Cities worldwide are rethinking their development strategies to build vibrant new urban communities that prioritize public transport and promote walkability. These are known as transit-oriented development (TOD).
Successful TOD planning requires coordinated work across multiple planning departments. This includes ensuring that corridor and station area plans are aligned with land use planning, capital improvement, housing and other systems plans.
People-Oriented Design
In a broad sense, people-oriented design is about making destinations accessible by walking. This includes providing convenient sidewalk access to destinations; enhancing building facades along public paths; and locating surface-level parking away from walkways.
In addition, it is important to provide a range of parking options that reduce car dependence in the station area and encourage transit ridership. Convenient parking and drop off zones should be included in all station area plans (see “Best Practices”).
TOD strategies can also be designed to promote local economic development, including incorporating commercial retail or community facilities into the mix of destinations around transit stations. These strategies are particularly relevant in small and rural communities, where travel demand may be limited by the availability of destinations that can easily be reached by foot. TOD can create attractive, healthy and sustainable communities that are resilient to changing economic and social needs. This is an alternative to sprawl, high-cost automobile dependency and its accompanying environmental degradation.
Walkable Neighborhoods
While the home itself often gets most of the attention, the neighborhood around it shapes your daily life. A walkable neighborhood combines convenience, connection, and a sense of place, and it’s important for many buyers to consider when making a home purchase.
Walkable neighborhoods decrease the need for private cars by providing access to everyday destinations — shops, restaurants, bars, and transit — within walking distance. This means fewer greenhouse gas emissions, less congestion and parking demand, and safer streets for everyone.
To assess how walkable a neighborhood is, look for sidewalks that are safe and well-maintained, traffic signals that provide adequate crossing time for pedestrians, and street trees and greenery. Visit the area at different times of day to see how it feels – for example, on a quiet weekday morning versus a busy weekend evening. Also, check crime rates and neighborhood watch programs. This can be an indication of safety and community engagement.
Multi-Modal Transportation
The logistics of shipping goods across multiple modes of transportation requires advanced technology, from route optimization to real-time tracking. Shipping modes like road, rail, sea and air must be selected based on the nature of a shipment, its cost and speed requirements and its environmental impact.
Multimodal transportation is one of the most efficient ways to get a shipment from its origin to its destination. It combines various transport modes like road, rail, sea and air to capitalize on their strengths and mitigate their limitations. For example, a shipment from Shenzhen to Berlin might use road transport to reach the port of Shanghai, sea freight across the Indian Ocean and through the Suez Canal to Hamburg and then rail transport to Berlin.
Unlike combined or intermodal transport, which utilize different transport modes but do not operate under a single contract and management, multimodal transport is coordinated by a single carrier. This provides clearer communication between carriers and reduces delivery delays.
Local Economic Development
The local economic development (LED) is one of the main duties that the municipalities have according to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Malefane; 2008). LED is a process where municipalities, private and not-for-profit sectors, and communities work together to foster sustainable economic growth.
A local economy that is transit-oriented can help to reduce the need for driving, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and road crashes. It can also provide jobs in the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure, as well as a range of retail, commercial, and residential uses that are close to transit stations.
Creating communities with both residential and commercial space that are easily accessible by public transport can stimulate economic activity, while lowering the cost of living. This, in turn, makes it easier for residents to use sustainable transport options. Moreover, it encourages business investment because of the access to potential customers. This is similar to the argument made by Tiebout-inspired public choice scholars.