Accessibility as a framework for sustainable transportation planning in the Tijuana-Rosarito-Tecate metropolitan region

Abstract

One of the basic goals of urban sustainability is to manage urban flows efficiently. Urban transportation is considered one of the aspects that largely generate environmental, social and economic impacts in cities and urban regions. With the increase of automobile dependence, the new perspective about urban transportation has to favor accessibility over mobility. Accessibility is considered one of the main goals of sustainable transportation and it is used as a good concept to develop an integrated land use-transportation planning process. According to this, this paper examines the relationship between urban form and transportation in the Tijuana-Rosarito-Tecate metropolitan region, located in the cross border space between Mexico and the Unites States of America, as a framework to implement a more integrated planning process. The research is conducted at three scales: urban, metropolitan and cross border space. The first stage of this study is developed at the urban scale (Tijuana), analyzing data at the city and district level. Linear correlation analysis was implemented to identify the relation of land use factors and automobile trips. The results in this first stage indicate at the city level that population density and distance from center have negative correlations with automobile trips; significance correlation between urban form factors evidence a segregated land use pattern in Tijuana. At the district level, negative correlations appear in other factors (job density, land use mixture and transit routes density) with no relevant significance; nevertheless, core districts appear as the ones which urban conditions favor other transportation modes. Preliminary conclusions indicate that urban conditions of core districts could be implemented in the rest of the city through new zoning and transportation strategies. © 2010 WIT Press.