Transit-oriented development
In urban planning, transit-oriented development is a type of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between dense, compact urban form and public transport use. In doing so, TOD aims to increase public transport ridership by reducing the use of private cars and by promoting sustainable urban growth.
TOD typically includes a central transit stop surrounded by a high-density mixed-use area, with lower-density areas spreading out from this center, serving as part of an integrated transport network. TOD is also typically designed to be more walkable than other built-up areas, by using smaller block sizes and reducing the land area dedicated to automobiles. In some areas, it may include ferries. Areas that center a transit station as a hub while building residential-focused TOD development in the immediate area are known as transit villages.
The densest areas of TOD are normally located within a radius of to mile around the central transit stop, as this is considered to be an appropriate scale for pedestrians, thus solving the last mile problem.
Description
Many of the new towns created after World War II in Japan, Sweden, and France have many of the characteristics of TOD communities. In a sense, nearly all communities built on reclaimed land in the Netherlands or as exurban developments in Denmark have had the local equivalent of TOD principles integrated in their planning, including the promotion of bicycles for local use.In the United States, a half-mile-radius circle has become the de facto standard for rail-transit catchment areas for TODs. A half mile corresponds to the distance someone can walk in 10 minutes at and is a common estimate for the distance people will walk to get to a rail station. The half-mile ring is a little more than in size.
Transit-oriented development is sometimes distinguished by some planning officials from "transit-proximate development" because it contains specific features that are designed to encourage public transport use and differentiate the development from urban sprawl. A few examples of these features include mixed-use development that will use transit at all times of day, excellent pedestrian facilities such as high quality pedestrian crossings, narrow streets, and tapering of buildings as they become more distant from the public transport node. Another key feature of transit-oriented development that differentiates it from "transit-proximate development" is reduced amounts of parking for personal vehicles.
Transit-oriented development has many benefits including but not limited to:
- Easy access to transit, making it easy to get around without a car.
- Dense, due to TODs being made for getting around transportation, other than private vehicles, allowing access to stores and private business.
- Improved access to jobs and city services.
- Increased population near transit stops, such as a commuter rail stop, which ultimately increases transit ridership across the board.
In cities
Many cities throughout the world are developing TOD policy. Toronto, Portland, Montreal, San Francisco, and Vancouver among many other cities have developed, and continue to write policies and strategic plans, which aim to reduce automobile dependency and increase the use of public transit.Latin America
Curitiba, Brazil
One of the earliest and most successful examples of TOD is Curitiba, Brazil.Curitiba was organized into transport corridors very early on in its history. Over the years, it has integrated its zoning laws and transportation planning to place high-density development adjacent to high-capacity transportation systems, particularly its BRT corridors. Since the failure of its first rather grandiose city plan due to lack of funding, Curitiba has focused on working with economical forms of infrastructure, so it has arranged unique adaptations, such as bus routes with routing systems, limited access and speeds similar to subway systems. The source of innovation in Curitiba has been a unique form of participatory city planning that emphasizes public education, discussion and agreement.
Guatemala City, Guatemala
In an attempt to control the rapid growth of Guatemala City, the long-time mayor, Álvaro Arzú, implemented a plan to control growth based on transects along important arterial roads and exhibiting transit-oriented development characteristics. The plan adopted POT aims to allow the construction of taller mixed-use building structures right by large arterial roads. The buildings would gradually decrease in height and density as distance would increase from arterial roads. That is being implemented simultaneously with a bus rapid transit system, called Transmetro.Mexico City, Mexico
Mexico City has battled pollution for years. Many attempts have been made to orient citizens towards public transportation. Expansion of metro line, both subway and bus, have been instrumental. Following the example of Curitiba, many bus-lines were created on many of Mexico City's most important streets. The bus-line has taken two lanes from cars to be used only by the bus-line, increasing the flow for bus transit. The city has also made great attempts at increasing the number of bike lanes, including shutting down entire roads on certain days to be used only by bikers.Car regulations have also increased in the city. New regulations prevent old cars from driving in the city, other cars from driving on certain days. Electric cars are allowed to be driven every day and have free parking. Decreasing the public space allocated to cars and increasing regulations have become a great annoyance among daily car users. The city hopes to push people to use more public transport.
North America
Canada
All major Canadian cities have transit oriented development policies and implementations. The main purposes of these policies has been to kerb suburban sprawl, and to increase housing supply amidst a housing crisis. In addition, it comes in response to a shifting population demographic that prefers high density living.Some cities, such as Toronto, Ottawa, and especially Vancouver, have a long history of building new communities near transit, and they often plan development and rapid transit simultaneously. Others, such as Calgary and Montréal, have only implemented TOD policies recently, and there is some debate as to whether it is better to build new transit to existing high density neighbourhoods, or build high density neighbourhoods near existing transit.
Calgary, Alberta
Calgary's Transit Oriented Development has been evolving largely around stations along Calgary's Light Rail Transit system, also known as the CTrain network. Although Calgary's CTrain system has been around since 1981, TOD activity has been fairly recent, with much of development taking place since 2010. Most of the transit oriented development has taken place along the LRT system's Red Line especially around stations of the northwest leg with areas around stations at Brentwood, Dalhousie, and Banff Trail having seen the most development. Brentwood Station for example, with multi-building developments such as University City, has seen almost 900 residential units built in the last eight years within the 600m radius of Brentwood station, as well as proposed developments that are in the works. On the south leg of the Red Line the massive Midtown Station proposal is a reversal from previous TOD builds where development is built around existing stations. In the case of Midtown Station, the proposal is along the CTrain line, but includes building a new station solely for the purpose of serving the development.For The City of Calgary, TOD's are an ongoing process, but the city has published policy guidelines and implementation strategies for Transit Oriented Development.