Transit-Oriented Development Tools for Metropolitan Planning Organizations

This report describes the benefits of transit-oriented development (TOD), combined with Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO). At the core of transit-oriented development is the idea that people with a wide range of incomes can live and work in places with interconnected transportation networks that offer more transportation options, allowing them to take care of some of their daily trips using transit, walking and biking, rather than driving. Since the most transit supportive neighborhoods also tend to be compact neighborhoods, this density also supports a mix of uses and activities including housing, work places, child care, stores, and restaurants. And, because of this compact walkability and mix of uses, people can also take care of some of their daily needs by walking or biking to various destinations. Thus, people are able to reduce the amount of money spent on travel, the number of vehicle miles traveled by car, and perhaps the number of cars they own – with positive impacts not just for households but also for the general public. To garner significant changes in behavior, however, alternative modes of transport must be convenient, timely, seamlessly connected, and safe. Increasingly, practitioners are focusing on building transportation “networks”, rather than individual transit lines. These networks knit together a region’s vast array of neighborhoods, destinations and centers. A person might leave their home in the morning, walk to a nearby bus stop, catch a bus that connects to a light rail line, then ride into the city center where they walk the last few blocks to their office. At the end of the day, they might take a streetcar to a nearby restaurant, then bus home along an entirely different route. The regions that have attracted the greatest amount of development around transit facilities and made significant shifts in auto ownership and transit ridership are those regions that have highly interconnected transit networks, linked with safe and direct walking and bicycling networks. In these successful cases, TOD is not an isolated occurrence, but a network of places and nodes with community-wide and even regional scope. When MPOs are involved with TOD decisions and planning, it is easier for TOD to become region-wide and not just site specific.

• Record URL:
  http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/public/download/ctod_mpotod_final
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Reconnecting America

  Center for Transit Oriented Development
  436 14th Street, Suite 1005
  Oakland, CA  United States  94612

  Federal Transit Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Finkenbinder, Annie
  • Britt, Kelley
  • Blair, Catherine Cox
• Publication Date: 2010-2-23

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Maps; Photos; Tables;
• Pagination: 33p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Bicycling; Metropolitan planning organizations; Networks; Public transit; Quality of life; Regional planning; Transit oriented development; Transportation planning; Travel demand management; Walking
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01173862
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 28 2010 2:37PM