An integrated urban-transport smart growth model around metro stations: A case of Qatar

•The land-use type can substantially impact the ridership of a mass transit system.•If the rail ridership in a particular area is to be increased, its development for mixed land use might be a good option.•The proposed mixed-use planning and the insights developed in the paper is applicable for similar urban growth and development situations.•To increase the activities, however, urban planners should also focus on the affordability of the property in the area.•For smart growth planning, livability in the area becomes important. When an area is relatively affordable, it can create sustained demand for various services, including transportation. Urban growth strategies are incorporated for land-use planning and transportation to facilitate people's movement towards a mass transit system. This requires transport demand analysis of a particular area so that, if possible, urban re-planning can be done to support long-term sustainable use of the transportation system. The paper focuses on the study of transportation demand analysis in some stations of the recently opened metro system in Qatar. The study uses hypothetical scenarios of land use density to analyze transportation demand. A regression model is used to assess the relationship between the generated transport demand from each type of land use, which shows that the land-use type can substantially impact the ridership of a mass transit system. Based on the analysis conducted in this paper, it can be concluded that if ridership in a particular area is to be increased, its development for mixed land use might be a good option. The proposed mixed-use planning and the insights developed in the paper are expected to help urban planners in different countries with similar urban growth and development situations.