Studies have shown that an increase in non-motorized transportation (NMT) has been linked to healthy benefits such as an increase in physical activity, lower body mass index, and a decreasing chance of developing a chronic disease. New theories of economic development, such as Placemaking, have also emphasized increasing NMT. However, there is no tool to quantify the changes in NMT ability before and after a development. This project develops such a modeling tool and applies it to the City Center II development in East Lansing, MI. A literature review identifies built environment variables that explain the variance in American Community Survey walking, biking, and riding the bus to work data. After conducting correlations with the means to work and built environmental data, the final variables are used in a linear regression, along with socio-economic controls. A service area is created utilizing ArcGIS's Network Analyst tool to define an area 1⁄2 mile around the development. Derived regression coefficients are applied to the service area in order to estimate the pre-development amount of people who took NMT to work. The anticipated final redevelopment project is then reproduced in ArcGIS and the service area is recreated. The same regression coefficient formula is applied to the new service area and the result is the estimated number of people who will take NMT to work post-development. The results show that the development will increase the amount of people who take NMT to work from 28.58% to 30.68%. Finally, the benefits and policy implications of using a model to assess the change in NMT use before and after a land use is discussed.
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