Typologies have been all the rage in planning circles for a while now. LA Metro's draft sustainability plan (approved by the Ad Hoc Sustainability Committee this week and on its way to the Metro Board) sorts LA County into four place types and relates them to VMT, showing that more density and more "job centrality" (number of jobs and their distance from each tract) significantly lowers VMT from an average of 23,000 miles/year to 16,000 miles/year.

"D" Place Types = high HH density and job centrality = such as the downtowns of Pasadena, Glendale, Long Beach, LA, Torrance, Santa Monica and Warner Center, for example = 15,988 miles/year

"C" Place Types = medium high HH density and job centrality = such as Burbank west of the I-5, Commerce, Lawndale, Van Nuys, Venice = 18,717 miles/year.

"B" Place Types = low residential density, low to high job centrality (predominantly auto-oriented low-density residential but with compact downtowns and urban neighborhoods) = Bel Air, Granada Hills, La Canada Flintridge, La Habra Heights, Malibu, Montebello, Palmdale, Rancho Palos Verdes = 23,275 miles/year.

"A" Place Types = medium-high residential density and low job centrality (not as connected to region's economic centers) = Agoura Hills, Claremont, La Crescenta-Montrose, Marina Del Rey, San Fernando, Santa Clarita and many South Bay Cities including Redondo Beach and San Pedro = 20,477 miles/year.

"A" Place Type