Transit-oriented Development Policies Research Articles

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.

Investigating the urban heat island effect of transit oriented development in Brisbane

Transit oriented development (TOD) has been identified as a key planning tool to limit sprawl development and thereby to tackle a range of undesirable outcomes of cities. Generally, research findings are supportive of TOD policies over sprawl development in many aspects such as reducing car-dependency, congestion, and emissions. Although sprawl development has been identified as a key factor of the urban heat island (UHI) effect, a phenomenon when an urban area experiences a higher temperature compared to its surrounding non-urban areas, existing empirical studies, however, lack to answer whether TODs are likely to reduce the UHI effect. Using Brisbane as a case, this research answers this question by: a) identifying TOD neighbourhoods based on a cluster analysis of six built environment factors (residential density, employment density, land use diversity, intersection and cul-de-sac densities, public transport accessibility levels); b) validating the selection of TOD neighbourhoods based on travel behaviour analysis of residents living between TOD and non-TOD areas; c) examining patterns of UHI effects between the areas and their changes over the period of 2004–2013 based on Landsat remote sensing data; and d) identifying the factors contributing to the UHI effects in TODs. Results show that TODs experienced a higher level of UHI effect compared to non-TOD areas. Although both areas experienced an increase in the UHI effect between the periods, the rate of increase was found to be significantly higher in TOD areas. Land use diversity, percentage of porous land vis-à-vis density significantly contributed to the UHI effect. The findings suggest that a compromise between natural and built-up areas is essential to reduce the UHI effect while contributing to the ultimate goal of TODs – i.e. to create settings which prompt people to drive less and ride public transit more.

Inferring Social Functions Available in the Metro Station Area from Passengers’ Staying Activities in Smart Card Data

The function of a metro station area is vital for city planners to consider when establishing a context-aware Transit-Oriented Development policy around the station area. However, the functions of metro station areas are hard to infer using the static land use distribution and other traditional survey datasets. In this paper, we propose a method to infer the functions occurring around the metro station catchment areas according to the patterns of staying activities derived from smart card data. We first define the staying activities by the spatial and temporal constraints of the two consecutive alighting and boarding records from the individual travel profile. Then we cluster and label the whole staying activities by considering the features of duration, frequency, and start time. By analyzing the percentage of different types of aggregated activities happening around each metro station, we cluster and explore the functions of the metro station area. Taking Wuhan as a case study, we analyze the results of Wuhan metro systems and discuss the similarities and differences between the functions and the land use distribution around the station area. The results show that although there exist some agreements, there is also a gap between the human activities and the land uses around the station area. These findings could give us deeper insight into how people act around the stations by metro systems, which will ultimately benefit the urban planning and policy development.

Measuring TOD around transit nodes - Towards TOD policy

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) can stimulate sustainable development by improving the interaction between transit and the surrounding development. Planning for TOD around existing transit nodes can only be effective if the assessment of the base situation is done properly. To do so, we propose a methodology to quantitatively measure existing levels of TOD in terms of a TOD Index, within walkable distance of a transit node, by measuring various criteria that define TOD. The value of a TOD index indicates the level to which TOD supporting characteristics are inplace around a transit node and what may be required to be improved so as to attain better transit orientation of thedevelopment. With these results in hand, TOD planning proposals can become more accurate by targeting investments on the most relevant or critical factors. The methodology was applied to the city region of Arnhem and Nijmegen, The Netherlands. A TOD index was calculated for areas around the 21 train stations in the region. The results help in drawing TOD policy for the region by identifying which station areas need more attention than others and at the same time, for each station, identifying specific TOD characteristic(s) that need improvement.

Assessing the spatial equity of Seoul’s public transportation using the Gini coefficient based on its accessibility

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this research is to develop a methodology for calculating the index of the spatial equity for the public transportation services for the city of Seoul using the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient based on accessibility to the services. The index was estimated for 100 m × 100 m cells first and then aggregated for 424 traffic analysis zones (TAZs) in the city. The indices for Seoul’s subway and bus were represented with and without the weighting factor. On the basis of this methodology, this study assessed the effect of an additional subway line on the spatial equity before and after its operation. Furthermore, an index of relative difference indicating the change in population and employment in the station areas was applied to investigate the changed effects of spatial equity between population and employment from the new subway line. The core findings from this research are summarized as follows. First, the subway network of Seoul provides more unequal public transportation services for the TAZs than for the bus network. Second, an improvement in the operation frequency of both transit modes would deepen the spatial inequity of Seoul. Third, a subway extension plan for Seoul could noticeably reduce the spatial inequity. The plan would improve the spatial equity for the population more than that for employment. The most important meaning of this study is to be found in combining spatial equity on the supply side with transit-oriented development (TOD) on the demand side. So, by establishing a TOD policy for the additional subway station areas, an appropriate land-use pattern can be established for maximizing potential ridership in consideration of the combination.

If You Build Rail Transit in Suburbs, Will Development Come?

Problem, research strategy, and findings: There is little consensus about the effects of rail transit on residential development, especially in suburbs, despite high expectations. I revisit this issue by examining a “best case”: I test the impacts of rail transit on housing development around suburban rail stations in Portland (OR), a region with multiple supportive transit-oriented development policies. I conducted longitudinal analyses of housing development in quarter-mile catchment areas around 57 suburban rail transit stations in suburban Portland from 2004 to 2014, a longer time period than many previous studies, evaluating factors that helped station areas attract residential development. Housing developments, most multifamily, grew much faster in the quarter-mile catchment areas around suburban stations put into service in or before 2004 than the regional average. Areas around stations opened after 2004 have few residential developments. More residential development is associated with higher system ridership, more vacant land zoned for residential and mixed-use purposes, greater shares of nonresidential land, and higher shares of the White population. Faster density increases were associated with more vacant land zoned for high-density and mixed-use purposes.Takeaway for practice: Rail systems may need to be in operation longer to affect land use than the study periods in some previous research. Rail transit can guide suburban residential development in neighborhoods with enough vacant land, some nonresidential destinations, and appropriate zoning. Multiple supportive public policies and incentives appear to have a major impact, but may not be effective alone unless these preconditions are met.

Impact of transit-oriented development policy scenarios on travel demand measures of mode share, trip distance and highway usage in Maryland

This paper aims to evaluate and compare impacts of two alternative Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) policies, concentrating growth of population or employment opportunities in transit service area, on travel demand measures of mode share, trip distance and highway usage. A validated Maryland Statewide Transportation Model (MSTM) is employed to forecast changes in travel demand measures under various TOD policy scenarios in a future year of 2030. The model simulation results show either concentrating population or employment policy has similar impacts on raising transit mode share and reducing auto mode share. However, concentrating population policy decreases average trip distance while concentrating employment policy increases it. Consequently, concentrating population policy reduces highway usage, measured by Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), more effectively than concentrating employment policy in this specific region given the existing land use pattern. The findings in this paper have important implications to urban planners, transportation planners and decision makers in Maryland of US. The paper also provides a good example for applying a travel demand model to evaluate and compare alternative TOD policies based on travel demand measures.

Commuting mode choice in transit oriented development: Disentangling the effects of competitive neighbourhoods, travel attitudes, and self-selection

This research identifies the commuting mode choice behaviour of 3537 adults living in different types of transit oriented development (TOD) in Brisbane by disentangling the effects of their “evil twin” transit adjacent developments (TADs), and by also controlling for residential self-selection, travel attitudes and preferences, and socio-demographic effects. A TwoStep cluster analysis was conducted to identify the natural groupings of respondents’ living environment based on six built environment indicators. The analysis resulted in five types of neighbourhoods: urban TODs, activity centre TODs, potential TODs, TADs, and traditional suburbs. HABITAT survey data were used to derive the commute mode choice behaviour of people living in these neighbourhoods. In addition, statements reflecting both respondents’ travel attitudes and living preferences were also collected as part of the survey. Factor analyses were conducted based on these statements and these derived factors were then used to control for residential self-selection. Four binary logistic regression models were estimated, one for each of the travel modes used (e.g. public transport, active transport, less sustainable transport such as the car/taxi, and other), to differentiate between the commuting behaviour of people living in the five types of neighbourhoods. The findings verify that urban TODs enhance the use of public transport and reduce car usage. No significant difference was found in the commuting behaviour between respondents living in traditional suburbs and TADs. The results confirm the hypothesis that TADs are the “evil twin” of TODs. The data indicates that TADs and the mode choices of residents in these neighbourhoods is a missed transport policy opportunity. Further policy efforts are required for a successive transition of TADs into TODs in order to realise the full benefits of these. TOD policy should also be integrated with context specific TOD design principles.

Residential dissonance and mode choice

Residential dissonance refers to the mismatch in land-use patterns between individuals’ preferred residential neighbourhood type and the type of neighbourhood in which they currently reside. Current knowledge regarding the impact of residential dissonance is limited to short-term travel behaviours in urban vs. suburban, and rural vs. urban areas. Although the prevailing view is that dissonants adjust their orientation and lifestyle around their surrounding land use over time, empirical evidence is lacking to support this proposition. This research identifies both short-term mode choice behaviour and medium-term mode shift behaviour of dissonants in transit oriented development (TODs) vs. non-TOD areas in Brisbane, Australia. Natural groupings of neighbourhood profiles (e.g. residential density, land use diversity, intersection density, cul-de-sac density, and public transport accessibility levels) of 3957 individuals were identified as living either in a TOD (510 individuals) or non-TOD (3447 individuals) areas in Brisbane using the TwoStep cluster analysis technique. Levels of dissonance were measured based on a factor analysis of 16 items representing the travel attitudes/preferences of individuals. Two multinomial logistic (MNL) regression models were estimated to understand mode choice behaviour of (1) TOD dissonants, and (2) non-TOD dissonants in 2009, controlling for socio-demographics and environmental characteristics. Two additional MNL regression models were estimated to investigate mode shift behaviour of (3) TOD dissonants, and (4) non-TOD dissonants between 2009 and 2011, also controlling for socio-demographic, changes in socio-demographic, and built environmental factors. The findings suggest that travel preference is relatively more influential in transport mode choice decisions compared with built environment features. Little behavioural evidence was found to support the adjustment of a dissonant orientation toward a particular land use feature and mode accessibility they represent (e.g. a modal shift to greater use of the car for non-TOD dissonants). TOD policies should focus on reducing the level of dissonance in TODs in order to enhance transit ridership.

Integrated Decision Support Tool for Evaluating Transit and Land-Use Coordination Policies

Policy makers in many urban areas have begun to embrace the principles of transit-oriented development as a means to create more livable communities and of light rail transit as a means to address congestion and air-quality problems. A policy-oriented screening tool for applying rigorous technical analyses to transit-oriented development policies to give decision makers meaningful information about a wide range of potential land-use, transit service and financing, and parking management policies is described. The decision support tool (DST) uses a simplified version of the regional travel forecasting model and includes an air-quality analysis module. The DST was validated to the Memphis regional travel forecasting model, and enhancements were incorporated for studying the effects of specific land-use, transit, and parking-policy assumptions. DST provides policy-related output data such as percentage of development in the corridor; transit ridership; annual transit operating cost, revenue, deficit, and cost recovery ratio; annual transit capital cost; and air-quality benefits. A sample application of the model for the Poplar Corridor in Memphis, Tennessee, is presented.