Looking back at research from 1977, The Overhead Wire decides that maybe there is an overemphasis on residential density increasing transit ridership, when the greatest impact comes from location.
Blogger Pantograph Trolleypole reads Jeff Zupan and Boris Pushkarev:
"I'm not saying that residential density is ultimately unimportant. But I believe its less important for starting a transit system and more important for growing it. There are lessons on this in previous research works that we tend to ignore."
He quotes Zupan and Pushkarev's book Public Transportation and Land Use Policy::
"Residential density is less important for transit use than residential location, ie proximity to a downtown of substantial size or proximity to a rail transit line. If greater transit use is the goal, it is more important to put housing close to a downtown than make it high density."
Read the full story: Pushkarev and Zupan on Employment and Ridership
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Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
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Journal of the American Planning Association