TND should accommodate bus transit

I have been a subscriber to New Urban News for the past year and have read with interest most issues. The September, 1997, issue featured an article and commentary regarding the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ (ITE’s) new publication Traditional Neighborhood Development Street Design Guidelines. In support of ITE’s efforts I would like to offer the following general remarks pertaining to recent TND and TOD trends and transit. Street design, and in particular street widths, are important in terms of bus transit. Bear in mind that traditional buses are 40 foot long vehicles with a 25 foot wheelbase which must be able to negotiate through the street network. In their publication, ITE points out that “...unless transit is considered in the design process, important opportunities may be missed, and actual impediments to good transit may be inadvertently created.” This situation occurs all too often. With regards to traditional neighborhood design in general, ITE further states “It is important to address transit wherever it is present, just as it is important to appropriately plan for transit as a possibility and probability wherever it may not yet exist. All aspects of transit design should be completed in concert with the other aspects of TND. This will in some cases create a design tension, but such tensions often result in the best designs.” As a planner and a transit professional I firmly believe in this philosophy. In fact the Technical Review Assistance (site review) which our transit agency offers in northeastern Illinois is based in this philosophy to foster a built environment more conducive to bus transit. From our own local experience we have observed there is a general lack of knowledge or understanding among many planning practitioners as to what is involved in planning and sustaining bus service and especially in determining an actual street routing. Site planning efforts in the last 40 years have not been complimentary to transit service. However, even with the emphasis on pedestrians, current TND and TOD practices do not address bus transit adequately or appropriately. In addition to street widths, a closer examination of adequate and effective corner radii and a street hierarchy for bus transit is needed. The real challenge in design is to address pedestrians and bus transit as well as general traffic. Perhaps the development community needs to address these issues further with other professional associations such as American Planning Association (APA), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and especially the American Public Transit Association (APTA). More information regarding the integration of bus transit and TND and TOD is clearly needed and ITE cannot shoulder this burden alone. Dennis Dal Santo Arlington Heights, IL