1. What is Transportation Planning? To answer this question, I like the following discussion from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm50.htm#_Toc28050889 It provides a comprehensive context for transportation planning. Transportation Planning and Implementation Planning refers to a decision-making process that allows people’s needs, preferences and values to be reflected in decisions.

2. Planning for Desired Outcome (Scenario Planning) Good planning is forward-looking, based on a comprehensive, strategic, long-term vision of the outcomes that you want to achieve. It involves more than simply extrapolating past trends (called “predict and provide” planning). Road Widening Resulting from "Predict and Provide" Planning in Kingston, Jamaica (source: Garrick, Half-way-Tree Rd, Kingston 2004)

3. Planning Should Acknowledge Uncertainties in Decision Making Planning involves making decisions for the future, and therefore must deal with change and uncertainty. For example, it is not possible to know how changes in demographics, economics, technologies or consumer preferences will affect future travel patterns.

5. Planning for Development not for Growth Planners make a distinction between growth (increased quantity) and development (increased quality). In other words, growth means getting bigger while development means getting better.

6. Levels of Planning Impact Many planning decisions have direct and indirect impacts, which can be classified as below. 1. First level – Direct impacts (changes in travel conditions and costs). 2. Second level – Current indirect impacts (changes in travel behavior, tax revenue, and external impacts). 3. Third level – Long-term indirect impacts (changes in land use, economic development).

7. Levels of Planning Impact For example Increasing roadway capacity has first-level impacts of reducing traffic congestion and increasing vehicle traffic speeds. A second-level impact is that the increased traffic capacity may attract additional travel from other routes and times (Rebound Effects), and it may create barriers to walking and cycling. A third-level impact may be that over the long run, land use patterns become more dispersed and automobile dependent (Land Use Impacts). This is one source of so called 'inducted traffic' - traffic over and above what one would expect from just extrapolating from the past rate of growth.

8. Scales of Planning Planning also occurs at many different levels and scales. Some geographic scales reflect natural areas and boundaries and others of which reflect political jurisdictions (see table below). There are also temporal (time) scales: short-term usually refers to one or two years, mid-term usually refers to three to six years, and long-term usually refers to more than five years.

9. Goals and Objectives Goals are desired outcomes to be achieved, such as health, equity and happiness. Objectives are ways to achieve goals. During a planning process it is helpful to ask regularly, “What are we trying to achieve?” The ‘what’ is the goal – we develop objectives to achieve this goal. It is important not to confuse goals and objectives.

10. Goals and Objectives Goals are desired outcomes to be achieved, such as health, equity and happiness. Objectives are ways to achieve goals. During a planning process it is helpful to ask regularly, “What are we trying to achieve?” The ‘what’ is the goal – we develop objectives to achieve this goal. It is important not to confuse goals and objectives.

11. What is Transportation? Traffic, Mobility and Accessibility Traffic Conventional transportation often reflects the assumption that transportation means motor vehicle traffic. Mobility A more comprehensive approach reflects the assumption that transportation means personal mobility, measured in terms of person-trips and person-kilometers.. Accessibility The most comprehensive definition of transportation is Accessibility, the ability to reach desired goods, services and activities. This is the ultimate goal of most transportation, and so is the best definition to use in transportation planning.

12. Next Seven Slides Courtesy of Ian Lockwood and Paul Moore Glatting Jackson Kercher Anglin, Inc.

13. Access versus Mobility

14. 1949 Street Network – Access or Mobility?

15. Existing Street Network: Access or Mobility?

19. Access versus Mobility

20. Mobility?

21. Or Access?

22. Vehicle traffic is relatively easy to measure, so transportation system quality tends to be evaluated based largely on automobile travel conditions (e.g., average traffic speeds, roadway Level-of-Service, vehicle congestion delay, vehicle operating costs, parking supply), while ignoring other accessibility impacts, including impacts on transit service quality, non-motorized transport and land use accessibility. This tends to favor automobile-oriented solutions, and undervalues alternative solutions to transportation problems.