Many people in small communities and rural areas in the United States spend a considerable amount of time in their cars, crossing county lines daily as they drive back and forth between their homes and work, shopping, school, appointments, and more. New growth in such areas can add to an already high load of daily driving if land use decisions are not made with careful consideration and a regional perspective. Increased driving has negative impacts on individuals (stress, time, fuel consumption, car maintenance); on communities (traffic jams, road maintenance, air pollutant emissions); and on the country and the world as a whole (cost, environment). For all these reasons, when planning for new growth, it makes sense to specifically consider how that growth might affect daily driving. Hundreds of studies have investigated how land use affects daily driving in urban and suburban areas. The studies have provided a vocabulary for describing the specific land use characteristics that are most influential, such as: density, diversity of land uses, neighbourhood layout, distance to employment centers, and distance to transit. In addition, the studies have shaped the public’s discussion of important environmental issues, helping motivate interest in land use planning as a tool that local governments can use to accommodate employment and population growth while reducing growth in greenhouse gas emissions from residents’ vehicles. Very few of those studies have looked at small communities and rural areas. This handbook is intended to help fill that gap by providing insights into the relationship between a small/rural area’s existing development patterns and changes in daily driving after hypothetical new growth. The handbook offers a vocabulary of land use characteristics that are significant in small communities and rural areas. It also estimates the change in daily driving per person after hypothetical growth occurs according to different development visions or scenarios. Three typical, actual small communities and rural areas that have substantially different population densities were investigated. The investigations were carried out using three computer models of travel patterns, one model for each small community and rural area. The computer models are integrated land use-transport models that were built specifically for this project. Their primary purpose is to predict how travel, specifically total vehicle-miles travelled and per person vehicle-miles travelled, might change in response to hypothetical changes in employment, population, and land use patterns. The specific development strategies that were studied provide insight into the significance for travel behaviour of differences in the location of employment and population growth, contrasting growth that is dispersed throughout a region, and growth that is concentrated. The analyses summarized here also assess the impact of land use, development patterns, and the associated economic activities on travel behaviour in small communities and rural areas and identify those land use-related conditions that have the greatest impact on travel behaviour. Although the report does not advocate any particular type of development pattern, it suggests the land-use-related conditions that are most important to consider when one of the goals of planning is minimizing the increase in vehicle-miles travelled and the consequent consumption of fossil fuels and vehicular emissions of air pollutants, including greenhouse gases. While the results differ somewhat among the places, in general, daily driving per person decreases a little or does not increase much in either of these scenarios: ?New jobs and households are sited in a small area that already has a high amount of existing development, good access to the region’s commercial developments, and a mix of jobs and households compared to other areas in the multi-county region. ?New jobs and households are spread out among several of the larger towns in the region, attempting to balance the new jobs and new households in each town. However, siting new jobs and new households together in a small area that is relatively undeveloped and isolated can lead to a large increase in daily driving per person in the multi-county region. The results of the computer models are summarized more fully in the Key Results chapter, and are explained in detail in the chapters on each study area. The project’s results are applicable to many small communities and rural areas in the United States. The Project Overview chapter provides guidance on understanding the characteristics of the three types of small communities and rural areas that were studied, and the Checklists included with each study area chapter show how to apply the results to other small communities and rural areas that have similar characteristics. In addition, the handbook includes dozens of streetscape visualizations of real towns in small communities and rural areas, showing ways in which noticeable levels of growth can be accommodated without losing the character and feel of the towns. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting