Doctoral Dissertation Research: Responses of Motorists and the Neighborhoods They Drive Through to the January, 1994 Los Angeles Earthquake

9412901标志着1994年1月发生在洛杉矶的地震摧毁了四条主要高速公路的部分路段。这一活动提供了一个独特的机会，可以探索这种中断对使用这些高速公路的驾车者和接收流离失所的驾车者的社区的影响。由于通勤模式的改变，不同种族和社会经济群体的成员之间必然会以以前没有过的方式进行互动。白人、中高收入通勤者现在主要在低收入和非裔美国人和西班牙裔社区的地面街道上穿行。初步证据表明，通勤者和这些社区的居民之间正在发生重大的互动，这些互动的强度正在随着时间的推移而变化，这表明接触正在刺激这些群体之间关系的改善。这项研究将基于三种形式的数据收集。通勤者将通过车牌号进行识别，并发送一系列邮寄的调查问卷。社区居民和企业将接受亲自采访。最后，将对主要动脉沿线的相互作用进行系统观察，以确定这些相互作用的性质，并证实通过访谈和调查收集的信息。记录这些不同社会群体之间态度和行为变化的性质，将对理解种族和经济两极分化、地理上隔离的城市社会中新水平的互动所带来的基本态度和态度变化具有广泛的影响。这项研究将进一步深入了解灾害对居民出行行为的影响，这将被证明对此类活动的规划有用。作为博士论文研究奖，该项目还将提供支持，使一个有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。***

9412901 MARK The January 1994 earthquake in Los Angeles destroyed parts of four major freeways. This event presents a unique opportunity to explore the impacts of such disruptions on both motorists who used those freeways and on neighborhoods that receive the displaced motorists. Due to modified commuting patterns, members of different ethnic and socioeconomic groups are necessarily interacting in ways that they did not interact before. White middle and upper income commuters are now travelling surface streets in predominantly lower income and ethnically African American and Hispanic neighborhoods. Preliminary evidence suggests that significant interactions between commuters and residents of these neighborhoods are occurring and that these interactions are changing in intensity over time, suggesting that contact is stimulating improved relations bewteen these groups. This study will be based on three forms of data collection. Commuters will be identified via license plate numbers and sent a sequence of mailed questionnaires. Neighborhood residents and businesses will be interviewed in person. Finally, systemmatic observations of the interactions along major arterials will be undertaken in order to identify the nature of those interactions and to corroborate information collected by interviews and surveys. Documenting the nature of changes in attitudes and behaviors between these different social groups will have broad implications for understanding basic attitudes and attitude changes brought about by new levels of interaction in a racially and economically polarized, and geographically segregated, urban society. The research will further provide insight into the impact of disasters on travel behavior of residents which should prove useful in planning for such events. As a doctoral dissertation research award, this project will also provide support to enable a promising student to establish a stong independent research career. ***