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Report: Regional transit gives Hartford a leg up in Amazon HQ2 bid

Hartford’s Amazon bid stands to benefit from recent regional transit innovations in and around Connecticut’s capital, according to a study of four Northeast candidates for a second Amazon headquarters.

Conducted by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to reducing car dependency in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the study examines highway driving, road, parking and mass transit issues in four Northeast cities: Hartford, New York City, Newark, and Camden/Philadelphia.

Hartford has some obvious challenges relating to congestion in the Interstate 84 corridor through the city, say the study’s authors, but the 9.4-mile CTfastrak bus rapid transit corridor, a dedicated busway between downtown Hartford and New Britain, and the Hartford Line, a new commuter rail service between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield launching in May, will help get drivers off the road and alleviate parking concerns.

In addition, in 2016, the city adopted a new form-based code known as ZoneHartford, marking a shift in the city’s priorities away from driving and toward more walkable development.

“Hartford needs to capitalize on these new transit services and the shift away from building more parking downtown,” the report concludes. “And so should surrounding communities. Amazon can’t thrive in central Connecticut if driving remains the dominant mode into and out of the urban core.”

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The new investments in regional transit show “there’s reason to expect more residential development in downtown Hartford and new transit-oriented development near CTfastrak BRT stations and Hartford Line rail stations,” the study says.

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