**1. Introduction**

Rapidly increasing population induces growing cities and increasing car ownership. Conse‐ quently, transportation and land use problems become significant issues due to their econom‐ ical effects. Wey and Hsu [1] stated that urban sprawl and city congestion have become the inevitable development trend in the process of economic growth. Transportation and land use problems are getting inextricable issues simultaneously with the existing development trend.

Many researchers found that density is a significant factor of conversation of energy, and many studies found that access to high-capacity transit, incentives for development, balanced parking policy, mixed-use designs and jobs-housing balance are critical parameters of sustainability [2–7]. Transport-oriented problems and land use planning problems are directly interdependent fields and have a highly interrelated iterative interaction.

Interaction between land use and transportation is the basic factor for the trip generation. Transportation investments still strongly affect land use patterns, urban densities and housing prices [8]. Transportation systems primarily support sprawl [9]. To set up an effective transportation system, land use decisions have to be taken effectively and residential area densities have to be well arranged. Handy [10] stated that building more highways will contribute to more sprawl and lead to more driving. Building up a solitary transit-oriented system is not an exact solution. Conventional planning paradigm primarily builds the environment and afterwards tries to overcome the existing transportation problems [11]. Effects of land use decisions which generate strong travel attractiveness should be measured in the planning process since land use decisions acquire an irreversible characteristic after construction period. The interaction between land use and transportation should be meas‐ ured and managed through traffic impact analyses.

Effects of the increasing traffic volumes should be investigated by traffic impact analyses in order to find out whether the existing link capacities are convenient or not. Conventional land use planning paradigm is inclined to generate land use decisions by evaluating social and economical parameters [12]. Whereas, traffic impact analyses should be evaluated as one of the basic elements of land use planning parameter set. Those types of deficiencies bring along new planning paradigms such as new urbanism and smart growth (SG). The rise of new urbanism brings new energy and ideas to communities that commit to manage growth. Urban design hence becomes more visible within planning since the design is incorporated into growth management programs. Comprehensive planning also begin to connect more strongly with affordable housing advocates and public health professionals, broadening their focus beyond the more traditional set of issues revolving around land-use, transportation and the environment [13]. New urbanism is synonymous with SG, but there are significant differen‐ ces. New urbanism was much more influenced by architects and physical planners, while the SG was launched from a community of environmentalists, citizen groups, transportation planners and policy makers [14].

Many urban problems have led to a more intelligent and sophisticated planning trend which directly effects urban sprawl. Those problems may be stated as air and water pollution, loss

of open space and increased traffic congestion. The developing planning trend has been referred to as SG [15]. To prevent unplanned sprawl and negative effects, SG strategies, which promote mixed-use development, transit-oriented development and conditions amenable to walking and biking, have been developed [16].

Objectives of the SG strategies are diverse since there are different location specifications. However, the main axes of those objectives are protection of environmentally sensitive areas, support for further development of existing urban areas and preservation of open space. Truly intelligent SG should be quantifiably superior to any other proposed land development plan. However, a quantitative definition of the SG does not exist [15].

SG strategies aim to channel new development into existing urban areas and improve the viability of alternatives to the car [16]. SG principles have been applied to integrate land use and transportation planning [17]. This approach can be applied to solve planning and design problems in order to accelerate land use efficiency and manage growth (e.g., human popula‐ tion control). It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, neighborhood schools, complete streets and mixed-use development with a range of hous‐ ing choices [18]. The planning principles which are promulgated by the SG network have gained widespread recognition.

SG strategies may be evaluated in the process of land use planning since those paradigms seek to reduce the adverse impacts of current land use and transportation patterns and practices by preserving their benefits. This study tries to develop a land use planning model where SG strategies and traffic impact analyses simultaneously take place. A main signalized intersec‐ tion serving heavy traffic volumes between three major arterials in Denizli, Turkey has been selected as the study intersection. The data including travel demand and land use plans have taken from Denizli Transportation Master Plan (DTMP) [19] and two scenarios are investigat‐ ed for projection year. In the first scenario, the conventional land use planning decisions are applied while the SG strategies are taken into account in the second one. VISSIM traffic simulations are utilized for providing visual analyses and quantitative evaluations of the performance indicators.
