DEVELOPMENT NEAR TRANSIT: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Planners and researchers have long debated how, when, and why development occurs around transit stations and in transit corridors. With this in mind, a team of researchers from TCRP (Transit Cooperative Research Program) Project H-1, Transit and Urban Form, identified six metropolitan areas with a variety of transit technologies -- exclusive busways, high occupancy vehicle lanes, light rail, advanced light rail, high speed passenger ferry, and rapid rail -- as case studies of the factors which influence development near transit. A comparison of three international case with three from the United States has clarified some of the cultural and institutional factors that mediate between transit and urban form in the U.S. The research shows that culture, institutions, leaders, and policies of the entire region have as much to do with what happens at individual stations as do local ordinances and the prerogatives of private land owners.