Transit Station Energy Impacts
Patrick Coleman, Mark Euritt and C. M. Walton, University of Texas at Austin, December 1992, 110 pp.
Transit trips–when compared with automobile travel–not only relieve congestion, but also offer considerable energy savings per person. Transit trips also affect land use and development patterns that surround a transit station. This report addresses the energy effects of development in transit station areas; that is, development that occurs within a certain radius of a transit station (approximately a quarter-mile) is considered “transit-sensitive” development. This “transit-sensitive” development would, by design and density, encourage trip ends to and from land uses in the transit beltway. Since infrastructure serving high-density development is more efficient than infrastructure serving low-density, typically suburban, land uses, the potential exists to conserve energy that is used in everyday trips (home, work, shopping, etc.). In this report, a methodology will be developed to estimate the energy savings associated with land use changes in the station areas. Since changes in land use and development in a station area are partially dependent on the type of service offered (rail versus bus rapid, for example), a classification system will be developed for different types of transit stations, a system based on the land use and development changes that occur within the station’s zone of influence.
Keywords: Transit Trips, Energy Savings, Land Use, Development Patterns, Transit Station, Impact, Transit-Sensitive Development, Density, Zone of Influence, Methodology, Infrastructure
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Reference Report #60033-1