Asking Transit Users About Transit-Oriented Design

Visual-preference surveys are becoming popular in “visioning” projects, design charrettes, and other physical planning activities in which intensive public involvement is desired. In a survey, transit users, nonusers, and professionals were shown a series of paired slides of bus stops, asked to choose the stop from each pair at which they would prefer to wait, and asked to rate each stop chosen as a place to wait. Slides then were analyzed for content, with 19 features of bus stops and surroundings measured and quantified. Subsequent analysis showed that transit-oriented design features most affecting both choices and ratings are a bus shelter at the stop, trees along the street leading to the stop, a vertical curb at the stop, the setback of the stop from the street edge, and a continuous sidewalk leading to the stop. Such a survey may help transit planners choose the best transit-stop locations and devote financial resources to the most promising transit-stop amenities, given the inevitable trade-offs involved.