Identifying TOD-Capable Locations using D Variables: Flipping the Recipe on making the TOD Cake

The transportation-land use field has argued for transit-oriented developments (TODs) due to several benefits such as reduced driving, more active travel with positive health outcomes, and decreased GHG emissions and vehicle ownership. Locations with features that align with TODs are generally unaffordable, pricing out households that may be from disadvantaged groups. In the U.S. context, the production of TODs has been relatively rare. With the intersecting crises of climate, unaffordability, and demographic shifts in the U.S. population, there is a need for effective mechanisms to help enable the production of mixed-use communities embedded in active travel and transit networks. Most often, a top-down regulatory process including zoning plus comprehensive or special plans are used to help TODs emerge. Additionally, local government actions are incentivized by private market forces such as real-estate developers who identify markets for sustainable communities. However, these processes are reactionary, while the need is more urgent. Therefore, we argue for flipping this time consuming and expensive top-down recipe. We contend that using the D variables documented in the EPA Smart Location Database (US EPA, 2021) can reveal locations that have the ingredients for making TOD-capable, mixed-use places. Our approach should be especially impactful in communities with low-income and racial/ethnic minority households, that have limited resources to impact macro-level policy, and are negatively affected through housing unaffordability and transit dependency. Over time, land use markets evolve to an equilibrium such that some locations become TOD-lite under an existing umbrella of zoning regulations; however, most places even in the same geography do not grow into mixed-use sustainable developments. A deeper investigation could help identify organically emerging TOD-capable locations. Locations with a sub-set of features for a TOD could be incentivized to develop into a more TOD-aligned locations. In terms of the policy toolkit, a census block group (CBG) with several of the D variables showing high values but missing some key ingredients such as destination accessibility or distance to transit, could be places for strategic transit and active travel investments. Other CBGs might have lower density and diversity but might score high on other D variables. Such locations could be incentivized through mixed use and infill development, without changing anything else on the D-variable ingredient list. In essence, we contend that practitioners need a toolkit to identify sub-markets for transit capable, affordable, mixed-use developments, which must evolve in an urban setting but are often ignored because they do not rise to the level of comprehensive or special plans. Our project will create a toolkit to help identify such TOD-capable locations. Project outputs will include: 1. A practice-ready toolkit to identify TOD-capable locations, at the CBG level, across large Metropolitan Statistical Areas. 2. A replicable framework to engage community leaders from disadvantaged locations as well as practitioners in local/regional agencies for gathering input for effective TOD implementation. 3. An opensource publicly accessible web app that allows various stakeholders to learn and implement similar ideas in various geographies. 4. A public-facing technical report documenting the research approach, method, and findings. 5. Two conference presentations and journal manuscripts for a scientific audience.

• Record URL:
  https://www.uno.edu/cetoc
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Funding: $60,000 (USDOT) + $30,000 (matching funds) = $90,000

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $90000
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348337

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Center for Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities (CETOC)

  University of New Orleans
  New Orleans, LA  United States 
• Project Managers:

  Kline, Robin

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Colorado, Denver

  Denver, CO  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Shirgaokar, Manish

  Misra, Aditi

  Marshall, Wesley

• Start Date: 20241001
• Expected Completion Date: 20250930
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Built environment; Land use planning; Location; Public transit; Transit oriented development; Transportation equity
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01928838
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Center for Equitable Transit-Oriented Communities (CETOC)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348337
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 26 2024 2:58PM