TOD

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TOD Core Topic Introduction

China is now facing a rare historic opportunity for transit oriented transportation and effective land use. The length of urban rail transit network will reach 3,000 km in 2015 and be over 6,000 km in 2020, as a result of an accumulated 4-trillion RMB investment. Highway and high-speed railway network will also cover every major city with a population over 500 thousand in 2020. In general, there will be over 4,500 subway and high speed railway stations connected by a sustainable public transportation system by the end of 2020, which can be further developed as centers for new livable urban spaces.

POLICIES AND REGULATIONS

TransFORM’s TOD core topic will promote integrated and low-carbon urban transportation based on effective land use planning. As the main strategy of China Urbanization Report in 2030, it has been determined as a Chinese government’s priority (a priority in the State Council Document No. 64 for Urban Public Transportation Development [2012]). However, its implementation is never an easy task. The laws and regulations for land use have impeded the principle of TOD to develop intensive, multi-mode and integrated transportation.

CHALLENGES

Although the practitioners of China are familiar with the concept of TOD and also aware of the supporting role of effective land use in public transportation financing, TOD’s implementation is still a challenge for most cities. The land use planning and multi-mode transportation planning are hard to be integrated due to scattered planning processes. The laws and regulations for land use are against with the intensive and mixed value development. The inflexible land use policies do not permit the transaction of land-use rights and their subdivisions. The harshness of supervision makes the developers be more favorable of the greenbelt development other than intensive development or reconstruction. When investing for public transportation, business models and financing plans often focus on the initial return on investment instead of the life cycle benefit, which will result in a mismatch between supply and demand, and leads to a significant risk for the sustainability of long-term finance. The developers play a limited role in adjusting relevant law supervisions, and they are more willing to focus on simple short cycle projects within certain architectural scales.

TARGETS

The objective of this activity is to support detailed case studies, ensure a feasible future implementation of TOD and effective land use among different types of stations (i.e., railway, subway and other public transportation) and sizes of cities, and share the experience with other cities and countries through TransFORM.

Facilitate more cities to prepare and implement TOD plans.

Facilitate more cities to integrate effective land use into financing plans.

Facilitate more talents to implement TOD and effective land use in China.