601 TLMT
Introduction
Land use pertains to different factors on how the actual land is being used, such as mix, density, roadway design, connectivity, and transportation. In chapter 16, it was stated that adverse impacts could happen on land use in once the creation of accessibility is done by new transport facilities (Sinha & Labi, 2011). This study will present one of the land use impacts towards transportation along with its importance. Additionally, GIS or Geographic Information System will be discussed as well as its relationship with the transportation economics. Although there are issues that were identified, there are significant relationship between the transportation and land use.
Sinha and Labi (2011) identified the four impacts of land use on transportation, such as total vehicular travel, trip frequencies, trip lengths, and modal choice. Of all these four impacts, we choose modal choice as the most important. Although this impact depends on the population density, land use diversity, and socio-economic characteristics, modal choice is an essential factor in terms of providing options to the people. Regardless of the location, there must be some alternatives that individuals can choose from when traveling.
In order to improve this area, one should not look at the characteristics of the land use, thus it should not be the primary issue. For example, people from remote areas who need transportation services must be provided with options on how their travelling needs will be addressed. Although economically wise, remote areas normally do not have inter-modal transportation choice due to low population density. However, this can be improved by integrating different modes of transportation that will connect the people from remote areas and prevent social isolation due to lack of modal choices.
GIS and its relation to transport economics
GIS or Geographic Information System is a collection of methods and tools that can be used for acquiring, storing, transforming, managing, summarizing, and analyzing data to understand and contribute to solving a real world problem (Taupier & Willis, 1994). GIS is related to transportation through various ways. One of which is the use of GIS in transportation planning, to which the pieces of data are used to find solutions on economic challenges that affect the transportation sector. For example, GIS helps in planning the operations of various transportation operations based on the passenger demographic and other important information. In fact, the GIS helps the transportation economists as they will be able to make effective decisions when it comes to allocating their resources. Thus, GIS software reduces costs, saves time, and even improve the quality of data that are essential for decision-making process (Dinsmore, 2010). Since GIS is a technology-based system, it can impact the future projects in transportation by providing accurate information about the location where the project will be developed. It can also help in obtaining geo-location information, such as the density and demographic characteristics of the area.
Conclusion
The impacts of land use on transportation can provide modal choices to the involved population. On the other hand, changes in the patterns of land use can also affect the transportation sector, which can have monetary costs. However, future transportation projects can be decided upon based on the information provided by GIS in order to save costs and ensure the efficiency of the future projects.
References
Dinsmore, C. (2010). GIS: Saving Time and Costs With Real-World Data | Geographic Information Systems, site selection, Google maps - Area Development. Retrieved from http://www.areadevelopment.com/siteSelection/july2010/gis-geographic-information-site-selection1003.shtml
Sinha, K. C., & Labi, S. (2011). Transportation decision making: Principles of project evaluation and programming. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
Taupier, R., & Willis, C. (1994). Geographic Information Systems and Applied Economics: An Initial Discussion of Potential Applications and Contributions. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 140-148.
