Transit-oriented development

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Aerial view of growth patterns in Arlington County, Virginia. High density, mixed use development is concentrated within ¼–½ mile from the Rosslyn, Court House and Clarendon Metro stations (shown in red), with limited density outside that area. This photograph is taken from the United States Environmental Protection Agency [1] website describing Arlington's award for overall excellence in smart growth in 2002 — the first ever granted by the agency.
Aerial view of growth patterns in Arlington County, Virginia. High density, mixed use development is concentrated within ¼–½ mile from the Rosslyn, Court House and Clarendon Metro stations (shown in red), with limited density outside that area. This photograph is taken from the United States Environmental Protection Agency [1] website describing Arlington's award for overall excellence in smart growth in 2002 — the first ever granted by the agency.
Street-level view of the area around the Ballston Metro Station — also in Arlington, Virginia. Note the mixed-use development (from left to right: ground floor retail under apartment building, office buildings, shopping mall (at the end of the street), apartment building, office building with ground floor retail), pedestrian oriented facilities including wide sidewalk, and bus stop facility in the center distance. Parking in this location is limited, relatively expensive, and located underground
Street-level view of the area around the Ballston Metro Station — also in Arlington, Virginia. Note the mixed-use development (from left to right: ground floor retail under apartment building, office buildings, shopping mall (at the end of the street), apartment building, office building with ground floor retail), pedestrian oriented facilities including wide sidewalk, and bus stop facility in the center distance. Parking in this location is limited, relatively expensive, and located underground

A transit-oriented development (TOD) is a mixed-use residential or commercial area designed to maximize access to public transport, and often incorporates features to encourage transit ridership. A TOD neighborhood typically has a center with a train station, metro station, tram stop, or bus station, surrounded by relatively high-density development with progressively lower-density development spreading outwards from the center. TODs generally are located within a radius of one-quarter to one-half mile (0.4 to 0.8 km) from a transit stop, as this is considered to be an appropriate scale for pedestrians.

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.

Transit-oriented development is sometimes distinguished by some planning officials from "transit-proximate development" (see, e.g. comments made during a Congressional hearing [2]) because it contains specific features that are designed to encourage public transport use and differentiate the development from urban sprawl. 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.

[edit] TOD Cities

Many cities in the USA and Canada are developing TOD policy. Portland, Denver, San Francisco, and Calgary have developed, and continue to write policies and strategic plans which aim to reduce automobile dependency, increase use of public transit, and create communities in which to live, work, and play.

In Calgary, Alberta (Canada), their City Council allocated funding for the creation of six Station Area Plans around their city, to deal with increasing development pressure around some of their light rail transit stations. On June 9 2008, Calgary City Council approved the first station area plan in Calgary's history.

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