Evolution of the Second-Story City: The Minneapolis Skyway System

Michael Corbett, Feng Xie and David Levinson

No 200912, Working Papers from University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group

Abstract: This paper describes and explains the growth of the Minneapolis Skyway network. Accessibility is used as a major factor in understanding that growth (i.e. does the network connect to the location(s) with the highest accessibility, followed by the second highest, and so on). First, employment opportunities are used as the measure of activity and are based off of the square footage of buildings and/or ITE trip generation rates. Using information about the buildings located downtown for each year since the first skyway was built, the accessibilities of each of the connected and adjacent unconnected blocks were calculated for every time period the skyway system expanded. The purpose is to determine how often the expansion connected the block with the highest accessibility. The results show that though important, accessibility was rarely maximized, except in the early stages of development. A connect-choice logit model relating the probability of joining the network (in a given year) to accessibility and network size was employed. The results show accessibility does remain an important factor in predicting which links are connected. Physical difficulties in making connections may have played a role, as well as the potential for adverse economic impacts.

Keywords: Network growth; Transport economics; Incremental connection; Skyways; Minneapolis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O33 R41 R42 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-geo and nep-net
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Environment and Planning b 36(4) 711-724.

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/11299/179993 First version, 2007 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Evolution of the Second-Story City: The Minneapolis Skyway System (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nex:wpaper:skyways

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