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Agenda - 08-25-2008- c2
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Agenda - 08-25-2008- c2
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9/10/2008 3:30:05 PM
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BOCC
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8/25/2008
Meeting Type
Public Hearing
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Agenda
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c2
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Minutes - 20080825
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~~i <br />give a 25 percent reduction in per capita VMT as density is doubled.s Similarly, a travel survey <br />in the Greater Toronto Area suggested that doubling density results in a decrease in per capita <br />VMT of about 25 percent.' A comparison of cities in Washington state found housing density, <br />population density, jobs-housing balance and retail-housing balance to co-vary and to be <br />associated with reduced driving.g <br />But the cost of such surveys limits them to too few households to provide a statistical analysis of <br />all the important variables at neighborhood level. The above studies were for much larger areas <br />than neighborhoods, limiting their ability to measure the effects of neighborhood <br />characteristics like density, transit service and pedestrian and bicycle friendliness. A 1990 <br />study of five communities, ranging from traditional to suburban, in the San Francisco region used <br />actual odometer readings.9 The study found that high residential density, nearby shopping, <br />good transit and a good walking environment go together, while low density zones lacked all <br />these. The co-variance of these variables increases the difficulty of disentangling their effects, <br />but does allow density to capture much of the effects of the others. The residents of higher <br />density communities drove 20 to 30 percent per household less every time neighborhood density <br />doubled. Nob Hill, at 32 times higher household density as San Ramon, had 1/4 its household <br />auto ownership and VMT. However, the limited number of .communities studied prevented <br />disentangling the effects of residential density, nearby shopping, transit and the walking <br />environment. <br />Using a household travel survey in the Seattle area, Frank and Pivo found that employment <br />density, population density, land-use mix and jobs-housing balance are associated with less <br />auto use.'° These relationships held up even when household demographics, car ownership and <br />transit are controlled. <br />A study of 27 neighborhoods in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, using <br />odometer readings, found that doubling residential density cut auto ownership 16%, while <br />doubling public transit service reduced VMT an additional 5%." With density as a surrogate for <br />all the variables, doubling residential density cut VMT 20%. <br />Kara Kockelman, in a study of over 1000 travel analysis zones and 1,200 census tracts in the San <br />Francisco Bay Area, found that the following influence household VMT: household size, auto <br />ownership, income, weighted jobs within 30 minutes, dissimilarity of the zone's major land use <br />from its neighbors, and the balance of land uses within each zone within a half mile.12 <br />Robert Dunphy and Kimberly Fisher calculated the average VMT from the 1990 National <br />Personal Transportation Survey (NPTS) for households whose ZIP codes had the same <br />population density.13 For the five density ranges above 4000 persons/square mile (about 5 <br />households/residential acre), their Table 4 shows a decrease of 38% in daily driving as density <br />doubles. <br />These studies have shown a strong relationship between urban form and driving. Of course it <br />makes intuitive sense that people living in neighborhoods originally built for the convenience of <br />residents without private automobiles would have lower auto ownership and driving. But which <br />3 <br />
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