TALUS: The detroit regional transportation and laud use study

TALUS, the Detroit Regional Transportation and Land Use Study, is a four-year, 4.5-million-dollar study which will produce a comprehensive plan to guide the growth and development of the seven-county, 4500-square-mile southeastern Michigan metropolitan region through 1990. The project is divided into five phases: 1) inventory and data collection, 2) analysis and model development, 3) plan formulation and testing, 4) plan review and adoption, and 5) plan implementation. The eleven substudies in the inventory phase provide both base year and historical data which are analyzed for the purpose of developing five basic models. The models permit the determination of alternative distributions of the projected regional population and activities in response to alternative combinations of facility plans and policies, and they predict future levels of demand for transportation capacity, sewer and water service, housing units, etc. Alternative plans are evaluated from the standpoint of their adequacy in achieving stated regional goals expressed in terms of performance specifications and objectives and their administrative and fiscal feasibility. The process is a methodical, rather than an intuitive one, as required by the masses of data which must be manipulated and the multiplicity of interrelated systems which must be dealt with. The value of the process lies in the extent to which the plan can be implemented and will influence the future development of the region.