About 25 percent of all Americans shopping for a home in the next 20 years will want to live within a half-mile of a public transit stop, and people who give up cars completely can trim more than $6,000 from their annual household budgets.
That’s the word from Peter Skosey, vice president of external relations for the Metropolitan Planning Council. Skosey wrote about public transportation’s benefits to home owners in the March issue of New Homes Magazine (available now at these locations).
After college, Chicago resident Ariel Diamond chose to settle just two blocks from the Sheridan Red Line station on the North Side. She quickly discovered that the city’s streets are laid out on a grid, making it a no-brainer to get just about anywhere on a bus. And she was thrilled to discover what she calls “the magical grocery store” located adjacent to “her” train station. Alta Vista Foods carries an abundance of fresh foods, including meats and produce, all packed neatly into a tiny storefront just steps from the Sheridan stop.
Diamond’s experience illustrates why more developers and homebuyers are embracing “transit-oriented development.” TOD is pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use development built around – and shaped by – transit stations. Typically focused on capturing residential and retail opportunities within a half-mile of a transit station, TOD combines rental and for-sale homes with restaurants, grocery stores, office buildings and other commercial uses.
Read the rest of Skosey’s column here.