Case Study:

Albany, New York

Overview

Albany, NY Aerial View

This case study illustrates the application of a basic land use model to assess the affects of potential land use shifts on congestion. The model was developed quickly and with low data requirements compared to a large-scale land use-transportation model. The approach can be useful for small or medium size MPOs wishing to assess the impacts of feedback between transportation and development patterns.

The Capital District, a four-county region surrounding Albany, New York, has experienced dramatic growth in vehicle-miles of travel (VMT) in recent years, which has far outstripped population growth. One cause of this rapid growth in VMT has been the dispersal of population and employment. While congestion does not yet represent a major threat to the area, future traffic increases are projected to increase traffic delay greatly and to affect transit and freight movement negatively.

Participants in the area's recent "New Visions" long-range transportation planning process expressed concerns over these trends and, in particular, over the transportation impacts of current and projected development patterns. In response, the Capital District Transportation Committee (CDTC), the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for the Albany region, developed and applied a land-use "pivot" model. The model was applied to test the impacts of transportation actions, tax policies, zoning changes, and urban reinvestment on regional settlement patterns and mobility.

The results of the land use analysis showed that congestion by itself was likely to have a relatively small impact on regional settlement patterns. They also showed, however, that policies to encourage urban reinvestment could have a significantly positive impact on the transportation system. Traffic congestion and delay could also be reduced by locating new development in areas where excess highway capacity exists, away from critical congestion corridors.

This case study illustrates how a basic land use model can be applied, with relatively little effort, to expand the range of policies and impacts that are considered in the transportation planning process.

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