NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by an agreement between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for this project.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Community and quality of life : data needs for informed decision making / Committee on Identifying Data Needs for Place-Based Decision Making ; Committee on Geography.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Quality of life—United States. 2. Quality of life—United States—Decision making. 3. Community development, Urban—United States—Citizen participation. 4. Transportation—United States—Planing—Citizen participation. I. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Identifying Data Needs for Place-Based Decision Making. II. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Geography.

HN60 .C64 2002

306'.0973—dc21

2002006877

Cover: Background: Plans, metropolitan highway radials, Boston, Mass., courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

Foreground: Playing Children, courtesy of PhotoDisc, Inc.; Town Square, Woodstock, Ill., 1941, photograph by John Vachon; Forest Hills Garden, sketch: Station Square, Forest Hills, Long Island (Borough of Queens), N.Y., 1910, courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.