Frank 2005 - "A Study of Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality, and Health (LUTAQH) in King County, WA: Executive Summary"

Frank, Lawrence (Lawrence Frank & Company, Inc.)
"A Study of Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality, and Health (LUTAQH) in King County, WA: Executive Summary"
September 27, 2005, Submitted to King County officials.
Relevance: high
On the Web (big pdf)

NOTE: The following summary includes only the sections of this report that deal with air quality and vehicle emissions.

The study examined per capita VOC and NOx emissions from both automobile and transit trips. It uses a variety of measures to classify urban, suburban and other land uses. Urban land uses are responsible for much lower air pollution, on a per capita basis, than suburban land uses. Interestingly, the strongest correlate to lower per capita emissions is “street connectivity.”

• “Significantly lower estimates for NOx were generated by respondents living in areas with higher levels of retail floor area ratio, intersection density, and land use mix and residential density. Increased street connectivity where people live appeared to be the most closely associated with NOx. Mean emissions of NOx declined from 29 to 23 grams per person per day, a 26 percent reduction, between residents of the most to the least connected environments.”
• “Significantly lower levels of VOC’s were found for respondents in areas with higher levels of floor area ratio and intersection density and residential density. Improvements to street connectivity where people lived appeared to be the most effective tool to reduce VOC’s as well. Mean emissions of VOC’s declined from 14 to 12 grams per person per day, a 7 percent reduction, for residents of the most to least connected environments.”