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A current buzzword in American transit planning circles is Transit Oriented Development. TOD calls up images of the streetcar suburbs of the 1920s, when few families owned cars and the affluent had only one. Pedestrian orientation was upstaged by rail technologies in the late 19th Century. Cities in the early 20th Century were highly transit oriented. They spread out into pedestrian-oriented streetcar suburbs focused on transit stations. In the 1960s the influence and popularity of private traffic overwhelmed the compact districts around train stations. Most new development sprawled to far-flung locations, generating highway commercial strips, especially around Interstate interchanges.
TOD today is largely promoted as an antidote to suburban sprawl. Many transit authorities are moving beyond the traditional version of their mission as provider of mass transit to embrace real estate development jointly with the private sector. As a public policy and urban development model, TOD encourages compact infill and dense redevelopment around transit stations.
 APMs can extend the radius of influence of a transit station, to which development can be oriented. |
 Most TOD concepts rely on pedestrian access to and from a station. |
Spatial planners typically use one-quarter mile (a bit over 400 meters) as the distance most citizens will walk. A transit-oriented development site should be this close to a station. Sometimes that is not possible. Parcels may not be available, or they may be too expensive relative to remote sites farther away.
Here is where an APM overcomes that gap, as they already do in some resorts and historic districts. Some APM technologies are designed for short-distance links at lower costs. Rough system costs are $3-5 million for low-capacity shuttles over a distance of less than 500 meters (1,640 feet). Use $5-15 million for higher capacities of over a full kilometer (0.6 mile). For longer distances, apply figure of $10 million per kilometer. This does not include site acquisition and preparation, utility relocation, and amenities that often accompany civic projects.
Using APMs in TOD schemes has not been easy, largely because supportive city development policies and well-tuned coordination between transit authorities and the private real estate sector are not in place. More flexibly and efficient than conventional rail and bus services, an APM spine would truly orient urban life around transit.
TOD strategies can be seen at several airports which connect to a regional rail station with an APM, such as in Birmingham, England, Dusseldorf, Germany and in New York/Newark. Modest in scale and price, APMs can strengthen an existing core area with intercept parking, as shown in the accompanying figure.
ATRA is organizing a student design competition this fall to explore ways that a university student district can be car-restrained and transit-oriented. A seminar next year will explore the results.
