Mobility Hub Design: Conducting Generalizable Urban Design Research

Abstract

Municipal and regional governments are evaluating methods for expanding transportation options. Urban populations continue to grow globally, adding increased stress to already overburdened road networks. Internationally, public transportation agencies have begun experimenting with the mobility hub concept to determine opportunities to respond to the growing social, economic, and environmental issues disproportionately affecting communities. This thesis establishes an inventory of existing data on mobility hubs for application in the King County, WA context. For King County Metro (KCM) -the county transit agency- to address design challenges of mobility hubs, this thesis brings to light the necessary considerations for siting and designing features functionally relevant to mobility hubs by answering the questions: what are the generalizable takeaways of locating mobility hubs at existing transit centers. The analysis began with a literature review defining generalizability in urban design. Following this, literature, workshops, and interviews were used to develop a catalog of site features based on functions. Three matrices were used to compare policies, existing site features, and proposed site features to locate the common, unique, and adjacent features between facility types. The findings indicate that there are several considerations worth evaluating prior to siting and designing mobility hubs at transit facilities.