Assessing Transit-Oriented Development Implementation in Canadian Cities: An Urban Project Approach

Abstract

This article presents a new theoretical approach for assessing the implementation process of transit-oriented development (TOD). Through a conceptual framework, based on the notion of the urban project as an instrument of public policy, it highlights two distinct processes at work in the implementation of every TOD project: territorialization and differentiation. The first suggests that there are necessarily discrepancies between metropolitan planning strategies and the very local nature of the TOD projects. The second suggests that implementing a TOD project is an incremental process rooted in local policy conditions that must be factored in at every phase of the implementation process.