Transit Oriented Development in Mid-Size Cities: A Star-Shaped Urban Form Promoted

This paper deals with the concept of transit oriented development (TOD) and its application in mid-size cities with about 100,000 inhabitants. Two basic parameters of TOD and their impact on public transport use are tested - destination accessibility and distance to transit. An additional test was the impact of the distance to streetcar stop as a more comfortable public transport mode, and frequency of connections. The analysis was carried out in neighborhoods in two Czech mid-size cities. Results indicate a larger influence of frequency of connections and distance to transit than destination accessibility. Differences between ride times are only a few minutes in mid-size cities. Thus they do not influence transit use as much as flexibility and comfort of commuting represented much more by parameters as frequency of connections and distance to transit.