From: saslpo@stevens.unx.sas.com (Len Olszewski)
Newsgroups: alt.planning.urban
Subject: Re: planning for people
Date: 4 Sep 92 17:12:30 GMT
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.
Originator: saslpo@stevens.unx.sas.com


In article <1992Sep4.063155.11389@athena.mit.edu>, sramming@athena.mit.edu (Scott '~ibo' Ramming) writes:
|> In article <1992Sep4.005742.643@nmsu.edu> dtasman@dante.nmsu.edu
|> (Dan Tasman) writes:
|>
|> > Transportation planners are a different breed than other planning
|> > specialists.
|> >
|> > Instead of being concerned about aesthetic, land use and social
|> > concerns, transportation planners have one goal in mind - to get
|> > as many people from one end of the city to the other in as little
|> > time as possible.  Often times, that philosophy runs contrary to
|> > many planning concepts such as neotraditionalism.
|>
|> Hold on. I don't know if that's completely fair to all transportaton
|> planners. 

[deletions]

I've run up against many different kinds of transportaion planners, 
but most of the ones I dealt with tended to be more involved with 
computer-assisted modelling, empirical analyses, and general applied 
statistics than most other planning disciplines. The ones I worked with 
in regional planning bodies in the early 80's were a little cocky, since 
most of the funding for regional planning those days came in the form of 
UMTA funds, and the rest of our operation drew from this source by 
supporting the transportation planning function. I spent the first four 
years of my professional career in a "support" role like this, producing 
small area demographic and employment statistics to feed trip generation
models that formed the empirical basis of normative regional planning
policies.

Transportation planning emphasizes movement, but not always at the 
expense of the aesthetic. It just depends what role the tp plays in the 
larger planning organization of which s/he is a part. A lot of towns 
seeking economic revitalization start by trying to steer transportation 
arteries their way, and this is one way the discipline is used to foster 
a goal other than the aesthetic. It's legitimate, though, to folks 
living in an economically declining area. 

Dan is right in asserting that tp's have a different perspective. Of 
course they do. But how single minded they are as a whole is a debatable 
issue. Certainly there's a continuum of philosophy and competence both 
in the tp community and the planning community as a whole. I suspect as 
in most things that the extremes are the most visible, but the least 
populated, areas of the continuum.
<-------------------------------^------------------------------------->
|  Len Olszewski                |  "Don't be humble, you're not that  |
|  Technical Writer             |   great."                           |
|  saslpo@unx.sas.com           |                                     |
| "Have cursor, will curse."    |    - Golda Meir                     |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Opinions this ludicrous are mine. Reasonable opinions will cost you.|
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Newsgroups: alt.planning.urban