Transit Corridors

Transit corridors refer to areas that feature one or more modes of transportation—such as rail, streetcars and/or bus rapid transit—that promote economic development around transit services while fostering active transportation in parallel. Transit corridors connect riders to opportunities and important assets such as schools, government services, employment centers and recreational sites along their routes. They vary by scale, mode(s) of transportation present, carrying capacity and quality, which may include measures like safety, reliability and accessibility. Developing high quality transit corridors provides an opportunity for planners to enhance transit-oriented communities (TOCs) and improve access to opportunity for residents while minimizing potential impacts of gentrification and environmental burdens.

Understand Your Datasets

Transit corridors often exist along a transportation right-of-way, which can serve as the baseline dataset for understanding existing transit corridors in a project area. Using GIS, planners can develop a map of points for each transit stop/station and their corresponding transit lines to learn more about the proximity of stops/stations to residents and the area’s overall connectivity. This exercise can also aid planners in identifying gaps where transit corridors are not present. Transit corridors vary in typology (e.g., public transit, freeways with multi-modal features like bus or train infrastructure) and can be overlaid with other land use factors (e.g., sidewalks, key destinations) to represent the connectivity of a project area. Transit corridors are often accompanied by development, retail and other amenities, which can provide residents access to employment, education, recreation and other critical services. However, improving transit corridors can lead to increased development and investment in a neighborhood, which can lead to increasing rent prices and gentrification impacts. Planners should seek to holistically understand how a new or enhanced transit corridor might function in or impact a project area by assessing supplementary data sources on preexisting transit options and infrastructure, rent and housing costs and nearby critical social services. Various resources can support transit corridor assessment and evaluation, including Corridor Evaluation Measures Methodologies, which provides a list of measures for assessing existing transit readiness and quantifying the extent to which a potential corridor may impact existing or future conditions.