Traffic Congestion and Land Use Regulations

Urban Transportation Congestion and Land Use Regulations: Theory and Policy Analysis explores why, when, where, and how land use regulations are used in cities to address road transportation congestion.

Dense urban areas enhance and facilitate communication and innovation but they also increase traffic congestion. Land use regulations policies are used to manage spatial externalities in these urban environments, with local governments intervening through enforcement of building size, lot size, and zoning.

Urban Transportation Congestion and Land Use Regulations shows how to design optimal density and zonal regulations for efficient traffic flow in cities. It examines land use regulations using optimal control theory, offering detailed insights into the mechanisms behind the optimal regulations and the techniques for exploring spatial optimal policies. The book shows the practical usefulness of land use regulations for maximizing urban social welfare.

• Uniquely explores land use regulations and traffic congestion together in one volume from both a theoretical and applied perspective
• Reviews and summarizes the most recent academic research in urban economics, land use management, and transportation congestion
• Demonstrates important but less commonly used regulations such as minimum floor area regulations
• Provides insights for constructing smarter cities using the latest research in land use regulations

Academic researchers, practitioners and policy makers in transportation planning, economics, management, modelling, and policy making

1. Introduction
2. The costs and benefits of a minimum floor area regulation
3. Differences in optimal land use regulation between a closed city and open city
4. Optimal land use regulation in a static city and a growing city
5. Optimal land use regulations in a city with business areas
6. Introducing cordon pricing to the regulated city
7. Conclusion