Tom Downs says that walking, biking and transit should be considered one mode of transportation, and that the demographic shift is showing a new-found preference for that mode.
Downs says that preference surveys show 20- and 30-somethings want to live in active downtowns, while half of their parents are looking for the same (the other half want to reject the city and suburbs altogether).
"So, how do we begin to think about this new mode as an economic development tool, in the same way we use to think about highways?" writes Downs.
"If the transportation component of your local economic development planning is uninspiring, if it puts vague hope in some new roads, if it ignores transit, and if less than one percent of your combined transportation investments are in the growth modes of biking and walking, you do not have a transportation component to your economic development strategy."
Read the full story: Demographics as Destiny
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City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority