A third and final interactive workshop was hosted December 3, 2021 by UTTRI associated faculty Professor Chris Higgins in support of “An Integrated Approach to Transit System Evolution,” a research project funded by a Knowledge Synthesis Grant on mobility and public transit.
The workshop, entitled “Reinterpreting Transport and Land Use for Future Integrated Systems Planning Workshop,” reviewed strengths and gaps in our current state of knowledge as they relate to technologies and trends and their impact on the transport-land use system, and discussed the synthesis results through a reinterpretation of the transportation-land use connection considering new technology and the changes that are likely to occur over the next decade in Canadian communities.
The first [workshop was] about revisiting that transportation land use connection, going back in time to all the core theories that inform the way we think about transportation and its interactions with land use within the urban system of cities.
And taking that to the next step [in the second workshop] reviewing the current state of things, in terms of COVID and its changes to cities, alongside new transportation technologies, the role that they are currently having and may be likely to have in the future.
And then now, number three, bringing it all back together to try and reinterpret that transportation land use connection to see if it can inform the way we think about integrated transportation and land use planning in cities going forward, in Canada, [and] around the world. Let’s see how far we can take it. – Professor Chris Higgins, Principal Investigator, “An Integrated Approach to Transit System Evolution.”
Following Chris’s presentation, one overarching question was discussed: What prevents us from realizing integrated transportation and land use planning for sustainability?
Contributions from all attendees who participated in one or more of the three workshops will be incorporated into the final research report to be shared in 2022.
Resources
- Watch a video of Professor Chris Higgins’s opening presentation at the third workshop.
About “An Integrated Approach to Transit System Evolution”
Understanding the role of public transit in the wider transport-land use system of great importance for guiding effective policy and planning at all levels of government. While it is widely recognized that transit performs best when closely integrated with land use planning, recent transformational trends including new mobility technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic are fundamentally altering the way we think about transportation and land use interaction in cities. In response, this project seeks to conduct a targeted literature review and synthesis that revisits core theories, reviews recent research, and reinterprets the transportation-land use relationship in light of the challenges and opportunities that have occurred and are likely to occur over the next decade in Canadian communities.
“An Integrated Approach to Transit System Evolution” is supported by Co-PIs Professors Eric Miller, Steven Farber, Amer Shalaby, and Khandker Nurul Habib; collaborators Professors Shauna Brail, Sara Diamond (OCAD U), Michael Widener, and Antonio Páez (McMaster); and research assistants Billy Zhang and Yixue Zhang.
About Knowledge Synthesis Grants
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) collaborated with Infrastructure Canada to launch a Knowledge Synthesis Grants competition on mobility and public transit in 2020 to examine and synthesize existing knowledge on mobility and public transit issues.
Knowledge syntheses are comprehensive analyses of literature and other forms of knowledge on a particular question or issue. Knowledge Synthesis Grants are intended to support the synthesis of existing research knowledge and the identification of knowledge gaps. This call was particularly focused on the state of research knowledge emerging over the past 10 years.
Related content
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- Workshop explores urban transportation-land use interaction
- Higgins, Wolfe awarded Knowledge Synthesis Grants on mobility and public transit