| This study was undertaken to examine some of the requisites to effective joint development of transit stations in leading metropolitan areas. The test systems included the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Montreal, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Atlanta and Paris. In all instances, it was found that fixed guideway rapid transit had a discernible, positive impact upon urban growth and intra-urban transportation, provided opportunities for imaginative growth management, and was an inducement for private investment. Conversely, effective application of this strategy required the preexistence of economic viability in the area as a whole, but especially of the transportation corridor of which the respective transit lines were an integral part. Transit by itself, with or without joint development, would not induce economic viability.; Where such viability exists, however, several determinants can be identified consistently that are requisites to success or, in their absence, tend to explain disappointing results. Key determinants) include: integrated public agency-private entrepreneurial planning; adequate capitalization of all aspects of the project; considered attention to design details, especially station entrance locations and channeling of pedestrian traffic; conditions of private participation through ownership or lease terms, tax concessions in higher risk situations; site specific trade area conditions; aesthetically pleasing architectural treatment of all structural elements; and a physical and socioeconomic environment inducive to public interaction in general.; Given positive determinants, joint development may be considered an effective tool of urban growth management, multi-modal transportation systems operations, traffic engineering, and as a workable mechanism of fiscal value capture. Conversely, joint development will not as such reestablish the traditional central business district as the dominant economic center of the metropolitan area, but rather it will contribute toward a balanced urban region where economic activities are focussed on high-intensity urban nodes served by rapid transit stations and other required urban transportation facilities.; The systematic evaluation of determinants of success and identification of underlying reasons therefore represent a significant contribution to urban science in general, and to comprehensive transportation planning in particular. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)... |
