Transit-Oriented Development: Lessons Learned

A transit-oriented development (TOD) is a mixed-use residential and commercial area designed to exploit access to public transport, and habitually incorporates features to encourage transit ridership.  A TOD usually has a center with a transit station or stop like train station, metro station, tram stop, or bus stop, bounded by relatively high-density development with increasingly lower-density development spreading outward from the center. 

Wells + Associates has completed 185 studies of projects within ½-mile of 60 of the existing 86 Metro stations, another 22 studies at seven of the 12 stations along the planned Silver Line extension in Northern Virginia (including all four stations in Tyson’s Corner), and several of the stations along the planned Purple Line and Corridor Cities Transit way in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Throughout this experience we have learned many things from TOD which are listed below: 

1. Mutually Supportive: Metro and TOD are mutually supportive.
2. Metro is the centre of things: Metro is the centerpiece of transit-oriented development (TOD) in metropolitan Washington. TOD's are vibrant, compact, mixed-use, walk able communities.
3. Density Is Good:  Density should be high in the immediate locality of station.
4. Green Transportation: TOD's are more sustainable than other forms of development because they increase transit use and decrease auto use, vehicle-miles of travel (VMT), and greenhouse gas emissions.
5. Residents, Workers, and Visitors Use Metro: High-quality Metrorail, Metro bus and other different feeder bus services are attractive and comfortable alternatives to the private automobiles.
6. Location Matters: Transit ridership decreases as distance from the station increases.

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