro-economics of Top-down model (Krugman’s idea), but also is strongly related to micro-economics of bottom-up model. In addition to these two models there is the third model to bridge these models which called hybrid model (Combining Bottom-Up and Top-Down, Christoph B¨ohringer, Thomas F. Rutherford, Rutherford calls this model as soft-link).

By way of illustration, the size of the city as a variable is getting influence by a number of parameters. These parameters are divided into two categories;

-          Macro Level; which is the economic sub-sectors such as industries, agriculture, and energy.

-          Micro Level; consisting of Individuals living in city. Following figures depicts how these two models linked. The third model matches the bottom-up (Micro) and top-down (Macro) models and brings the ability of dynamic feedbacks between two main models.

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Endnotes:

1-      http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg3/index.php?idp=310

2-      Combining Bottom-Up and Top-Down, Christoph B¨ohringer, Thomas F. Rutherford

3-      Combining Top-Down and Bottom-Up in Energy Policy Analysis: A Decomposition Approach, Christoph BÄohringer and Thomas F. Rutherford

4-      The synthesis of bottom-up and top-down in energy policy modeling, Christoph Böhringe Energy Economics, Volume 20, Issue 3, 1 June 1998, Pages 233–248

5-      Exploring the gap ☆: Top-down versus bottom-up analyses of the cost of mitigating global warming, Deborah Wilson, Joel Swisher, Energy Policy, Volume 21, Issue 3, March 1993, Pages 249–263, Policy modelling for global climate change

6-      Integrating the bottom-up and top-down approach to energy–economy modelling: the case of Denmark, Henrik Klinge Jacobsen, Energy Economics, Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 September 1998, Pages 443–461

7-      Hourcade, J.-C., M. Jaccard, C. Bataille, and F. Gershi, “Hybrid Modeling: New Answers to Old Challenges,” Energy Journal–Special Issue, 2006, pp. 1–12.

8-      Computable General Equilibrium Models and Their Use in Economy-Wide Policy Analysis: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know (But Were Afraid to Ask) Ian Sue Wing Center for Energy & Environmental Studies and Department of Geography & Environment Boston University and Joint Program on the Science & Policy of Global Change Massachusetts Institute of Technology

9-      Hybrid Modeling: new Answers to old Challenges introduction to the Special issue of The Energy Journal, Jean-Charles Hourcade, Mark Jaccard, Chris Bataille, Frédéric Ghersi

10-  A hybrid Top-down/Bottom-up model for energy policy analysis in a small  open economy - the Portuguese case,  Sara A. Proença et al.

11-  EXTENDING GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM TO THE TARIFF LINE: U.S. DAIRY IN THE DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA, Rutherford et al.

12-  TRACE (1999), Elasticity Handbook: Elasticities for Prototypical Contexts, TRACE; Costs of private road travel and their effects on demand, including short and long term elasticities; Prepared for the European Commission, Directorate-General for Transport, Contract No: RO-97-SC.2035,

2

Engels, as a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist-theory (The German Ideology, Marx and Engels, 1970) who commonly known as a "ruthless party tactician" devoted almost all his attention to the state of working-class neighborhoods. He takes the reader on a walking tour of the "great towns" with the intention of showing the reality of urban life, almost like a Dantesque tour of Inferno (Watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368363/) or “Before Sunset” (2004, Watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381681/).

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Engels took his readers on a journey through the slums and ghettos of London. It was interesting how he began describing the beauty and greatness of the cities and how he dragged the audience down to “human turmoil”.

In one side, he saw no correlation between dwellers and in other side found them strongly tied (Like what Mark Granovetter argues in the “Strength of the Week Ties”, 1973)!

 He followed a sinus curve and made so many ups and downs to introduce readers to one of the most important aspects of the metropolitans; “Social Interactions”. Look at this;

“All human beings …same qualities and powers”

“They had nothing in common…”

“People with the same interest…”

“Nothing to do with one other”

“Individual are crowded together”

“The war of each against all”

In other words, Engels described the estrangement that afflicts the London 1840.

Wait ! Something do not change, I saw this city somewhere! New York City! Read the article again; change “London” by “New York City” and change “1840” by “2013”. Nothing’s really changed. You will see the same city’s gesture.

Jane Jacob (1916-2006) pursued the same school of thought as Engels (Symbolic Internationalism, George Herbert Mead). In her influential book (The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961), she introduced the sociological concept of “Social Capital” almost in the same way Engels did, and considered the city as a node of “social bargains”.

 Endnotes

-    The "Theories of Surplus Value" are contained in the Collected Works of Marx and Englels: Volumes 30, 31 and 32 (International Publishers: New York, 1988).

-   A copy of Frederick Engels' birth certificate is located on page 577 of the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 2(New York: International Publishers, 1975).

-   Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment p. 160

-   Frederick Engels' letter to Karl Marx contained in the "Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

-  The three part series of articles called The Condition of England is contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

-   Tucker, Robert C. The Marx-Engels Reader

-    http://www.walkingbutterfly.com/tag/friedrich-engels/

-    http://understandingsociety.blogspot.com/2008/07/engels-sociology-of-city.html

-    http://engharper.blogspot.com/2007/06/great-towns.html

-   http://urbanrurallab.wordpress.com/2010/09/14/the-great-towns/

-    Arts and Artisans at Home and Abroad, by J. C. Symons, Edinburgh, 1839. The author, as it seems, himself a Scotchman, is a Liberal, and consequently fanatically opposed to every independent movement of working-men. The passages here cited are to be found p. 116 et seq.–Note by Engels

-   Nassau W. Senior, Letters on the Factory Act to the Rt. Hon., the President of the Board of Trade (Chas. Poulett Thomson, Esq.), London, 1837, p. 24.– Note by Engels