Transit Oriented Development Potential Study of Philadelphia
University of Pennsylvania,School of Design
GIS503 Final Project Fall 2011 Xinlin Huang
Rung-Er Jang
Lu Yao
I. Introduction & Intend `
Transit Oriented Development (TOD) promotes dense, walkable and mix-used communities around the transit nodes. Compared to the low-density suburban sprawls in US cities, TOD provides a life style choice that involves more walking, biking and human contact, with higher energy efficiency and embraces the diverse and vibrant nature of urban living. Under the pressing global warming issue and ever- increasing petrol price, TOD has been included by many Ameri-
can cities as the solution towards those problems. And because of the recently- increased popularity of urban life styles among young Americans, TOD has been adopted by many real-estate developers as the market’s demand. Our study aims at evaluating the TOD potential for Philadelphia’s major transit nodes areas, and identifying the most eligible stations for future TOD. Philadelphia is a city with a successful public transit system. The city has a relatively stable source
SEPTA provides subway, light rail and bus service for the city. Source: www.septa.org
of public transit riders and sound transit infrastructures. The current public transit system of the city consists of subway, regional rails, light rails, buses, inter-urban high speed lines. Among the city’s many transit nodes, we select subway stations as the subject of our study. We believe the subway stations have the ability to generate passenger traffic that enables condensed economic and social activities and support a successful TOD.
Philadelphia’s Public Transit System Source: www.septa.org
The city’s subway line has high capacity, high speed and a large service area. According the SPETA ( South-eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority)’s Operating Facts Report Fiscal Year 2011, the ridership of the city’s subway system is 63,177,000 passenger miles, which is the second largest running after bus and light rail system’s 106,516,600 passenger miles. However, the city has
52 subway stations but 8,074 bus/ light rail stations. Therefore the actual passenger attraction of subway stations is stronger than bus/light rail stations. Besides, the subway station areas very often are where the buses and light rail stations clustered, which means subway stations areas actually generate more passenger than subway stations.