Introducing Potential Benefits of and Understanding Vehicular Flows at Highway Interchange Transit Oriented Developments (HITODs)

This paper introduces the concept of a Highway Interchange Transit Oriented Development (HITODs). HITODs can redefine the interface between regional transport and suburban communities both by introducing mode choice at interchanges between highways and local roads, and by developing land left underutilized by current standard interchange designs. By introducing new possibilities at interchanges, HITODs can help to solve problems created by existing interchange designs, including sprawl and automobile dependency. HITODs also afford new opportunities for sustainable development and value capture. A HITOD has two primary characteristics. First, it has egress and access ramps that are optimized for express bus service, allowing buses to quickly exit the highway, allow passengers to board and alight, and then return to the highway. By enabling line-haul express buses to serve passengers at highway interchanges, HITODs will create the transfer interface for feeder modes such as local buses, Kiss-and-Ride, Park-and-Ride, bicycle, taxi and pedestrian that heretofore has been missing from suburban highway interchanges. Second, a HITOD integrates developable space within the area of interchange itself, which allows the development to be easily accessed by the surrounding neighborhood. Combined with Traditional Neighborhood Design principles, HITODs could potentially create a highway equivalent to the “string of pearls” pattern of land development established more than a century ago by early American railroad companies. This paper describes a prototype HITOD and makes other suggestions for future research.