How to create vibrant transit supportive communities

Transit-supportive development is a broad principle that describes a relationship between urban growth and transit. By directing urban growth to areas that are well-served by transit, transit-supportive development promotes access to sustainable mobility options to more people.

We have developed a typology and evaluation tool – co-designed by planning and policy practitioners working across the public, private, and non-profit sectors – to help planning authorities and actors better assess the potential for transit-supportive development based on the local context. This tool also helps relevant stakeholders to identify context-sensitive policy solutions that builds communities which affords all individuals and families an equal opportunity to live near work or school and take public transit.

We recognize that there are many complexities to implementing transit-supportive development. It requires a combination of policy interventions, careful coordination and timing of investment decisions, and a willingness and ability for multi-sectoral partnerships to tap into the right resources and capacity to deliver on complex development projects around transit. While this tool does not address all of these complexities, it provides a good first step.