Urban transportation: the relationship between transportation networks and the distribution of urban activities

The thesis is based on the hypothesis that there is a mutual interdependency between land use and transportation: different, transportation systems stimulate different land use and density patterns and vice-versa. Two basic systems can be identified: the activity system and the transportation system. Depending on the choice of options open to us within those two systems equilibrium flow patterns will evolve through the market mechanism of supply and demand. This flow pattern through the resulting changes in the level of service will establish a modified accessibility pattern which in turn strongly influences the land value pattern within an urban area. Depending on the locational requirements and the rent bidding capability of the various urban activities different locational patterns as well as density patterns within an urban area evolve and ultimately result in different types of physical urban form. Consequently the first part of the thesis describes the process of how the equilibrium flow is established, whereas the second part demonstrates the impacts caused by different flow patterns on land values, locational patterns, densities and urban form. These impacts become apparent at all scales: the city scale, neighborhood scale, corridor scale and even at the scale of the individual lot. Finally an attempt was made to gather methods and procedures that allow to measure and quantify the impacts of transportation as much as possible. However, it has to be pointed out that it is almost impossible to isolate the amount of impact that transportation has on land development from all other variables that are equally important.