Wiki Wednesday: Transit-Oriented Development

dallas_streetcar.jpgStreetcar-served TOD in Dallas, TX

If the United States is in fact on the verge of a transit renaissance, transit-oriented development will have to be part of the mix. In this week’s StreetsWiki entry, slinkp writes:

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) grew popular in the 1980s and
1990s as a response to suburban sprawl and a means of regenerating
economic growth in central cities. The
development is likely to include housing and/or offices as well as
retail stores. A TOD also usually has relatively easy access for people
on foot and bikes, while cars and other vehicles are discouraged from
parking too close to the station. As a result, TODs are often
friendlier to pedestrians and bicyclists than other forms of land
development, and they encourage people to ride trains and buses rather
than drive. The concept was slow to take off in the United States, but
has gained strength in the first decade of the 21st century as fuel
costs rise and traffic causes many Americans to rethink where they want
to live and work.

Despite evidence that "drive ’til you qualify" sprawl presents an unsustainable drain on financial and natural resources, planners have been reluctant to abandon it. Even in relatively transit-rich metro NYC, TOD has been slow to catch on beyond the realm of private-sector advocacy, though recent remarks indicate the concept is at least on the radar of state-level officials in Connecticut and New York.

Photo: RACTOD/Flickr

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

STREETSBLOG USA

ITDP Debuts a LEED-Type Rating System for Transit-Oriented Development

|
“Transit-oriented development” is probably one of the more abused terms in all of urban planning. Listen carefully in some cities, and you’ll hear urban development professionals calling parking garages “transit-oriented development” without a hint of irony. Last week, the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy released the first draft of a new scoring system that should […]

NGOs Work to Fill Transit-Oriented Development Void

|
Today the Tri-State Transportation Campaign joined the One Region Funders’ Group* and The Fund for New Jersey in announcing a grant program to foster metro area transit-oriented development. The program intends to encourage transit oriented development, or mixed use development within a fourth to half mile of a train or bus station, by offering financial […]
STREETSBLOG USA

A TOD Impostor in Fresno

|
Recently on Streetsblog we looked at developers who misapply the terms “green” and “new urban” to sprawling, exurban housing developments. Another abused term in the planning lexicon that we could have mentioned is surely “transit-oriented development.” If any building is close to transit — even a parking garage — someone is going to call it TOD, […]