Opportunity access as a design framework for guiding transportation and land use integration: an evaluation of US transit-oriented developments (TOD)

For years, transportation and land use integration has been identified as important approaches for planners, engineers, and designers, but to understand more research is needed to understand how it affects people who live around stations. In response, this research builds on a multi-year analysis quantitative and qualitative study of 2323 transit stations in over 350 corridors throughout the U.S. - one of the largest federally funded studies on livability related to transportation. This effort yielded empirical links to transportation and land use integration and quality of life outcomes. This paper concludes that the intersection between successful transportation and land use integration (TLI) depends on people's ability to equitably access opportunities to improve and/or maintain their desired quality of life. Along these lines this paper (a) identifies important characteristics (metrics) of TLI in 2323 transit station areas in the United States, (b) applies these metrics toward the development of a typology of station types (TOD), and then (c) validates these metrics by geo-locating a variety of quality of life outcomes for station area residents. Put simply, this paper finds that opportunity access can be an organising principle for guiding transportation and land use integration strategies. In turn, providing individuals with equitable access to opportunities measurably shows significant potential for achieving many societal and individual quality of life benefits such as lowering auto-dependency, household budget burdens, greenhouse gas emissions, and even poverty and obesity rates.