A trio of reports have been added to the Resource Center best practices database.

An April 2012 article from the Journal of Public Transportation entitled "Bus or Rail: An Approach to Explain the Psychological Rail Factor" has been added to the Research Center best practices database. The article by Milena Scherer of ETH Zurich and Katrin Dziekan of the Berlin Institute of Technology explores whether there is an inherent preference for fixed rail transit among transit riders and why. The research found a preference for using rail, assum­ing equal service conditions, of 63 percent for regional train and 75 percent for trams compared to bus services. The rail factor is highly loaded with emotional and social attributions, the researchers note, and account for 20–50 percent of the share in the different schemata for bus, rail, and tram.

Transit Cooperative Research Program Report 153, "Guidelines for Providing Access to Public Transportation Stations," has been added to the Research Center best practices database. The report offers guidelines for providing access to rapid transit stations, describes a station access planning process, and provides a high-level station access planning tool.

A Federal Transit Administration Office of Planning and Environment document from 2008 discussing how FTA might evaluate the potential economic development impacts of projects applying for New Starts funds.

Don't X Out Public Transportation rallies are being scheduled around the country for Sept. 20. At the rallies, public transit riders, advocates and employees will call on Congress to support public transportation by opposing proposed cuts of more than one third to federal transportation funding.

Researchers at the University of California campus at Merced have found that introduction of an urban rail transit system can reduce the level of carbon monoxide pollution and nitrogen oxides in the air.

High-speed rail continues to move forward in key states, such as California and Florida. The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) just released a report on how to generate supportive land-use and intermodal transit connections for California’s high-speed rail network.

A new report by the Regional Planning Association (RPA) confirms the tremendous economic benefits that public transportation can bring to communities.  Construction of the trans-Hudson River tunnel as part of the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project could potentially raise housing values by $18 billion and generate an additional $375 million in property tax revenues for communities with stations along lines utilizing the tunnel.  Households living within two miles of a transit station on the NJ TRANSIT system or MetroNorth’s Port Jervis and Pascack Valley lines could see their property values increase by $19,000.  For those living within walking distance, the projected increase is even higher at $29,000.  The new tunnel will also improve accessibility to midtown Manhattan, doubling the number of people living west of the Hudson River who can commute to midtown…