The accessibility assessment and the regional range of transit-oriented development: An application of schedule accessibility measures in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region

Abstract

Transit-oriented development (TOD) arouses a great deal of interest as the interaction between transport and land use becomes a key topic in regional and urban planning. Even though accessibility is a key driving factor, it is barely assessed with accuracy. In Europe, the scope of TOD effects is large. It strongly influences the development of regional transport. Regarding that, this research brings forward a method that is based on multiscale accessibility measures to evaluate TOD strategy in a metropolitan European region. Hence, it proposes a multiscale accessibility method. On one hand, it introduces the pedestrian accessibility indicators at the local scale. On the other hand, it tackles the schedule accessibility measures in a constraints-based approach at the regional scale. This method is implemented in assessing the potential of TOD strategy in Nord Pas-de-Calais (France). For that, two TOD scenarios are presented. The first one tackles the main metropolitan center but does not include downtown. The second one deals with a second-order peripheral pole. These scenarios present difficulties in gathering both an effective local TOD and a sustainable development policy at the regional scale. However, a TOD center can enhance the intermediate scale urban centrality when using intermediate schedule accessibility measures (for coaches and buses). Furthermore, the indicators about the rail transit system highlight an uncertainty in the regional effects, which can only be solved by applying a major and expensive policy. The final remarks pave the way for further research regarding a full-fledged regional TOD strategy that includes a well-ordered dissemination of TOD centers.