LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 4.0

[alki]

Originally Posted by DistrictDirt

Not sure about the Blue line, but the main reason the Green line stations have not attracted TOD is because of their location along the median of the 105. This is the exactly the alignment you don't want if you ever want transit oriented development some time in the future.

Even DC- the poster child for TOD hasn't seen success in this regard when metro lines run down highway medians. Case in point: The Orange line, which heads of out of the District into Arlington County, VA and then crosses into Fairfax County, VA. Arlington, known for their progressive planning policies, insisted that the Orange line run underneath Wilson Blvd, through the derelict towns of Rosslyn, Courthouse, Clarendon, and Ballston. The result 30 years later, is that the strip malls and garages of Arlington have given way to dense nodes of development around each station, and walkable communities where many people choose to to live without cars. When you hear about the benefits of TOD, this is it. Arlington set the gold standard. It looks like this:

That's the problem with running LTR along freeway right of ways..........ridership tends to be lower and there is less TOD. But cities fall for that 'trap' every time because initial construction and land costs are much cheaper. Its how they sell it to the public. As an example, much of Dallas's light rail system was built along freeways and its one of the least utilized systems in the country with very little development around the stations.