Abstract:
Interest is growing across the nation in the regional-level impacts of both transportation and land use policies. In both large and small metropolitan areas, planners are facing questions regarding the impacts of their decisions on a wide range of factors. Areas of interest include not only traffic congestion and emissions, but also land use, economic development, accessibility, energy consumption, natural habitat, and the distribution of impacts across population groups. However, technical methods to address many of these factors at a transportation systems level rather than a project level are not widely applied or known. To address the growing needs for regional-level analysis methods, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) sponsored the development of a “Toolbox for Regional Policy Analysis.” The toolbox includes 10 case studies illustrating technical methods that can be used to assess regional impacts. The toolbox is intended for metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), state departments of transportation (DOTs), and other agencies or groups. The case studies highlight methods that can be used to assess the impacts of alternative highway or transit investments, freight improvement programs, demand management and systems management, or changes in regional or local land use patterns. In addition to the detailed case studies, the toolbox includes bibliographic information on over 60 additional examples of assessments conducted throughout the country. The toolbox is presented as an HTML-based document, accessible through the FHWA web site at http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/plngtool.htm.
