Guidelines for a Polycentric Region to Reduce Vehicle Use and Increase Walking and Transit Use

Abstract

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The monocentric development pattern in the Alonso–Mills–Muth model underpinned theoretical discussions of urban form in the 1960s and 1970s and truly dominated theory up to the point when Joel Garreau published Edge City: Life on the New Frontier in the early 1990s. Monocentric development patterns remain dominant to this day among smaller metropolitan areas in the United States. However, for larger metropolitan areas in the United States, regional transportation plans suggest a paradigm shift to a polycentric structure. We review 126 regional transportation plans in the United States and find that a hierarchy of centers connected by high-quality transit has become the dominant vision for most of them. The plan for Salt Lake City (UT), for example, strives for a multicentered region even though secondary centers are only beginning to emerge beyond a dominant downtown. Generally missing from regional transportation plans are quantitative criteria for designating and guiding centers: In no case are the quantitative criteria empirically based on proven transportation benefits. Here we investigate how the built environment characteristics of centers are associated with people’s travel mode choices and vehicle use. We employ visual and exploratory approaches through a generalized additive model (GAM) to identify nonlinear relationships between travel outcomes and “D” variables (density, diversity, design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit) within centers. The model and plots help us recommend the built environment characteristics of centers.

Takeaway for practice: The built environment thresholds and relevant tools provided here can enable planners to make informed decisions about future growth patterns, set realistic—yet visionary—goals, and improve the overall health of its residents and communities. We provide strategies and tools that planning agencies, such as metropolitan planning organizations, transit agencies, and municipalities, can adopt to channel developments into centers.

Keywords:

• center
• generalized additive model
• polycentricity
• regional transportation plan
• travel mode choice

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

RESEARCH SUPPORT

This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Utah Department of Transportation, Utah Transit Authority, Wasatch Front Regional Council, and Mountainland Association of Governments. NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center at Portland State University and a U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Center.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Note

Notes

1 A household travel survey is a report of individual trips made by household members over a 24-h period. Trips are coded by household member number, purpose of trip, place of origin and destination, means of transportation, time of day, time spent in travel, and so forth. A travel diary is just the compilation of trips for an individual household member.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Keunhyun Park

KEUNHYUN PARK ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State University.

Reid Ewing

REID EWING ([email protected]) is distinguished professor of city and metropolitan planning at the University of Utah and associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association and Cities.

Sadegh Sabouri

SADEGH SABOURI ([email protected]) is a PhD student in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah.

Dong-ah Choi

DONG-AH CHOI ([email protected]) is a PhD student in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah.

Shima Hamidi

SHIMA HAMIDI ([email protected]) is Bloomberg assistant professor of public health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Guang Tian

GUANG TIAN ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans.