[sustran] Re: Urban growth and cars: Chicken-and-egg issue

[Todd Alexander Litman]

Yes, more centralized housing often costs more than more dispersed 
location housing, but that is partly a result of limited supply. The 
best response is to find ways to build more affordable and accessible 
housing, called Location Efficient Development 
(http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/tdm22.htm ), so households can enjoy the 
best options overall. Recent U.S. studies have examined combined 
consumer housing and transportation costs to create a household 
affordability index. The lower costs of suburban housing is often 
offset by increased transportation expenditures, compounded by 
increases in indirect costs, such as reduced employment options and 
higher rates of traffic crash disabilities and deaths. See:

CTOD and CNT (2006), The Affordability Index: A New Tool for 
Measuring the True Affordability of a Housing Choice, Center for 
Transit-Oriented Development and the Center for Neighborhood 
Technology, Brookings Institute 
(<http://www.brookings.edu/>www.brookings.edu); available at 
<http://www.brookings.edu/metro/umi/20060127_affindex.pdf>www.brookings.edu/metro/umi/20060127_affindex.pdf.

Barbara Lipman (2006), A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and 
Transportation Burdens of Working Families, Center for Housing Policy 
(<http://www.nhc.org/pdf/pub_heavy_load_10_06.pdf>www.nhc.org/pdf/pub_heavy_load_10_06.pdf).


There are a number of smart growth strategies to encourage more 
affordable and accessible residential development. Here is some of 
the literature:

Danielle Arigoni (2001), Affordable Housing and Smart Growth: Making 
the Connections, Subgroup on Affordable Housing, Smart Growth Network 
(<http://www.smartgrowth.org/>www.smartgrowth.org) and National 
Neighborhood Coalition 
(<http://www.neighborhoodcoalition.org/>www.neighborhoodcoalition.org).

Scott Bernstein, Carrie Makarewicz, Kara Heffernan, Albert Benedict 
and Ben Helphand (2004), Increasing Affordability Through Reducing 
the Transportation and Infrastructure Cost Burdens of Housing, 
Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnerships 
(<http://www.andpi.org/>www.andpi.org); available at 
<http://www.andpi.org/uploadedFiles/pdf/03MICI%20MTC%20Report_CNT.pdf>www.andpi.org/uploadedFiles/pdf/03MICI%20MTC%20Report_CNT.pdf. 


CNT (2006), Paved Over: Surface Parking Lots or Opportunities for 
Tax-Generating, Sustainable Development?, Center for Neighborhood 
Technology 
(<http://www.cnt.org/repository/PavedOver-Final.pdf>www.cnt.org/repository/PavedOver-Final.pdf).

Todd Litman (2003), Parking Requirement Impacts on Housing 
Affordability, VTPI (<http://www.vtpi.org/>www.vtpi.org); available 
at <http://www.vtpi.org/park-hou.pdf>www.vtpi.org/park-hou.pdf.

Todd Litman (2005), Understanding Smart Growth Saving, VTPI 
(<http://www.vtpi.org/>www.vtpi.org); available at 
<http://www.vtpi.org/sg_save.pdf>www.vtpi.org/sg_save.pdf.

William Lucy and David L. Phillips (2006), Tomorrow's Cities, 
Tomorrow's Suburbs, Planners Press 
(<http://www.planning.org/>www.planning.org).

Arthur C. Nelson, Rolf Pendall, Casy Dawkins and Gerrit Knaap (2002), 
The Link Between Growth Management and Housing Affordability: The 
Academic Evidence, Brookings Institution Center on Urban and 
Metropolitan Policy (<http://www.brook.edu/>www.brook.edu); available 
at 
<http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/es/urban/publications/growthmang.pdf>www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/es/urban/publications/growthmang.pdf.

Ryan Russo (2001), Planning for Residential Parking: A Guide For 
Housing Developers and Planners, Non-Profit Housing Association of 
Northern California 
(<http://www.nonprofithousing.org/>www.nonprofithousing.org) and the 
Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy 
(<http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/>http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu).

SPUR (1998), Reducing Housing Costs by Rethinking Parking 
Requirements, The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research 
Association (<http://www.spur.org/>www.spur.org).


When discussing the tradeoffs between urban and suburban locations it 
is important to maintain a distinction between "density" (people per 
acre of land) and "crowding" (people per room or square foot of 
housing). Increased density does not necessarily increase crowding, 
often it simply reflects reduced lawns and different types of 
housing, such as shifts from large-lot to small-lot single-family, or 
shifts from single-family to townhouses and condominiums. Here in the 
U.S., many households move to suburbs for the sake of social 
attributes (security, better schools and public services, prestige) 
rather than physical features such as large lawns. By redeveloping 
urban neighborhoods, and building suburbs with urban-type densities, 
mix and transportation options, we can satisfy consumer needs in ways 
that reduce per capita vehicle travel and its associated costs.


Best wishes,
-Todd Litman

At 08:09 AM 1/12/2007, Lee Schipper wrote:
>Six years ago I raised this issue to the UITP guy selling the 
>Millennium data base.. why was there nothing about housing and  land 
>costs/rents etc. The insides of most Asian and L American cities are 
>also expensive in the central, most desirable  areas.
>The UITP answer was that this was a fiduciary problem, almost a fiction.
>
>In fact it is what drives sprawl. Land farther out is cheaper. Homes 
>are larger. And in the densest of cities, living space is less than 
>in the less dense cities. The W Bank's "Sustainable Transport" from 
>1996 takes the Newman And Kenworthy data (which morphed into the 
>Millennium data base) and looks at gasoline  per capita vs housing 
>space per capita, and voila.. those living in the cities with the 
>highest NK "gasoline per capita" have the highest home area per 
>capita and by implication from N and K the lowest population densities
>
>Yet look at all the environmentalist generated blather  on sprawl 
>and you never see housing costs; how much more does it cost to live 
>100 m from a metro vs 1 km away?  We hear about which people  spend 
>the most  or least on transport, but not how much the same people 
>spend on housing, yet we know that housing cost may be a more 
>sensitive function of location than distance traveled.
>
>I am writing this from a hotel in Tokyo close to the center and some 
>of the  most expensive land in the  world. And the  Tokyo city 
>residents who live near in without a car have less space/capita to 
>live in than those in the rest of japan or even in the outer suburbs of Tokyo
>
>So in discussing sprawl, lets talk about what could be the main 
>driving force, desire for living space.  And  let's remember in the 
>US case tax deductions let us deduct all our mortgage interest from 
>the home loan, in contrast to (more  compact) Canada.  Kinda makes 
>you wonder whether in all of the studies of km we should have been 
>studying square meters of home instead?
>


Sincerely,
Todd Alexander Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute (www.vtpi.org)
litman at vtpi.org
Phone & Fax 250-360-1560
1250 Rudlin Street, Victoria, BC, V8V 3R7, CANADA
"Efficiency - Equity - Clarity"

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