1 DRAFT Technical Background Document on the Impacts of Transit Access (Distance to Transit) Based on a Review of the Empirical Literature

The effect of transit access, measured as distance to a bus stop or rail station, on vehicle miles of travel (VMT) has not been widely studied. It is more common for studies to report the effect of transit access on transit ridership or share of trips by transit. Conversely, studies of the impact of land-use on VMT do not often use measures of distance to transit. Measuring the impact of transit access on VMT, while controlling for characteristics of the population, density and land-use mix, and characteristics of the destination, is challenging. The key criterion for including studies in the research brief was reporting of the effects of distance to transit on VMT, while controlling for socio-demographic and spatial characteristics. If the study did not report the effect in terms of change in VMT per change in miles to the station, then it had to report sufficient information to enable an estimation of the effect in this form. Additional considerations included U.S. location for the data (though studies in other developed countries were also considered), published since 1990 to help to ensure current relevance, and data collected from a sample of residents of both areas with transit supply and areas without it. Studies meeting the criteria were Ewing and Cervero (forthcoming), Pushkar