Friday, December 9, 2011

Evaluating integration between public transportation and pedestrian-oriented urban spaces in two main metro stations of Tehran

by Khashayar Kashani Jou

Goods and people movement is one of the most fundamental challenges of urban development in the contemporary world. Public transportation, among different modes of inner city transportation, has gained special attention. In addition, quality and magnetism of urban public spaces that are related to the broadening of pedestrian-orientation have been introduced as the main indicators of the development of cities. Each of the above subjects will be studied in developed countries. The necessity of doing researches for the purpose of evaluating the relationship between these notions, especially regarding urban design approach, has become more obvious. However, developing countries, including Iran, have not paid attention until recently to both public transportation and pedestrian areas within a more comprehensive urban development approach. The purpose of this paper is to study and evaluate integration between public transportation and pedestrian-oriented urban spaces in the Tehran metropolitan area focusing on two main metro stations of the city. A documentary research through valid sources (articles, researches and studies of transportation master plans), along with on-site investigations by participant observation methods, has been utilized to substantiate this study. After introducing the theoretical framework of the subject, the evaluating criteria of the subject have been proposed and then two case studies have been compared and analyzed based on them. The findings demonstrate that concentrated development on the public transit nodes integrated to pedestrian-oriented urban spaces would have many positive effects on the whole urban structure. Qualitative aspects of urban spaces are more important than quantitative ones in attraction of pedestrians and efficiency of transit stations.


A view of a Tehran Metro station, photo by martisak

more about planning for Tehran:

Tehran's "Bike House" Shines Green

Urban Ecological landscape of Tehran

Tehran and the challenges of a metropolis in the millennium

Urban Planning for Tehran, By Using Environmental Modeling and GIS/RS


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