Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

A Pathway Linking Smart Growth Neighborhoods To Home-Based Pedestrian Travel, Steven R. Gehrke, Kelly J. Clifton

PSU Transportation Seminars

Land development patterns, urban design, and transportation system features are inextricably linked to pedestrian travel. Accordingly, planners and decision-makers have turned to integrated transportation-land use policies and investments to address the pressing need for improvements in physical activity levels via the creation of walkable communities. However, policy questions regarding the identification of smart growth indicators and their connection to walking remain unanswered, because most studies of the built environment determinants of pedestrian travel: (a) represent the built environment with isolated metrics instead of as a multidimensional construct and (b) model this transportation-land use relationship outside of a multidirectional analytic framework. …

An Activity-Related Land Use Mix Construct And Its Connection To Pedestrian Travel, Steven R. Gehrke

PSU Transportation Seminars

Land use mix is a central smart growth principle connected to active transportation. This presentation describes the indicators of local land use mixing and their association with pedestrian travel in Oregon’s Willamette River Valley. It argues that land use mix is a multidimensional construct reflected by the complementarity, composition, and configuration of land use types, which is positively linked to walk mode choice and home-based trip frequency. Findings from this study underline the conceptual and empirical benefit of analyzing this transportation-land use interaction with a landscape pattern measure of activity-related composition and spatial configuration.

The presentation for this seminar was …

The Importance Of Housing, Accessibility, And Transport Characteristic Ratings On Stated Neighborhood Preference, Kristina Marie Currans

PSU Transportation Seminars

Travel demand models commonly lack the ability to understand how changing residential preferences influence future housing, land use, and transportation policies. As communities struggle to address social challenges related to increased economic uncertainty, transportation and land use planning have become increasingly centered on assumptions concerning the market for residential environments and travel choices. In response, an added importance has been placed on the development of toolkits capable of providing robust and flexible models to aid in understanding how differing assumptions contribute to a set of planning scenarios and how future residential location decisions may be made.

In this study, we …

Effects Of Comprehensive Plan Amendments On Interchange Traffic In Oregon, James G. Strathman, Thomas J. Kimpel, Paul Roland Leistner, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In this paper we examine the effects of amendments to local comprehensive plans on interchange performance. Plan amendments over a 15-year period in Oregon resulting in changes to industrial or commercial land use were reviewed to identify those that occurred within one mile of an interchange. Regression analysis was then performed to estimate the impact of nearby plan amendments on subsequent interchange ADT. Plan amendments were found to have a substantial ADT effect on rural interchanges, but their incidence was very limited. In urban core areas, the estimated effect of plan amendments was negligible, possibly due to interchange congestion or …

Land Use And Growth Impacts From Highway Capacity Increases, Thomas W. Sanchez

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This analysis examined the historical relationship between land use changes and the location of capacity increasing highway projects in the State of Oregon from 1970 to 1990. Aerial photography for 18 cities was used to delineate the extent of urban development in each time period. A geographic information system (GIS) was used to assemble the data. Using this data, a logit regression model tested the significance of geographic variables such as proximity to highway projects, land use zoning classification, city size, and other spatial characteristics. The analytical methods used in this study incorporated a set of commonly used techniques to …