Our experience in public transit is unique in how OHK has developed analytics to measure financial, planning and service delivery aspects in interspersed transit-land use systems. We have used this knowledge to enhance future land development in new, emerging and transitioning municipalities linked to railway, metro and bus systems. Best-practice in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is an area we try to holistically integrate into our urban design and redevelopment projects. The TOD terminology is rarely used in Europe, even though its use has been intrinsic to most planning practice in European cities. We have decoded complicated planning policies and documents in cities in Austria and France, the Netherlands and Sweden, to name a few, to identify best-practices in urban and regional transit developments that underscore TOD principles and structures.
There is no one consensus on the definition of TOD, OHK uses a minimal criterion of ‘3D’—Density, Diversity, and Design. European transit projects that made our list of best-practices are at least: transit-oriented urban developments that push for or integrate high-density residential components, a diversity of land uses and urban functions, and a sustainable urban design that offers public space along with a qualified transit service and modern mobility standards. The City of Vienna has an existing and new array of TOD developments including the new Seestadt Aspern—one of Europe's largest urban redevelopments located the city's 22nd district. Like many other areas in Vienna, the Seestadt embodies intrinsic 3D characteristics, it is a TOD that relies on residential density, public transit, decreased energy consumption, and varied mobility schemes from walking and cycling to extensive pedestrian-oriented spines and organized open space. Photo © OHK Consultants.
Building rail transit hubs, metro network upgrades, street re-routing projects and smart city infrastructure should no longer be afterthoughts to urban (re)planning. They are all integral to growth strategies of cities, municipalities, and districts. Our modus operandiis that regardless of the kind of urban challenges, interventions that are based on TOD thinking offer workable solutions irrespective of the stage of planning and the scale of interventions.
Europe is a hotbed of major transit projects that underscore this thinking. We have reviewed multiple initiatives that have shaped what we call the ‘European model of transit-oriented developments’, a series of projects that OHK has analyzed extensively and found world-leading on several fronts. Overall, this model offers a wide range of approaches that have successfully addressed weak linkages between land use, transport, economic regeneration, and funding. Many of our clients, similar to other transit and city authorities in many corners of the world who are faced with development and operational challenges, find it difficult to adapt to new urban realities and in particular their ability to sustain an urban footprint’s economic growth and mobility. In this respect, we often present our analytics from the European model of TODs as a new way of thinking about the interplay between land-use and transit and potential solutions.
Despite Europe’s proven track in TODs, information that is readily translatable to best-practice is scarce. Projects and their knowledge are dispersed across many agencies, regions, and in languages and data formats that are varied and inconsistent. A city planner or manager who has not been directly involved in these projects would struggle to learn about them let alone adapt them to other projects and regions. To overcome this, OHK archived existing initiatives from European cities that have wide global applicability. Further, we distilled the information to make it usable in practice—in different contexts and regions and mapped each project's best-practices against our analytics from the perspective of public land and transit managers.
The outcome is a practitioner’s guide to European TODs that can be used by any city or transport planner or manager anywhere in the world. Four main guiding themes were presented in a way that showcases how they can be planned in sync and feed off each other in practice.
France has many TOD examples that surprisingly are not recognized globally as such. There are many transit projects that are successful TODs integrating compact, mixed-use developments within walking distance of transit stations and within a modern mobility scheme. OHK considers Euralille, a north-east quarter in the City of Lille, a world-leading TOD example. It has undergone urban regeneration since the early 1990s to integrate a high-speed train station, transport reorganization, urban redevelopment, and an extension of the city’s urban core. Photo © OHK Consultants.
First, the development of alternative funding opportunities linked to improved transport systems. Here we defined operational, and investment frameworks that can support a transit agency’s diversification of revenues beyond traditional municipal budgets, central government allocations, tariff restrictions, government subsidies, and tax revenues. Further to the European examples, we also reflected on alternative funding methods from our and our peers' work in the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
Secondly, ways to amalgamate planning mechanisms and tools. Here an emphasis was placed on two tracks that integrate public transit investments and land-use planning. We addressed how reforming transit-linked districts can alter urban realities in some of the most complex and congested transit networks. In particular, guidance was provided on how to combine transit plans and land-use planning in and around stations and city hubs, respectively, with urban regeneration, open space development, and Private Sector Investment (PSI)-led real-estate projects.
Thirdly, developing TOD protocols and Land Value Capture (or LVC) models and how transit planners, operators, and municipalities have applied them in Europe and similarly elsewhere. We thoroughly presented how comprehensive strategies can be formulated to coordinate land assessment, land-use/urban design, increased public transit accessibility, and enhanced funding based on asset value uplift and capture. Case studies from lines and stations of national, regional and light rail, metros, trams, buses, and even ferry terminals were annotated along with a presentation of thematic attributes and international best-practice.
Fourth, how to ensure dialogue facilitation among central and local governments, municipality officials, transit executives, public and private land developers and service users in complicated settings and mobility-challenged cities. This is more pressing in regions where existing structures do not lend themselves to stakeholder census and in infrastructure/land development projects that suffer from turf-overlaps among different stakeholders with conflicting views, needs, and interests.
OHK has institutionalized various land use master plans and transit-oriented projects that include more than five million square meters of TODs. We implement 360-degree stakeholder communications and TOD-focused programs that enable commercialization approaches and private sector participation, along with PPPs and fiscal reforms. To learn more about OHK’s track record in working directly with municipalities and transit operators to realize positive public cost-benefits and funding implications, land-use and community impacts, and real-estate prospects, please contact us.