The State of California Strategic Growth Council is releasing the results today of “Vision California,” a study funded in part by the California High-Speed Rail Authority to project the costs and benefits of the growth and transportation decisions that are being made under two scenarios: Business-As-Usual and Growing Smart. The report does a good job putting a dollar value on land use choices and summarizing the potential effects of policy changes. “Vision California: Charting Our Future,” assesses the economic, energy, health, and land impacts on a population expected to reach 60 million by 2050.
The report finds a per household savings of $6,400/year from automobile and utility costs. The “Growing Smarter” scenario yields a per household VMT reduction for a 2050 horizon year of 26% from a 2005 baseline and 30% from the “Business as Usual” scenario. These results seem consistent with a major “meta-analysis” conducted by the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center’s, which found a range of 20 to 40 percent VMT/capita reduction from compact development based on existing literature ranges.
For a copy of the full report, visit: http://www.visioncalifornia.org/reports.php.