Transit-oriented development in an urban rail transportation corridor

- Urban system equilibrium with TOD investment is formulated.
- TOD design models under public and private investment regimes are proposed.
- TOD investment can lead to a compact city and effectively control urban sprawl.
- TOD investment can benefit both households and the society.
- Private TOD investment regime outperforms public regime in terms of social welfare.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been recognized as an important avenue for creating a green transportation system. This paper addresses TOD investment issue in terms of the location, number and size of the TOD zones along a rail line. An urban system equilibrium problem with TOD investment is first formulated. Two social welfare maximization models, which take into account different investment regimes for TOD projects (i.e., public and private), are then proposed for optimizing TOD investment schemes along a rail line and train service frequency on that line. In the public regime model, the government is responsible for the investment cost of TOD projects, which is borne by the private property developers in the private regime model. The proposed models explicitly consider the interactions among the government, property developers and households in the urban system, together with the effects of the TOD investment on households' residential location choices and housing market. The population thresholds for investing in a TOD project under the public and private regimes are also identified. The findings show that the TOD investment can cause population agglomeration at the TOD zones and a compact city; households and the society can benefit from the TOD investment; and the private TOD investment regime outperforms the public regime in terms of total social welfare of urban system.