GCRTA received $336,000 to plan for Transit-Oriented Development along the MetroHealth Line, a bus rapid transit line connecting downtown Cleveland, health facilities, and residential and employment areas. FTA announced the awardees of the FY2018 TOD Planning program on December 18. Greater Cleveland RTA was among 20 projects that were selected to receive shares of the $16.6 million in FY2018 TOD Planning grants to support comprehensive planning projects improving access to public transportation.

The MetroHealth Line was developed as part of a naming rights agreement between RTA and The MetroHealth System, rebranding the former 51 family of routes. The line serves Ohio City, Archwood/Denison, and Old Brooklyn neighborhoods in Cleveland, and connects riders in the suburbs of Broadview Heights, Garfield Heights, Independence, Parma, Parma Heights, Middleburg Heights, Seven Hills, Strongsville, and Valleyview. The MetroHealth Line, which debuted December 2017, runs along the West 25th Street corridor and serves 2.1 million riders. The consolidation and re-branding introduced increased frequencies and shorter headways between buses, with plans to phase in dedicated lanes and signal priority along some sections of the route and scale the line up to a more robust BRT in the future[i].

Since 2014, the Federal Transit Authority has made project funding available for comprehensive planning for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). The Pilot Program for TOD Planning supports FTA’s mission of improving public transportation for America’s communities by providing funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning with new fixed guideway or core capacity transit capital investment [ii]. Planning proposals must examine ways to improve economic development and ridership, foster multimodal connectivity and accessibility, improve transit access for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, engage the private sector, identify infrastructure needs, and enable mixed-use development near transit stations. The Pilot Program for TOD is funded through FY2021.

To see the full list of projects selected for FY2018 funding, visit https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grants/grant-programs/fiscal-year-2018-transit-oriented-development-tod-planning-projects

[i] Cleveland Plain Dealer, Leaders hope new MetroHealth Line buses boost neighborhood

[ii] FTA Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development Planning – Section 20005(b) https://www.transit.dot.gov/TODPilot