Planning Theory and Ideas

Compiled by: Rae-Leigh Stark
Intern, Urban Planning & Design Institute of Shenzhen (UPDIS)
Master of Urban & Regional Planning Candidate, Portland State University
September 2015
THEORIES & IDEAS
SHAPED CITIES:THAT
HAVE
A PLANNER’S GUIDE

THEORIES & IDEAS THAT HAVE SHAPED CITIES: A PLANNER’S GUIDEURBAN PLANNING & DESIGN INSTITUTE OF SHENZHEN 2015 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cities are the Primary Drivers of Economic Growth
The Legibility and Imageability of the City
The City Beautiful Movement
Regional Planning
Urban Renewal
Bottom-Up Design
HISTORIC PLANNING THEORY
MODERN PLANNING IDEAS
New Urbanism
Tactical Urbanism
General Theory of Walkability
The High Cost of Free Parking
Health and the Built Environment
20 MPH Speed Limits
Road Diets / Rightsizing Streets
TRANSPORTATION DEMAND THEORY
The Commuting Paradox
Advocacy Planning
4.
5.
6.
17.
16.
15.
14.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
25.
23.
22.
21.
20.
19.
18.
27.
INTRODUCTION3.
Street Network Theories / The Case for Smaller Blocks
12 Foot Lanes are Distastorous
FURTHER RESOURCES28.
Inequities Among Poor / Spatial Mismatch Theory26.
Induced Demand - If You Build It, They Will Come
24. Theories of Congestion
Transportation and Land Use
13.

INTRODUCTION
This icon will link to online resources to help
you further understand the theory or idea. The
resources include films, project examples, case
studies, research, and how the theory or idea
can be applied through practice.
WHEN YOU SEE THIS, CLICK!
PLANNING DISCIPLINES
Researching transportation planning theory is no easy task. While historically, urban planning
has been theorized, transportation planning has not. As transportation planners we have
a hard task. Not only are we responsible for transporting people and goods from point A
to point B, but we also have a larger role in society. Transportation effects the community’s
health and happiness, it drives the economy and supports people’s livelihoods, and most
importantly, people’s lives are in our hands when they use the system we built.
Although much theory doesn’t exist, there are many case studies and best practices. Cities
all over are learning what’s best, exploring new options, and building transportation systems
that are continually evolving and improving. There might not be an exact equation to what
is proposed, but if you plan the system with the community in mind, you are building the
best system.
Finally, we must not forget that transportation is not an independent practice; planning is
interdisciplinary. Every decision made and every change to the transportation system has
the potential to lead to consequences in land use, urban design, economic growth, social
justice, and resource preservation.
“There is no planning practice without a theory about
how it ought to be practiced. That theory may or may
not be named or present in consciousness, but it is there
all the time.”
– John Friedmann
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
LAND
USE
URBAN
DESIGN
ECONOMIC
GROWTH
RESOURCE
PRESERVATION
TRANSPORT-
ATION
SOCIAL
JUSTICE
There are 6 planning disciplines (land use, urban design, economic
growth, social justice, transportation, and resource preservation)
present throughout the guide. These icons indicate which planning
discipline the theory or idea is most applicable.
Use this guide while determining what is the best practice for the
project or proposal you’re working on. This guide can help steer
you in the right direction and provide insite to what has been done
and what works best.

HISTORIC
PLANNING
THEORY

1. Jane Jacobs approached cities as living
beings and ecosystems. She suggested
that over time, buildings, streets and
neighborhoods function as dynamic
organisms, changing in response to how
people interact with them.
2. She explained how each element of a
city – sidewalks, parks, neighborhoods,
government, economy – functions together,
in the same manner as the natural ecosystem.
This understanding helps us discern how cities
work, how they break down, and how they
could be better structured.
3. Although orthodox planning theory had
blamed high density for crime, filth, and a
host of other problems, Jacobs disproved
these assumptions and demonstrated how a
high concentration of people is vital for city
life, economic growth, and prosperity.
4. While acknowledging that density alone
does not produce healthy communities, she
illustrated through concrete examples how
higher densities yield a critical mass of people
that is capable of supporting more vibrant
communities. In exposing the difference
between high density and overcrowding,
Jacobs dispelled many myths about high
concentrations of people.
5. By dissecting how cities and their economies
emerge and grow, Jacobs cast new light on
the nature of local economies. She contested
the assumptions that cities with large, stable
businesses are the best sources of innovation.
Instead, she developed a model of local
economic development based on adding
new types of work to old, promoting small
businesses, and supporting the creative
impulses of urban entrepreneurs.
“A metropolitan economy, if it is working well, is
constantly transforming many poor people into middle-
class people, many illiterates into skilled people, many
greenhorns into competent citizens...
Cities don’t lure the middle class.
They create it.”
CITIES ARE THE PRIMARY DRIVERS OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
Approach cities as Jane Jacob did, as living beings and ecosystems. Build cities as the community
wants them and use their ideas to shape them. For example: Could a mix of urban village
development and modern planning better support an environment for the middle class and
economic growth?
The cities Jane Jacob imagined resulted in not the middle class living in them, but instead the
elite upper class. As cities became trendy, desirable places to live in, only the elite have been able
to afford to live in them. While this wasn’t the intent or vision of Jacobs, it is the reality. However,
there are methods like mixed-income housing, inclusive zoning, and workforce housing to keep
even the most desirable places affordable.
APPLICATIONS IN PLANNING PRACTICE
CRITIQUES
– Jane Jacobs

“Not only is the city an object which is perceived
(and perhaps enjoyed) by millions of people of widely
diverse class and character, but it is the product of
many builders who are constantly modifying the
structure for reasons of their own.”
THE LEGIBILITY AND IMAGEABILITY OF THE CITY
The best way to apply the theory of legibility and imageability into practice is to create a mental
map of the city you’re working or living in. Are you able to use your memory to create a well-
defined map of a place? If you’re able to remember a place, areas that are distinct, and the way to
travel throughout, then the city is legible. If you are struggling to create a well-defined mental map
of a place, than the city is lacking in legibility and imageability.
1. The legibility of a place is essentially the ease
with which people understand the layout of a
place. By introducing this idea, Lynch was able
to isolate distinct features of a city, and see
what specifically is making it so vibrant, and
attractive to people.
2. The city contains many unique elements,
which are defined as a network of paths,
edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks.
3. Paths are channels by which people move
along in their travels. Examples of paths
are roads, trails, and sidewalks. Edges,
are all other lines not included in the path
group. Examples of edges include walls,
and seashores. Districts are sections of the
city, usually relatively substantial in size,
which have an identifying character about
them. Nodes, are points or strategic spots
where there is an extra focus, or added
concentration of city features. Examples
include a busy intersection or a popular city
center. Landmarks are physical objects that act
as reference points.
4. Imageability, another term introduced by
Lynch, is the quality of a physical object, which
gives an observer a strong, vivid image. He
concluded that a highly imageable city would
be well formed, would contain very distinct
parts, and would be instantly recognizable to
the common inhabitant.
5. A well-formed city is highly reliant upon
the most predominant city element, paths.
Similarly, edges, districts, nodes, and
landmarks contribute to imageability if they
are meaningful, distinct, and not confusing.
6. These elements, when placed in good form,
increase human ability to see and remember
patterns, and it is these patterns that make it
easier to learn.
– Kevin Lynch

1. The City Beautiful movement was a reaction
to the rapid, ferocious and unplanned growth
of American cities in the modern industrial era
after the Civil War. The movement of people
from country to city had become a flood. By
1910 46% of Americans lived in cities or larger
towns. By 1920 the number would go to
over 50%. Those towns and cities were dirty,
crowded, polluted, crime-ridden places – and
they were ugly. Little thought was given to
beauty when there was money to be made.
2. Daniel Burnham, a Chicago architect, began
to address these issues in an approach to
urban planning that would become known as
the City Beautiful movement. City Beautiful
was characterized by the belief that if you
improved form, function would follow. In
other words, an attractive city would perform
better than an unattractive one. Beauty came
from what Burnham called “municipal art” --
magnificent parks, highly designed buildings,
wide boulevards, and public gathering places
adorned with fountains and monuments. Such
beautiful additions to the cityscape could not
directly address perceived social ills, but they
could, at least in Burnham’s thinking, indirectly
improve social problems by enhancing the
urban environment.
3. Burnham then applied City Beautiful ideas to
several city designs including Washington,
D.C. and San Francisco, CA. The culmination
of the movement came in 1906 when
Burnham prepared the Plan of Chicago, the
first comprehensive plan for an American city.
4. Although the City Beautiful movement
was revolutionary in America, it drew upon
urban planning ideas used for many years in
Europe. In particular, Burnham used Paris as a
successful model of urban planning.
“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s
blood and probably themselves will not be realized.
Make big plans; aim high in hope and work.”
CITY BEAUTIFUL
When designing new city streets or connectivity within a new development, think further than a
bird’s eye view. For example, look deep into what it’s like to be a pedestrian on the street, rather
than how it looks and if it meets all the standards of a textbook.
City Beautiful has been critiqued because a city doesn’t function properly or provide for its
residents if beauty is the top concern. While aesthetics are very important, remember function over
form.
– Daniel Burnham
CRITIQUES

REGIONAL PLANNING
1. The first, and the most influential in America’s
history, period of regionalism happened in
1956 for the planning of the Interstate System.
The Federal Highway of 1956 authorization of
$25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles
(66,000 km) of the Interstate Highway System
over a 10-year period.
2. The idea that planning can’t just happen
within a city, but instead within a region or in
this case within the country, was cemented.
Regional Planning is really important in the
US, especially with transportation planning.
Starting in 1962, urbanized areas in the US
with populations of 50,000+ are required by
the federal government to have a Metropolitan
Planning Organization (MPO).
3. MPOs are responsible for the comprehensive
transportation planning process for their
urbanized area.
4. Urbanized areas are designated by the
Census Bureau and are a reflection of urban
growth, not political boundaries. The Federal
Government wants to ensure that the
transportation planning process and network
are cohesive and functional for areas that have
grown together. Transportation planning needs
to be regional in scope because transportation
systems cut across governmental boundaries.
5. Even though the US has created the system of
MPOs to provide thought and make decisions
regarding regional transportation, the US
has failed to act cohesively to successfully
implement a large public works project, like
the highway system, since then.
6. The US could plan better on regioanl and
federal levels to help develop a high-speed rail
system or provide more cohesive development
policies across the nation.
Portland, Oregon is unique in that it has the US’s only regionally elected government, Portland Metro.
Metro coordinates between Portland’s incorporated cities and counties, with a specific responsibility to
address growth and land use by, orienting growth clustered along transportation corridors, creating a mix of
transportation options, encouraging compact urban design, and proactively anticipating long-term growth.
It is also unique because Portland implemented the first Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) in 1978.
Development cannot happen outside of the boundary; it protects farms and forests from sprawl, and
promotes the efficient use of land, public facilities and services inside the boundary.
The UGB has required Portland to maintain and increase density. The fight for space is evident, so Portland
is works hard to reduce the number of people who drive, therefore eliminating the need for expansive roads
and sprawled development that use a lot of space.
CASE STUDY
“It takes a whole region to make a city.”
– Patrick Geddes

1. Urban Renewal emerged in the late 1940s
and has had both successes and failures. It
is a form of land redevelopment that was
used in blighted, moderate to high-density,
urban areas. The process has had a major
impact on many urban landscapes, and has
played an important role in the history and
demographics of cities around the world.
2. Urban renewal involves the relocation of
businesses, the demolition of structures, the
relocation of people, and the use of eminent
domain (government purchase of property for
public purpose) as a legal instrument to take
private property for city-initiated development
projects.
3. Proponents have seen urban renewal as
a tool for economic growth and a reform
mechanism, and by critics as a mechanism
for control. It may enhance existing
communities, and in some cases result in the
demolition of neighborhoods. Many cities
link the revitalization of the central business
district and gentrification of residential
neighborhoods to earlier urban renewal
programs.
4. In the present day, urban renewal evolved into
a policy based less on destruction and more
on renovation and investment, and today is
an integral part of many local governments,
often combined with small and big business
incentives.
5. Robert Moses was the “master builder” of
mid-20th century New York City and played
a significant role in the urban renewal of the
city. As the shaper of a modern city, he is one
of the most polarizing figures in the history
of urban planning in the United States. His
decisions favoring highways over public
transit helped create the modern suburbs of
Long Island and influenced a generation of
engineers, architects, and urban planners who
spread his philosophies across the nation.
I raise my stein to the builder who can remove ghettos
without removing people as I hail the chef who can
make omelets without breaking eggs.
URBAN RENEWAL
– Robert Moses
As a planner involved in Urban Renewal projects, it is important to thoughtfully consider those who
are being affected by the project. It is important to support the people who currently live at the
project location. Work within the community to find solutions for the potentially affected citizens.
Urban Renewal has and will continue to be controversial. While Urban Renewal is an important
piece of city planning, it often causes displacement among the most vulnerable communities. It has
been seen through the decades of highway development, redevelopment projects, and the new
influx of people wanting to move to city centers.
CRITIQUES

“What attracts people most,
it would appear, is other people.”
BOTTOM-UP PLACE DESIGN
William Whyte’s theory should be applied to any public space, including streets, sidewalks,
intersections, bus stops, and Metro stations. You can learn a lot by looking how people use
these existing spaces and then apply them to new plans. Designing spaces that are comfortable
for people can have an impact on how people use the space or transportation system you’re
designing.
With the right balance, streets can accommodate vehicles and become destinations worth visiting.
Transit stops and stations can make commuting by rail or bus a pleasure. Neighborhood streets can
be places where parents feel safe letting their children play, and commercial strips can be designed
as grand boulevards, safe for walking and cycling and allowing for both through and local traffic.
Streets that are planned for people, meaning they are not completely auto-centric, add to the
social cohesion of communities by ensuring human interaction, and providing safe public spaces
that promote cultural expression.
1. William Whyte believed that the social life in
public spaces contributes fundamentally to
the quality of life of individuals and society as
a whole. He believed that we have a moral
responsibility to create physical places that
facilitate civic engagement and community
interaction.
2. Whyte advocated for a new way of designing
public spaces – one that was bottom-up, not
top-down. Using his approach, design should
start with a thorough understanding of the
way people use spaces, and the way they
would like to use spaces. Whyte noted that
people vote with their feet – they use spaces
that are easy to use, that are comfortable.
They don’t use the spaces that are not.
3. By observing and by talking to people, Whyte
believed, we can learn a great deal about
what people want in public spaces and can
put this knowledge to work in creating places
that shape livable communities. We should
therefore enter spaces without theoretical or
aesthetic biases, and we should “look hard,
with a clean, clear mind, and then look again –
and believe what you see.”
– William Whyte

1. Advocacy planning, an innovation by
Paul Davidoff, in the 1960s was a direct
consequence of the engagement of urban
planners in the civil rights movement and the
struggles against the displacement of low-
income communities by the federal urban
renewal program.
2. Davidoff believed that the planner isn’t solely
a value-neutral technician; instead, values are
part of every planning process.
3. City planners shouldn’t attempt to frame
a single plan that represents the “ public
interest ” but rather “represent and plead
the plans of many interest groups.” In other
words, planning should be pluralistic and
represent diverse interests, especially minority
interests.
4. Citizen participation programs should
encourage people to propose their own
goals, policies and future actions. Plural plans
rather than a single agency plan should be
presented to the public.
5. Davidoff felt that at the time urban planning
was fixated on the physical city. Davidoff said
that professionals should be concerned with
physical, economic and social planning. The
practice of plural planning requires educating
planners who would be able to engage as
professional advocates in the contentious
work of forming social policy.
“The city planning profession’s historical concern with
the physical environment has warped its ability to see
physical structures and land as servants to those who
use them.”
ADVOCACY PLANNING
Citizen participation should be at the root of all plans. Start asking the community “what do you
want?” Engaged communities result it excellent city planning. In the United States, advocacy
planning isn’t just something learned during history of planning courses. Citizen participation
has become the most important part of municipal urban and transportation planning. Before any
development or plan can be approved it must include the input of the community.
– Paul Davidoff

MODERN
PLANNING
IDEAS

New Urbanism promotes the creation and
restoration of diverse, walkable, compact,
vibrant, mixed-use communities composed
of the same components as conventional
development, but assembled in a more
integrated fashion, in the form of complete
communities. The principles of urbanism can be
applied increasingly to projects at the full range
of scales from a single building to an entire
community.
1. Walkability: Most things within a 10-minute
walk of home and work and pedestrian
friendly street design (buildings close to
street; porches, windows & doors; tree-lined
streets; on street parking; hidden parking
lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed
streets).
2. Connectivity: Interconnected street grid
network disperses traffic & eases walking and
a hierarchy of narrow streets to make walking
pleasurable and safe.
3. Mixed-Use & Diversity: A mix of shops, offices,
apartments, and types of housing on site with
a diversity of people - of ages, income levels,
cultures, and races.
4. Mixed Housing: A range of types, sizes and
prices in closer proximity
5. Quality Urban Design: Design with an
emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human
comfort, and creating a sense of place.
6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure:
Neighborhood with a distinguishable center
and edge, usable public space at center, and
a range of uses and densities within 10-minute
walk.
7. Increased Density: More buildings, residences,
shops, and services closer together for ease
of walking, to enable a more efficient use of
services and resources.
8. Green Transportation: A network of high-
quality trains connecting cities, towns, and
neighborhoods together and design that
encourages a greater use of bicycles and
walking as daily transportation.
9. Sustainability: Minimal environmental impact
of development and its operations.
10. Quality of Life: Taken together these add
up to a high quality of life well worth living,
and create places that enrich, uplift, and
inspire the human spirit.
“The role of the street is social as well as utilitarian.”
NEW URBANISM
While I’m unsure if New Urbanism is practiced in China, the general principals as noted about could
be applied to any planning project. In the US and Europe there have been several developments
where the principals of New Urbanism have been applied.
– Andres Duany
Seaside, Florida, USA
CASE STUDY

1. Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-
term Change, a new book by urban planners
Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia is the first
book to organize all the small fixes that
sprung up in so many communities in a way
that everyone can understand.
2. These fixes — some temporary and others
long-term — aim to address common
problems in communities today, often in
streets and public spaces: a lack of safe
sidewalks or crosswalks; the absence of clear
signage; the dearth of neighborhood parks
and plazas, and, more broadly, the lack of
community connection and solidarity.
3. Shedding its perception as an illegal or
“guerrilla” approach, tactical urbanism is
becoming a method of choice for innovative
local governments, developers, or non-profits
as well.
4. This approach is now happening
everywhere, not just in New York City, with
its transformation of Times Square and other
car-only places into pedestrian plazas, or
San Francisco, with its Pavement to Parks
program, which led to the explosive growth of
parklets everywhere.
5. In Portland, Oregon a group of people,
Better Block, redesigned a highly travelled
street and intersection at the heart of the
city. The temporary redesign worked very
well. Since then, a year later, their ideas are
being permanently constructed. These types
of small, yet potent interventions are going
mainstream because they work — at least at
fixing some problems.
TACTICAL URBANISM
These short-term fixes are ways to inspire permanent change. They’ve happened in many cities and
have resulted in full projects being implemented. Not only do they help one think creatively, but
they enable the city transportation planners to “test” the idea and see it function on the street, if
even only temporarily. As transportation planners we can support these projects by listening to the
community on their tactical urbanism ideas.
Not all projects are the result of supportive, inclusive coalition. Not all bottom-up community
improvements are beloved. Some of these projects do spark feelings of anger, but typically that’s
what change does.
CRITIQUE
“The lack of resources is no longer an excuse not to act.
The idea that action should only be taken after all the
answers and the resources have been found is a sure
recipe for paralysis. The planning of a city is a process
that allows for corrections; it is supremely arrogant to
believe that planning can be done only after every
possible variable has been controlled.”
– Jaime Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba, Brazil

1. The General Theory of Walkability explains
how the choise to walk has to satisfy 4
main conditions: it must be useful, safe,
comfortable, and interesting. Each of these
qualities is essential.
2. Useful means that most aspects of daily life
are located close at hand and organized in
a way that walking serves them well. Safe
means that the street has been designed to
give pedestrians a fighting chance against
being hit by automobiles; they must not only
be safe but feel safe, which is even tougher to
satisfy. Comfortable means that buildings and
landscape shape urban streets into ‘outdoor
living rooms,’ in contrast to wide-open spaces,
which usually fail to attract pedestrians.
Interesting means that sidewalks are lined by
unique buildings with friendly faces and that
signs of humanity abound.
3. The walkable city is a practical solution to
a number of problems that affect both our
daily lives as individuals and our economic,
environmental, and cultural health as a
society. These fixes simply give pedestrians a
fighting chance, while also embracing bikes,
enhancing transit, and making downtown
living attractive to a broader range of people.
Most are not expensive — some require little
more than yellow paint. Each one individually
makes a difference; collectively, they can
transform a city and the lives of its residents.
4. f they are to function properly, cities need
to be planned by generalists, as they
once were. Generalists understand that
consolidating parks means that fewer people
can walk to them. Generalists understand that
infrastructure organized in service of big trucks
is not always inviting to small people. And
generalists, finally, are coming to understand
that more lanes just lead to more traffic.
5. Most significantly, generalists — such as
planners and, one hopes, mayors — ask
the big-picture questions that are so often
forgotten among the day-to-day shuffle of city
governance. Questions like: What kind of city
will help us thrive economically? What kind
of city will keep our citizens not just safe, but
healthy? What kind of city will be sustainable
for generations to come? These three issues
— wealth, health, and sustainability — are, not
coincidentally, the three principal arguments
for making our cities more walkable.
6. The economic advantage that has already
begun to accrue to walkable places can
be attributed to three key factors. First, for
certain segments of the population, chief
among them young ‘creatives,’ urban living
is simply more appealing; many wouldn’t be
caught dead anywhere else. Second, massive
demographic shifts occurring right now
mean that these pro-urban segments of the
population are becoming dominant, crating
a spike in demand that is expected to last for
decades. Third, the choice to live the walkable
life generates considerable savings for these
households, and much of these savings are
spent locally.
“Cities designed for people, as opposed to those
engineered for cars, will be the places of urban,
demographic growth in the 21st century.”
GENERAL THEORY OF WALKABILITY
– Jeff Speck

1. When cars at any given destination in a city
(a block or group of blocks) occupy more
than 85% of on-street parking spaces, then
cars arriving at that destination are forced to
circle the block for a few minutes in order to
find an unoccupied parking space. This small
search time per car creates a surprisingly
large amount of traffic congestion, because
typically, many cars are searching for parking
simultaneously during peak driving times.
This wastes time and fuel and increases air
pollution. Donald Shoup, a parking expert,
calls the phenomenon of excess driving as a
result of under-priced parking as “cruising for
parking.”
2. By using Shoup’s theory and smart pricing,
the San Francisco Municipal Transportation
Agency (SFMTA) designed an innovative
parking program called SFpark.
3. Drivers use a smartphone app to help find
parking quickly, instead of circling around.
To help achieve the right level of parking
availability, SFpark periodically adjusts meter
and garage pricing up and down to match
demand.
4. SFpark was a federally-funded demonstration
of a new approach to managing parking. It
used better information, including real-time
data where parking is available, and demand-
responsive parking pricing to help make
parking easier to find.
5. After the initial start of the SFpark, SFMTA
evaluated the program and found the
following: 1) Average parking rates were
lower, 2) Parking availability improved, 3)
It is easier to find a parking space, 4) It is
easier to pay and avoid parking citations, 5)
Greenhouse gas emissions decreased, and 6)
Vehicle miles traveled decreased.
6. SFpark is the first of its kind in the US and
has since become a model for cities all
across the nation. This is a great example of
how technology is changing transportation
demand.
THE HIGH COST OF FREE PARKING
Parking management can greatly improve by using smartphone apps to help drivers find and
reserve available parking spaces. Many apps are available for both Apple and Android phones.
SFpark - An innovative parking program using technology and smart pricing to manage demand.
CASE STUDY
“85% occupancy rate of on-street parking spaces is the
most efficient use of public parking.”
– Donald Shoup

1. Conditions in the places where we live, work
and play have a tremendous impact on health.
It is much easier to stay healthy when we can
easily and safely walk, run or bike; when we
have clean air and access healthy food.
2. Recently the way we have built the cities we
live in have had a negative impact on our
health, especially in transportation. Many of us
spend hours driving rather than spent doing
physical activity that we used to do.
3. Every day, policy makers in many sectors have
opportunities to make choices that—if they
took health into account—could help stem
the growth of pressing health problems like
obesity, injury, asthma and diabetes that have
such a huge impact on our nation’s health care
costs and on people’s quality of life.
4. Health impact assessment (HIA) is a fast-
growing field that helps policy makers take
advantage of these opportunities by bringing
together scientific data, health expertise
and public input to identify the potential—
and often overlooked—health effects of
proposed new laws, regulations, projects and
programs. It offers practical recommendations
for ways to minimize risks and capitalize on
opportunities to improve health. HIA gives
federal, tribal, state and local legislators,
public agencies and other decision makers
the information they need to advance smarter
policies today to help build safe, thriving
communities tomorrow.
5. HIA is a systematic process that uses an
array of data sources and analytic methods
and considers input from stakeholders to
determine the potential effects of a proposed
policy, plan, program, or project on the
health of a population and the distribution
of those effects within the population. HIA
provides recommendations on monitoring and
managing those effects.
6. HIAs: 1) Look at health from a broad
perspective that considers social, economic
and environmental influences, 2) Bring
community members, business interests and
other stakeholders together, which can help
build consensus, 3) Acknowledge the trade-
offs of choices under consideration and offers
decision makers comprehensive information
and practical recommendations to maximize
health gains and minimize adverse effects, 4)
Puts health concerns in the context of other
important factors when making a decision,
and 5) Consider whether certain impacts may
affect vulnerable groups of people in different
ways.
“This may be the first generation with statistically shorter
life expectancies than their parents.”
HEALTH AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Many projects have included at Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to
determine if the proposed project will have potential positive or
negative impacts on the community’s health. Sometimes HIAs are a
requirement to be preformed for funding sources.
– Mark Fenton
This case study is a Health Impact Assessment of Proposed Public
Transit Service Cuts and Fare Increases in Boston, Massachusetts.
This HIA uses an array of data sources and analytic methods to help
decision-makers understand the health implications of the proposed
service cuts and fare increases.
The data allowed them to quantify the following: 1) Time Spent and
Fuel Burned in Traffic, 2) Air Pollution, 3) Physical Activity, 4) Crashes,
5) Access to Healthcare, 6) Carbon Dioxide Emissions, and 7) Noise.
The results of the HIA found that the proposed transit fare increases
and service cuts would have resulted in preventable deaths and
hospitalizations as well as indirect economic impacts. The calculated
impacts can be found on Page 10 of the report.
CASE STUDY

1. There are two important reasons behind this
theory: 1) If the speeds were lower on the
road, you wouldn’t need to make separated
spaces for the vehicles and the bicyclists and
2) A pedestrian hit by a car traveling 30 mph
is 7-9 times as likely to be killed as one hit by
a car traveling 20 mph.
2. Cities are starting to adapt these policies,
including London and New York City. They’re
realizing that deaths can be prevented if the
vehicle speeds were slightly reduced.
3. London implemented a 20 MPH zone within
their whole city center in 2013. The results
already look promising: casualties are down
12% from an average of 372 in 2010-2013 to
327 in 2013-2014 and, so far, no one has been
killed in a collision on the affected roads.
4. In November 2014, NYC implemented a
Vision Zero Campaign reduce its speed limit
to 25 MPH in order to make the city safer
for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers and
help meet the City’s goal of bringing traffic
fatalities to zero. Driving at or below 25 MPH
decreases stopping distance, gives drivers
and pedestrians more time to see each other
and react, and improves drivers’ ability to
avoid crashes. Vehicle stopping distance
improves by 45 feet (23%) when travelling at
25 MPH versus 30 MPH. Results of the first
year haven’t been calculated yet.
5. Portland, Oregon developed a network of
Neighborhood Greenways. These streets
are set at 20 MPH and have traffic calming
measures constructed throughout them.
These streets are designed for people and
bikes as the primary users. The streets serve
as major routes for people commuting by bike
to work or school.
20 MPH ROADS
20 MPH (25 MPH in NYC) policies are effective when implemented. Signage alone will not work.
For the program to reach its maximum potential the roads must be designed to encourage slower
speeds (narrow with traffic calming measures) and the reduced speed must be enforced.
In NYC and London the policy was adopted for the entire city center. This makes it good for both
drivers and pedestrians. No matter where you are in the city center, the speed maximums are the
same. In Portland, OR it was implemented on specific neighborhood streets.
London, NYC Vision Zero, and Portland Neighborhood Greenways
CASE STUDY
“Don’t just think of space, think of time.”
– Andres Duany

1. The three most important benefits of road
diets are 1) They become safer roads for all
users, 2) They allow streets to incorporate
more modes (rather than just vehicles), which
in-turn increases the volume of traffic within
the road, and 3) They are more affordable
option rather than reconstructing the entire
street.
2. The needs of our communities evolve over
time, and our street design should, too. That’s
the idea behind ‘road diets or rightsizing
streets’ – reconfiguring the layout of our
streets to better serve the people who use
them, whether they’re commuters driving,
shoppers walking, or children bicycling.
3. The original thinking held that wider roads
meant better traffic flows, especially at rush-
hour, but new lanes also attracted new traffic,
and outside the peak periods you’d end up
with lots of wasted road space. An analysis of
road widening showed an increase in traffic
volumes, but also delay, speed, and crash and
injury rates.
4. Realizing these unintended outcomes, some
localities implemented a type of “road diet”:
reconfiguring the four lanes (two in each
direction) into three (one each way plus a
shared turn lane in the middle). The change
dramatically reduced the number of “conflict
points” on the road—places where a crash
might occur.
5. The result was a much safer road. In small
urban areas (with traffic volumes up to 12,000
cars a day), post-road diet crashes dropped
about 47%. In larger metros (up to 24,000
daily cars), the crash reduction was roughly
19%. The combined estimate from all the
best studies predicted that accidents would
decline 29%, on average, after a four-to-three-
lane road diet (DOT’s reported figure).
6. Road diets are typically just paint. This allows
the project to be completed more affordably
than an entire reconstruction and allows some
flexibility. If for some reason it doesn’t work at
the location, the paint can be removed. Or, if
it works really well, the paint can be a starting
point and additional infrastructure like curbs,
a median, or protected bike lane can be
constructed.
“If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars
and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get
people and places.”
ROAD DIETS / RIGHTSIZING STREETS
As experienced in the US, road diets make sense to transportation planners, however they are a
hard sell to political leaders and the community. It’s hard for people to understand the benefits of
removing lanes. If this is a project you want to see through, make sure you have a strong case. Run
a transportation model and have the facts to back up the case for a road diet.
– Fred Kent

1. In the US most streets are held to a 12-foot
standard, if not by the city, then by a state
or a county department of transportation.
This thinking came from highway design.
For highways, it is completely approriate for
lanes to be 12 feet. However, for urban high-
volume streets in city centers 12 foot lanes are
not appropriate. Additionally, neighborhood
streets can be much more narrow.
2. Typical high-volume street design requires
12-foot lanes to ensure high speeds and free
flowing traffic. This comes at the expense of
people, motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists,
who die daily on streets designed in this
manner. It is time to reevaluate the standard
12-foot lane and embrace a narrower 10-foot
lane for high-volume streets.
3. The reevaluation of narrower streets has
recently come into light as many projects
identified as “improvement and safety”
projects, designed to widen and allow free
flowing traffic, are ultimately resulting in the
opposite of what was originally intended.
These roads are actually causing higher
speeds, increased amount of crashes, and an
imbalanced priority given to vehicles versus
other street users.
4. Human behavior is impacted by its
environment. When streets are wide, too
wide, motorists have more space to drive, less
to worry about getting in their way, and the
ability to further in front of them, which results
in driving faster. When lanes are narrow,
motorists have to drive slower because they
have limited space and must drive cautiously.
5. The first thought and issue related to
narrower lane widths is the idea that there
will be reduced traffic flow and capacity.
This however does not result. The measured
saturation flow rates are similar for lane widths
between 10 feet and 12 feet. Thus, so long
as all other geometric and traffic signalization
conditions remain constant, there is no
measurable decrease in urban street capacity
when through lane widths are narrowed from
12 feet to 10 feet. Narrowed lanes will result
in the same traffic capacity, which moves
at the speed intended by the speed limits
instead of the street design.
6. When lanes are built too wide, pedestrians are
forced to walk further across streets on which
cars are moving too fast and bikes don’t fit.
A reduction in lane width results in shorter
distances for pedestrians to travel. It also
could allow for more space to be dedicated to
refuge islands, wider sidewalks, street trees,
and curb extensions. All of these elements
add safety and comfort to the pedestrian
environment.
7. When lanes are narrowed, up to
approximately two feet each, more space is
made available. This space could be allocated
to bike lanes or other bike infrastructure. Not
only does it add to the urban environment,
but it allows for more users of the road and an
increased mode share of bikes.
12 FOOT LANES ARE DISASTOROUS

260
200
200260
The Variety of American Grids
180
230
180230
240
200
230
280
Carson City, NV
Portland, OR
Providence, RI
Charlottesville, VA
250
330
250330
Houston, TX
Sheridan, WY
210
270
320
250
Laredo, TX
370
220300
300
Jacksonville, FL
Chicago, IL
(north of river)
Wilmington, DE
(60’ ROWs)
280
350
280350
Kalamazoo, MI
Austin, TX
300
280
380
400
Omaha, NE
250
310
350410
Alexandria, VA
300
300
380
380
Missoula, MT
Bismarck, ND
Phoenix, AZ
Tulsa, OK
Anchorage, AK
(70’ ROWs)
Mobile, AL
(60’ ROWs)
320
380
320380
Baton Rouge, LA
260340
400
480
Denver, CO
Bellingham, WA
330
330
410
410
Sacramento, CA
Erie, PA
Burlington, VT
(65’ ROWs)
300360
400
460
Duluth, MN
Troy, NY 400
400
480
480
Columbus, OH
Tucson, AZ
430
610
430610
Macon, GA
922
1022
250 200
660
780
780 660
New
York
City,
NY
Salt Lake
City, UT
Image Source: Microsoft Bing
Created by Daniel
Nairn, May 2010
This work is licensed un-
der a Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5
License
1. The length of a city block is one of the most
important factors of a walkable city. Shorter
blocks are more pleasant to navigate on foot,
allow for more valuable corner lot real estate,
and improve traffic flow.
2. Smaller blocks allow more variation in your
daily commute and spread out the foot traffic
around a city. It gives people more places
to explore. The grid enhances legibility,
therefore allowing people to remember where
they’ve walked and how to get to place. Small
blocks also reduce the scale, making it more
comfortable for people and making it seem
like the distances are shorter. With bigger
blocks you have bigger buildings and less
diversity for the eye.
3. Smaller city blocks also provide the city more
intersections, which are always ideal places
for commercial activity. There are more corner
shops and more hubs of economic activity.
4. Smaller blocks create better connectivity
within the city. This isn’t just a good thing
for pedestrians, but it also improves traffic
flow. By having more connections and ways
to travel within a city it spreads the traffic
out among the different options of streets.
Additionally, it does slow the vehicle speeds
because the shorter blocks gives traffic less
time to increase their speed to a dangerous
and unsafe level.
5. Looking at the image to the left, you can
imagine being a pedestrian in those cities.
They are all very different and provide a
different experience for pedestrians, bicyclists,
and drivers. From the list of cities and their
block size, it is evident that the size of the city
blocks does make a difference for walkability.
STREET NETWORK THEORIES / A CASE FOR SMALLER BLOCKS
The majority of Portland has 200 x 200 foot blocks, whereas most other American cities have much
larger block patterns.
Some Portland history indicates blocks were made at the 200 feet scale to create a pedestrian
friendly downtown. The more widely accepted version says is it was done to create more
highly valued corner lots for businesses, with the positive side effect being a pedestrian friendly
downtown.
Shorter blocks mean more places for pedestrians to cross and a smaller, more connected feeling for
the walker, both of which encourage more pedestrian movement.
CASE STUDY

TRANSPORTATION
DEMAND
THEORY

1. The joke is that adding lanes to cure
congestion is like loosening your belt to cure
obesity.
2. You have a congested roadway, and
transportation planners predict even more
traffic on that road in the near future. What
do you do? For most of the last century, the
answer was to increase capacity.
3. In the short-term, this seemed to work. Time
and time again, over the long-term, the actual
amount of traffic after the capacity increase
grew far more than expected. What seemed
like an obvious solution to a congestion
problem continued to disappoint. But why?
The reason for these failures lies with the
principle of induced demand.
4. Once capacity increases, not only do you get
the originally predicted traffic growth, but
you also facilitate some really great (often
unanticipated) changes in travel behavior.
First, existing road users might change the
time of day when they travel; instead of
leaving at 5 AM to beat traffic, the newly
widened road entices them to leave for work
with everyone else. Second, those traveling
a different route might switch and drive
along the newly widened option. Third, those
previously using other modes such as transit,
walking, bicycling, or even carpooling may
now decide to drive or drive alone instead.
5. Instead of widening, let the road be
congested! Once the road is widened this
latent demand induces more traffic than
originally expected and saps the supposed
improvement of the expected benefits.
“If you build it, they will come.”
INDUCED DEMAND - DOWN’S THEORY
Congestion is an essential mechanism for coping with excess demand for road space. We need
it! Embrace a little congestion and let the road users determine when they’ve had enough. If it’s
too bad for them, they will choice a different mode or a different lifestyle (for example: they may
decide to live closer to their job, rather than commuting far distances to work).
– Unknown

Congestion happens when the demand is great
than the supply. The greatest demand cities are
dealing with is the demand for vehicle space
on the road, causing high congestion especially
during peak-periods. Cities in North America are
currently trying to deal with peak-period traffic
congestion using 5 different techniques:
1. Subsidies & HOV Lanes: Bus operations are
heavily subsidized in many areas, and buses
together with other high-occupancy vehicles
(HOVs) such as carpools are given preferential
access to road capacity by allowing them
on a city street and expressway HOV lanes
reserved just for them. HOV lanes provide
s lane with a volume-to-capacity ratio lower
than the rest of the road. Only buses and
people who carpool can use this lane which
encourages more people per car.
2. Ramp Metering: Vehicles are metered onto
freeways in many areas to reduce traffic
volumes, therefore reducing the chances
that traffic conditions will shift into really
severe, standstill congestion. Metering
reduces congestion in two ways, 1) queues
that develop at the access ramps discourage
short freeway trips and 2) metering reduces
variations in expressway entry rates, thereby
reducing turbulence and eliminating the short
surges in vehicles that could briefly exceed
the highway capacity.
3. Staggered Business Hours: While this can be
difficult to do, some cities have been able
to stagger their business hours so they’re
employees aren’t traveling during peak travel
times. This benefits the entire community by
reducing congestion and also improves the
well-being of the employees who spend hours
sitting in congestion.
4. Congestion Pricing: Congestion pricing
basically buys your way onto a stretch of
road. This using comes in the form of a toll
where you pay to use a road that is at lower
capacity. The lower capacity is the result of
the toll that many people do not want to pay.
Congestion pricing does have its equity issues
as only people who can afford to use the road
do so. It is a highly effective way of reducing
congestion.
5. Road Expansion: Unfortunately road
expansion is still the most used “solution” to
traffic congestion. When roads are expanded
it can be paired with another solution like
an HOV lane or a toll to reduce increased
amount of demand.
THEORY OF CONGESTION

1. People spend a lot of time commuting and
often find it a burden.
2. According to standard economics, the burden
of commuting is chosen when compensated
either on the labor or on the housing market
so that individuals’ utility is equalized.
3. However, it has been found that people with
longer commuting time report systematically
lower subjective well-being.
4. The conclusion is that people with long
journeys to and from work are systematically
worse off and report significantly lower
subjective well-being. For economists, this
result on commuting is paradoxical.
5. Typically a person’s commute versus the utility
they gain by their job is balanced. Recently
it has been found that this isn’t the case and
a person’s long commute is resulting in an
imbalance with a lower well-being. For many
people, commuting seems to encompass
stress that does not pay off.
6. Commuting is also interesting for economic
research conceptually. The decision to
commute is hardly regulated. People are
expected to freely optimize. This environment
allows for testing basic assumptions of the
economic approach, like market equilibrium.
Positive and normative theories in urban
and regional economics, as well as in public
economics, rely on a strong notion of
equilibrium. It is assumed that people who
can move freely and change jobs arbitrage
away any utility differentials between
people, whether they are due to residential
characteristics or due to covering distance.
7. Why are people choosing a worse commute?
It is important to understand this issue.
Depending on the city, people may have to
live far from work or they may be choosing to
live far from work.
8. For people who have to live far away from
work is it because 1) the work place is located
in an area where there is not housing nearby
or 2) is the work place is located in an area
where the rents are higher than what the
employees can afford?
9. For people who choose to live far from work
– the subjects in the Commuting Paradox
Theory – are they aware of the full cost of
commuting? Are they aware of other options
they have that could better balance the
equilibrium and provide better well-being?
THE COMMUTING PARADOX

1. Transportation is about more than just moving
people from point A to point B. It’s also a
system that can either limit or expand the
opportunities available to people based on
where they live. In many cities, the areas
with the shoddiest access to public transit
are the most impoverished—and the lack of
investment leaves many without easy access
to jobs, goods, and services.
2. Commuting time has been found as the single
strongest factor in the odds of escaping
poverty. The longer an average commute in
a given city, the worse the chances of low-
income families there moving up the ladder.
3. A longstanding theory exploring relationships
between transport and poverty from a
geographical perspective is the notion of
spatial mismatch. Developed primarily in
North America in the late 1970s, this theory is
mostly concerned with spatial barriers poorer
people face to access jobs in a context of
suburbanization and high car dependency.
4. Those who can afford to pay more for their
transport move to suburban areas; retail and
other services follow, taking jobs with them.
Cheaper, more affordable housing tends
to be located in areas with poor transport
connectivity and poor service provision, so
it becomes increasingly difficult for those
on lower incomes and without a car to
access jobs. Spatial Mismatch explains this
process of generation of barriers for access
to income resulting from the three-way
dynamic relationship between jobs, housing
and the transport network. In this context,
employment provides disposable income for
mobility, which allows job retention.
5. Spatial mismatch mainly addresses location
patterns of the poor in relation to main
concentrations of activities, access to
transport alternatives, and affordability of
travel. More recent studies deriving from
spatial mismatch theory also address the
effects of skills mismatch resulting from low-
level of education and production of spatial
entrapment. For example, mothers with young
children who have household responsibilities
and constrained schedules and often occupy
jobs that do not justify long commutes (i.e.
part-time, low wages often in retail, education
and healthcare). These dynamics generate
additional vulnerabilities and inequalities
within poor households.
INEQUITIES AMONG POOR / SPATIAL MISMATCH THEORY
An example of Commute Inequities in the San Francisco Bay Area

1. The continuous increased speed of urban
travel and reduction in cost, innovations in
transportation technology and investments
in the resulting physical infrastructure have
provided a powerful impetus for continuing
decentralization of urban areas.
2. These same developments have also fostered
rapid growth in the demand for transportation
services within urban areas, reshaping the
spatial and temporal patterns of personal
travel and freight transportation at the same
time they have influenced the developing
geography of urban land uses.
3. The primary influence of transportation
on metropolitan development patterns
is the critical role of transportation costs
of household and firm location decisions.
People choose to locate where the costs
of commuting to work exactly balances the
savings in housing costs that accrue from
living at a more distant location. Similarly, a
firm’s location will be determined based on
transporting costs, workers’ commuting costs,
and land rents.
4. Transportation demand spurs from the
development patterns of where households
and firms decide to locate. However, it has
been found that transportation demand isn’t
just derived from development patterns, but
instead derived from transportation costs.
5. For example, there are several known
associations between urban land use and
travel behavior. The first is residential density
and automobile use. Living in a dense place
will limit your vehicle usage, but even in this
case, the cost of commuting by car (time, fuel,
and maintenance) will still have more of an
affect on your travel behavior. If you can afford
it, no matter the land use, you will choose that
option.
6. Other associations include employment
clustering and its positive correlation with
commuting by transit, mixed land uses and
it’s correlation with trip length, and finally the
job/housing balance and commute distances.
All of these are influential on travel demand,
but the cost of transportation still trumps the
demand caused by land use.
TRANSPORTATION AND LAND USE
If land use patterns don’t have as much of an influence on transportation demand as cost, then as transportation planners we have
to use cost to influence the transportation demand. If we want to decrease the amount of drive alone rates, then we must target the
cost the person bares to own and operate the car. We could increase parking costs, charge by tolling, or increase licensing fees.
Even though it is determined cost affects travel demand more than land use, as transportation planners we should still focus efforts
on making better land use decisions that support transportation options alternative to driving alone.
CRITIQUES

FURTHER RESOURCES
Planetizen is a public-interest information exchange
for the urban planning, design, and development
community. It is a one-stop source for urban planning
news, editorials, book reviews, announcements, jobs,
education, and more.
PLANETIZEN.COM
CITYLAB.COM
Through original reporting, sharp analysis, and visual
storytelling, CityLab informs and inspires the people who
are creating the cities of the future—and those who want
to live there.
STREETFILMS.ORG
Streetfilms produces short films showing how smart
transportation design and policy can result in better
places to live, work and play.
American Planning Association is an independent,
not-for-profit educational organization that provides
leadership in the development of vital communities. We
measure our success by the successes of our members
and the communities they serve.
PLANNING.ORG
NACTO.ORG
The National Association of City Transportation Officials
(NACTO) represents large cities on transportation issues
of local, regional and national significance. NACTO
views the transportation departments of major cities as
effective and necessary partners in regional and national
transportation efforts, promoting their interests in federal
decision-making.
COPENHAGENIZE.EU
Copenhagenize Design Co. is your multi-disciplinary
“go-to team” for cities in all matters relating to bicycle
culture, planning, traffic and communications. We
approach every job from the human perspective - using
design, anthropology, sociology and common sense as
our points of departure.

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