Neo-traditional Neighborhood Design: Transit and Walking Friendly Land Development Approach

Abstract

One of the hottest topics discussed in the transportation planning field today is the concept of neo-traditional neighborhood design, which calls for the creation of new communities that look and function like towns of past times. The neo-traditionalist's approach to the automobile and the community is to design new concept the of more environmentally friendly form of transportation, particularly walking and mass transit. This transportation emphasise entirely the scale at which development occurs and the arrangement of land uses. The neo-traditionalists seek to integrate all of the components currently found in the suburbs and rearrange them into real towns rather than isolated developments. The principal integrating factors for realizing these new towns are the pedestrian and mass transit. Neo-traditional neighborhood design has attracted the attention of transit professionals because it offers a significantly higher transit-oriented land use pattern than the typical suburban developments of recent decades. The key components of increased transit accessibility are more concentrated activity centers, interconnected street systems that avoid circuitous paths and cul-de-sacs, and increased pedestrian accessibility. Whether the neo-traditionalists can accomplish their intents within the framework of present society and economy remains to be seen. However, it is equally true that transit and land development can and should work together. In the long run, a city based on both transit and auto use will indeed work more efficiently than one based solely on automobiles because the two modes will complement each other. Keywords : Neo-traditional neighborhood, transit friendly, walking friendly, land development