Although many cities desire a balanced transportation system that provides for automobile, transit, bicycle and pedestrian mobility, they often do not provide the land use mix and densities to promote a balanced transportation system, particularly for transit.

Historically, medium to high transit connectivity captures 5% or greater of commuter trips.  As densities go down, so does transit viability.  As an example, to provide for basic bus transit service with a bus running every 30 minutes in the peak period and one hour during the non-peak periods, the residential density needs to be about seven dwelling units per acre within the typical one-quarter mile walking area around the transit stop.  If dwelling units are increased to 20 to 30 per acre, bus transit frequencies can be increased to about once every 10 minutes during the peak hours. At this level of frequency, ridership increases significantly as patrons no longer are concerned about transit schedules, as they know a bus will be showing up within a short period of time. Intensified transit service requires 50 dwelling units an acre or more to be supported. 

Similar to residential densities, employee densities must be of a minimum level of between 50 and 60 employees per acre to support local bus service.  Higher employee densities would permit higher frequency service.

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