What is a shrinking city?
A shrinking city in one where substantial and sustained population loss (20 percent or greater) has occurred over a period of at least forty years, while the physical footprint of the city has remained the same. This results in a dysfunctional real estate market (much more supply than demand) and a surplus of underutilized public infrastructure. The remaining residents and businesses are burdened with higher taxes as the city tries to maintain its infrastructure for a significantly reduced population. In a shrinking city, population and economic growth are not anticipated in the foreseeable future, resulting in continued dysfunction in the market.
Shrinkage exhibits itself in vacant and abandoned properties. These sites become magnets for illicit activities including arson, vandalism, drug dealing, and prostitution. As both a “symptom and a disease” (Burchell & Listokin, 1981, p. 15), property abandonment challenges cities across the U.S.
While Transit Oriented Development (TOD) has almost exclusively concerned rail based modes there has been a recent interest in bus related TOD with an emphasis on new bus rapid transit (BRT) developments in North/ South America and Australia. This paper takes a critical look at the strengths and weakness of bus based transit systems in relation to TOD through a review of the literature and an assessment of TOD related developments. The performance of BRT systems in relation to TOD are considered with specific reference to BRT systems in Australia. In addition TOD related to local suburban or ‘low order’ bus service is considered. The paper describes the general concept of TOD and how this relates to features of transit modes, outlines the literature relevant to bus based TOD and identifies the strengths and weakness of bus based transit systems in relation to TOD. It concludes by using the findings of the review to identify ways in which bus based TOD might be better planned and…
Bus Rapid Transit can achieve the capacity and economic development potential of rail, but at a fraction of the cost. Despite these successes, communities often view rail as superior to BRT and thus demand new rail systems. The challenge will be to ensure that BRT is evaluated on a level playing field with other technologies.