An Assessment of Urban Form and Pedestrian and Transit Improvements as an Integrated GHG Reduction Strategy

This study is one of the first to test the effect of sidewalks on travel patterns and the first the authors know of to relate sidewalk availability with vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Recently, several large jurisdictions in King County, Washington have developed local sidewalk data layers, creating a new opportunity to look at pedestrian infrastructure alongside other investment and policy strategies associated with reduced VMT and CO2. The study used travel outcome data from the 2006 PSRC Household Activity Survey. The household-level analysis was restricted to households in King County cities where sidewalk data were already available, and modeled the association of urban form, pedestrian infrastructure, transit service and travel costs on VMT and CO2, while controlling for household characteristics known to influence travel. The results provide early evidence of the potential effectiveness of sidewalks to reduce CO2 and VMT, in addition to a mixed land use pattern, shorter transit travel and wait times, lower transit fares and higher parking costs. However, the lack of ability to collect sidewalk data from across all of King County limited the study results. The sample population was lacking in variation and skewed towards the more urban and walkable parts of King County. This contributed to difficulties with multicollinearity in the modeling process, which in turn may have limited the significance of other urban form variables that have been repeatedly associated with travel outcomes in other King County studies. This study is, however, an important first step towards a more complete understanding of how pedestrian investment, urban form, transit service and demand management (pricing) policy can interact to meet the state's goals for VMT reduction. The inclusion of sidewalk data from across the entire county or region will provide further, and more conclusive, insights.

• Record URL:
  http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/research/reports/fullreports/765.1.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/20279
• Corporate Authors:

  Urban Design 4 Health, Incorporated

  P.O. Box 85508
  Seattle, WA  United States  98145-1508

  Washington State Department of Transportation

  Research Office, Transportation Building, MS 47372
  Olympia, WA  United States  98504-7372

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Frank, Lawrence D
  • Greenwald, Michael J
  • Kavage, Sarah
  • Devlin, Andrew
• Publication Date: 2011-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Edition: Final Research Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 117p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Built environment; Carbon dioxide; Greenhouse gases; Improvements; Land use; Pedestrians; Public transit; Sidewalks; Travel costs; Vehicle miles of travel; Walking
• Uncontrolled Terms: Urban form
• Geographic Terms: King County (Washington)
• Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Public Transportation; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01341824
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: WA-RD 765.1
• Contract Numbers: Research Project Y-10845
• Files: NTL, TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 6 2011 3:57PM