A typical highway or metropolitan transportation study, in spite of its highway and transportation-oriented base must also concentrate on housing location and on the nature of housing supply. These studies encounter many conflicting interests and responsibilities which are divided among many urban, county, state and federal authorities. The basic need is to find some method of rationalizing this division of responsibility among and between government units, some way to mediate and compromise the conflicting interests that arise. In the transportation field, it is indicated that the real need is for a system that can provide more directive powers over land-use location. Serious problems in the united states need to be faced in deciding on the critical elements of urban development policy. The present fragmentation of legal power and the limitations on its exercise partly reflect the failure to develop a consensus on these policies. If this consensus is developed, the arena in which legal power will be exercised and its scope must be defined.
Abstract