78 Recent Doctoral Dissertations

of study is the southwest side of Chicago which had

been one of the areas of Chicago insufficiently served
by rapid transit, commuter rail or exclusive bus lanes.
The basic research design is the before and after
methodology involving the use of multiple regressions
and diagnostic checking for outliers and for
collinearity. Land value samples for 1980 and 1990
were taken from Olcotts Land Values Book of Chicago
& Suburbs and were regressed on several accessibility
and socio-economic variables. The study was designed
so that detailed analyses of land value changes before
the announcement and funding approval of the
transportation improvement and before the completion
of its construction would be carried out. The results of
the study indicate that the hypothesis of no significant
difference in the impact of anticipation of transit
improvement on changes in land values in the corridor
between 1980 and 1990 could not be strongly rejected.
The results also show that residential land values
decreased away from the stations and that residents
would be willing to pay a premium to live closer to
the stations because of reasons related to easier
accessibility. Further, study findings support the notion
that residential land users in the corridor would like to
pay less for sites in proximity to the line because of
the negative externality of ambient noise and other
related nuisances; and that distance to the Loop,
population density, percentage of black population and,
to a lesser extent, distance to industrial locations, and
distance to parks and schools, were important
determinants of land values in the corridor. The study
makes policy recommendations for similar
improvement projects in the region.
Migration, urban amenities, and commuting: A case
study of high-technology workers in Hsinchu,
Taiwan. Chung, Yee-Ping, Ph.D. University of
Southern California, 1994. Chair: Dowell Myers.
In Taiwan, the Hsinchu Industrial Park (HSIP) was
established in 1980 as a regional counter-magnet
growth pole intended to balance regional development.
Despite the steady relocation of high-tech jobs to the
Hsinchu area over the past 13 years, many HSIP
workers have elected to commute very long distances
rather than relocate their residence. The resulting
spatial mismatch of residence-workplace among HSIP
workers produces not only very long commutes, but
also contributes to the marked deterioration of traffic
conditions. Since migration is characteristic of young
and educated people, it is puzzling why HSIP workers
would rather tolerate a long commute, rather than
making a job-induced residential migration of their
households to Hsinchu. Theoretically, migration flows
depend on the migrants attributes, the area
characteristics of both origin and destination, and the
difficulty of the journey-to-work. In this study,
job-induced residential migration has been defined as
a spatial process to compensate for the stress coming
from environmental dissatisfaction and intolerable
commuting between Hsinchu and the residence. This
commuting strain may be offset by greater satisfaction
with the living environment surrounding the current
residence. The higher the relative dissatisfaction with
Hsinchu urban amenities over the residence, and the
lower the stress of the residence, the lower is the
likelihood that the worker will migrate to Hsinchu. The
smaller the commuting stress the potential migrants
have between Hsinchu and the residential origin, the
lower should be the propensity to relocate to Hsinchu.
The residential in-migration decisions of HSIP workers
were investigated with survey data obtained from a
two-stage questionnaire survey among the HSIP
workforce. A multiple regression path model was
estimated for the effects of personal characteristics on
satisfaction with living environments at the residential
origin over Hsinchu, and on commuting tolerance. The
effects of all factors were then estimated for the
migration decision. The empirical case study confirms
the migration suppression effect of dissatisfaction with
Hsinchu urban amenities, housing services, and
commuting tolerance. A number of key personal or
household characteristics also had an important
influence on the job-induced residential migration
decision. (Copies available exclusively from
Micrographics Department, Doheny Library, USC, Los
Angeles, CA 90089-o 182).
Ring road development and vacant lands: Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia. Alskait, Khalid, Ph.D. The University
of British Columbia (Canada), 1993. 308 pp. Adviser:
V. Setty Penakur. ISBN: O-3 15-89322-2.
Order Number DANN-89322
This dissertation is concerned with the relationship
between freeway development and the pattern of urban
development. In particular, this research examines
whether there is any relationship between ring road
development and the proliferation of vacant urban
lands in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main hypothesis
of this dissertation suggests that the development of
ring roads, at a time when a substantial amount of inner
lands are vacant, encourages leapfrogging growth, thus
creating more vacant urban lands. Both primary data
and existing data, collected by governmental agencies,
were collected and analyzed. Primary data were
collected using a questionnaire survey. The survey
included interviews with relevant public officials,
private developers, and academics. One hundred people
were approached to complete the questionnaire, and
seventy-six of them responded. The primary existing
data source was the Arriyadh Development Authority
(ADA). The ADA provided land use data for 1986-87
and 1990-91. These data included relevant urban
variables (including land use variables, population
variables, dwelling unit variables) for sixteen
submunicipalities in Riyadh. The analyses of land use
data were supplemented by an analysis of aerial images
of the city which had been taken before and after the
development of the ring road, sections of which were
Recent Doctoral Dissertations
79
opened in 1984 and 1986. The interviews, the land use
data, and the aerial images were complementary to
each other in the analysis. The findings of this
dissertation suggest that there is a correlation between
the development of the Riyadh Ring Road and the size
and distribution of current vacant urban land. This
confirms the main hypothesis. It is suggested that the
timing of ring road development is critical to the
increase in the amount of vacant urban land. In order
to avoid and/or to decrease such an increase in vacant
land, ring roads should be developed only after a
certain percentage of the land within the urban area
has been developed. If more vacant urban land exist at
the time of the development of a ring road, then more
leapfrogging growth will occur. This type of growth
will result in more vacant urban land and will stretch
the city in all directions, thus reducing efficiency.
A sequential urban land use/transportation model:
The dynamics of regional economic growth and
urban spatial structure. Seo, Jong Gook, Ph.D.
University of Southern California, 1993. Chair: Peter
Gordon.
The purpose of this study is to formulate and apply an
integrated urban development model with endogenous
activity centers. This is a computer simulation model
that explains interactions between (1) a set of a priori
profitabilities given some (aspatial) economic
environment, (2) a set of transport costs defined by a
transportation network, (3) a set of externalities, and
(4) relocation costs. The underlying hypothesis is that
the process of metropolitan economic growth is
associated with a variety of distinct transformations
in the spatial structure of the activity system. The
model developed in this research is characterized by
an integrated treatment of regional economic change
and spatial structure. The assumption that economic
agents engage in myopic location behaviors is central
to this investigation of urban form. Locators are
assumed to make decisions from a ceteris parihus
perspective. Network congestion and agglomeration
effects are endogenous in each period. Interactivity
flows are determined by structural transformations
through changes in the composition of demand, trade,
production, and factor use that takes place as per capita
income increases. The simulation results show that
nonproportional growth of sectors influence the spatial
patterns of economic activities over time. The results
show a realistic process of relocations. Not all locators
relocate simultaneously. Some activities do not change
their locations. Locators also demonstrate
subcentering. Subcenters do not usually emerge
suddenly. The emergence, growth, and obsolescence
of individual urban subcenters is shown to be part of a
dynamic process resulting from standard economic
behavior. Such an evolutionary approach begins to fill
the void between dynamic and behavioral models of
economic activity location. Moreover, if this
evolutionary model can depict reality reasonably well,
then this approach may also be used to develop useful
empirical hypotheses and hypothesis tests. This model
provides information in determining an optimal
allocation of land given a goal and constraints to the
goal. The integrated model developed here has
important implications for public authorities, including
improved information concerning the anticipated
impacts of public investment decisions and other
policies. (Copies available exclusively from
Micrographics Department, Doheny Library, USC, Los
Angeles, CA 90089-0182.)
A synthetic metropolitan economic impact model:
Geographic zones, sectors, and land use and
transportation. Jun, Myung Jin, Ph.D. University of
Southern California, 1993. Chairman: Harry W.
Richardson.
This dissertation develops an urban economic impact
model which is a combination of a multizonal
input-output model and a spatial interaction model. The
advantage of the model is that it can generate spatially
and sectorally disaggregated output and employment
impacts of a wide variety of urban economic projects,
plans, or policies. In addition, it can distinguish
indirect repercussions (impacts on supplying
industries) from induced repercussions (impacts from
secondary consumption). These advantages of the
model improve upon the limitations of aggregate urban
models which disguise zonal and sectoral variations
in overall output and employment impacts. Though a
model of this kind can be used in many types of
applications, this paper employs this model for
analyzing the economic impacts of urban
decentralization of various industries in the Los
Angeles metropolitan region from the core to suburban
locations. Major findings from this application include:
(1) the spatial distribution of indirect impacts is very
different from that of induced impacts, (2) the
distribution of induced impacts is much more spatially
dispersed than that of indirect impacts, and (3) service
or population serving industries are distance-sensitive
with respect to the distributions of both indirect and
induced impacts, indicating that service industries not
only serve population directly but also supply other
industries. The policy implication from this application
is that the core city and county continue to enjoy
significant benefits in the form of indirect and induced
effects, no matter where the job expansion takes place
within the metropolitan region: (Copies available
exclusively from Micrographics Department, Doheny
Library, USC, Los Angeles, CA 90089-o 182.)
TRANSPORTATION PLANNING
Aesthetic-based conflict in highway planning:
Federal Highway Administration putting planners