The Metropolitan Place project in downtown Renton is an example of TOD. Located next to the Renton Transit Center, it has park-and-ride stalls as well as apartments and resident parking.
Transit-oriented development
The purpose of transit-oriented development (TOD) is to reduce the use of single-occupant vehicles by increasing the number of times people walk, bicycle, carpool, vanpool, or take a bus, streetcar, or rail. It does this by bringing potential riders closer to transit facilities rather than building homes away from population centers, which makes people more dependent on roads and automobiles.
TOD makes transit investments work more efficiently by putting more riders on existing buses.
To reduce external trips, TOD projects should be located in higher-density, mixed-use, urban pedestrian districts with high-quality transit service. External single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) trips can be reduced as much or more by people walking within a mixed-use urban district as they can by using transit within and between urban centers.
To be most effective, TOD should be “urban” even in a suburban setting. Pedestrian-scale design draws people to return repeatedly. Urban development supports transit; suburban development does not.
Once that idea takes hold in a community, it becomes a powerful motivator for changing the built environment. The concept includes mixed-use, higher-density buildings at the sidewalk; less private and more public open space; smaller blocks; narrow streets with wider sidewalks, street trees and lights; lower parking-to-occupant ratios; shared parking; parking behind buildings; and on-street parallel parking.
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