Transit-Oriented Development

What is TOD?

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a term used to describe the mix of residential, office, retail, and entertainment land use within a walkable distance of Metro stations on public or privately owned property. TOD transforms urban places in a way that brings transit services, households, employers, and public spaces together with easy walking and cycling connections between them.

Advancing successful TOD requires careful planning to design projects that balance the needs of transit operations and public safety with local land use plans, real estate market conditions, site constraints, and community priorities.

Metro’s Joint Development Program delivers TOD on Metro-owned property and is a key contributor to achieving strategic goals such as:

  • Revitalizing neighborhoods, supporting economic development and generating tax revenue
  • Increasing housing production and affordability
  • Reducing traffic congestion, per capita car ownership and vehicle emissions
  • Safer access and better infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists
  • Increasing transit ridership and fare revenue

The 2024 Benefits of Transit report found that land and buildings near Metro stations generate around $3.2 billion in property tax revenues annually. ​

Metro stations have twice as many businesses, three times more jobs, and three times more property value than areas without Metro. Over half of the region’s 240,000 businesses—and more than 70% of its 2.5 million jobs—are within a half-mile of a Metro rail station or bus stop.

Without transit, the region would lose more than $9 billion worth of economic activity and business output due to heavy traffic congestion, lack of access to jobs, and much slower movement of goods.​

TOD is good for the environment. Households and employees adjacent to transit are more likely to use transit, resulting in reduced auto use and lower GHG emissions. In certain areas, building TODs can actually reduce driving by up to 85%.

By 2025, transit will keep about 1.2 million cars off the road every day. Lined up in a row, those cars would stretch from Washington, DC to Alaska. Additionally, Metro estimates that transit avoids an additional 1.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year. That’s the same as if all the households in Arlington, VA didn't use energy for an entire year

TOD creates accessible neighborhoods with amenities that can lead to reduced car ownership. Car ownership costs about $12,000 a year on average. The average cost of a monthly Metro pass is $1,500 a year, so transit saves no-or-car-lite households $10,500 per year. Transit riders save about $2,800 a year by not having to pay for rideshares, taxis, parking, and tolls, too.

Because transit is also 20 times safer than driving a car, transit also improves health. People who ride transit walk as much as 30 minutes more a day, increasing heart health, building muscle, and reducing risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. ​

Core principles

All types of TOD are defined by a commonly shared set of principles that differentiate them from other conventional types of development.

Mix of uses

The clustering of different uses around transit – housing, office, retail, health providers, and others.

Development density

Enables the ability for people to walk or bike in between destinations, rather than drive.

Multimodal

Streets, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, bus stops, and other infrastructure that accommodates safe and comfortable use by pedestrian and bike use.

Near high-quality transit

Proximate frequent and reliable transit that connects the area to opportunities throughout the region.

Integrated with surroundings

Development is well-integrated with the existing neighborhood characteristics and fabric.

Safety/accessibility

Development prioritizes public safety and accessibility for people of differing abilities through infrastructure design, lighting, and signage. ​

TOD can be successful in a variety of contexts. While low-density land uses are not compatible with TOD, there are many examples of successful TOD without a single high-rise. In other situations, high-quality transit makes it possible to accommodate major development without generating significant car traffic. Examples of various TOD typologies are shown below. 

TOD in the DC Metro area

TODs have had a long and rich history in our region. Click on the timeline below to learn about the progressive growth of TOD in the DC Metro area.

1862-1900

From Horsecars to Streetcar Suburbs

While L’Enfant envisioned the layout of the capital city, its growth was facilitated by the transit networks of the era. The region’s first horsecars began service in 1862 amidst Washington's wartime population growth. Starting in 1888, electric streetcars took over the rails and rapidly expanded beyond the old city limits, pushing past the hills that had been too challenging for horses. Through the Second World War, the growth patterns of the region largely followed streetcar lines. Private developers marketed investment opportunities near streetcars. Some streetcar lines were even built by private real estate interests to service new development.

1960

Car-centric

Fueled by an influx of Federal funds, new highways opened up the periphery for suburban development. City centers and transit, meanwhile, suffered from a lack of investment. While some benefited from new affordable homes and fast freeway commutes, the region began to recognize the downsides of auto-oriented development patterns through increased congestion and vehicle pollution.

1976

Metro Opening

The first segment of Metrorail opened in 1976 to fanfare and Metro’s first joint development opened two years later above the Farragut North station entrance. As the system grew, transit offered the region more than just convenient commutes. Leaders in the public and private sectors invested in new and existing communities near Metro, like in Silver Spring (station opened in 1978) and the Arlington Orange Line corridor (stations opened in 1979), establishing national models for transit-oriented development.

2004

The First Infill Station

NoMa-Galludet U, the first Metro Rail infill station, opened in November 2004. Funded by the District of Columbia, the Federal Government, and private investment, NoMa station shows how a jurisdiction can leverage transit to unlock the development potential of a neighborhood. Since 2004, the NoMa neighborhood has seen a 200% growth in built square feet, over 12,000 residential units, 12 million square feet of office, 900,000 square feet of retail, and almost 3,000 hotel rooms added.

2014

Growth of TOD Corridors

In 2014, the first phase of the Silver Line opened to Tysons and Reston in Virginia, launching a new wave of development in areas where traffic congestion had, in the absence of rapid transit, become a constraint on growth. Fairfax County contributed funding for the project by creating a Transportation Improvement District to tax commercial and industrial properties (a similar tool was leveraged for Phase 2 of the project). Development along the corridor surged in anticipation of high-frequency transit and after project completion, especially at the McLean (Capital One Headquarters) and Wiehle-Reston East stations.

Today

Joint Development Momentum

In 2022, Metro published its. 10-Year Strategic Plan for Joint Development. The plan sets a goal for 20 additional Joint Development Agreements by 2032 and lays out strategies that Metro is taking to get there, including through partnering with local jurisdictions, right-sizing transit facilities, increasing development readiness, and minimizing implementation risks.