Case Study:

Albany, New York

Context

The Capital District of New York is a four-county region with a population of 872,000. The district includes the cities of Albany, Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs (Figure 1). Regional vehicle-miles of travel (VMT) growth is greatly outstripping population growth; between 1980 and 1990 peak hour VMT increased by 37 percent while regional population increased by only five percent.

Figure 1. New York's Capital District

Source: Capital District Transportation Commission.

Figure 2. Excess Delay with Year 2015 Travel

Source: Capital District Transportation Commission.

The Capital District Transportation Commission's (CDTC) New Visions long-range transportation plan was developed between 1993 and 1997. The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) developed baseline land use forecasts that were used as a starting point for this plan. In the context of regional trends toward dispersal, participants in the New Visions planning process recognized the importance of land use policies for transportation planning and felt that the strong influences of land use and transportation on each other should not be ignored. As part of the New Visions process, a Demographic, Land Use, and Growth Futures Task Force was formed. The task force constructed various land use and development scenarios to evaluate the regional impacts of different policy choices. These scenarios took the form of "what if" questions that allowed discussion of which development patterns might be more desirable than others.

CDTC developed its land use model to assist in framing these "what if" questions quantitatively. The model was designed to provide insight into questions such as:

• What are the impacts of future congestion on land use patterns?
• How would tax policies, such as a regional property tax, affect development patterns?
• What are the potential land use impacts of other actions to guide development, such as zoning changes and actions to increase the attractiveness of urban reinvestment?
• How would these land use changes, in turn, affect regional congestion, mobility, and transportation options?

CDTC realized that even if a desirable development pattern could be articulated, there would be no guarantee that it could be achieved. They further realized that a variety of other social and economic impacts, in addition to transportation mobility and land development, need to be considered when evaluating policy options. Nevertheless, participants in the New Visions process found the insights provided by the land use model to be useful in assessing future alternatives and in making policy recommendations.

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