Healthy Community Planning Best Practices

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Healthy Community Planning Best Practices

• Todd Litman
• Victoria Transport Policy Institute
• Presented at the
• Perth, Australia
• 27 March 2009

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Greetings From Victoria, BC
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Creating Paradise

• Paradise is not a distant destination, it is
  something we create in our own communities.

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Sustainable Planning

• Sustainability emphasizes the integrated
  nature of human activities and therefore the need
  to coordinate planning among different sectors,
  jurisdictions and groups.

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Wealth Versus Happiness
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Preventing Problems

• Sustainability planning is to development
  what preventive medicine is to health it
  anticipates and manages problems rather than
  waiting for crises to develop.

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Paradigm Shifts

• Growth - expanding, doing more.
• ?
• Development - improving, doing better.

• Mobility - physical movement.
• ?
• Accessibility - obtaining desired goods, services
  and activities.

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Resource Sustainability

• Would we have a sustainable transportation
  system if all automobiles were solar powered?

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Past Visions of Future Transport
1958 Firebird
1949 ConvAIRCAR Flying Car
Supersonic Concord
Segways
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2001 A Space Odyssey
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Wheeled Luggage
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Trends Supporting Multi-Modalism

• Motor vehicle saturation.
• Aging population.
• Rising fuel prices.
• Increased urbanization.
• Increased traffic and parking congestion.
• Rising roadway construction costs and declining
  economic return from increased roadway capacity.
• Environmental concerns.
• Health Concerns

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OECD Travel Trends
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International Mode Split
(Bassett, et al. 2008)
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The Population is Aging
1990
2050
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Urbanization

• Between the 1940s and 1980s the population
  became more suburbanized. Now, about half of
  North Americans live in suburbs.

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Value of Highway Expansion

• When the highway system was being developed in
  the 1950s and 60s it provided high returns on
  investment. Now that the system is mature,
  economic returns have declined.

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Transit Auto Growth Trends
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Optimal Modal Split
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Tradeoffs

• Automobile-oriented improvements often degrade
  active transportation conditions. Undervaluing
  nonmotorized transport tends to bias planning
  decisions toward automobile dependency and away
  from multi-modal accessibility.

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What is The Transportation Problem?

• Traffic congestion?
• Road construction costs?
• Parking congestion or costs?
• Excessive costs to consumers?
• Traffic crashes?
• Lack of mobility for non-drivers?
• Poor freight services?
• Environmental impacts?
• Inadequate physical activity?
• Others?

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Current Transport Planning

• Current planning tends to be reductionist
  each problem is assigned to a single agency with
  narrowly defined responsibilities. For example
• Transport agencies deal with congestion.
• Environmental agencies deal with pollution.
• Welfare agencies deal with the needs of
  disadvantaged people.
• Public health agencies are concerned with
  community fitness.
• Etc.

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Reductionist Decision-Making

• Reductionist planning can result in public
  agencies implementing solutions to one problem
  that exacerbate other problems facing society,
  and tends to undervalue strategies that provide
  multiple but modest benefits.

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Win-Win Solutions

• Put another way, more comprehensive planning
  helps identify Win-Win strategies solutions to
  one problem that also help solve other problems
  facing society.

• Ask
• Which congestion-reduction strategy also
  reduces parking costs, saves consumers money, and
  improves mobility options for non-drivers.

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Comparing Benefits
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Travel Impacts - Benefits
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Comparing Costs
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Conventional Evaluation

• Generally Considered
• Congestion impacts.
• Vehicle operating costs.
• Per-mile crash impacts.
• Per-mile pollution emissions.

• Often Overlooked
• Downstream congestion.
• Parking costs.
• Vehicle ownership costs.
• Crash, energy pollution impacts of changes in
  mileage.
• Land use impacts.
• Impacts on mobility options for
  non-drivers/equity impacts.
• Changes in active transport and related health
  impacts.

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Comparing Costs
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Conventional Transport Indicators

• Roadway Level-of-Service (LOS)
• Average traffic speeds.
• Per capita congestion delay.
• Parking occupancy rates.
• Traffic fatalities per billion vehicle-miles.
• Traffic fatalities per 100,000 population.

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Multi-Modal Level-Of-Service (LOS)
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Walking Tends to be Undercounted

• Difficult to measure
• Short distances
• Used by disenfranchised populations
• Low cost
• Lack of respect

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What Mode is Most Important?

• Conventional transport evaluation indicates
  that automobile travel is far more important than
  active transportation, providing 15 times as many
  person-trips and 50 times as many person-miles.
• From this perspective, walking and cycling
  are minor modes of travel, and so deserves only
  modest public support.

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Counting All Walking

• If, instead of asking, What portion of trips
  are only by active transport? We ask, What
  portion of trips involve some active transport?
  the portion of active transport typically
  increases 2-6 times.

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Mode Split Trips (UK Data)
A small portion of distance but a large portion
of trips
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Nonmotorized Evaluation

• To their credit, many planners support
  greater investment in nonmotorized planning than
  their evaluation tools justify. They intuitively
  know that walking and cycling are important in
  ways that are difficult to measure.
• Better active transportation evaluation
  methods are need to justify even more
  nonmotorized improvements.

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Benefit Categories
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Direct and Indirect Impacts

• Direct impacts passenger-mile shifted from
  automobile to transit.
• Indirect impacts transit-oriented land use
  leverages reductions in per capita vehicle
  ownership and use, and increases in per capita
  walking and transit ridership.

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Transportation Health Impacts
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Traffic Fatality Rates

• When crash rates are measured per vehicle
  mile, they declined significantly, but when
  measured per capita they show relatively little
  decline due to increased per capita vehicle
  mileage.

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U.S. Crash Rates
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Traffic Fatalities
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International Traffic Death Rates
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Safety Benefits
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Fatality Rates
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Smart Growth Safety Impacts
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Physical Fitness and Health

• Transit and walking and complementary. People
  who ride transit tend to walk more, and are more
  likely to achieve the basic amount of physical
  activity (about 20 minutes daily) required for
  health.

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Daily Walking Trips
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Obesity Rates Veruss Mode Split
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Community Livability Cohesion

• Community Livability refers to the
  environmental and social quality of an area as
  perceived by residents, employees, customers and
  visitors.
• Community Cohesion refers to the quantity and
  quality of positive interactions among people in
  a community.
• Streets that are attractive, safe and
  suitable for walking and cycling increase
  community livability and cohesion.

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The Value of Community

• Human happiness requires a balance of material
  wealth and non-material goods such as friendship,
  security and purpose. As people become wealthier,
  the relative value of nonmaterial goods tends to
  increase.

What we really seem to want, according to the
economists and psychologists conducting such
research, is more community. Standard economic
theory has long assured us that were insatiable
bundles of desires. That may be true, but more
and more it feels like our greatest wish is for
more contact with other people. (National
Geographic, 2006)
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Indicators

• People being courteous and helpful to strangers.
• Friendly conversations among strangers.
• People of diverse incomes and abilities
  interacting in positive ways.
• People reading and resting.
• Children, seniors and people with disabilities
  traveling independently.

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Streetscaping and Intersection Repair

• Improve walking conditions and create places
  for neighborhood interaction.

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Streetscaping
Before
After
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Sustainable Transport Hierarchy

• Walking
• Cycling
• Public Transit
• Service Freight
• Taxi
• HOV
• Private Automobile

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Travel Time Valuation

• Personal travel is usually valued at 25-50 of
  prevailing wage rates.
• Drivers travel time unit costs increase with
  congestion and unexpected delays.
• Transit passengers travel time unit costs
  increase with discomfort (crowding, dirt, odors,
  insecurity), and are particularly high for
  uncomfortable and uncertain waiting conditions.
• Personal preferences vary. Some people prefer
  driving while others prefer transit or walking.
  Travel time unit costs are reduced if individuals
  can choose the mode they prefer.

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Life Satisfaction
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Equity

• A more diverse transportation systems helps
  achieve equity objectives
• A fair share of public resources for non-drivers.
• Financial savings to lower-income people.
• Increased opportunity to people who are
  physically, socially or economically
  disadvantaged.

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Basic Mobility

• Certain goods and services are considered
  essential or basic
• Emergency services (police, fire, ambulances,
  etc.).
• Public services and utilities (garbage
  collection, utility maintenance, etc.).
• Health care.
• Basic food and clothing.
• Education and employment (commuting).
• Some social and recreational activities.
• Mail and freight delivery.

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Household Transport Costs
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A Heavy Load Report
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Affordability Index
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Vehicle Facility Costs
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Parking Facility Costs
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Example - Soma Apartments

• Mixed-use San Francisco building with 74
  affordable family apartments, 88 small studios, a
  child care center and a market. Totals 246
  bedrooms and 24,000 square feet of commercial
  space. Contains a 66-space parking garage, 0.38
  spaces per unit, with parking rented separately
  from housing units, which significantly reduced
  apartment rents.

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Economic Development Benefits

• Reducing vehicle expenditures and expanding
  transit service increases regional employment and
  business activity.
• Reducing transportation costs (congestion,
  parking, property taxes) to businesses increases
  productivity and competitiveness.
• Agglomeration efficiencies.
• Stimulates development and increases local
  property values.
• Increases affordability, allowing businesses to
  attract employees in areas with high living
  costs.

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Rail Transit Study
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Transit Ridership
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Automobile Travel
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Per Capita Transportation Expenses
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Summary
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Rail Versus Bus Transit
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Summary - Quality Transit

• Cities with high quality transit have

• Four times the per capita transit ridership.
• A fifth lower per capita vehicle mileage.
• 30-50 lower per capita congestion costs.
• A third lower per-capita traffic fatality rates.
• 20 smaller portion of household budgets devoted
  to transport, savings about 500 annually per
  capita.
• A third lower transit operating costs.
• 58 higher transit service cost recovery.
• More money circulating in the local economy.
• More per capita walking.
• More efficient land use and higher property
  values.
• Improved environmental performance.

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Win-Win Transportation Solutions

• Market reforms justified on economic
  principles that help provide various economic,
  social and environmental benefits.
• Improved travel options.
• Incentives to use travel alternatives.
• Accessible land use.
• Policy and market reforms.

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Mode Shifts

• How do we convince people who drive luxury
  cars to shift mode?

11/17/2009
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Attracting Discretionary Riders

• Quality service (convenient, fast, comfortable).
• Low fares.
• Support (walkable communities, park ride
  facilities, commute trip reduction programs).
• Convenient information.
• Parking pricing or cash out.
• Integrated with special events.
• Positive Image.

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Transit Station Level-Of-Service

• Clean
• Comfort (seating, temperature, quiet)
• Convenience (real-time user information, easy
  fare payment)
• Accessible (walkability, bike parking, nearby
  housing, employment, nearby shops)
• Services (refreshments, periodicals, etc.)
• Security

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Ridesharing

• Market studies suggest that a third of
  suburban automobile commuters would consider
  vanpooling, if it had
• Flexibility.
• High Occupant Vehicle priority lanes and parking.
• Financial incentives.
• Integration with public transit.
• Employer support.

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Employee Trip Reduction Programs

• Employers encourage employees to walk,
  bicycle, carpool, ride transit and telework
  rather than drive to work.

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Transport Management Association

• Ride-On in San Luis Obispo County develop
  and implement creative solutions to
  transportation and mobility issues.
• It provides
• Shuttle bus services.
• School transportation.
• Special event transportation.
• Employee lunchtime shuttle.
• Employee Transportation Coordinator (ETC)
  contract services.
• Transport information and referral.
• Commuter baseline survey.
• Guaranteed/Emergency Ride Home.

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Walking and Cycling Improvements

• More investment in sidewalks, crosswalks, paths
  and bike lanes.
• Improved roadway shoulders.
• More traffic calming.
• Bicycle parking and changing facilities.
• Encouragement, education and enforcement
  programs.

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School Campus Transport Management

• Programs that encourage parents and students
  to use alternative modes to travel to schools,
  colleges and universities.

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Distance-Based Pricing

• Motorists pay by the vehicle-kilometre, so a
  600 annual premium becomes 3/km and a 2,000
  annual premium becomes 10/km. This gives
  motorists a significant financial incentive to
  drive less, but is not a new fee at all, simply a
  different way to pay existing fees.

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Location-Efficient Development

• Locate affordable housing in accessible areas
  (near services and jobs, walkable, public
  transit).
• Diverse, affordable housing options (secondary
  suites, rooms over shops, loft apartments).
• Reduced parking requirements.
• Reduces property taxes and utility fees for
  clustered and infill housing.

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Raise My Prices, Please!

• Of course, motorists do not like to pay more
  for roads and parking, but unpriced facilities
  are not really free, consumers ultimately pay
  through higher taxes and retail prices. The
  choice is actually between paying directly or
  indirectly.

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Paying Directly Returns Savings To Motorists

• Paying directly is more equitable and
  efficient, since users pay in proportion to the
  costs they impose. Free facilities force
  everybody to pay, including non-drivers and
  motorists who reduce their vehicle use. Paying
  directly gives individual consumers the savings
  that result when they drive less, providing a new
  opportunity to save money.

• Motorist Reduces Mileage
• ?
• Reduced Congestion, Road Parking Facility
  Costs, Reduced Crashes, etc.
• ?
• Economic Savings

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Cost-Based Pricing
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Road Pricing

• Charge motorists directly for using specific
  roads, based on use.
• Charge tolls, with higher rates during congested
  periods and lower rates during off-peak.
• Use electronic pricing systems that eliminate the
  need for tollbooths.

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Fuel Taxes
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Effectiveness and Scope of Benefits
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Parking Management

• More flexible parking requirements.
• Share parking spaces rather than having assigned
  spaces.
• Charge users directly for parking, rather than
  indirectly through taxes and rents.
• Parking Cash Out (Employees who current receive
  free parking are able to choose a cash benefit or
  transit subsidy instead.)

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Parking Pricing and Cash Out

• Parking is never really free, consumers either
  pay directly or indirectly. Paying directly tends
  to be more fair and efficient, and typically
  reduces parking demand about 20.

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Smart Growth Versus Sprawl
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Smart Growth (Density, Design, Diversity)

• More compact, infill development.
• Mixed land use.
• Increased connectivity.
• Improved walkability.
• Urban villages.
• Increased transportation diversity.
• Better parking management.
• Improved public realm.
• More traffic calming and speed control.

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Sprawl Vs Smart Growth
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Land Use Impacts On Travel
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Land Use Impacts On Travel
Health Target
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Street Patterns - Connectivity
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Smart Growth Benefits

• Economic
• Increased resource efficiency.
• Lower development costs.
• Lower public service costs.
• Road and parking cost savings.
• Economies of agglomeration.
• More efficient transportation.

• Social
• Improved transport options, particularly for
  nondrivers.
• Improved housing options.
• Community cohesion.
• Preserves unique cultural resources.
• More opportunities to exercise.

• Environmental
• Greenspace habitat preservation.
• Reduced air pollution.
• Increased energy efficiency.
• Reduced water pollution.
• Reduced heat island effect.

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Sprawl Is Costly

• Increases infrastructure and public service
  costs.
• Increases transportation costs and reduces travel
  options.
• Environmental costs (reduced greenspace and
  wildlife habitat).

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Infrastructure Costs

• Increased infrastructure and public service
  costs.
• Increased distribution costs.
• School busing costs.

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Impacts on Housing Affordability

• Reduces Affordability
• Urban growth boundaries (reduces developable land
  supply).
• Increased design requirements (curbs, sidewalks,
  sound barriers, etc.).

• Increases Affordability
• Higher density reduces land requirements per
  unit.
• Reduced parking and setback requirements.
• More diverse, affordable housing options
  (secondary suites, rooms over shops, loft
  apartments).
• Reduces property taxes and utility fees for
  clustered and infill housing.
• Improved accessibility reduces transport costs.

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Smart Growth Policy Reforms

• Allow more compact, mixed development.
• Allow more housing types.
• More flexible parking requirements.
• More investment in walking cycling facilities.
• More accessible street designs.
• Traffic calming and road diets.
• Location-based development and utility fees.

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Example - Smoking

• Medical experts once promoted safer cigarettes
  and cancer cures. Increasingly they now emphasize
  programs to stop smoking and regulations to
  reduce exposure to second-hand smoke.

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Example Traffic Safety

• Traffic safety experts once favored passive
  safety technologies (safer roadways, crash
  resistant vehicles, air bags) because they do not
  require behavior change.
• But these by themselves these tend to have
  modest safety benefits.

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Example Traffic Safety

• Active safety strategies, such as more
  cautious driving, seat belts, child restraints
  and helmets, provide the greatest potential
  safety benefits.
• Seat belt use reduces traffic fatalities by
  45. Air bags can reduce fatalities an additional
  10, but require seat belt use to be effective.

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Example Traffic Safety

• Technology/Passive
• Crash-friendly roadways
• Crash-friendly vehicles
• Air bags
• Improved emergency response

• Behavior Change
• Seat belts use
• Child restraints
• Helmets
• Reduced drunk driving
• Speed reduction
• Choose safer vehicles
• Driver skill development

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Example Traffic Safety

• The greatest traffic safety gains have
  resulted from changes in travel behavior, not
  from new technologies. Given suitable products
  (e.g., convenient and comfortable seat belts) and
  encouragement, many motorists want to choose
  safer habits.

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Kamloops TravelSmart Program

• Reduces planned road expenditures by 75,
  reduces pollution and improves travel options.
  Consists of the following
• City's official plan favors compact development.
• Improved public transit-increased frequency of
  service to outlying communities.
• Additional cycle routes and cycling initiatives.
• Promotional programs-workshops and seminars in
  schools.

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Daily Vehicle Travel Per Capita
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Malahat Improvement Options
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Moderate Program

• Bus service 20-minute headways.
• Bus fares 3 to Mill Bay, 5 to Duncan, 8 to
  Nanaimo
• Vanpool subsidy 20 subsidy (80 per month)
• Commute trip reduction programs covering 30 of
  commuters.
• HOV priority saves 3-5 minutes per trip.
• General marketing along corridor.
• Encourage parking cash out and Pay-As-You-Drive
  insurance.
• No road pricing.
• Modest tourist transport management.
• Moderate user information services.
• Results 5-15 shift

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Aggressive Program

• Bus service 10-minute headways, with premium
  express commuter service.
• Bus fares 2 to Duncan, 3 to Nanaimo
• Vanpool subsidy 50 subsidy
• Enhanced vanpool services part-time options,
  synchronized to meet transit,
  luxury vans, etc.
• Commute trip reduction covering 60 commuters.
• HOV priority saves 10 minutes per trip.
• General and personal marketing.
• Priced parking, parking cash out, and PAYD
  insurance.
• 2 per peak-period trip road user fee.
• Aggressive tourist transport management.
• Real-time user information.
• Results 15-30 shift without road pricing,
  20-40 with.

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Malahat Improvement Options
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Comparing Benefits
? supports objective ? contradicts
objective
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Malahat Improvement Options
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Recommendations

• Increase public transit funding.
• More comprehensive, lease-cost planning.
• Improve transportation data collection
  (particularly NMT).
• Develop better planning tools for more
  comprehensive evaluation.
• Give transit priority in traffic (bus lanes and
  signal control systems).
• Improve transit vehicles (quieter, smoother, more
  spacious, climate controlled, less polluting,
  easier to board, etc.).
• Accommodate people with disabilities.
• Improve transit stops and stations.
• Mobility management strategies that encourage use
  of alternative modes (road and parking pricing,
  promotion programs).
• Convenient, integrated fares using electronic
  payment systems.
• Improved transit marketing and user information.
• More integrated transport and land use planning.
  Encourage transit-oriented development.
• Improved walking and cycling access to transit
  stops and stations.

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Supported by Professional Organizations

• Institute of Transportation Engineers.
• American Planning Association.
• American Farmland Trust.
• Federal, state, regional and local planning and
  transportation agencies.
• International City/County Management Association
• National Governors Association
• Health organizations.
• And much more...

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Motorists Benefit Too

• More balanced transport policy is no more
  anti-car than a healthy diet is anti-food.
  Motorists have every reason to support these
  reforms
• Reduced traffic and parking congestion.
• Improved safety.
• Improved travel options.
• Reduced chauffeuring burden.
• Often the quickest and most cost effective way to
  improve driving conditions.

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• Evaluating Public Transit Benefits and Costs
• Smart Transportation Economic Stimulation
• Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis
• Smart Transport Emission Reduction
• Parking Management Best Practices
• The Future Isnt What It Used To Be
• Online TDM Encyclopedia
• and more...
• www.vtpi.org