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Some of today’s most vexing problems, including sprawl, congestion, oil dependence, and climate change, are prompting states and localities to turn to land planning and urban design to rein in automobile use. Many have concluded that roads cannot be built fast enough to keep up with rising travel demand induced by the road building itself and the sprawl it spawns. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to summarize empirical results on associations between the built environment and travel, especially nonwork travel.

Executive Summary The following books are the story of a neighborhood in Midtown Houston. This study is focused on the transit district surrounding the Ensemble/HCC station area - though many of the challenges and opportunities are common to Midtown in general. The seven Books cover a lot of ground. We review Midtown’s past as an important window into its present. We look in detail at the current urban fabric and infrastructure in, “Integrate Systems”, and we document the prevailing and emerging patterns of land use in “Identify Districts”. These two Books go on to identify strategies and prioritized objectives for improving the urban fabric and the potential opportunities for strengthening and incentivizing increased land use activity - in line with primary objectives of the Livable Centers program. We address the particular challenges of implementation in terms of funding and regulatory contexts; and we identify speci.c project opportunities and design concepts that could…

Executive Summary Suburban multifamily housing is an often overlooked housing typology that is the fastest growing housing market in the country and holds strong potential for achieving smart growth goals in suburbia. This housing type is ubiquitous throughout all regions in the nation, is a widespread example of density in suburbia, and is typically located next to commercial uses. The proximity between suburban multifamily housing and commercial uses creates the potential for nodes of concentrated activity, mixed use, and the possibility of substantial non-auto transport in suburbia. While this potential exists, the design of this housing type often follows an enclaved pattern of development, negating any synergy, minimizing the possibility of non-auto transport, and denying any potential for sustainable development. Through case studies of suburban multifamily development in Oregon, Arizona, Florida, and Massachusetts, this report looks at the specific ways in which regulation,…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has decided to include two key goals in all of its programs: encouraging sustainable communities and enhancing access to opportunity for lower-income people and people of color. This paper examines the relationship between these two goals through a literature review and an original empirical analysis of how these goals interact at the neighborhood and metropolitan area levels. We also offer policy recommendations for HUD.

Livability in Small Towns and Rural Areas What does “livability” mean in a smaller town or city? Some would have us believe that livability is a foreign concept for our small towns and rural areas. The reality couldn’t be farther from the truth. This collection of 12 case studies provides examples of how small cities, towns and rural regions across the country are transforming themselves into more livable communities. While some of these commu­nities face formidable threats – from job losses and shrinking populations to disappearing farmland and strained resources – their leaders have forged collabo­rations and created plans that are growing economies, bene.ting people and protecting the land and life­styles treasured by residents and non-residents alike. The exact de.nition may di.er place to place, but these case studies reveal some core values and needs that exist in these communities across America. It is about providing people, including seniors and those who cannot…

In nearly all U.S. metropolitan areas, jobs have been moving to the suburbs for several decades. In the largest metropolitan areas between 1998 and 2006, jobs shifted away from the city center to the suburbs in virtually all industries. As the U.S. population also continues to suburbanize, larger proportions of metropolitan area employment and population are locating beyond the traditional central business districts along the nation’s suburban beltways and the more distant fringes.

This study also examines real-world potential to use transit and transit-oriented development as an emissions reduction strategy in three different future development scenarios for the Chicago metropolitan area. The first is business-as-usual. The second assumes that residential and employment growth will continue at the same rate in the city and in the suburbs, but that all of this growth will be accommodated in the half-mile radius around stations. The second scenario is based on growth
projections from Chicago’s regional planning agency. The third scenario explores concentrating housing and jobs within a half-mile radius of transit stations, regardless of growth projections. The second scenario reduces emissions by 28 percent from levels of emissions growth that would have taken place without those strategies, while the third scenario results in a 36 percent reduction from levels of emissions growth that would have taken place without those strategies. (The study assumes no…

Alack of reliable, accessible, and affordable transportation is consistently cited as a barrier to employment by people with disabilities. The four Medicaid Infrastructure Grant transportation projects (Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey) profiled in this report illustrate a set of practices that address transportation needs. Although the MIG grants are not intended to provide or fund direct transportation services, state MIGs are well•posi•tioned to use their resources to create linkages with other agencies and entities engaged in accessible transportation planning and service delivery.