About TLUC: Platform
 The
Southern California region faces a tremendous challenge to support
an expected six million new residents by 2020. The need for adequate
housing, better transportation and expanded employment are key
for this region in the coming decade. It is vital that we plan
for a future that can accommodate this growth without destroying
the quality of life that has drawn people to the area for more
than a century.
Development combining land use and transportation used to happen
naturally in Southern California, following the tracks of the popular
trolley cars that criss-crossed the region from the mountains to
the sea. But since the emergence of the automobile as the transportation "vehicle
of choice," development patterns have changed, paying little
attention to the efficiencies developed in the early 20th century.
The result has been a proliferation of urban sprawl that has become
an unfortunate model for the world. Only recently have the substantial
hidden costs of that sprawl become clear to civic leaders, from
high infrastructure expenditures to the neglect of urban neighborhoods,
including schools, parks and business communities. And, the street
and highway system upon which so much of the burden for moving
people and goods throughout the region is approaching paralysis
due to around-the-clock congestion that will only get worse if
the haphazard growth continues.
This deteriorating mobility threatens the region's economic competitiveness.
As employee commute times increase, their productivity and morale
declines. As goods are delayed reaching their destination, commerce
falters. Employees become harder to attract and retain and profit
margins are trimmed. The enticements of other regions - more affordable
housing and less congestion (for the meantime) - look increasingly
attractive to firms. And we shouldn't overlook the social costs
incurred by families - more and more workers living farther and
farther away from their jobs, paying the high cost of time not
spent with their spouses and children in exchange for sitting alone
in a car on a congested highway every morning and evening.
Against this all-too-familiar backdrop, the Collaborative seeks
to inspire a different way of thinking about how and where growth
takes place combined with how we get around. By addressing transportation
and land use together, the community building process begins to
take a different shape and how and where we use our resources takes
on new possibilities.
TLUC is committed to bringing together the disciplines of transportation
and land use, to think of accessibility and place as two parts
of a whole, and to advance a practical approach for how we live
and how we get around.
In pursuit of this goal, the Collaborative will:
- Promote efficient
land use coordinated with new and existing transportation
infrastructure.
- Support reinvestment and preservation of the urban core by
promoting new housing and transportation options that make living
in City
centers and nearby
neighborhoods
feasible for more people.
- Work to remove obstacles that limit local land use
decision-making, especially regarding the provision of a
broad variety of housing types and transportation
options.
- Help to shape the future of Southern California by initiating
a community dialogue with public officials, professionals,
civic leaders and community
activists,
employing the most up-to-date techniques and technologies.
- Advocate for
community design that supports healthy lifestyles, makes
neighborhoods more livable and reduces the hidden social and
fiscal costs
of typical planning
decisions.
- Challenge elected officials, developers, professionals, academics
and community activists to articulate a vision for the future
that supports
the needs of
families, builds strong, safe, healthy neighborhoods, and enhances
our quality of life.
TLUC derives its funding from a variety of public
and private sector sources, including philanthropic grants, contracts
and corporate
and individual
donations.
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