Human Dimensions Approach towards Integrating Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning Policies: A Decision Support System (DSS) Based on Stated Preferences Data

Abstract

While a lot of progress has been made in Germany to reduce CO2 emissions in the past years in almost all sectors of economy, however, the sector of transportation shows increasing CO2 emissions in the same period of time. Likewise, sustainability objectives of German land use policies have not been met so far, especially with regard of the continuously high rate of greenfield land used up for new housing development. In this paper, it is argued that environmental issues of both sectors have to be addressed by integrating urban housing development and transportation infrastructure planning policies. The paper reports on a stated preferences survey among house buyers in Germany, using a discrete choice approach, where parameters of sustainable urban design and sustainable transport are both integrated into one model. Building on concepts of behavioral economics, preferences are elicited for sub-samples of different “environmental awareness”. Results show differences in tastes for higher building densities to reduce land consumption as well as differences in tastes for transport infrastructure development and frequency of public transport parameters. In addition, a decision support system is developed to analyze the impact of individual parameters on choosing one alternative over the other. Form this, conclusions on potential market shares for sustainable housing and transport development are drawn and recommendations are given to implement integrated urban design and transportation infrastructure policies.