CTOD Creates Citywide Toolkit For TOD In Los Angeles
March 31, 2010
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The Center for Transit-Oriented Development (CTOD) has released the "Creating Successful Transit Oriented Districts in Los Angeles: A Citywide Toolkit for Achieving Regional Goals" report, which assesses opportunities to improve land use and transportation linkages in communities surrounding 70 existing and planned transit stations in the City of Los Angeles. The report identifies strategies to help communities around transit stations achieve high transit ridership, increase mixed-income and mixed-use housing opportunities and create sustainable neighborhoods while offering its residents a wealth of travel options.
Reconnecting America Analyzes New Starts/Small Starts Program
February 4, 2010
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President Obama has proposed $1.82 billion for 27 New Starts/Small Starts transit projects in his FY 2011 budget, including 10 new projects, nine that had previously been recommended for funding and eight projects already under construction. Winners of new Full Funding Grant Agreements include two bus rapid transit projects in Oakland and Connecticut, San Francisco’s Central Subway, rail projects in Honolulu and the Twin Cities and two lines in Denver.
Value Capture And Tax-Increment Financing Options For Streetcar Construction
November 3, 2009
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D.C. Surface Transit commissioned the Brookings Institution to look at funding alternatives for a proposed streetcar. Brookings then subcontracted with Reconnecting America for assistance. Out of that collaboration came “Value Capture and Tax-Increment Financing Options for Streetcar Construction.”
A model for predicting light rail ridership
May 29, 2009
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Critics question whether light rail can generate ridership in low-density, automobile-oriented, polycentric US cities with smaller downtowns. Proponents counter that convenient access to stations via walking, park-and-ride, or bus allow for the development of feasible corridors connecting major residential areas with suburban concentrations of employment and the CBD. With this in mind, the used multiple regression to determine factors that contribute to higher light-rail ridership.
Cross-sectional data on average weekday boardings were collected for the year 2000 for 268 stations in nine US cities representing a variety of urban settings. The resulting model may be useful as a first-cut, one-step approach for predicting demand for possible light-rail alignments.
Purchase full copy: Factors influencing light-rail station boardings in the United States (2003)
The Value In Investing In Properties Near Transit
May 28, 2009
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The profits of investing in properties near transit and the effect of housing near transit on vehicle trips are explored in a pair of documents added to the Best Practices.
Transit ridership and job sites, travel forecasting and state TOD efforts
May 27, 2009
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An examination of the relationship between transit ridership and urban decentralization, an evaluation of metropolitan travel forecasting models and a look at transit-oriented development experiences as lessons for Connecticut and New York have been added to the Best Practices.
Parking And Its Relationship To Transit and Transit-Oriented Development
May 26, 2009
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A study of urban transport planning Europe and a look at trip generation at transit-oriented developments in Portland's Pearl District have been added to the Best Practices.
TOD, Aging And Networks And Their Impact On Transit
May 21, 2009
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The effects of transit-oriented development on housing, parking and travel; the potential for the graying of America to increase transit ridership; and an article that empirically tests for positive network effects in transit use have been added to the Best Practices.
Measuring Factors That Impact Transportation Choices
May 20, 2009
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A trio of papers that look into transit ridership and the factors influence the decisions on how to get from here to there have been added to the Best Practices section.
Office Development, Rail Transit, and Commuting Choices
While housing is generally the focus of transit-oriented development discussions, job centers are equally important, according to a paper by Robert Cervero, professor and chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley.
"In the end, concentrating housing near rail stops will do little to lure commuters to trains and buses unless the other end of the trip—the workplace—is similarly convenient to and conducive to using transit.," Cervero concludes.
In California, central business district office workers with rail stations nearby are nearly three times more likely to commute by transit than workers in decentralized employment centers. Factors…
US Needs Vision As Compelling As Interstate Highway Act
April 28, 2009
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Transportation for America Director James Corless testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation today (April 28), saying the US needs a cohesive national transportation policy with clear objectives and performance measures to gauge progress. He said these measures should include reducing driving by 16 percent in 20 years, and tripling walking, biking and transit use. Reconnecting America co-chairs the “T4America” campaign, which is working with Congress on reauthorizing the six-year federal transportation bill that provides hundreds of billions of dollars for transportation projects. The coalition has grown to include 250 organizations ranging from AARP to the National Association of Realtors, and 18,000 individuals and elected officials.
