TOD News

Lloyd Alter | Urban Design

For years, city builders have called for Transit Adjacent development, piling density on top of subway stations and at transit nodes. Now the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy has introduced a far more sophisticated concept of TransitOriented Development (TOD) and a TOD standard to promote it.

TOD implies high quality, thoughtful planning and design of land use and built forms to support, facilitate and prioritize not only the use of transit, but the most basic modes of transport, walking and cycling.

This is a very different thing from what we are used to. It focuses on developing communities that push away from car-centric city forms, towards an efficient walking, cycling and transit city.

The TOD Standard sums up the new priorities for contemporary urban development. They reflect a fundamental shift from the old, unsustainable paradigm of car-oriented urbanism toward a new paradigm where urban forms and land uses are closely integrated with efficient, low-impact, and people-oriented urban travel modes: walking, cycling, and transit. Read more

Anjali Fluker | Orlando Business Journal

The region is gearing up for the start of SunRail commuter rail service this week— and Orlando Health has plans in the works for a small retail strip just across the street from the Orlando Health/Amtrak station in the Downtown South district.

Karl Hodges, vice president of business development for Orlando Health, said the hospital system is in the “exploration and planning stages” of redeveloping nearly 10,000 square feet of old commercial space on Sligh Boulevard that faces the commuter rail station. Read more

Madeline Marvar | Mobilizing the Region

Downtown Yonkers has undergone a dramatic change in the last decade thanks largely to the inspiring success story of the Saw Mill River Daylighting campaign, a project which was presented last week at GreenHomeNYC’s April Forum.

In the 1920s, the Army Corps of Engineers redirected a large portion of the Saw Mill River into underground flumes as part of a sanitation and flooding mitigation effort, where it lay hidden from sight for nearly a century. It wasn’t until the 1990s that anyone began to consider the potential for unburying the river, though the idea at the time seemed too massive an undertaking, especially given the hazardous pollution levels from illegal dumping in nearby industrial areas. Read more

Scott Whipple | New Britain Herald

NEW BRITAIN — More than 150 people got the opportunity Wednesday night to learn everything they’ve always wanted to know about CTFastrak but were not afraid to ask.

Connecticut’s bus rapid transit system is scheduled to begin operations in March 2015. Attendees at the Institute of Technology and Business Development grilled Michael Sanders, CTfastrak transit administrator, with more than 40 questions ranging from how many new bus drivers will be hired — more than 100 — to will there be lavatories at the bus stations — No. Few of the trips are long enough to merit rest rooms.

Formerly, CTfastrak was known as the New Britain-Hartford Busway. The project includes 10 stations in New Britain, Newington, West Hartford and Hartford with buses running every three to seven minutes during peak commuting hours. Traveling on a bus-only road, CTfastrak offers faster travel times for riders, providing service from Bristol, Waterbury, Southington, and Cheshire to destinations in the CTfastrak corridor. Most of the public was delighted at what they heard.  There has been talk of a shuttle service between local CTfastrak stations and East Side restaurant on Dwight Street. No surprise. East Side Restaurant owner Nick Augustino is all for the idea. Read more