Light Rail

Leveraging the Transit Investment:

Light rail represents an enormous public investment. Where investments have already been made (as in Seattle), the key economic issue becomes how to maximize benefits to the taxpayers. In a word, the necessary ingredient is density. Numerous studies have shown that transit ridership rises with the number of people and jobs within walking distance of a station. More people on the train means a more efficient system, as well as less driving and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Encouraging dense development near transit stations also enables more equitable access to the transit amenity. The estimated cost of extending Sound Transit’s Link light rail line to the Brooklyn, Roosevelt, and Northgate stations is $1.4 billion. Dividing by three for each station, that works out to roughly $120,000 per household within a half-mile radius of Roosevelt Station. The more new households that are created near the light rail station, the more equitably that sizable public investment will be distributed.

Smart growth
Smart growth is a concept and term used to identify a set of policies governing transportation and land-use planning policy for urban areas that both benefit communities and preserve the natural environment. Smart growth advocates land-use patterns that are compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly, and that include mixed-use development with a range of housing choices. This philosophy keeps density concentrated in the center of a town or city, combating suburban sprawl.

Proponents of smart growth advocate comprehensive planning to guide, design, develop, revitalize and build communities that:

have a unique sense of community and place
preserve and enhance natural and cultural resources
equitably distribute the costs and benefits of development
expand the range of transportation, employment and housing choices
value long-range, regional considerations of sustainability over a short-term focus
promote public health and healthy communities

"City living by its definition is crowded. It is tolerant of other people. It is dependent on a sophisticated population that makes a hundred compromises daily so that they can benefit from the collective energy that a city generates."