Low-income residents are more likely to use transit, and transit needs riders. The relationship seems ripe for mutual benefit.
Eleni Bardaka, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, and John Hersey, a senior TOD associate of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in Denver, write a guest post for Transit Center to share survey research exploring the travel habits of people who live near transit.
"Bardaka and Hersey’s work confirms that low-income housing residents use transit a lot more than market-rate residents, reinforcing the case for affordability in transit-oriented developments," according the introductory text supplementing the guest post.
In the words of Bardaka and Hersey:
Transit systems provide users with a ladder to economic opportunity, connecting individuals to home, work, education, healthcare, and myriad metropolitan destinations. This ladder is most critical to low-income, transit-reliant households with little means to afford auto-oriented lifestyles.
The need to state these housing and mobility facts becomes more and more pressing as more and more transit-rich cities become homogeneously affluent cities, according to the article.
Without equitable planning and policies in place, major transit investment can generate new demand for development in areas that quickly transition from economic afterthoughts to high-end enclaves of housing, retail, and offices catering to higher-income earners while leaving behind low-income households who could most benefit from improved transit access. Transit agencies may then find themselves the victims of their own expansion, setting in motion a speculative real estate market that delivers high-rent land uses but few new transit riders.
For a model of equitable planning—rather than the model of gentrifying, ridership depleting transit oriented development—the article looks to Denver's eTOD effort that relies on a variety of private and public sector partners and already has a proof of concept in a development at the 38th and Blake Station on the RTD system.
Hat tip to Angie Schmitt for sharing the article.
Previous Planetizen articles on similar subjects:
Read the full story: Transit-Oriented Development is More Transit-Oriented When It’s Affordable Housing
High Housing Costs Driving Down Transit Ridership in LA
When neighborhoods gentrify and displace lower-income residents, transit ridership suffers, new research shows.
Can We Resist Displacement From Transit-Oriented Development?
Transit stations increase nearby jobs and populations, but they could also contribute to displacement. What can we do differently?
San Jose Wants 25 Percent Affordable Housing With Big Google Development
The city of San Jose is pushing Google to mitigate the effects of gentrification and displacement at its planned transit oriented facility in downtown San Jose.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Northwest rail fans eager for Sept. 30 debut of Amtrak’s Airo fleet
Get ready for that new train smell and more seats. But they won’t go faster or run more frequently on the Cascades route in Washington and Oregon.
Trump administration unlawfully slashed $7 billion in clean energy grants, judge rules
The Environmental Protection Agency ended the Solar For All program, which provided the grants, after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Record-breaking wildlife overpass in Colorado brings 91% reduction in animal collisions
Prior to the overpass, vehicles were hitting one deer per day on Colorado’s Interstate 25.
California lawmakers approve just 5% of much-needed LA28 transportation funding
State legislators appear just as unwilling as Trump to pay for Olympics-related transportation projects.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Thousand Oaks
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello