Assessment And Classification Of Transit Stations For Transit Oriented Development (Tod) Potential Using Node-Place Model: The Case Of Doha Gold Metro Line

The State of Qatar, though a developing country, has been witnessing a rapid process of urbanization and development due to its rich natural resources base. Development has resulted in the expansion of its settlements leading to urban sprawl, particularly in Doha capital city. A high level of dependency on vehicular transportation along with sprawl, has led to prevalent congestion and transportation problems. Qatar, faces an unprecedented challenge in meeting the growing travel demand constrained by limited land and mediocre infrastructure. Recently as a result of the award for hosting of the world cup to Qatar, the State is introducing a metro system to both service the world cup as well as address its transportation problems. This metro system is projected to deal with rapid motorization and urbanization issues within the country, by meeting commuter travel demands, recovering urban traffic condition through reduced traffic load and offering efficient public transport system encouraging user accessibility/mobility. The Doha metro system along with its component stations are expected to impact the quality, amount and pattern of development in the city. Gold metro line stations show lack of interconnectivity between transportation and land use development densities. Also, problems such as wide residential streets encouraging vehicular usage (lower grid pattern, dead ends and cul-de-scas); poor pedestrian walkable environments; lack of community gathering areas; overestimated or underestimated interchange modes exist within the station areas. Thus, it is imperative to address the impact of this introduced metro network at localized area around these metro stations. Therefore, research attempts to analyse the stations to make sure that multi-modal transit supportive urban development is executed through better planning, design and operational activities. Research aims to assess, compare and classify the gold line metro stations, by identifying potential for TOD type development. Bertolini’s node-place model (N-P model) is used to identify, assess, classify and compare the metro stations. Using this model, deliverables such as the N-P graph and interpretations of node index, place index, and N-P TOD index, assists in classifying the stations as unbalanced nodes. Thus, stations exhibit a high quality of transit supply when compared to urban development of the surrounding built environment. Summary of results highlight that increase/decrease of particular node indicators such as direction and frequency of bus operation, proximity to road access, and car park-ride facility, influences accessibility and parking criteria of the station. Also, increase of place indicators such as degree of functional mix, intersection density, and IPCA, facilitates favourable land use density, diversity and walkable environments in the metro stations. Research concludes with policies/actions to enhance TOD type development of metro station areas based on the obtained node-place indicators