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

小行星9412901 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。这一事件提供了一个独特的机会，探讨这种中断对使用这些高速公路的驾车者和接收流离失所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必然会以他们以前没有的方式进行互动。白色中上收入的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旅行。初步证据表明，这些社区的通勤者和居民之间正在发生重大的互动，这些互动的强度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的关系改善。 这项研究将以三种形式的数据收集为基础。 通勤者将通过车牌号码进行识别，并发送一系列邮寄问卷。社区居民和企业将亲自接受采访。最后，将对沿着主要干道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。 记录这些不同的社会群体之间的态度和行为的变化的性质将有广泛的影响，了解基本的态度和态度变化所带来的新的互动水平在种族和经济两极分化，地理隔离，城市社会。这项研究将进一步深入了解灾害对居民出行行为的影响，这对规划此类事件是有用的。作为博士论文研究奖，该项目还将提供支持，使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. ***