Background

Noting the obvious complexity of city systems, it is not surprising that limitations exist with respect to our understanding of the elements of urban spatial structure, particularly from the perspective of transportation’s influence on land use. This is the case for several reasons. First, although major land use theories incorporate transportation costs as having a significant impact on location, this has been typically limited to composite costs related to distance (eg distance from the central business district in a monocentric city or distance from inputs of production) or a composite inter-zonal cost (eg, de la Barra, 1989). Second, urban planning efforts with respect to these elements have tended to occur separately and with a distinct bias towards households and automobiles as opposed to firm location and the movement of goods (Woudsma, 2001). Finally, integration of these elements into models (Hunt et al., 1999) involves complex relationships that are difficult to untangle (Pickrell, 1999).