Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) remains a popular strategy to achieve environmentallysustainable infill development and auto use reduction. Typically, TOD in the United States offersretail amenities and housing catered to singles, childless couples, and empty nesters. Increasingly,municipal and regional leaders hold a vision for managing expected future growth that aims toincrease equity, support households with children, and create mixed income communities thatincludes TOD as a core strategy. These explicitly equity-focused and family-oriented goals callfor a different TOD model than has typically been developed. This new model requires anexamination of the ways that TOD might attract households with children concerned with accessto high quality schools, even when schools are outside the domain of traditional transportationand land use public agencies. This paper first reviews the TOD and transportation literature andits attention to households with children and issues of K-12 public schools. Reflecting on theliterature, a conceptual framework of 10 core connections between TOD, households withchildren, and schools is hypothesized. Then, four exploratory case studies from the SanFrancisco Bay Area offer insights into the opportunities and tensions that practitioners face inplanning and implementing TOD that might attract families. A discussion of the 10 coreconnections in light of the case study evidence follows. The paper concludes with policy andresearch recommendations.
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