Friday, January 22, 2010
TOD Will Pay Someday
Unfortunately it feels like there is a bit too much optimism that TOD will pay for infrastructure such as rail. Really though, the increase in value brought by new transit lines has too many people fighting over it, from the basic infrastructure to affordable housing to the lines themselves. We can't expect to put all of that weight on the back of a few projects. However we keep making TOD out to be the savior of all. I feel like it can do a lot of things, just not everything.
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One thing to guard against is sloppy oversell turning "TOD could help for rail line" into "TOD could fund the rail line".
Remember that its a long laundry list of direct, hidden, and cross subsidies required to bring the Auto-Uber-Alles system to its present mode share, and even that will not be sufficient to maintain it in its present mode share, because the cross-subsidies are partly self-undermining.
So too it will likely take a collection of different funding mechanisms to build the more sustainable transport system we require. For instance, TOD would have a lot more chance of being able to fund required rail stations, including platform lines ... and look to an emissions reduction source to fund electric infrastructure.
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