BACKGROUND
Smart growth and its compact, transit-oriented, and walkable land uses have been proposed as an alternative to urban sprawl. Transportation planning organizations are looking to influence future land-use patterns to create livable, sustainable communities by reducing such factors as vehicle miles traveled and congestion, and therefore greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. As more communities are being designed for mixed use, higher density land uses, and other common tenets of smart growth, the delivery of goods and services are often not addressed adequately or are simply overlooked. Land-use and transportation activities (e.g., zoning, urban growth limits, Complete Streets, and parking policies) are often disconnected from decisions regarding investments in goods and services movement by commercial vehicles. Examples include not considering tractor-trailer turning radii in street geometric designs, curb-side parking restrictions, and limiting truck access. Going beyond zoning and addressing the needs of shippers, receivers, and trucking companies in the design, development, and implementation of such projects is critical for both commerce and sustainability principles to coexist. Research is needed to provide smart growth and transportation practitioners guidance that describes practices that effectively and efficiently consider the coexistence of goods and services movement in smart growth environments at both the design and implementation stages as well as retroactively improving existing conditions.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this research is to develop a guide of tangible proactive and reactive practices–policy, planning, design, and operations–to integrate goods and services movement by commercial vehicles in smart growth environments.
Accomplishment of the project objective will require at least the following tasks.
TASKS
(1). Hold a kick-off conference call with NCHRP soon after delivering the agency’s work plan as required by NCHRP procedures. (2). Review smart growth principles and applications; describe how goods and services movement by commercial vehicles is considered; describe and analyze the constraints on and opportunities for such movement in smart growth environments; and discuss the potential for improved coordination among stakeholders in smart growth environments. (3). Develop a typology of smart growth environments and illustrate how each relates to goods and services movement by commercial vehicles. (4). Identify the various stakeholders (e.g., trucking companies, planners, developers, shippers and receivers, smart growth organizations, state DOTs, MPOs, and local government agencies) and develop a stakeholder outreach plan to obtain their perspectives on the integration of smart growth environments with goods and services movement by commercial vehicles. (5). Submit a report summarizing the results of Tasks 2 through 4, and an agenda and a list of proposed invitees for the stakeholder peer exchange to be conducted in Task 8. (6). Implement the approved stakeholder outreach plan. (7). Within 9 months of contract award, submit a draft guide that contains tangible proactive and reactive practices–policy, planning, design, and operations--to integrate goods and services movement by commercial vehicles in the smart growth environments identified in Task 3. (8). Conduct a 1-day stakeholder peer exchange at the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA, to provide an in-depth review of the guide. (9). Prepare the final deliverables that include (1) a guide of tangible proactive and reactive practices–policy, planning, design, and operations–to integrate goods and services movement by commercial vehicles in smart growth environments; and (2) the final report that includes the results of the research conducted.
