Transit-oriented Development

(TOD)

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) refers to residential and commercial areas designed to maximize access to transit.

• A TOD neighborhood typically has a center with a rail or bus station, surrounded by relatively high-density development. The neighborhood is usually designed for cycling and walking, with adequate facilities and attractive street conditions. There is mixed-use development that includes shops, schools and other public services, and a variety of housing types and prices, within each neighborhood.
• Transit Oriented Development generally requires about 7 residential units per acre in residential areas and 25 employees per acre in commercial centers, and about twice that for premium quality transit, such as rail service. These densities create adequate transit use to justify frequent service, and help create a more vibrant community with commercial activities, such as grocery stores and coffee shops, within convenient walking distance of homes and worksites. However, other factors are also important beside simple density.
• Transit use is also affected by factors such as employment density, demographic mix (students, seniors and lower-income people tend to be heavy transit users), transit pricing and rider subsidies, the quality of transit service, walkability, and street design. The assumption that transit cannot be effective except in large cities with high population densities can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, because it results in transport and land use decisions that favor automobile travel over transit, and a particular density may be inadequate to support transit service by itself, but may be adequate if implemented with a variety of transit encouragement and smart growth strategies.
• High-quality transit supports the development of high-density urban centers, which can provide accessibility and agglomeration benefits (efficiencies that result when many activities are physically close together), while automobile-oriented transportation conflicts with urban density because it is space intensive, requiring large amounts of land for roads and parking facilities. Because of this large scale park-and-ride facilities tend to conflict with Transit Oriented Development, since a rail station surrounded by large parking lots and arterials with heavy traffic likely means a poor environment for residential development or pedestrian access.
• It is important that TOD communities are properly located, designed and managed to minimize these conflicts.

Transferable Development Rights (TDR) are a tool which can be used in TOD to allow communities and developers the ability to transfer development rights from parcels of property in “sending” zones to other, non-contiguous parcels in “receiving” zones in an urban renewal area.

• TDR programs are used to preserve the agricultural, historical and/or aesthetic quality of the land from which the rights were transferred.
• The receiving zone should be property where denser development is both desired by the community and where government can provide services.
• To encourage TOD, the receiving zones would be centered near a transit station.

Why TOD?
• Transportation is responsible for 60-90% of urban air pollution and 55% overall in the northeast. Air pollution has been named the #1 health threat to Americans by the American Lung Association.
• Transportation emits 26% of the greenhouse gases that pose a global threat to the climate and to natural habitats.
• Compared with private vehicles, public transportation produces, on average, per passenger mile, 95 percent less carbon monoxide, 92 percent fewer volatile organic compounds, 45 percent less carbon dioxide and 48 percent less nitrogen oxide.
• Transit and TOD help reduce air pollution - public transportation use avoids the emission of more than 126 million pounds of hydrocarbons, a primary cause of smog, and 156 million pounds of nitrogen oxides, which can cause respiratory disease.
• Public transportation can significantly reduce dependency on gasoline, reducing auto fuel consumption by 1.5 billion gallons annually. For example, a person who commutes 60 miles each way daily could save an estimated 1,888 gallons of gasoline every year by switching from using a car to using public transportation.
• Americans living in transit intensive metropolitan areas save $22 billion per year in transportation related expenses.
• It is estimated that TOD and more varied transit options will reduce 19,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases (expressed as carbon equivalent) in Rhode Island in 2020. Rhode Island Greenhouse Gas Action Plan
• Transit Oriented Development also can often increase property values in an area. As a result, such projects can often be funded through “value capture” strategies, in which the costs of improvements are paid through the additional tax revenue or a special tax assessment in the affected area.

*All statistics cited from Center for Transportation Excellence unless otherwise noted