Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Podcast

Talking Headways Podcast: The Essential Link Between Transit and Land Use

Think land use is none of a transit agency's business? Think again. Transit routes serving sprawled-out areas draw fewer riders and cost more to operate than routes serving compact, walkable development.

This week, Brian McMahon and GB Arrington join me to talk about our excellent new report, Linking Transit Agencies and Land Use Decision Making. This is a research report the three of us and a cadre of other researchers recently completed for the Transit Cooperative Research Program (part of the Transportation Research Board).

Even though transit agencies don't usually control growth and development, land use matters to them, Brian says, and this report can help transit agencies make meaningful contributions to land use decisions. The report includes a tool that transit agencies can use to determine how they can step into the land use planning process and shape it to work well for transit, GB explains.

We talk about success stories from New Jersey Transit, Pace Bus, Cleveland (along the Euclid Avenue BRT), and Portland (the Pearl District), and how developers can be encouraged to build transit-supportive places instead of auto-oriented sprawl. Transit agencies can do this by setting expectations early on, before the planning process gets into the stage of developing individual sites, by which point mistakes are usually too late to change.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Trump’s ‘EV Mandate’ Does Not Exist. But Car Dependency Does — And We Can End It

The new president has sworn to unravel Biden's EV plans. But would they have been enough to decarbonize the transportation sector without confronting how much Americans drive?

January 22, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Get a Gentleman’s ‘C’

Transportation for America gave the Biden administration middling grades. Meanwhile, President Trump is already following through on promises to cancel EVs.

January 22, 2025

Drivers Keep Hitting Pedestrians In Front of An Iconic St. Louis Ice Cream Shop. Advocates Are Fighting Back.

A series of crashes outside a popular St. Louis landmark carries a larger lesson about traffic violence, and the cost of government inaction.

January 22, 2025

Tuesday’s Headlines Take Me Home, Country Roads

Getting around without a car in a small town isn't easy, as one Fast Company writer found out. More bike lanes and denser town centers would help.

January 21, 2025

How America Can Reconnect Its Neighborhoods Before the Next Climate Catastrophe

America is replete with sprawling, disconnected neighborhoods that send residents out of their way by design. A new study explores just how bad it is — and what we can do about it.

January 21, 2025
See all posts