The Next American Metropolis Ecology, Community and the American Dream

1. The chapter focuses on Transit – Orientated Development guidelines and how they integrate a strategy for growth in our cities, suburbs and towns with the simple concept of moderate high density housing, along with complimentary public uses, jobs, retail and services, being concentrated in mixed use developments at strategic points along the transit system. Instead of the usual ‘design guidelines’ that deal with the aesthetic and architectural aspects of building, TOD guidelines define a new context and direction for the built environment, one that concentrates on our communities, neighbourhoods, districts and regions.

2. These guidelines are shaped according to three principles, these include:

-          Regional structure of growth should be led by the expansion of transit and a more compact urban form.

-          The ubiquitous single-use zoning should be replaced with walkable, mixed use neighbourhoods.

-          Urban design policies should provide architecture directed towards the public arena and human dimension rather than the private arena and auto scale.

3. A key aspect of the TOD guidelines is to provide a walkable environment. An obvious solution is to develop alternatives to drive-alone auto-use.  This includes:

-          bringing many destinations within walking distance, allowing trios to be combined

-          Placing local, retail, day care, civic services and transit at the centre TOD as well as combining transit trips with other stops.

-          Reducing trips length, combining destinations, carpooling, walking, and biking are all enhanced by TODs.

4. The fundamental function of TOD is focussed on a commercial centre, civic uses, and a potential transit stop. The primary area is made up of a core commercial area, with civic and transit uses integrated, and a flexible program of housing, jobs, and public space surrounding it.  This is determined by the specifics of each site and economy. The secondary area surrounding the TOD is for low density users, the large-lot single family residences, schools, larger businesses, and major parks.

5. There are many different ‘mixed use’ strategies implemented by programs such as the Planned Unit Development and Master Planned Communities.

However, the principles of these compared to those of TOD differ in several ways, these include:

-          Separating users into individual development zones segregated by major arterial roadways and property lines

-          Isolating the pedestrian from the street, by greenways or paths, leaving the streets solely auto-use orientated

-          The hierarchy of streets, focussing on congestion by forcing traffic onto the arterial network.

-          Concentrating on auto-use rather than mixed uses and slower traffic

-          Facilitation of architecture of isolated ‘objects’ rather than an architecture that helps provide a memorable space.

6. TODS provides not only an alternative to auto-use but a formula for affordable  

            communities, this includes being affordable to:

-    The environment when the communities use land efficiently

-          Helping to preserve open space and reduce air pollution

-          Diverse households when a variety of household types, at various costs and densities are encouraged in well-situated  locations

-          Low income families when the mix and configuration of uses allow reduced auto use and expense.

-          Businesses looking to relocate when they can be freed from the gridlock and high housing costs.

-          Public taxpayers when infrastructure is efficient and public amenities are well used.

      What TOD guidelines wish to provide to each region and locality include:

-          To be compact and transit supportive on a regional level

-          Place jobs, retail, housing, parks, civic uses within walking distance

-          Creation of pedestrian friendly street networks

-          Provision of mixed housing types, costs and densities

-          Preservation of open space and riparian zones and habitat

-          Create public space as the centre of building orientation and neighbourhood activity

-           Encourage infill and redevelopment along transit lines within existing neighbourhoods 

7.   In the past there has been a multi-disciplinary effort to integrate ecological systems into the city. It succeeded in providing a better infrastructure for energy conservation, waste recycling, open space preservation, and walkable neighbourhoods. However, some believe that in some respects the balance between urbanism and naturalism was lost, a few example include:

-          The urban vitality was often sacrificed to open green spaces.

-          Buildings became locked in a certain angle to optimize solar heating

-          The Radburn experiment of the 1930’s tried to control the car by separating the pedestrian into ‘greenways’ and paths resulting in sacrificing the street to the automobile.

-          The modernists ‘building in the park’ sacrificed the life of the street by separating it from the activities of the buildings that lined it.

Communities need parks, regional greenbelts and open space, but they also need density, diversity and street life.

8. Central to the effectiveness of the TOD concept are the implications of travel behaviour. A Land use pattern is the major contributor on our travel behaviour. While there are other factors that effect and contribute to our behaviour on travel such as, cost, time, parking expenses, and auto ownership, it is the land pattern that is the foundation on which these factors depend. If land use patterns support the auto, then increasing costs on operating cars and the growth of congestion will follow. However, if the land configurations support alternatives to the car then positive outcomes will follow, such as:

-    Air quality improves

-    Health costs could be reduced

-    As more people walk or use bikes, the federal and local costs for   

      highway and road maintenance can be reduced.

-    More people going to work and shopping without cars can reduce the

      size of parking lots.

-    The end result environmentaly will be reduced green house gases,    

                        energy consumption and dependence on foreign oil.

9. Where and how the TOD guidelines are implemented is critical to their overall success. The distribution of development of the three primary types of sites – redevelopment, infill and new growth areas must be balanced in environmental, economic and social terms as well as being balanced and analysed from a regional perspective. Producing land uses and configurations that are more pedestrian orientated, affordable, and linked to the greater metropolitan region will reinforce the transit system. When a street grid is present, horizontal connections between local uses is simple and smaller sites can develop to balance the mix of uses surrounding it. In the new suburban context the disconnected street patterns make it hard to establish walkable connections. Therefore, smaller infill opportunities should provide these.

10. Land in America is controlled by outdated codes and planning documents that are founded on modernist principles such as, segregation of uses, circulation systems focussed on the car, and loss of public space and gathering spots. To redirect this form of growth each of these documents need to be revised and in some cases rewritten. The structure and content of the TOD guidelines are designed to provide direction and policies for the various levels of planning – Regional, comprehensive, specific area and zoning ordinances. They are arranged from the general to the specific. The TOD guidelines provide the overview, goals and principles to provide such changes.