Rail-Based Neighborhoods Challenge Existing Policy Landscape

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An article titled Access to Choice by Jonathan Levine makes a central point of focusing on accessibility over mobility in transportation going forward. He describes accessibility as the ability to reach valued destinations conveniently and mobility as the ability to travel fast and not measured by distance necessarily. The next idea Levine presents is that land-use arrangements oriented around accessibility can reduce the need for travel, particularly single-occupancy vehicle travel. Some examples of this approach include transit villages (predominantly residential development with some nearby retail activities planned around a transportation hub), New Urbanism (walkable blocks and streets, housing and shopping in close proximity, and accessible public spaces), and job-housing balancing which means what it sounds like; locating jobs and housing nearby (Levine).
A bright future rests in neighborhood design with reliable public transportation in mind. Transit Villages are an example of alternative development designed with accessibility in mind. This idea has been implemented in history already. Early city planners, like Ebenezer Howard, circa 1890's, coined the idea of garden cities that would orbit London, separated by protected greenbelts (area of open land around a city) and connected by inter-municipal railways. It sounds utopian given our current state of congestion and car oriented streets. Here in the United States, many early neighborhoods developed around streetcar networks, including Back Bay in Boston, Riverside near Chicago, Roland Park in Baltimore, and central Pasadena (Cervero). Europe also has great modern-day examples of mixed use development and efficient public transit that eliminated the need for single-driving. Dozens of compact and mixed-use communities are connected by railway, such as Stockholm and Copenhagen. Another U.S. example is the city of El Cerrito, which formed a redevelopment district around the Del Norte BART station in the early 1990s to promote affordable housing development near the station (Cervero).
The policy landscape now needs some tweaking. Amending parking policies can enhance the effectiveness and viability of transit villages. Robert Cervero, author of Transit Villages: From Ideas to Implementation, brings up the point that zoning standards should be more relaxed to allow just one parking space per unit in complexes near rail-stations. A California study found that this approach would reduce downtown construction costs by approximately $12,000 per unit. Tenants could still choose to pay a monthly surcharge for leasing a second parking stall in a central location. Another idea brought to the table is that banks could grant those living in rail-based condominiums an ‘efficient location’ loan.
In conclusion, there is a growing demand for transit villages, and receptive legislative environments can pave the way for pedestrian-oriented and mixed-communities that are transit-based.

 Can you think of other cities where public transit takes precedence? Would you consider areas of Portland to be akin to a ‘transit-village’?

Written by Lacey Clark
Edited by Josh Linden

REFERENCES
Levine, Jonathan, “Access to Choice,” Access, Spring 1999, pp. 16, 18-19.
Cervero, Robert. (1994, Fall). Transit Villages: From Idea to Implementation – ACCESS
Magazine. Retrieved October 29, 2018, from https://www.accessmagazine.org/fall
1994/transit-villages-from-idea-to-implementation/


Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 7, 2018 at 3:04 PM

    Hey Lacey! Great post! it got me thinking about Orenco station in Hillsboro. I think this place an another example of what a Transit village is. I recommend checking it out in person because it's filled with mix use transportation options along with a wide range of shopping options. Here is an article about it!
    https://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/index.ssf/2017/12/orenco_station_booms_from_empt.html

    ReplyDelete

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