New Definition Of Transit Oriented Development (Tod) Based On Context Sensitive Paradigm
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Date
2014
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Department
Transportation
Program
Doctor of Engineering
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This item is made available by Morgan State University for personal, educational, and research purposes in accordance with Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Other uses may require permission from the copyright owner.
Abstract
A great deal of attention has been given to the environmental impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emission (GHG) on global warming in recent years. It has also been noted that sprawl developments generate additional demand for motorized transportation to move people and goods, thus increasing Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT) which has imposed exponential stress on social, economic, environmental and global sustainability. An antidote to sprawl is smart land-use planning with sustainable development strategies. During the past few decades, different forms of smart planning have emerged under various labels including "Transit Oriented Development" (TOD). TOD is sustainable, dense, accessible and mixed-use development that is located within comfortable walking distance from transit stations to maximize ridership and minimize auto-dependency. In this dissertation, a new definition of TOD is developed based on context sensitive paradigm. A series of descriptive and statistical analyses are presented to analyze Household Travel Survey (HTS) data at the regional Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) level. The statistical results of binary TOD/NonTOD defined HTS data demonstrate the deficiency of binary and the need for a new TOD definition. This study investigates the benefits of TOD, including emission reduction, based on the binary definition (TOD/NonTOD) of a regional HTS data. Then, a new TOD definition is developed to address the insufficiency of binary definition based on context sensitive neighborhood characteristics. The new definition provides a useful planning tool based on neighborhood-level qualitative variables as objective measures of a range of TODness for evaluation, design, planning, and management of context sensitive urban neighborhoods. This definition is intended to serve as a more useful planning tool to inform the stakeholders, including policy makers, of the urban neighborhoods' qualitative characters to better assess the needs and allocate resources for improvement. In conclusion, suggestions are provided for future research needs and strategies to further improve TOD definition with quality-associated indicators.