| Abstract: | The end of the cold war and confrontational politics of the eastern and western worlds have raised the possibility that resources formerly targeted toward military systems and options may be turned towards global lifestyle improvements OTA, 1993]. Transportation has been one of the fields proposed as a likely candidate for both improvements and jobs. It is not possible to address economic development in the context of all transportation in one essay. For this reason I am only addressing the issues of economic development associated with mass transportation characteristic of urban and interurban environments. Realigning former defense resources to mass transit requires careful consideration of market conditions. According to economic survey data published by the Economic Roundtable in Los Angeles, there are currently less than 40,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. rail transportation industry Drayse, 1993]. The same survey pointed out a severe mismatch between the skill base required by the rail industry and available defense technology resources. There exists no large base of unsatisfied demand in the rail market, therefore development of a large number of jobs is not likely if the approach is simply to introduce additional competing resources into a traditional market Monitor, 1993]. |
