Transportation / Land Use Relationships
Transportation and economic systems have a reciprocal relationship. In other
words, transport supply and demand are mutually interdependent. For instance,
the construction of an highway interchange favors the concentration of commercial
and service activities, which will generate additional transport demand, which
in turn will favor the location of new activities and a reorganization of the
regional spatial structure. This interdependence can be conceptualized with three
major elements:
- Transport system. Is mainly composed of infrastructures conferring
a level of supply, from which can be derived levels of accessibility as well
as transportation networks. For instance, traffic assignment models take an
existing spatial interaction structure and infer flows within a transportation
network. Conceptual flows consequently become a physical reality.
- Spatial interactions. Assume flows between locations mainly through
a function of spatial impendence, which reflect the friction of the urban space.
They have a long tradition in geography and many spatial interaction models
were developed. They rely on distance decay parameters as well as the modes
involved in urban trips.
- Land use. Represents a level of spatial accumulation from which transport
demand is derived. There is a wide base of spatial economic models aiming at
estimating transport demand, mainly through the generation and attraction of
traffic by different land use zones.