Creating a transit-friendly community can feel daunting but it doesn't have to be. Teska Associates, in association with TYLin and Egret & Ox, worked with the Regional Transportation Authority to develop the Transit-Friendly Communities Guide. This comprehensive resource is packed with practical strategies, real-world examples, and actionable steps to create walkable, mixed-use development that prioritizes transit access across the region, from small towns to built-out suburbs to Chicago neighborhoods.
Whether you're a local leader, planner, or community advocate, this guide equips you with next steps to make a tangible difference. If you have questions about how best to apply these strategies to a specific site, reach out to our team. Teska is here to help guide and translate principles into tailored solutions for your community.
Banner Photo: CTA California Blue Line Stop, Chicago, Illinois | Credit: RTA
About The Guidebook
The Transit-Friendly Communities Guide is full of tools to make transit more accessible to more people throughout the region and support residential and commercial development near Metra and CTA train stations and along Pace and CTA bus corridors. Across various topics, the Guidebook includes strategies and techniques that local decision-makers, the development community, and residents throughout the region can use to advocate for best practices for infrastructure and development.
This version of the guidebook updates the 2012 RTA ‘Setting the Stage for Transit’ Guidebook, incorporating concepts such as changing commuter trends, micromobility, ETOD, equitable engagement, and affordable housing. A Steering Committee guided the project, with representatives from municipal and county government, CTA, Metra, Pace, nonprofit and advocacy organizations, and developers.
What is Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD)?
Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) is development near transit, such as train stations and bus stops, that enables people of all incomes, backgrounds, and abilities to live in walkable, vibrant communities.
The four core elements of ETOD | Source: 2025 RTA Transit-Friendly Communities Guide
How To Use The Guidebook
The Guidebook includes actionable strategies that can be applied to communities of various sizes across the region. The strategies tackle common roadblocks to TOD, including questions of design, land use considerations, and community support. Key features include:
Transit-Friendly Design Concepts:
The guide includes a series of prototypical design concepts that illustrate how transit-friendly elements (e.g. mixed-use developments near transit, pedestrian and bike amenities and infrastructure, etc.) can be applied to different types of sites and transit service areas.
The three design concepts represent common scenarios that are found across the region:
- A suburban bus corridor,
- A suburban downtown with a train station, and
- An urban train station and bus route.
Transit-friendly enhancements to a prototypical bus corridor: new residential with increased densities and commercial development on underutilized parking lots, pedestrian connections from the bus stops and sidewalks to building entrances, a new public gathering space, and narrower roadways and enhanced crosswalks to make pedestrian crossings safer | Source: 2025 RTA Transit-Friendly Communities Guide
Land Use & Market Trends:
This section provides an overview of current market and demographic trends as they relate to development. Together, these trends highlight the need to update local codes to promote transit-friendly design, such as mixed-use developments, multi-family housing, and more walkable site designs. A visual guide illustrates optimum land use densities and characteristics that support varying levels of transit services, with examples from across the region.
Case Studies & Best Practices:
Communities can look to the guide for real-world examples of successful equitable transit-oriented development projects from a diverse set of communities across the Chicagoland region and the country. Planners and decision-makers may benefit from sharing these case studies from peer communities as they work towards their own transit-friendly initiatives.
“ETOD policies aim to meet current land use and market demands by allowing more types of housing and commercial development in proximity to transit – whether that is achieved by reclaiming an underutilized parking lot for infill housing development or by allowing a greater mix of land uses in a zoning ordinance.”
- 2025 RTA Transit-Friendly Communities Guide
The Implementation Checklist | Source: 2025 RTA Transit-Friendly Communities Guide
Equity & Engagement:
Equity and engagement are essential ingredients in any successful transit-oriented development. The guide includes strategies and best practices for ensuring that residents are not only well-informed about ETOD but are also adequately engaged in ETOD design solutions that benefit their communities.
Implementation Toolkit:
The guidebook as a whole provides an extensive resource bank of policies, programs, and strategies to bring transit-friendly concepts to your community. The Implementation Toolkit features a detailed checklist, potential funding sources, and informational resources on access infrastructure.
Want to Learn More?
Ready to put these resources into action? Need help applying strategies to a specific site? Teska can translate these principles into tailored solutions for your community. Contact our team today.