Land-use and Transport Interactions: Towards a Research Agenda

During the year 2012 a group of researchers and experts leaded by the ECTRI (European Conference of Transport Research Institutes) Thematic Group “Mobility” has worked on a research Roadmap for ERTRAC (European Road Transport Research and Advisory Council) in the field of Land-use and transport interactions (LUTI). This roadmap of LUTI addresses the whole urban and inter-urban transport system in its reciprocal relation to formal and functional land use. The roadmap takes into consideration all type of users, all type of vehicles, urban and inter-urban road infrastructure and its relationship with other types of infrastructure, all types of modes and the interconnection between them (multimodality). Public, collective and private transport, motorized and non-motorized (walking, cycling, etc.) trips are considered here. The roadmap aims at having a systems approach of the interactions between land use and transport interactions. The main components of the system are the following: urban areas and regions, road infrastructure (and the interactions with other infrastructures), the users (through location decisions and mobility patterns), all modes of transport, and stakeholders (private and public actors). The LUTI roadmap covers the interactions between land use (at the different spatial scales) and transport (passengers and goods) in terms of social, environmental and economic issues. It also aims at analyzing the relationships, including the potential conflicting issues, between these dimensions. The objective is also to provide elements of decision for policy makers at the different spatial scales in the fields of land use and transport planning. The roadmap identifies research topics related to land use and transport policies, in particular transport planning, governance, sustainability and the financial cost of transport. Research priorities are also developed in relation to the impact of LUTI on the performance of the passenger and freight transport systems, in particular regarding location decisions, the integration of modes, and transport safety and security. Land use and transport interactions impact on the environment, social concerns, and economic developments are in addition covered by a range of research topics proposed by the roadmap. Finally, the roadmap proposes topics related to further research on models for design and assessment of policies.