Transit-oriented development in a high-density city: Identifying its association with transit ridership in Seoul, Korea

This study determines whether transit-oriented development (TOD) planning factors identified from western case studies can be applied to the city of Seoul, Korea, which is characteristic of dense development. The authors illustrate the distributional patterns and characteristics of planning factors such as transit supply service, land use, street network and urban design at each rail station area. To identify effects of TOD planning factors upon the transit ridership at the targeted 214 rail station areas in Seoul, the study develops multiple regression models for transit ridership, which are differentiated at the levels of time of day, day of the week, and transit mode at the respective rail station areas. The analysis results suggest that TOD planning factors can have a significant positive impact in forming a transit-oriented city. They also indicate that some TOD planning factors, compared to low-density cities in Western countries, need to be carefully applied towards Seoul in order to achieve the objective of regenerating a transit-oriented city. In summary, rather than focusing mainly on increasing development density, it is necessary to concentrate more on such strategies as strengthening the transit service network, increasing the land-use mix index, and restructuring the street networks and urban design to be more pedestrian friendly around rail stations.