Apparently, a critique of hierarchical, tree-like city design (particularly conventional suburban street layouts)

Keywords: architecture, urban design, urban form, streets, street design

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: transport planning, land use transport link, urban form, energy

Keywords: location choice, firm behaviour, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, history

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban form, agent-based modelling

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, urban design

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form, transport planning, urban planning

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, urban design

Some interesting discussions on infill development. I found his description of centre-city abandonment interesting: “premature write-down of the existing built environment.” That particular economic spin on downtown decay summarizes my intuitive dislike for rundown centre city buildings. Consider a Victorian or Edwardian storefront in downtown Toronto: these are considered too expensive to build today in new neighbourhoods, and yet we let the existing stock of (valuable!) buildings decay in many parts of the city.

Bourne discusses an interesting model from Klaassen and van den Burg (over many papers). They characterize urban evolution in four stages: 1) urbanization; 2) outmigration; 3) disurbanization; and 4) reurbanization. It's an interesting breakdown for recent urban history, particularly in Canadian cities that are generally in phase four now.

Bourne also discusses the poor information/data available on single-lot infill sites in cities, and some strange strategies to combat urban decay, like Detroit's empowerment/enterprise zone in its centre.

Keywords: geography, urban form, urban planning

Allegedly finds very little differences in energy use across a range of spatial settings in the Netherlands.

Keywords: urban form, energy, transport planning, land use transport link

Keywords: land use transport link, transport planning, transit, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban form, transport planning, urban planning

Keywords: urban form, transport planning, urban planning

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: sustainability, urban form

From the one chapter I've read (10), this doesn't seem like a very worthwhile text. The rhetoric was quite extreme, and the perspective was 100% libertarian. Most importantly, his argumentation was quite weak, and he relied upon quite a bit of rhetorical sleight of hand to “prove” his points.

Keywords: urban form

This paper demonstrates that over the 25-year period, 1971-96, the majority of Canadian cities have undergone transition towards an increasingly decentralised urban form. The trends, however, are quite diverse, pointing to fundamental differences in the respective importance of growth in central and outer parts of the metropolitan area. On the whole, the relatively high densities observed in Canadian central cities, in comparison with US ones, appear to reflect residual centralisation rather than continued growth in metropolitan regions' innermost parts. Only Vancouver, and to a lesser extent Toronto and Victoria, exhibit indisputable evidence of post-1971 central-area growth. The predominant trend has been towards suburban-style, low-density expansion, albeit with considerable intercity variation regarding changes in central-area and suburban density. Findings presented here point to previously unidentified trends towards recentralisation in a few CMAs and, in about half of the surveyed metropolitan areas, densification of suburban tracts.

Keywords: canada, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form, urban planning

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form, urban planning

Keywords: equity, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, land use transport link, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, urban design

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, transport planning, land use transport link

Keywords: transit, urban form, land use transport link, urban planning, transport planning

Keywords: transit, urban planning, rail, urban form

This paper is the best I've read on the jobs-housing issue, with a careful distinction between balance and containment, an examination of balance-with-mismatch, and a more careful analysis of the impacts on VMT and mode split.

One finding that interested me: balance was not correlated with a substantial change in VMT, but containment was (and was also correlated with higher levels of walking). Another interesting conclusion: imbalance is a planning failure, not a market failure, since it usually happens in jobs-surplus areas where residents apply political pressure (read: NIMBYism) to fight any market-driven changes to the residential stock.

I liked the description of jobs-housing balance as the potential for self-containment. I see the actual level of self-containment to be a function of two variables: jobs-housing balance, and travel times. Jobs-housing balance allows a city to easily respond to congestion or degraded travel times, by giving workers the option of moving closer to their jobs.

Keywords: urban planning, land use transport link, urban form

Past research suggests that mixed land-uses encourage non-auto commuting; however, the evidence remains sketchy. This paper explores this question by investigating how the presence of retail activities in neighborhoods influences the commuting choices of residents using data from the 1985 American Housing Survey. Having grocery stores and other consumer services within 300 feet of one's residence is found to encourage commuting by mass transit, walking and bicycling, controlling for such factors as residential densities and vehicle ownership levels. When retail shops are beyond 300 feet yet within 1 mile of residences, however, they tend to encourage auto-commuting, ostensibly because of the ability to efficiently link work and shop trips by car. The presence of nearby commercial land-uses is also associated with relatively low vehicle ownership rates and short commuting distances among residents of a mixed-use neighborhood. Overall, residential densities exerted a stronger influence on commuting mode choices than levels of land-use mixture, except for walking and bicycle commutes. For non-motorized commuting, the presence or absence of neighborhood shops is a better predictor of mode choice than residential densities.

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, land use transport link, urban form

Keywords: urban form, transport planning, urban planning, urban design

detailed annotation

Keywords: transit, urban planning, transport planning, canada, land use transport link, urban form, transit-oriented development

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link

Claims that roadway investments spur new travel, known as induced demand, and thus fail to relieve traffic congestion have thwarted road development in the United States. Past studies point to a significant induced demand effect. This research employs a path model to causally sort out the links between freeway investments and traffic increases, using data for 24 California freeway projects across 15 years. Traffic increases are explained in terms of both faster travel speeds and land use shifts that occur in response to adding freeway lanes. While the path model confirms the presence of induced travel in both the short and longer run, estimated elasticities are lower than those of earlier studies. This research also reveals significant “induced growth” and “induced investment” effects-real estate development gravitates to improved freeways, and traffic increases spawn road investments over time. Travel-forecasting models are needed that account for these dynamics.

A much more sophisticated methodology to help untangle a complicated problem. The model suggests that it may be possible to build out of congestion without road pricing, although the author speculates that the ultimate urban form may look something like Houston. An interesting side note is the role of density, which exerts a strong influence on the level of induced demand. Unfortunately, since the dataset is from Southern California where truly high densities are rare, the model cannot say too much about roadway expansion in dense areas.

Keywords: transport planning, induced travel, urban form, land use transport link

Some claim that cardependent cities contribute to obesity by discouraging walking and bicycling. In this article, we use household activity data from the San Francisco region to study the links between urban environments and nonmotorized travel.

We used factor analysis to represent the urban design and land-use diversity dimensions of built environments. Combining factor scores with control variables, like steep terrain, that gauge impediments to walking and bicycling, we estimated discrete-choice models. Builtenvironment factors exerted far weaker, although not inconsequential, influences on walking and bicycling than control variables.

Stronger evidence on the importance of urban landscapes in shaping foot and bicycle travel is needed if the urban planning and public health professions are to forge an effective alliance against cardependent sprawl.

A good study looking at the factors influencing cycling and walking. The perspective is Cervero's usual framework, the three Ds: density, diversity and design. All three are found to have significant influences on bicycle usage, with the residential end being slightly more important. Of the urban form variables, the presence of neighbourhood retail is found to be the strongest predictor of walking.

From an evaluation standpoint, I wish these authors would standardize/normalize the coefficients of their models! After limiting to statistically significant variables, normalization would allow me to compare the relative influence of each variable on bicycle usage. It would also be extremely useful to include the mean and standard deviation of all input variables, to allow some rough comparisons to other study areas. If the input data has low variance (e.g., a uniformly low-density suburb), meaningful patterns could be missed.

Finally, the bicycle model seems pretty shoddy-the rho-squared value is only 0.13! Since it only considers factors at origin and destination, I imagine it's missing a massive amount of valuable data, like the topography, safety and quality of the route itself.

Keywords: active transportation, pedestrian planning, bicycle planning, urban form, bicycle modelling

The built environment is thought to influence travel demand along three principal dimensions - density, diversity, and design. This paper tests this proposition by examining how the “3Ds” affect trip rates and mode choice of residents in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using 1990 travel diary data and land-use records obtained from the U.S. census, regional inventories, and field surveys, models are estimated that relate features of the built environment to variations in vehicle miles traveled per household and mode choice, mainly for non-work trips. Factor analysis is used to linearly combine variables in the density and design dimensions of the built environment. The research finds that density, land-use diversity, and pedestrian-oriented designs generally reduce trip rates and encourage non-auto travel in statistically significant ways, though their influences appear to be fairly marginal. Elasticities between variables and factors that capture the 3Ds and various measures of travel demand are generally in the .06 to .18 range, expressed in absolute terms. Compact development was found to exert the strongest influence on personal business trips. Within-neighborhood retail shops, on the other hand, was most strongly associated with mode choice for work trips. And while a factor capturing “walking quality” was only moderately related to mode choice for non-work trips, those living in neighborhoods with grid-iron street designs and restricted commercial parking were nonetheless found to average significantly less vehicle miles of travel and rely less on single-occupant vehicles for non-work trips. Overall, this research shows that the elasticities between each dimension of the built environment and travel demand are modest to moderate, though certainly not inconsequential. Thus is supports the contention of new urbanists and others that creating more compact, diverse, and pedestrian-oriented neighborhoods, in combination, can meaningfully influence how Americans travel.

A solid study, and a useful decomposition of urban form. By the time I got around to reading it, I'd seen several similar papers (like Cervero and Duncan's later followup), so the conclusion was not surprising.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: pedestrian planning, urban planning, urban form, urban design, land use transport link

Apparently fairly important - shows benefits of traditional neighbourhood design.

Keywords: pedestrian planning, urban planning, urban form, urban design, land use transport link

Keywords: transit, land use transport link, transport planning, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, transport planning

Keywords: urban form, transport planning, urban planning

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban form, land use transport link, location choice

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form, transport planning, urban planning

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: climate mitigation, land use transport link, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: transit, land use transport link, urban form, transport planning, urban planning

detailed annotation

Keywords: transport planning, congestion pricing, transportation demand management, transit, land use transport link, urban form, induced travel, zoning

detailed annotation

Keywords: transport planning, congestion pricing, transportation demand management, transit, land use transport link, urban form, induced travel, zoning

Keywords: transport planning, urban form, transit, land use transport link, urban politics, smart growth

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, new urbanism

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, history

Interesting, with some good statistics. The author shows that if transportation and housing costs are combined, total spending amounts to 47-57% of income across almost all of the United States. The split between transport and housing varies dramatically, of course, but the point is that you aren't really saving people any money by building an auto-dependent region; you're just choosing a different urban form. Top 10 most expensive: San Diego, Tampa, Los Angeles, Miami, Denver, Atlanta, Phoenix, Cleveland and San Francisco. Bottom 11: Portland, Baltimore, Houston, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Anchorage, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis and Honolulu. New York, surprisingly, is right in the middle of the pack.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

A good counterpoint to Gordon & Richardson's article. My one regret with this article: because the author tries to stick to a clearly defensible urban form, and because he tries to avoid seeming “hopelessly European or Canadian,” his definition of a “compact” urban form is actually quite low-density and sprawling by any other nation's standards. He advocates a density of about 4 units per acre, which is below the level required to support even one bus every half hour.

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: transport planning, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Planning faces the predicament that as recommendations become bolder possibilities for implementation deteriorate. This is imputed to society's transition from a Fordist and modern to a post-Fordist and postmodern era. On the one hand, postmodern values account for more public participation and heightened environmental sensitivity, which translate into proposals for alternative forms of urban development. On the other hand, the implementation of these proposals is impaired by reduced public sector resources as a result of the economic instability associated with post-Fordism. Another impediment is the difficulty to achieve sufficient support for planning objectives in the postmodern context. This context is marked by a fragmentation of values, attachment to the existing built environment, and suspicion between social groups. The empirical focus is on Toronto's bold metropolitan planning proposals. Most recent planning documents call for reurbanization efforts, a compact urban form, and reduced reliance on the car. In this paper I cast doubts, however, on the eventual actualization of these proposals by highlighting weaknesses in the present and anticipated implementation context. These are tied to factors that are specific to Toronto, but also to a greater extent to the post-Fordist and postmodern environment.

A few interesting ideas. He argues that the postmodern attachment of value to public participation and plural views could undermine processes aimed at changing suburban form to better accommodate plurality. He suggests that NIMBYism arises from suspicion between factions in a fractured society, and this will in turn hinder changes to existing urban form (infill, etc.) and favour greenfield development where such arguments can be avoided. In the light of his arguments, I find policies such as urban growth boundaries more appealing: they prevent greenfield alternatives and force NIMBYism to be confronted directly. Toronto already seems to be headed in this direction, as social housing projects are increasingly recognised as necessary and located in all wards, instead of being fought off by all wards.

Keywords: geography, urban planning, politics, canada, urban form

The smart growth concept has recently achieved prominence within the planning profession. It represents a reaction to mounting resentment towards the adverse consequences of prevailing forms of urbanization: air pollution, high development costs and deteriorating quality of life. The article examines the possibility of implementing smart growth proposals within the prevailing political, economic and value environment. After drawing lessons from the lack of success of attempts at altering urban development over the last thirty years, the article proposes two smart growth strategies. To maintain their implementation potential and capacity to modify urbanization trends, the strategies avoid clashes with entrenched preference patterns and powerful interest groups. The first strategy consists in an expansion of the high-density transit-oriented compact urban realm into the ambient low-density car-dependent dispersed realm. The second strategy involves the creation of mixed-use high-density corridors, hospitable to transit use and walking, within newly urbanized areas.

An excellent article, aimed at realistic incremental policies to change urban densities, the main obstacle to mode share changes. The solutions he presents are not new at all, but the political context and discussion of suburban values are worth thinking about.

Keywords: urban planning, urban politics, canada, urban form, smart growth

Keywords: urban form, canada, toronto

The paper compares density patterns of the three largest Canadian metropolitan regions with those of a sample of 12 U.S. urban areas with comparable populations. It verifies if such patterns support claims of Canadian urban distinctiveness prevalent within this country's research literature. Findings indicate that regional differences among U.S. cities are as important as cross-national distinctions. Measures of centrality and overall density place observed Canadian metrpolitan areas within the same category as older U.S. East Coast metropolitan areas. Inter-city comparisons of historically and geographically defined zones suggest a period of cross-national convergence before World War II, when the inner city was developed, followed by a period of divergence from the 1940s to the 1970s, when the inner suburb was built. The development of the outer suburb, which began in the early 1970s, marks a return to cross-national convergence. These results question the continued relevance of the literature on the distinctiveness of Canadian urbanization.

Very interesting. They find that Canadian cities, as a group, do stand out from American cities-they are denser overall (than American cities of comparable size), and denser in their cores and inner suburbs. In the outer suburbs, however, densities are indistinguishable from American cities. Beyond that, however, Canadian cities have much smaller exurban regions than their American counterparts. They fit a cubic polynomial to the density/distance-from-CBD graph, and don't find Canadian cities to be as distinctive in that measure; I'm not sure how solid their analysis there is, though (haven't read it closely enough). Generally, the Canadian cities are distinctive as a group, since all of the major Canadian cities are dense, but are generally similar to northeastern American cities. The U.S. just has a wider variety of cities. “Our work does not so much refute the perspective espoused by the Canadian urban specificity literature as situate it historically and geographically. According to zonal findings and events that have marked the evolution of cities in the two countries, most of the noted cross-national differences can be linked to the period that ran from the end of World War II to the 1970s.” Overall, I don't think their results justify the final sentence of their abstract (repeated in their introduction); I think Canadian cities are quite distinctive. In particular, they don't discuss exurban trends very much, although these are a very significant part of American city development today: the Canadian cities have only 18 percent of their population in exurban areas, while the American cities are clustered closer to 30 percent, with some as high as 50 percent (Atlanta, Boston).

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, canada

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, new urbanism

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form

Obesity is a major health problem in the United States and around the world. To date, relationships between obesity and aspects of the built environment have not been evaluated empirically at the individual level. Objective

To evaluate the relationship between the built environment around each participant's place of residence and self-reported travel patterns (walking and time in a car), body mass index (BMI), and obesity for specific gender and ethnicity classifications.

Body Mass Index, minutes spent in a car, kilometers walked, age, income, educational attainment, and gender were derived through a travel survey of 10,878 participants in the Atlanta, Georgia region. Objective measures of land use mix, net residential density, and street connectivity were developed within a 1-kilometer network distance of each participant's place of residence. A cross-sectional design was used to associate urban form measures with obesity, BMI, and transportation-related activity when adjusting for sociodemographic covariates. Discrete analyses were conducted across gender and ethnicity. The data were collected between 2000 and 2002 and analysis was conducted in 2004.

Land-use mix had the strongest association with obesity (BMI>=30 kg/m^2), with each quartile increase being associated with a 12.2% reduction in the likelihood of obesity across gender and ethnicity. Each additional hour spent in a car per day was associated with a 6% increase in the likelihood of obesity. Conversely, each additional kilometer walked per day was associated with a 4.8% reduction in the likelihood of obesity. As a continuous measure, BMI was significantly associated with urban form for white cohorts. Relationships among urban form, walk distance, and time in a car were stronger among white than black cohorts.

Measures of the built environment and travel patterns are important predictors of obesity across gender and ethnicity, yet relationships among the built environment, travel patterns, and weight may vary across gender and ethnicity. Strategies to increase land-use mix and distance walked while reducing time in a car can be effective as health interventions.

A very useful addition to the debates on urban form. I'm a fan of anything bring active transportation into the debate, rather than just trying to reduce SOV trips. I'm curious about why they found land-use mix and walking distance to be statistically independent influences on obesity. Their speculation that it may be related to nutrition (and so-called “food deserts”) is an interesting idea.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, active transportation, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, active transportation, urban form, land use transport link, urban planning

An increasing body of evidence suggests that moderate forms of physical activity (such as walking and bicycling), when engaged in regularly, can have important beneficial effects on public health. This article reviews current public health, planning, and urban design research to determine, first, how walking and bicycling might be critically important exercise behaviors for improving public health, second, how urban form affects the frequency of walking and bicycling as a form of physical activity, and third, how the public health considerations outlined in this article might reorient planners' thinking toward the realization of health-promotive environments. The current lack of emphasis on the interdependencies between built form and overall quality of life, as measured by health, safety, and welfare considerations, suggests the need for a rethinking of public policy approaches to transportation investment and land development.

Keywords: active transportation, urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: active transportation, urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: active transportation, urban planning, pedestrian planning, bicycle planning, urban form, transport planning, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, active transportation, land use transport link, urban form

Findings from an empirical analysis to test the impacts of land-use mix, population density, and employment density on the use of the single-occupant vehicle (SOV), transit and walking for both work trips and shopping trips are presented. The hypothetical relationships tested focused on whether there is a relationship between urban form and modal choice, whether this relationship exists when controlling for non-urban form factors, whether this relationship is linear or nonlinear, and whether a stronger relationship exists between modal choice and urban form when they are measured at both trip ends as opposed to either the origin or the destination. A review of the literature and experiences suggested that a fair amount of information is known about the impacts of density on mode choice. However, considerable debate exists over whether density itself is actually the causal stimulus or a surrogate for other factors. To address this issue a data base was developed with a comprehensive set of variables for which density may be a proxy, for example, demographics and level of service. This analysis employed a correlational research design in which mode choice was compared among census tracts with differing levels of density and mix. Findings from this research indicate that density and mix are both related to mode choice, even when controlling for non-urban form factors for both work trips and shopping trips. Furthermore, the relationship between population and employment density and mode choice for SOV, transit and walking is nonlinear for both work and shopping trips. Transit usage and walking increase as density and land-use mix increase, whereas SOV usage declines. The findings from this research suggest that measuring urban form at both trip ends provides a greater ability to predict travel choices than looking at trip ends separately. The findings also suggest that increasing the level of land-use mix at the trip origins and destinations is also related to a reduction in SOV travel and an increase in transit and walking.

Solid research, with more convincing methodology than Sch96 (which I read at about the same time).

Overall, the most interesting result of the paper is the demonstration of nonlinearity. Figures 2 and 3 of their paper show a graph of modal share vs. employment density, and vs. population density. These graphs show that major increases in bus/walk modes only happen at employment densities greater than 125 employees/acre (work trips), or 13 residents/acre (shopping trips). The implications for policy are obvious: if you aren't going to reach those thresholds, you're wasting your time. Also, the employment graph shows substantial nonlinearity: between 75 and 125 employees/acre, there is essentially no change in mode share.

They also had some predictable results: walking trips were the most sensitive to increases in population density; it's worth considering densities at both trip ends (i.e., both residential population density and employment population density); etc.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, transit, active transportation, land use transport link

A leading cause of air pollution in many urban regions is mobile source emissions that are largely attributable to household vehicle travel. While household travel patterns have been previously related with land use in the literature (Crane, R., 1996. Journal of the American Planning Association 62 (1, Winter); Cervero, R. and Kockelman, C., 1997. Transportation Research Part D 2 (3), 199-219), little work has been conducted that effectively extends this relationship to vehicle emissions. This paper describes a methodology for quantifying relationships between land use, travel choices, and vehicle emissions within the Seattle, Washington region. Our analysis incorporates land use measures of density and mix which affect the proximity of trip origins to destinations; a measure of connectivity which impacts the directness and completeness of pedestrian and motorized linkages; vehicle trip generation by operating mode; vehicle miles/h of travel and speed; and estimated household vehicle emissions of nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and carbon monoxide. The data used for this project consists of the Puget Sound Transportation Panel Travel Survey, the 1990 US Census, employment density data from the Washington State Employment Security Office, and information on Seattle's vehicle fleet mix and climatological attributes provided by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Analyses are based on a cross-sectional research design in which comparisons are made of variations in household travel demand and emissions across alternative urban form typologies. Base emission rates from MOBILE5a and separate engine start rates are used to calculate total vehicle emissions in grams accounting for fleet characteristics and other inputs reflecting adopted transportation control measures. Emissions per trip are based on the network distance of each trip, average travel speed, and a multi-stage engine operating mode (cold start, hot start, and stabilized) function.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: active transportation, urban planning, pedestrian planning, bicycle planning, urban form, transport planning

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: active transportation, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

Very interesting. Markham looks like it may be a good control case for future investigations. Having lived away from the GTA for many years, I was surprised to hear of consistent support for such policies from Markham, which was quite car-dependent in my time.

Keywords: urban design, urban form, transport planning, urban planning, new urbanism

A reasonable paper, but I'm skeptical of the data. The authors used highly aggregated metropolitan-level data to draw inferences about travel behaviour, which seems a bit dubious. They did at least include a variable summarizing how “monocentric” each area was, but did not otherwise disaggregate the data at all. I'm not convinced that behaviour can be analysed meaningfully at that scale.

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, transport planning, transport modelling, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, transport planning, energy, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

While initially convincing, this article relies on some very dubious rhetorical methods to attack compact urban form. It's worthwhile if only to help develop the critical skills to dissect invalid argumentation. Be sure to read Ewing (1997) as well.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: canada, urban planning, urban form, zoning

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, transport planning, canada

I haven't fully absorbed the meaning of this author's models yet.

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, land use transport link, transport planning, pedestrian planning

Some interesting discussion of the British experience in urban planning, drawing from Stone (1973). On the basis of cost, Stone recommended settlements of about 250,000 people instead of a huge monocentric city. Hall draws comparisons between the British experience of heavy land use regulation and the American experience, and finds that while British planning restricted land supply and raised housing prices, any solution today would require massive releases of land in high pressure areas, causing a dismemberment of the land use planning system. He discussed European sustainable urban development policies (pedestrian zones, traffic calming, and road pricing), but argues that by focusing on the centre they may be transferring the problem to the suburbs. He includes some interesting discussion of late 1990s planning efforts in France to provide radial transit to the inner suburbs of Paris (ORBITALE) and extensions of the RER system (LUTECE). He also discusses the Dutch ABC system (EXTRA).

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form

I found this article interesting, and it spanned a wide range of the debates on “desirable density.” I liked the effort to discuss net vs. gross density, comparisons of many different measures, the relation to declining household size (and hence lower person densities), and the relation to transit service. However, I found some of the arguments unpersuasive, particularly the argument in favour of a density of 30-40 units/net hectare-but perhaps I need to read the source study. I quite liked the historical aside of “London vs. the continent” (Rasmussen 1937) and even the bleeding edge of American debate (Jacobs and Appleyard 1987).

Useful refs on density: DETR 1998 report (BSPUCLLD98), Rudlin and Falk (1999); also, Susan Owens (1984).

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: land use transport link, urban form, transport planning

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, pedestrian planning, land use transport link

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link, urban planning, active transportation

detailed annotation

Keywords: urban planning, history, urban form, canada

Keywords: urban form, transport planning, urban planning

Keywords: urban form, sustainability

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

A brief survey of literature on Toronto, San Francisco, Washington, Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, Calgary, Edmonton, Portland and San Diego. Many, many good references.

Keywords: urban planning, transit, transport planning, land use transport link, urban form, canada

Keywords: canada, toronto, transit, urban planning, urban form, transport planning

Keywords: sociology, equity, urban economics, urban planning, urban form

Overall, a bit mixed in quality. I found the carefully delineated distinction between smart growth, new urbanism and compact cities to be useful, although a bit short. The eco-city remains a concept I consider unworkable, and I found the evaluation of the different concepts to be a bit ridiculous.

A good quote from Edwards (1996): “architects have a larger share of responsibility for the world's consumption of fossil fuel and global warming gas production than any other professional group.”

Keywords: sustainability, urban form, new urbanism

Keywords: urban planning, urban design, urban form, parking

Keywords: bicycle planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: history, urban planning, urban form

This study presents evidence that households, located in areas of the Atlanta Region with moderately high levels of street connectivity and compactness, drive and pollute less on a daily basis. This analysis employs a rigorous methodology to assess the emissions per household on a per trip basis accounting for cold start cycles, speed, hot stabilized operation, distance, and regional fleet characteristics. Emissions per household are cross-sectionally correlated with the land use patterns at the place of residence. These findings support the argument that a “nexus” exists between land use policies implemented through local government development regulations and household travel behavior (ie mode choice, travel distance, travel time, and vehicle emissions). This research provides an initial and very critical step that is required to lend credibility to the argument that major metropolitan regions should consider alternatives to current land and travel intensive development patterns to meet future air quality objectives.

Keywords: transport planning, urban form, urban planning, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, sociology, urban form

Keywords: sociology, equity, urban economics, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, canada, urban form, land use transport link, transit

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

An excellent summary of the dataset collected in their 1999 book, with useful analysis. It's presented in a much more neutral, distanced light than some of their earlier work. The methodology still undoubtedly has problems, such as the use of Metro Toronto instead of the Greater Toronto Area for the city definition. That introduces some massive bias into all references to Toronto, since it excludes all of the sprawling suburbs, including Mississauga (which now has a population over 600,000 and was already quite large in 1990).

While it might not suit their agenda, I would like to see housing costs included in the analysis. There is a clear relationship between density and greater competition for limited land and housing, and any analysis of regional economic competitiveness really has to take housing costs into account. Newman and Kenworthy's core argument that land use influences transport has a clear converse, but they seem to have chosen to ignore it here.

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, land use transport link, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, transit, land use transport link, energy

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, transit

This sourcebook provides the most comprehensive set of time series data and analyses on these important subjects that is available today. It spans 46 cities in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe and Asia, covering the widest possible range of data on the land use and transportation systems, energy use, and economic and environmental impacts of transportation that has been assembled to date. It also contains a set of coloured maps for each city outlining territorial boundaries, the extent of urbanisation, and all rail, busway and freeway systems. A must for every individual and organisation wanting to better understand and respond to the urban transportation debate.

Keywords: data, transport planning, urban planning, transit, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, canada, urban form, transit, land use transport link

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link, urban design

A very useful article regarding the land use-transport link. They examined courses taught on the subject, and their syllabi. The key books were MooTho94 and Dow92/Dow04, and Cer96b was a key article, as was the debate between Ewi97 and GorRic97. Other publications included Giu95, Cra98, and Lev99.

Keywords: land use transport link, transport planning, urban form, urban planning

Keywords: general interest, history, urban form

Keywords: general interest, history, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban form, transport planning, urban planning, land use transport link

Keywords: transportation demand management, bicycle planning, pedestrian planning, transit, urban form, parking, urban economics, finance, prioritisation, accessibility

A classic, apparently. As summarized by TalEll02, his main criteria for good form are 1) vitality: the support of biological requirements; 2) sense: mental perception and differentiation of a settlement; 3) fit: the match between pattern and behaviour; 4) access: being able to reach resources; 5) control of the use of the settlement; and “meta-criteria” of efficiency (cost) and justice (equity).

Keywords: urban form, urban design, urban planning

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: urban design, streets, street design, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form, transport planning

Keywords: streets, urban planning, urban form, transport planning, street design, urban design

Keywords: streets, urban design, urban form, street design

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, energy, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link

Some empirical findings are presented on the relationship between urban form and work trip commuting efficiency, drawn from the analysis of 1986 work trip commuting patterns in the greater Toronto area. Work trip commuting efficiency is measured with respect to the average number of vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) per worker in a given zone. Preliminary findings include VKT per worker increases as one moves away from both the central core of the city and from other high-density employment centers within the region; job-housing balance, per se, shows little impact on commuting VKT; and population density, in and of itself, does not explain variations on commuting VKT once other urban structure variables have been accounted for.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, canada, urban form, land use transport link

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of the historical evolution of personal travel behavior in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) over the past 35 years. The analysis indicates that in many respects the GTA taken as a whole is similar to other cities within North America in terms of increasing auto ownership; increasing individual auto-drive trip rates; increasing suburbanization of population and employment into areas poorly served by transit; increasingly complex travel patterns; and transit, at best, maintaining a constant number of trips per capita but losing modal share. The analysis also highlights ways in which the GTA, particularly the city of Toronto, deviates from the North American “norm.” These include transit per capita ridership, overall mode splits, revenue-cost operating ratios are still extremely high by North American standards; the regional commuter rail system has been very successful in attracting increasing numbers of commuters from outside Toronto into the Toronto central area; the continuing strength of the Toronto central area has provided a strong, viable transit service; and more generally, the relatively high density and transit orientation of development throughout the city of Toronto is highly supportive of transit.

Some very useful background on the transportation context of Toronto. While I grew up in that city, I actually knew fairly little about the evolution of its transportation system, so this was quite useful to me. Not very revolutionary in content (it's just a basic historical review), but worthwhile; a few good references (Mee02, Shi97, PucLef96, WriLov02).

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, canada, transit, urban form

A good report, with a realistic and progressive vision for the future. I found the maps comparing Toronto, Square One and Pearson trip ends extremely interesting (figures II.7 - II.9).

Keywords: transport planning, canada, urban planning, transit, land use transport link, urban form

Keywords: canada, transit, transport planning, urban planning, land use transport link, urban form

They looked at the NewKen89 data using a different statistical technique, and claimed to find poor statistical support for the density correlation to energy use, at least for North American and Australian cities. European cities showed a significant relation to inner city and CBD density. I remain skeptical overall, though. I need to read more about their statistical methods before making any conclusions, though.

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link, energy

Keywords: urban form, canada

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, transport planning, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, history, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

This disaggregate cross-sectional study uses primary data on the cycling behavior of 608 randomly sampled respondents in urbanized King County, Washington, and objective parcel-level GIS measures of land use and infrastructure conditions. Binary logit model findings provide new insights on who bicycles, and on perceived and actual built environmental conditions associated with the likelihood of cycling in neighborhoods, controlling for socio-demographic variables. A high 21% of the respondents report cycling at least once a week in their neighborhood, more often for recreation or exercise than for transportation. Cycling is more popular among male, younger adults, transit users, and those who are physically active and in good health. Both perceived and objective environmental conditions contribute to the likelihood of cycling. Proximity to trails and the presence of agglomerations of offices, clinics/hospitals, and fast food restaurants, measured objectively, are significant environmental variables. Previously researched correlates of cycling, such as the presence of bicycle lanes, traffic speed and volume, slope, block size, and the presence of parks, are found insignificant when objectively measured. A non-linear relationship is found between the odds of cycling and the perception of traffic problems and automobile-oriented facilities. Overall, cycling is only moderately associated with the neighborhood environment. It appears to be an individual choice that is independent from environmental support. This finding likely reflects the limited bicycle infrastructure in the sample frame-an unfortunate condition found in most US metropolitan regions. Policy and intervention programs could increase cycling by improving both actual and perceived environmental conditions.

The study is severely limited by its sampling frame and by casting its net too broadly. If it had focused only on work trips or shopping trips, the results would probably be more meaningful. Of course, given the survey method and the miniscule mode share of cycling, this would be extremely expensive.

Keywords: bicycle planning, urban form

An interesting take on a classic topic. (See also: MooTho94, NewKen96, etc.) I found the discussion of class interesting: dispersed development (initially in the form of streetcar suburbs, later in the form of auto suburbs) allowed the middle-class to achieve something that had previously been reserved for the upper-class: income segregation. Prohibition was part of this process: dry districts were partly intended to keep out the working classes. Streetcars also opened up enough space to allow the formation of ethnic neighbourhoods for the first time, which is certainly evident in a city like Toronto. The period from 1920-1930 was the “point im time, many geographers and planners would agree, that intrametropolitan transportation achieved its greatest level of efficiency-the burgeoning city truly `worked.' ” Muller cites some great studies: Bae78 shows the evolution of land uses along a Minneapolis freeway corridor from 1953-1976 as a new `downtown' emerged along the freeway.

Keywords: urban form, land use transport link, history

An interesting, clearly and calmly written article, but not entirely convincing in its central argument. I liked the discussion and dissection of sustainability themes (something I haven't read too much about), but I find the condemnation of compact cities and New Urbanism a little premature. Neuman's criticisms are largely legitimate-particularly with regard to the actual New Urbanist developments on the ground-and I am quite sympathetic to the goal of organic city processes, but I think urban form (and density in particular) remains a key component of any future sustainable city: a necessary condition, but not sufficient.

Keywords: urban form, energy

Keywords: urban planning, ecology, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, ecology, urban form

Keywords: urban form

Keywords: ecology, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, energy, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link, energy

This was the first I read by these authors; this article and their 1989 book are classic texts in the field.

It's an ambitious and impressive effort, although I doubt that anyone will ever completely believe either their data or their results. Nevertheless, the data collection effort is laudable, especially when they include information on parking and relative speeds. Since reading this, I've improved my stats quite a bit, and I'd like to revisit it (or their 1999 followup) and see if I buy their results and conclusions. I'd also like to look into the econometric models they criticised.

One choice quote: “Toronto has a much stronger transit system (50?? vehicle miles of service per capita) than do U.S. or Australian cities, a feature with its dense land use; its provision for automobiles is also much less than that in U.S. and Australian cities. The diversity of its transit systems, which include commuter rail, subway, modern trams on-street and new LRT on separated tracks, electric trolleys, and diesel buses (as well as comprehensive cycle ways), provides a powerful comparison to nearby Detroit, which has an almost complete commitment to the automobile. The per capita gasoline consmuption in Detroit is double that in Toronto; transit use is 0.8 percent of total passenger miles in Detroit, compared with 16.7 percent in Toronto. However, the difference in gasoline consumption in Detroit and Toronto cannot be explained simply by the difference in transit use. For example, if all of Toronto's transit users transferred to car the per capita use of gasoline would increase by 53 gallons, making Toronto's usage still 184 gallons per capita lower than that of Detroit. The Toronto transit system is part of an overall more energy-efficient city, despite Toronto having lower gasoline prices in 1980 and less fuel-efficient vehicles than the U.S. Indeed, Toronto is one of the few cities in the world with well-developed policies for transportation energy conservation based on land use strategies.”

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, canada, energy, land use transport link, urban form, transit

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, energy, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, transit, urban form

detailed annotation

There is a growing international movement, “The New Urbanism”, which seeks to reconnect transport with land use and in particular to establish transit-oriented development where higher-density, mixed-use areas built around high-quality transit systems provide a focused urban structure that can help to loosen the grasp of automobile dependence. There are many case studies around the world of cities which demonstrate this process of reconnecting land use and transport. The cases of Singapore, Hong Kong, Zurich (Switzerland), Copenhagen (Denmark), Freiburg (Germany), Toronto and Vancouver (Canada), Portland, Oregon (USA) and Perth (Australia) are briefly described here to show the various levels of achievement in very different environments around the world.

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, canada, land use transport link, urban form

detailed annotation

Keywords: general interest, transport planning, urban planning, canada, land use transport link, urban form, energy, sustainability

Keywords: transport planning, ecology, urban form, urban planning

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban form, urban planning

Keywords: climate mitigation, urban form, canada, lifecycle analysis, toronto

Keywords: urban form, energy, urban planning, sustainability

Keywords: urban form, energy, urban planning, sustainability

Keywords: transit, transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: canada, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link

Discusses urban form in the freeway era, the different connectivities of the grid system and the “ladder” system of the freeway era, and Houston in particular. Some very interesting ideas (judging from references), especially the notion of the freeway system enforcing a hierarchy, and forming spiralling patterns in contrast to the grid system. Unfortunately, my library doesn't have a copy...

Keywords: architecture, urban planning, transport planning, urban form

detailed annotation

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, transit, land use transport link

Keywords: transport modelling, land use transport link, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

Keywords: active transportation, urban form

Research in transportation, urban design, and planning has examined associations between physical environment variables and individuals' walking and cycling for transport. Constructs, methods, and findings from these fields can be applied by physical activity and health researchers to improve understanding of environmental influences on physical activity. In this review, neighborhood environment characteristics proposed to be relevant to walking/cycling for transport are defined, including population density, connectivity, and land use mix. Neighborhood comparison and correlational studies with nonmotorized transport outcomes are considered, with evidence suggesting that residents from communities with higher density, greater connectivity, and more land use mix report higher rates of walking/cycling for utilitarian purposes than low-density, poorly connected, and single land use neighborhoods. Environmental variables appear to add to variance accounted for beyond sociodemographic predictors of walking/cycling for transport. Implications of the transportation literature for physical activity and related research are outlined. Future research directions are detailed for physical activity research to further examine the impact of neighborhood and other physical environment factors on physical activity and the potential interactive effects of psychosocial and environmental variables. The transportation, urban design, and planning literatures provide a valuable starting point for multidisciplinary research on environmental contributions to physical activity levels in the population.

Keywords: active transportation, urban planning, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, urban form, land use transport link, history

Keywords: transport modelling, transport planning, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: transport planning, urban planning, ilute, canada, urban form, land use transport link

Keywords: urban planning, urban design, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban planning, equity

Keywords: urban form, pedestrian planning

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, transit, land use transport link, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

Keywords: pedestrian planning, urban form

Keywords: urban form, streets, street design

Keywords: urban form, streets, urban planning, land use transport link

Keywords: urban form, streets, urban planning, land use transport link

Some excellent insights into the reasons why transit ridership is so low in the United States. A particularly interesting note regards the historical growth in Europe and the US: European cities have experienced relatively little growth during the age of the automobile, which goes a long way towards explaining their limited suburbanisation. The comparison between Canada and US is more apt, since both have experienced similar growth levels during the automobile age.

Keywords: transit, urban form, land use transport link, canada, history

Keywords: new urbanism, urban form

This article argues that the search for a theory of good city form should be given a more prominent place in planning theory alongside theories of planning as a process. The professional practice of city and regional planning requires well-validated, durable criteria for successful outcomes. Fortunately, many recent developments in philosophy, science, political theory, and the arts challenge the postmodern relativism that has deflected attention away from normative theory toward procedural issues. The authors argue that planners should take advantage of these new ideas and launch a renewed quest for the elements of good city form.

Taking off from Lyn81 and borrowing from Turner's theory of the "radical centre,” this article discusses the need for good urban form as a key part of planning theory. A good quote: “As Duany et. al (2000) have argued, our goal should be a very high `win-loss ratio,' not sporadic, serendipitous victories.”

Keywords: philosophy, urban form

Keywords: urban planning, transport planning, urban form

Keywords: urban form, urban growth boundary

This paper analyses the evolution of urban form in two North American metropolitan regions (Portland and Toronto) and asks how more sustainable regional form might come about in the future in these and other urban areas. In the past, dominant patterns of urban form have emerged in such regions at different historical periods. These morphological phases include mid 19th-century grids, streetcar suburb grids, garden suburbs, automobile suburbs and New Urbanist neighbourhoods (which have only recently made an appearance and may or may not become widespread). Judging by the performance of past types of urban morphology, five design values appear particularly important for more sustainable urban form in the future: compactness, contiguity, connectivity, diversity and ecological integration. Although these principles were not well supported by 20th-century development, contemporary movements such as the New Urbanism and Smart Growth re-emphasise them. The example of these two regions indicates that, in the absence of new technological, economic or geographical forces, public sector institutions and urban social movements represent the most likely means to bring about new, more sustainable types of urban form.

Keywords: urban form, canada, streets, history, transport planning, urban planning, new urbanism

Keywords: urban form, urban planning

Keywords: sustainability, urban form