University of California Transportation Center

In recent years, the Neotraditional Neighborhood Development (NTND) land use planning movement, which is also known as "Traditional Neighborhood Development", has gained increasing attention from planning, engineering, and development professionals. This increased popularity stems from the recognition that the concepts embodied in NTND address many of the most pressing social and economic problems in urban areas, including growth management, traffic congestion, open space preservation, and housing shortages. Through basic changes in land use patterns, street geometries, and network design, NTND attempts to improve accessibility via increased efficiency in travel/activity patterns. Improvements in network connectivity are coupled with lower speeds resulting in comparable travel times but reduced vehicle miles traveled, less congestion, and improved air quality.