Bus Lines as Economic Development Corridors: Retrofitting Bus Lines on Urban Highways

Project summary:

Using the principles and strategies developed in the projects Bus Lines as Amenity Corridor: Urban Design to Enhance Personal Safety and Increase Transit Use and Amenity Bus Lines as Community Builders: the Application of Urban Design Principles and Strategies to Increase Ridership and Make Communities More Livable as starting points, this project explores the potential for building bus corridors that serve as redevelopment tools that integrate bus service onto busy highways within the metropolitan area. The project also investigates the ways in which changes on such a corridor can have a beneficial impact on adjacent districts where reclamation is needed and where redevelopment and land use change are likely. After a case study corridor is selected, the project identifies those changes to the physical environment that are needed to transform the study corridor into a transit friendly redevelopment corridor, and develops a policy-based strategy for building it into an amenity corridor. In the case study approach, design methods will be used to analyze a potential redevelopment line. The case study is intended to serve as a catalyst for integration of bus transit within the design and policy planning frameworks for urban highways and adjacent districts. The project also seeks to demonstrate possible design relationships between light rail transit (LRT) proposals and bus transit.