The ability to plan new road systems that take into account environmental issues, public health, and quality of life (along with the usual transportation and economic concerns), is called "Smart Growth" and has known benefits. SHRP 2's C16 project, Evaluating the Effect of Smart Growth Policies on Travel Demand, developed two products to improve communication, interaction, and partnerships between decision-makers and planners in both the transportation and land use arenas: SmartGAP, a decision support software tool for regional and local planners to test smart growth scenarios and evaluate their impact on travel demand, and On-line resources to understand the dynamics and inter-relationships of smart growth strategies with the performance of a transportation investment as background and supplement to the software tool. (Author/publisher)
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