TOD neighborhoods enable more people to live close to the transit they rely on, providing accessibility and agglomeration benefits. Research suggests that TOD neighborhoods reduce per capita vehicle travel, parking demand and overall traffic congestion.
TOD residents tend to drive less, leading to significant transportation cost savings (Cervero & Arrington 2008; Nahlik & Chester 2014). Such benefits may also reflect self-selection.
Washington D.C.
Contrary to many suburban communities, DC and Arlington Virginia have not hesitated to upzone commercial land near Metro stations and allow more apartment construction compared to superstar metropolitan areas like Seattle.
WMATA has created the TOD Design Guide as an aid for planners and developers integrating new development with transit. The guide features detailed analysis of transit station area planning options to achieve optimal results for TOD developments.
TOD refers to developments consisting of mixed housing and commercial/retail space within easy walking distance (one quarter to half mile or 10 minutes) of transit stations or corridors, with well-designed pedestrian networks connecting transit with other uses such as housing.
TOD is an integral component of regional planning, city revitalization and suburban renewal; providing an answer to America’s housing shortage as well as global energy challenges. Furthermore, TOD can reduce driving and related emissions.
Singapore
As urbanization in developing cities continues, efficient and cost-effective public transport systems have become essential components for facilitating sustainable development. Unfortunately, however, many emerging cities face difficulty in creating successful Transit-Oriented Development policies (TOD).
One of the core tenets of TOD is creating communities where daily necessities, like schools and parks, can be easily reached on foot – decreasing congestion and pollution as a result of car ownership.
Singapore has seamlessly incorporated TOD into its town planning and design from the very beginning, revolutionizing how residents use and perceive their homes while helping reduce vehicle kilometres travelled per household. To study its effectiveness in Singapore, this study selected several rail transit station sites to perform an empirical analysis at a meso level of their land use characteristics; to compare and interpret them. It found that an TOD land use pattern gradually developed across new town stations that resulted in relatively stable proportions between residential land, commercial land and public service facility land usage patterns over time compared with traditional patterns that was gradually evolving over time.
Hong Kong
Cities seeking to reduce carbon emissions, improve productivity, and enhance livability often look toward transit-oriented development (TOD) as a viable strategy for doing so. By clustering jobs, housing, and services around public transport stations for greater accessibility and reduced travel distances as well as energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Hong Kong’s limited land resources compel it to utilize TOD principles in order to maximize economic and social benefits from its mass transportation system, such as TODs with high-rise buildings with mixed commercial and residential spaces that enable residents to live, work, and play within walking distance of each other and MTR stations.
Many TODs also provide affordable housing options, making them accessible for low-income residents. Hong Kong’s innovative “rail + property development” model combines rail with land use into integrated developments owned and managed by one government entity, enabling efficient management of land value increases that can then be used to finance additional infrastructure or provide subsidies for affordable housing subsidies – creating high performance TOD communities which serve as models for other cities.
New York City
The City has an amazing opportunity to build homes, businesses and community spaces around its transit system – transit oriented development (TOD). TOD creates vibrant neighborhoods while increasing ridership of transit services while simultaneously decreasing traffic pollution levels and supporting economic development in New York. TOD helps New Yorkers live more comfortably and affordably.
Though many municipalities allow TOD development, large sections of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island remain underutilized due to restrictive zoning. New Yorkers suffer from housing shortages and segregation issues – thus TOD serves as an essential strategy in combatting such issues.
Governor Hochul’s TOD proposal provides some hope of addressing these issues, with its goal of building 800,000 new homes over 10 years. However, its implementation could face considerable resistance from local communities if it does not provide sufficient carrots – incentives for developers- and sticks – compensation payments to homeowners who experience property value decrease due to neighborhood redevelopment.