Traffic Congestion and Land Use Regulations

Theory and Policy Analysis

Tatsuhito Kono, Kirti Kusum Joshi

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780128170205
• eBook ISBN: 9780128170212
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Transportation & Navigation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Traffic Congestion and Land Use Regulations: Theory and Policy Analysis explores why, when, where and how land use regulations are utilized in cities to address road transportation congestion. The book shows how to design optimal density and zonal regulations for efficient traffic flow in cities, examines land use regulations using optimal control theory, and offers detailed insights into the mechanisms behind optimal regulations and techniques for exploring spatial optimal policies. Discussions from this book will help highlight the practical usefulness of land use regulations for the maximization of urban social welfare. - Uniquely explores land use regulations and traffic congestion from both theoretical and applied perspectives - 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 on how to construct smarter cities using the latest research in land use regulations

Chapter One

Introduction

Abstract

In this chapter, we review theoretical studies on land use regulations. The purpose of this review is to capture the overall flow of development of models for analyzing land use regulations and not to show a comprehensive review of the studies. To address the spatial mechanisms of land use regulations, we basically review only general equilibrium models and ignore empirical research on land use regulations. In addition, we do not review growth control papers, which consider only the population distribution across cities and ignore heterogeneous spaces with transportation and amenities within a city. Basically, we focus on the ingredients that play an important role in determining land use regulations in a city.

Keywords

Previous studies on land use regulation; Determinants of land use regulation

Land use regulations are common urban policies in most cities all over the world. Common regulations include (1) zoning by which land use is restricted zone by zone; (2) lot size (LS) regulation, which restricts the size of each housing lot; (3) urban growth boundary (UGB) control, which separates urban development areas from urbanization control areas; and (4) floor area ratio (FAR) regulation,^a which restricts building sizes. The adoption and implementation of these regulations vary according to the country or the city. In some cases, multiple regulations may be applied to a single building; likewise, each regulation could be implemented in slightly different ways.^b

Why do cities impose land use regulations? In practice, cities impose land use regulations for various reasons such as to mitigate traffic congestion and noise, improve urban aesthetics, control air pollution, recover public service cost, or reduce frictions between agents (e.g., landowners and residents) and conflicts in land use.^c Similar to other public policies, the targets of practical land use regulations are not necessarily economically reasonable. Nevertheless, sufficient accountability is required for regulations because the regulations restrict residents and landowners from freely using their property as they wish, and in most cases, regulations result in costs for them. Hence, land use regulations should be justifiable.

Moreover, buildings are probably one of the most durable goods ever produced. Accordingly, if a regulation at a certain time leads to inefficient urban land use, it remains inefficient for many years. An inefficient result of land use regulation can be seen in Moscow. As shown in Fig. 1.1 borrowed from Bertaud and Renaud (1997), the Moscow bureaucratic density control led to a perverse, inverted population density pattern in which suburban areas have more residents than the central areas, in contrast to Paris where the reverse is true. The density pattern in Moscow generates heavy traffic burdens. Another example is seen in suburbs in Tokyo. Fig. 1.2 shows change in the population density in three suburb towns according to the distance from the nearest station in 2005 (Sagamihara City, 2011). These three towns are new towns, informally called “bed towns,” which were built as residential places for employees working in the center of Tokyo. Comparing the density patterns among the three towns, while the population density decreases with distance in Hachiouji and Hashimoto, the density is almost constant in Machida. The constant density of Machida generates greater congestion of commuting trips than in the other two towns. This difference in population density patterns is probably caused by past land use planning.

Fig. 1.1 Comparison of density gradients of Moscow and Paris. (Source: Bertaud, A., Renaud, B., 1997. Socialist cities without land markets. J. Urban Econ. 41 (1), 137–151.)

Fig. 1.2 Comparison of density gradients among towns in Tokyo. (Source: Sagamihara City, 2011. Outlook of Sagamihara and Machida Using Maps, p. 52.)

As these different density patterns show, it is important to set appropriate land use regulations or policies to achieve efficient population density patterns. However, as this book will show, the urban mechanism behind land use regulations is not straightforward. Accordingly, careful consideration in city planning is required at any time.

In economics, policies can be evaluated and accounted for from two viewpoints: efficiency and income distribution. In this book, we explore land use regulations from these two perspectives. However, we focus more on efficient land use regulations because the effect of land use regulations on income distribution is so indirect and complex that policy makers do not adopt land use regulations from the viewpoint of income distribution in most cases. Nevertheless, because land use regulations do not normally involve income redistribution, it is important to know the effects of land use regulation on the income distribution between agents. This book explores the different effects on landowners and residents.

Urban activities in the market mechanisms lose efficiency in various manners. Land use regulations can deal with several types of market failures such as agglomeration economies in business areas, congestion externality, pollution (e.g., noise and air pollution), blocked sunlight or air circula...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Chapter One: Introduction
• Chapter Two: Necessity of a minimum floor area regulation
• Chapter Three: Differences in optimal land use regulation between a closed city and an open city
• Chapter Four: Optimal land use regulation in a growing city
• Chapter Five: Optimal land use regulations in a city with business areas
• Chapter Six: Introducing cordon pricing in a regulated city
• Chapter Seven: Road investment evaluation under land use regulation
• Chapter Eight: Changes with future ICT technologies and future studies
• Index