• UTRC II SUBMISSION SYSTEM
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Login / Register

Search form

Home
  • Home
  • About
    • Welcome to the UTRC Site
    • Theme
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Press
    • Annual Report
    • Program Progress Performance Report
    • Newsletter
  • Research
    • Projects
    • RFPs
    • Submit Your Proposal
    • Funding Categories
      • UTRC Research Initiative
      • UTRC Advanced Technology Initiative
      • UTRC Faculty Development Mini-grants
      • UTRC Best Transportation Paper Competition
      • News
  • Publications
  • Directory
    • Consortium Universities
    • Partners
    • Principal Investigators
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Education
    • Where to Study
    • Transportation and Planning Doctoral Series
    • AITE Scholarships
    • UTRC Dissertation Grants
    • Summer Institute
    • September 11th Memorial Program
    • Technology Transfer and Training
    • Online Graduate Certificate Program
    • UTRC Travel Grants
    • Student Award Recipients
    • Apply For Scholarships
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
    • Visiting Scholar Seminar Series
  • Resources

Streetcar Projects as Spatial Planning: A Shift in Transport Planning in the United States

Currently dozens of U.S. cities are in the midst of planning and building modern streetcar systems. Though seemingly mobility investments, the intended impacts of these streetcar projects reach beyond transportation and represent a strong turn toward strategic spatial planning through transportation infrastructure. Proponents of modern streetcars argue that they are tools of place making as much as if not more than improvements for transit services. Unlike transit investments of a century ago, when privately operated streetcars were a decentralizing force that helped disperse overcrowded central city cores and open new land for real estate development, current streetcar projects in the United States are expected to concentrate activity and economic development in select corridors. The majority of these new systems rely on transit technologies that are significantly improved over the carriages of old, with modern features, smooth rides and quiet operations. Yet for all the improvements to the vehicles and services, new streetcar investments no longer primarily improve transit accessibility. Rather, modern streetcars are part of strategic amenity packages cities use to achieve real estate and economic development goals. This use of transportation infrastructure as an amenity for a particular location is a shift away from traditional transportation planning processes, and the expected benefits, in particular, stand apart as being deliberately spatial.

Project Details

Author(s): 
Dr. David King
Universities: 
Columbia University
Publication Year: 
2016
Publication Type: 
Final Report
Project: 
Streetcar projects as spatial planning: A shift in transport planning in the United States
Please subscribe to our Newsletter:

Get our newsletter

Please enter your email address to subscribe to our newsletter:

Contact Us

University Transportation Research Center
Marshak Hall - Science Building, Suite 910 
The City College of New York
138th Street & Convent Avenue ,New York, NY 10031