This paper demonstrates that over the 25-year period, 1971-96, the majority of Canadian cities have undergone transition towards an increasingly decentralised urban form. The trends, however, are quite diverse, pointing to fundamental differences in the respective importance of growth in central...

Although the Toronto metropolitan region performs well relative to its North American counterparts in terms of density and public-transit use, it does not derive as much walking and public-transit patronage benefit from its high-residential-density areas as it could. The impact of residential...

By North American standards Toronto is a concentrated agglomeration. Its downtown has enjoyed spectacular growth since the 1960s; most inner-city neighbourhoods are perceived as desirable; and public transit patronage is high relative to that of same-size North American metropolitan regions....

The paper portrays three aspects of urban dispersion: urban structure, residents' location and land-use preferences, and social ecology. To explain the dynamic inherent in this form of urbanisation, it suggests an explanatory model concentrating on shifts in the respective importance of space,...

A supportive distribution of residential density is perceived to be an essential component of strategies aimed at increasing the use of public transit. To alter substantially land use-transport dynamics in a fashion that favours public transit patronage, residential density policies must be...

At a time of rising concern over urban sprawl and its adverse financial, quality-of-life, and environmental consequences, nodes assume growing importance within urban (and especially metropolitan) planning strategies. Nodes are defined as high-density multifunctional developments featuring a...

In a context of growing car dependency and suburban sprawl, planners search for ways of intensifying urban development and reducing reliance on the automobile. The creation of planned mixed-use centres intended to become hubs of transit and pedestrian movement within the dispersed suburban...

The literature on the transition to postmodernism, postfordism and participatory planning stresses the value of the economic and planning process shifts that have occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This paper compares two periods of planning and urban development in Toronto: one running...

To what extent does the evolution of 20th-century residential area planning and development reflect the profound changes that have affected society over this period? How much was this evolution shaped by successive planning models formulated over the last century? The paper reports on an...