Station Access for Highway Transit Systems: International Review and Normative Framework for Multimodal Public Transportation Station Access Within and Near Highways and Expressways

The focus of this paper is on high capacity transit stations in or near expressways and highways, which have often yielded mixed results. Rapid rail transit systems, like BART in the SF Bay Area and the Washington DC Metro, not only took advantage of expressway and highway rights of way, but designed many of their transit stations to optimize automobile access and circulation, with transit, pedestrian and bicycle access left behind as an afterthought. Put simply, autos, transit, pedestrians, and bicyclists have difficulty operating in the same space and automobiles have, in many cases, overwhelmed these station areas, increasing conflicts between modes and discouraging the use of non-auto access as a result. If these conflicts are not addressed, our high-capacity transit systems may not reach their full potential as alternatives to driving, even for short trips, which means they further fail to improve air quality and lower greenhouse gas emissions. This paper seeks to identify the important components determining multimodal access to stations in or near expressways and highways in order help planners and engineers implement the best approaches to improving station access performance.