Keywords: streets, history, urban politics, street design, roadspace reallocation, zoning

Keywords: parking, zoning, canada

detailed annotation

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

In the first three chapters (the only part I've read), there were some very interesting discussion of growth management policies, equity and racial segregation in the USA.

One point I found interesting was the discussion of preferences. In general, Americans want single-family detached houses, auto-based travel, free parking and short travel times. The planning system in many ways guarantees the first two: suburbs have extremely high minimum standards for housing (low density single-family homes), and generally provide generous roads and free parking. The last aspect of preferences cannot be guaranteed due to growth and swamping of existing roads by new travel, discussed at length in the book. This is the aspect I find interesting: the system is inherently biased towards one set of preferences (housing) and limits trading off housing against travel time-if an individual prefers short travel times and is willing to accept “lower quality” dense housing in return, that option is rarely available. In other words, this minimum provision limits choices, a point that Andre Sorensen has made repeatedly in his discussions in the course I'm taking.

Downs notes that one-third of US households did not live in single-family homes in 1990, and one-third were renters (presumably with substantial overlap). He describes the provision of low-cost housing as a “trickle-down” process: since cheap new housing is prohibited, only degraded older houses are available for those who cannot afford the suburban single-family home. This process breaks down when “net housing construciton is lower than net household formation”-i.e., periods of rapid growth.

Keywords: urban planning, equity, zoning, urban politics, smart growth

detailed annotation

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

Keywords: canada, urban planning, urban form, zoning

Keywords: zoning, equity, urban planning

Keywords: land use transport link, zoning

Transportation and land use research of the past decade has focused in large part on the question of whether manipulating land uses in the direction of “smart growth” alternatives can reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) or otherwise improve travel behavior. Yet the notion of “manipulating” land uses implies that the alternative is somehow self-organized or market-based. This view appears to underestimate the extent to which current planning interventions in the United States-largely focused on lowering development densities, mandating ample road and parking designs, and separating land uses-impose an auto-oriented template on most new development. Rather than a market failure, the paucity of “smart growth” alternatives may be a planning failure-the result of municipal regulatory exclusion. This problem definition would shift the burden of proof for policy reform, as uncertainty in travel-behavior benefits would hardly justify the continuation of exclusionary regulations. If municipal regulations in fact constrain alternatives to low-density auto-oriented development, one would expect developers to perceive unsatisfied market interest in such development. This article studies, through a national survey (676 respondents), US developers' perceptions of the market for pedestrian- and transit-oriented development forms. Overall, respondents perceive considerable market interest in alternative development forms, but believe that there is inadequate supply of such alternatives relative to market demand. Developer-respondents attribute this gap between supply and demand principally to local government regulation. When asked how the relaxation of these regulations would affect their product, majorities of developers indicated that such liberalization woud lead them to develop in a denser and more mixed-use fashion, particularly in close-in suburban locales. Results are interpreted in favor of land-policy reform based on the expansion of choice in transportation and land use. This view contrasts with a more prevalent approach which conditions policy interventions on scientific evidence of travel-behavior modification.

An excellent article, rebutting the claims of many others in the research community. The abstract is an excellent summary of the points made in this article. References BoaCra01, EwiCer01, Cra99 and Dow92. The latter is quoted: “[T]he belief that sprawl is caused primarily by market failures is based on the false assumption that there is a freely operating land use market in US metropolitan areas. No metropolitan area has anything remotely approaching a free land use market because of local regulations adopted for parochial political, social and fiscal purposes.”

Keywords: urban planning, land use transport link, equity, zoning

Some great equity context, including the Tiebout hypothesis.

Keywords: land use transport link, equity, travel behaviour, zoning

detailed annotation

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

Keywords: zoning, equity, urban economics, urban planning

Keywords: urban planning, zoning, smart growth

Keywords: urban planning, zoning

Keywords: urban politics, equity, zoning

Keywords: urban planning, zoning, urban economics, equity