Transit oriented developments : results from a travel survey

Abstract

Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) are high density missed use developments located within
easily walkable distance of a major transit centre. These developments are often hypothesized as a means
of enticing a mode shift from the private car to sustainable transport modes such as, walking, cycling and
public transport. However it is important to gather evidence to test this hypothesis by determining the travel
characteristics of TOD users. For this purpose, travel surveys were conducted for an urban TOD under
development. This paper presents the findings from the preliminary data analysis of the travel surveys.

Kelvin Grove Urban Village (KGUV), a mixed use development located in Brisbane, Australia, has been used
as the case study TOD. KGUV was selected because of its atypical development characteristics and
availability of good quality public transport service. Travel data for all groups of TOD users ranging from
students to shoppers, residents and employees were collected. Different survey instruments were used for
different TOD users to optimize the response rates. The performance of these survey instruments are stated
herein. The travel characteristics of TOD users are reported with the help of mode share, trip length
distribution, time of day of trip.

The results of the travel survey showed that the KGUV users use more sustainable modes of transport as
compared to the Brisbane SD residents supporting the claim of TODs. The average trip lengths for work trip
were shorter for KGUV employees and residents but the average trip length for education trips were more
than twice due to specialised type of educational precinct.