Why the New Urbanist Visionary Who Coined 'TOD' Wants to Retire It

Speaking with Metropolis Executive Editor Martin C. Pedersen, Calthorpe describes how he's trying to change China's ubiquitous superblock development pattern, how he thinks America's suburbs will densify, why environmental groups are fighting California's high-speed rail project, and why he's said on his website he wants to retire the term "transit oriented development". See his response to the last item below:

The reality is that people get almost too focused on transit. There’s a symbiotic relationship between it and walkable destinations. You can’t have good transit if you can’t walk when you arrive. So pedestrian-oriented development is really at the heart and soul of great cities. Every city that you love is a city that you want to walk in. We travel the globe in order to walk in great cities. But as an organizing principle for how you shape regional growth, transit oriented development is probably a better term for China.