Integration of land use and transportation planning with current and future spatial distributions of population and employment is a challenge but critical to sustainable planning outcomes. The challenge is specific to how sustainability factors (e.g., carbon dioxide emission), and land use and socioeconomic changes are considered in a streamlined manner. To address the challenge, this paper presents an integrated modeling and computing framework for systemic analysis of regional- and project-level transportation environmental impacts for land use mix patterns and associated transportation activities. A synthetic computing platform has been developed to facilitate the scenario-based quantitative analysis of cause-and-effect mechanisms between land use changes and/or traffic management and control strategies, their impacts on traffic mobility and the environment. Within the integrated platform, multiple models for land use pattern, travel demand forecasting, traffic simulation, vehicle and carbon emission, and other operation and sustainability measures are integrated using mathematical models in a Geographical Information System environment. Furthermore, a case study of the Greater Cincinnati area at regional level is performed to test the integrated functionality as a capable tool for urban planning, transportation and environmental analysis. The case study results indicate that such an integration investigation can help assess strategies in land use planning and transportation systems management for improved sustainability.

In the background of rapid urban metro transit construction in China, rail transportation becomes an important factor in shaping urban form. This case study focuses on the urban form changes caused by urban rail transportation development in Beijing and especially explores the synergetic links between urban planning and transportation from the perspective of a transportation–population–economy research framework. Based on population census surveys and basic economic unit census surveys on street district level, combined with digital urban metro lines on street district level, findings show that the population spatial distribution tends to disperse along the metro lines, and concentrates around metro network connections. The employment distribution turns to be more concentrated in high accessibility areas around metro intersections. The population and employment distributions indicate a job–housing mismatch, where the employment centers are concentrated in the central city, while residential centers are concentrated in suburban areas. The consequence of this mismatch is that regions with extreme job–housing imbalance also see higher degrees of imbalance in urban metro volume. This paper aims to provide insights on how to improve job accessibility and creating a more sustainable urban form, as well as promoting a synergetic development between urban planning and transportation.

The relocation of 400,000 Beijing municipal employees to Tongzhou promises to reduce congestion and pollution in the city center. Further, the relocation could facilitate economic cooperation and integration of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei megaregion. Together, these initiatives can help make Beijing and Northern China more resilient, though critical issues of the connectivity of Tongzhou to the rest of Beijing and the megaregion need to be addressed. This paper focuses on two questions related to the success of these efforts: (1) How many additional commuters can be expected to use the existing subway stations in Tongzhou as a result of the relocation; and (2) How can Tongzhou be better connected to the megaregion’s high-speed rail network and a major airport. To answer the first question, a GIS-based model was used to analyze subway ridership data to estimate changes in rush hour commuters at Tongzhou’s subway stations under three scenarios. The results estimate substantial increases in commuters unless large proportions of the workers move their residences to Tongzhou. To answer the second question, a Moving Platform Infrastructure Network (MPIN) was conceptualized as an innovative alternative to provide needed access to high-speed rail and a major airport. The resulting MPIN provides fast and environmentally sensitive connections, while potentially reducing congestion at the Beijing South railway station. In addition, the MPIN concept could be used in other parts of the megaregion.

With increasing environmental concerns, light rail transit (LRT) has drawn attention for consideration in urban transportation planning by various levels of authorities in the US Government. Advocacy groups need an effective method for viability assessment of the alternatives. Environmentalists may want to support LRT, but assessment of its viability is important to provide judgment of any future transportation project . This paper presents a method for LRT viability assessment through a case study of the “Oasis Line,” as part of the Eastern Corridor Major Investment Study (MIS) by the Ohio Kentucky and Indiana Council of Governments (OKI). The study attempts to evaluate chances for “success” of the rail transit component of the MIS. An integrated method is used with a traditional four-step-based demand forecast by OKI, and a development of station-based Light Rail Ridership Regression demand forecast by Pelz. The problem to be solved—whether the line has a good enough chance at success to support and advocate for it—did not demand a full rerunning of the models. A review of appropriate literature—largely assessments of already-built light rail lines in other US cities—is used to characterize the predicted ridership as a success or failure. The predicted ridership falls comfortably above the low end of LRT systems in other US cities. The ridership predictions are found favorable to support the Oasis Line. Extensive literature review suggested that the public’s assessments behave in an almost entirely political fashion.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is advocated by urban planners as a tool to promote transportation and land use integration, and it has especially been applied in new town developments in Chinese cities. Since 2000, urban metro system construction in Beijing has accelerated and many new towns in suburban areas have emerged due to rail transit connections with the central city. This paper is a case study of Yizhuang new town, which is located in the southeast suburban area of Beijing. It explores whether light rail is successful in promoting transportation and land use integration. First, by comparing the land use within a 1 km radius of three rail stations, findings suggest that the TOD model in terms of land use may not be implemented. Second, by tracing land use changes over time, we found that commercial functions are critical to support TOD development. Third, the mismatch of urban functions between low-skilled labor employment opportunities and high-skilled residential neighborhoods emphasizes the failure of planned reverse commuting patterns. In conclusion, our findings suggest that without a proper land use policy, TOD based on light rail only may not be a successful model in the case of Yizhuang new town. The policy implication is that the planning code of land use should be more flexible and adaptable, in order to promote the integration of transportation and land use in a synergetic way.

The research discusses experiential outcome in the application of crowd simulation technology to analyze the pedestrian circulation in public spaces to facilitate design and planning decisions. The paper describes how to connect spatial design with agent-based simulation (ABS) for various design and planning scenarios. It describes the process of visualizing and representing pedestrian movement, as well as pathfinding and crowd behavior study. An ABS consists of a large number of agents, which are controlled by simple localized rules to interact with each other within a virtual environment, thereby formulating a bottom-up system. The concept of the ABS has been widely used in computer science, biology, and social science to simulate swarm intelligence, dynamic social behavior, and fire evacuation. The simulation consists of interacting agents which can create various complexities. This paper describes research on using local interactions to generate passenger flow analysis. An ABS is used to optimize the pedestrian flow and construct the micro-level complexity within a simulated environment. We focus on how agent-driven emergent patterns can evolve during the simulation in response to various design iterations. The research extends to the agents’ interactions driven by a set of rules and external environment. Our research method includes data collection, quantitative analysis, and crowd simulation on two train stations and surrounding areas in Sihui train station in Beijing, and Xuzhou, China. By proposing a mix-use program with the local public transportation system, the new development is integrated with the existing urban infrastructure and public space. Through the multi-agent simulation, we evaluate the crowd flow, total travel time, density, and public accessibility. Based on the result of ABS, we discussed whether various space design methods can improve pedestrian flow efficiency and passenger experience, as well as shortening transfer time, and reducing congestion.

In response to challenges caused by high gasoline prices, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions, smart internment on intercity rail transit infrastructures and service suggests a rekindling of many countries’ interest in offering a range of benefits over automobile travels. In order to check the suitability of the proposed intercity rail transit system with the local conditions in a region, models for relating the intercity rail transit scope and social economy factors have been developed with the datasets obtained in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in Guangdong Province, China. In this paper, the accessibility-based approach is presented to explore the impact of the intercity rail transit system planning on the regional development. The impact of three typical accessibility variables, transportation, population, and economic accessibilities, are considered in the approach. The global rail transit scope planning models are developed by using the regression technique to correlate the lengths of 254 regional intercity rail transit systems in different countries in the world with social economy factors. Those models are used for estimating the intercity rail transit size for the PRD region. The modeled transit scopes are examined with spatial distributions of the defined three accessibilities at each node (or centroid center of a town) in a Geographic Information System environment. The developed method has been proven helpful to understanding the gap between transport supply and potential travel demand and the suitability of each node to alignment of each rail transit route through the PRD region case study.