Articles, White Papers, & Case Studies

 

Articles

Case Studies

  • St. Louis MetroLink TOD Study– East West Gateway Council of Governments has provided a study on TOD in St. Louis, looking at what has inhibited Transit Oriented Development around the 37 MetroLink stations,  and identifying what can be done to remove these barriers (October 2012).  They have since developed 5 station area TOD plans, released in 2013.  You will find them here.
  • Transforming Cities With Transit – Published by the World Bank, this report contains a wealth of case studies documenting the successes, but also the trials and tribulations, that come with integrating transit and land use. The report is a one-stop source (or maybe a one-seat ride) of “best-case experiences,” both for rail–Copenhagen, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, DC–and for bus rapid transit–Curitiba and Ottawa. The report also provides in-depth examinations of more recent transit metros in the making, covering Ahmedabad, India; Bogota, Columbia; Guangzhou, China; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A chapter dedicated to overcoming barriers to integration completes the report. One of many interesting conclusions: metros tend to achieve more when the land use vision leads and transit is used as a means to an end.
  • Connecting to Opportunity: Access to Jobs via Transit in the Washington, D.C. Region – A Brookings reportbenchmarking the ability of employers in American metro regions to tap into labor pools via transit. Among the conclusions for the Washington, DC Region: “Transit does a better job providing high-skill residents access to high-skill jobs than it does mid-skill residents to mid skill jobs and low-skill residents to low-skill jobs.”
  • TOD in the States – The National Conference of State Legislatures documents how state-level action, including legislation, can be used to define TOD, assemble land, address zoning, catalyze investment, and fund development. The report explores the role of state government in supporting transit and TOD. The report includes case studies from Utah, Minnesota, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and California.
  • Preserving Affordable Housing Near Transit– This report, by Enterprise, The National Housing Trust & Reconnecting America, presents case studies from Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C., and provides key findings, along with strategies and resources for preserving affordable housing near transit and aligning the two more closely.
  • Best Practices in TOD – This report documents the first task in the process: a survey of best practices for facilitating successful TOD, as employed by other agencies, to be used as a basis for developing guidelines for GCRTA. This “Lessons Learned” methodology offers the opportunity to utilize the most effective guidelines, without repeating the time- and money-consuming processes of attempting all approaches. The TOD practices of the following seven transit agencies were investigated and are documented within this report: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and Santa Clara County Valley Transportation Authority (VTA); Dallas Area Rapid Transit (Dallas, TX); Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (Boston, MA); Metro (Baltimore, MD); Metro (St. Louis, MO); Tri-Met (Portland, OR); and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Washington, DC).
  • Form- Based Code Best Practices Report – This report gives an overview of best practice standards for Form-Based Code writing and application. It includes descriptions of what Form-Based Code is and summaries of case studies who have used this code.
  • TOD Case Studies: Implementation in Low-income, Ethnically Diverse Neighborhoods T- hese case studies, funded through the support of the Surdna Foundation, present transit-oriented development (TOD) examples from diverse, low-income neighborhoods around transit, all built within the last 10 years. Each case study provides the demographic and income breakdown of the station area, as well as information on the region as a whole. (January 2007)
  • Preserving Affordable Housing Near Transit, This report is designed to help community leaders, community development corporations (CDCs) and nonprofit affordable housing developers engage in preserving affordable housing near transit.  It describes ways in which metropolitan areas are addressing preservation challenges and opportunities, and identifies the strategies and tools communities can use to preserve affordable housing in transit-rich neighborhoods. The study focuses on four metropolitan areas with current commitments to expand transit service: Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and Washington, D.C. (2010)
  • Lessons Learned from the Passage of Proposition A, April 2010This study, formulated by Todd Swanstrom, David Kimball, Tom Shrout, and with the assistance of Laura Wiedlocher, takes a look at the April 2010 passage of Prop A, which allowed for the ½ cent sales tax that now raises about $75 million a year to maintain the bus system and expand light rail.  This was a huge milestone seeing as just 17 months prior, the same measure known as Prop M was voted down (March 2011).
  • Regional Organizational Models for Public Transportation, TCRP Project J-11 / Task 10  This study was conducted for the American Public Transportation Association, with funding provided through the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Project J-11, Quick-Response Research on Long-Term Strategic Issues.  Over the last five decades, population growth and travel demand patterns have fueled the need for transit services in suburban and rural areas and across jurisdictional boundaries.  New governance models have been created to better address regional transit planning and operating needs.  This study examines the processes of governance transformation that have been employed to respond to the opportunities for and challenges to providing regional public transportation.
  • Transit-Oriented and Joint Development: Case Studies and Legal Issues – Legal Research Digest 36 (August 2011) TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Legal Research Digest 36: Transit-Oriented and Joint Development: Case Studies and Legal Issues examines a combination of large, medium, and small Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and joint development projects since 1999 and provides comprehensive case studies, with an emphasis on what made the project succeed and how legal issues relate to TODs in general.

Webinars & Presentations

  • “Ten Principles for Successful Development Around Transit” – Urban Land Institute put together this presentation to help developers understand how to successfully implement development around transit centers, such as bus and rail stations. It includes the following topics: the vision, partnerships, understanding the needs of the developer, parking, creating a sense of place, mixing uses, price points, and taking advantage of changes in corporate culture.

 

White  Papers

  • Downtowns, Greenfields and Places In Between; Promoting Development Near Transit – The Center for Transit Oriented Development released a report that examines the opportunities and challenges involved in promoting TOD in different types of neighborhoods, and the strategies that may be appropriate to catalyze TOD depending on the neighborhood context.
  • “Transit-Oriented Development in the States” Report-The National Conference of State Legislators has released this report which examines state legislative action relating to TOD.
  •  Overcoming Obstacles to Successfully Implementing Transit-Oriented Development. How St. Louis Can Avoid the Roadblocks by Theodore E. Barklage IV  – A Capstone Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in Urban Planning and Real Estate Development in the Center for Sustainability at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri
  • Impacts of Cuts and Reductions in Public Transportation Funding -The final report on a study by the American Public Transit Association (APTA) examining the impact of the recent recession on public transit budgets in the United States and how those cuts have affected residents and workers. St. Louis, Missouri is one of five case study areas chosen for the study.
  • Mixed-Income Housing Near Transit-The Center for Transit-Oriented Development has put forth this guidebook as one in a series of guidebooks due to the common mindset that communities which are filled with mixed-income housing produce heightened economic, social and environmental outcomes for all residents.
  • Midsize Cities on the Move-this report from Reconnecting America takes a look at transit in midsize cities (50,000 to 250,000 in population) across the U.S.  “Midsize cities are a stand-alone group, with their own unique set of amenities and challenges. Yet, like their larger and smaller counterparts, they too have invested in the development of transit systems to serve their communities.”  (December 2012)
  • The Effects of the Announcement and Opening of Light Rail Transit Stations on Neighborhood Crime-from The Journal of Urban Affairs Association:  The debate over crime and rail transit focuses on whether such investments “breed” criminal activities with new targets of opportunity or transport crime from the inner city to the suburbs. Yet, little empirical evidence exists on whether new rail transit actually does lead to increased crime rates around stations. In order to study this question, this study tests the relationship between crime and rail transit with the 2007 opening of the Charlotte light rail line, CATS (2011)
  • St. Louis County Housing Study  from St. Louis County Department of Planning for East West Gateway Council of Governments presentation (May 2012)
  • ULI 10 Strategies for Investing near Transit – Lessons learned from the San Francisco Bay Area (December 2011)
  • “The Effects of the Announcement and Opening of Light Rail Transit Stations on Neighborhood Crime” – Journal of Urban Affairs, Stephen B. Billings, Suzanne Leland, David Swindell.The debate over crime and rail transit focuses on whether such investments “breed” criminal activities with new targets of opportunity or transport crime from the inner city to the suburbs. Yet, little empirical evidence exists on whether new rail transit actually does lead to increased crime rates around stations. In order to study this question, we test the relationship between crime and rail transit with the 2007 opening of the Charlotte light rail line.
  • “Recent Lessons from the Stimulus: Transportation Funding and Job Creation”  – Smart America Growth analyzes states’ investments in infrastructure to determine whether they made the best use of their spending based on job creation numbers. This report evaluates how successful states have been in creating jobs with their flexible $26.6 billion of transportation funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). Those results should guide governors and other leaders in revitalizing America’s transportation system, maximizing job creation from transportation dollars and rebuilding the economy. (February, 2011)

  • ST. LOUIS TOD SWOT ANALYSIS  Citizens for Modern Transit and Des Lee Collaborative Vision  look at a TOD SWOT analysis of the St. Louis region.   At present, there are no full-fledged examples of TOD in the area, defined as mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly, higher-density developments with quality public spaces oriented around transit stations. (October, 2010)

 

Surveys & Polls

    • “Reason-Rupe Transportation Public Opinion Survey – Winter 2011 Topline Results” – Reason-Rupe public opinion conducted a telephone survey of 1,200 adults nationwide and asked them about a range of transportation issues. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The poll was conducted for Reason Foundation by NSON Opinion Strategy. This is part of a series of Reason-Rupe public opinion surveys dedicated to exploring what Americans really think about government and major issues. (December 2011)
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