Abstract:
A major regional planning agency for the Los Angeles area faces the challenge of developing a plan to change, drastically, the region's transportation patterns in hopes of helping it meet federal air quality standards. The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) believes it must devise transportation strategies to reduce the air quality impact of auto emissions, in particular-part of an even larger planning effort to improve the Los Angeles air, other parts of which focus on other sources of pollution. The case follows the route by which the SCAG plan was put together-what its assumptions were and how those assumptions led to specific proposals, many of which were dramatic, such as proposals for vastly expanded telecommuting, land-use planning to mandate business locations near new residences.
Learning Objective:
The case is fundamentally designed for students of urban transportation to critique the methods, assumptions and conclusions of the Los Angeles planners. At the same time, it can also be used in discussions of the relationship between planning and the political process.
