Track: Transportation
Transportation System and Travel Time Impact on Urban Development
Adiele NwankwoTina Roberts
SEMCOG has introduced GIS technology beyond the scope of general planning activities to include methods to analyze the relationship between urbanization and the transportation systems. The objective of this work is to gain an understanding of the historical relationship among land use patterns, different transportation modes, and commuting patterns in southeast Michigan. In addition, this information will assist in the development of applications to determine future impacts on land use due to the rapid technological advancements in transportation systems. This work examines the impact of transportation systems on travel times and the urbanization process. It is accomplished, in part, by developing a database of all House Hold Survey information available. This database includes the 1953 House Hold Survey for the southeast Michigan area, one of the first surveys of its type conducted in the nation. Other surveys incorporated are the 1965, 1980, and 1994 surveys for the Detroit metropolitan area. GIS is the ideal tool to implement the task of examining the historical transportation impacts on land use, development density, and commuting patterns. Different GIS techniques implemented in this project using the Esri GIS tools include geocoding the most recent survey conducted in 1994, digitizing land use/land cover maps for each available time frame, and attributing the current road network with construction phases and times. Finally, a database was created containing the different transportation network options available (such as street cars, buses, and rapid rail) within each urbanization time period. With this in place, the ability to examine the relationship between transportation systems and land area/use is explored through the use of spatial analysis tools developed for this project. Additional items covered in the paper outline the challenges of gathering, processing, and verifying historical data taken at different times and for different areas of study. This work will create a historical records system of the transportation foundations that affected and shaped land use while preserving the institutional memory that is quickly disappearing from many organizations. If what the future will hold for us as a society can be determined in part by the past, then this work will be instrumental in planning for the impacts of ITS on land use, densities, and commuting patterns.
Adiele Nwankwo
Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG)
660 Plaza Drive
Detriot, MI 48226-4266
USA
Telephone: (313) 961-4266
Fax: (313) 961-4869
E-mail: nwankwo@semcog.org