Transit and cities grow together. As cities work to become more compact, sustainable, and healthy, their work is paying dividends: in 2014, Americans took 10.8 billion trips on public transit, the highest since the dawn of the highway era. But most of these trips are on streets that were designed to move private cars, with transit as an afterthought. The NACTO Transit Street Design Guide places transit where it belongs, at the heart of street design. The guide shows how streets of every size can be redesigned to create great transit streets, supporting great neighborhoods and downtowns.
The Transit Street Design Guide is a well-illustrated, detailed introduction to designing streets for high-quality transit, from local buses to BRT, from streetcars to light rail. Drawing on the expertise of a peer network and case studies from across North America, the guide provides a much-needed link between transit planning, transportation engineering, and street design. The Transit Street Design Guide presents a new set of core principles, street typologies, and design strategies that shift the paradigm for streets, from merely accommodating service to actively prioritizing great transit. The book expands on the transit information in the acclaimed Urban Street Design Guide, with sections on comprehensive transit street design, lane design and materials, stations and stops, intersection strategies, and city transit networks. It also details performance measures and outlines how to make the case for great transit street design in cities.
The guide is built on simple math: allocating scarce space to transit instead of private automobiles greatly expands the number of people a street can move. Street design and decisions made by cities, from how to time signals to where bus stops are placed, can dramatically change how transit works and how people use it.
The Transit Street Design Guide is a vital resource for every transportation planner, transit operations planner, and city traffic engineer working on making streets that move more people more efficiently and affordably.
Foreword About the Guide Using the Guide
1. INTRODUCTION -Key Principles -Why Transit Streets Matter -Designing to Move People -Reliability Matters -Service Context -Transit Route Types -Transit Frequency & Volume
2. TRANSIT STREETS -Transit Streets -Transit Street Principles -Street Environments -Two-Way Streets -Enhanced Neighborhood Transit Street -Neighborhood Transit Street with Bike Lane -Downtown Shared Transitway -Center-Running Transit Street -Downtown Median Transit Street -Edgefront Transit Street -Offset Bus Lane Street -Median Rapid Transit Corridor -Transit Boulevard -One-Way Streets -Shared Transit Street -One-Way Streetcar Street -Tiered Transit Street -Parallel Paired Transitways -One-Way Transit Corridor -Contraflow Transit Street
4. STATION & STOP ELEMENTS -Stop Elements -Small Transit Shelter -Large Transit Shelter -Seating -Fare Vending -Passenger Information & Wayfinding -Transit Curbs -Bus Pads -Green Infrastructure -Bike Parking -Passenger Queue Management
5. TRANSIT LANES & TRANSITWAYS -Transit Lanes -Offset Transit Lane -Curbside Transit Lane -Rail Lane, Side Running -Center Transit Lane -Peak-Only Bus Lane -Shared Bus-Bike Lane -Contraflow Transit Lane -Transitways -Center Transitway -Side Transitway -Lane Elements -Pavement Material -Green Transitway -Pavement Markings & Color -Separation Elements -Signs & Signals -Lane Design Controls -Design Vehicles -Vehicle Widths & Buffers -Design Speed
6. INTERSECTIONS -Intersection Principles -Signals & Operations -Transit Signal Progression -Active Transit Signal Priority -Short Signal Cycles -Turn Restrictions -Intersection Design for Transit -Shared Transit/Right-Turn Lane -Right-Turn Pocket -Dropped Transit Lane -Queue Jump Lanes -Transit Approach Lane/Short Transit Lane -Virtual Transit Lane -Bicycle Rail Crossings -Transit Route Turns -Turn Radii -Recessed Stop Line -Transit-Only Turns -Dedicated Turn Channel
7. TRANSIT SYSTEM STRATEGIES -Network & System Principles -Network Strategies -Transit Networks -Route Simplification -From Stops to Stations -Fares & Boarding -Pedestrian Access & Networks -Bicycle Access & Networks -System Wayfinding & Brand -Performance Measures -Measure the Whole Street
"The NACTO Transit Street Design Guide is part of a movement of cities to put people and transit right where they belong, at the heart of city street design. It’s about a shift in mindset and recognizing priorities, from moving machines to moving people."
