Integrated transportation and land use scenario modeling by visual evaluation of examples: Case study of Jeffersonville, Indiana

Transportation and land use planning are generally poorly coordinated, and the preferences of the general public are not well integrated into either activity. Appropriate land use patterns that meet the needs and desires of the public and the public sector are difficult to develop because of their extreme complexity and potential for disproportionate impacts on citizens. A structured public involvement protocol was developed to allow large groups of citizens to participate efficiently and effectively in the comprehensive planning process for a moderate-sized town in Indiana and to help in partially overcoming this problem. CommunityViz was used as the visualization tool to help residents understand better the differences between potential land development patterns. Fuzzy set modeling was used to derive the complex interplay of development pattern properties that were most and least preferred by citizens. The development patterns varied by percentage mixture of housing types, percentage mixture of land use types, percentage given over to greenspace, ratio of sidewalk to total paved area, and connectivity of the road network. These five parameters were chosen as the most useful and fundamental measures of differences between development patterns. Citizens' preferences were derived on that basis. Public input for this town was successfully modeled. Resulting preference patterns were made available to city planners for use in updating their comprehensive plan. This research demonstrates a practical way to involve citizens in an orderly, useful manner in questions of joint transportation and land use planning.