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This paper examines the possibility of negative output spillovers from public infrastructure. A model of productive public capital shows that when input factors are mobile, public infrastructure investments in one location can draw production away from other locations. In a linear production-function framework, this effect would be manifested as a negative output spillover from public capital. Using data for California counties from 1969 through 1988, such negative spillover effects are shown to exist in the case of street-and-highway capital. The data show that changes in county output are positively associated with changes in street-and-highway capital within the same county, but output changes are negatively associated with changes in street-and-highway capital in other counties.

Planners are increasingly viewing land-use policy as a way to manage transport demand. Yet the evidence on the link between land use and travel behaviour is inconclusive. This paper uses travel diary data for southern California residents to examine the link between land-use patterns at the neighbourhood level and non-work trip generation for a sample of 769 individuals. The number of non-work automobile trips that an individual makes in a two-day period is modelled as a function of socio-demographic variables and land-use characteristics near the person's place of residence. The land-use variables are statistically insignificant in all but one of the specifications. The results suggest that choices about how to measure the variables and how to specify the regressions can influence the conclusions from these studies in potentially important ways. This underscores the need for continued careful attention to these research issues.

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