The Typology Framework

Capital Metro’s Station Typology Framework is composed of two classification schemes for organizing and describing the station areas along Capital Metro’s high-capacity MetroRapid and MetroRail systems: Place Typology and Readiness Score.

The Place Typology describes the form of a place or neighborhood in terms of urban design, physical form, connectivity, and economic activity. The purpose of the Place Typology is three-fold:

Provides a snapshot of aspirational character
Sets expectations for character of local development
Establishes a consistent vision for the station area supported by diverse public sector stakeholders and administrative tools

Additionally, the Typology Framework contains a scalar system – the Readiness Score - to measure where a station area is at relative to the full potential implied in its assigned Place Typology. This assessment serves the following functions:

Establishes a level of magnitude for possible investments
Helps prioritize the capital investments and funding needed in a station area
Sets expectations for timing of achieving development potential

Place Typology

Click image to view full Typology Map — Click image to view full TOD Typology System Map

Click image to view full TOD Typology System Map

Capital Metro’s Place Typology system includes five unique categories defined according to a set of qualitative and quantitative descriptors, including population, employment, ridership, land use mix, and function. This idea acknowledges that TOD is not one universal pattern of development, but rather can take a variety of equally valid forms according to local conditions and preferences. The five categories include:

Five categories of Place Typology are defined as Central Core, Regional Hub, TOD Village, Neighborhood TOD, and Special Destination.

Central Core
Central Core station areas are located in the primary urban center, in and immediately adjacent to the downtown areas of the City of Austin. Compared to other place types, these station areas have the greatest diversity and mix of land uses, and feature the highest densities of built uses. Destinations in these areas are dynamic multi-purpose or seven-day attractions, and span the spectrum of residential clusters; business, government and institutional nodes; and entertainment and visitor features. These stations feature the highest segment ridership statistics in the system.
Republic Square Station
UT/West Mall Station
Regional Hub
Regional Hub station areas are emerging centers of regional significance located outside of the Central Core. These station areas feature high densities and diverse mixes of land uses, and are multi-purpose destinations. These areas feature high multi-modal accessibility, and highly planned or grid-block patterns of paths and streets. Stations feature high segment ridership.
Tech Ridge Park & Ride
Domain Station
TOD Village
TOD Village stations are the focal points of urban sub-areas. These are nodes of moderate to high density amid lower-density surroundings. They feature a diverse mix of land uses and attractions, although the outlying portions of a station area may feature more concentrations of single use, such as residential or employment. These station areas function both as regional destinations as well as neighborhood service centers. They offer multi-modal access, and have an organized grid block pattern of paths and streets.
Triangle Station
SoCo Station
Neighborhood TOD
Neighborhood TOD station areas feature moderate density at the core or station site amid lower surroundings, but with less contrast outward across the station area than previous categories. These areas are more locally focused nodes, with neighborhood scale commercial uses that support the nearby and surrounding residential areas. There is good pedestrian and bicycle connectivity in these station areas.
Hyde Park Station
Lamar Square Station
Special Destination
Special Destinations station areas are organized around a predominant single-use attractor, destination, or function. This destination is a potentially significant transit trip-generator, but unlikely to support a typical mixed-use TOD pattern due to visitor trip purpose. It may contain retail or other uses in an ancillary or support capacity.
South Congress Transit Center
North Lamar Transit Center

TOD Readiness

A station’s place typology assignment describes the long term aspirations of a station area; the place type designation will not change as its urban form may evolve over time. Instead, the current state of a station area relative to its ultimate build-out is scored according to the level of completeness, according to a series of descriptive metrics, which include Connectivity, Market Strength, Land Availability, and Government Support. The four stages of readiness, or scores, are:

Four stages of TOD Readiness are defined as Stage 1 – Long Term, Stage 2 – Emerging, Stage 3 – Ready, and Stage 4 – Arrived.

Stage 1: Long-Term (exhibiting few of the place typology characteristics)
Stage 2: Emerging (beginning to demonstrate some of the place typology characteristics)
Stage 3: Ready (showing place typology characteristics in much of the station area, but with gaps that are reasonably expected to be closed)
Stage 4: Arrived (demonstrating place typology characteristics in much of the station area, particularly in the primary corners or areas adjacent to the stations, with some opportunity for continued infill or redevelopment)