Identification of Effective Criteria for Implementing Transit-Oriented Development Projects (TOD) in Iran: A Meta-Synthesis Approach

Urban transportation is one of the most important and fundamental issues in urban planning. Today, given that sustainable development is the dominant paradigm of science, the issue of sustainable transportation has also been widely considered by urban planners, policymakers and managers. In this regard, the transit-oriented development approach (TOD) has been proposed as one of the new patterns of urban development. Implementation of the TOD program and projects can solve some of the problems of urban transportation in today's cities. In recent years, the issue of TOD has been considered in scientific circles and its implementation is very necessary for the cities of the country, especially in metropolitan areas. This study aims to identify effective criteria for the implementation of TOD projects in Iran using the meta-synthesis method (synthesis research). The analysis unit in this research is all Persian and English scientific articles in the field of TOD with an internal case study, which have been published in prestigious domestic or foreign journals. First, 34 articles were found by searching various scientific databases and then, with a closer look, the number of articles dropped to 26. We have used “Sandelowski and Barroso's” seven-step method to analyze selected articles. The results show that the most important criteria for implementing TOD projects in internal research include residential, commercial and administrative density, building density, study area population, cycling status, walking network status, Mixed land use, car parking status, mobility and connection between the pathways and accessibility to public transportation.