Research on the Impact of Transit-Oriented Development Method on

Urban Transport

Zixian Xie

Southwest Jiaotong-Leeds Joint School, Southwest Jiaotong University, China

Keywords: Transit-Oriented Development, Urban Transport, Traffic Congestion, Transport Equity.

Abstract: In recent years, transit-oriented development (TOD) has gained popularity in urban development practice

because it is thought to have an impact on urban transport. This paper is targeted at researching TOD’s impact

on urban traffic congestion and transport equity as they are the cause of many other developing problems.

The purpose of this paper is to figure out the effectiveness of TOD on tackling traffic congestion and transport

equity and find out the potential develop problems of TOD. This paper concludes that TOD reduce traffic

congestion by changing the travel behaviour of residents. What is more, TOD might affect transport equity

positively because it makes traffic transport affordable and accessible for everyone. However, TOD might

also affect transport equity negatively as it could cause the regional gentrification which is not friendly for

the low-income household. Finally, TOD is expected to be integrated into other concepts to keep up with the

trend of urban transport system. This research helps to clarify the important impacts of TOD and enhance the

sustainable growth of cities.

1 INTRODUCTION

Since the industrial revolution, mechanized vehicles

such as trains, motor vehicles and so on have

conquered the urban transport methods and effected

the urban development. On the one hand, these

transport methods promote and shape the urban

development, on the other hand, it can also cause

several urban development problems, thus transport

is called “a maker and breaker” of cities by Clark

(Clark Colin, 1958).

During the process of urbanization, X-oriented

methods (XOD) have been generated to optimize and

enhance the pattern of urban development and

promote the healthy growth and development of cities,

such as Service-oriented development (SOD),

industry-oriented development (IOD) and so on.

Among them, transit-oriented development (TOD)

has gained popularity and become an important

method in urban development because it is thought to

encourage public transport usage and benefit the

ecosystem. Besides, TOD is also argued to be

efficient in tackling urban development problems

such as traffic congestion, energy consumption and so

on.

https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4946-6962

A number of research studies covering different

aspects of TOD have been conducted. Concerning the

land management of TOD, in a case study in Shanghai,

Zekun Li et al. extended the classic "node (traffic) -

place (land use)" model by integrating directional

features that represent the morphological and

functional links between transport and land use. (Li et

al., 2019). Besides, Xiaolei Ma et al. designed an

improved immune-genetic based algorithm to

optimize the land use methods of metro stations (Ma

et al., 2018). Regarding the impact of TOD, Tamakloe

et al. analyzed the TOD efficiency of bus stops and

found that the increase in population, the diversity of

land use, and the number of bus stops around subway

stations all improved TOD efficiency, while the

transfer distance was negatively correlated with the

performance of the stations. (Tamakloe and Hong,

2020). As for the success factors of TOD, Kelly C.

Strong et al. developed a decision-making framework

for the decision-makers by applying analytic

hierarchy process (Strong et al., 2017).

This paper aims to provide a summary of the

literature researching the impact of TOD method on

urban transport. The structure of this paper is

organized as follows: First, the background

Xie, Z.

Research on the Impact of Transit-Oriented Development Method on Urban Transport.

DOI: 10.5220/0013234000004558

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Modern Logistics and Supply Chain Management (MLSCM 2024), pages 86-92

ISBN: 978-989-758-738-2

information of TOD including the definition and the

classification of TOD is presented. Second, some

problems of current urban transportation including

traffic congestion are introduced. After that, the

impact of TOD on urban transport is indicated. Finally,

this paper concludes the impacts in the conclusion

part, the future of TOD is also discussed.

2 BACKGROUND

INFORMATION OF TOD

2.1 The Concept of TOD

Since 1960s, with the acceleration of industrialization

and economic growth, the family income increased so

cars become affordable for most of the families. With

the widespread application of private cars, car-

oriented development dominates urban development.

The feature of this development method is scattered

forms of settlement. In these settlements, functional

separation can usually be seen, and each functional

area such as residential area, business area and so on

is interconnected by road. This development method

can cause some problems including urban sprawl,

traffic congestion and depopulation of the less

accessible areas. In contrast, TOD set transport

infrastructure as the center of each neighborhood and

try to make an area less busy, congested and chaotic.

The original definition of TOD is concluded by

Peter Calthorpe. In his book, Calthorpe described

TOD as a relatively small-scaled and multi-functional

community including a transit stop and a core

commercial area (Newman et al., 2021). As shown in

Figure 1, a TOD area should include a station, and the

commercial area is supposed to place near the station.

After that, the remaining area of the land is the

residential zone. Even if the word TOD is totally new

at that time, however, its concept has begun to

develop and some similar developing concepts have

inspired and influenced the concept of TOD such as

Ebenezer Howard’s satellite city model which was

enabled by intermunicipal railway, Clarence Perry’s

“neighborhood unit” concept and so on.

In recent years, the concept of TOD has been

widely used in urban planning practice, and in some

cases, TOD concept has even been further developed.

Janet Rodriguez et al. compared and contrasted

different definitions of TOD and categorized them

into 2 main focus: urban development outcomes (e.g.,

land development, real estate development) and

develop process or principle (e.g., sustainable

development) (Jamme et al., 2019). Apart from that,

Liwei Bai et al. tried to combine TOD with the

concept smart city (SC) and developed a new

conceptual framework named ‘smart TOD’ including

cloud layer, tactile layer and foundational layer. The

fundamental layer is composed of 3 zones: traffic core

zone, supporting zone and covering zone (Bai et al.,

2023).

To conclude, TOD can be seen as a large concept

covering different sections such as urbanization,

public transport, lifestyle, etc. Different definitions of

TOD have different focuses. Generally, it can be seen

as a coordination of urban structure around public

transport network. Behind all the definition of TOD

stands the assumption that the travel behavior can be

affected by proper spatial organization.

Figure 1: The concept map of TOD (Wheeler, n.d.).

Research on the Impact of Transit-Oriented Development Method on Urban Transport

2.2 TOD Classification

To evaluate and optimize the effect of TOD stations,

various researchers have attempted to classify TOD

according to various features of stations and nearby

areas. Some aspects are usually involved when

conducting the assessment such as density,

accessibility, traffic connection and so on. Among

them, the most widely accepted method is probably

the node-place model Betolini developed. As shown

in Figure 2, this approach can be transformed into a

coordinate system. The horizontal axis represents the

characteristics of a place (the ‘place index’,

describing the land use of the station area) while the

vertical axis represents the accessibility of a node (the

‘node index’, describing the capacity of the transit

station).

Figure 2: Node-place typology model (Bertolini,

1999

According to Figure 2, all the transit stations can

be divided into 5 parts theoretically: 1. Stress (S area);

2. Unsustained node (U-N area); 3. Accessibility (Ac

area); 4. Unsustained place (U-P area); 5.

Dependency (D area).

An ideal TOD station is supposed to be in the Ac

area, where in any place of the TOD area, the station

can be reached easily and cheap.

Betolini’s method has been included in a lot of

research. Lyu et al. set Beijing as an example,

accessed and categorized metro stations in the urban

area based on the node-place model and quantified

the degree of orientation of transit and development

components towards each other (Lyu et al., 2016).

Yang et al. found that the node-place model may not

be suitable for cities experiencing rapid development

in both rail transit and urban infrastructure. Therefore,

they incorporated a metric of residents' intentions and

integrated traditional statistical analysis with GIS and

machine learning techniques to establish a new

approach for delineating and identifying site areas.

(Yang and Song, 2021).

3 CURRENT URBAN

TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

There are many urban transport problems, such as

traffic pollution, shortage of parking spaces, etc. In

this part, traffic congestion and transport equity are

discussed. Traffic congestion not only lengthens

travel time and increases the rate of traffic accident,

but also effects citizens’ life quality and has a negative

impact on their mental health. Traffic inequality

exacerbates social inequality and restricts the

popularity and development of low-carbon travel

modes, which is not conducive to the sustainable

development of urban transport. Traffic congestion

and transport equity could be the cause of many other

urban transport problems, so they are discussed in this

part.

3.1 Traffic Congestion

With the rapid development of cities, the urban

population have continuously increased over the past

few decades. This has directly caused the increase of

the demand for travel in cities; thus, traffic congestion

usually occurs. In fact, it is stated that road traffic

congestion has been a major urban transport problem.

Many problems can be caused by traffic congestion,

such as increase in travelling cost, high accident rate,

higher vehicular emissions that leads to air pollution

and so on.

To solve these problems, researchers have been

trying to find the cause of traffic congestion and

categorize them. Isa et al. divided traffic congestions

into 2 parts (Isa et al., 2014). One is non-recurrent

congestion caused by various factors including

natural disasters, traffic accidents and so on, while the

other one is recurrent congestion, which is regular,

caused by traffic flow during peak hour. Pi et al. found

that excessive traffic volume, unexpected events (e.g.,

bad weather, special events), and improperly-set

traffic signal systems are the main causes of traffic

congestion (Pi et al., 2021). A deeper understanding

of these factors can help urban planners to alleviate

traffic congestion more effectively.

3.2 Transport Equity

As public transport is designed for all the residents,

transport equity is the factor that cannot be ignored

MLSCM 2024 - International Conference on Modern Logistics and Supply Chain Management

when researching the public transport. Transport

equity means the fairness with which benefits and

costs of transportation are distributed (Litman, 2002).

Residents hope that the transit stations are accessible,

and the transports are affordable; decision-makers

hope that the city’s transport system will benefit all

the stakeholders. In contrast, when costs paid are not

proportional to benefits received, transport inequity

occurs. Even if equality and urban transport have

been discussed a lot, transportation planning practice

today still rarely take equity into account.

Currently, there is no standard equity analyzing

method for transport system. Fortunately, Guo et al.

concluded a three-step framework after doing a

comprehensive literature review (Guo et al., 2020).

As shown in Figure 3, population measurement

(measures the targeted population group of public

transport), cost/benefit measurement (quantifies the

cost and accessibility for each population group) and

inequality measurement (compares the outcomes

among the population living in different places or

population in different classes) are included.

Figure 3: Three-step framework of equity assessment

(Guo et al., 2020).

4 IMPACT OF TOD ON URBAN

TRANSPORT

4.1 Effect Traffic Congestion

Although part 3.2 has introduced some causes of

traffic congestion, fundamentally, a lot of past

research have concluded that urban sprawl could lead

to a high demand for private cars and a low

investment to public transport, as a result, traffic

congestion occurs and even become worse. Newman

et al. has proved that in a more sprawl city, the

ownership of private vehicles and accident rates are

grown while walking rate and the use rate of public

transport are decreased (Newman and Kenworthy,

1998). To avoid urban sprawl, people have been

working to achieve urban compactness. As shown in

Figure 4, TOD is one of the approaches.

Figure 4: Urban

Compactness

Approaches

(Mirzahossein, 2020).

As Figure 1 shows, TOD integrate multiple

function areas including office, residential, and retail

areas into a walkable space, decreasing the resident’s

reliance on cars. Besides, every TOD neighborhood is

supposed to include a transit station. It means that

people in that area might feel comfortable traveling

transit, bicycle or foot. As a result, TOD mode was

thought to be useful in reducing the use of private cars

and reducing traffic congestions.

A number of past research have accessed the way

or the effectiveness of TOD in tackling traffic

congestions. Mahardhika at.al developed a model

based on TOD concept to reduce traffic congestion

(Mahardhika et al., 2021). In this study, factors that

encourage the use of transit modes and improve the

efficiency of the transit system are described through

a system dynamics model (Causal Loop Diagram) to

determine how TOD can solve traffic congestion. By

using a traditional four-step travel demand model,

Zhang stimulated tranaport outcomes in three TOD

plans in the Austin, Texas, where a metro line is under

construction (Zhang, 2010). In this research, he

targeted at the traffic flow in peak hour and founded

that TOD reduces the traffic congestion, however, the

non-TOD area benefits more than the TOD area.

Finally, he concluded that promoting walking or

cycling is important to the success of TOD. Xie did a

comparative case study concerning the TOD

development in Beijing and Shenzhen (Xie, n.d.) and

found that the number of private automobiles in both

Beijing and Shenzhen increased. However, that

cannot prove that the TOD mode in the two cities did

not make sense because Beijing and Shenzhen have

been facing the pressure from population growth for

a long time. Finally, the author concluded that the

TOD model is still useful in solving urban

development problems such as urban sprawl and

traffic congestion.

Research on the Impact of Transit-Oriented Development Method on Urban Transport

To summarize, TOD has been theoretically proved

to be efficient to solve the traffic congestion issues.

However, in urban development practice, whether

TOD makes sense depends on its effect on

discouraging the residents to travel on private cars. If

the citizens living in TOD area stick to travelling by

car, the TOD mode may not be as effective as the

theory have predicted. In conclusion, when studying

TOD effect, travel behavior is certainly discussed

most.

4.2 Effect Transport Equity

Ideally, people expect TOD could bring equity to the

urban area. In a city facing the problem of urban

sprawl, people may rely more on private cars to travel,

so a family who cannot afford a car might have

difficulties living in cities so that the social exclusion

appears. In comparison, people living in the TOD area

have a good accessibility to the public transport, so

they rely less on the private cars. It seems that people

of all classes can enjoy equal service in the TOD area;

however, various research studies have shown that it

may not be true.

Some previous studies have demonstrated the

impact of TOD on housing prices. Xu et al. utilized a

spatial autoregressive model to examine the influence

of rail transit on the value of commercial real estate

in Wuhan City, and determined that the value of

commercial real estate would experience an increase

within a 400-meter radius from the subway station.

(Xu et al., 2016). As land values rise, low-income

households that rely on public transport may be

replaced by middle- and high-income households,

leading to increased socio-economic stratification.

Finally, gentrification resulted from the introduction

of TOD might appear.

Some researchers have found the evidence of this

gentrification. Turbe conducted a case study in

Curitiba and discovered that despite the international

recognition gained by its TOD-based Bus Rapid

Transit (BRT) system, an unequal distribution of

benefits was found in that area. The affluent classes

secured prime real estate along the BRT corridor,

while low-income communities were displaced to the

suburbs. (Turbay et al., 2024). Appleyard et al.

evaluate over 350 light rail stations throughout the US

and found that the livability of the stations is

associated with the quality of life for the residents

(Appleyard et al., 2019). Zhao et al. assessed 133

future TOD sites in the Austin, Texas area using

Node-Place-People (NPP) model and discovered that

even in the TOD stations of relatively balanced Node-

Place attributes, the People-Node and People-Place

dimensions remains imbalanced (Zhao et al., 2024).

In conclusion, TOD is expected to bring equality

to urban transport, however, the gentrification caused

by TOD might increase the inequality. To solve this

problem, more policies targeted at the low-income

residents are supposed to be included during the

process of TOD development practice.

5 FUTURE TOD DEVELOPMENT

AND APPLICATION

Ceder mentioned a research conducted by Morrise in

2016 (Ceder, 2021). In this research, Morise analyzed

three kinds of data and found that cars are parked

about 95% of the time on average. Judging from this

data, private cars might not be an efficient solution of

the urban transport problems. In contrast, public

transport might be the mainstream of urban transport

solutions thanks to its high use rate, relatively cheaper

price, low greenhouse gas emissions, etc. To promote

public transport in future urban planning, TOD might

be the most suitable choice.

To discuss future public transport, its definition

cannot be ignored. In the future, the definition of

public transport might be extended. As Ceder argued,

any form of the travel system available for public use,

including traditional forms such as bus, metro and so

on, and new forms such as autonomous vehicles, is

called public transport. From this perspective of view,

the future TOD have to integrate new technologies or

new concept to keep up the pace of the development

of public transport.

To further improve the interaction between TOD

and public transport, the new concept of smart TOD

which is the integration of TOD and smart city might

be a useful future research direction (Bai et al., 2023).

However, TOD is not all about transport, research is

also done in other perspectives of TOD. As for the

relationship between TOD and land use, Xia et al.

found a new random forest (RF) algorithm to

effectively figure out the potential TOD areas in Hong

Kong (Xia and Zhang, 2022). Such algorithm is a

prospective tool in studying land use for TOD and

promoting sustainable urban development.

Concerning TOD and policy, Newman et al. raised a

notion called ‘Transit Activated Corridor (TAC)’

(Newman et al., 2021). TAC can be seen as the

connection between each TOD area placed along

urban main roads. This research introduces 5 design

principles for designing TAC for the decision makers

to improve the urban transit quality.

MLSCM 2024 - International Conference on Modern Logistics and Supply Chain Management

6 CONCLUSION

This paper has studied the impact of TOD method on

urban transport by doing literature review. The focus

of this paper is the TOD’s impact on traffic congestion

and transport equity as they are the cause of many

other problems. Concerning traffic congestion, this

paper found that TOD concept is similar to urban

compactness, whose aim is to reduce traffic

congestion through optimal planning, so TOD could

have positive effects in reducing traffic congestion.

However, if TOD planning cannot change the

residents’ travel behavior, its impact will be greatly

diminished. As for transport equity, this paper found

that TOD might have positive or appositive impact on

the equity. On the one hand, TOD reduces the price

and increases the accessibility of public transport, so

people belonging to different classes can travel

equally. On the other hand, the introduction of TOD

could cause regional gentrification, so actually, only

people in the upper class will enjoy the benefits that

TOD brings. In contrast, low-income households may

face more difficulties in commuting.

In the future, public transport could be the

mainstream of urban transport, and some new public

transport method such as autonomous vehicles will be

integrated into the urban public transport system. To

keep up with this trend, the TOD concept should also

be extended. The future research can focus on the

integration of TOD and other concepts, such as smart

TOD. What is more, the reason why TOD could cause

gentrification needs further research because in some

case studies, gentrification did not appear in the TOD

area.

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