Using a GIS in transportation corridor planning avoids the common pitfalls encountered when exclusively using transportation models and addresses the relationships between network components and broad-reaching environmental impacts. A GIS allows for the analysis of data through the cross referencing of data sets giving the user the ability to seamlessly overlay whatever data sets he or she chooses.

1. U.S. Department of Transportation-Federal Highway Administration case study

The Transportation and Community and System Preservation Pilot Program “(TCSP) projects are demonstrating analytical methods supported by GIS for:

-Combining local land use data sources to provide a regional database for forecasting and scenario analysis

-Creating and evaluating alternative transportation and development scenarios

-Estimating a range of community, economic, fiscal, and environmental impacts associated with transportation and development scenarios; and

-Forecasting the land use impacts of transportation plans and projects”
(GIS Tools-TCSP Case Study –FHWA, United States Department of Transportation-Federal Highway Administration, Last Updated: 08/21/2004)

For more information on this case study go to: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tcsp/case7.html