Key Factors Determining TOD Success
A number of variables will determine the success of TOD at both the station-area and corridor or regional scale (Table 1). As indicated previously, we define success as the extent of the mode shift -- from autos to pedestrian and transit modes -- that is attributable to TOD. In economic terms, success is the benefits of this shift net the costs of building and operating new transit facilities. As thusly defined, success is measurable, and may be predictable. Other measures of success, such as sense of community and livability, although appropriate and important, do not easily lend themselves to either empirical measurement nor estimation through the use of models (Project for Public Spaces 1997). [Page]
Some factors play a major role in determining local, station-area success, while others have a significant impact at both the local and the larger, corridor/regional scale. In other words, success may be achieved at one or several TODs if a few positive factors are present, but success will probably not be achieved at a regional scale unless a greater number of factors contribute in a positive fashion. We are not suggesting either the relative magnitude nor the sign of the impact of these factors, only that each may be significant in determining the success of TOD.
Together, these factors in Table 1 represent independent (exogenous) variables in equation
