TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian Transport and Urban Development Ministry unveiled the country’s transit-oriented development (TOD) system (called Sateh) on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by the outgoing Transport Minister Mohammad Eslami.
As reported by the ministry’s news portal, the unveiling ceremony was also attended by the representatives of government bodies, deputies of Transport and Urban Development Ministry, city managers, provincial offices of the ministry, consulting engineers in the field of transportation and urban management, as well as experts and scholars in this field.
In urban planning, transit-oriented development is one of the newest models of urban development that maximizes the amount of residential, business, and leisure space within walking distance of public transport. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between dense, compact urban form and public transport use. In doing so, TOD aims to increase public transport ridership by reducing the use of private cars and by promoting sustainable urban growth.
The mentioned system and its portal were designed and prepared in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) by the ministry; this system is able to provide an accurate and transparent analysis of the status of the 42 major indicators defined in the field of TOD in urban development plans.
Speaking at the ceremony, Eslami underlined the importance of coordination between urban planning and transportation and traffic plans and noted that Sateh system is a tool for convergence of urban planning and transportation and traffic projects.
Eslami, while stating the need to change the urban development approaches from designing roads and paths based on vehicle mobility to designing them based on human mobility and human-centered views of urban development and transportation planning, called for the necessary preparations by all responsible entities to facilitate the implementation of new transportation and urban development methods.
A TOD typically includes a central transit stop (such as a train station, or light rail, or bus stop) surrounded by a high-density mixed-use area, with lower-density areas spreading out from this center. A TOD is also typically designed to be more walkable than other built-up areas, by using smaller block sizes and reducing the land area dedicated to automobiles.
