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Transit and Development:Lessons Learned from Other CitiesThis four part article reviews the best practices for integrating transit and development, exploring the implementation of Transit Oriented Development, or "TOD," in five cities: St. Paul, Denver, Portland, Austin and Charlotte. Part 4: Austin, Charlotte & Lessons Learned Austin and Charlotte are leveraging their rail transit investments with substantial planning efforts. Austin has developed new TOD zoning, and Charlotte has gone even further with its integrated planning and implementation response. Tracy Finch, a former Charlotte economic development planner turned TOD developer and planning commissioner, is enthusiastic about Charlotte’s planning process. “Everyone was always at the table,” she notes. “Those of us in City departments such as planning, transportation and engineering sat with the people from CATS, the regional transit authority, for joined transit and land use planning.” To continue reading, click here. Part 3: Successes, Challenges & Innovation in Portland Portland, a city of light rail, streetcars and buses,
is renowned as a great place for urban living. Portland
opened its fi rst light rail line in 1986 and fi rst
streetcar line in 2001. Currently, the region is adding
a new commuter rail line, a new light rail line To continue reading, click here. Part 2: On the Fast Track in Denver With the passage of FasTracks in 2004, Denver is en route to the largest expansion of transit in the country. FasTracks is a 12 year comprehensive plan for building 119 miles of new light rail and commuter rail lines, 18 miles of bus rapid transit service, 57 new transit stations and 21,213 new park-n-ride spaces. The Fas- Tracks legislation funded the $4.9 billion plan through a combination of 50 percent regional sales tax, 25 percent federal funds and 25 percent from other local sources. Six new transit corridors and extensions to three existing corridors are planned for completion by 2017. To continue reading, click here. Part 1: The Transit Space Race & TOD Planning in St. Paul The “Transit Space Race,” a phrase coined by transit research institute Reconnecting America, describes the competition between cities for federal transportation funding. Thirty-five cities in the U.S. are planning to expand their transit systems with at least $1 billion of new investment in fixed guideway transit lines – heavy rail, light rail (LRT), commuter rail, streetcar or dedicated busway (BRT), for a total of almost $250 billion. Yet the federal government spends about $1.6 billion per year on transit. As Jeff Wood of Reconnecting America described, “The enormous demand for little Federal money has manifested itself with a bit of playful competition between cities building transit – such as Salt Lake City saying they are going to out-Portland Portland.” To continue reading, click here.
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