Portland State University PDXScholar Transportation Research and Education Center TREC Final Reports (TREC) 10-2020 Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled, Encouraging Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficientrip T Chains Through Polycentric Development Reid Ewing University of Utah Keunhyun Park University of Utah Sadegh Sabouri University of Utah Torrey Lyons University of Utah Keuntae Kim University of Utah Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/trec_reports Part of the Transportation Commons, Urban Studies Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning CommonsSee next page for additional authors Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Ewing, R., Park, K., Sabouri, S., Lyons, T., Kim, K., Choi, D., Daly, K., Etminani Ghasrodashti, R., Kiani, F., Ameli, H, Tian, G., Gaspers, D., Hersey, J. Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), Encouraging Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficientrip T Chains Through Polycentric Development. NITC-RR-1217. Portland, OR: Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), 2020. https://dx.doi.org/10.15760/trec.255 This Report is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in TREC Final Reports by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Authors Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park, Sadegh Sabouri, Torrey Lyons, Keuntae Kim, Dong-ah Choi, Katherine Daly, and Roya Etminani Ghasrodashti This report is available at PDXScholar: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/trec_reports/217 Final Report 1217 October 2020 Photo by AndreyKrav/iStock Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled, Encourag- ing Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficient Trip Chains Through Polycentric Development Reid Ewing, Ph.D. Keunhyun Park, Sadegh Sabouri, Torrey Lyons, Keuntae Kim, Dong-ah Choi, Katherine Daly, Roya Etminani Ghasrodashti, Fatemeh Kiani, Hassan Ameli, Guang Tian, David Gaspers, and John Hersey NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNITIES nitc-utc.net Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled, Encouraging Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficient Trip Chains Through Polycentric Development Final Report NITC-RR-1217 by Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park, Sadegh Sabouri, Torrey Lyons, Keuntae Kim, Dong-ah Choi, Katherine Daly, Roya Etminani Ghasrodashti, Fatemeh Kiani, Hassan Ameli, Guang Tian, David Gaspers, and John Hersey University of Utah for National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) P.O. Box 751 Portland, OR 97207 October 2020 Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. NITC-RR-1217 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date October 2020 Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), Encouraging Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficient Trip Chains Through Polycentric Development 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Reid Ewing, Keunhyun Park, Sadegh Sabouri, Torrey Lyons, Keuntae Kim, Dong-ah Choi, Katherine Daly, Roya Etminani Ghasrodashti, Fatemeh Kiani, Hassan Ameli, Guang Tian, David Gaspers, John Hersey 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) University of Utah Department of City and Metropolitan Planning 11. Contract or Grant No. 375 South 1530 East, RM 235 AAC NITC-1217 Salt Lake City, UT 84112 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Draft Final National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) September 2018 – March 2020 P.O. Box 751 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Portland, OR 97207 15. Supplementary Notes 16. Abstract Compact development can result in many benefits for communities and residents. Areas can connect compact developments through high-quality transportation options, creating a network of centers, or a “polycentric” region. This development pattern is very popular in Europe and is linked to significant benefits. Salt Lake County has organically developed several small centers, and with the right strategies could continue to fuel this kind of growth. The metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the region, the Wasatch Front Regional Council, has been planning for polycentric development since the Wasatch Choice for 2040 Vision was released in 2010. Our research is aimed at exploring the academic literature and empirical evidence surrounding polycentric development, analyzing more than 120 regional transportation plans (RTP) to see how they promote polycentric development, defining types of centers in a hierarchy of centers, quantifying the transportation benefits of polycentric development, examining a case study of best practices, and, finally, outlining context-specific strategies for Salt Lake County and the Wasatch Front. The resulting report will enable the county and MPO to make informed decisions about its future growth patterns, set realistic—yet visionary—goals, and improve the overall health of its residents and communities. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement No restrictions. Copies available from NITC: Polycentric Development, Center, Polycentricity, Compact www.nitc-utc.net Development, Regional Transportation Plan, Trip Chaining 19. Security Classification (of this report) 20. Security Classification (of this 21. No. of Pages 22. Price page) Unclassified Unclassified 138 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge partial support from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC; grant number 1217), a U.S. DOT University Transportation Center and the National Science Foundation (NSF; Grant number BCS- 123456), Utah Department of Transportation, Utah Transit Authority, Wasatch Front Regional Council, and Mountainland Association of Governments. DISCLAIMER The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are solely responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the material and information presented herein. This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Centers Program in the interest of information exchange. The U.S. Government assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views of the U.S. Government. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. RECOMMENDED CITATION Ewing, R., Park, K., Sabouri, S., Lyons, T., Kim, K., Choi, D., Daly, K., Etminani Ghasrodashti, R., Kiani, F., Ameli, H, Tian, G., Gaspers, D., Hersey, J. Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), Encouraging Walk Trips, and Facilitating Efficient Trip Chains Through Polycentric Development. NITC-RR-1217. Portland, OR: Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC), 2020. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 4 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 8 3.0 ANALYSIS OF REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLANS (RTP) AND DEFINITIONS OF CENTER TYPES ............................................................................. 10 3.1 DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTERS BY TYPE .................... 10 3.1.1 Regional Center .......................................................................................... 11 3.1.2 Urban Center ............................................................................................... 11 3.1.3 Activity Center ............................................................................................. 12 3.1.4 Town Center ................................................................................................ 12 3.1.5 Employment Center ..................................................................................... 12 3.2 QUANTITATIVE CRITERIA FOR IDENTIFYING CENTERS.............................. 13 3.2.1 Density ........................................................................................................ 13 3.2.2 Total Population and Employment ............................................................... 13 3.2.3 Area Size ..................................................................................................... 14 3.2.4 Others.......................................................................................................... 14 4.0 REVIEW OF SCENARIO PLANS TO IDENTIFY COMMON SCENARIO TYPES 15 4.1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 15 4.2 SCENARIO PLANNING CASE SELECTION ..................................................... 15 4.3 METHODS.......................................................................................................... 16 4.4 ANALYSIS RESULTS ........................................................................................ 18 4.4.1 VMT and Centeredness............................................................................... 18 4.4.2 Density and Centeredness .......................................................................... 20 4.5 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................. 21 5.0 IDENTIFICATION OF CURRENT AND POTENTIAL CENTERS NATIONALLY AND IN WASATCH FRONT ......................................................................................... 22 5.1 STUDY REGIONS AND DATA ..........................................................................