Teaching Integrated Land Use-Transportation Planning: Topics, Readings, and Strategies

Planning pedagogy is increasingly focused on ways to teach interdisciplinary topics in an integrated and synergistic manner. The intersection of land use and transportation represent two topics that, in recent years, have risen front and center for the planning profession as a whole as well as for individual program specialization areas. This article focuses on the manner in which planning programs and in particular, specific courses, address land use and transportation planning. After describing the context in which such courses exist (e.g., program specializations, faculty size), the bulk of this analysis centers on analyzing syllabi from 15 courses in North American planning programs that squarely address integrated land use-transportation planning. The syllabi are analyzed in two respects. The first examines the list of topics covered within each course. The nature of primary, secondary, and peripheral topics (as assessed by the frequency in which they appear in the syllabi) are discussed. Second, the analysis uncovers the frequency in which specific readings are used in each course (articles, book chapters, books). Special attention is devoted to discussing the substance (e.g., what topics), origin (e.g., journal name), and/or the availability of key readings. The article closes by discussing the detailed nature of a sample land use-transportation course from the Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Minnesota in which there is a lecture and laboratory component.