Planning and Community Health Research Center

Transportation Alternatives

The way a community is planned — its land development patterns, transportation options, and community design — greatly impacts public and environmental health.

Travel behavior and transportation mode choice, or the decision to drive, use public transit, bike or walk to a destination, is heavily influenced by built and physical environment factors such as community design, land-use mix, residential density, street connectivity and transportation infrastructure.

Planners play an important role in shaping the built environment and providing transportation options and alternatives other than the automobile to all people in a community — children, adolescents, adults, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Through community visioning and goal setting processes, plan making, plan implementation, site design and development, and public facility siting, planners can help to create communities that provide multiple transportation options. These options include public transit and bicycle and pedestrian facilities, which in turn help to create compact, walkable communities that allow more mixing of land uses, balance jobs and housing, reduce reliance on cars, improve air quality, and ultimately improve public and environmental health.

Accessible Transit Services

The current automobile-centered transportation system does not adequately accommodate all users — children, adolescents, adults, people with disabilities, and the elderly.

Many people depend on public transportation as their primary means of transportation. Planners play an important role in providing public transportation (such as buses and trains) accessible by all users, regardless of age or physical ability.