The TCDI program is an opportunity for the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) to support local development and redevelopment efforts in the individual municipalities of the Delaware Valley that implement municipal, county, state, and regional planning objectives. The TCDI program is intended to reverse the trends of disinvestment and decline in many of the region's core cities and developed communities by:

1. Supporting local planning projects that will lead to more residential, employment or retail opportunities;

2. Improving the overall character and quality of life within these communities to retain and attract business and residents, which will help to reduce the pressure for further sprawl and expansion into the growing suburbs;

3. Enhancing and utilizing the existing transportation infrastructure capacity in these areas to reduce the demands on the region's transportation network; and

4. Reducing congestion and improving the transportation system's efficiency. FY 2007 TCDI awards have been approved by Board on May 24, 2007.

The TCDI program is intended to assist in reversing the trends of disinvestment and decline in many of the region's core cities and first generation suburbs by:

1. Supporting local planning projects that will lead to more residential, employment or retail opportunities;
2. Improving the overall character and quality of life within these communities to retain and attract business and residents, which will help to reduce the pressure for further sprawl and expansion into the growing suburbs;
3. Enhancing and utilizing the existing transportation infrastructure capacity in these areas to reduce the demands on the region's transportation network; and
4. Reducing congestion and improving the transportation system's efficiency.

Session 282
Monday, January 23, 2006, 10:15 AM - 12:00 PM, Hilton
Transportation and Economic Development
Michael Bell, MEB Associates Inc, presiding

Sponsored by:
Transportation and Economic Development Committee (ADD10)

Sharing the Wealth: Targeting Transportation Funding to Economic Development in Low-Income Communities (06-1677)
Shirley M. Loveless, Coleshill Associates

Highway-Induced Development: Evidence from Sri Lankan Household Sector (06-0202)
Kumudu Gunasekera, Parsons Brinckerhoff
William Anderson, Boston University
T. R. Lakshmanan, Boston University

Stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis Based on Choice Theoretic Approach to Analyze Interaction Between Transportation and Economic Development (06-1208)
Jobair B. Alam, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Konstadinos G. Goulias, University of California, Santa Barbara

Assessing Economic Impacts of Large-Scale Transport Infrastructure Projects: Case of Lyon-Turin Corridor (06-1256)
Wolfgang K. E. Schade, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Germany

Subject Areas:
Transportation Policy

Sharing the Wealth: Targeting Transportation Funding to Economic Development in Low-Income Communities (06-1677)
Shirley M. Loveless, Coleshill Associates

ABSTRACT Economic development benefits are often cited as justification for transportation investments. For a variety of reasons, Federal transportation funds go mainly to large, regional-scale projects with identified regional economic benefits. Local benefits to low-income communities—where they exist—are usually incidental. The transportation and economic development needs of such communities generally get overlooked in transportation project planning. This has led to distributive inequity. A review of state and regional level transportation programs found few that target transportation investments to economic development in disadvantaged communities, either in effect or in stated purpose. The Transportation and Community Development Initiative (TCDI) program administered by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is one of a very small number of such programs. This program is in its fourth year of competitive grants to local municipalities. While the DVRPC’s municipal eligibility criteria for the TCDI now go beyond strictly disadvantaged communities, in order to serve other goals such as regional growth management, the economic development benefits are still aimed primarily at disadvantaged communities. The program can point to some impressive results in local economic revitalization of disadvantaged neighborhoods that probably would not have occurred without the impetus the TCDI provided. On balance, the TCDI program is a good model for integrating transportation and economic development planning for the purpose of reviving disadvantaged communities. However, even TCDI’s emphasis on revitalization of such communities is no guarantee that their inhabitants will benefit from economic development that might be generated by the program’s projects.