Sources: http://funniez.net/Latest/bodyheatforabuilding.html
Sources: http://www.collaborativelandscape.org/wiki/Ostermalmstorg
Definition: Transit-oriented development is a city planning and design principle striving to maximize access to public transport. By locating a mixture of housing, office, retail and other amenities within a half-mile of public transportation, it advocates a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood accompanied with better and equal access to jobs and urban resources. (content from wikipedia.org).
In the effort to stop the spreading of the suburbanization and control the decentralization after the World War II, American architect and urbanist Peter Calthorpe sparked the notion of mixed-use development and density around transit in the 1990s. As the pioneer of New Urbanism, Peter Calthorpe illustrated his idea about the compact and active use of transit in the neighborhood development in his book "The American Metropolis-Ecology, Community, and the American Dream" in 1993. (content from The Transit Metropolis)
However, unlike the prevailing of New Urbanism in the states in the past decades, especially in the new suburban town construction, there had not been a lot of mature practice of TOD. Except in some old metropolis such as New York or Chicago, where the train or metro has been kept as the connection tool for the nearby suburban area to the downtown, the transit cease to achieve popularization in the United States. But if you look outside the United States, you will find that more than half a century ago, some cities in Europe had already adopted a regional vision of transit, using a well-developed transit system to stimulate and find new growth for economy and re-locate its job market.
The best example of rail-based metropolis might be Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden.Stockholm benefited a lot from the development of rail transit after using rail transit to transform a monocentric city to polycentric metropolis. It is maybe the first and only one Western European city where a integrated public transit system is prevailing while the automobility is receding. Why the rail transit can be successful in Stockholm, an affluent city with the highest automobile occupancy rate ? The primary reason responsible for the huge success of rail transit would be the coordination of new town development and rail transit services under an integrated and farsighted, regional planning framework.
I like you description of TOD's current situation in the U.S., but I was wondering what the source is when you say "Except in some old metropolis such as New York or Chicago, where the train or metro has been kept as the connection tool for the nearby suburban area to the downtown..."
ReplyDeleteStockholm！I miss it sooooo much!(This is not a "homework comment". Just personal)
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ReplyDeleteWe all expect cities can have better transportation especially when we see a better precedent. However, sometimes it is completely different not only for urban form but also for basic framework and it is hard to change. For example, it is impossible to prohibit motorbike in Taipei city even though we all know the kind of transportation is pretty dangerous. I just wish we always have good idea to develop our transportation system.
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