The Effect of Smart Growth Policies on Travel Demand

National Academies - TRB: SHRP2 C16

The Smart Growth Area Planning (SmartGAP) tool was developed as part of the of the SHRP 2 C16 project, “The Effect of Smart Growth Policies on Travel Demand” to provide transportation planning agencies with improved tools and methods for more accurately and comprehensively integrating transportation investment decision-making with land development and growth management (smart growth strategies).

The project synthesized existing research and packaged it into an easy to use software tool, SmartGAP, intended for use by transportation and land use planners. By combining multiple research sources, SmartGAP is a comprehensive tool that bridges the gap between regional agencies visioning processes and their transportation plans, which evaluate projects; SmartGAP evaluates scenarios at a regional level with available data sources to identify the most promising policies that could be further tested using a more detailed project-level tool. SmartGAP can evaluate regional significant changes in the built environment, travel demand, transportation supply, and policies such as regional road pricing, ITS strategies, and travel demand management policies. SmartGAP was piloted with Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), and the Thurston Regional Planning Commission (TRPC) in Olympia, Washington. The project team also tested an application in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.

Email us to learn more Email us to learn more