 |
Focus on Livable Communities:
New Thinking for a New Transportation
Age
This fact
sheet (PDF, 1 MB) highlights
five principles of the "New Transportation
Age." These principles derive from research and cutting-edge thinking
that is often surprising and counterintuitive in that it contradicts
many of the axioms of the post war era of automobile-oriented transportation
engineering and planning.
 Hallmarks
of this shift include engineers reevaluating the approach they use
to define and solve problems. For instance, many are now questioning
the high value placed on moving vehicle traffic if it comes at the
expense of other transportation and community goals. Is it acceptable
to increase traffic flow through urban neighborhoods and commercial
districts if that reduces pedestrian mobility and degrades community
livability? Is it such a good idea to add highway capacity if it
exacerbates urban sprawl and does little to reduce congestion? As
noted transportation planner and researcher Reid Ewing, of Rutgers
University, points out, transportation and traffic engineering leaders
are now creating more accessible, multi-modal communities with diverse
travel options – communities where the need to travel is reduced.
New
Thinking for a New Transportation Age (PDF,
1 MB).
For more information, call the Local Government
Commission at 916-448-1198, or 1-800-290-8202.
Resources on Information in Fact Sheet Introduction:
- Reid Ewing, Performance Standards for Growth Management,
edited by Douglas Porter, American Planning Association, Planning
Advisory Service Report Number 461 http://www.planning.org/bookstore/screen3.asp
- Walter Kulash, "The Third Motor Age,'' Places 10.2 (Winter
1996) pp. 42-49, Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
- Reid Ewing, Best Development Practices; Doing the Right Thing
and Making Money at the Same Time, Planners Press (Chicago;
http://www.planning.org),
1996.
- Todd Litman, "Reinventing Transportation; Exploring the
Paradigm Shift Needed to Reconcile Sustainability and Transportation
Objectives," Transportation Research Record 1670,
Transportation Research Board (http://www.nas.edu/trb),
1999, pp. 8-12; available at http://www.vtpi.org.
- Barbara McCann, Driven to Spend; The Impact of Sprawl on
Household Transportation Expenses, STPP (http://www.transact.org),
2000.
- Harrison Bright Rue, Real Towns: Making Your Neighborhood
Work, Local Government Commission (http://www.lgc.org)
and Citizen Planner Institute (http://www.citizenplanner.com),
2000.
- VTPI, Online TDM Encyclopedia, Victoria Transport Policy
Institute (http://www.vtpi.org),
2000.
More and Wider Roads Create More Traffic:
- Lewis Fulton, Robert Noland, "A
Statistical Analysis of Induced Travel Effects in the US Mid-Atlantic
Region," April 2000, Journal of Transportation and
Statistics. (PDF, 60 KB) Cited
in Fact Sheet
- Why are the Roads So Congested? A Companion Analysis of the
Texas Transportation Institute's Data On Metropolitan Congestion,
Surface Transportation Policy Project, November, 1999, http://www.transact.org/
(see Reports & Resources section)
- Road Work Ahead! Is Construction Worth the Wait? Four
case studies on the true costs and benefits of road construction
projects. http://www.transact.org/
(see Reports & Resources section)
- Mark Hansen, "Do New Highways Generate Traffic?'' Access,
University of California Transportation Center. Fall 1995.
- Kevin Heanue, "Highway Capacity Expansion and Induced Travel:
Evidence and Implications," Circular #481, Transportation Research
Board (Washington, DC; February 1998
- Patrick De Corla-Souza and Harry Cohen, Accounting for Induced
Travel in Evaluation of Urban Highway Expansion, FHWA, 1998
- Todd Litman, "Generated Traffic; Implications for Transport
Planning," ITE Journal, Vol. 71, No. 4, Institute
of Transportation Engineers (http://www.ite.org),
April, 2001, pp. 38-47; also available at Victoria Transport Policy
Institute (http://www.vtpi.org).
- Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/transportation
Good Health and Transportation
Walking Is Transportation
- James Corless, Sharon Sprowls, Beyond Gridlock, Surface
Transportation Policy Project, May 2000, available at http://www.transact.org/CA/.
Beware of Biased Language
- City of West Palm Beach language
policy, a memo from the City Manager. (PDF,
28 KB)
This project is funded by the
Physical Activity and Health Initiative, California Department of
Health Services under a Preventive Health Services Block Grant from
the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Work performed
as part of a UC San Francisco contract.
|
