Decision Support Framework for Transit-Oriented Development Projects

Although the use of personal automobiles in the United States continues to grow, there are increasing concerns about the possible effects of automobile-dependent transportation, including environmental concerns, the reduction in the quality of life caused by long commutes, and a decline of community and societal interactions. These concerns have led to discussions on the revitalization of public transportation systems. To counter the problem of congestion resulting from modern urbanization, urban planners have developed the idea of transit-oriented development (TOD), designed to encourage the use of public transit and the creation of pedestrian-friendly environments. The plethora of literature on this subject is no surprise, considering the issues of revitalization of community living and affordable housing and related factors directly influencing and getting influenced by TOD. Notwithstanding the abundance of literature on TOD, the literature review uncovered few studies that somewhat address the important question, “How can a transit agency choose between alternative TOD sites to develop or build?” Given this, the purpose of this research is to develop a decision support framework that can be used by different transit agencies when choosing a TOD site to develop or build by incorporating and assessing unique success factors and their weights. This research uses a multiple-criteria decision-making tool called the analytic hierarchy process in developing that framework. The paper presents two implementation examples that demonstrate the feasibility of the developed decision support framework for both a large, urban transit district and a smaller, more rural transit agency.