Placing Transit in New Towns: Planning Paradox, Property Institution, and Urban Sprawl
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between rail transit and urban growth by revisiting Tokyo’s new towns, regarded as global exemplars of transit-oriented development. It identifies paradoxes in transit-served new towns and refines a historical institutionalist approach to their planning. In greater Tokyo, the alignment of rail transit, residential use, and private investment shaped three planned new towns, thereby situating them and metropolitan sprawl in the same urban property system. The new towns are transit-dependent without achieving self-containment. They rely on path-dependent institutions and exhibit contingent urban forms, illustrating rail transit as a multifaceted process rather than a panacea in planning.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Urban Planning and Governance
Urban Transport and Accessibility
Urban Planning and Valuation
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Planning Theory & Practice
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 81–99
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN