Connecting Transportation Decision Making with Responsible Land Use: State and Regional Policies, Programs, and Incentives highlights a growing number of state and regional initiatives aimed at curbing unsustainable land use patterns through the use of targeted transportation funding. Just as a disconnect between transportation decision making and land use planning can develop and continue sprawling urban conditions, the linkage between the two processes can, in contrast, foster responsible growth. This report is intended to provide planning agencies at various levels of government with tools that can be used to strengthen the connection between transportation and land use planning. This report showcases 17 jurisdictions in the United States that have developed policies, programs, and incentives to connect transportation funding with various "smart growth" efforts. These jurisdictions are both state governments and regional planning agencies. The programs reviewed have had varying levels of success and have implemented a range of approaches in order to meet program goals. This variety of approaches shows that there is no single formula for achieving a strong linkage between transportation funding and responsible land use planning. These various approaches show that success in linking transportation planning with land use decision making most likely depends on creating context-specific strategies.

This guide was written as a quick primer for transportation professionals and analysts who assess the impacts of proposed transportation actions on communities. It outlines the community impact assessment process, highlights critical areas that must be examined, identifies basic tools and information sources, and stimulates the thought-process related to individual projects. In the past, the consequences of transportation investments on communities have often been ignored or introduced near the end of a planning process, reducing them to reactive considerations at best. The goals of this primer are to increase awareness of the effects of transportation actions on the human environment and emphasize that community impacts deserve serious attention in project planning and development-attention comparable to that given the natural environment. Finally, this guide is intended to provide some tips for facilitating public involvement in the decision making process.

What is a better community? How can we reconfigure places and transport networks to create environmentally friendly, economically sound, and socially just communities? How can we meet the challenges of growing pollution, depleting fossil fuels, rising gasoline prices, traffic congestion, traffic fatalities, increased prevalence of obesity, and lack of social inclusion? The era of car-based planning has led to the disconnection of people and place in developed countries, and is rapidly doing so in the developing countries of the Global South. The unfolding mega-trend in technological innovation, while adding new patterns of future living and mobility in the cities, will question the relevance of face-to-face connections. What will be the ‘glue’ that holds communities together in the future? To build better communities and to build better cities, we need to reconnect people and places. Connecting Places, Connecting People offers a new paradigm for place making by reordering urban planning principles from prioritizing movement of vehicles to focusing on places and the people who live in them. Numerous case studies, including many from developing countries in the Global South, illustrate how this can be realized or fallen short of in practical terms. Importantly, citizens need to be engaged in policy development, to connect with each other and with government agencies. To measure the connectivity attributes of places and the success of strategies to meet the needs, an Audit Tool is offered for a continual quantitative and qualitative evaluation.

The interface between land use management and transportation planning represents probably the most important spatial impact in sustainable land use, mobility and transportation development. Prior to this book, only limited attempts have been made to integrate these topics as to enhance smart growth and sustainable development principles within spatial systems. The approach followed differs internationally and specifically between different planning and transportation authorities. The spatial impacts of land use and transportation serve as the main catalyst in urban form, development and its associated problems. These impacts represent severe consequences from a built and environmental development perspective. All of these are covered in the book and its supporting chapters. The focus of the book is the application of best practice principles in managing the interface between land use management and transportation planning. Internationally the practice is the promotion of more sustainable urban and rural forms supported by improved levels of accessibility through the application of smart growth and sustainability principles. The focus however remains to successfully optimise land use and transportation integration. The structuring used within each of the chapters provide the reader with the basic and applicable theory and practical knowledge to attain system wide integration and sustainability within the dynamics of spatial and transportation systems. The inclusion of specific theme related case studies endorses the relevancy of this book’s topic.

NCHRP Report 582 explores how to integrate land use and transportation in rural communities. The report also highlights programs and investment strategies designed to support community development and livability while providing adequate transportation capacity.