NCFRP Report: Smart Growth and Urban Goods Movement

Smart growth design, a strategy for improving the quality of life in urban areas, has typically focused on the areas of passenger travel, land use and nonmotorized transport adoption. The role of goods movement is often ignored in discussions of smart growth. This article reports on National Cooperative Freight Research Program (NCFRP) Report 24, which addresses the importance of the relationship between smart growth and goods movement. A number of principles of smart growth are identified, as are areas where there are research gaps. Urban transportation forecasting models have shown that smart-growth land use offers benefits both for passenger travel and goods movement. Additionally, smart-growth improvements to transit and nonmotorized transportation have been found to offer greater benefits to trucks than do roadway investments.