Nitc final Report Prepared by Shima Hamidi and Philip Stoker

Executive Summary

We proposed a graduate level multi-disciplinary course that addressed these concerns by focusing on the nexus between research and practice. The course was co-taught by Professor Reid Ewing, Hal Johnson of the Utah Transit Authority, and two planning doctoral students, Shima Hamidi and Philip Stoker. Students in the new course were introduced to the theoretical basis and design principles of compact urban development reviewed local, national and international Transit Oriented Development’s (TOD) for the urban design qualities that make a place walkable and encourage multi-modal transportation. Most importantly, students in the course travelled to six different metropolitan areas evaluate how well TOD was being implemented. Students travelled to Atlanta, Washington D.C., Denver, San Diego, Portland, Seattle and Los Angeles. Once in the cities, students collected data relating to pedestrian activities, urban design qualities, and interview data with local TOD planners. Each case study was analyzed in the “lab” using GIS and demographic data, built environment metrics, and ridership/travel data. The metropolitan areas will be selected on the basis of available household travel data and land use databases.

The intention is to increase students’ understanding of the dynamics of TOD development by bolstering qualitative data from site visits with quantitative data from the “lab.” This research allowed us to make comparisons of TOD’s, as well as make recommendations for TODs related to public health, safety, air quality, economics, and overall livability. The capstone of the course was an oral presentation by students and a compiled report based on the TOD case studies. The results of their work are presented in this report.

Background

TOD can deliver a range of benefits, from reduced household driving to improved community walkability and lowered regional greenhouse gases. The travel literature has expanded to include literally hundreds of studies showing that the built environment, as measured by D variables (density, diversity, and design) affect people’s decisions to walk and use transit (Ewing and Cervero 2010). However, it can be a challenging development model to implement. Some barriers to accomplishing quality TOD include high land costs near transit, complexity of building mixed-use projects and lack of adequate infrastructure (Cervero, 2004, Anderson & Forbes, 2010).

With demographic and lifestyle changes, the consumer demand for compact, walkable, transit-served places has never been greater. The shifts are already apparent in real estate prices, with consumer demand for pedestrian-oriented communities leading to significant price premiums (Ewing & Bartholomew, 2013). Over the past decade, TOD has gained in popularity as a planning tool to promote smart growth to address changing demands. While there have been many claims for the various benefits of TOD, few studies have attempted to measure its success and to provide a how-to guide to design an effective TOD project(Renne & Wells, 2005). This course attempts to operationalize a half-century of theories about urban design principles in ways that are meaningful and useful to planning and engineering students.

The course utilized a textbook for the theory portion of the class. In 2013, the Urban Land Institute and American Planning Associate co-published a book by Professors Ewing and Bartholomew entitled Pedestrian- and Transit-Oriented Design. With 28 features described and illustrated with hundreds of photos and dozens of code examples, the book is a how-to manual for creating great places. As students visit exemplary TODs from across the United States, they referred back to the text book to guide data collection.