EXPERIMENTS IN URBAN FORM AND STRUCTURE

EVALUATION OF ALTERNATE LAND DEVELOPMENT PATTERNS IS AN IMPORTANT UNSOLVED TASK IN URBAN PLANNING. PART OF THE DIFFICULTY LIES IN LIMITED UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE COMPONENTS OF URBAN FORM. THE PROBLEM IS WHAT THE IMPACT WILL BE OF CHANGES IN THE COMPON- ENTS OF URBAN FORM OR URBAN SPATIAL STRUCTURE GIVEN ALTERNATE DISTRIBUTIONS AMONG SUB-AREAS OF AN URBAN AREA OF EACH OF THESE URBAN FORM ELEMENTS--WORKPLACES, SHOPPING PLACES, AND RESIDENCES, ALTERNATE SYSTEMS OF TRANSPORTATION SERVICE, AND AN ALLOCATION RULE WHICH SPECIFIES THE WAY RESIDENCES WILL BE LINKED UP WITH WORK-PLACES AND SHOPPING PLACES. A REPORT IS GIVEN ON A SIMPLE MODEL FOR EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF CHANGES IN COMPONENTS OF URBAN FORM ON URBAN SPATIAL STRUCTURE. URBAN FORM IS PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENT OF RESIDENCES, WORK PLACES, ETC. URBAN STRUCTURE IS THE PATTERN FORMED BY THE CONNECTION OF THESE ELEMENTS IN THE DAILY ACTIVITIES OF THE AREAS RESIDENTS. GIVEN A PHYSICAL PATTERN OF PLACES, THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THEM--FROM HOME TO WORK, FROM HOME TO SHOPPING CENTER--MUST BE ESTABLISHED. THE PURPOSE OF THIS EFFORT HAS BEEN TO TEST THE UTILITY OF USING A SIMPLE LINEAR PROGRAMMING FORMULATION AS AN ALLOCATION RULE FOR EVALUATING URBAN FORM ALTERNATIVES BY TWO CRITERIA: /1/ THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ALTERNATIVES IN TERMS OF MINIMAL TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS, AND /2/ THE EQUITY OF THE ALTERNATIVES IN TERMS OF LOCATIONAL ADVANTAGE OF RESIDENCE LOCATIONS. THESE CRITERIA ARE EVALUATED BY THE PRIMAL AND THE DUAL PROBLEM RESPECTIVELY OF A TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM IN LINEAR PROGRAMMING.