NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
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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.
ISBN 0-309-08260-9 (Hardcover)
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
Additional copies of this report are available from:
National Academy Press.
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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.
Copyright 2002 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Engineering
Institute of Medicine
National Research Council
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
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COMMITTEE ON IDENTIFYING DATA NEEDS FOR PLACE-BASED DECISION MAKING
KATHLEEN E. STEIN, Chair,
Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
ANN AZARI,
Ann Azari Consulting, Fort Collins, Colorado
ROGER E. BOLTON,
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts
WILLIAM J. CRAIG,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
ROBERT T. DUNPHY,
Urban Land Institute, Washington, D.C.
CHARLES E. HOWARD, Jr.,
Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia
RANDY JOHNSON,
Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, Hennepin County, Minneapolis, Minnesota
PAUL L. KNOX,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
HARVEY J. MILLER,
University of Utah, Salt Lake City
JENNIFER R. WOLCH,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
National Research Council Staff
LISA M. VANDEMARK, Study Director
MONICA R. LIPSCOMB, Research Assistant (from May 2001)
SUSAN B. MOCKLER, Research Associate (September 2000 to March 2001)
VERNA J. BOWEN, Administrative Assistant
COMMITTEE ON GEOGRAPHY
BILLIE L. TURNER II, Chair,
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
BERNARD O. BAUER,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
RUTH S. DEFRIES,
University of Maryland, College Park
ROGER M. DOWNS,
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
MICHAEL F. GOODCHILD,
University of California, Santa Barbara
SUSAN HANSON,
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
ERIC S. SHEPPARD,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
NRC Staff
LISA VANDEMARK, Program Officer
KRISTEN KRAPF, Program Officer
MONICA R. LIPSCOMB, Research Assistant
VERNA BOWEN, Administrative Assistant
BOARD ON EARTH SCIENCES AND RESOURCES
RAYMOND JEANLOZ, Chair,
University of California, Berkeley
JILL BANFIELD,
University of California, Berkeley
STEVEN R. BOHLEN,
Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Washington, D.C.
VICKI J. COWART,
Colorado Geological Survey, Denver
DAVID L. DILCHER,
University of Florida, Gainesville
ADAM M. DZIEWONSKI,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
WILLIAM L. GRAF,
Arizona State University, Tempe
RHEA GRAHAM,
New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission, Albuquerque
GEORGE M. HORNBERGER,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
DIANNE R. NIELSON,
Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Salt Lake City
MARK SCHAEFER,
NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia
BILLIE L. TURNER II,
Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
THOMAS J. WILBANKS,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee
National Research Council Staff
ANTHONY R. DE SOUZA, Director
TAMARA L. DICKINSON, Senior Program Officer
DAVID A. FEARY, Senior Program Officer
ANNE M. LINN, Senior Program Officer
PAUL M. CUTLER, Program Officer
LISA M. VANDEMARK, Program Officer
KRISTEN L. KRAPF, Program Officer
KERI H. MOORE, Program Officer
MONICA R. LIPSCOMB, Research Assistant
JENNIFER T. ESTEP, Administrative Associate
VERNA J. BOWEN, Administrative Associate
RADHIKA S. CHARI, Senior Project Assistant
YVONNE P. FORSBERGH, Research Assistant
KAREN L. IMHOF, Senior Project Assistant
SHANNON L. RUDDY, Senior Project Assistant
TERESIA K. WILMORE, Project Assistant
WINFIELD SWANSON, Editor
Acknowledgments
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Carl Abbott, Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
Jonathan Barnett, Independent Consultant, Washington, D.C.
Bruce Cahan, Urban Logic, Inc. New York, New York
Deborah Knopman, RAND, Arlington, Virginia
Keith Laughlin, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Washington, D.C.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Dr. Susan Cutter, University of South Carolina, Columbia. Appointed by the
National Research Council, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
In addition, we wish to thank the participants in the Workshop on Transportation Decision Making: Place, Community, and Quality of Life that was held at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California, on January 27-29, 2001. These participants’ names are listed in Appendix B. Several of the participants presented case histories at the workshop that are included in this report. For contributing to the development of case studies presented in this report, the committee thanks Stacy Fehlenberg, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Atlanta, Georgia; Dennis Goreham, Automated Geographic Research Center, Salt Lake City, Utah; Natalie Gochnour, Demographic & Economic Analysis, Salt Lake City, Utah; Jacky Grimshaw, Center for Neighborhood Technology; Transportation and Air Quality Programs, Chicago, Illinois; Bob Nagel, Automated Geographic Research Center, Salt Lake City, Utah; Carol Swenson, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; Hannah Twaddell, Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization, Charlottesville, Virginia; Dennis Welsch, City of Roseville, Minnesota.
A workshop on federal data provision was held at the National Research Council on February 5, 2001. We thank the following participants: Geoffrey Anderson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.; Daniel K. Cavanaugh, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia; John Eltinge, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Washington, D.C.; Hugh W. Knox, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D.C.; Richard Reeder, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.; U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C.; Leo B. Dougherty, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington, D.C.; David E. Chase, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, D.C.; Paul Dresler, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.; and Stacy Fehlenberg, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Atlanta, Georgia.
The committee also expresses its gratitude to other individuals who provided advice and materials for the report. We were assisted by Katherine Wallman, chief statistician, Office of Management and Budget; Andrew Reamer, principal, Andrew Reamer and Associates; Keith Laughlin, director, and Christopher Thomson, associate director, of Vice-President Gore’s White House Task Force on Livable Communities; Robert Sloane, senior planner, Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates; Michael Meyer, professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology; Roy Sparrow, professor of public administration, Robert F.
Wagner School of Public Service, New York University; and Tom Palmerlee, senior program officer, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council.
We are grateful for the assistance of the National Research Council staff in organizing the study and preparing the report. Staff members who contributed to this effort are Lisa M. Vandemark, study director and staff director of the Committee on Geography; Susan Mockler, research associate; Monica Lipscomb, research assistant and author of the case studies; and Verna Bowen, administrative associate. For preparation and editing of the final report, we also thank Shannon Ruddy, Winfield Swanson, and Teresia Wilmore.
Preface
In recent decades, dramatic changes have taken place in the nature of information, analyses, decision tools and processes, and the core considerations that go into transportation decision making. This expansion of scope and the profound democratization of planning and decision-making processes have created new requirements for data and associated analytical and decision-support tools. One challenge that has emerged is how to capture and reflect the complex interrelationships between transportation and the social, economic, land use, and environmental contexts of host communities so as to incorporate these into thoughtful decision making that will support, rather than harm, the livability of communities. A related challenge is how to meet the needs of diverse stakeholders, including planners and analysts who develop and assess both regional system-level transportation plans and potential project investments; public officials, charged with decision responsibilities but often lacking technical expertise in the disciplines that go into the analysis of decision choices; and community members and interest groups who care about the livability of their places, which are significantly impacted by transportation facilities and services.
In proposing this project to the National Research Council (NRC), the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) sought to meet the significant and growing need for more informed consideration of the complex and interrelated impacts of transportation decisions on the livability of communities. This effort was carried out under the auspices of the Committee on Geography of NRC’s Board on
Earth Sciences and Resources. The National Research Council charged the project committee with identifying the data and measures needed to make local and regional public decisions on transportation, land use planning, and economic development that aim to enhance “livability.” The committee was both inspired and challenged by a topic of such breadth and significance. The resulting work draws upon a wide body of knowledge and practice in disciplines ranging from geography to transportation planning, engineering, environmental analysis, and the economic, social, and political sciences.
One early issue that the committee revisited throughout its work was how to honor the broad scope of the topic while producing findings and recommendations that would be specific enough to be helpful to transportation planners, community members, and decision makers. In order to achieve this goal, the committee examined the concept of livable communities, the selection of livability indicators, and the means of measuring these indicators. Committee members also provided information on the use and availability of these data for public decision making. Additionally, the committee identified opportunities for meeting data needs at the federal level and reviewed the plans of federal agencies to make needed data available to the public.
Although much work remains to be done, the committee hopes that this report fulfills the expectations of its sponsors and aids all participants in the transportation decision process. We commend the wisdom and foresight of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics in requesting this study and in providing financial support to carry it out. In certain sections of this report, the committee focused on transportation in order to respond to the concerns and needs highlighted by BTS. Similar attention might be given to other major elements of public infrastructure, including water supply, because the issue of impacts on the livability of communities is equally germane there.
In addition to the acknowledgments, I extend my heartfelt thanks to Lisa Vandemark, our study director, who contributed wise guidance and hard work at every step along the way, and to the committee members who gave generously of their expertise, energy, and insights in researching this topic and preparing the following report.
Kathleen E. Stein
Chair