SmartGAP User’s Guide

This document is the user’s guide for the Smart Growth Area Planning (SmartGAP) software, which is a tool for evaluating the impact of various smart growth policies. The tool was developed as part of the Transportation Research Board's second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) Capacity Project C16, which provided tools, methods, and resources for transportation planning agencies in the U.S. to evaluate the effects of smart growth policies on travel demand. The project built on existing work in this field, while recognizing that this is a relatively new arena of study in transportation planning. The research team’s development of tools and online resources relied on research, performance metrics , and application tools already in use. The tools and resources were reviewed by the project’s Technical Expert Task Group and by select Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) who engaged in pilot studies of SmartGAP.