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CONVINCING CONSERVATIVES TO SUPPORT TRANSIT
Matt Dellinger Asks The Questions And William Lind Explains How

IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES FOR TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Five 'New Urbanism 202' presentations from June CNU17 convention

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT: MAKING IT HAPPEN
Academic research publication includes chapter by RA CEO Shelley Poticha and program associate Jeff Wood

Headlines  Feed-icon-12x12
MADE IN USA: PORTLAND'S STREETCAR DEBUT
Transportation Secretary LaHood lauds Portlands dedication to transit, environment

TRAINING NY MUNICIPALITIES IN TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 Corridor Project includes training, tools for TOD

TEACHING HOW TO ADDRESS MAJOR CHALLENGES OF TOD PROJECTS
National Charrette Institute to hold July sessions in Portland and Harvard

Best Practices 
Discussion Paper On The Evaluation Of Economic Development
This document presents one possible method for evaluating potential economic development impacts of projects applying for Federal Transit Administration New Starts funds · PDF

Portland Streetcar Economic Impacts – First Phase Carbon Footprint Benefits Modeling
This memorandum outlines and illustrates a methodology for modeling prospective benefits of reduced carbon emissions associated with Portland Streetcar as a form of development oriented transit. · PDF

Cost-Effective GHG Reductions Through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices
Study evaluates economic case for focusing on transportation options as the most effective tool in reducing greenhouse gas emissions · PDF

Projects  Feed-icon-12x12
CAPTURING THE VALUE OF TRANSIT
New report by Center for Transit-Oriented Development released

FINANCING TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Policy Options and Strategies in the San Francisco Bay Area

OPPORTUNITIES FOR EQUITABLE TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
Somerville Community Corp. study for city of Somerville

Conservatives And Public Transportation

Conservatives And Public Transportation

Reconnecting America co-publishes book with Paul Weyrich and William Lind

Reconnecting America is co-publishing the book Moving Minds: Conservatives and Transit, a collection of studies by renown conservative transit advocates Paul Weyrich and William Lind. Weyrich, who in 1977 founded the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative Washington, DC, think tank that focused on grassroots political organizing, died this past year. The studies that he and Lind did on public transportation helped conservatives understand why transit should be an essential part of the conservative agenda: because it enhances national security, promotes economic development, helps maintain conservative values including a sense of community, and provides welfare recipients with access to jobs.

The book is available from Reconnecting America for $20 each. We offer non-members discount rates for orders of 20 or more copies. To order 15 books or more or for international shipments, please contact Crystal Henle.


Members can purchase the book for $16.


Not a member? Get Connected!

(June 5th, 2009)

Connecting Destinations Is Key To Transit Success

Connecting Destinations Is Key To Transit Success

CTOD paper analyzes performance of 19 transit lines to understand factors contributing to ridership

The effectiveness of transit is typically measured by ridership – ridership projections, for example, often determine whether a project will win federal funding. But the complex movements of people within a region make accurate predictions difficult. Indeed, three of the most successful lines that have opened since 2003 (Minneapolis, Denver’s Southeast line, and Los Angeles Orange BRT line) received only a medium-low rating from the Federal Transit Administration, and under current rules would not have been funded.

The Center for Transit Oriented Development has just released a paper, "Destinations Matter: Building Transit Success," that analyzes the performance of 19 transit lines to better understand the factors contributing to high ridership. Of the 19 lines examined, seven exceeded projections, eight are on track to beat projections, and two did not meet projections, while data for three was unavailable. The conclusion: that connecting destinations is key, and that the funding decision-making process needs to take into consideration a fuller range of factors that enhance ridership.

(May 13th, 2009)

Growing Mixed-Income TOD

Growing Mixed-Income TOD

CTOD’s MITODAG shows communities effective strategies and tools

As TOD planning processes proliferate there is a broader understanding that mixed-income housing supports many TOD goals including stable transit ridership, better public health, broadened access to opportunities, and deeper affordability. This Mixed-Income TOD Action Guide was developed for the nonprofit Great Communities Collaborative (GCC), which is working in the San Francisco Bay Area to ensure TOD planning processes result in neighborhoods that include households of all income levels. The guide “walks” users through a three-step analysis to determine the most effective strategies and tools.

(April 8th, 2009)

Street Smart

Street Smart

Streetcars and Cities in the 21st Century (Reconnecting America, 2009)

The second edition of our popular award-winning book on how to plan, finance and build streetcar systems contains an update on the status of the U.S. streetcar movement and case studies of new streetcars in Seattle and Savannah. There's a foreword by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, and updated contact info for every streetcar project planned or underway in the U.S. This richly illustrated book is intended to promote a learning network among the cities and transit agencies that are interested in building new systems, with or without federal funding.

The book is available from Reconnecting America for $35 each. We offer non-members discount rates for orders of 20 or more copies. To order 15 books or more or for international shipments, please contact Crystal Henle.


Members can purchase the book for $28.

Not a member? Click here.

(March 5th, 2009)

Jumpstarting the Transit Space Race

Reconnecting America releases new report on federal transit funding

The demand for transit in the U.S. has never been greater, with ridership at its highest levels in 50 years and almost 400 new rail, streetcar and bus rapid transit projects proposed in large and small regions from Massachusetts to Hawaii, according to a new report by Reconnecting America. Americans took 10.1 billion trips on transit in 2007, saving 1.4 billions of gallons of gasoline -- the equivalent of a supertanker leaving the Middle East every 11 days.

"Jumpstarting the Transit Space Race: How the New Administration Could Make America Energy-Independent, Create Jobs and Keep the Economy Strong" documents the interest in transit projects around the U.S., and calculates the investment required to build all the proposed new lines. The report concludes that a transit building program not unlike the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act after World War II would help address many of the challenges facing this country -- from rising gas prices to climate change -- and it would create jobs.

(February 19th, 2009)

Opportunities for Equitable Transit-Oriented Development

Somerville Community Corp. study for city of Somerville

Somerville: Reconnecting America worked with the Somerville Community Corporation to identify needs and opportunities for equitable transit-oriented development in the City of Somerville, with a focus on the planned extension of the Green Line. The report highlights demographic and real estate trends, and outlines a series of strategies for achieving mixed-income TOD.

(November 21st, 2008)

Financing Transit-Oriented Development

Policy Options and Strategies in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Center for Transit-Oriented Development prepared this white paper to help the Metropolitan Transportation Commission consider alternative methods for providing regional funding for transit-oriented development in the San Francisco Bay Area. The report outlines the need for such a funding source, case examples of other Metropolitan Planning Organization programs, and key considerations in implementing a new program targeted to this purpose.

(November 21st, 2008)

Capturing the Value of Transit

A report by the Center for Transit-Oriented Development

Over the past decade, it has become increasingly clear that the presence of transit can increase property values and result in valuable development opportunities. In this era of constrained transit funding and widespread demand for new and expanded transit systems, policy makers, transit planners and elected officials are increasingly interested in harnessing a portion of the value that transit confers to surrounding properties to fund transit infrastructure or related improvements in station areas. This idea, known as “value capture,” is much discussed in planning, transit, and local government circles. However, confusion abounds. Where does the value come from? What is the best way to measure it? And, most importantly, what is the best way to capture this value?

Those are the questions addressed in "Capturing the Value of Transit," a new report by Reconnecting America's Center for Transit-Oriented Development.

The Center for TOD is the only national nonprofit effort dedicated to providing best practices, research and tools to support market-based transit-oriented development. We partner with both the public and private market sectors to strategize about ways to encourage the development of high-performing TOD projects around transit stations and to build transit systems that maximize the development potential.

The Center for TOD is a partnership of the national nonprofit Reconnecting America, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Strategic Economics, an urban economics firm in Berkeley, CA.

(November 8th, 2008)

TCRP 128: Effects of TOD on Housing, Parking and Travel

Transit Cooperative Research Program research findings

New research recently completed for the Transit Cooperative Research Program provides the ammunition to build TODs that take the benefits of transit into account. The study completed by PB PlaceMaking, Dr Robert Cervero, The Urban Land Institute and the Center for Transit Oriented Development looked at how automobile use of residential TODs compared to conventional development.

Our research looks at the actual transportation performance of 17 built TOD projects. This was done by counting the passage of motorized vehicles using pneumatic tubes stretched across the driveways of TOD housing projects of varying sizes in four urbanized areas of the country: Philadelphia/N.E. New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; metropolitan Washington D.C.; and the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area.

In fact, the results of this research clearly show TOD-housing produces fewer automobile trips in the four urbanized areas. The research confirms the ITE trip generation and parking generation rates over estimate automobile trips for TOD housing by 50%.

(August 13th, 2008)

TOD 202

Transit & Employment: Increasing Transit's Share of the Commute Trip

“Station Area Planning: How To Make Great Transit-Oriented Places” is the second in a series of “TOD 202” guidebooks to promote best practices in transit-oriented development.

(August 4th, 2008)

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