Planning for sustainability - Analyzing the fit between land use policy and transit investments

This paper documents a research project being carried out by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT.) The goal of the project is to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of urban areas through compatible systems-level planning of land uses, urban form, and investments in public transportation facilities. The project also seeks to improve the communication of these concepts to elected officials and the public through the development of enhanced visualization techniques. The research is intended to answer questions about the interactions of land use policies and transit investments, posed in two forms. First, if alternative transit investment proposals are being evaluated for a community, what land use policies will be needed to optimize the effectiveness of those investments? Second, if specific changes in land use policy are being considered for a community, what types of transit investment will be most cost-effective for each land use policy scenario?.