Development of Urban Transportation Planning in the First Decade of the Century

Parallel to the rapid development of urban transportation systems, the fundamentals and methodologies of urban transportation planning have advanced quickly in the first decade of the century due to the tremendous innovative research activities in this area. This paper reviews urban transportation planning development in 21st century in several aspects: the adjustments in the development strategies, the huge changes in the national intermodal transportation network, urban transportation system, and characteristics of urban residents travel demand. The paper discusses the evolution and innovation in the transportation planning theories and methodologies, the renewed objectives of transportation planning, the integration of transportation and land-use, planning techniques and modeling theories, and the procedures of transportation planning. Lastly, the paper evaluates several typical planning cases , such as urban transportation planning for large metropolitan areas with high density of small communities, public transit planning, high-speed rail station planning, comprehensive transportation planning for intermodal terminal, transportation planning for CBD, local community transportation planning, and transportation planning for large special events.