Parking reform is a growing priority for cities and towns across the U.S. This has important implications for transportation professionals, outlined in a recent webinar from SSTI, the Form-Based Code Institute, and Smart Growth America.
development patterns
Walkable neighborhoods surge ahead
While many Americans are currently discouraged from walking because their neighborhoods are not built for travel by foot, communities that facilitate walking may be the future of new development. A survey by GfK Research for Kaiser Permanente shows that Americans both know walking is a healthy activity and that many neighborhood do not facilitate walking. But other studies in Atlanta and Washington, DC, show that walkable communities are attracting the majority of new investment, even in one of the most car-oriented metro areas.
Our Built and Natural Environments: A Technical Review of the Interactions Among Land Use, Transportation, and Environmental Quality (EPA, 2013)
The EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities Smart Growth Program offers this comprehensive review on how the built environment – the way we build our cities and towns – directly affects our environment and public health. It provides evidence that certain kinds of land use and transportation strategies – where and how we build our communities – can reduce the environmental and human health impacts of development.
SSTI’s scenario analysis tool unveiled; will allow DOTs to better engage with land use authorities
Transportation agencies traditionally have to chase land use development, spending scarce funds to provide new roadway capacity, when better land-use patterns could have greatly reduced travel demand. SSTI’s new scenario analysis tool, developed for DelDOT, provides a way for transportation providers to influence land use development for the better.
The allure and price of “greenfield economics”
In a recent series of articles, Aaron Renn provides some fascinating insights into the initial economic advantages of suburban expansion and the long-term costs of such development. Initial economic advantages for new suburbs constructed on …