Major Land use impacts on transportation

2. Abstract
This discourse explores various land use factors that affect transportation including density, roadway connectivity, mix, regional accessibility, and density. The information derived from this study will be helpful in informing smart growth, land access management, urbanization, and assist in the realization of progressive land planning objectives like the reduction of emissions, conservation of energy, and customer savings.
3. Introduction
Land use can also be referred to as spatial planning, urban geography, urban form, community design, and development (Litman, 2011). These terms essentially refer to the manner in which the surface of the earth is used including design, type, and location of the human development. The patterns of land use can have profound environmental, social, and economic impacts. An example is where some patterns of land use make it more accessible therefore requiring little physical movement in order to get to common land destinations (Litman, 2011). With accessibility the development costs are reduced. Some areas have better accessibility for people who are not driving and hence are more beneficial for the disadvantaged people. Some land use tendencies preserve more of the green ecological spaces hence making the environment more eco-friendly.
The planning of transportation is likely to directly impact land use. This is because it will affect the size of land applied directly for transportation and indirectly for the land used to enable accessibility. For instance the expansion of highways and freeways can increase the pavement space. Likewise enhancing automobile’s ability to access the fringe areas in urban centers will encourage dispersion of development for automobile ease of access to the urban are (referred commonly as sprawl). The improvement of public transit encourages more infill and compact development otherwise referred to as smart growth.
4. Report
In the past century land use and transportation planning practices were designed to reinforce and encourage increased use and dependency of automobiles and the sprawl. Figure 1 below illustrates that (Litman, 2009). The practice was not intended to be that way. It revealed that there was laxity or absence of expertise in understanding the full impact that the decisions had. For instance, when making a decision on the size of parking required for a given land use category, the transport engineers then may not have thought deeply about the extra sprawl likely to result from the generous allocation of land for transport use alone. The primary goal was the convenience of motorists (Litman, 2009). Perhaps the low population levels and ample land spaces made it unnecessary to use land sparingly. Planning decisions affecting the quality of transit service, roadway supply or the user fees for the roads decisions often disregarded the impact that different land uses had.
Although many factors in land use have moderate impact individually in the sense that each decision only affects a small percentage of the total transportation system, the small decisions have synergetic and cumulative effect. Having a smart and integrated growth program will yield community designs can help alleviate ownership of vehicles and reduce travel by between 20 percent and 40 per cent (Litman, 2009). This will fundamentally increase cycling, public transit, and walking end perhaps a greater impact if it is collaborated with other changes in policies like the improvement of the public transit system and better efficiency in transport pricing.
It is important to take good care during evaluation of the impact that definite factors of land use has. The impact may vary subject to the geographic analysis, definitions, perspective, analysis time scale, and defined conditions like the demographics (Litman, 2018). Many of the factors can only be applicable to the total travel subset like the commute travel and local errands. Population density is often given the most attention in transportation although it has only a modest impact being alone. There are other factors that density is associated with including regional accessibility, parking management, diversity of the transport system, and the mix (Litman, 2018). These factors have a profound collective impact.
It is important to clearly understand what density represents when isolated and when viewed in the broader transport perspective detailing associated attributes (otherwise referred to as compact development) (Litman, 2018).
The major impact of land use on transportation can be narrowed down to the level of consumer demand. When there is heightened demand for better accessibility, and multimodal development then the manner in which land is utilized becomes very fundamental. Economic trends and demographics such as dynamic fuel prices, population age, environmental and health concerns, and changing preferences about consumer location can increase the need for better accessibility and multimodal locations (Litman, 2018). This means that better and smart policies about growth will likely lead to better land use policies for transportation (Litman, 2018).
Summary of major impacts of Land-use on transportation
Factor
Definition
Impacts on transportation
Density
These are the jobs or people occupying one unit of land (may be per one hectare or per acre)
Minimizing the travel and ownership of land hence increasing application of alternative movement modes. 10% density increase minimizes Vehicle Miles of Movement (VMT) by between 0.5% and 1%. This is if density is viewed in isolation. The effect is between 1% and 4% is associated factors of mix, and regional accessibility are considered. (Litman, 2018)
Regional Accessibility
This is the development location in relative terms to the urban center in that region
Alleviates the mileage on each vehicle. Residents in more central areas will drive for a 10 per cent to 40 percent lesser distance compared to those living in the fringe areas of the urban area. (Litman, 2018)
Mix
This is the nearness between the different uses of land such as institutional, commercial, and housing land use.
Mix alleviated the travel of vehicles and enhances utilization of alternative methods especially walking. Mixed regions enjoy 5% to 15% lesser use of vehicles. (Litman, 2018)
Network connectivity
This is the level to which roads and walkways are connected
Increased connectivity of the roadway can alleviate vehicle travel, improve the connectivity of walkways and enhance non-motorized movement (Litman, 2018)
Other land use factors affecting transportation includes:
Centeredness: These are the job portions and various other activities that are centrally located in the activity center like downtowns. Centeredness affects has an impact of transportation in that it encourages the use of other transportation modes hence typically increasing the use of alternative transportation modes by between 30% and 60% in the major commercial areas (Litman, 2018). Centeredness reduces dependence on automobiles by between 5% and 15% in dispersed locations.
Transit accessibility and quality is another land use factor. This refers to the quality of access and transit services from the transit point to the destination point. The accessibility and quality of transit increases mobility and alleviated the trips made by automobiles. People living in neighborhoods that utilize transits more have close to 10% to 30% lesser cars and drive lesser miles (Litman, 2018). They also use up to 2 to 10 times more alternatives to automobiles than those living in areas that are oriented to automobile.
5. Conclusion
Smart and integrated growth practices and proper urban planning can be used to ensure prudent land use especially because of scarcity of the land resource and the need to embrace more eco-friendly means of mobility. The transport sector needs to employ prudent planning policies that will ensure that consumers of various modes of transport are acquainted and used to alternative transport modes.
6. Reference page
Litman, T. (2018). Land Use Impacts on Transport: How Land Use Factors Affect Travel Behavior. Victoria Transport Policy Institute (pp. 1–85). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54876-5
Litman, T. (2011). Land Use Impacts on Transport. Management, (August), 1–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54876-5
Litman, T. A. (2009). Evaluating Transportation Land Use Impacts: Considering the Impacts, Benefits and Costs of Different Land Use Development Patterns. World Transport Policy & Practice (Vol. 1, pp. 9–16). https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20046