A Research on Adaptive Transit Combined with Transit-Oriented Development for Small and Medium-Sized Cities

The small and medium-sized cities (SMSC) in China are in the rapid urbanization process. The urban growth and economic development may lead to traffic, energy and environmental problems. This paper focused on developing an appropriate transit mode in SMSC in order to abate these problems. For this purpose, the paper firstly discussed the relationship between land use pattern and transit modes, and then studied the specific trend of land use development of SMSC in China, suggesting that an adaptive transit combined with transit-oriented development should be applied in SMSC with detailed description on the main features of the system and the planning ideas. Finally, the system´s application was described by using the instance of Taicang transit planning. The conclusions indicated that the concept of the combined transit system was suitable for the land use and urban spatial structure development of SMSC in China.