Sustainable transportation institutions and regional evolution: Global and local perspectives

Key challenges to sustainability relate to effective use of technology in management of international trade and the management of spatial externalities in complex urban infrastructure investments. In both cases significant progress has been made using regional strategies, but tension continues between issues of efficiency and privatization on the one hand and equity and public good responsibilities on the other hand. Institutions evolve and change with these cross pressures and different cultural contexts. Examples of these evolutionary changes are explored in terms of the interaction between technology and governance in international trade and in the frameworks intended to manage metropolitan transportation in the US.