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 | TCSP-1999 Grant Proposals"Development and Application of Integrated Land Use and Transportation Sketch Planning Methods" |
Development and Application of Integrated Land Use and Transportation Sketch Planning Methods
SUMMARY INFORMATION
| Type of Project Request: | Planning Grant |
| Project Title and Location: | Development and Application of Integrated Land Use and Transportation Sketch Planning Methods; Gainesville, Florida |
| Organization: | Gainesville Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization |
| Key Contact: | Mr. Marlie Sanderson |
| Address: | 2009 NW 67 Place, Suite A, Gainesville, FL 32606 |
| Phone/Fax/Email: | (352) 955-2200 / (352) 955-2209 / sanderson@ncfrpc.org |
| Grant Request: | $150,000 |
ABSTRACT
The TCSP planning grant is intended to support development of a set of sketch planning methods and simple model refinements to better estimate the effects of various land use, non-motorized transportation and transit strategies on travel choices and behavior. Using locally-collected travel survey data, the grant will enable development of analytical methods to post-process certain outputs of the traditional four-step travel demand forecasting process to better represent the land use-transportation connection. The goal is not methodological elegance but rather ease of use and improved predictive power. The scale of this activity is for the Gainesville metropolitan area (under 200,000 population), though it is designed to be inherently transferable to other areas seeking quantitative answers to land use-transportation questions. This activity will address all modes of travel, particularly as they relate to different land use characteristics within the metropolitan area.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The Gainesville Metropolitan Transportation Planning Organization (MTPO) and its partners have begun the process of updating the Transportation Plan for the Gainesville metropolitan area. The scope of services for the Transportation Plan update includes the careful consideration of coordinated land use and transportation alternatives. The purpose of developing and evaluating urban form alternatives is to preserve the quality of life in the Gainesville community, which necessarily means further developing and enhancing Gainesville’s multi-modal transportation system and making more efficient use of system facilities.
Gainesville has a window of opportunity to plan and implement new land use-transportation strategies; however, like most communities it cannot wait until the next generation of travel demand models is available from the federal Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP). Nor can it afford to develop LUTRAQ-like best practice models of its own. Gainesville and other smaller MPOs need relatively simple new tools to better quantify the effectiveness of transportation system and community preservation strategies.
The Gainesville area is at the forefront of promoting the use of alternative travel modes through a variety of strategies that include public policy, engineering, urban design, land use planning and education. While its university setting contributes to a relatively high mode share for bicycle and pedestrian travel, the community has placed an emphasis on creating a supportive environment for those modes. Transit ridership has grown tremendously over the past year. Haile Plantation in Southwest Gainesville is one of the earliest examples of successful New Urbanist development in the nation. Several strategic initiatives have been employed to promote in-fill development and re-development activity within the area’s urban core; however, there is much work to be done. The market demand for housing and commercial development remains largely in rural transitioning areas at the edge of the metropolitan area boundary. Much of the development pattern in those areas is suburban in character, with a reliance on single occupant automobile travel. Changing the predominant development pattern requires persuasive arguments supported by measurable standards.
In spite of the qualms people have about models, the transportation planning process is still driven by them. They are universally applied and relied upon for testing alternatives. Unfortunately, the current state of modeling does not adequately address the impacts of land use and design features on travel behavior. As more and more interest is expressed in proactive land use planning, transit-oriented development, neo-traditional neighborhoods and other non-transportation solutions to transportation problems, the shortcomings of existing models have become increasingly evident.
APPROACH
Funding from the TCSP pilot program will be used to develop and apply a set of integrated sketch planning methods to provide technical support for the MTPO’s Transportation Plan Update. These sketch planning methods and model refinements would be specific to Gainesville, enabling the MTPO and its partners to build a stronger technical case for various new land use, transit and non-motorized transportation strategies that do not test well using conventional four-step models. However, the processes used to develop the techniques through the TCSP program, and the benefits in terms of improved explanatory power, would be sufficiently well-documented for any metropolitan planning organization to replicate. The funds would be used in the following fashion:
Upgrading the Conventional 4-Step Travel Demand Model
There is now widespread recognition that conventional 4-step travel demand models used in transportation planning throughout the U.S. are not sensitive to micro-land-use impacts on travel patterns. From travel research, household travel choices are known to depend on the density and mix of land uses at origins and destinations. That is, trip frequencies, destination choices, mode choices, departure times, and trip chaining behavior are all affected by density and mix. But none of these effects is captured in conventional modeling practice. Mode choices, in addition, are affected by urban design characteristics of origins and destinations, characteristics such as sidewalk continuity and building setback. These effects are also ignored in conventional modeling practice.
Metropolitan planning organizations wishing to capture such effects through model enhancements have only two options at this time: develop "best practice" travel models like those of Portland, OR, and Montgomery County, MD.…or wait until a new generation of travel models becomes available from the federal Travel Model Improvement Program and then implement them locally. Both options involve high costs and long lead times, with no guarantee of success.
There could be a third alternative. In a recent land use/transit plan update in Charlotte, NC, members of the same team preparing the long-range transportation plan for Gainesville used sketch planning methods to pre-process model inputs and post-process model outputs. The purpose was to better represent the land use-transportation connection. These analytical techniques are needed to improve the level of information for decision-making about land use and transportation relationships. Many of these relationships are assumed, but lacking quantitative information, it is often difficult to make convincing arguments to the development community and elected officials.
This grant would support the development of a range of potential sketch planning methods and simple model refinements that are specific to Gainesville. However, the processes used to develop them, and the benefits in terms of improved explanatory power, would be sufficiently well-documented for any metropolitan planning organization to replicate them.
The following are candidate model enhancements that could be developed for and applied to Gainesville. By working in concert with the metropolitan planning process, and by including the active participation of our study partners, we will screen these candidate enhancements for development; however, all will be sufficiently investigated and evaluated to determine their reliability and applicability to the development of the Transportation Plan. The candidate enhancements include:
(1) Development of a simple car shedding procedure as an input to trip generation.
Conventional trip generation models consider only the socioeconomic characteristics of households, not the built environment in which they reside. Vehicle ownership, a major input to trip generation models, is known to decline with rising residential density and rising regional accessibility, holding household socioeconomic characteristics constant. A simple car shedding procedure will be developed for Gainesville that adjusts vehicle ownership rates in traffic analysis zones to reflect changes in density or accessibility relative to the trend line. The project seeks to achieve a level of methodological sophistication that is simple but empirically based.
(2) Addition of a "transit friendliness factor" to the existing mode choice model.
Conventional logit mode choice models base the probabilities of mode selection on performance characteristics of alternative modes (e.g., travel times between zone pairs by bus and auto) and on socioeconomic characteristics of travelers (e.g., number of vehicles owned by households). They neglect the land use and design features of origins and destinations, which also affect mode choices. A half dozen pedestrian- and transit-friendliness factors have been developed and tested in different areas of the U.S. From these studies, we know which land use and urban design characteristics are likely to affect mode choices in Gainesville. By gathering data on each feature by traffic analysis zone, it will be possible to test different composite factors for their explanatory power when added to Gainesville’s mode choice model. Many of the relevant characteristics can be read directly off aerial photos (for example, sidewalk continuity). Others can be derived from data already collected in the conventional modeling process (for example, gross density).
(3) Development of a simple peak-spreading model for factoring daily trip tables to obtain peak-hour trip tables.
Conventional travel demand models apply fixed factors to daily trip tables or daily link volumes to obtain peak hour forecasts for purposes of capacity analysis. The factors may vary by area or functional class of roadway, but they do not vary with land use characteristics. It has long been known that as an area urbanizes and densifies, traffic congestion causes travelers to shift travel times from the peak hour to the shoulders of the peak or to off-peak hours. Using 24-hour traffic counts and/or daily travel diaries, it is possible to relate peak-to-daily ratios to the density of development or, alternatively, to congestion levels. This will be done in Gainesville to make peak-hour travel forecasts more sensitive to land use patterns.
(4) Development of a linked trip accessibility measure to distribute interzonal trips with the gravity model.
Conventional travel models generate and distribute all trips as if they were unlinked to one another, when in fact a majority of trips today are part of multi-destination trip chains. For example, a work commute trip, with a stop to drop off a school-age child, is treated as a home-to-school trip and an unrelated non-home-based trip. The essential character of the trip, a commute to work, is lost in the process. The next generation of models will be "dynamic" and "activity-based," generating trip chains that can then be decomposed and distributed. In the interim, a simple adjustment to conventional trip distribution models would help capture one aspect of trip chaining behavior—the tendency of travelers to favor destinations that permit efficient trip chaining. The standard gravity model distributes trips in proportion to opportunities at alternative destination zones and interzonal friction factors (reflecting interzonal travel times). An alternative model will be developed which adjusts the attraction term in the gravity model for the accessibility of destination zones to other activity sites.
(5) Development of a sketch planning model to predict intrazonal trips in terms of zonal densities, land use mixes, and transit and pedestrian friendliness.
Intrazonal trips are poorly represented by the conventional 4-step process. All productions and attractions are assumed to be located at the centroid of a zone, rather than distributed across the zone. When it comes time to distribute trips, the zone producing trips is treated as just one more zone that might attract such trips, separated from itself by a travel time or cost usually expressed as an arbitrary fraction of travel time or cost to neighboring zones. The density and mix of development, and the pedestrian-friendliness, are not considered, when these are the precise factors that might cause trips to remain internal. This sketch planning refinement will mirror common procedures for predicting "internal capture" in traffic impact studies. Intrazonal trips will be modeled in terms of land use and design characteristics of the zone. But unlike traffic impact studies, the characteristics of the traveler and the accessibility of alternative zones will also be considered. Intrazonal trips will mostly likely be "subtracted off the top" at the beginning of the trip distribution step.
(6) Development of a simple procedure for adjusting future zonal densities to account for changes in regional accessibility due to transportation improvements.
The subject of induced demand or induced travel has become one of the most contentious in land use and transportation planning. It has been understood for decades that transportation investments redirect growth by increasing accessibility to certain parts of the region at the expense of others. The only issues are: how large are induced travel effects, and is it possible to forecast these effects with any accuracy? A Transportation Research Board committee looking into these issues failed to reach a consensus, a first for TRB. Regardless of the difficulty, the federal conformity rule for air quality nonattainment areas, as well as case law arising from a recent successful legal challenge in Northeastern Illinois, require that transportation improvements somehow be accounted for when forecasting future land use patterns. Integrated urban models such as MEPLAN, TRANUS, and UrbanSim (still under development) can capture induced travel through feedback between land use allocation submodels and travel forecasting submodels. However, these models are expensive and time consuming to implement, and results are sometimes disappointing. Lesser Lowry-based models (referring to Ira Lowry’s pioneering effort to model future land uses based on accessibility) suffer the same implementation problems and, in addition, lack the theoretical elegance of MEPLAN and the other economic models. Thus, the allocation of future land uses is usually left to political negotiation among local governments, trend extrapolation, or "expert" judgment. The sketch planning alternative is to post-process a future land use allocation, developed using one of these other methods, so as to account for changes in relative accessibility across the region. Using historical data, population and employment density changes can be correlated with changes in transportation accessibility, and the resulting elasticity estimates used in pivot-point forecasts of future land uses.
As described in subsequent sections of this proposal, a team of traditional and non-traditional partners will assist in reviewing, refining and applying these methods to the development of the long-range transportation plan for the Gainesville urbanized area.
Use of the TCSP to Fund a Special Travel Survey
This grant proposal includes funding for a targeted household behavior survey to develop the parameters and coefficients needed for post-processing standard travel demand model outputs. The inclusion of a household travel survey as part of this grant request was a source of comments and questions from the reviewers of the Letter of Intent in terms of the survey’s relevance to the objectives of the TCSP program.
The survey remains in our proposal for two principal reasons. First, and most importantly, it is a non-traditional survey that will be designed to gather essential data needed to develop the sketch planning methods for evaluating different urban form alternatives. The survey itself will be an innovative exercise in gathering data related to land use and transportation interaction. The survey is essential to the development of the TCSP products.
Second, consideration was given to obtaining non-federal funding for this travel survey; however, if the funds could be obtained, the timing would have eliminated any possibility of integrating the sketch planning methods with the update of the MTPO’s Transportation Plan. The source of these funds would have to come through the Florida Department of Transportation, which often funds household travel surveys in urban areas to improve modeling capabilities and performance. If the Department agreed to allocate funds for this survey, state budget constraints would result in a substantial delay in the availability of funds; potentially pushing back initial data collection efforts until late in 1999. This would eliminate any ability to incorporate the TCSP tools into the MTPO’s Transportation Plan update process, as well as delay the outcomes and products of the TCSP grant for evaluation purposes. In addition, while the Department is interested in conducting a household survey for regional model refinement and validation purposes, it would be cumbersome and extremely difficult, at best, to marry the objectives of the TCSP program with the Department’s standard household survey for model validation purposes. If an FDOT survey is to be conducted, it will occur in preparation for the next Transportation Plan update, which is not expected to occur for five more years.
Standard diary-based travel surveys, including those routinely funded by the State of Florida and its MPOs, are designed to support long-range transportation planning with a fixed future land use pattern and minimal non-motorized travel. The standard surveys are not adequate for purposes of evaluating urban form alternatives that coordinate land use and transportation and encourage travel by alternative modes. Specifically, standard diary-based surveys are widely believed to result in underreporting of short trips, underreporting of walk trips, and underreporting of multipurpose trips as part of tours. These are the trips of greatest import for coordinated land use and transportation planning.
Even where the walk mode is specifically identified in the diary form, which until recently was not the case in Florida, travelers tend to neglect these trips as they compile their diaries. From an activity-based perspective, the walk trip to friend’s home, nearby park, neighborhood school, or company cafeteria is important because it may substitute for a vehicle trip to a more remote location. Even where the primary trip is recorded in a travel diary, as is usually the case in Florida, the full range of activities engaged in along the way and at the primary destination are not identified. The trip to a shopping center is identified as a single trip when it may, in fact, be multiple trips linked via walking at the destination. Again, these linked walking trips are important because they may substitute for home- or work-based vehicle trips.
The survey conducted for the TSCP project will go to extraordinary lengths to minimize underreporting of such trips. Instructions for participants, and the diary forms themselves, will be structured to uncover all activities engaged in during the day. Travel diary data will be collected through follow-up telephone interviews rather than the standard mail-in procedure. This will allow prompting of participants about short trips, walk trips, and linked trips. The resulting forms and procedures will be transferable to other areas that wish to engage in this kind coordinated land use and transportation planning.
Two additional elements that are not part of a standard travel survey will be included in this one. First, a stated preference (stated choice) exercise will be included on the travel survey form, or as an addendum to the form, to explore preferences related to land use-transportation options not yet available in the Gainesville market (transit-oriented developments, for example). Stated preference exercises are occasionally included in travel surveys. But to our knowledge, this will be the first attempt to link land use and transportation through such an exercise, at least as part of a travel survey. Second, if budget permits, a controlled test will be performed to determine the extent of underreporting of short, walk, and linked trips with standard diaries and procedures. Essentially, a comparison sample of respondents will initially be surveyed in the standard manner, and travel survey results will be statistically compared for the main sample and comparison group to judge the extent of underreporting. This information, too, will be of national interest. If significant differences are found between the samples, it will make a strong case for the use of the newly developed forms and procedures over the standard ones in communities wishing to do coordinated land use and transportation planning. This will be a component of the evaluation program for this grant.
PURPOSE AND CRITERIA
This proposal to use the TCSP program to fund the development of integrated land use-transportation sketch planning methods is inherently supportive of the TCSP objectives. We propose to develop new and innovative tools to measure transportation and land use interaction that are applicable to small- to mid-size urban areas that do not have the resources, time or desire to wait for state-of-the-art federal research or to undertake their own research into these parameters. By testing and applying these tools within the Gainesville metropolitan area 2020 Transportation Plan Update process, this proposal presents a real-world, practical evaluation for the development and use of these methods. Specific relationships of the project to the TCSP program are presented below.
The project will help improve the efficiency of the transportation system by developing more accurate methods of assessing strategies to moderate travel demand rather than meet demand. The tools will provide better measures for improved housing options in the downtown core area, increased transit service and accessibility, the provision of an inter-connected system of off-road trails and the further development of a grid street network with safe pedestrian facilities and traffic calming strategies. The use of these tools in the Plan Update process will support the City of Gainesville’s objective of shifting travel demand from several over capacity arterial roadways to its under utilized grid street network in the downtown area.
The project will help reduce the impacts of transportation on the environment by providing a better measure of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction through mode shifts and better capture of shorter trip lengths. The project will enable improved measurement of land use proximity, transit accessibility and a more attractive, revitalized urban core.
The project will support the effort to reduce costly future public infrastructure investments by allowing the development of a refined set of tools that measure, for example, changes in vehicle ownership in relation to rising residential density and regional accessibility. It will reduce the reliance on volume-to-capacity and travel speed measures, which are biased toward improvements in automobile mobility. It will serve as a decision-support tool to provide elected officials and others with a greater level of comfort in the predictive outcomes of relatively less expensive investments in land use design and non-automobile travel modes.
The project will help ensure access to jobs, services and centers of trade by measuring how increased transit service and clustered housing patterns can positively affect personal mobility. Gainesville has an economically disadvantaged area on the eastside of downtown that for years has faced economic disinvestment and isolation. Highway investments are seen by some as a critical factor in that area’s revitalization. This project will help illustrate how increased personal mobility and regional connectivity can improve access to economic opportunity.
The project will positively affect private development patterns by conveying to elected and appointed officials, real estate and land development interests how different strategies other than widening a road can be effective at achieving broader community goals and objectives. By integrating the TCSP grant with the development of the metropolitan Transportation Plan, the project will include a series of roundtable discussions with development interests to gain additional insight into perceptions and market trends, as well as to convey study objectives and findings. In addition, Gainesville has several over-capacity roadway corridors in the downtown core area. Florida’s growth management requirements often serve as a disincentive for increased development density in congested areas. Better tools to show how higher densities can reduce VMT would help discourage urban sprawl.
COORDINATION
As stated previously, this TCSP grant request proposes to develop innovative planning tools that will be integrated into the metropolitan planning process through the development of the Transportation Plan. The update of the Gainesville Metropolitan Area Transportation Plan involves a strategic visioning process to help develop and evaluate alternative land use/urban form scenarios. The intent is to create a livable transportation system that supports sustainable community goals and economic opportunity. The sketch planning methods developed through this grant will be used to test alternative urban form scenarios, with better predictive power than traditional models for such considerations as density, mix of use and accessibility.
Even beyond the Transportation Plan update, these tools can be helpful in the on-going metropolitan planning process through the Congestion Management System and Transportation Improvement Program. Furthermore, these methods directly support efforts to achieve three of the seven factors in TEA-21.
PARTNERS
The effort will be led by the Gainesville MTPO, which is managing the update of the Transportation Plan. The MTPO is a uniquely structured planning agency, in that its 10 governing members include all five elected officials from both the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners and the Gainesville City Commission. Any MTPO action requires a majority of both commissions. This structure ensures a broad base of support on transportation planning and implementation issues.
STUDY PARTNERS City of Gainsville PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS Whit Blanton, AICP, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Reid Ewing, Ph.D. |
The non-profit organization, Sustainable Alachua County, Inc., will play a significant role in this project. Sustainable Alachua County (SAC) is a 300-member non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1996. It is a citizens organization that seeks change in public and private policy that will protect the environment and ensure a healthy economy through sound growth management strategies and efficient multi-modal transportation. SAC has held several town meetings featuring a variety of national speakers to heighten community awareness about sustainable development. In June 1997, SAC organized and presented a Community Summit on several local issues related to community development. Since that summit, SAC’s town meetings have focused on smart growth and citizen participation. SAC has been actively involved in reviewing the state-mandated comprehensive plans for the City of Gainesville and Alachua County. These plans are the local governments’ blueprints for managing growth.
SAC is managed by a steering committee of volunteer members. Members are invited to serve on SAC Focus Teams dealing with the following issues: land use and transportation, conservation and natural systems, neighborhoods, schools, recreation, housing and green economy and resource efficiency.
SAC will serve as a sounding board for citizen input into the application of the sketch planning methods. The technical team members will identify and evaluate the various factors to determine significance, and then bring those factors to SAC for them to choose which should be measured and the applied in the planning process.
One of SAC’s roles in this grant will be to provide in-kind services as part of the project team. Such services will include performing quantitative assessments of the quality of the urban environment, such as measuring transit and pedestrian friendliness factors in sample traffic analysis zones of the community. For example, SAC Focus Team members will be used to measure building setbacks and ease of crossing the street in various locations that exhibit different development characteristics. These measurements will help form the basis for the development of the sketch planning methods to post-process model outputs.
The MTPO’s advisory committees will also be actively involved in this project. They include the Technical Advisory Committee, with staff from the city, county, FDOT, Regional Transit System and the University of Florida; the Citizens Advisory Committee and the Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Board. Activities undertaken through this grant will be closely coordinated with these groups.
The technical activities funded through this grant application will be performed primarily by the consulting team selected by the MTPO to prepare the 2020 Transportation Plan Update. The team is led by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a major contractor providing transportation policy and technical support to FHWA’s Office of Environment and Planning and MPOs nationwide. SAIC will be joined in this activity by Reid Ewing, a nationally known transportation and land use researcher, author and consultant for Fehr & Peers.
SCHEDULE
The MTPO recognizes FHWA’s desire to get the products of the TCSP pilot program out quickly. Dissemination of findings and results from the grant will occur within 14 months of approval of the grant, and continuing application of the results will occur through the completion of the Transportation Plan Update, scheduled for December, 2000. Major milestones include completion of the household survey within six months of approval, development and application of the sketch planning methods within nine months, and holding the conference to present and discuss the results and applications within 12 months. The evaluation report for this project will be completed within 14 months of funding receipt. Upon selection, we will work with FHWA to prepare a schedule with major project milestones and progress reporting time points.
BUDGET and RESOURCES
By awarding this grant to the Gainesville area, FHWA can be assured that its value will extend far beyond the $150,000 budget requested. First, by integrating these planning methods into the development of the Transportation Plan, the TCSP funds will be used in tandem with other study activities to add value to the entire planning process. It will leverage other resources. Second, verbal commitments have been obtained from several study partners for in-kind services and facilities to help supplement the grant funds.
Sustainable Alachua County, Inc., will provide volunteer data collection and measurement support for the application of the model enhancement tools. The City of Gainesville has agreed to provide in-kind services of staff time to help geo-code responses from the household travel survey. The Florida Department of Transportation has committed to assist in the review and development of the survey questionnaire, and provide technical assistance to ensure synergy between this survey and any future household travel survey the Department might conduct to validate the regional model. The University of Florida may provide conference facilities and supporting materials to aid in dissemination of the survey results. Private and public sector sponsorship will be obtained to support the conference. Finally, the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council has committed in-kind staff services to assist in data collection, analysis and conference activities. All told, it is estimated that these non-federal resources (excluding the Transportation Plan update) could total approximately $30,000 in value.
The Gainesville community has successfully leveraged non-federal financial resources to help achieve community goals. For example, the University of Florida has committed to $3.5 million toward transit service in the Gainesville area under a Campus Master Plan development agreement. Additionally, the university is contributing $1 million for off-campus bicycle and pedestrian facilities as part of the Corridors to Campus program. Funding for the Transportation Plan Update, which provides the framework for the TCSP project, is largely through non-federal sources, such as the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, the State of Florida, City of Gainesville and Alachua County. The Transportation Plan update is funded at $260,000 for consultant services, excluding use of public agency staff resources.
Table 1 presents a break-out of the anticipated allocation of the grant funds. In-kind staff services and provision of facilities are excluded from this table. Travel costs include expenses for the principal investigators to be on site, as needed, for certain project activities, and for one representative to attend two national workshops on the TCSP project and evaluation.
Table 1
MAJOR COSTS BY PROJECT CATEGORY
TCSP Project Element and Category | Estimated Budget from TCSP Funds | Estimated Value of Non-Federal Contributions |
| TECHNICAL SERVICES | ||
Travel Survey | $25,000 | |
Development of Methods | $50,000 | $8,000 |
| Evaluation/Reporting | $17,000 | $4,000 |
| SURVEY IMPLEMENTATION | $40,000 | $10,000 |
| TRAVEL | $3,000 | |
| MATERIALS | $5,000 | $3,000 |
| CONFERENCE | $8,000 | $5,000 |
PROJECT EVALUATION PLAN
The evaluation plan is designed to assess the effectiveness of the planning activity from several interrelated perspectives. Table 2 presents the proposed evaluation matrix for this TCSP planning grant. These goals, objectives and performance measures are considered preliminary, and may be adjusted upon convening of partners at the outset of this project.
First is an evaluation of the process employed to identify the sketch planning methods, gather and analyze data needed to develop the methods, apply the methods to the needs of the Gainesville community, and integrate these new analytical methods into the process of updating the regional long range transportation plan. Second is an evaluation of the products of this effort.
Table 2
GOALS, OBJECTIVES AND PERFORMANCE MEASURES
PROCESS | |
Goals/Objectives | Performance Measures |
| Integration with the MPO planning process |
|
| Involve non-traditional partners |
|
| Respond to community input |
|
PRODUCTS | |
Goals/Objectives | Performance Measures |
| Survey instrument that that adequately measures short, walk and linked trips |
|
| Development of effective sketch planning methods |
|
OUTCOMES | |
Goals/Objectives | Performance Measures |
| Use of sketch tools to evaluate urban form alternatives |
|
| Applicability to other areas |
|
| Enhanced decision-making |
|
| Wide dissemination |
|
| Effect on plan elements |
|
| Relatively low cost products and applications |
|
The principal investigators, led by SAIC, will complete an evaluation report within 14 months of grant award. This report will serve as a concise, well-documented reference for the development and application of the sketch planning methods funded with this grant. The evaluation report will be drafted for an intended audience that includes FHWA and other agencies that might consider applying these methods and their lessons learned elsewhere.
The non-profit organization Sustainable Alachua County, Inc., will play a role in the evaluation process. Sustainable Alachua County will be involved in the evaluation of the sketch planning methods for their applicability to growth and development issues in and around Gainesville, and will serve in a role of citizen advisory group for this project. It should be noted that all of these evaluation methods will ultimately occur within the context of the Transportation Plan update, which is subject to its own evaluation process through the public participation process. The strategic visioning process for the 2020 Plan Update is enclosed as an attachment.
The evaluation and results will be disseminated through several methods. First, we propose to host an applications conference at the conclusion of the project. The conference will cover two days, and will feature innovative land use-transportation applications from across the nation. The Gainesville TCSP experience will serve as an effective backdrop for this conference; however, we expect to feature other models and tools. In-kind services and contributions from area local governments and the University of Florida will heavily leverage the relatively small share of TCSP funds applied to this conference.
Finally, the principal investigators will prepare reports, articles, presentations and project summaries for a variety of audiences and groups. This will not be limited only to professional organizations; efforts will be made to disseminate results and lessons learned to a wide array of interested groups, including those dealing with environmental and natural resources, the development community, planners and engineers, the transit industry and elected officials.
SUMMARY
The Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot Program (TCSP) provides an opportunity for the Gainesville metropolitan area to serve as a useful field test of the explanatory power of integrated land use and transportation planning methods in the development of a regional transportation plan. Because Gainesville is a relatively small metropolitan area, it serves as a fitting example for the many small- to mid-size MPOs in the nation that are seeking to address the land use and transportation connection through improved analytical methods. The conditions are excellent for an innovative approach to help develop transportation system and community strategies in Gainesville. This grant proposal would add value to the transportation planning process and body of professional knowledge on the subject of transportation and land use interaction.
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