The extended node-place model at the local scale: Evaluating the integration of land use and transport for Lisbon's subway network

Car dependency and associated car modal share is increasing in the vast majority of metropolitan areas throughout the world, and an important contributory factor lies in the lack of clear and effective integration of land use with transportation. Transit-oriented development (TOD) has been adopted as a major urban policy to achieve such integration. TOD explicitly promotes a balance between public transportation-driven supply and land use-driven demand, while simultaneously improving the pedestrian friendliness of the station areas. The objective of balancing transport with land use is the founding principle of the node-place model. Three principle dimensions can be evaluated under the extended version of this model: i) the node-index, reflecting the accessibility of the station area by several transportation modes; ii) the place-index, reflecting the land use features of the station areas; and iii) the design-index, reflecting the urban design conditions that influence pedestrian accessibility of the station areas. In this paper, we apply the extended node-place model at a local scale, using Lisbon subway stations as the focus points of our analysis, applying the same principles and methodology as for the metropolitan scale, but adjusting the parameters to reflect the subway network. Our results suggest that the introduction of a third index better distinguishes between balanced situations identified in the original node-place model. In Lisbon, the average node index is higher than the place index, and the design index varies substantially across the subway network. In general terms, city center subway stations exhibit the highest index values, whereas peripheral stations tend to be more unbalanced. Transfer stations constitute special cases in the network, having high node and design indexes but average place indexes. The typology of Lisbon subway stations based on the extended node-place model might be used to support urban planning, specifically with regard to establishing regulations for locating activities and parking supply, guiding location-sensitive or place-based fiscal policies, and also identifying the types of intervention needed to achieve the desired integration between transportation accessibility, land use intensity and diversity, and urban design.