Challenges and Success in Growing Communities by Connie P. Ozawa - Article Example

Therefore, this paper presents a number of lessons that can be derived from a number of chapters in the book. It specifically focuses on chapters 11, 12 and 13; The evolution of transportation planning in the Portland Metropolitan Area, Keeping the Green Edge: stream corridor protection in the Portland Metropolitan region and Portland’s Response to Homeless Issues and the “Broken Window” Theory. To start with, the Portland region is a model for other regions when it comes to transportation planning.

It is so far using the land planning techniques in order to reduce overreliance on an automobile. These techniques comprise New Urbanism, Smart Growth, Transit-oriented methods, and Pedestrian Pocket among other techniques. Thus, the region has a strong force or rather rule which supports its efforts in planning of transportation. This rule is referred to as the “Oregon Transportation Planning Rule (TPR).” Traffic congestion has always been an issue in most urban areas. For instance, surveying the current roads nationwide, congestions on the roads and poor infrastructure tops the list of problems that face cities in the US.

As much as the concerned institutions are fighting to curb congestion on roads, the scope of the problems widens day after day thus making it difficult to solve. Los Angeles is ranked 1st among the cities with traffic congestion which took the longest duration to subside in the year 2013. This is linked to the state of the economy and the level of infrastructure in the region. Therefore, transportation planning is a relatively strong aspect in the general planning of urban regions as it will determine how effective movement from one place to another can be.