Transportation planner Jarrett Walker, on why transportation planners can't stop applying freeway concepts to transit and the important difference between access and mobility.
With a nod to Todd Litman, Walker explains that "mobility is how far you can go, while access is how many desirable things you can do. You can improve your access, but not your mobility, by moving closer to work, or moving in with your romantic partner. In this urbanist formulation, access can be improved through by putting desirable things closer together -- a process that we all consider when we decide where to live, and which urban designers do in the aggregate when they design or redesign communities in response to the demands that our individual decisions have generated."
Read the full story: applying highway concepts to transit
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority