Monitoring Land-Use Activity Changes in the Twin Cities Metro Region

Principal Investigator:

David Levinson, Department of Civil Engineering

Co-Investigator:

Ahmed El-Geneidy, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs

Research component:

Measuring accessibility

Status:

Active

Project Summary:

Any accessibility measure has two main components. The first is land use activity or attraction; the second is the transportation system, including network impedance. This research concentrates on changes in land use activity over time in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan region. In a typical land use and transportation cycle, any change in land use is expected to lead to changes in the transportation characteristics. Conversely, changes in transportation infrastructure and/or characteristics are expected to lead to changes in land use. Therefore it is essential for any accessibility research project to have a full understanding of the consequences of such changes. This research proposes to develop a land use change prediction model that can be integrated with network growth models to help in developing measures of accessibility over time. This model will assist in understanding the consequences of changes in land use activity in the Twin Cities metro region, while accounting for changes and effects of the transportation system.