Transit-oriented Development Policies Research Articles

TRANSPORT POLICIES, TRANSIT-ORIENTED AND DEVELOPMENT REDISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION IN PERI-URBAN: LESSONS FROM KUALA LUMPUR AND JAKARTA METROPOLITAN AREA

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is the representation of a compact land-use management strategy relying on a mixture of land use and transport concepts to manage urban sprawl and population. The concept promotes high-density housing, mixed land use, and integrated mobility. Therefore, this article aims to discuss the incorporation process of TOD concept into urban policies and transport planning in Southeast Asian metropolitan cities. The effects of the policies on population movement patterns are examined, specifically in peri-urban areas, which are the most difficult parts of cities. In addition, the case studies include Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur, representing two of the most rapidly developing metropolitan areas in Southeast Asia where TOD has been progressively adopted. Data and information are collected from documentary reviews and interviews. The results show that the duration of TOD policy implementation gives rise to distinct trajectories in peri-urban population redistribution experiences within the two metropolitan areas.

Smart urbanism, citizen-centric approaches and integrated environmental services in transit-oriented development in Jakarta, Indonesia

This research elucidates the intricate landscape of citizen preferences within Jakarta's Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) domain, navigating through environmental services integration and smart city initiatives. With Jakarta experiencing exponential urbanization, TOD is a pivotal strategy to amalgamate residential, commercial, and recreational spaces, seamlessly coupled with effective public transportation systems. However, achieving optimal urban living within TODs demands a deep understanding of Jakarta's citizens' diverse and nuanced preferences and needs. This study fills significant gaps in the existing literature by investigating citizen preferences' heterogeneity and willingness to pay (MWTP) for integrated environmental services in TODs. Employing advanced methodologies like the Random Parameter Logit (RPL) and the Latent Class Model (LCM), this research offers a granular insight into citizens' varied preferences and their financial commitments toward enhanced environmental services. The insights derived have been crucial in formulating pragmatic recommendations for refining TOD management strategies and policies in Jakarta, ultimately contributing to urban landscapes' equitable and sustainable development. Through a detailed exploration of preference heterogeneity and the integration of smart city concepts within TOD frameworks, this study paves the way for more inclusive, innovative, and citizen-centric urban development paradigms.

Do Residents Living in Transit-Oriented Development Station Catchment Areas Travel More Sustainably? The Impacts of Life Events

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an urban designed model aimed at attracting more sustainable travellers. However, not all TOD projects succeed in maintaining a high rate of sustainable travel behaviour. To examine the impacts of TOD on residents’ travel behaviour, this paper applies binary logistic regression to analyse survey data for 1,298 residents living in the TOD areas in Hangzhou collected in 2020. The results show that socioeconomic characteristics, built environment factors, and travel attitudes play important roles in influencing their travel mode choices. Furthermore, the number of children in households and higher levels of car ownership significantly influence residents’ sustainable travel behaviours. However, it appears that only a limited number of factors can convince car users to shift to sustainable modes of travel, such as their workplace being accessible by metro and attitudes towards changes in accessibility. This research study contributes to the existing literature in terms of enhancing the understanding of travel mode choice behaviours, particularly with regard to people who live near public transport infrastructure, as well as formulating evidence-based TOD policies to achieve more sustainable transport systems.

Urban railway network expansion on transit oriented development: Improvement in accessibility in four Asian developing cities

Numerous cities in developing countries in Asia have focused on building rail transit networks using the transit-oriented development (TOD) policy to improve urban accessibility through public transportation. However, the hypothesis that expanding rail transport networks and implementing TOD policies will improve urban accessibility in developing cities has not been sufficiently analyzed. Therefore, this study selected four Asian cities of various sizes under different stages of development to explore how the expansion of rail transport networks and implementation in high-density development of the three TOD policies affect urban accessibility. The results suggest that rail transit network expansion would significantly increase overall accessibility, and TOD policy implementation would further increase accessibility in all cities. This study clarified that the desired urban structure of each city, which determines accessibility, significantly differs depending on the size of the city and existing and proposed networks.

An extended node-place model for comparative studies of transit-oriented development

A commonly used quantitative method for evaluating the status quo in transit-oriented development (TOD) is the node-place (NP) model. However, NP-derived models seldom consider the compactness of station areas and their interactions with urban structures. This work extended the NP model by introducing two concepts of compactness and urban vibrancy. Moreover, a scoring approach was proposed to measure the overall TOD level to facilitate inter-city comparison. This work conducted a comparative study of two megacities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and found that Shenzhen is better in overall TOD performance. When examining specific dimensions of performance using clustering methods, we found significant discrepancies in both cluster characteristics and spatial distributions, with Guangzhou exhibiting a core-periphery spatial pattern and Shenzhen a polycentric structure. We observed a significant correlation between the TOD index and urban vibrancy in both cities. This study contributes to a more targeted TOD policy by supporting the decision-making process.

Land Premium Effects of Urban Rail Transit and the Associated Policy Insights for TOD: A Case of Ningbo, China

With considerable investments, mainly from local government budgets, the construction and operation of urban rail transit (URT) can exert significant spillover effects on the surrounding land use and land prices. In particular, China’s local governments are actively committed to developing their URT systems and promoting large-scale transit-oriented development (TOD) projects under the public land leasing policy. However, the connection between the land premium effects and TOD policy and practice is still lacking, particularly in the local government contexts, which exhibit significant policy and spatial heterogeneity. Thus, this research represents an attempt to better address this issue using the city of Ningbo as a case study. First, the premium effects of URT on land prices are examined, after which three crucial policy insights (land value capture [LVC], public–private cooperation [PPC], and urban regeneration) are proposed to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of TOD, demonstrating its strong connection with the potential premium effects. The findings demonstrate that (1) local governments have adopted different innovative policies—with the ambition—to implement LVC; (2) assisted by PPC, the local rail transit authority can significantly amplify the premium effects, although it must still address the fair distribution of premiums across multiple stakeholders; and (3) transit-oriented urban regeneration can significantly influence land prices/land rents and subsequently generate significant gentrification, which will be further addressed by the TOD policy and practice.

Where Are Potential Areas for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD)—Exploring the Demands for Built Environment for TOD Planning

Sustainable urban growth advocates the implementation of transit-oriented development (TOD) to optimize urban spatial structure. The bilateral planning concept of TOD emphasizes the importance of discovering areas with existing TOD features but poor public transit service (potential TOD areas) and further introducing transit connectivity or conducting TOD policy in such areas to facilitate sustainable transportation. However, current studies that are devoted to discovering potential TOD areas remain scarce. In this study, we find that random forest (RF) is an optimal algorithm that can effectively identify potential TOD regions in Hong Kong. We propose an RF-mediated machine learning model (RF-TPI model) and reveal underlying mechanisms of specific indicators. After iteratively learning the typical features of TOD areas in Hong Kong, the developed RF-TPI model shows great capacity to identify potential TOD areas, with satisfactory model performances (accuracy score: 0.89, precision score: 0.81). Further investigation on manifestations of indicators by the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) interpreter demonstrates the intricate, significant nonlinear and threshold effects of distinct indicators. Conclusively, we highlight that random forest would be a prospective tool for identifying potential TOD areas to aid TOD strategy in urban sustainable endeavors.

Transit-Oriented Data: The Importance of Data and Coordination to Transit-Oriented Urban Transformation

Planners, academics, and policy-makers recognize the importance of transit-oriented development (TOD) in building resilient and sustainable cities, though implementation has not always lived up to expectations. TOD is an example of a network governance problem as actors from multiple organizations (developers, lenders, and multiple government agencies at different scales), each with their own goals, must come together for an extended time to manage risk and implement a single solution. Less well-studied is the importance of spatial data and state-level coordination to this task, both in identifying sites and in developing policies at the state or regional level to encourage and prioritize TOD in certain areas. This study uses a 1+n case study model, focusing on a primary case (Connecticut's TOD efforts) but using the experience of other states (MassGIS and the New Jersey Transit Villages program) to inform the primary case. Working from interviews with Connecticut stakeholders and participant observation in TOD policy development, the study explores the coordination and governance challenges surrounding state intervention as well as the role that Connecticut's weak state geospatial data play in the efforts to develop TOD projects. Connecticut was until recently one of only five states without a state geographic information officer, making it a “black swan” case that can illuminate the perhaps unseen role that strong spatial data infrastructures play in other states' policymaking. Moreover, the comparison between New Jersey's Transit Villages Program and Connecticut's efforts signal that more work is needed to manage the difficult paradigm shift toward state support of TOD.

Land Value Capture and Transit Oriented Development (TOD): A Comparative Review of Indian TOD Policies Measures

Several Indian metropolitan cities are willing to adopt and explore various methods to implement transit-oriented development (TOD) around their transit stations to reverse the ongoing trend of automobile-oriented urbanization. Implementation of development-based Land value capture (LVC) schemes in emerging middle-income countries asks to understand and adapt to locally-specific favorable macro conditions such as rising real-estate incomes, increasing automobile dependency, and traffic congestion which all together endow to appreciate land values near transit stations or corridors. This paper identifies enabling TOD linked factors and indicators to measure them besides transit investment that may influence Development-based LVC mechanism and TOD based investment in transit station areas or corridors. To achieve the desired study goal, this study identified 13 indicators directly related with six TOD dimensions to evaluate Indian TOD policies formulated at various levels. By doing so, it will determine new innovative funding opportunities available to implement and integrate lacking land-use and transit planning mechanisms and proposing a land-value capture strategy with lacking a clear framework for Indian cities. The study revealed that population densities, particularly employment densities, length of blocks and intersection intensities, electric charging stations, multimodal integration and smart apps provision are largely lacking in the most Indian TOD policies framed. The current ongoing TOD policy formulation is only limited to increase densification by permitting higher than permissible Floor Area Ratio (FAR), providing parking facility and its management, and allowing land-use mix.

Transit-Oriented Development and Suburban Gentrification: A “Natural Reality” of Refugee Displacement in Metro Vancouver

ABSTRACT This article examines a highly localized example of marginalized renters in an aging, low- to moderate-density suburban neighborhood facing displacement because of high-density redevelopment in a transit-oriented development (TOD) planning area. In doing so, I offer a case study for those concerned that TOD interventions could result in gentrification and the displacement of low-income groups. In this article I show how TOD policy has come to bear upon residents of a single rental apartment complex in Metro Vancouver’s suburban City of Coquitlam, in British Columbia, Canada. This local case lies at a nexus of international migration, the Syrian refugee crisis, understandings of adequate refugee housing, and imaginaries of sustainable urban renewal. TOD policies are buttressed by arguments for smart growth and environmental sustainability, and in this case those arguments surmount social equity concerns. However, I question the impartiality of TOD logic requiring high-density residential redevelopment around rapid transit stations when residential intensification policies readily target areas of lower income renters, but are slower to affect areas of single-family homes. A mixed-methods research design of Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions reveals a complicated set of circumstances in which TOD planning contributed to the displacement of Syrian refugees.

Is Built Environment Associated with Travel Mode Choice in Developing Cities? Evidence from Hanoi

This paper examines the association between the built environment (BE) and travel behavior in Hanoi, Vietnam. A multinomial logit model is used to analyze individuals’ choice of travel mode from a dataset collected via a questionnaire-based household travel survey in 2016 and the geospatial data of BE variables; the dataset contains 762 responses from local residents in ten districts of the Hanoi Metropolitan Area about their daily travel episodes. It also examines a spatial aggregation effect by comparing model performances among four buffering distances and ward-zones. The results showed that (1) a higher population density around an individual’s home is associated with more bus use and less motorbike and car use; (2) mixed land use around the home, average tax revenue near the home, and bus frequency at the workplace have positive relationships with bus ridership; (3) senior people, students, or unskilled laborers tend to use the bus; (4) the spatial aggregation bias significantly affects the estimation results; and (5) new immigrants tend to choose to reside in areas designed for automobile users. Finally, there are several policy implications for transit-oriented development (TOD) in Hanoi, including: (1) parking regulations and/or control strategies should be jointly incorporated into the Hanoi’s TOD policy; (2) Hanoi’s TOD policy should be carefully designed in terms of its scope of development site and type; and (3) a polycentric structure strategy only may not be sufficient for increasing public transit ridership.

Mass Rapid Transit Ridership Forecast Based on Direct Ridership Models: A Case Study in Wuhan, China

Many large cities rely on Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to increase passenger mobility. For efficiency, MRT stations should be arranged to attract maximal number of travelers. It is therefore important to develop methods for estimating MRT ridership forecasting models, which are important for policies on land use development or new MRT lines. Direct ridership models (DRMs) at the station level are superior in estimating the benefits of transit-oriented development policies. In this paper, a principal component regression (PCR) is proposed to overcome the issue of multicollinearity that widely occurs in multivariate regression analyses for DRM modeling, especially the ordinary least squares regression. Based on the analysis of 72 MRT stations in Wuhan, China, four principal components are obtained to explain the potential linkage to MRT ridership, which include built-environment related factors, jobs-housing spatial structure related factors, station attributes, and the large compound. Nineteen significant determinants have been identified, among which the four factors of office building area, land use mix, the number of restaurants, and financial institutions are the most influential factors. Built-environment-related factors exert more significant impact on MRT ridership than others. The distance to city center and the number of bus lines around stations have negative association with MRT demand. The proposed PCR-based DRM provides insights for forecasting transit demand brought about by new metro lines and forecasting the consequences of land use development.

A decision framework for defining Transit-Oriented Development in an indian city

Abstract Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) planning in India has become essential to address neighborhood structure and transportation issues in its urban areas. The present study employed an enhanced fuzzy-analytical hierarchical process (EFAHP) framework to a TOD-planning problem for Delhi, India. For the decision-making process, we established seven planning criteria and their corresponding indicators from extensive literature and expert consultation. Thirty-one expert decisions segmented to planners, policymakers, and researchers were involved in assessing the importance of the established criteria/indicators for TOD planning in Delhi. The global weights of criteria/indicators obtained from the EFAHP approach are free from uncertainty and imprecision involved in expert judgments. The context-sensitive TOD definition proposed from the study results will serve as a prescription to planners, policymakers, and government authorities in the TOD policy development for other Indian cities, especially for Delhi.

Mi Casa no es Su Casa: The Fight for Equitable Transit-Oriented Development in an Inner-Ring Suburb

Transit-oriented development (TOD) often raises land values and can promote gentrification and the displacement in low-income communities. Little research, however, has shown how communities have organized to fight for more equitable TOD processes and outcomes within particular metropolitan contexts and dynamics of neighborhood change. This case study examines the role of neighborhood-based advocacy and organizing in fighting for equitable TOD and tackling key political and planning challenges in a predominantly Latinx immigrant inner-ring suburb. Their successes show the strengths of community-based, cross-sector coalitions in generating more equitable and inclusive TOD processes, plans, and policies that target conditions of place-based precarity.

Institutional barriers to financing transit-oriented development in China: Analyzing informal land value capture strategies

In order to deal with severe traffic and environmental issues, transit-oriented development (TOD) has been encouraged in China. Land-based value capture strategies have been applied, with varying degrees of success, as a way of co-financing TOD investments. Often, these strategies are based on innovative, but informal planning and land management practices which help to bypass institutional barriersto the effective use of land-based value capture mechanism. This paper aims to identify the interaction between the institutional context and land-based value capture mechanisms for TOD in China and discusses potential ways to deal with those informal practices based on both empirical evidence from successful cases in some Chinese cities and international practices. The findings from literature review, expert interviews, a focus group meeting and three case studies highlight several insights: 1) the effectiveness of land-based value capture for TOD in China is constrained by unsupportive planning, rigid financial regulation, and inefficient governance; 2) informal planning strategies, including the “rail plus property strategy”, the “two-step bidding strategy” and the “land reserve strategy” have been experimentally applied to bypass these barriers; and 3) evidence from international TOD policies on the one hand and the institutionalization of experimental planning strategies on the other hand suggests some options how China could move forward in this matter.

How Urban Form Characteristics at Both Trip Ends Influence Mode Choice: Evidence from TOD vs. Non-TOD Zones of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area

Understanding travel behavior and its relationship with built environment is crucial for sustainable transportation and land-use policy-making. This study provides additional insights into the linkage between the built environment and travel mode choice by looking at the built environment characteristics at both the trip origin and destination in the context of transit-oriented development (TOD). The objective of this research is to provide a better understanding of how travel mode choice is influenced by the built environment surrounding both trip end locations. Specifically, it investigates the effect of transit-oriented development policy and the way it affects people’s mode choice decisions. This is accomplished by developing discrete choice models and consideration of urban form characteristics at both trip ends. Our findings not only confirmed the important role the built environment plays in influencing mode choice, but also highlighted the influence of policies, such as TOD, at both trip end locations. Results suggest that the probability of choosing transit and non-motorized modes is higher for trips originating and ending in TOD areas. However, the magnitude of this TOD effect is larger at trip origin compared to destination. Higher residential and employment densities at both trips ends are also associated with lower probability of auto and higher probability of transit and non-motorized mode choices.

Improving walkability in a TOD context: Spatial strategies that enhance walking in the Belém neighbourhood, in São Paulo, Brazil

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is an urban planning strategy that structures urban development at a walking distance from mass public transport stations. Walkability is a central concept in TOD policies. The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the physical features of the built environment that may impact walkability within the São Paulo TOD context. The study intends to highlight the importance of using spatial strategies to qualify the public realm to support the implementation of TOD.Spatial characteristics of the built environment influencing walkability from the literature were tested in the TOD precinct of the Belém metro station, which served as a case study. The distribution of the public open space between the transport modes was quantified. Then, the physical walking conditions and the associated pedestrian traffic and behaviour were analysed. Finally, pedestrians were asked to classify certain spatial characteristics according to their importance for walking.The study showed: safety and security are the most important attributes of public open spaces for pedestrians; land use diversity and commercial ground-floor façades positively influence walkability at the micro-scale; the design of public open spaces leads pedestrians to take unnecessary risks; and a large amount of space, presently dedicated to cars, can be allocated to improve walkability. Based on those findings, the paper highlights the importance of assessing urban development strategies at the micro scale, in order to identify conditions and aspects that are not present on the municipal level and proposes possible concrete actions, as a base to design comprehensive TOD policies that promote pedestrian-oriented public open spaces.

Transit-Oriented Development Policies and Station Area Development in Asian Cities

Many metropolitan cities in Asia are planning and implementing extensive investment in mass transit networks and thus are now on the threshold of becoming transit cities or car traffic saturation cities. The promotion of transit-oriented development (TOD) policies will be a key to the progression to transit cities. TOD should consider a transit-oriented regional growth management plan, station area zoning regulations (mixed-use, minimum density, maximum parking, etc.), joint development among local governments, transit agencies, and private developers, and an institutional mechanism for public and private cooperation in station area development. We examine cases from cities in Japan, the United States (US), and Southeast Asia, including Tokyo and Toyama in Japan, Denver in the US, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. We conclude that the following are factors for the successful implementation of TOD in Asian cities: a shift from highway-based zoning to transit-oriented zoning; the creation of an institutional mechanism for public and private cooperation in station area development; a balance between public benefit and private benefit; the connection of transit services and affordable housing; and multi-modal connection planning, including walking.

Residential dissonance in TOD neighborhoods

Metro rail transit (MRT) system in Indian urban areas is growing at a rapid rate, to enhance public transportation and decongest the road transportation. To assess the neighborhoods of urban areas it is essential to evaluate the behavioral attitudes of commuters. Existing studies have shown that behavioral attitudes influence residential selection and mode choice, which might result in a dissonance between individuals' preference and actuality in residence. Residential dissonance has become a critical issue that affects commuter mode choice in urban areas. Majority of studies on residential dissonance were conducted in developed countries. This research is still at the infancy stage in developing countries like India. The objective of this study is to fill this gap by evaluating the effect of residential dissonance on commuter mode choice behavior in National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. For this, 2633 individual responses from Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and non-TOD neighborhoods of NCT Delhi were considered. The actual neighborhood types were derived by using Two-step cluster analysis and the preferred neighborhood types were derived by using a binary logit model. The dissonance analysis shows that 23.25% of TOD residents were dissonant in NCT Delhi. The study findings suggest that an attitudinal change of 0.5 units might change an average of 26% of consonance/dissonance levels in TOD neighborhoods. Multinomial Logit (MNL) models were employed to understand the mode choice and dissonance connections. The MNL model results show that the presence of women commuters and their safety will enhance the choice of active transport in TODs and public transport in non-TODs in NCT Delhi. Findings of this study will contribute to the necessary policy implications towards urban structure design and TOD policies to the developing world, especially in the Indian context.

Disintegration of metro and land development in transition China: A dynamic analysis in Beijing

The spatial disintegration of transit systems and land development is a vital challenge to the effectiveness of transit-oriented development policies. While transit land use integration and disintegration has received much research interest, conclusions remain mixed. This paper aims to clarify this area, using the large city of Beijing, China, as a case study. It evaluates whether and how Beijing’s land and metro developments have disintegrated according to the basic principles of the Alonso-Muth-Mills model. A before-and-after approach is applied during a period of rapid transit development: 2008–2015. The results show that metro development, generally, was not clearly integrated with land use. Although newly transferred land parcels were geographically concentrated around metro stations, land use types and the degree of land intensification were unrelated to metro development; rather, the road system had a greater influence on these aspects. In addition, metro development led to more fragmented land use in the core areas (<1.5 km) of metro stations than in the fringe areas (1.5–3 km away). This situation was mainly caused by institutional barriers to land-metro integration, such as revenue-oriented land development, the remaining centrally planned system of infrastructure investment, improper urban planning, and the fragmentation of development management that has occurred following China’s political decentralization and marketization. Improving the integration of transit and land development will be difficult unless further reforms and institutional capacity-building are achieved.