Featured Topic: Transit Supportive DensityAll Featured Topics

Transit Supportive Density

What is the density needed to support transit service?  The answer to many people's annoyance is that "it depends".  It depends on a number of different factors including transit technology, ultimate destination of the rider, and community goals.  The general consensus is that 7 units per acre will provide for basic 30 minute bus service.  Other research suggests that there is a per capita ridership cap after 20-30 persons per acre is reached.  

There has not been a comprehensive work on this specific topic since the book "Public Transportation and Land Use Policy" by Jeffrey Zupan and Boris Pushkarev.  However there have been lots of research papers focused on the subject.  You can find many of them in the related resources below. You can also see a list of the numbers in each of the papers we have on the site here (coming soon).