Introduction

Our urban landscapes are largely automobile-dependent. Transit-oriented development is an urban design philosopy that is focused on creating urban envrionments that facilitate transit use and non-motorised means of travel.

In literature, TOD has become known to be characterised by 6 dimensions, or the "6Ds". These are:

Density,
Diversity,
Design,
Destination accessibility,
Distance to transit, and
Demand management.

TOD has been linked to a number of benefits, the most significant of which is increased transit ridership (Cervero et al, 2004) and the associated reduction in the number of motorized trips, increase in non-motorized trips, reduction of travel distances, and increase in vehicle occupancy for motorized trips (Cervero & Kockelman, 1997).

The defining ideas of TOD could therefore be used to maximise the benefits of implementing transit systems by guiding planning decisions. Unfortunately, the link between planning and TOD ideals is broken. There is a lack of a standard measurement framework, and so the challenge lies with applying TOD-related policies to planning and design. This brings us to the key objective of this study.

To be able to use TOD to inform planning and design, TOD must be measurable. To make TOD measurable, a tool must be developed that can quantify the various facets of TOD and then compile an overall score. To make this measurement useful, it must be possible to analyse the results and identify patterns in a spatial environment.

Hence, the objective of this study is to demonstrate the development of a tool that is capable of assessing the level of TOD and analyse the TOD outputs in such a way that critical urban areas can be identified.

Density

Studies of a similar nature have been done abroad, but no such tools have been developed in a South African context. Cape Town is but one of the many cities world-wide that has invested in a major transit system.

The bus leg of the Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system in Cape Town - MyCiTi - has been in planning and implementation since 2007 (City of Cape Town, 2013). The IRT aims to improve the public transport sector and increase accessibility to opportunities for all citizens (MyCiTi, 2013). Hence it is fitting to use this public transport system as the basis of assessment for this study.

The overall goal of this study is therefore to improve public transport in Cape Town through enabling TOD as powerful planning tool.

The tool developed must:

Fit into the context of Cape Town and South Africa,
Consist of a number of indicators that characterise TOD,
Be spatial in nature,
Be able to combine multiple TOD criteria or indicators into a single output,
Allow for identification of areas that do or do not score well, and
Use easily accessibile data and replicable data processing techniques.

Introduction

Density

Diversity

Design

Destination

accessibility

Distance to

transit

Demand

management