In tackling housing crisis, have politicians missed the train?
Transit oriented development has been seen as a panacea for the housing crisis but Australia's preferred response to a chronic lack of supply may be badly flawed.
Planners and politicians alike are enamoured with the concept of TOD – transit oriented development.
Planners see it mostly as an opportunity to create housing density around train stations, on the assumption that most people who might live there will also want to travel where the trains will take them (namely, the city centre).
Politicians like to announce things, often without thinking them through. They like ‘silver bullet’ fixes to problems…