Urban Transportation, Land Use, and the Environment
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate-level course on transportation, land use, and environmental policy in Latin American cities. Part I covers lectures on rapid motorization and suburbanization, fiscal pressures on transit systems, urban sprawl, sustainability concepts, regional strategic planning, and transportation technology and policy options, with examples of successful implementation. Part II shifts to two detailed city case studies, where students apply the concepts from Part I to devise strategic solutions to real transport, land use, and environmental challenges. The course targets planning practitioners, policymakers, and industry decision-makers, drawing on their institutional and policy analysis skills rather than requiring prior transportation expertise. Materials include lecture notes and case study assignments published by MIT. No detailed transportation planning background is required, only a willingness to apply analytical skills to concrete urban policy problems facing developing-world cities.