TODs focus urban development around quality public transport to enable shorter trips, improved lifestyles, and more efficient use of city resources. TODs aid compact city growth while counteracting sprawl while decreasing dependence on motor vehicles with their associated noxious fumes and dangerous traffic jams.
TOD communities typically consist of dense mixed-use areas within 1/4 to 1/2 mile from transit stations, with lower density buildings further away creating walkable neighborhoods.
Mixed-Use Development
TOD communities often incorporate residential, commercial, community, and cultural uses within a walkable radius of a station or transit corridor. Such mixed use areas may help solve the last mile problem by decreasing car trips and traffic congestion while simultaneously improving air quality and encouraging healthy lifestyles through increased pedestrian activity.
Communities wishing to implement TOD should start by identifying priority station areas or high-frequency transit corridors, then adapting local regulations and incentives accordingly to achieve desired results. Such adjustments could include amending zoning laws for higher density development with mixed use components; lowering parking minimums near transit; offering development incentives; or creating transit-oriented districts with special design requirements and public spaces.
TOD can also serve as a valuable means for creating more affordable housing in communities served by transit. Low-income households frequently spend most of their income on housing and transportation costs, limiting mobility and making it hard to travel to work, school or visit family and friends. TODs offer one solution.
Walkable Communities
Walkability provides many physical, mental, and social health advantages. Walking allows people to get to their destinations without relying on cars with their pollutant emissions and hazardous traffic jams; plus it promotes an active lifestyle, fosters social interactions and fosters community spirit.
TOD developments typically include higher density residential, commercial, and public space within walking distance of one another, providing services and amenities available nearby to counter sprawl and take advantage of existing infrastructure to minimize environmental impact.
TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) and transit are an invaluable pair in improving people’s lives. TOD creates vibrant neighborhoods centered on efficient transit systems to minimize congestion and pollution while maximizing economic growth – an innovative solution to urban planning, city revitalization and suburban renewal that represents sustainable cities in their entirety.
Transit-Oriented Zoning
TOD promotes compact city growth that concentrates residential, commercial, and retail development within walking distance of transit stations. Such dense areas offer residents a range of lifestyle choices and activities while also shortening trips and decreasing dependence on motor vehicles as well as decreasing exposure to noxious fumes and dangerous traffic congestion.
Communities can apply TOD principles by identifying key station areas and transit corridors with high frequency transit services, and altering local land use regulations accordingly to achieve desired outcomes. Such changes could involve revising zoning regulations to enable higher density mixed-use developments; reducing parking minimums near transit stops; offering development incentives as an additional draw for residents and businesses alike; etc.
TODs have proven incredibly successful at revitalizing neighborhoods near various transit systems, from light rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) to commuter rail and commuter rail. For instance, in New York the LIRR is working with the Town of Babylon to develop a walkable community on an old surface lot near Westbury Station that will include homes -including income-restricted ones-restaurants parks and even YMCA facilities into their neighborhood.
Transit-Friendly Incentives
As congestion and housing affordability become ever more of a burden, various local, state, and federal incentives exist that promote transit-oriented development – including tax credits, abatements, grants and other financial tools.
California offers new housing incentive funding to developments located within a quarter mile of transit stations with 15% affordable units set aside for low-income households. Other policies promote TOD by eliminating outdated zoning or land-use restrictions that prevent communities from building new housing near transit.
Multiple incentives also encourage TOD development by seizing value created from public infrastructure projects and investing it back into transit systems, known as value capture. This practice can increase financial viability of TOD projects while improving economic equity and sustainability. Many communities, such as Old Bridge, Somerville and Jersey City have used value capture successfully to shape growth around their transit systems, such as revitalized downtowns attracting new residents while growing local economies.