America’s Suburban Centers: A Study of the Land Use -Transportation Link

Abstract

Suburban traffic conditions have markedly worsened in recent years. This study postulates that the land use and physical design characteristics of suburban workplaces have directly contributed to the decline in suburban mobility by inducing most employees to drive alone to work. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the low density, single-use, and nonintegrated character of many suburban office-commercial centers and corridors, combined with their tendency to provide plentiful, free parking, have compelled many workers to become dependent on their automobiles for accessing work and circulating within projects and these factors, combined with a sharp curtailment in new road construction and meager levels of suburban transit services, have led to unprecedented levels of congestion. While vehicles generally circulate freely once inside sprawling suburban office compounds, the reliance of most workers on their own automobiles to access job sites has all too often clogged connecting freeways and arterials. The emergence of suburban workplaces with densities equivalent to those of small downtowns, rich mixtures of land uses, pedestrian-friendly environments, and nearby affordable housing, it is argued, could do at least as much to mitigate congestion over the long run as any mix of traffic management or roadway expansion programs, and perhaps far more.