Transect Planning

From Garden City to Smart Growth: The Evolution and Management of New Urbanism

“…TND often regarded the city center with commerce, municipality and mixed residence as the sign of community and the core of social contacts; squares and greenbelts were used to create public spaces and places; the residential complex with the medium building density and the low-rise buildings were adopted to enhance the social contacts in the community; narrow streets were taken to adjust layout of garages, limit driving speed and enhance the pedestrian possibilities; emphases were given to the visual consistency of economic grade residences and top grade ones. [11] TND designers believed that the reconstruction of living environment and the architectural scenes could promote the integration of the community and create a good social order. However, as the high quality of the space design needed a large number of financial and human resources, the ideas of TND designers were often difficult to achieve by the market mechanism.…”

Understanding Residential Location Choices for Climate Change and Transportation Decision Making: Phase 2 Report

“…Talen and Duany (Duany 2002) proposed an arrangement of six residential environments based on a transect approach in which the relationship between different physical elements and the locational character of an area are used to provide a sense for different regional spaces (e.g., urban core, rural preserve). An alternative to this approach was later proposed by Brower (Brower 2002), which would further incorporate a social quality to the six concepts.…”

The energy transect; including sustainability issues in urban morphology analyses

“…Using the transect methodology requires calibration to local character and context as well as to the needs of each area in terms of energy, traffic, and other infrastructures (Coyle [23]). The transect diagram, aside from the explanatory value and practical utility, is a useful device for explaining the components of coherent urban patterns and improving their energy performances (Duany [24], Bohl and Plater-Zyberk [26]). …”

“…Each of these human habitats has a specific character with unique attributes and inhabitants, yet is also part of a network of other habitats that form a sustainable, cohesive system spatially, environmentally, traffic and energy wise. In general, the Transect uses the following six zones, each of which can be adapted to local goals and character: 1) Rural Preserve, 2) Rural Reserve, 3) Sub-Urban, 4) General Urban, 5) Urban Centre, and 6) Urban Core (Duany [24] and Thadani [22]). Each of these zones addresses critical planning elements such as land use, roads, infrastructure, development, open space, energy, wastewater, and vegetation (Duany [24], Duany and Talen [25], Bohl and Plater-Zyberk [26]).…”