The Del Mar Gold Line Station. It sure looks like TOD, but does it pass the coffee test? Photo by EPA Smart Growth.
Here’s something to ponder over your morning cup of joe: what makes good Transit Oriented Development (TOD)?
An article entitled ReThinking TOD set me on this train of thought. Alan Huynh, a professional transportation planner, notes that while the success of TOD’s are dependent on many different elements, it all comes down to one measure: walkability.
As Huynh so aptly puts it: “What’s the first thing someone does when they get off transit? Walk. You have to walk to a destination.”
Huynh has developed a simple but effective metric for measuring walkability: the coffee shop measure.
“Coffee shops are a good measure of how walkable an area is mainly because everyone walks to get their coffee. Starbucks has intrinsic data measuring the effectiveness of the walk-in coffee v. the drive through coffee shop, and has created many more walk-in coffee stores rather than the drive through coffee shops. By measuring the walking distance and time that exists between the closest coffee shop and station site, we can measure the walkability of the station.”
He brings his argument close to home by reviewing the effectiveness of our own Del Mar Gold Line Station. While Del Mar features tightly integrated residential development (literally on top of the station) and a pleasant plaza design, it lacks number of factors that Huynh requires for good TOD – including the all important coffee shop measure. There is a Coffee Bean nearby in Old Town Pasadena and a Starbucks on Fair Oaks — both a five to 10-minute walk from the station. Not good enough according to Huynh.
So as you sip your coffee this morning, I recommend checking out the article. Are there any examples of TOD in L.A. that do meet the coffee shop measure? The Wilshire/Vermont Red/Purple Line Station comes to mind, there’s a Coffee Bean integrated nicely into the plaza just outside the station portal. And what can be done for the ones, like Del Mar, that currently miss the mark?
I can understand the idea of providing less parking for the TOD inhabitants – to a point – 1 space per unit seems reasonable, given that they have alternatives, especially for commuting. But I become very dismayed with the idea of not providing public parking. It is very instructive to overlay a map of Los Angeles over an identically scaled map of Manhattan. Good rapid transit will never, ever saturate our city to the extent that the “last mile” is provided for. Multi-modal transit is key to the future of Los Angeles, and that includes providing reasonably priced parking at rapid transit stations.
The walkscore, which tells you what level of services are available within walking distance, is a good quick way to tell if a TOD is near anything (www.walkscore.com). It’s not perfect but it tells you a lot. Del Mar scores a blazing 97 (out of 100), while La Brea at Exposition garners a respectable, but not superlative 71. These numbers will change over time as new businesses (hopefully) go in, but it gives you a good sense of how things are at the moment.
Isn’t the coffee test just a dumbed down version of walkscore?
As much as i love coffee, when you have someplace to go and want your coffee before the trip, it’s not like you can bring coffee on the train anyway
It’s ironic that you and the article’s author are using the Del Mar station as an example. The station has parking — not free but inexpensive for those riding Metro. It’s within 2 1/2 blocks of Old Town Pasadena and another block to Paseo Colorado (less than 1/2 a mile). It’s a block from a Whole Foods. It had a Philly Cheese Steak establishment on the station plaza that went out of business, presumably because of the lack of business. Yes, the apartments are expensive — what apartment in downtown Pasadena isn’t? Or any other upscale area? As a TOD, Del Mar may not be a perfect station but it’s a long way from the negative way in which it has been portrayed.
The Del Mar station is an interesting case. It’s a few hundred feet south of one of the most walkable bits of the LA region. This may actually discourage coffee shops in the short term, as they’re already too numerous on Colorado.
A new coffee shop on Green just went bust a few months ago. Ditto the cheese-steak sandwich shop inside the station’s commercial space.
The area is full of commercial “deserts”– the park, Castle Green, apartments and self-storage companies that cut it off from Old Town and nearby commercial islands.
There is a decent strip mall just across the street to the South which will probably be a better anchor for commuter services than the Orange.
Portland’s Tri-Met allows you to take your coffee onboard, making light rail even friendlier to commuter multitasking. You can read, drink coffee and be driven at the same time. It’s like a chauffeur driving you in a Siemens limo. I wonder if the possibility of having your coffee on the train doesn’t make up for increase in travel time some riders my experience.
I would also point out that many of Portland’s light rail stations that have nothing in the way of TOD at least have a coffee cart or coffee/pastery stand on the platform.
Yes! The MTA should consider on having a Transit Oriented Development at Artesia Station on the blue line.
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I think some here may be missing the point. The issue isn’t that transit riders need or buy more coffee before or after their trip. The issue is that coffee houses and transit stations both tend to thrive in areas that attract pedestrians. They both “like” to be in the center of places that are walkable.
Therefore, when designing the area around a station, design it so that it could attract a coffeehouse. Think about what it would take to get people to go there. You need a critical mass of people (residents, workers, or tourists), a pleasant street environment (trees, low crime), and good connections to the surrounding neighborhoods. Whether or not a coffeehouse actually moves in is beside the point.