2022 Summer Issue - 59

INFRASTRUCTURE
effort is being coordinated with the region's 2050
Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which has removed
from the city's Transportation Improvement Program
19 highway projects that would have cost $504 million
and involved 51 lane-miles (82 km) of highway
construction.
To help communities calculate the impact of
adding highway lane-miles, the Rocky Mountain
Institute and other national partners developed the
State Highway Induced Frequency of Travel (SHIFT)
Calculator. The 51 lane-miles removed from the
transportation plan would have induced 88 million
to 123 million additional vehicle miles (142 million
to 198 million km) traveled per year and increased
greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of about
11,000 passenger cars and light trucks.
Despite the state's stated goal of reducing overall
greenhouse gas emissions, the majority of the highway
funds not spent in Durham will instead go to
other North Carolina regions seeking to expand their
highways, thereby incentivizing sprawl elsewhere.
This is due to statewide policy on how federal and
state transportation funding is distributed.
" Every transportation decision is a climate decision, "
Pete Buttigieg, U.S. secretary of transportation,
said at the 2022 SXSW Conference, " whether we recognize
it or not. "
Colorado is taking a different approach. Officials
there are implementing the nation's first rule requiring
that the state's five metropolitan planning organizations
develop near- and longer-term plans to cut
transportation greenhouse gas emissions caused by
vehicle trip demand induced by expanded roadways.
This will incentivize investment in transportation
alternatives that will improve quality of life and air
quality, such as adding sidewalks and protected
bike lanes, upgrading local and intercity transit, and
supporting compact and walkable land use. This will
make the state more competitive for grant funds from
the federal government and support land use that
shows higher returns on investment for real estate
developers. It will also help address issues such as
the threat of wildfires as development expands at the
border of Colorado's wildlands and urban areas.
Looking Forward: Reinvesting in Communities
The public sector can act as a catalyst and accelerator
for transit-oriented development-as well as for other
urban infill to create compact, walkable neighborhoods,
even without public transportation-by investing
in infrastructure early and allowing the cost to be
paid back over a longer period.
" There's something unique about infrastructure
that goes beyond the distinct site upon which an
investment is happening, " says Leslie Woo, chief
executive officer of CivicAction + CivicAction Leadership
Foundation. " [This] gives public bodies the ability
to be better able or positioned for infrastructure
investments. "
ULI Toronto is leading the Getting to TransitOriented
Communities Initiative, which is developing
a collaborative city-building model to manage growth
The Uptown Brampton
plan, developed as
part of ULI Toronto's
Getting to TransitOriented
Communities
Initiative, integrates
active mobility as a
key component to
enable car-free living
and enable childfriendly
arterials and
intersections early in
the implementation
phase.
SUMMER 2022
URBAN LAND 59
COURTESY OF ULI TORONTO
2022 Summer Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of 2022 Summer Issue
