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Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments (2013)

Chapter: Appendix A - Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones

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Page 42
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22458.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22458.
×
Page 43
Page 44
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22458.
×
Page 44
Page 45
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22458.
×
Page 45
Page 46
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A - Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2013. Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/22458.
×
Page 46

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42 A p p e n d i x A Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones

43 Appendix A Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones Urban Core (CZ-6) General Characteristics A city center area often termed as a downtown or central business district and that may serve as the primary regional central business district of the entire metropolitan area. An urban core is historically the region’s major employment center, characterized by the tallest buildings and the greatest variety, density, and intensity of any context. Development Pattern Urban-core contexts are built on the urban block patterns that historically formed the first urbanized development. Urban-core contexts often have formally planned civic areas and numerous regional destinations, including governmental, cultural, social, institutional, and retail destinations. Urban core is the least naturalistic zone type; the landscape that exists is usually formal and contained in plazas or urban parks; street trees are uniformly spaced, usually within sidewalks in grated tree wells, and sometimes are absent. The development pattern of urban core is primarily historic and is formed, in part or in whole, by the city’s original platting of streets, usually a grid of pedestrian-scaled blocks making the area, or each district within the area, both compact and walkable. Land Use and Building Types Typical land uses are a mixture of high-intensity and high-density residential, office, commercial retail, entertainment, dining, lodging, civic, and institutional uses such as museums, theaters, government buildings, and institutions of higher learning. Auto-oriented uses such as repair, big-box retail, and drive-thru restaurants are rare. Typical building types are high- and medium-rise apartment and office towers, large hotels, and unique or historic civic buildings and monuments. Some vertically mixed-use buildings, mostly attached, form a street wall with little or zero setback. Parking Parking in urban cores is primarily in private structured or underground garages providing limited capacity for building tenants, or in large public or private paid parking facilities. Older buildings on traditional narrow lots usually cannot provide on-site parking and rely on publicly available parking. Few individual buildings/sites have exclusive parking, and many sites have no parking at all. Surface parking lots are rare in urban cores, usually occupying one- quarter to one-half of a traditional city block and having extremely limited capacity. Parking charges vary by metropolitan area, depending on metro population, but in general, charges in the urban core are the highest relative to elsewhere in the region. Transit/Multimodal Transportation The urban core is often the nexus of multiple transit systems and technologies. There may be a single, or primary, intermodal hub connecting commuter and light rail, ferry, and multiple bus agencies. Commuter rail stations are often underground, shared with or at a different level from the city’s subway system. If the city has a streetcar system, it is usually in the urban core. Major streets in urban cores are often transit-priority streets with closely spaced stations served by multiple high-frequency transit lines. Because of the magnitude of pedestrian travel, nearly all of the streets in the urban core have wide sidewalks, often lined with street trees within tree wells. Signalized intersection crossings provide pedestrian indication concurrent with vehicle traffic, so there is no need for pedestrians to actuate a pedestrian walk phase. Some cities provide bike lane systems in the urban core, but because of right-of-way constraints, most make extensive use of shared lane facilities.

44 Appendix A Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones (Cont.) Urban Center (CZ-5) General Characteristics Contexts ranging from intensely developed compact centers to large districts with moderate to highly dense concentrations of commercial and residential land uses, characterized by large-scale office and residential towers in a compact central area surrounded by gradually lower-scale and lower-height buildings of various types that accommodate retail, offices, row houses, and apartments, all served by multiple transportation options. Development Pattern Urban centers typically have a compact network of streets, with uniform street tree plantings on wide sidewalks, and buildings set close to street frontages. Urban centers are sometime referred to as edge cities because they began as suburban centers at the fringe of metropolitan areas but rapidly grew into large-scale employment and activity centers in their own right. Land Use and Building Types Typical land uses are medium- to high-density residential and commercial uses (e.g., retail, restaurant, office, lodging), civic facilities, and older light or general industrial uses, especially near waterfronts or ports. Typical building types are townhouses, older mid-rise and newer high-rise apartment buildings, shop-front buildings and office buildings exceeding 10 stories, hotels, schools and universities, and older one- to three-story industrial buildings interspersed throughout the area, often converted to housing or commercial uses. TOD is encouraged adjacent to rail stations or intermodal centers. Parking Many sites in urban centers provide some on-site parking complemented by large public or private structures providing paid parking. Small surface parking lots may exist within urban centers, while larger surface parking lots are typically located at the fringes of the area. Urban-center contexts often promote a park-once-and-walk environment. Transit/Multimodal Transportation Most of the urban-center context is within walking distance of local, regional, or metro transit service. Often served by several lines of commuter rail systems that feed outlying suburbs, but also may be served by light rail transit connecting urban centers to the urban core or connecting multiple centers. Urban-center contexts may be served by bus rapid transit or multiple high-frequency bus lines within a single corridor. Urban centers generally are walkable, with connected networks of sidewalks and few significant barriers to walking (i.e., freeways, freight railways). They may have comprehensive bicycle networks that provide local, regional, and inter-regional connectivity, although within the urban center, shared lanes may be used in lieu of bike lanes.

45 Appendix A Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones (Cont.) General Urban (CZ-4) General Characteristics Primarily low- to moderate-density residential and commercial nodes that serve large single-family residential areas or in concentric rings bordering more urbanized urban-center and urban-core contexts. Horizontal mixed-use development is typically confined to corner locations or planned unit developments in low-density residential areas. General urban contexts usually have little to no undeveloped land, but may have many underutilized parcels. Development Pattern Development pattern composed of a mix of traditional pedestrian-scaled urban blocks, larger auto-scaled blocks, and expansive superblocks. General urban contexts often are the transitional area between urban-center/urban-core and suburban-center areas and may contain a combination of traditional urban street grids and hierarchical collectors and arterials, reflecting the advent of the functional classification system. Land Use and Building Types Typical land uses are low- to medium-density multifamily residential and a diverse mix of small office buildings and entertainment, civic, retail, cultural, sports, and lodging facilities. General urban contexts often contain land uses and structures that are not practical to develop within urban-center and urban-core areas, such as arenas, stadiums, and large-scale entertainment and shopping activity centers. Typical building types are apartments and townhouses; single- story retail stores as part of regional, community, and neighborhood shopping centers; individual office buildings (which may have ground floor retail) usually less than six stories in height; and compact business parks. Parking Sites are usually required to provide exclusive parking meeting zoning code requirements—often surface parking. Public parking is usually in the form of on-street parking. In more intensely developed general urban contexts, on-site parking may be oriented to the side or rear of buildings or in structured private garages where a fee is charged. Transit/Multimodal Transportation Because general urban contexts often form rings of development between urban-core/urban-center and suburban- center contexts, they often benefit from the significant amount of transit that passes through while connecting the termini, which may include commuter rail and light rail transit systems connecting multiple centers and passing through general urban contexts. Bus rapid transit or multiple high-frequency bus lines will often travel within the same major corridors passing through general urban contexts. Urban centers generally are walkable, with connected networks of sidewalks, but may have more barriers to walking than more urban contexts, such as major arterials, freeways, and freight railways. They may have comprehensive bicycle networks that provide local, regional, and inter- regional connectivity, although within the urban center, shared lanes may be used in lieu of bike lanes. Small, isolated islands of general urban context (such as a shopping center primarily serving surrounding single-family neighborhoods) may not be served by rail or high-frequency bus transit, or may be too distant from these services. These contexts do not qualify for the methods used in this research study.

46 Appendix A Predominant Characteristics of Context Zones (Cont.) Suburban Center (CZ-3) General Characteristics Suburban communities generally are composed primarily of low- to medium-density single-family residential neighborhoods, with a commercial/retail or traditional mixed-use downtown, and areas of concentrated multifamily housing, commercial office, or retail segregated by conventional zoning. Suburban centers are usually the highest density and intensity areas within suburban communities and often are the community’s traditional downtown. A dominant characteristic of a suburban community is its landscape (lawns and trees) when compared to the hardscape and urban forestry of more urban contexts. Development Pattern Suburban contexts are represented by post–World War II towns that, fueled by access to automobiles, rapidly grew concentrically around the central city of most metropolitan areas of the country. Built around traditional small-town street networks, the development patterns from the 1950s are strongly influenced by zoning and the functional classification system—predominantly segregated land uses connected by a hierarchy of streets. Suburban contexts have walkable development patterns within neighborhoods but are often too widespread to walk for everyday needs. Suburban centers are a context within suburban communities typically composed of a mix of land uses, including residential, that either predate zoning (e.g., downtowns) or planned large-scale activity centers. Land Use and Building Types Residential uses in suburban centers are usually in the form of townhomes, condominiums, and low- to mid-rise apartment buildings. Commercial land uses include large office parks with widely spaced buildings in landscaped complexes or integrated within the built fabric of the community, are interspersed with retail, and may be bordered by high-density housing. Retail ranges from neighborhood and community shopping centers serving residential areas to large regional shopping malls surrounded by surface or structured parking. Retail is also located in strip commercial centers along arterials and expressways or in big box centers. Except in the most intensely developed centers, buildings in suburban contexts are generally low-scale (one to three stories), horizontally mixed, have large setbacks from the street, and often are fronted by surface parking. Parking Parking in suburban centers is predominantly private lots oriented to streets, and garages in more intensely developed areas. Parking, as required in conventional zoning, is nearly always exclusive to the development site. Parking is typically free, but where a fee is charged, it is usually lower than in the urban core. On-street parking is typically underutilized because of convenience of on-site parking, except in higher-density suburban centers such as downtowns. Suburban centers that make up downtowns or small activity centers may employ a public parking strategy consisting of public lots/garages and metered on-street parking. Transit/Multimodal Transportation Suburban contexts are often bedroom communities for job-rich city centers and may be located on commuter rail lines, while high-frequency bus transit in suburban contexts emphasizes longer distance express routes geared toward commuters. Suburban centers are walkable, with networks of sidewalks or off-street paths, but long distances or lack of land use diversity discourages more than localized pedestrian usage. The bicycle network is typically for longer trip lengths to connect districts and inter-regional destinations, or for recreation (e.g., bike paths, multi-use trails, and bike lanes on arterial street systems).

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TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 758: Trip Generation Rates for Transportation Impact Analyses of Infill Developments details a procedure for analyzing potential vehicular trip generation impacts in urban and urbanizing locales.

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