The New Transit Town: Best Practices In Transit-Oriented Development Paperback – December 1, 2003

This book offers a good overview on transit oriented development. It is not specifically targeted at experts (it has a rather limited scientific content and it is written in very plain language) and offers a major review of many projects and implementations of TOD. The expert in this field may be already familiar with many topics, but the book offers good insights for graduate students and pratictioners, and it can be a good complement for a professional library or a private collection of books on planning.

Easy reading for those interested in TOD as it gives concise description of the subject at hand.Handy reference for quick refresher as well!

This book, as you might guess from the title, is about attempts to create mixed-use developments near transit stations. Some of the projects profiled were in suburbs or automobile-oriented cities, and as a result ran into more difficulties than I would have expected: for example, retail may be difficult to finance when there are not yet enough residents to support it, and parking creates a variety of problems, When planners propose small amounts of parking, neighbors complain because they fear parking will spill over onto their streets. But when they propose large amounts of parking, more sophisticated neighbors fear that the parking will mean more cars and more traffic. Surface parking blights the landscape, but underground garages are more expensive. Where streets are wide and car-oriented, cities must decide whether to pay for improved infrastructure (such as street trees and widened sidewalks) to improve walkability.Generally, I thought this book was a bit complex for the average layperson; my impression is that its intended audience was practicing urban planners and maybe the occasional graduate student.