Untapping the Benefits of Coordinated Transportation and Land Use Patterns

Abstract: One of the most important functions of metropolitan regions and smaller cities is providing convenient, safe, and sustainable transportation access for residents and businesses. Access is influenced by both land use patterns and transportation networks. Unfortunately, land use and transportation planning are often done on separate tracks, each track following differing objectives and employing differing methods and models. The result is suboptimal access, unnecessary cost burdens, and greater environmental impacts. We can see this happening across the country.
Every few years, Hillsborough County, one of the fastest growing jurisdictions in Florida, reassesses the travel demand forecast far into the future to determine which roads to improve and how to best protect rights of way on those roads in a Plan called the Corridor Preservation Plan. For the most recent update, the County initially used a land use forecast based on its currently adopted land use plan. The results were astounding crimpling congestion on nearly every major road. This leads to the creation of an accessibility-based land use scenario, that reimagines organizing future development in existing and new centers along major corridors. The accessibility-based land use scenario is in part based on the economics of the evolution of cities in Hillsborough County. The study of the evolution of cities in Hillsborough County since its establishment in 1824 as the central strategic military post in the Tampa Bay area helped create a future scenario that increases access, promotes sustainable transportation (like walking, biking, and transit), and enhances quality of life by fostering vibrant, livable communities.
The alternative scenario results in noticeably shortened trips, resulting in a forty two percent reduction in congested road segments and a twenty two percent reduction in vehicle miles traveled. Since the transportation sector contributes to more than one-fourth of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and based on some estimates it is nearly half in Hillsborough County. To estimate the greenhouse gas emissions in various iterations of the scenarios a user-friendly vehicle mile traveled (VMT) based greenhouse gas emissions estimation tool developed by Hillsborough County was used.
Lower congestion levels will save the County millions in future road improvements. Lower VMT will reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The County is now working on updating its land use plans to align with the scenario. The presentation will focus on the process of creating an accessibility-based scenario coordinating transportation and land use patterns and the modeling results, creating a Corridor Preservation Plan and the implementation process, and estimating GHG emissions based on VMT by using a user-friendly tool that was developed by Hillsborough County.