Publication
Title
Beyond circular thinking: geographies of transit-oriented development
Author
Abstract
Transit-oriented development (TOD) plays a significant role within contemporary planning policies for 'smart growth' and sustainable development, particularly in Europe and North America. As a well-rehearsed practice, this planning model is due for critical assessment and improvement in terms of its ability to incorporate dynamic and heterogeneous socio-spatial processes as matters of concern. Analyses of the conditions for 'making TOD work' in the scholarly and professional literatures tend to focus on the 'node' and 'place' qualities. While elaborations on node analysis (primarily based on accessibility measurements) abound within empirical research, discussions of place-specific assets are limited in scope and often spatially bounded by the circle defined by a 10-minute walk. This essay examines the use of this generic 'circle' model, and how it normatively frames how place is understood in TOD studies. We argue that the circle enhances a Euclidean understanding of the site, which favours a static and homogeneous spatial analysis of accessibility and density rather than (other) place qualities relating to dynamic socio-spatial processes. Finally, we argue that relational geography can facilitate an analysis of place qualities beyond the circle-one in which both the continuities and shifting settings of the wider context are meaningfully taken into consideration.
Language
English
Source (journal)
International journal of urban and regional research. - London
Publication
London : 2019
ISSN
0309-1317 [print]
1468-2427 [online]
DOI
10.1111/1468-2427.12798
Volume/pages
43 :4 (2019) , p. 786-793
ISI
000474483900011
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Beyond the dots in TODs. Analysing Transit Oriented Development in networked rural-urban places.
Assessing and improving TOD projects in Belgian and Swedish RURs.
Publication type
Subject
Law 
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 14.06.2019
Last edited 12.11.2024
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