Trip and Parking Generation at Orenco Station TOD, Portland
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Cities 87 (2019) 48–59 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cities journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cities Comparative case studies: trip and parking generation at Orenco Station T TOD, Portland Region and Station Park TAD, Salt Lake City Region ⁎ Reid Ewinga, Guang Tianb, , Keunhyun Parkc, Sadegh Sabouria, Preston Stingerd, David Proffitta a Department of City and Metropolitan Planning, College of Architecture + Planning, University of Utah, 375 S 1530 E, ARCH Room 235, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA b University of New Orleans, USA c Utah State University, USA d Fehr & Peers Associates, 2180 South 1300 East, Suite 220, Salt Lake City, UT 84106, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: The subjects of this comparative case study are Orenco Station, a transit-oriented development (TOD) in the Transit-oriented development Portland region, and Station Park, a transit-adjacent development (TAD) in Salt Lake City region. The peak Transit-adjacent development parking demand at Orenco Station is less than one half the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) suburban Comparative case studies parking supply guideline. Also, vehicle trip generation rates are about half what is suggested in the ITE Trip generation guidelines. Vehicle trip generation rates at Station Park show a smaller reduction but still substantial due to the Parking generation mixed-use nature of Station Park. Parking generation rates are also lower than the ITE guidelines. In terms of metrics often associated with transportation performance, the large-scale TOD dramatically outperforms the large-scale TAD. The adjacent rail station appears to have little effect on the performance of the TAD, buta substantial effect on the performance of the TOD. 1. Introduction The first research question addressed in this paper is: howmuch vehicle trip and parking demand reduction occurs in mixed-use TODs This paper presents a comparative case study of transit-related de- relative to conventional suburban development? Everyone agrees that velopment. A comparative case study is defined as “the analysis and there should be some reduction, but is it 10% or 20% or 30% or more? synthesis of the similarities, differences and patterns across two or more The second research question addressed in this paper is: Does a mixed- cases that share a common focus or goal in a way that produces use TAD provide any transportation benefits relative to conventional knowledge that is easier to generalize about causal questions” (Goodrick, suburban development? Again, there should be some reduction in ve- 2014: 1). One subject of this comparative case study is Orenco Station, on hicle trip and parking generation due to the mixed-use character of the the west side of the Portland metropolitan area in the suburban city of development, but the existing literature does not provide an answer of Hillsboro, OR. Transit-oriented developments (TODs) are widely defined how much. as compact, mixed-use developments with high-quality walking en- To our knowledge, this is only the second study to conduct a com- vironments near transit facilities (Cervero, Murphy, Ferrell, Goguts, & plete trip and parking generation study on a TOD, the first to conduct Tsai, 2004, pp. 5–7), and Orenco Station meets this definition. Orenco such a study on a TAD, and the first to compare the results for these Station may be the most acclaimed freestanding TOD in the nation. distinct development types. In quantifying the transportation benefits of Another subject of this comparative case study is Station Park, a mixed- TOD and TAD in a case study format, this provides tentative justifica- use development abutting a commuter rail station on the north side of tion for the literally hundreds of such developments planned across the the Salt Lake City region in the suburban city of Farmington, UT. Station United States. It also validates earlier research on the transportation Park labels itself a TOD, but projects as a giant shopping center with a benefits of TODs. Cronbach identified four possible pathways through commuter rail station at one corner and a pedestrian-oriented village which knowledge is accumulated: testing new units, new treatments, core in the center. We label this a transit-adjacent development (TAD). new outcomes, and new settings (different contexts). This paper is TAD is defined as the land adjacent to the transit stop that fails toca- aligned well with contributions around new settings. The new TOD pitalize on transit access through compact mixed-use development, in setting, Orenco Station, is a much larger development than heretofore particular in terms of station access or site design. studied and suggests that transportation benefits scale up nicely. The ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Tian). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.12.020 Received 23 July 2018; Received in revised form 4 December 2018; Accepted 17 December 2018 0264-2751/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. R. Ewing et al. Cities 87 (2019) 48–59 Table 1 Net and gross residential densities, and floor area ratios for commercial uses, for the first five TODs studied and Orenco Station. TOD Region Gross Area Gross Residential Density Net Residential Net Residential Density Gross Commercial FAR (for retail (acres) (units per gross acre) Area (acres) (units per net acre) and office uses) Redmond TOD Seattle 2.5 129 2.5 129 0.11 Rhode Island Row Washington, D.C. 6 46 6 46 0.27 Fruitvale Village San Francisco 3.4 14 3.4 14 0.94 Englewood Denver 30 15 10.7 41 0.25 Wilshire/Vermont Los Angeles 3.2 140 3.2 140 0.27 Orenco Station (study Portland 60 32.4 60 32.4 0.10 area) Station Park (study Salt Lake City 115 4.1 20 23.3 0.23 area) new TAD setting, Station Park, is literally the first such development to distance to transit, where they are low), which affects the utilities of be compared to a similarly sized and located TOD (Table 1). non-auto modes, which in turn affect mode choices and ultimately vehicle trip generation and vehicle parking generation. 2. Theoretical framework A TAD would not be expected to produce the same reductions in vehicle trip rates and parking demand as a TOD, because the D vari- The potential to moderate travel demand by changing the built ables, particularly site design, do not differ as much from typical sub- environment may be the most heavily researched subject in urban urban development. Comparing Orenco Station to Station Park, the planning. A meta-analysis found more than 200 individual studies of density of the former is greater, particularly near the transit station, the the built environment and travel (Ewing & Cervero, 2010). balance of residential and commercial uses is more in line with pre- In travel research, influences of the built environment on travel scriptions in the literature, and the design of streets and parking areas have often been named with words beginning with D. The original favors the pedestrian over the automobile. “three Ds,” coined by Cervero and Kockelman (1997), are density, di- versity, and design, followed later by destination accessibility and dis- 3. Literature review tance to transit (Ewing & Cervero, 2001). Demand management (parking management) is sometimes included among the Ds. While not In practice, vehicle trip generation for different land uses is guided part of the environment, demographics are a seventh D, controlled as by the ITE Trip Generation Manual. While ITE provides a mass of data confounding influences in travel studies. points for dozens of different land uses, the manual readily acknowl- A number of studies, including Cervero and Kockelman (1997), edges its limitations: “[d]ata were primarily collected at suburban lo- Boarnet and Crane (2001), Zhang (2004), and Cao, Mokhtarian, and cations having little or no transit service, nearby pedestrian amenities, Handy (2009), provide economic and behavioral explanations of why or travel demand management (TDM) programs” (ITE, 2012, pp. 1). built environments might be expected to influence travel choices. Ba- The manual goes on to state: “At specific sites, the user may wish to sically, the first five Ds affect the accessibility of trip productions totrip modify trip-generation rates presented in this document to reflect the attractions, and hence the generalized cost of travel by different modes presence of public transportation service, ridesharing, or other TDM to and from different locations. This, via the consumer choice theory of measures; enhanced pedestrian and bicycle trip-making opportunities; travel demand, affects the utility of different travel choices. Forex- or other special characteristics of the site or surrounding area” (ITE, ample, destinations that are closer as a result of higher development 2012: 1). This kind of modification is seldom made in practice. density or greater land use diversity may be easier to walk to than drive The idea that TOD reduces demand for vehicle travel is widely ac- to. As the D values increase (except distance to transit, with an inverse cepted, but almost no studies have measured trip-generation and relationship), the generalized cost of travel by alternative modes de- parking rates at individual TODs in a way that is comparable to ITE, and creases, relative utility increases, and mode shifts occur. none have examined TAD sites. As a result, it has proven difficult to Fig. 1 illustrates these relationships. Compared to conventional predict the impact of specific TODs on travel behavior. A 2017 World suburban development, TODs are high in the D variables (except Bank report titled “Transforming the Urban Space Through Transit- Fig. 1. Theoretical framework. 49 R. Ewing et al. Cities 87 (2019) 48–59 Oriented Development” is typical in that it recommends TOD as a element for TOD success (Cervero et al., 2004). To our knowledge, planning strategy for cities (especially cities in developing countries) there are only two studies of vehicle trip generation at TODs (defined as but is unable to provide quantitative information about expected trip mixed-use developments – Handy, Shafizadeh, & Schneider, 2013; and parking reductions in TOD precincts.