REGENERATING URBAN CENTRES THROUGH INTEGRATED LAND USE AND TRANSPORT PLANNING POLICIES: LESSONS FROM THE USA

This paper is based on research undertaken by the author in the USA and Canada during October and November 1996 with support of the Jones Lang Wootton Education Trust. Detailed research of a number of case study cities in North America has highlighted that downtown areas have been regenerated in conjunction with innovative and far reaching integrated land use and transport planning policy solutions. This has happened from a very low base where in many cases urban centres have been suffering from years of perpetual decline. Where distinctive policies and intiatives have been successful, they have done so against a trend of low density car based development with little regard to the wider impacts on the vitality and viability of downtown areas. This paper considers the effectiveness of these approaches and assesses their possible application to the UK. In doing so it provides details of the distinct differences in both the historical and institutional frameworks to the planning systems in the UK and USA/Canada. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 898930.