Documenting Smart Growth's Impacts

Having studied two different 30-year development scenarios for three communities with planning grants from the Atlanta Regional Commission's Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) -- the Perimeter Center area, Atlanta's West End, and Cobb County's city of Marietta -- reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Janet Frankston, the researchers established that LCI projects would ensure greater transit use and less tailpipe emission.

''There's a pent-up demand for living in a place where you don't have to drive everywhere,'' said University of British Columbia professor Lawrence Frank, whose previous Georgia Tech land-use and travel behavior SMARTRAQ research team confirmed that smart growth would reduce metro Atlanta's car trips and improve its air quality.