Gary Barnes, CTS research associate, and Professor Gary Davis of the Department of Civil Engineering, presented early results from the second phase of their research on travel demand in a workshop on May 6. This presentation, titled "Land Use and Travel Time in the Twin Cities, 1958-1990," addressed the question of how land use and transportation system changes that have taken place in the Twin Cities since the 1950s have affected travel behavior.

The starting point was research done by Zahavi showing that total daily travel time per auto traveler was about 68 minutes both in 1958 and in 1970, despite a large increase in average travel speed. Barnes and Davis recreated this analysis for 1990 and found a small rise in total daily time, to about 71 minutes, while average speed continued to increase.

Further analysis of the 1990 data indicated that land use had little impact on daily travel time. Travelers who lived closest to downtown traveled about 65 minutes a day, while those who lived 20 miles out spent only about 72 minutes.

Barnes noted that these results bring into question some of the basic assumptions underlying the debate on sprawl. For example, while it is widely believed that people are spending more time in their cars, this is not supported by the data. Furthermore, it is not even clear that people want to spend less time in their cars, given that they have not done so as speeds have increased. Finally, it is not apparent that congestion problems have anything to do with "sprawl." While people who live in outlying areas do drive far more miles than those closer in, this is because they drive at much higher average speeds, not because they are spending much more time driving.