Transit-Oriented Development: Cities Without Cars?
By James Morton
For over a century, the modern city has been shaped by the car. Vast motorways carve through neighbourhoods, and parking lots sprawl where public spaces could thrive. Yet as the climate crisis deepens, and congestion and pollution continue to choke urban life, a new model of development is emerging: transit-oriented development (TOD). Compact, walkable, and centred around public transport, TOD promises not only to reduce carbon emissions but to create healthier, more vibrant communities. Could this be the key to cities without cars?
What Is Transit-Oriented Development?
At its core, TOD is about designing communities where daily life can unfold within walking distance of high-quality public transport. Housing, offices, schools, and shops cluster around rail stations, metro hubs, or bus corridors. Streets are designed for people, not traffic, with safe cycling routes, pedestrianised zones, and public spaces that encourage interaction. By reducing dependence on cars, TOD helps lower emissions, cut congestion, and free up land otherwise consumed by roads and parking.
The principles are simple but transformative: density, diversity, and connectivity. Instead of endless sprawl, TOD creates compact neighbourhoods. Instead of zoning that separates uses, it embraces mixed functions. And instead of prioritising the car, it builds around trains, trams, and buses.
Lessons from London and Stockholm
London’s King’s Cross redevelopment is a flagship example of TOD in action. Once a derelict industrial district, the area has been reimagined as a thriving hub of housing, offices, and cultural spaces—all centred on one of Europe’s busiest rail stations. By designing with connectivity at its core, King’s Cross has attracted global firms, residents, and visitors while reducing reliance on private cars. Wide pavements, cycling lanes, and access to public transport make it a model for sustainable urban living.
Stockholm, meanwhile, has long championed suburban developments linked directly to rail. From the mid-20th century onwards, the city’s planners deliberately built housing estates along transit corridors, ensuring residents had immediate access to trains and buses. Today, this legacy means Stockholm boasts some of the highest rates of public transport use in Europe, demonstrating how TOD can deliver long-term shifts in mobility patterns.
The Wider Benefits of TOD
The environmental argument is clear: fewer cars mean lower emissions and cleaner air. But the benefits of TOD extend far beyond carbon. By clustering housing near transit, cities can deliver more affordable living, reducing the need for car ownership and long commutes. Vibrant street life flourishes in walkable, mixed-use districts, with cafés, markets, and cultural venues enlivening public spaces.
Health outcomes improve too. Residents of TOD neighbourhoods tend to walk and cycle more, lowering rates of obesity and respiratory illness. Public transport becomes not just an alternative to driving, but the backbone of a healthier, more connected lifestyle.
Challenges on the Road to Car-Free Cities
For all its promise, TOD is not without hurdles. Zoning laws in many cities still favour car-centric layouts, separating residential, commercial, and industrial areas in ways that undermine compact development. Community buy-in can also be a challenge; residents sometimes resist higher densities or fear gentrification.
Financing TOD requires long-term coordination between developers, transit authorities, and local governments—a level of collaboration that can be difficult to sustain. And in cities where public transport infrastructure is underfunded, the vision of TOD risks outpacing the reality on the ground.
The 15-Minute City: A Parallel Movement
Alongside TOD, another urban idea is gaining ground: the “15-minute city.” Championed in Paris and Barcelona, it seeks to ensure that residents can meet most daily needs—work, shopping, healthcare, recreation—within a 15-minute walk or cycle. While distinct, the two concepts are closely aligned, both rejecting the dominance of the car and embracing local, human-scale living.
The success of Barcelona’s “superblocks”—pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood clusters—shows how reclaiming space from cars can improve quality of life, reduce noise, and create flourishing community hubs. Combined with transit-oriented strategies, such models suggest a future where urban life is both low-carbon and deeply liveable.
Conclusion: Towards Cities Without Cars
The car will not disappear overnight, and for many, it remains a practical necessity. But the rise of transit-oriented development signals a profound shift in how we imagine cities. From London’s rail-linked regeneration to Stockholm’s suburban planning, from Paris’s 15-minute city to Barcelona’s superblocks, the trend is unmistakable: the future belongs to places where people, not cars, take centre stage.
Could a city without cars improve not only the environment but also quality of life? The evidence increasingly suggests yes. Cleaner air, healthier bodies, vibrant communities, and resilient economies are all within reach when we put transit and walkability at the heart of urban design. The challenge now is not whether TOD works—it is how quickly we can scale it up, so that the sustainable, car-light city becomes the global norm rather than the rare exception.
References:
Transport for London. (2024). King’s Cross: A Model for Transit-Oriented Development.
City of Stockholm. (2023). Transit and Housing: A Century of Sustainable Planning.
Paris City Hall. (2024). The 15-Minute City: Urban Transformation in Action.
Barcelona City Council. (2024). Superblocks: Redesigning Cities for People.
C40 Cities. (2025). Global Case Studies in Transit-Oriented Development.