TRANSIT-SENSITIVE SUBURBAN LAND USE DESIGN: RESULTS OF A COMPETITION

The International City Design Competition (ICDC) is analyzed to determine the extent to which public transit was included by planners, architects, and engineers in their visions of the future for suburban areas. The ICDC provided an opportunity for experts in urban design to present concepts for the form of cities in the year 2020. The ICDC generated over 250 entries from over 40 countries. An analysis of the suburban portion of the ICDC is described to determine how (or if) public transit was considered and to partially identify that state of the practice of land use design as it relates to transit. Results of the analysis indicated that, in general, entrants favored a town center, with neighborhood or crossroads approach in their designs of the suburban area with limited use of corridor development patterns. Increased open space and a mixture of housing types were also frequently used. However, the analysis showed a limited use of public transit as a factor in suburban planning. Only 43% of the proposals evaluated explicitly used public transit and only 12% of the proposals evaluated were judged to have used it appropriately. Bus transit, park and ride services, or commuter rail were seldom considered as an option for suburban areas. Further analysis of planning handbooks or guides and accreditation criteria for educational programs related to land use planning showed little explicit consideration for public transit. These results imply that the state of the art for using public transit as a land use design consideration is poor and that, if this view holds, little change is expected in the automobile-dominated suburbs in the future.