The legislation required that all proposed transportation projects be evaluated within the broad context of a comprehensive long-range planning process that considers local and state mobility goals. It further required that these broad goals be evaluated within the more focused goals for overall community quality, environmental protection, economic growth, and energy efficiency. There is more explicit emphasis on public transit use. The Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot Program, a new program funded through TEA- 21, also promotes the tie between transportation and land use planning. The program will support state and local planning, research, and implementation of projects that show coordination between transportation and sustainable land use.
Transportation is a factor in location decisions of commercial and industrial development.
In locations where the development is included in local plans, communities are aware of the needed infrastructure. A region s transportation plan, which in turn is included into statewide transportation plans, can identify the transportation facilities needed by the development. The land use and transportation relationship can be viewed as cyclical rather than as a one-way, causal relationship in either direction. The development cycle begins when population and economic growth create demand for land development. New economic development, especially low-density development at the edge of urbanized areas, results in more vehicle trips and places greater demand on surrounding streets and highways.