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Take a look at transit-oriented developments (TODs) from Portland, Oregon to Arlington, Virginia to learn why they may be one of the best ways to curb traffic and GHG emissions.
Bonus video here: [https://nebula.app/videos/citybeautiful-portlands-rail-transit-present-and-future](https://nebula.app/videos/citybeautiful-portlands-rail-transit-present-and-future)
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Resources on this topic:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-10-18/in-defense-of-portland-s-orenco-station
ORENCO STATION, PORTLAND, OREGON: A SUCCESSFUL TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT EXPERIMENT? https://trid.trb.org/view/721479
https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Projects/Planning/Smart-Growth/Rosslyn-Ballston-Corridor
http://www.tod.org/placemaking/principles.html
https://transweb.sjsu.edu/sites/default/files/1820-Niles-TOD-Park-Ride.pdf
https://humantransit.org/2014/10/basics-the-math-of-park-and-ride.html
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=usp_fac
Chatman, D. G. (2013). Does TOD need the T? On the importance of factors other than rail access. Journal of the American Planning Association, 79(1), 17-31. Chicago https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01944363.2013.791008
Produced by Dave Amos and the fine folks at Standard Studios.
Select images and video from Getty Images.
Black Lives Matter.
source
About the thumbnail: I'm not ACTUALLY proposing housing in Portland's park blocks. It was just a nice thumbnail. 🙂
Any Texas or Florida towns with this TOD centric planning you would recommend?
Park-and-ride is bullshit. It encourages people to drive. Driving is always faster and more comfortable than not. In Ontario, many GO transit commuter rail stations have huge parking lots. Many of them have recently had multi-million dollar, multi-story parking garages built to increase capacity. All that money–which could have gone into expanding or improving transit service–was spent of giving people more free parking. Also, if you have free park-and-ride, then there is much less incentive to build developments beyond the 0.5 mile radius that are compact and livable. Sure, people are less likely to walk 2.0 miles to the station, but if they live in a neigbourhood designed on TOD principles, they don't need to, as they can do a lot of what they need on foot or bike. And, if it is dense enough and logically laid out, you can easily provide bus service to the station. If you don't have decent local transit to/from the station, you're just building little pockets of livability in a sea of sprawl.
For an example of development and transit in total ignorance of each other, I nominate Chicago’s Jefferson Park Transit Center. It is a junction of two rail systems (CTA and Metra) and tons of bus lines. It’s <1 hour by public transit from just about all of Chicago’s north side, most northern suburbs, Downtown, AND O’Hare Airport. Both of the rail stations are in the middle of 6 lanes of highway traffic, the surrounding neighborhoods are mostly (but not all) single family homes inhabited by NIMBYs. I can imagine a city in Asia building a shopping mall and high rise apartments on top of a place like this, but when it was time to renovate it just before the pandemic, they just poured new concrete. The clunky old trains from last century keep rolling…
i used to live right near Glenco and it was fun
the world: builds its cities in a sensible way
USA 60 years later: look at this pioneering experimental thing we've invented, and are currently testing in like three places in this single city! we call it TOD! isn't it cool?
the world: -.- we just call it the normal sensible way of building, and our cities have been built that way since forever.
parking is ok in small amounts at most stations, Park and Rides should be highly strategic, putting giant parkades at EVERY station is an awful idea.
I live in Jakarta and although there are mostly unofficial park and rides, and i know a friend of mine has two motorcycles and he left one at the park and ride near the office station and one at home, so he commutes with two motorcycles to and from the stations everyday lol
I work at Intel. You can’t directly get to Ronler Acres by the Max alone but the company offers regular shuttles from Orenco Station to the campus. Before Covid, the shuttle was full of riders in the morning and the afternoon. I live at Orenco Station next to the dog park and can easily walk to campus, but the shuttle’s there so I use it.
It's almost like, some Country / Region / City did this before Americans XD
TOD should not just be housing imo. There should be plenty of business and industrial parks to help generate ridership.
I moved back to portland for more biking, im just a few years too early, but i can see the horizon
Living in a rural village and working in the nearby city, I find park & ride super conveninent. Instead of driving all the way to the city and into the city, I only have to drive a couple minutes to the nearest transit station (sadly not easibly reachable by bus or bike..), park there and can then take regular trains in and out of the city. Has made my commute so much less stressful!
My hometown (Bergen, Norway) is doing the same thing, building a light rail system with frequent departures, and then allowing the development of apartment and office buildings along each new line. So you can live in an apartment with the light rail within walking distance, and just take it to get where you need to go.
Can you pls speak a little slower, and keep the video a little slower as well? It's hard to keep up
Been there a couple of times biking there via the trail and ridden some of the streets in the area.
Orenco is very walkable and bikeable compared to the areas of Beaverton/Portland.
In fact, that sunset transit center is which is where the parking garage B-roll was taken for that area that area is AWFUL for bikers and walkers on Barnes Road can only really use that station if you have a car. Just look at the aerial of it, probably the worst designed area in Beaverton right next to a bunch of highway on-ramps too.
Another support of TOD is that the trip generation for multifamily housing (ITE land use 220, 221 and 222) have subcategories specifically for if housing is near rail transit. Showing that it has been researched and proven by actual data.
Transit Oriented Development is a term that is severely abused by Indonesian developers. They claim that their project is a transit oriented development while its obviously a gated single family housing community that just so happen to be located not far from a train station (5 minutes by car). They don't even allow businesses to open up inside the gates so you need to use your car or motorbike to get to the nearest shop, restaurant, or anything.
Orenco Station is nice, I just wish the architecture had a bit more variety to it and had more sustainable features/materials. But it was a good start, I know Metro can improve on that model.
This reminds me so much of Stockholm. Pretty much everyone lives near some type of rail station here, and they all have at least one square/plaza/broad pedestrian street, one or two cafes and grocery stores, doctor's offices, etc., along with multi-story residential buildings. The bigger ones will also have a shopping mall (usually connected to the station) and office buildings. Some are definitely less attractive than others, and some are lean significantly toward being either mainly residential or business, meaning it's not uncommon for people to commute for up to two hours to work/school at the opposite end of the city region from where they live, but it's comforting knowing that even if you're somewhere you've never been before, you usually just need to listen for the sound of a train and walk in that direction if you need to find a grocery store or a doctor.
I don't understand why agencies would sell to a real estate developer. Why not develop it but retain ownership? The project near Portland looks like a commie-block had a baby with a mall. Why not just build a regular commie block for working class residents?
Hillsboro resident here, Orenco Station is a great neighborhood, the only issue with it is that people who ride transit tend to be lower income, so the problem is that the housing around Orenco is far too expensive for those who generally take transit.
It's always cool to see these videos about how we can adjust existing cities but I always wonder how you'd design a city from scratch if given the opportunity.
Personally I think there is a real market for a purpose built walkable city here in the US. If a few of these tech companies or some of these VC companies really analyzed the prospect, I'm sure they would get to building one
It does look European.
I live right by Orenco Station and drive through it every day. I think it's a step in the right direction, but personally I would never want to live there. It just feels suffocating. Everything is crammed in there super tight. Any time there's a delivery vehicle or moving van they wind up double parking, making it really difficult to get in and out.
As a european this stuff being called special feels…. weird
Transit Rights are Human Rights!
Lower density > longer trips > wider roads > repeat
It's pretty nice but sadly the rent in that part of Hillsboro is 1,600 for just a basic one bedroom apartment.
I like this idea, but every house near transit will go up 200k in value, just because of proximity to transit
Park and Ride parking garages with multiple floors should have retail or restaurants on the street level. That would be a good use and make the park and rides more of a destination place than just a place to park your car.
The key isn't ONE transit option, it's MULTIPLE.
As an italian, even after years, I think I'll never understand US. Why are you so suprised that "hello cars are bad, transit is better". I don't have a license and I have been able to do everything I want in the cities/towns I've lived in. Of course there are some cases where you need a car but, in most of the cities there are ways to go wherever you want without a car: BUS, BIKE, FEET. And "hey from city to city?" what about TRAINS?
to increase public transit, besides the TOD, please also make sure no homeless living on the trains.
sunset transit center is also interesting, when there is basketball or soccer game in town, the parking space will be nearly full.
which is also good that fewer cars enter downtown.
Being a PDX area business owner and transit freak, I can agree with most of the video. With MAX stations it's usually a hit a or miss because YES indeed parking can fill up fast but we are all used to it. Portland and the surrounding hoods is mostly full of bus riders. I am one of them because parking at many stations is a pain. At Sunset Station, if you arrive past 9am you are pretty much screwed if driving. It's why we have commute bus lines. I had no issue taking the 59 bus to Sunset tram station.
As an European it's pretty strange to see something hyped so much as "pioneering concept" while it's one of the most common fundamental things in an average European city for decades 😀
I recently went to the battery in Atlanta, it’s a mixed use entertainment district that has a pedestrian only street. My only issue with it is that the only way to get there is to drive. Might be an interesting video to do on places that do things almost correct but have a glaring error or two.
It’s funny being from odd and watching this. It’s a nice station in a nice neighborhood. It’s just funny because I usually think of Hillsboro as kind of ghetto and unwalkable. But that spot is nice than where I live in southeast Portland (which is also located near the rail) Also nobody uses park and ride they should cut the size of them in half
Gut reaction to the phrase "Park and Ride," why the crap would I ever drive to get on transit which likely takes me to another park and ride where my car isn't? Park and Ride is a crap idea that makes transit useless because they all end in useless parking lots.
I'm in for transit oriented developments! Less cars & congestion, less pollution is a win-win
Hmm
good
I want to make a TOD, as to promote outside activity
Know how gas prices can increase this much I wouldn’t mind these types of cities
This video is completely wrong about park-and-ride lots, which are absolutely asinine public policy.
Transit agencies often rely on park-and-ride when trying to win grants, and the agencies will try to justify park-and-ride lots as being land banks for future development. But, these things are still asinine.
They will worsen automobile-dependent suburban sprawl, and all of its pernicious effects.
Park-and-ride does not reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled, especially when combined with high-speed rail and similar systems that confer time savings and increased reliability over driving.
since it was mentioned, Intel is a potential candidate for the BDSmovement boycotts, free palestine!
Fun fact: outside of North America, a common term for "transit-oriented development" is "a normal city"
I hate to say it, but there's a factor I don't hear being mentioned: public safety (either perceived or actual). There's a fairly major subway & bus station near me that's closely associated with a major shopping mall, a whole herd of smaller strip malls, and a couple of large residential neighborhoods. Access from almost any direction is easy (the exception being the already overburdened intersection of one major road into two major roads); lots of sidewalks, public open spaces, even a large pedestrian bridge over one of the main roadways. The problem is that if you overlay a map of car theft, carjacking, and public nuisances reports/arrests over the area, there's a major concentration right there — and I can tell you from personal experience that the stairwells for that pedestrian bridge frequently smelled like an outhouse for the same reason that an outhouse smells like that. There's also a history of higher than average assorted crimes, up to & including muggings & assaults. The result is that a lot of people try to avoid walking there, and I know a number of people who park there to take the rail line downtown who schedule their days so they can get their car the heck outta Dodge before it gets too dark in the garage. There's a similar but smaller node even closer to my home that marks the end of the rail line, and while it can get fairly busy during morning & evening rush hour, the number of assaults, etc. in the local news that occur there & the surrounding area often result in people driving long distances to get to other such nodes in the system, if not actually just driving all the way to their destinations. Some of the stories about crimes at these nodes are just that — stories — but there's enough actual fact to keep the rumor mill well-fed and the TOD rezoning/development well behind the curve in terms of results. The public needs to both be safe and feel safe at the transit centers, and that's a factor that I rarely hear addressed in discussions of TODs & similar plans. (Note: I am not anti-TOD; I've lived in Europe and loved using the public transportation on a near-daily basis — I'm simply addressing factors that I hear a large number of potential public transportation customers talk about as a reason to avoid using public transportation.)
Funny how my end of the Orange line in Prince George's county in Maryland is not discussed.