Home > Planning Support Tool > Land Use and BRT

Land Use and BRT

There is little doubt that transit shaped the urban form of our major cities. During the early stages of a cities development transit provided a way where workers could live outside of the central area and travel to jobs at a minimum cost. Developers saw value in the increased exposure provided by transit thus orientating their building to maximize the buildings visibility. The advent of the motor coach, while providing the flexibility in service users requested, denigrated the influence that transit has had in modern times in influencing land development.

Anecdotally most transit planners believe that fixed guideway systems have a positive impact on land use, particularly around the station areas, where as bus based systems have at best a neutral impact. Bus based systems have been shown to be beneficial impact at a community level however property adjacent to stops/station are considered less desirable. Proponents of fixed rail systems point to the lack of permanence of bus based modes as the principal reason why they have not been able to impact/ direct land use. In reality bus based systems are constrained by the available road network and are more permanent then some opponents would care to concede.

One of the biggest concerns of communities developing BRT systems is convincing the development community that BRT will  provide the benefits that they associate with fixed guideway modes The advent of BRT systems has challenged premise. The new BRT systems that have chosen to incorporate a fixed guideway element have demonstrated that bus based transit systems can have a positive impact on urban form and land values. Although the BRT concept is new and few systems are in operation there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that BRT systems can support existing land users and promote higher density residential, office and commercial land use, particularly around the BRT stations. North American examples of this trend include Boston where $1,250 million, Pittsburgh $302 million and Ottawa $675 million of new or improved development respectively has occurred. The continuing development of more BRT systems will provide further evidence of this effect however, as land use improvements tend to lag transit investment examples of this trend may take a while to be realized.

Some BRT systems have benefited by initially developing a number of key stations where land use development potential exists and linking them with transit facilities which incrementally increase to fully exclusive busways. In this way they could make strategic infrastructural investments at specific locations with out the need to improve the whole corridor to the same level

The symbiotic relationship between land use and transit is well documented. Carefully crafted land use policies, can direct land development in a manner which increases real estate values but also provides the ridership needed to sustain a BRT system. Land uses that mix residential and commercial development can encourage balanced use of the BRT system. Unfortunately since the advent of the private auto mobile transit planning has largely been reactive. The transit planner has sought to supply service to suburban development in the most efficient manner possible.

Author: Graham Carey