Transit Oriented Development—The Yin and The Yang

Just in case you haven’t read any of my blogs or articles on the subjects of rail transit, let me make my position perfectly clear. In the bright world of the railfan, which is my world, ALL railroading is desirable. I love light rail, streetcars, and just about anything that will take me back to that moment in front of Western Electric in Cicero, IL, on a bright, fall day, when I first boarded a red, Chicago street car.

That day is six decades ago. In that time, the city of Chicago has managed to complete the squandering of the greatest system of light rail the world has ever known—the squandering was begun long before then. Other cities and towns across the country, however, have turned to light rail and streetcars both as a transportation tool and as a development initiative.

But I still can’t advocate street railways for everyone. That would be, in a word, foolish.

For reasons seldom logically persuasive, a great many small- to mid-sized cities (Smid-cits*) are making efforts to put light rail into their infrastructure. In some cases, the push for light rail, roughly defined as an electric or diesel railcar rapid transit system running down the middle of city streets with some provisions for street running but mostly protected right of way, may be attributed to the political fog that grips local officials when they discover that federal transit funds are available and they may not get any. In other cases, there may be a study, defined as a government funded research project in which the participants are tasked with finding all the good reasons for building a rail system. In still other cases, there may be a definite need identified; for example: A large employer moves in and overburdens the local bus system and would very much like it if the city would put in a faster mode of public transit—and the employer as money to donate to an incumbent’s PAC. Last but not least, there is transit oriented development, or TOD, a kind of pie in the sky reasoning like if-we-build-it-they-will-come. TOD does work, under certain conditions, one of which being the Smid-cit has to exist in an area of both growing economic activity and population growth. Hope I’m not getting too irreverent for you.

So let’s start by directing our feet to the sunny—that’s Yang—side of the street. Everybody these days loves to feel that they are saving the world, and light rail is a world-saver. There is no question that passenger rail, and that includes transit, it the most fuel efficient way to get people from one place to another. This is an established fact. Another plus is taking all those cars off the roadway. (In some cases, light rail accomplishes this by reducing the available space for cars on the roadway, but let’s not be picky and assume, instead, that it’s because those drivers will now all be riding the rails.) After the feel good for the citizens of the Smid-cit, comes the feel good for employers fixing to move to or into a new city. No employer that values public perception (and they all do) wants to go somewhere where they will put more automobiles (and pollution) onto the road. Public transit is a big consideration, and electric rail is preferable to bus.

Then comes the Developer. The Developer knows he or she will only make money if the property developed can be accessed by the maximum number of people in the shortest amount of time from any or all areas of the Smid-cit. It’s axiomatic that commercial development needs traffic, and by that I mean people moving past or into your developed area. It’s also axiomatic that multi-family residential development needs a way to move people in and out without clogging the area with motor vehicles. If a light rail system is in place, well, they will come.

As you can see, there is much to favor transit oriented development based on light rail. Next week, we’ll travel to the Yin, or shady, side of the city, and talk about what’s not right with many TOD plans.

*I coined this word myself. If you like it, pass it around.

©2016 – C. A. Turek – mistertrains@gmail.com

(Charles A. Turek is a writer and novelist based in Albuquerque, NM. After four decades working in areas of the insurance industry related to transportation, he now writes on all aspects of American railroading.)

#TOD #development #lightrail #streetrailways