TCRP Report 145: Reinventing the Urban Interstate: A New Paradigm for Multimodal Corridors presents strategies for planning, designing, building, and operating multimodal corridors–freeways and high-capacity transit lines running parallel in the same travel corridors. This report will be of interest to urban and transportation planners and policy-makers in large urban areas. The objectives of this research were to (1) evaluate the potential for rehabilitating and reconstructing portions of interstate freeways and similar freeways in urbanized areas of the United States as multimodal transportation facilities and (2) develop strategies to plan and implement these facilities. These facilities might be better used, if the facilities offered passenger mobility by multiple modes and were better integrated into communities. The new paradigm emphasizes building transit lines and supporting pedestrian and bicycle facilities with the following goals: • Enhancing corridor transportation capacity and performance without adding freeway capacity, by building and operating transit lines (including bus rapid transit, light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail); • Building and operating successful transit systems in multimodal corridors that attract high transit ridership and encourage livability and environmental sustainability; and • Transforming a corridor’s land uses and activities to a more transit-oriented pattern. As discussed in the research report, a new paradigm multimodal corridor would take one of three forms: • Transit-oriented multimodal corridors, which are designed to give transit a performance advantage in serving short- and medium-length trips, while the freeway is given a performance advantage for serving long-haul corridor trips. • Park-and-ride access multimodal corridors, which are designed to provide high levels of automobile access within, and high transit speeds through, the corridor. • Transit-optimized/freeway-constrained multimodal corridors, which are designed to give transit a performance advantage in the corridor by constraining the capacity and performance of the freeway. The new paradigm for multimodal corridors offers insights into how freeways and transit can be structured to effectively carve out travel market niches where modes can work together and thrive in a corridor. (Author/publisher) This report is available online at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/tcrp/tcrp_rpt_145.pdf
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