A Not So New Idea To Get To Work

(Post 1 of 4 for Transit-Oriented Development)

Hi All! Happy Sunday. Today’s post is an introduction to this month’s topic which is on Transit Oriented Development. Transit-Oriented Development or TOD is the creation of compact development near quality transit. The idea is to develop residential and commercial properties close enough to the transit hubs to enhance the mobility of people around the station and solving the “last mile problem”. The last mile problem refers to the difficulty for people who want to use transit but the travel to the transit station is too far for them without driving, making it infeasible for people to utilize these transit services. 

TOD often include multi-modal access such as bike lanes and pedestrian walkways and minimized parking for cars. The multi-modal access allows people options to travel further without cars while accommodating more travelers over a limited amount of travel area (see picture below for visual reference). Fewer people driving also means less congestion for everyone else. Designing the developments this way helps encourage active transportation and minimize congestion and pollutants for the people that live, work, and shop around the area. 

In terms of history, development has always followed along trade routes and trails, whether on land or by the water. Before cars came along in the early half of the twentieth century, rail and mass transit dominated the transportation scene, often with development concentrated around it. In the United States, automobiles took over with the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s and World War II in the 1930-40s. Due to a lack of funding with the global financial woes and wars, rails became severely underfunded and a vacuum became available for automobiles to take over. It started with buses and as cars get cheaper and the highway system got better, the buses fell to the wayside as well. Because of this, we can say that developing near transit lines is a very old idea, going as far back as the 1800s when the streetcars became popular. 

Today, TOD is making a comeback and has been implemented all over the world at some of our grandest cities. Some of these places include- 

• Curitiba, Brazil
• Mexico City, Mexico
• Edmonton, Alberta
• Ottawa, Ontario
• Vancouver, British Columbia
• New Jersey, United States
• San Francisco, California, United States

All these cities show that with proper planning, TOD can be the right development for many of our bigger cities. It can also help promote active transportation, reduce pollution, and increase land use efficiency.

Thanks for joining us this week! This is an exciting topic that can help with many city dwellers’ commute troubles. Tune in next week to explore the current state of our car culture and the current state of our commute. We may just find the reasons why we need to look into TOD more than ever. And don’t forget! We have our first podcast on the topic next Sunday (10/13)! 

Resources

• Transit-Oriented Development Institute: http://www.tod.org/
• Histories of Transit-Oriented Development: Perspectives on the Development of the TOD Concept:  http://fltod.com/research/marketability/histories_of_transit_oriented_development_perspectives_on_the_development_of_the_tod_concept.pdf