The relationship between land use, urban form and vehicle miles of travel: the state of knowledge and implications for transportation planning

This white paper provides a review of the literature and a synthesis of findings regarding the relationship between land use and urban form and the vehicle miles of travel by persons. The paper begins with a conceptual outline of the transportation-land use relationship. It synthesizes a broad review of the literature and explores various aspects of the state of knowledge regarding the transportation-land use relationship. Various perspectives and motivations, analytical methods, variables for measurement, and urban scale focuses are discussed in the paper. An overview of research findings categorized by geographic scale ranging from site level, to neighborhood level, to urban area level is provided. Policy Implications are provided and a concluding section offers observations on how the available knowledge can be used in decision-making.