Planning, Developing and Implementing Community-Sensitive Transit, October 1997

摘要

The FTA Livable Communities intiative is demonstrating ways to improve the linkbetween transit and communities. It promotes customer-friendly, community-oriented, and well-designed facilities and services. Some of the characteristics of community-sensitive transit facilities and services include those in which customer information is readily available; customers feel safe and secure; transit, pedestrian, and bicycle access is sufficient; parking is carefully managed; nearby or onsite customer services are available; and the values of the community are reflected in the architecture. The Initiative recommends that transportation agencies and local governments introduce proposed transportation improvements to communities in the early stages of the planning process. When communities are afforded an opportunity for greater involvement in the decisionmaking process, the true objectives of a livable community are more likely to be accurately addressed and achieved. Both the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and FTA strategic plans place emphasis on putting people first in the U.S. transportation systems. The FTA's Strategic Plan specifically envisions a stronger link in the relationship between transit and communities. Under the Livable Communities Initiative, FTA has awarded funding to 16 projects that demonstrate the characteristics of community-sensitive transit. Demonstration projects were chosen using the criteria shown on Table 1. Table 2 lists the projects and the Appendix provides summary descriptions of each of the selected demonstration projects.