LUTRAQ
The Land Use Transportation Air Quality (LUTRAQ) project began in 1988 as a response to a proposed highway in the Portland, Oregon area. The project sought to respond to continued patterns of sprawl and highway construction by defining an alternative land use and transportation strategy designed to accommodate suburban housing and commercial markets, but with less dependence on automotive transportation. After several years of hard work, the highway was taken off the books, ensuring that there will be no beltway, in the near future, through some of the most productive farmland in Oregon. 1000 Friends of Oregon's alternate plan proposed a mixture of innovative land use and transportation measures to protect open spaces, forests, farmland, and air quality while meeting market demands for suburban styles of development. The project challenged the merits of conventional auto-oriented development and documented the benefits of development built on a human scale and oriented towards alternative forms of transportation.
The LUTRAQ project produced 11 technical reports on such topics as the market feasibility of transportation oriented development, transportation and land use modeling, and urban design. These reports reflect research on topics that were not commonly found in classic planning practice at the project’s outset. Some of these topics include the transportation impacts of pedestrian oriented design, travel behavior in transit oriented developments, the impact of land use mixing on trip production and mode choice, the value of small-scale site design choices in promoting non-automobile travel, and the ability of land use changes to increase the viability of transit operations in suburban areas.
The project’s primary objective was to provide an alternate land use and transportation plan for Washington County, Oregon, the county through which the highway would have passed. The project’s secondary objective, however, was to promote alternative, less-auto dependent suburban development patterns across the country. This report documents what is happening in towns and cities in other areas of the country that are developing or promoting LUTRAQ-like projects. For many of these regions, LUTRAQ has been the goal to shoot for, "the gold standard" as one activist put it. In other places, LUTRAQ has served as an example of a community trying to come to terms with increasing traffic and decreasing quality of life and public finances. In either case, the efforts outlined here show that citizens across the country are beginning to recognize the benefits from making the land use, transportation, and air quality connection.
The federal government is beginning to recognize these benefits as well. The new Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century (TEA-21) provides the United States Department Of Transportation (USDOT) with $120 million over six years to distribute grants to local non-profits, private-sector parties, local agencies and Metropolitan Planning Organizations that are interested in pursuing planning strategies that emphasize an integration of transportation and land use. The program, titled the Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot program, cites potential projects including the adoption of urban growth boundaries, transportation options which minimize effects on the environment, transit oriented development and traffic calming. LUTRAQ was cited as a major influence on the legislation and a pioneering project in the field of planning.
Maine The state also has what some call a "mini ISTEA" bill in the Sensible Transportation Policy Act which encourages transit use, ride sharing programs, and engineering options that might reduce single occupant vehicles on the road. Although it lacks enforcement provisions and funding sources, local activists say the act has created a shift in the culture and thought processes within the Maine DOT.
Fox River Valley, Illinois LUTSFOX Washington D.C. The Inter County Connector The draft Environmental Impact Statement produced in April of 1997 by the Maryland State Highway Administration and Federal Highway Administration, predicted that the ICC would not relieve congestion on any existing roads, but that it would increase vehicle miles traveled, cause congestion to worsen, and increase traffic on major arterials. Activists in the region sought out the assistance of 1000 Friends of Oregon to help the community find alternatives that would produce better results on transportation and environmental measures compared to the construction of a freeway.
"A New Approach" is a collaborative project produced by the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities that suggests efficient use of the region's transportation system and innovative approaches to developing in the future. It symbolizes the beginning of the community's effort to form an alternative of their own to stop sprawl and auto-dependent development. It uses ideas very similar to those proposed by the LUTRAQ project, such as transportation oriented development, pedestrian-friendly environments, and investments in mass transit and bicycle and pedestrian paths. It also incorporates the theory of compact centers where people can work and live, while maintaining large open spaces, farmlands, and forests between the centers.
These options are being championed by a new organization in Montgomery County called the Citizens Planning Association. The Association’s first report, called The Citizens' Alternative, suggests a specific approach to solving the ICC dilemma that involves the connection of land use, transportation, and air quality. The report is intended to provide government planners with alternative transportation and land use measures that might be incorporated into county plans, thereby moving the region towards attainment of its goal for sustainable growth.
In March of 1998, the Inter County Connector, after considerable debate, was abandoned when the Governor of Maryland reversed his longtime support, saying the region needed to find new alternatives to solve the state's traffic problem. The governor has since convened a blue-ribbon committee–called the Transportation Solutions Group–to consider alternatives to the ICC, including strategies that focus on the integration of land use and transit. This panel will look at Portland and its choice to implement alternative measures and not to build a highway.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Environmental Defense Fund have also been active in transportation and land use issues in the D.C. region, and have jointly produced A Network of Livable Communities. This report predicts what the Washington D.C. metropolitan area might look like under a long range plan that focuses future growth into transportation oriented development patterns. Like LUTRAQ, the Network report suggests that growth could be better accommodated not by freeway expansion, but by encouraging the use of innovative transportation and community designs across the region. Once implemented, these measures would result in dramatic declines in vehicle miles traveled, the number of vehicle trips made, and vehicle hours of travel, thereby producing an increase in average highway speeds, a reduction of air pollution, and less reliance on the automobile. Realization of these benefits "would require combining pragmatic pricing reforms with transit service improvements, transit-oriented development, the curtailing of growth in areas where people have no travel choices but the car, and significantly improving conditions for walking, bicycling, local access to public transportation.
"Virginia Rural Route 50 In 1994, the Virginia Department of Transportation proposed two multi-lane bypasses to the scenic roadway. The new facilities would bypass two of the villages on Route 50, thereby allowing commuters to drive at higher speeds around each village.
With the specter of further sprawl threatening, local residents feared construction of the bypasses would only encourage additional out-migration from the city. Initial community interest for diverting speedy traffic quickly turned into full-scale opposition.
As an alternative to the proposed facilities, citizens developed an award-winning plan for traffic calming along the historic route. The plan stresses safety, economy, and historic awareness along the highway by making considerable aesthetic and safety improvements. It calls for redesigning the road in three villages to add landscaped medians, raised intersections, crosswalks, and mini-traffic circles that cause traffic to slow down.
Not building the bypasses and actually slowing traffic down is not a popular idea in the state DOT, but local citizens believe the costs of the bypasses exceed the benefits. While formal decisions about the future of the proposed bypasses have yet to be made, the story of how the communities along Route 50 came together to find solutions for people and not cars is a compelling one.
Minnesota St. Paul/Minneapolis The Metropolitan Council has also developed a long range growth strategy for the Twin Cities region called the Metro 2040 plan. Metro 2040 calls for future development in the region to be more compact, encourages a revitalization of the urban core, and concentrates job development in core areas and along transit routes.
Another metro area law aimed at improving growth patterns and reducing auto dependence gives tax breaks to businesses for citing commercial and industrial developments near transit lines. Businesses locating new facilities, or making improvements on existing structures, within a quarter mile of a high frequency bus route receive property tax reductions between 12 to 15 percent. By providing this tax incentive the Twin Cities' leaders hope to encourage not only transit use, but also a concentration of industry within the urban area.
Denver, Colorado
In March 1997, the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) adopted the Metro Vision 2020 Plan, a comprehensive document incorporating plans for growth, transportation, and water quality. The plan is meant to curb unnecessary conversion of open space, forests, and farm land into urban uses. The plan also promotes urban centers with densities higher than the regional average to serve as transit destinations with residential, employment, and retail uses. Metro Vision 2040 also includes a framework for a multi-modal transportation system. The plan suggests expansion of public transit, bikeways, bus, and pedestrian systems.
An essential part of the plan is the establishment of an urban growth boundary (UGB), surrounding an area 700 square miles in size. This is substantially smaller than the area slated for development under pre-existing local government plans. However, through a voluntary and collaborative process local governments were able to hammer out an agreement, paring down the amount of urbanizable land to the 700 square-mile level.
Aspen, Colorado San Francisco Bay Area The land use component of the plan promotes "COMUTO" (compact, mixed use, transit-oriented) development to accommodate new growth in areas around major transit stops. The plan’s pricing reform focuses on “cash-out” of free parking, a policy that gives employees the option to take the cash value of their "free" parking if they chose not to use it. The transportation aspect assumes the same level of expenditures as the regional transportation agency’s plan, but transfers the focus to public transportation instead of building highways.
Traverse City, Michigan Citizens in the region are becoming increasingly concerned that the bypass would not solve traffic problems in the long run, but would likely encourage sprawl. In response, a coalition of citizen groups has come together to create its own alternative to the highway. The alternative includes recommended changes to local zoning ordinances to focus future land uses in the region’s historic core and to implement new design standards for crosswalks, roads and bridges. It also promotes expansion of the public transportation system and improvements to bicycle and pedestrian systems.
Anchorage, Alaska The city is fortunate in that sprawling development is limited by the natural geography of the area. With this limited amount of land to be developed, builders have avoided steep slopes on the outskirts of town, and been more apt to look towards the inner-city to redevelop brownfields and run-down areas. The draft plan strives to discourage strip development while promoting downtown as a mixed-use center that fulfills many needs. It also calls for an expansion of public transit and a focus on friendly environments for pedestrians and bicyclists. If this plan is successful, Anchorage will be less reliant on marginal lands, have more transportation choices, better air quality and a thriving downtown.
Utah's Greater Wasatch Area Many groups in the area are pushing for a more integrated approach to addressing growth management, land use, transportation, and air quality dilemmas. The primary focus for these efforts is through Envision Utah, a unique public/private study process assessing the environmental, transportation, air quality, and fiscal impacts of current growth trends and various alternative scenarios. These scenarios paint a wide range of growth options, from one that is even more sprawling than current plans anticipate, to various methods and degrees of more compact development. From these scenarios, the public will select a desired future. Workshops held by Envision Utah to date show a strong preference for the more compact alternatives.
Chicago, Illinois
Since the passage of its statewide growth management program in 1988, Maine has taken a number of steps towards containing urban sprawl. In the fall of 1991, the people of Maine voted to pass an innovative transportation policy. The ballot initiative came about in response to a proposed $100 million widening of the Maine Turnpike. Approval of the measure not only stopped the plan for widening the Turnpike, but also requires future projects to consider "reasonable alternatives to highway construction." The resulting transportation rule recognizes that motorized transportation relies on nonrenewable resources and promotes the pursuit of alternatives to the single-passenger automobile. In response, many communities across the state have developed comprehensive land use plans to help decide where and how to grow.
The (Land Use Transportation Strategies for the Fox Valley Corridor) study was commissioned by the DuPage County Regional Planning Commission (DCRPC) in response to a proposed new north/south highway through the county. The study was meant to provide a variety of alternatives that would focus on the effects of land use on transportation and provide a solution to growing suburban traffic. LUTSFOX looked at the potential effects of transportation demand management, transit oriented development, light rail, and widening existing roadways. The study recommended that the new highway not be built but that near-term transportation needs be met by widening existing roads and that long-term needs be met, at least in part, by pursuing a combination transportation demand management strategies, transit oriented development practices, and transit system expansion. The need for further study of these latter approaches was identified.
Nearly 30 years ago, the planning authorities in the Washington D.C. area proposed a major beltway around the metropolitan area that would, in theory, alleviate traffic problems. The Inter County Connector (ICC) was planned in combination with other proposed freeways that would have formed a ring around the city to help people avoid congestion in the city. In fact, this highway would have more likely increased sprawl, worsened air pollution, and forced people to become even more dependent on the automobile. The proposed highways and the sprawl they inherently encourage, would have imposed huge costs to taxpayers for the construction of the 6- to 12- lane highways, as well as considerable infrastructure costs to the county. The highways would have destroyed farms, forests, streams, and pulled resources and residents from existing towns. At over $1 billion, the ICC would have been the first of three expensive highways that would fail to address long term land use, transportation, and air quality dilemmas. Because of citizen activists, the ICC has yet to be built.
Virginia’s Rural Route 50 was first surveyed by George Washington. It winds through a number of historic battlefields and charming villages, and supports an economy based on agriculture, tourism, and local businesses. Washington D.C., however, lies only 25 miles to the east and suburban sprawl is quickly closing in on this area.
In 1997, Minnesota became one of the few states to implement a state-wide growth management plan. The law, known as the Community-Based Planning Act (CBPA), encourages all local governments to adopt land use plans consistent with eleven statewide goals, including one on transportation. The transportation goal attempts to change the focus of transportation planning from automobile convenience and domination to the movement of people and goods while maximizing the efficient use of the existing infrastructure. It also encourages the use of 'appropriate' public transportation systems in conjunction with transit supportive land use planning and design standards. In return for planning within CBPA guidelines, communities receive state funding for planning related activities.
The Twin Cities region took a significant step toward curtailing sprawl and promoting non-auto transportation options when it adopted its Metropolitan Urban Service Area boundary in 1984. By indicating which areas will be provided with urban services, the boundary effectively limits the extent to which growth spreads beyond currently urbanized areas. The Metropolitan Council, which governs the seven county region, designed the law not to prevent suburban development, but to assist planners in directing growth to certain areas. Since its inception, the Urban Service Area has expanded by less than twelve percent, adding approximately 60,000 acres to the urban area.
For many years now, Aspen, Colorado has been perplexed about how to deal with traffic coming into their town. In the winter months the only road into town is through the Roaring Fork Valley--which puts Aspen at the end of a box canyon. The most congested section of the valley is a four-mile section of highway between the airport and downtown, and it has motivated the community to look into alternative forms of transportation. The most popular alternative involves a mix of light rail transit, bike and pedestrian improvements, as well as some road improvements along the corridor. Under the new federal transportation bill, TEA-21, the light rail project in Aspen stands to receive $40 million in federal funds and is one of only 51 projects nationally to receive a high priority status for funding.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, citizen activists dissatisfied with the normal, highway-based transportation planning process produced their own regional transportation plan. Organized as the Regional Alliance for Transit (RAFT), the citizens developed "Land Use and Transportation: Envisioning Regional Sustainability," a plan combining land use changes, pricing reform, and a shift of funds from new freeway construction to public transit.
Voters in the Traverse City area rejected the idea for constructing a highway bypass over a decade ago. The Grand Traverse County Road Commission has, nevertheless, spent over $1 million since then studying the bypass and is still proposing it as a solution to the region's traffic problems. If built, the new highway would bisect a valley greenway, opening it up for development.
The new comprehensive master plan for the town of Anchorage shows that planners in all regions of the country are beginning to realize the benefits of an integrated approach to growth management. This Alaskan city is looking to plan ahead 20 years in a manner that will allow its citizens to be less dependent on the automobile with a subtle focus on land use and transportation.
If current trends in population and development continue along the Wasatch Front, Salt Lake City may become the next Los Angeles. Utah is now the sixth most urban state in the country. Eighty percent of its population is clustered around the Wasatch Mountains in a narrow hundred mile-long strip. If present trends continue, however, the amount of urbanized land in area is expected to double in the first part of the next century. Fostering this expansion is the region's Long Range Transportation Plan, which calls for billions of dollars to be spent in the next two decades, primarily for expansion of the region’s road and highway network.
The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority and Illinois DOT plan to spend $1 billion on the an extension of Route 53, northwest of Chicago. Opponents of the extension are promoting an alternative that would expand the area’s existing arterials in accordance with the region’s long-range transportation plan. The technical analysis supporting the alternative predicts that this less-intensive option will result in less sprawl and less traffic congestion than if the tollway expansion were built.
