Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit: Increasing Affordability With Location Efficiency
TOD 201 booklet explores theory and best practices for including mixed-income housing in conjunction with transit-oriented development
The latest booklet in the Center for Transit-Oriented Development's series of "100" and "200" manuals has been added to the website. These booklets explain the theory and best practices of transit-oriented development.
(November 18, 2009)
Realizing The Potential for Sustainable, Equitable TOD
Reconnecting America White Paper makes recommendations to federal partnership on sustainable communities
In June 2009, the Obama Administration announced a new interagency partnership on sustainable communities between the Department of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency. To help inform the work of the Interagency Partnership, Reconnecting America today released a new white paper, “Realizing the Potential for Sustainable, Equitable TOD: Recommendations to the Interagency Partnership on Sustainable Communities”.
(November 18, 2009)
Value Capture And Tax-Increment Financing Options For Streetcar Construction
Study finds current land uses have overriding role in gauging how much value will be generated
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.” The study shows it is hypotheticaly possible to forgo federal funding and fully pay construction costs ($140 million) using three value capture tools.
(November 3, 2009)
Report Finds Thousands Living In Affordable Housing Near Transit Could Face Higher Rents
Study by AARP, Reconnecting America and National Housing Trust explores impact of expiration of contracts for federally subsidized units
In the next five years as many as 160,000 renters in 20 metro areas could lose their affordable apartments near transit because the contracts on their privately-owned HUD-subsidized rental units are due to expire. The renewed popularity of urban living means that properties in walkable neighborhoods near transit have increased in value, and that property owners are likely to opt out of the HUD program and convert the housing from affordable to market rate. These are the results of a recent study by AARP, Reconnecting America and the National Housing Trust.
(September 30, 2009)
Central Maryland Looks To TOD For Future
Regional action plan developed with technical assistance of the Center for Transit-Oriented Development
The Central Maryland Transportation Alliance has released "Central Maryland TOD Strategy: A Regional Action Plan For Transit-Centered Communities. Technical assistance for this study was provided by the Center for Transit-Oriented Development.
(September 2, 2009)
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 5, 2009)
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 13, 2009)
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 8, 2009)
Street Smart
Streetcars and Cities in the 21st Century (Reconnecting America, 2009)
Edited by Gloria Ohland and Shelley Poticha
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 $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? Click here.
(March 5, 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 19, 2009)
