Highway improvements and urban growth: Accessibility change in the American Southwest, 1920--1990

Abstract

Relationships between highway improvements in the Southwestern U.S., as measured by changing accessibility of selected cities, and population were measured over the period 1920-90. Few significant relationships were found using a distance-based measure of accessibility, but the inclusion of proximity to population resulted in much stronger relationships. Despite this, little or no directionality in these relationships was evident, and the results do not support the hypothesis of a regional highway orientation toward urban population. Similar testing between traffic flows over selected routes and highway improvements, though resulting in close relationships. were similarly lacking in directionality and failed to provide a better explanation of the spatial pattern of Southwestern highway improvements.