The Impacts of Bypasses on Small- and Medium-Sized Communities: An Econometric Analysis

A relief route is a segment of a highway that moves traffic around the central business district of a city. Planners perceive it as a means of enhancing mobility and often associate regional economic progress with construction of bypasses. Though a bypass often means safer, quieter, less-congested downtowns, the communities receiving a bypass generally worry about potential negative impacts to the local economy. Hence, to make well-informed decisions on constructing relief routes, impact studies are needed. This paper examines the economic impacts of highway relief routes on smalland medium-size communities in Texas. Per capita sales in four different industry sectors were chosen as the indicators of impact. The models developed suggest that the bypassed cities suffered a loss in per capita sales in all four industrial sectors considered. The magnitude of the traffic volume diverted appeared to be the greatest determinant of the impact. The overall impacts of the bypass were the most negative for gasoline service stations and the least for service industries. The impacts were less negative for cities that had high per capita traffic volumes. In addition, city demographics, regional trends, and proximity to a large city were estimated to have important impacts on 57 The Impacts of Bypasses on Smalland Medium-Sized Communities: An Econometric Analysis SIVARAMAKRISHNAN SRINIVASAN KARA MARIA KOCKELMAN The University of Texas at Austin Kara Maria Kockelman, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 6.9 E. Cockrell Jr. Hall, Austin, TX78712-1076. Email: kkockelm@mail. utexas.edu. the local economy. The industrial sectors considered for analysis represent only a portion of the total economy of the city. Therefore, negative impacts to these sectors do not necessarily mean that the economy as a whole suffers.