A case in point was illustrated in a presentation given by Dr. Jonas Eliasson of Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology at a recent Earth Day event in Chicago. Like most major metropolitan areas, the Swedish capital had long suffered from acute traffic congestion and all of the economic and environmental problems associated with it. Beginning in the early 1990’s, academics and policy experts had discussed the potential solution offered by “congestion pricing,” whereby drivers pay a fee for use of the city’s roads, the level of which depends upon the time of day and the “zone” of the city in which the driver is traveling.

Advocates of the system argued that putting a price on road use would discourage discretionary motorists from driving into the center of the city, leaving the roads less congested at peak times for drivers who had no choice but to drive. Congestion pricing could also encourage people to explore different commuting options like public transit or cycling, as well as provide a potential revenue stream to pay for road maintenance and investment in transit services.

Supporters of congestion pricing soon learned that developing effective solutions is not enough. Transforming ideas into actual implemented policies required a concerted effort to educate the voting public. As Dr. Eliasson described, early public opinion was predictably hostile to any plan to charge drivers for something that was thought of as “free.” However, with a combination of effective public education campaign and some bold political decision making during the early implementation phase in 2006, residents of Stockholm and the surrounding metro area came to see the benefits of the congestion price.

The public education campaign focused on the idea that the charge wasn’t a tax on driving. Instead, it was a fee that reduced traffic congestion. It reminded commuters that traffic-clogged streets are not “free” to use, and that congestion has costs: wasted time, wasted fuel and damage to the environment.

Residents realized that the congestion charge allowed for better traffic management without the need for expensive and disruptive new road building. Public support for the system, which hovered around 30 percent before the 2006 trial is now at close to 70 percent.

The Stockholm example teaches a number of crucial lessons for those interested in public policy. First, well-designed policy solutions can be practically effective in improving peoples’ lives if implemented and managed in a transparent and competent way. Second, the initial unpopularity of controversial ideas shouldn’t dissuade politicians from embracing bold solutions if they truly believe in them. People will notice the improvement and the system’s popularity will increase. Third, the public will support paying for real investment in improving infrastructure if the benefits are explained clearly and the results are visible.

Residents in cities like Stockholm and Singapore, which also has an effective road-pricing system, saw the positive effects of congestion pricing with their own eyes and were won around to the idea. Voters in Los Angeles and Denver supported the creation of dedicated revenue streams to fund transit expansion and improvement and are already beginning to enjoy the benefit of increased choice and reduced road traffic. There’s no reason to believe that the same wouldn’t be true for the voters of Chicago and Cook County.

What do you think? What type of fee or tax to support an expansion of transit and/or reduction in congestion could you support in your community?

The announcement came at a ULI Northwest luncheon headlined by Donald Shoup, who discussed the art and science of parking.

King County was interested in developing a tool that could be used to achieve a more balanced approach to parking for the region. Outdated parking requirements have led to parking supply that is not reflective of actual demand, which can have a direct impact on a jurisdiction’s ability to create compact, healthy communities.

The calculator can help analysts, planners, developers, and community members weigh factors that will affect parking use at multi-family housing sites. It will help them consider how much parking is “just enough” when making economic, regulatory, and community decisions about development.

“As with much of CNT’s location efficiency work, we have again found that urban form—access to jobs, concentrations of people, and regional transit access—explains travel demand,” said Scott Bernstein, CNT’s president. “Past studies have shown this to be true for auto ownership and use, so it makes sense that where urban form factors are strong, the need to provide parking spaces is reduced.”

The calculator’s estimates are based on a powerful model developed from current local data of actual parking use collected in field work on more than 200 developments in urban and suburban localities in the County. These parking use data were correlated with factors related to the building, its occupants, and its surroundings—particularly transit, parking pricing, and population and job concentrations—to build the model.

Preliminary findings of this research were recently published in the ITE Journal.

King County Multi-Family Residential Parking Calculator: www.rightsizeparking.org

Right Size Parking Project website: http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/projects/right-size-parking/

For more information, please contact Daniel Rowe at King County Metro Transit.

In Boston, transit-served areas (transit sheds) outperformed the region by a staggering 129 percent. In Chicago, home values in transit served areas performed 30 percent better than the region; in San Francisco, 37 percent; Minneapolis-St Paul, 48 percent; and in Phoenix 37 percent.

Transit type had an effect on the stability of average residential sales prices, which benefited more from transit that was well connected and had a higher frequency of service. Stations with higher levels of transit access saw the most price resilience within and across regions. In addition to having higher frequency service and better transit connectivity, these stations also tend to be located in areas that are more walkable, have higher residential density, and better access to jobs.

In addition to more stable residential sales prices, data from CNT’s Housing + Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index showed that households living in transit sheds had better access to jobs and lower average transportation costs than the region as a whole.

“This study reinforces the body of research indicating the benefits of robust, convenient, and affordable transit systems,” said CNT President Scott Bernstein. “What we see here is that residential proximity to transit not only reduces costs of living and lowers environmental impacts, it also translates to stronger household, municipal and regional economies.”

“Stable property values in areas with public transit access have a number of policy implications,” said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy. “As Congress and state and local governments look for ways to accelerate economic growth, this study shows that investing in public transportation is a boon to revitalizing our economy.”

“We are excited to be able to present this initial research, and look forward to expanding it with further analysis using more datasets in more places,” said Bernstein. “This research has the potential to uncover the full value of transit on commercial and mixed use properties, as well.”

The New Real Estate Mantra: Location Near Public Transportation builds off of CNT’s groundbreaking research and publications on issues related to Transportation & Community Development, and Transit-Oriented Development.

Full report: The New Real Estate Mantra: Location Near Public Transportation

Appendix A

Appendix B

A few notes on the method:

• Transit station zones may be overlapping, due to proximity of transit stations. Transit sheds are the aggregate area covered by all transit zones. As a result, transit sheds are not an average of all transit station zones.
• While individual zones may overlap, properties are not double-counted in the transit shed.
• The Employment Access Index provides a measure of the quantity and proximity of jobs to a given place, not a simple measure of jobs per square mile.
• This examination of sales prices of all residential property types in aggregate provides an overall picture of how all residential sales activity contributes to the economy. This is a valuable reference for understanding the potential for value capture, tax revenue, and local investment.
• Averages sales prices, where available, are also broken out in the report for single-family, town homes, condos, and apartments.

Photo credit: Patrick Putze

For nearly a century the Bloomingdale freight line has rolled across and above the City’s Northwest side. Today the tracks are aligned to transform the Bloomingdale into an elevated, mixed-use, linear park and trail running through the heart of Chicago, connecting neighborhoods, the river, and Chicago’s great park system. Since 2003, Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail have been advocating for this conversion of the rail line into Chicago’s next great park. Many community groups and public agencies have participated in a community charrette that led to the development a framework plan for this major endeavor.

CNT is pleased to be hosting, Reframing Ruin: A Prelude to the Bloomingdale Trail,  a photography exhibition presented by Friends of the Bloomingdale Trail and The Trust for Public Land. The exhibit showcases the community’s documentation of the future trail, its relationship to the diverse neighborhoods it cuts through, and how we currently interact with this stretch of land through photography.

The exhibit will be housed at CNT Energy location, 1741 N. Western Ave. The exhibit will run until August 22, by appointment only. Contact info@bloomingdaletrail.org to schedule a visit. We are no longer taking RSVPs: the opening reception is completely sold out.

Learn more about the Bloomingdale Trail and its development here.>>

Learn more about the exhibit here.>>

Check out this preview video of the exhibit here.>>

The study revealed some interesting findings about what is needed to support TOD in Pittsburgh, including new sources of funding for smaller scale infrastructure improvements such as pedestrian pathways and signage to help link the stations to nearby communities. It also identifies priority areas for TOD investments out of 100 stations in the rail, busway, and incline transit network, based on the readiness of those stations to be transformed into walkable, transit supportive communities. The study prioritizes stations based on three types of investments: infrastructure, new development, and building the capacity of community groups, which is a specialty of the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group and its GoBurgh initiative.

CTOD is a partnership of CNT, Reconnecting America, and Strategic Economics. For more information visit CTOD’s website here.>>

Copies of the report can be downloaded here.

Read full press release >>

CNT president Scott Bernstein will deliver a presentation dealing with urban sustainability and transit issues at the event. As the economic and environmental case for investment in safe, reliable and efficient public transit becomes increasingly irrefutable, educating and organizing the public to support political action will play a crucial role in the development of the modern transit system that the Chicagoland are needs and deserves. CNT Vice President of Policy Jacky Grimshaw will participate in the panel exploring funding transit. Former CNT board member and noted urban policy expert and commentator Carol Coletta will also be presenting at the summit.

Participating in the panel discussions will be key decision makers like Frank Beal, executive director of Metropolis Strategies; Dan Cronin, chairman of DuPage County;  John Gates, chairman of the RTA, Randy Blankenhorn, executive director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning; Kevin DeGood, deputy policy director of Transportation for America; and Peter Skosey, vice president of the Metropolitan Planning Council.

For more information, contact Brenna Conway>>

Register here>>

On January 29th from 6-9pm, CNT will host a public briefing meeting for CDOT to share the draft guidelines. As a project stakeholder, CNT is a participating member of the task force to inform and shape these unique, wide-reaching guidelines and policies. If you’ve ever seen your street re-paved, only to see a utility trench cut a year later and roughly covered over, these guidelines hope to address this issue (among many other issues that affect the long-term viability of our urban infrastructure).

This initiative builds upon many of CDOT’s successful pilot projects, and will surely serve as national model for public agencies to coordinate infrastructure improvements. The community briefing is free and open to the public and will allow participants the opportunity to provide input on the document.

We hope that you will consider joining us on January 29th at 6pm in our office at 2125 W North Ave in the Wicker Park neighborhood.

For more information, contact Ryan Wilson.

The west suburbs of Cook County possess abundant TOD (transit-oriented development) and COD (cargo-oriented development) assets, including passenger and cargo rail lines, extensive bus routes, pockets of dense housing, intermodal freight terminals, a strong base of industrial and logistics businesses, and community colleges that can train unemployed or underemployed industrial workers. These strengths can be leveraged to generate new sources of public and private funding, retain and attract industrial firms and retailers, increase job access near transit, reduce car and truck traffic, and stimulate greater collaboration between neighboring communities to create a more sustainable, prosperous region.

In 2010, CNT expanded its model for sustainable development based on COD and TOD assets to a second major sub-region of metropolitan Chicago by partnering with the West Central Municipal Conference (WCMC), a council of governments representing 40 municipalities and over 600,000 residents.

The new report, “West Cook County COD+TOD,” lays out two interconnected strategies to generate economic development and preserve natural resources in the western suburbs of Cook County. Cargo-oriented development (COD) promotes the creation of manufacturing, distribution and logistics businesses on vacant and underused land near freight infrastructure. Transit-oriented development (TOD) connects people to jobs, housing and other opportunities by focusing growth in walkable areas along transit corridors. Together, these strategies can be harnessed to mitigate suburban sprawl and take cars and trucks off the road. CNT is continuing to work with the West Central Municipal Conference to facilitate collaboration between communities that share COD and TOD opportunities.

Download “West Cook County COD+TOD” here ››

Conventional wisdom holds that metro areas like New York, San Francisco, Boston and D.C. are the most expensive places to live for average families. After all, these traditionally upmarket cities have some of the highest housing costs in the nation. But conventional wisdom is the name given to a popular idea about to be debunked; housing costs are just one part of this story. A new report from the Center for Housing Policy and CNT draws attention to the other, often hidden, factors that contribute to a growing cost of place for American households.

The report, Losing Ground: The Struggle of Moderate-Income Households to Afford the Rising Costs of Housing and Transportation, further explores a phenomenon first covered in the seminal 2006 report A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families. Losing Ground draws the latest five-year data from the American Communities Survey and finds that for the average family in the 25 largest U.S. metro areas, any income gains made in the last decade have been erased—and then some—by the skyrocketing cost burden of housing and transportation combined.

Among other findings, the report notes that for every $1.00 increase in nominal income since 2000 for these families, the share of their household budgets going to housing and transportation has shot up by more than $1.75. So how are families getting by? The report includes a case study on the Los Angeles metro area, showing that a typical moderate-income renter household’s monthly expenses exceed monthly income by $328. This family must choose among dipping into savings, racking up debt or cutting corners on groceries, health care, clothing and school supplies. None of these choices is sustainable. It’s a losing proposition for families in Los Angeles and all around the country.

Read the full press release, including key findings here ››
Download the report here ››

This blog was adapted from NHC’s Open House Blog and was written by Blake Warenik, National Housing Conference and Center for Housing Policy.

Through a grant to Project for Public Spaces from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Sustainable Communities under their Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program, Livability Solutions will be offering free technical assistance workshops to 6 to 12 communities around the country, enabling local governments and communities to implement changes that will move them along the road towards smart growth and sustainability. Livability Solutions is a partnership of organizations with expertise in sustainability planning, including CNT. This technical assistance will take the form of one- to two-day workshops, led by one or more experienced coalition members, focused on one or more of the group’s unique suite of livability tools.

Workshops are intended to provide communities with strategies to enhance livability, to create lasting economic and environmental improvements, and to effect positive change for their residents. The workshops will focus on helping communities reach a tipping point or overcome a significant hurdle to reaching a particular livability or sustainability goal.

Coalition members will work with selected communities to identify the tool or palette of tools that will best help them achieve their livability and sustainability goals, building off of each community’s unique character, culture, creativity, and effort. A short report will be prepared for each community following the technical assistance, and communities receiving technical assistance will be asked to follow up one month and nine months after receiving technical assistance to report on their progress toward objectives set during the assistance.

Learn more and apply now »

To help communities learn more about this program, Livability Solutions will host a webinar on Wednesday, October 10^th, 3:00-4:00pm EST to further discuss this technical assistance opportunity, the available tools, and the process. Register for the webinar.

Livability Solutions is a partnership among CNT and 10 other organizations who have expertise in planning projects that protect the environment, improve public health, facilitate job creation and economic opportunity, and improve overall quality of life.