IMPACT OF TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT ON MODE CHOICE WITH CONSIDERATION FOR SELF SELECTION AND MULTIMODAL ACCESSIBILITY

Abstract

The U.S Department of Transportation allocated $10 million in 2013 to provide funding to advance planning efforts that support Transit Oriented Development (TOD) associated with new fixed guideway and core capacity improvement projects. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) is generally considered to be a type of pedestrian-friendly community development around the major transit station that promotes transit ridership, increases non-motorized travel and encourages local economic development. This thesis is an effort to analyze the effect of TOD on travel mode choice in both Washington, DC, and Baltimore metropolitan areas using the MWCOG 2007 household travel survey. A relatively new method in the transportation field called "Propensity Score Matching" was used to address the self-selection, and statistical models were developed to evaluate the impact of TOD on mode choice. The results indicated that after controlling for self-selection, TOD has a significant impact on boosting transit ridership and increasing active mode of travel.