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T. F. Tierney
Director, URL: Urban Research Lab
TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENTS: OPTIMIZED, ON-DEMAND & NETWORKED
While transit-oriented development [ToD] offers clear benefits for sustainable urban living, one drawback is that they require highly specific infill sites located adjacent to public transportation routes. Recently the emergence of shared mobility has extended the parameters of ToD requirements, as well as their typological configurations. Responding to those new conditions, ZIPBox Housing -- a scalable prototype development – combines the flexibility of shared mobility with current demographic preferences for urban living. As a novel planning framework, ZIPBox critically examines conventional multi-family housing guidelines by challenging the basic assumption of one unit/one car rule. It achieves a one-to-two (and potentially one-to-four) ratio of apartment unit to parking space, thereby freeing up additional space for amenities. Given that ZIPBox residents have limited access to a personal car, they rely on mobility-on-demand [MoD] services, bicycling, or adjacent public transportation. ZIPBox’s planning framework not only demonstrates the advantages of an efficient multi-unit housing scheme, but also solves sustainable objectives by reducing traffic congestion at the scale of the city. ZIPBox Housing emphasizes how generational aspirations, in tandem with shared mobility services, are contributing to new patterns of urban development –– all of which may have significant environmental benefits.