This report describes the various costs and benefits of different land use patterns, including the opportunity cost of land used for roads and parking facilities, accessibility and transportation costs, costs of providing public services, neighborhood livability and community cohesion, greenspace and habitat, preservation of cultural resources, energy consumption and pollution emissions, housing affordability, pedestrian conditions, aesthetic impacts, and equity impacts.

Abstract

This paper examines how transportation decisions affect land use, and the economic, social and environmental impacts that result. It discusses how automobile use encourages sprawl, and how alternative transportation modes can support Smart Growth. It describes various costs and benefits of different land use patterns, including the opportunity cost of land used for roads and parking facilities, accessibility and transportation costs, costs of providing public services, neighborhood livability and community cohesion, greenspace and habitat, preservation of cultural resources, energy consumption and pollution emissions, housing affordability, pedestrian conditions, aesthetic impacts, and equity impacts. Most of these costs tend to increase with automobile use and sprawl, and decline with TDM and Smart Growth. Current transportation planning practices tend to overlook many of these land use impacts, particularly those that are indirect, long-term and nonmarket, which biases planning decisions toward increased automobile use and sprawl, and undervalues TDM and Smart Growth. This paper describes specific methods for incorporating these land use impacts in transportation and land use planning.

A shorter version of this paper was published as "Land Use Impact Costs of Transportation," World Transport Policy & Practice, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1995, pp. 9-16.

Further Reading:

Evaluating Transportation Land Use Impacts