THE LAND-USE/

TRANSPORTATION
SYSTEM

Compiled by:

ENGR. CARMELA R. MIRANDILLA, M.ENG., ASEAN ENG

land use/transportation cycle

◼ It was demonstrated that a piece of land with

a particular type of land use produces a
certain number of trips. These trips indicate
the need for transportation facilities in order
to serve the trip making demand.
◼ In turn, the new or improved transportation
facilities provide better accessibility. Naturally,
the demand to develop this land increases
because of its improved accessibility, causing
its land value to increase.
◼ Eventually, the original land use changes
(usually to a higher intensity), reflecting the
state of the land market; and so the cycle
continues. Although this is a simplified
description of the land use/transportation
cycle, it represents the interactive nature of
these two components.
Urban System Components

In a democratic society, land has historically been

used by its owner for whatever purposes the owner
saw fit. As society evolved, limitations were placed
on such use, particularly if such use was likely to
affect neighboring property negatively. As the need
for decent housing, safe streets and proper sewer
and water facilities grew, governmental agencies
and private concerns saw the need for planning and
regulating the use of land.
Concepts and Definitions

◼ Urban form.The arrangement of individual

elements---such as buildings, streets,
parks, and other land uses (collectively
called the built environment), as well as the
social groups, economic activities, and
public institutions, within an urban area, is
recognized as the urban form
◼ Urban interaction. This is the collective set
of interrelationships, linkages and flows that
occurs to integrate and bind the pattern and
behavior of individual land uses, groups and
activities into the functtioning entities or
subsystems.
◼ Urban spatial structure. This structure
formally combines the urban form through
the urban interaction with a set or
organizational rules into a city system.
◼ Comprehensive plan. The basic overall plan
is usually the comprehensive plan,
sometimes referred to as the master plan or
general plan.
◼ Guidelines. In some cases, a set of
guidelines for development may serve as a
recommended alternative in land-use plan.
◼ Legislations. Some of the recommendations
from the land-use plan can be transformed
into bills that can be submitted to the
legislative body for possible enactment into
law.
◼ Codes. Housing and building codes are
important implementation techniques for
land-use management. They ensure the
quality of community growth by establishing
certain standards. Codes are most commonly
used at the local municipal level.
◼ Zoning. It is the oldest and most commonly
used legal device for implementing local land-
use plans. It is a means of assuring that land
uses in a geographical unit are compatible in
relation to one another.
◼ Subdivision regulations. These regulations
complement the local zoning ordinances but
cannot supersede them.
◼ Infrastructure. The life support facilities of a
geographic unit are collectively referred to as
the infrastructure. It consists of all those basic
elements that makes an urban area function:
transportation facilities, sewer and water
facilities, highway, housing, harbors, pipeline
etc.
LAND USE AND TRANSPORTATION

The movement of people and goods in a city,

referred to as traffic flow, is the joint
consequence of land activity (demand) and
the capability of the transportation system to
handle this traffic flow (supply).
One of the primary objectives of planning any
land use and transportation system is to
ensure that there is an efficient balance
between land-use activity and
transportation capability.
The relationships between transportation and land
development are viewed in three different contexts:

1. Physical relationships at the macroscale, which

are of long term significance and generally
considered as part of the planning process.
2. Physical relationships at the microscale, which are
both of short and long term significance and
generally considered as urban design issues
3. Process relationships, which deal with the legal,
administrative, financial and institutional aspects of
coordinating land and transportaion development
Characteristics of Land-Use Forcasting
and the Land-Use Plan
◼ Land-use and transportation alternative plans
are usually proposed and prepared for a city
because it is only when several different
options are examined that it is possible to
select and adopt a realistic city plan.
Classification of Land-Use Model
Land-use models can be classified in numerous ways in terms of their sophistication:

◼ Level 1 (the least sophisticated)involves the setting

up of alternative physical patterns of land
development.
◼ Level 2 models, the simple concept of the urban
development process for spatially allocating
households and employment is introduced along
with the staging of transportation and other
infrastructure construction.
◼ Level 3 models make more sophisticated use of
concepts of the development process, including a
wider range of policy specification.
Land-Use models serve two distinct
purposes:
1. Forecasting the total activities of an urban
area

2. Allocating these activities among a

predetermined set
SUMMARY

Transportation can be visualized as the

consequence of the fact that different
types of land uses in the city are
spatially separated. At the same time,
enhanced mobility also can be seen
as contributing to increased
separation of land-use.
SUMMARY
This symbiotic relationship between
transportation and land use produces the
movement and traffic flow patterns seen in
urban areas. The accessibility of places
has a major impact on land values, and
the location of a place within the
transportation network determines its
accessibility. Thus, in the long run, the
transportation system, and the traffic flows
on it, shapes the land use pattern. Notice
the large percentage of land occupied by
streets and highways in any city.
All movement in a city incurs a cost of some
sort, neasured in terms of time and/or money.
There is a trade off involved in the decision to
make a trip. Because people generally value
travel time and want to minimize it, they do
not want to be too far away from the places
they need to visit regularly. This desire is an
important determinant of land-use patterns in
the city.
The basic concept underlying the relationship
between land use and transportation is
accessibility. In its broadest context,
accessibility refers to the ease of movement
between places.
Location theory provides a usefull tool to
understand where different urban activities
are located and why. Zoning and its effect on
land use show how the free-land market is
partially controlled for the benefits of its
citizen.
The land-use transportation relationship
indicates that thereare scores of variables
affecting the links between land use and
transportation.Some of the more important
ones are financial resources, industrial
activities,fuel cost, consumption and supply,
business structure, employment
opportunities, and population growth. All
these variables and their connections confirm
the fact that the urban fabric is one of the
most complicated in the world.
Land-use development models help urban
planners and transportation engineers to
understand the complexities of the urban
system, and above all, provide a means of
allocating urban growth to various parts of the
city using rational ideas.