Sponsor
This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, or NITC, a program of TREC at Portland State University. We also would like to acknowledge partial support from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) under grant number (1020) and the Utah Department of Transportation (16.05.03).
Document Type
Report
Publication Date
10-2017
Subjects
Urban transportation -- United States, Transportation planning, Traffic congestion -- Management
Abstract
From years of research, we know that compact development that is dense, diverse, well-designed, etc. produces fewer vehicle miles traveled (VMT) than sprawling development. But compact development also concentrates origins and destinations. No one has yet determined, using credible urban form metrics and credible congestion data, the net effect of these countervailing forces on area-wide congestion. Using compactness/sprawl metrics developed for the National Institutes of Health, and congestion data from the Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI’s) Urban Mobility Scorecard Annual Report database, this study seeks to determine which opposing point of view of sprawl and congestion is correct. It does so by (1) measuring compactness, congestion and control variables using the best national data available for U.S. urbanized areas and (2) relating these variables to one another using multivariate methods to determine whether compactness is positively or negatively related to congestion. Our model (and earlier studies by the same authors) suggest that an increase in compactness reduces the amount of driving people do, but also concentrates the driving in smaller areas. The former effect is slightly larger than the latter. The relationship between compactness and congestion falls short of statistical significance at the conventional 0.05 level. This analysis does not support the idea that sprawl acts as a “traffic safety valve,” as some have claimed. However, it also does not support the reverse idea that compact development offers a one-stop solution to congestion, as others have claimed. Developing in a more compact manner may help at the margin, but the greatest reduction in congestion appears to be achievable through expansion of surface streets and higher highway user fees.
DOI
10.15760/trec.187
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22678
Recommended Citation
Reid Ewing, Guang Tian, and Torrey Lyons. Does Compact Development Increase or Reduce Traffic Congestion? NITC-RR-1020. Portland, OR: Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), 2017. https://doi.org/10.15760/trec.187
Description
This is a final report, NITC-RR-1020, from the NITC program of TREC at Portland State University, and can be found online at: http://nitc.trec.pdx.edu/research/project/1020.
The Project Brief associated with this report can be accessed at http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/22680.