Does Compact Development Increase or Reduce Congestion?

Authors

Reid Ewing, University of Utah

Sponsor

This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, or NITC, a program of TREC at Portland State University.

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

10-2017

Subjects

Urban transportation -- United States, Transportation planning, Traffic congestion -- Management

Abstract

The net effects of sprawl or compact development on area-wide traffic congestion have been a subject of debate among transportation researchers.

This project aims to settle the debate using:

• Congestion data from the Texas Transportation Institute’s Urban Mobility Scorecard database;
• Compactness/sprawl metrics developed at the University of Utah.

Compact development may help at the margin, but the greatest reduction in congestion appears to be achieved through expansion of surface streets and higher highway user fees.

Description

This is a summary of TREC research report NITC-RR-912, from the NITC program of TREC at Portland State University, and can be found online at: http://trec.pdx.edu/research/project/1020/

Final Report NITC-RR-912 can be found at http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22678.

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22680

Recommended Citation

Ewing, Reid. Does Compact Development Increase or Reduce Congestion? Project Brief NITC-RR-1020. Portland, OR: Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), 2017.