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For years, transportation and land use integration has been identified as important approaches for planners, engineers, and designers, but to understand more research is needed to understand how it affects people who live around stations. In response, this research builds on a multi-year analysis quantitative and qualitative study of 2323 transit stations in over 350 corridors throughout the U.S. – one of the largest federally funded studies on livability related to transportation. This effort yielded empirical links to transportation and land use integration and quality of life outcomes. This paper concludes that the intersection between successful transportation and land use integration (TLI) depends on people's ability to equitably access opportunities to improve and/or maintain their desired quality of life. Along these lines this paper (a) identifies important characteristics (metrics) of TLI in 2323 transit station areas in the United States, (b) applies these metrics toward the development of a typology of station types (TOD), and then (c) validates these metrics by geo-locating a variety of quality of life outcomes for station area residents. Put simply, this paper finds that opportunity access can be an organising principle for guiding transportation and land use integration strategies. In turn, providing individuals with equitable access to opportunities measurably shows significant potential for achieving many societal and individual quality of life benefits such as lowering auto-dependency, household budget burdens, greenhouse gas emissions, and even poverty and obesity rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While most studies focus on the environmental and physical activity benefits of providing safe and livable streets for children, this paper provides a unique before-and-after experiment using cognitive (or image) mapping exercises employing innovative comparison methods. This work demonstrates how exposure to heavy traffic negatively affects children's perceptions of their environment, and how improving the pedestrian environment (building walkways and improving a crosswalk) can improve those perceptions. This shift may not only encourage more physical activity and strengthen the connection with their communities but also help children in their cognitive development of spatial knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past years there have been many revelations that have made it clear autonomous technology will become increasingly prevalent in our communities. Despite optimism about the technology there is a high degree of uncertainty about how they will be deployed in urban environs, particularly with regard to street design. Based on the concepts of autonomy, livability and human scale design, this paper provides a dialogue of possible opportunities for street design in an autonomous future. This paper develops a framework for best practice, identifying policies including roadway design/thinning, curbside policy, and parking removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]