MARTA TOD blog
From: Tanya
To: Nathaniel
Thanks for the praise, but it was you and your neighbors that helped
the Sierra Club, Georgia Chapter, get MARTA’s 1 cent sales tax passed
overwhelmingly in Clayton County this past election. Now comes the fun
part—helping the experts design the rail extension and station areas!
From: Nathaniel
To: Tanya
Thanks Tanya! Now that we have it, I am concerned about increasing
ridership in the area around Airport/Mountain View Station. That way, we will
get more service and can finally sell off one of our cars. You know more about
how to do that than I do. Suggestions?
From: Tanya
To: Nathaniel
Sorry to take 3 days to respond, but I wanted to check where MARTA
plans to put stations in Clayton. As I recall your area has older industries,
including chemical plants, lots of
parking, and other vacant land. It’s a good candidate for substantial
redevelopment, especially since it counts as a “brownfield.” There are lots of
grants and other programs to help remove toxins from the soil and develop
Transit Oriented Development. You’ll hear that called “TOD” more often though.
So, just think of Atlanta’s Atlantic Station, but in your area you’re probably
only going to get mid-rise buildings. Here’s a picture of a similar project, a
BART station near San Jose, California,
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/article/Fremont-s-imaginative-planning-puts-S-F-s-to-5768319.php,
illustrated below.
My station, Southlake Mall already has a start on TOD development with
a large mall and blocks of parking that could be filled in with housing and
local shopping. However, the old rail right-of-way is about three blocks east
and may have to be rerouted. If that
doesn’t happen, we need to at least make sure that people can easily bike or
walk from there, or even have a bus or streetcar that connects the two!
From: Nathaniel
To: Tanya
That’s an interesting idea, and could work if my neighbors would accept
less parking and some mid-rises in exchange for nearby shopping, jobs and other
destinations that could be easily walked or cycled to. Just curious, do you
know how much fuel and carbon emissions would be saved?
From: Tanya
To: Nathaniel
Bear with me Nathaniel, it’s going to get technical! So, we do have
estimates from a Sierra Club transportation activist out in California. To
start, he used a study from the transportation consulting firm Nelson\Nygaard
titled Crediting Low-Traffic Developments; Adjusting Site-Level Vehicle Trip
Generation Using URBEMIS (which can be found at
http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/transportation/documents/TripGenerationAnalysisUsingURBEMIS.pdf),
especially Table 1, “Summary of Trip Reduction Credits”. He estimated trips and
vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for a well-done and complete TOD. Smaller or
incomplete TODs would have less reduction in driving and emissions.
He assumed that:
1. At 30 year buildout, the 80% trip reductions shown in Table 1 of
Nelson\Nygaard could be assumed to be the TOD’s driving (VMT or Vehicle Miles
Traveled) reductions. This does not take credit for special efforts to reduce
driving like building extra worker housing, free transit passes and
telecommuting. Nor for the shorter trips TOD neighbors would have in getting to
markets and services within the TOD.
2. Initial sprawl (non-TOD) driving equals the GA state average of
31,000 VMT/Household.
3. At 30 year buildout, the TOD covers a 1/2 mile radius from the
station (approx 500 acres), with 70% (350 acres) in residences, including
residential streets, and 30% (150 acres) in offices, industry, and
parks/plazas/open spaces. At buildout, the residential density would be 40 – 60
households per residential acre (hh/res acre); for examples see
http://vault.sierraclub.org/sprawl/density/projects.asp?density=3&gm=20&gp=4.10&i=&r=summary.asp
. These densities are much lower than San Francisco’s North Beach at 100 hh/res
acre, or Manhattan at 200.
4. Auto fuel economy assumed the US on-road fleet averages (real world
values for all light-duty vehicles on the road, not inflated CAFE): 21.5 mpg in
2012, up to 37.2 mpg by 2040 (EIA's 2014 Annual Energy Outlook -
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/pdf/0383(2014).pdf).
5. Burning a gallon of gasoline releases 28 lbs of CO2.
And he got the following:
So, a well designed TOD would reduce VMT emissions by 4.3 million tons
of CO2 during the 30 year buildout, and is then saving 375,000 more tons of CO2
each year. At 10 tons of CO2 emitted annually per car, that is equivalent to
taking 430,000 cars off the road for a whole year. In 30 years, we would be
keeping 37,000 cars off the road annually thereafter. That’s big-time savings!
These driving reductions occur as the TOD is planned, streets laid out, and
housing, a market and parks are constructed. This would be followed by more
housing and markets, restaurants, plazas and bike lanes, a coffee shop with
blazing fast WiFi, a chocolate store, a craft brewery and so on over 30 years.
So in sum, if TOD at your Airport/Mountain View Station was well-done,
but had only half as much land in housing and commerce as this TOD example, it
would save only half as much driving and emissions, or 2.1 million tons of CO2
during the 30 year buildout, and thereafter 187,000 tons of CO2 annually. Or if
only 300 acres of land around the station could be developed, of which 200
acres are residential, the CO2 emission totals would be reduced by 200/350, or
2.5 million tons of CO2 during the 30 year buildout, and thereafter 214,000
tons of CO2 annually. And if my Southlake Mall Station had 150 acres of
residential, it could cut emissions by 150/350 of the full TOD example, or 1.8
million tons of CO2 during the 30 year buildout, and thereafter 160,000 tons of
CO2 annually.
From: Nathaniel
To: Tanya
Wow! Thanks for that, and boy my head is spinning from all these
numbers! But I do understand that most of these driving and emissions cuts
would not all be from all travelers riding MARTA to work. Only 15 – 20% of our
trips are commutes and TOD can shorten 80 – 85% of other trips enough to walk,
cycle or take transit, or just have a shorter drive. Plus, it seems like TOD
helps to create great, safe places to be and walk in. Also, TOD will definitely
provide many local jobs since it encourages economic activity here in town. It
certainly seems worthwhile to pursue this TOD!
