Benefits of Compact, Mixed Use Development

This report investigates four common assumptions of the transportation – land use connection:

1. Building more highways will contribute to more sprawl.
2. Building more highways will lead to more driving.
3. Investing in light rail transit systems will increase densities.
4. Adopting New Urbanism design strategies will reduce automobile use.

It argues that these assumptions may be true under certain conditions, but that the research is largely inconclusive. The transportation – land use connection is not a linear relationship, but rather is mitigated by an unknown number of other factors that make it a particularly difficult relationship to research.