01029340

Component

Coordination of transportation and land use is difficult in the U.S. as no single entity has both powers. One solution considered in Virginia is for the state department of transportation to provide technical assistance to the local land development authority. This paper reports on a 16 month pilot program where the locale and the state worked together to determine how land use (measured as zoning) affects transportation performance (measured as intersection delay). The pilot included a range of land uses and trip generation rates feasible under various zoning scenarios, estimates of intersection delay depending on which parcels were developed and a data element protocol enabling counties to replicate this process more quickly. Successful interagency collaboration is critical to such an approach. Accordingly, characteristics that others believe are essential for agencies to successfully collaborate were identified. (The source of these characteristics was literature, such as Schaller's seminal NCHRP Synthesis 297, and interviews with external federal and state entities that offer technical assistance.) Then, those characteristics that others believe contribute to good relationships were compared to the characteristics of the pilot. The pilot confirmed many of these characteristics: dedicate staff, enable the locale to set the scope, address politics explicitly, start with tangible goals rather than large vision plans, and deliver a combination of short term and long term products. Yet the pilot also illustrated three necessary ingredients in a multiagency environment where the risk is that nothing will happen simply because agencies are so busy: define a problem imperfectly and iteratively rather than waiting for all information; maintain momentum by setting short goals sufficiently tangible such that they may be accomplished yet adequately difficult that they mark progress; and work with a small amount of data to derive useful estimates. Despite their simplicity, these lessons proved essential for translating a general desire of transport/land use collaboration into a real product within a finite time period. The audience for this work is the planner seeking to initiate collaborative transportation/land use efforts between agencies, given that authority for transportation and land use decisions is often divided between two or more entities.

01020180

06-1238

English

15p

2006

Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting

CD-ROM

References (14) ; Tables (2)

Cooperation; Coordination; Decision making; Development; Economic development; Land use; Land use planning; Planning by facility or land use; Public transit; Technical assistance; Transportation planning

Virginia

Administration and Management; Economics; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I10: Economics and Administration

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2006 Paper #06-1238

TRIS, TRB

Mar 3 2006 10:37AM