Sustainability and Livability
Updated May 2013
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Sustainability and livability refer to development that enhances the human and natural environments now and in the future. Sustainability emphasizes balance between economic, social and environmental goals. It emphasizes the integrated nature of human activities and therefore the need for coordinated planning among different sectors, jurisdictions and groups. Livability refers to the subset of sustainability impacts that directly affect people in a community, including local economic development, local environmental quality, equity, affordability, public safety and health, and community cohesion (positive interactions among neighbors). The following documents provide guidance for evaluating and applying various sustainability and livability concepts.
| Sustainability and Livability: Summary of Definitions, Goals, Objectives and Performance Indicators |
This short paper summarizes basic definitions and concepts for sustainable and livable transportation planning. |
| Well Measured: Developing Indicators for Sustainable and Livable Transport Planning |
This report provides guidance on the selection of performance indicators for comprehensive and sustainable transportation planning. |
| Reinventing Transportation: Exploring the Paradigm Shift Needed to Reconcile Transportation and Sustainability Objectives |
Sustainability requires more efficient, equitable, and environmentally sensitive transportation systems. This requires changes in the way we think about transport, and how we identify and evaluate solutions to transport problems. This article, originally published in Transportation Research Record 1670, discusses these changes and their implications for transport planning. |
| Developing Indicators For Comprehensive And Sustainable Transport Planning |
This report, published in Transportation Research Record 2017 discusses the selection of indicators for comprehensive and sustainable transportation planning.
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| Smart Transportation Emission Reduction Strategies |
This report investigates methods for identifying the optimal (best overall, taking into account all benefits and costs) transportation emission reduction strategies. It describes ways to correct current planning bias so mobility management solutions can be implemented to the degree optimal.
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| You CAN Get There From Here; Evaluating Transportation Diversity |
This report explores the benefits to consumers and society from a transportation system that offers diverse transportation options. It describes practical methods for evaluating transportation diversity. |
| Transportation Affordability: Evaluation and Improvement Strategies |
This report discusses ways to evaluate and improve transportation affordability.
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| Affordable-Accessible Housing In A Dynamic City: Why and How To Increase Affordable Housing Development In Accessible Locations |
This report describes practical ways to increase the supply of affordable-accessible housing, which refers to lower priced homes located in areas where common services and activities are easy to access without requiring an automobile. This helps achieve numerous economic, social and environmental objectives. Demand for affordable-accessible housing is growing, but many current policies discourage such development. Various planning reforms described in this report can increase affordable-accessible housing development. |
| Where We Want To Be: Home Location Preferences And Their Implications For Smart Growth |
This report investigates consumer housing location preferences and their relationship to smart growth. It examines claims that most households prefer sprawl-location housing and so are harmed by smart growth policies. Market research indicates that most households want improved accessibility, land use mix, and diverse transport options and will often choose small-lot and attached homes with these features. Demographic and economic trends are increasing smart growth demand, causing a shortage of such housing. |
| Valuing and Improving: Transportation-Related Data Programs |
This report summarizes the findings of 2013 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting sessions on valuing and improving transportation-related data programs (programs that collect basic data used for transport policy, planning and research). It discusses the business case for expanding and improving data programs. |
| The New Transportation Planning Paradigm |
Demographic and economic trends, and new community concerns, are changing the way practitioners define transportation problems and evaluate potential solutions. A new paradigm expands the range of modes, objectives, impacts and options considered in transport planning. This article, forthcoming in the ITE Journal, discusses this paradigm shift and its implications on our profession. |
| New Social Equity Agenda for Sustainable Transportation |
By Todd Litman and Marc Brenman. This report, presented at the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, discusses the importance of incorporating social equity and environmental justice objectives into transport policy and planning analysis. It recommends a more systematic and comprehensive framework for social equity impact analysis. More comprehensive analysis can help identify more integrated, win-win solutions, which achieve a variety of social, economic and environmental objectives.
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| If Health Matters: Integrating Public Health Objectives in Transportation Decision-Making |
This report investigates how transportation policy and planning practices would change if public health objectives were given a higher priority. |
| Promoting Public Health Through Smart Growth: Building Healthier Communities Through Transportation And Land Use Policies |
This report written by Lawrence Frank, Sarah Kavage and Todd Litman, and published by Smart Growth BC, identifies specific transportation and land use reforms that can help create healthier and more livable communities. |
| Evaluating Transportation Equity |
Transportation decisions often have significant equity impacts. This report defines different types of transportation equity, discusses various equity issues, and describes ways of incorporating equity into transportation decision-making.
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| Planning Principles and Practices |
This report summarizes key principles and practices for effective land use and transportation planning. |
| Comprehensive Transport Planning Framework: Best Practices For Evaluating All Options And Impacts |
This report describes principles for comprehensive transportation planning, evaluates conventional transport planning practices with regard to these principles, identifies common planning distortions, recommends practical methods for correcting these distortions and improving transport decision-making, and discusses the likely impacts of these reforms. This type of analysis is particularly important for evaluating alternative modes and mobility management strategies. |
| Recommendations for Improving LEED Transportation and Parking Credits
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This report describes ways to improve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) transportation and parking credits. It proposes a new approach that can significantly increase LEED encouragement of transportation and parking management strategies.
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| Community Cohesion As A Transport Planning Objective |
This report describes the concept of “community cohesion,” which refers to the quality of interactions among people in a community, and discusses how it is affected by transport planning decisions. |
| Evaluating Traffic Calming Benefits, Costs and Equity Impacts |
Traffic calming is the popular name for road design strategies that reduce vehicle speeds and volumes. This report describes a framework for evaluating traffic calming programs, taking into account benefits, costs and equity impacts. |
