Transit Oriented Development (TOD)

Definition

Number of transit riders plus number of housing units and employees within ½ mile of a MetroLink station.¹

Why is it Important?

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) refers to mixed-use development near transit stops. TOD is a development approach that efficiently uses resources in a way that has several sustainable benefits. Increasing jobs and housing near transit stops not only helps increase transit use, but it can also encourage more people to walk or bike to transit stations, therefore living a more active, healthy lifestyle. Dense development near transit stations also results in a more efficient use of city resources, preventing the need for constructing and maintaining sprawling infrastructure. In addition, TOD minimizes the impact of car-oriented development on the environment. By enabling more people to take transit, TOD reduces street traffic and associated air pollution. For more information on TOD and its many benefits, check out the TOD Tool in the OneSTL Toolkit.

How are we Doing?

For the MetroLink system as a whole, there was a 4.3 percent increase in TOD from 2021 to 2022. The number of transit riders plus number of housing units and employees within 1/2 mile of at least one MetroLink station increased from 221,418 in 2021 to 230,975 in 2022. Of the three elements of TOD measured here, the strongest increase was in ridership (18.4 percent), followed by employment (3.5 percent), and lastly, housing units (2.6 percent).

There was increased TOD from 2021 to 2022 at all but two stations. At both the Shrewsbury and Cortex stations there were small increases in ridership and housing units, but the losses in employment outnumbered those increases.

The TOD working group, led by Citizens for Modern Transit (CMT), is working to increase TOD in the St. Louis region. Find out more about what they are doing and what you can do here.

Check out the Greater St. Louis, Inc. map that tracks capital project investments in the region, some of which are TOD.

For your reference, the white paper on other data notes and the process that was taken for developing this performance measure is available here.

Geographic Level

MetroLink System

Notes

¹ The ½ mile walking distance is a typical distance used in TOD discussions with the thought that this is the distance by which the average person will travel to a transit station. 

Data Sources

Bi-State Development Agency, Dun & Bradstreet, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau Address Count Listing Files, and East-West Gateway Council of Governments