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Nothing inherent in the discipline steers planners either toward environmental protection or toward economic development - or toward a third goal of planning: social equity. Instead, planners work within the tension generated among these 3 fundamental aims, which is called the planner's triangle, with sustainable development at the center. This center cannot be reached directly, but only approximately and indirectly, through a sustained period of confronting and resolving the triangle's conflicts. To do so, planners have to redefine sustainability, since its current formulation romanticizes the sustainable past and is too vaguely holistic. Planners would benefit from integrating social theory with environmental thinking and from combining their substantive skills with techniques for community conflict resolution, to confront economic and environmental justice.
Residential Relocation and Changes in Urban Travel.
Journal of the American Planning Association; Summer2003, Vol. 69 Issue 3, p265, 17p, 4 charts, 1 graph, 3 maps, 1bw
- Abstract:
- This article presents an empirical Study of the relationship between neighborhood-scale urban form and travel behavior. It focuses on households who relocate within the Central Puget Sound region to determine if they change their travel behavior when they move from one neighborhood type to another. Regression models are used to predict change in travel behavior as a function of change in neighborhood accessibility, controlling for changes in life cycle, regional accessibility, and workplace accessibility. The study is unique in that it analyzes the travel behavior of the same households in a longitudinal manner in concert with detailed urban form measures. The findings suggest that households change travel behavior when exposed to differing urban forms. In particular, locating to areas with higher neighborhood accessibility decreases vehicle miles traveled
Metropolitan areas have come under intense pressure to respond to federal mandates to link planning of land use, transportation and environmental quality; and from citizen concerns about managing the side effects of growth such as sprawl, congestion, housing affordability and loss of open space. The planning models used by metropolitan planning organizations are generally not designed to address these issues, creating a gap in the ability of planners to systematically assess them. UrbanSim is a new model system that was developed to respond to these emerging requirements and is now been applied in three metropolitan areas. This article describes the model system and is application to Eugene-Springfield, Oregon.
Authors: Brody, Samuel D.
Godschalk, David R.
Burby, Raymond J.
Source: Journal of the American Planning Association; Summer2003, Vol. 69 Issue 3, p245, 20p, 12 charts
Abstract: In addition to requiring that local governments plan for and manage urban development, state growth management laws require that citizens be given an opportunity to participate in the local planning process. In this article, we examine the strengths and weaknesses of citizen involvement mandates and the degree to which mandates and related local planning practices have resulted in broader citizen participation in plan making. We show that mandates do indeed affect local government attention to citizen involvement and that the choices planners make in crafting citizen involvement programs do affect the resulting level of public participation. Based on these results, we make suggestions for improving the efficacy of state growth management legislation and local planning practice directed toward enhancing citizen involvement in local planning.
Authors: Burby, Raymond J.
May, Peter J.
Paterson, Robert C.
Source: Journal of the American Planning Association; Summer98, Vol. 64 Issue 3, p324, 11p, 5 charts
Abstract: Focuses on planning and development management programs, while examining the critical choices planning administrators must make to improve compliance. Details on the problems associated with compliance; Reference to a survey which was conducted in the United States; What the results of the survey suggested.
Authors: Dalton, Linda C.
Burby, Raymond J.
Source: Journal of the American Planning Association; Autumn94, Vol. 60 Issue 4, p444, 18p, 9 charts, 2 diagrams
Abstract: Investigates how states in America influence development management. Local plans; State policies; Land use controls; State objectives; Planning mandates.
Authors: Sanchez, Thomas W.
Source: Journal of the American Planning Association; Summer99, Vol. 65 Issue 3, p284, 13p, 5 charts, 2 graphs, 1 map
Abstract: Much attention is being paid to the role of public transit in employment-related mobility for urban residents, yet there is very little evidence of the degree to which one affects the other. Little research has focused on how labor participation is affected by increases in urban workers' access to public transportation. Research on the spatial mismatch hypothesis has dealt with the relationship between labor participation and the spatial separation of workers' residences from suitable jobs; however, most analyses concentrate on commuting time or distance as a function of auto use. Few studies have considered the impacts of public transportation on labor participation. This article describes a study analyzing the locations and employment characteristics of workers with varying levels of access to public transit. Using census data and a variety of spatial measures generated by a geographic information system (GIS), a two-stage least squares regression was used to estimate the relationship of access to public transit with labor participation levels for Portland, Oregon, and Atlanta, Georgia. The results suggest that access to public transit is a significant factor in determining average rates of labor participation within these two cities.
Susan Handy. American Planning Association. Journal of the American Planning Association. Chicago: Summer 2006.Vol.72, Iss. 3; pg. 274, 5 pgs
Abstract -
Americans gain tremendous benefits from their driving in the form of access to opportunities. But the benefits do not come without burdens, for individuals and for society. To manage those burdens, transportation planners should focus on strategies that selectively reduce driving in two ways: by making it possible to drive less through land use policies and investments in non-auto infrastructure, and by discouraging less important driving with pricing policies. But merely layering a "drive less" approach on top of traditional efforts to make driving easier doesn't make sense. A more effective blend of strategies is needed.
Letter to the Editor
Peter Gordon. American Planning Association.
Journal of the American Planning Association.
Chicago: Spring 2006.Vol.72, Iss. 2; pg. 244, 1 pgs
...
...Most American suburbs do devote vast areas of land to free parking. Minimum parking requirements have created an accidental land reserve for housing right where we need it most. If cities reduce or remove the off-street parking requirements in their zoning ordinances, owners of shopping malls and office parks will probably find that some of their land makes a far more valuable site for housing than for parking. Building apartments and condominiums on underused parking lots at suburban employment centers, for example, will allow offices and housing to share parking, increase the housing supply, reduce housing prices, and provide real jobs-housing balance. Providing housing close to jobs will also reduce vehicle travel, energy use, traffic congestion, and air pollution. Converting free parking spaces into valuable housing sites can contribute to solving multiple urban problems for many years to come. But first cities must reduce or remove off-street parking requirements in their zoning codes.
Jonathan Levine.
American Planning Association. Journal of the American Planning Association. Chicago:
Spring 1998.Vol.64, Iss. 2; pg. 133, 17 pgs
Abstract (Document Summary)-
Through estimation of a discrete choice model of residential location, this study argues that commute time remains a dominant determinant of residential location at the regional scale, and that provision of affordable housing near employment concentrations can influence residential location decisions for low-to-moderate-income, single-worker households. However, the significance of jobs-hunting balance is not in reducing congestion; even when successful, such policies will have little impact on average travel speeds. Rather, the relaxation of suburban regulation that could lead to improved matches between home and workplace is seen as enhancing the range of households' choices about residence and transportation.