ESR projects

Overview of the ESR projects

  • ESR1

    TOD-generations in context. Driving forces and environmental effects of regional planning in the long-term

  • ESR2

    Sustainable transitions for RURs. Future scenarios for regional TOD corridor development

  • ESR3

    The extent of multimodality for TOD across times. Pedestrians, bikes, trains and inclusive development

  • ESR4

    For whom? Assessing and improving TOD mechanisms of in/exclusion in RURs

  • ESR5

    Landscapes for Transit-Oriented Development. Developing an analysis of everyday sustainable landscapes

  • ESR6

    From station area to sustainable TOD in RURs. Stakeholder imagination and transformation

  • ESR7

    Mobility dependency in rural-urban areas. Can TOD mitigate?

  • ESR8

    Enriching TOD with transport justice concepts

  • ESR9

    Defining a relational approach to TOD for inclusive and sustainable RURs

  • ESR10

    Moving TOD for inclusive and sustainable RURs from research to practice

ESR1: TOD-generations in context. Driving forces and environmental effects of regional planning in the long-term

The ESR-project will evaluate how transport-urbanization planning generations were conceived in relation/conflict with different contexts of RURs, comparing rhetoric and plans versus outcomes. The project will focus on the RURs of Paris and Rome, analyzing both historical processes and current transport strategies and planning. Through these two case studies, the aim is, firstly, to put new developments into perspective with respect to previous experiences in order to compare and establish continuities or changes; secondly, to understand how they have or have not effectively reduced sprawl and how in particular the notions of compactness and density have been considered in this framework; thirdly, to see how the intentions behind the discourses and narratives have or have not been effective, and what have been the underlying drivers that have led to these trajectories. This ESR project thus brings a dynamic perspective of path-dependencies and change, as well as shows the specific driving forces and related agendas behind different TOD generations.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: Ecoles des Ponts ParisTech, France

  • Prof. Nathalie Roseau (supervisor) Prof. Massimo Moraglio (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR2: Sustainable transitions for RURs. Future scenarios for regional TOD corridor development

This ESR project will formulate scenarios for environmental sustainable mobility-urbanization processes in sprawled hybrid contexts, with a strong focus on the potential of corridor development vis-à-vis the current radial-concentric urban growth model. Using research by design approach, interactions between transport, urbanization, and landscape structures in RURs are spatially analyzed and systemic relations identified. Locating potential for improvement and sustainable transition, scenarios are developed offering tailor-made strategies rooted fully in rural-urban contexts. The scenarios give a range of futures: from small landscape alterations improving ‘walking continuities’ to PT nodes, to no-car multimodal scenarios testing TOD corridors to its extreme for RURs with the development of new territorial figures beyond radial-concentric ones. The cases examined are the RURs of Great Geneva and Flanders.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

  • Prof. Paola Viganò (supervisor), Prof. Vincent Kaufmann (co-supervisor), Prof. Greet De Block (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR3: The extent of multimodality for TOD across times. Pedestrians, bikes, trains and inclusive development

This project will focus on the integration of active modes of mobility (especially pedestrian and bicycle) and motorized means of public transportation (trains, buses etc.) within the concept of Transport-Oriented Development. Combining historical and contemporary research, this project will investigate the potential of a multimodal vision for TOD in RURs. The approach will contribute to TOD scholarship by thinking these different modes of transport in conjunction to extend the spatial reach of TOD beyond concentric urban models and also to analyze its socio-ecological impact. Pursuing such a cross-temporal perspective through the specific empirical examples of Berlin and Randstad (the Netherlands) will illuminate the critical role of pedestrian and cycling connections to PT-nodes for inclusive development in RURs. Research will focus on the intermodal mobility, the pedestrian-bike-PT infrastructures in RURs more specifically, and their expression in policy and practice. This could include one or several of the following issues: pedestrian accessibility, bicycle highways, mobility as a service (MaaS), bike-train-bike commuting, hubs, communication/digital/smart, e-bikes for diverse groups of people. Moreover, the environmental and social impact of these developments is of central significance.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

  • Prof. Dorothee Brantz (supervisor) Associate Prof. Frauke Behrendt (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR4: For whom? Assessing and improving TOD mechanisms of in/exclusion in RURs

This ESR project aims to contribute to novel understandings of the interaction between generic TOD models and the pre-existing socio-spatial contexts in which TOD projects are undertaken. Particularly, the project is concerned with: (i) who is developing specific TOD projects for which reasons and with which socio-spatial impacts for which groups (age, gender, income), and (ii) frictions between pre-existing relations and the embedded imaginaries of TOD development plans. The project will therefore start with identifying and mapping the pre-existing socio-spatial relations in the TOD development contexts, then assess the different actors that are pushing, resisting, or otherwise shaping the TOD projects and their rationalities/imaginaries for it and finally look at which social goods and bads are generated through the TOD project and how they are distributed across space and social groups. In so doing, influential models of TOD are confronted and complemented with concerns on social inclusion to enable TOD to become a policy method for producing socially inclusive RURs. Cases examined are TODs in the RURs of Stockholm (southern periphery) and Antwerp (Campine).

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

  • Prof. Jonathan Metzger (supervisor) Prof. Stijn Oosterlynck (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR5: Landscapes for Transit-Oriented Development. Developing an analysis of everyday sustainable landscapes

This ESR-project aims for methodological development in landscape analysis/characterization of and for TOD, bringing forward methods to capture site-specific values for future TOD planning. The first step towards such development is to evaluate and learn from how the landscape has been characterized in previous projects, focusing on everyday life and its recreational mobilities in relation to landscape amenities in and around station areas. In so doing, the project transcends the rural-urban divide and brings a novel perspective on TOD in which rural-urban place-making is related to everyday, recreational mobilities. As the ability to consider site-specific values is key for sustainable planning more generally, the methodological development has a reach beyond landscape analysis. Cases studied are TOD station areas in RURs in Sweden and Germany.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Sweden

  • Prof. Mattias Qviström (supervisor) Prof. Dorothee Brantz (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR6: From station area to sustainable TOD in RURs. Stakeholder imagination and transformation

This ESR-project aims to develop and test concepts, methods and techniques to jointly activate the imagination and transformative capabilities of local stakeholders towards a TOD future for their area. The challenge of transitioning station-areas in hybrid RURs towards an environmental sustainable TOD-informed future is twofold. First, there is an imagination challenge as available models, and examples assume/imagine a strongly urbanized context. Second, there is a transformation challenge as we do not know how we could make the turn to sustainable PT and related sustainable urbanization in car-dependent, sprawled RURs. ESR6 aims to break the impasse on both these fronts using an experiential approach, iteratively testing and refining planning methods and techniques to jointly support place-making in station areas, development of new mobility concepts, and stakeholder coalition forming. The project will investigate four cases in two national contexts: the Randstad (focus on station areas of the Zaancorridor and the Kennemerlijn) in the Netherlands, and in Sweden, TODs in the southern RUR of Stockholm (Segersäng and Hemfosa).

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

  • Prof. Luca Bertolini (supervisor) Prof. Jonathan Metzger (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR7: Mobility dependency in rural-urban areas. Can TOD mitigate?

This ESR-project focuses on the notion of “mobility dependency”, developing a more comprehensive view that may inform public authorities in their low-carbon regulation strategies. We define mobility dependency as the prejudice suffered by low mobile people (suffering a lack of accessibility) or people highly constrained in their daily mobility (and very sensitive to any mobility regulation that increases the cost of mobility or limits the use of transport modes). In rural-urban areas, emphasis is mainly put on car dependency. However, we assert that mobility dependency integrates many other dimensions than that relative to access or exclusive use of the car. In particular, the role of other factors related to the social roles of individuals, either in the professional sphere or the family organization, needs to be better understood. By integrating the social dimensions of mobility dependency and its individual variations in different spaces it will be possible to assess the ways in which the “TOD-model” can be adapted to the specificities of the environments, inhabitants and peri-urban lifestyles. A multi-scalar methodology will be applied, including: (i) Socio-spatial analysis, inside and outside “TOD areas”, focusing on socio-environmental parameters and public polices disaggregated among social groups; (ii) Qualitative analysis of individual mobility dependency of inhabitants based on semi-directive interviews and observation of mobility practices; (iii) Comparative method assessing the socio-spatial dimensions of mobility dependency and the impacts of TOD in two RURs in France and Switzerland; (iv) Policy recommendations on how TOD places may mitigate this dependency.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: Université Gustave Eiffel (UGE), France

  • Research Dir. Caroline Gallez (supervisor) Prof. Vincent Kaufmann (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR8: Enriching TOD with transport justice concepts

This ESR-project aims to connect concepts of transport equity and transport justice with TOD. Many TOD studies and projects are inspired by a narrow range of principles and concepts with economic demand as the most popular concept. Recent academic debates on transport justice and mobility-related social exclusion point to a broader range of principles and concepts that can be used as a basis for transport and land use policy in general and TOD policies in particular. This ESR-project aims to develop concepts for improving inclusive and just forms of TOD in RURs. The cases include Antwerp’s (Campine) station areas where governments and the VRP promote TOD and where tram extensions and regional railway networks are currently developed. A second case is Eindhoven, a car-oriented city, struggling to become more sustainable. A third case is Randstad, the economic heart of the Netherlands, in which TOD principles are being used both to promote sustainable urban development and to connect the different cities within this wider region. TOD could play an important role here as a guiding concept.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands

  • Prof. Ruth Oldenziel (supervisor) Prof. Thomas Vanoutrive (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: September 2021

ESR9: Defining a relational approach to TOD for inclusive and sustainable RURs

This ESR-project aims to explore, test, and define the theoretical and methodological possibilities of the burgeoning field of relational geography to capture and intervene in socio-environmental aspects of dynamic mobility-urbanization relations in RURs. This project will mobilize relational geography as an innovative path to move from a-contextual geometric approach to dynamic relations in which people, matter, technologies, institutions, and landscape assets exist in context-specific assemblages, holding diversity together without losing heterogeneity. The project will develop an interdisciplinary approach in tandem with the empirics and insights of ESR1-8 and TOD Studios, thus formulating new context-based TOD approaches, extending TOD to an inclusive and sustainable concept for RURs.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: University of Antwerp, Belgium

  • Prof. Greet De Block (supervisor) Prof. Mattias Qviström (co-supervisor) Prof. Ann Verhetsel (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: October 2021

ESR10: Moving TOD for inclusive and sustainable RURs from research to practice

The objective of ESR10 is to examine how the translation of TOD research to practice, the transition towards more environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive RURs, and the implementation of concepts and ideas developed in ESR1 through to ESR8 can be applied in the RURs participating in TOD-IS-RUR, and more broadly in Europe. Studies on transitions, policy change, land use-transport interactions, and the sociology of mobility show the importance of historical examples of socio-technical changes and the added value of seeing mobility as a system embedded in all dimensions of social life. This ESR-project builds on the emerging insights from the ESRs to identify actionable cross-sectoral strategies that support a sustainable and inclusive transition of European RURs, with the regions participating as testbeds.

  • Host organization and PhD enrolment: University of Antwerp, Belgium

  • Prof. Thomas Vanoutrive (supervisor) Prof. Luca Bertolini (co-supervisor) Prof. Caroline Gallez (co-supervisor)

  • Expected start date: October 2021