Land Use

Evaluating Transportation Land Use Impacts: Considering the Impacts, Benefits and Costs of Different Land UseDevelopment Patterns

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This report examines ways that transportation decisions affect land use patterns, and the resulting economic, social and environmental impacts. These include direct impacts on land used for transportation facilities, and indirect impacts caused by changes to land use development patterns. In particular, certain transportation planning decisions tend to increase sprawl (dispersed, urban-fringe, automobile-dependent development), while … Continued

Why Design Matters for Transit

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This Recommended Practice promotes the importance of design in the success of a transit project, including transit facilities and transit systems. Key principles of design are summarized, and specific tools to achieve design excellence are described, including design guidelines. Design and the design process are promoted for establishing an agency vision and sense of purpose, … Continued

Transit-Oriented Development Tools for Metropolitan Planning Organizations

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Metropolitan Planning Organizations play a very important role in the planning and implementation of TOD. As regional planning bodies, MPOs are in a unique position to support stakeholders within their jurisdiction to take actions or adopt policies that support transit-oriented development and provide funding for planning and transit supportive infrastructure. In long-standing federal law for … Continued

Mass Transit & Mass: Densities Needed to Make Transit Investments Pay Off

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This study examined factors that are associated with cost-effective transit investments. By “cost-effective” we mean projects with low capital cost per rider on an annual basis. To address this question, we obtained data for 59 transit investments—33 light-rail (LRT), 23 heavy rail (HR), and four bus rapid transit (BRT) systems— across 19 metropolitan areas in … Continued

The Innovative DOT: A Handbook of Policy and Practice (Third Edition)

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This handbook collects the innovative approaches that state transportation leaders are already using to make systems more efficient and effective in today’s challenging economy. Smarter transportation investments are both possible and popular; the challenge is determining where to begin and to whom to reach out for support and guidance. Every state is different, from the … Continued

Economic Value of Walkability

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This paper describes ways to evaluate the value of walking (the activity) and walkability (the quality of walking conditions, including safety, comfort and convenience). Walking and walkability provide a variety of benefits, including basic mobility, consumer cost savings, cost savings (reduced external costs), efficient land use, community livability, improved fitness and public health, economic development, … Continued

Guidelines for Providing Access to Public Transportation Stations

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TCRP Report 153 – This report is intended to aid in the planning, developing, and improving of access to high capacity commuter rail, heavy rail, light rail, bus rapid transit, and ferry stations. The report includes guidelines for arranging and integrating various station design elements. The print version of TCRP Report 153 is accompanied by … Continued