A Transit metropolis is an urbanized region with high-quality public transportation services and settlement patterns that are conducive to riding public transit. While Transit villages and Transit-oriented developments (TODs) focus on creating compact, mixed-use neighborhoods around rail stations, transit metropolises represent a regional constellation of TODs that benefit from having both trip origins and destinations oriented to public transport stations. In an effort to reduce mounting traffic congestion problems and improve environmental conditions, a number of Chinese mega-cities, including Beijing and Shenzhen, have embraced the transit metropolis model for guiding urban growth and public-transport investment decisions.
Around the world, mass transit have been struggling to compete with private automobile and in many places its market is eroding. Transit metropolis and TOD are among the planning strategies being introduced to help reserve ridership losses and advance more sustainable patterns of urban development.
References
- Robert Cervero, The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry, Washington, D.C., Island Press, 1998
- (Chinese) China Architecture and Building Press, 2007
See also
