Transportation Investments and Urban Form

Abstract

A practical framework is offered for predicting the effects of transportation investments on urban land use patterns. The framework is based on the premise that a key determinant of the value of a parcel of land is its accessibility. Relatively valuable parcels tend to be developed more intensively. Because transportation investments influence the spatial nature of accessibility provided to different land parcels, such investments can substantially influence the evolving pattern of urban land uses. Following a discussion of the conceptual underpinnings of the economic linkages between transportation, accessibility, and land use, two stereotypical types of urban form are explored—polycentric and corridor—and the sorts of transportation investments that would facilitate their development are considered. These illustrative examples are intended to highlight the power of transportation investments as formative mechanisms to produce the sort of spatial structure a community’s residents desire.