The Analysis of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore Metropolitan Areas

摘要

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is mainly focused on providing transit service along withhigh density development and mixed use to encourage transit ridership. A TOD can be defined as“a place of relatively higher density that includes a mixture of residential, employment, shoppingand civic uses located within an easy walk of a bus or rail transit center”1. TODs are fastgrowingdevelopments and are getting more and more popular among city planners, landdevelopers, and government officials because of their potential to reduce congestion, increasetransit ridership and reduce VMT through shortening trips. However, there is not enoughresearch done on how successful TODs are in providing sustainable transportation modes, andthus reducing energy consumption, pollution, and traffic congestion in urban areas. The presentstudy tries to understand how people's travel behavior changes in TOD and non-TOD areas inthe Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas. This is done specifically by examiningthe changes in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in order to analyze the effectiveness of TODs onencouraging more sustainable travel pattern towards less driving and more transiton-motorizedmode choice.The question of “can transit-oriented development (TOD) reduce vehicle miles of travel?” hasbeen asked frequently, since TOD was first proposed and implemented in urban areas. This papertries to find a viable answer to this question by analyzing the travel behavior of the Washington,D.C. and Baltimore residents. Our results indicate that people living close to major transitstations tend to drive less, reducing the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by around 20 percent inWashington, D.C. and 21 percent in Baltimore for those who live in TOD areas, compared tonon-TOD areas even with similar land use patterns.