Corridor Approaches to Integrating Transportation and Land Use

Abstract

Transportation agencies nationwide are under pressure to help address a wider range of transportation issues than ever before in the United States. Many of them extend beyond traditional state department of transportation (DOT) activities and span of control. There is an interconnection between transportation and land use that the public and local decision makers do not often see. Yet the public frequently holds DOTs responsible for solving transportation problems resulting from local and regional land use decisions and preferred development patterns. The objective of this research is to identify and explore successful innovations in integrating transportation and land use planning for transportation corridors, with a focus on practices that could be transferred to other locations. A case study approach was used to identify projects that integrated, rather than merely linked, land use and transportation planning and decision making. This paper summarizes six case studies: Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, Illinois; Envision Utah and the Mountain View Environmental Impact Statement, Utah; Gateway Route 1, Maine; NJFIT: Future in Transportation, New Jersey; UnJAM 2025 and Places29, Virginia; and MetroVision and Blueprint Denver, Colorado. The paper also analyzes practices and lessons learned, highlighting common themes among the case studies.